Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Set Breakdown

First of all, how amazing is it to get a TMNT set? Second of all, who would have guessed that it’s actually really good as well? The turtles set offers a really interesting variety of characters, and at really great point costs. My biggest complaint about the set is the vast number of Foot Soldier variants clogging up spaces, but for everyone person like me who isn’t really interested, I’m sure there’s someone frothing at the mouth for a Foot army.

Common

#001 Raphael

Raphael fits in with all the other common turtles, coming in at 50 points. If this is the basis for 50 point characters coming up, count me excited, as finally, they can really make a difference outside of a purely support role. Raphael shares his trait with all the other Turtles, and it really makes a difference in the way he they are played. Repositioning isn’t particularly powerful, it just allows the Turtles to base characters who aren’t expecting to be based, by jumping over the character they’re attacking. Sadly, since the placement comes after actions resolve, he can’t use Flurry to jump twice. Speaking of Flurry, his special version of it is incredible, and his values completely back it up as well. Starting with an 11 attack is really, really good, and being able to get through reducers for a potential 4 damage is even better. If he takes some hits, he’s losing his penetrating Flurry in favour of Close Combat Expert, which is a down grade, but not much of one. Those last two clicks he shares with all his brothers, unlike them though, his defense value never falls below 17, giving him a very acceptable defense for a 50 point figure. I think he’s probably the best of the common turtles, entirely because of penetrating Flurry. You will see this figure around, count on it.

Strengths: Penetrating Flurry, Solid Values, Low Points

Weaknesses: Vulnerable to being picked off by ranged attacks

Final Score: 5/5

#002 Michelangelo

Michelangelo also depends on a special Flurry, this time instead of dealing penetrating damage he’s handing out action tokens, which is almost as good. The thing I love about these common turtles is how much synergy they have between them. Michelangelo might not be able to put down bigger threats hiding behind Impervious or Invulnerable, but he can make sure they’re not going to take many actions, while simultaneously allowing Raphael to hit them even harder. It’s hard not to be impressed by the ability to hand out two action tokens a turn, while still hitting for a solid 2 damage at the same time. I know I said you’ll see Raphael show up, but Michelangelo might be even more likely to appear at a tabletop near you, as his ability to slow down and potentially push weaker characters, and completely shut down more powerful ones is almost game changing at 50 points. All of these 50 point Turtles do have one downside. They need to get in close before they can be effective, and they don’t have a ton of tools to do that. Their defense values are a very average 17, which falls to 16 on any turtle that’s not Raphael, and they’re are all relying on top dial Toughness to keep them healthy. This, combined with a lack of Willpower (but what did you expect for 50 points?) gives them a little bit of trouble getting in, and makes them a little bit squishy when put up against ranged attackers. The one thing that helps negate this is their strangely long dials at 5 clicks, giving them a little bit longer to hold out before biting the bullet.

Strengths: Flurry that gives Tokens, Solid Values, Low Point Cost

Weaknesses: Vulnerable to Ranged Attacks

Final Score: 5/5

#003 Donatello

Donatello doesn’t offer anything as powerful as Penetrating/Flurry or Incap/Flurry, but he has his own useful tools that give him a role with his other brothers. The biggest thing he’s bringing is Outwit on his top click. One click of Outwit isn’t going to last forever, especially when he doesn’t have Willpower, but unlike his brothers he starts with an 18 defense, making him a little bit tougher to hit off of Outwit. His special attack power isn’t fantastic, as having 2 damage gives him some difficulty in getting through reducers to deal knock-back damage, but Donatello is great at taking down characters that don’t have those reducers, and don’t ignore knock-back. Giant Reach gives Donatello a more defined role, and plays really well with his trait, as he can hit a character 2 squares away, knock them back, and now he can place himself in a completely new place, possibly opening up a new line of sight for his Outwit. Unlike his last two brothers, he’s not going to show up outside of a theme team as much, but that doesn’t make him bad. For a 50 point character he still offers a lot of variety, being both a decent close combat character, and an outwitter, and while there are cheaper pieces that can do one or the other, there are almost none that can do both for this price.

Strengths: Outwit, 18 Defense top click, Cheap Price

Weaknesses: Pushing, pushes him off of Outwit

Final Score: 4/5

#004 Leonardo

Leonardo represents the leader of the brothers, and not much else. He benefits from 3 clicks of 11 damage, but suffers from having the weakest powers. His Leadership loses half of its usefulness because he has the same point value as all the other turtles, and if you’re playing him on a non-turtle team, 50 points doesn’t give you a lot of pieces to take tokens off. On-top of the lackluster Leadership, his attack power isn’t fantastic. Blades is good on a low cost piece with a high attack, but the ability to Sidestep if you miss doesn’t really add much. It can help him disengage if he’s up against someone threatening, but he still has to roll to breakaway to do so. All of this just adds up to him being a fairly average 50 point piece, with a really good attack value.

Strengths: 11 Attack, Blades, Low Point Cost

Weaknesses: Half useful Leadership, Vulnerable to Range

Final Score: 2/5

#005 Mouser

Mouser’s are going to be irritating to face, but I think that they’re biggest use is in tandem with Baxter Stockman, because outside of this set, Ultron Drones completely remove the viability of the Mouser. Mouser’s are going to be useful to swarm opponents with, and can really benefit from being Tiny. They’re secondary use is going to be opening holes in walls, but this isn’t really useful as it costs a power action, which isn’t an efficient use of your actions, especially when something like the Gluttony relic can do it as a free action, and Ultron-6 Drone can break blocking on movement, and has Sidestep, and only costs 10 points more. In a vacuum, Mousers can slowly chip away at almost any unit, and have decent stats in-which to do that with, as well as having Willpower on-top of that, but they just eat up so many actions that I can’t recommend them.

Strengths: Exploit Weakness, Decent Values, Breaks Down Blocking

Weaknesses: Action Point Sink

Final Score: 2/5

#006 Foot Soldier (Sai)

The great thing about the Foot Soldiers is that they copy the powers from the Turtles, but are 20 points cheaper. Sadly they don’t have the charge to really benefit from those powers, and Sidestep isn’t dependable to get them in close. Regardless, the Sai Foot Soldier does get Raphael’s Penetrating Flurry, and on a 30 point body, that’s pretty fantastic. Making the dial a little less enticing is the lower values, having 2 damage only on the first click. Flurry does double that, but as you’ll see, there are more frightening 30 point pieces in this set. The last thing the Foot Soldiers bring to the table is their regeneration ability. A 1/3 chance to place a new Foot Soldier is a pretty good chance for a 30 point character.

Strengths: Penetrating/Flurry, Respawning Trait

Weaknesses: Fragile, Low Mobility

Final Score: 3/5

#007 Foot Soldier (Nunchaku)

This guy is probably the best bang for your buck, because he doesn’t need to do any damage to be useful, and he can hit way above his power level with his ability to hand out tokens to anyone. Like the Foot Soldier before him, his role on the battlefield is going to revolve around his special attack power to give out tokens when he hits. The reason this is more useful then Penetrating Damage is the low damage value that the Foot Soldier’s share. When you’re only dealing 1 damage, I think it’s better to deal none and give out a token, and no one is better at doing that than this Foot Soldier. The big drawback is his lack of mobility. His first click is the only one with Sidestep, almost forcing you to keep him top-dial to be useful. While he can move, and then attack, when you’re running a lot of low point characters, it’s necessary to have some way of efficiently moving your hoard, and without Sidestep or someone to carry them, you’re spending a ton of actions solely on moving.

Strengths: Flurry/Incapacitate, Cheap, Regenerating

Weaknesses: Vulnerable, Can eat up actions

Final Score: 4/5

#008 Foot Soldier (Bo Staff)

Seeing as all these Foot Soldiers have the same point cost, same values, same powers, and the same Trait, the only thing we can use to distinguish them from one another is their Special Attack Power. This one is by far the worst, making this Foot Soldier almost useless. While it’s nice that he gets a little range, because their damage is so low, it’s pretty unlikely he’s ever going to generate knock-back, and when he does, it’s effect will be so minimal. Pushing a character 1 space isn’t useless, it just really lowers the strength of the knock-back. Stay away from this Foot Soldier, as the previous two are infinitely better.

Strengths: You can put a different Foot Soldier out if you succeed with his Trait

Weaknesses: Not a good attack power.

Final Score: 1/5

#009 Foot Soldier (Katana)

The Katana Foot Solider obviously shares the same power as Leonardo, but benefits a little more from it. Blades/Claws/Fangs is always a great combination with low cost figures, because it allows them to hit way out of their weight league. This Foot Soldier also pairs really well with the Shredder who will appear later in the set, as they both benefit from missing with an attack. This Foot Soldier sits solidly in the middle of the pack, offering the potential for big hits, but isn’t as reliable as the Nunchaku or Sai soldiers, who’s powers are basically unparalleled at that point cost. He’s also going to be one of the main Foot Soldiers you’re going to be pulling in, because he’s great at cleaning up after Sai or Nunchaku have whittled down you opponents. He’s a really solid figure, and possibly the cheapest piece with Blades and a 10 attack. I’ve seen Klarion’s cat, Teekl destroy big figures with his 10 attack and Blades, it’s no joke, and can be a serious threat.

Strengths: Cheap Blades/Claws/Fangs, Resurrection Trait

Weaknesses: Low Mobility, Vulnerable

Final Score: 3/5

#010 Foot Soldier (Chain Kama)

This is the first Foot Soldier that has a different value, gaining a 3 range. Unlike the Bo Staff Foot Solider, Chain Kama doesn’t need to deal damage to be effective. This characters Special Attack Power really synergizes with the rest of the Foot Soldiers who need to get up close to be effective, as he can pull their target up to 5 spaces away. The second part of the power is just as good, forcing whoever you hit to refrain from moving, or being moved. This is insanely good for a 30 point figure, and we’re just lucky that the Power Batteries are retiring, because this Foot Soldier with a Sniper Rifle on him would be really good, not only because it could pull them across the map, but it can shut down big tent-pole characters, because it stops them from advancing at all. With our dependency, and the straight up power of Telekinesis in the current meta, being able to hit a character, and stop them from escaping at all for 30 points is intriguing. Pairing this figure with the Thor ID Card allows you to grab 2 figures from 5 spaces away, tying both of them up. Watch for this figure.

Strengths: Pulls characters into adjacency, and ties up any hit character, Respawning Trait

Weaknesses: Fragile

Final Score: 4/5

Uncommons

#011 Splinter

Splinter is a hard piece to talk about, because he doesn’t really fit a specific role. He’s built like a close combat attacker, with Precision Strike and Close Combat Expert, but he doesn’t really have a reliable way of getting into the fray in order to use those abilities. He also fits into a semi-support role with Empower, and the ability to give TMNT characters a boost to their attack. Splinter is just really great for his points. An 11 Attack is fantastic for such a low cost, and Precision Strike makes up for his low damage output. Close Combat Expert also really increases his damage output, allowing him to strike for 3 damage, with 10 attack. He’s a really good 40 points, but he’s held back by that less than stellar Leadership, and his ability to support the Turtles is really effective within the set, especially when paired with Sidestep, but outside the set it’s very limited. Defensively he’s on par with a lot of 70 point figures, with solid values and good powers. Splinter is no slouch, he’s just a little too circumstantial to be considered for most teams.

Strengths: Sidestep removes the need to spend actions, Good Values, Traited Empower, Breaks through Reducers on most Clicks

Weaknesses: Mediocre Leadership, only boosts the attack of TMNT figures

Final Score: 3/5

#012 Casey Jones

Casey Jones takes one look at the point cost to strength ratio, and shatters it. For 30 points, Casey comes into the game as possibly the best secondary attacker ever printed, offering a ton of offensive potential for next to no cost; He’s not without his flaws though, having no defensive except Willpower on his first 3 clicks, and having no way to break through reducers. This is severely mitigated by the fact he’s 30 points, and has the ability to make 2 attacks per turn if the first attack hits. With a single Perplex Casey can get through any reducer, twice on a single turn, and has a solid 4 range charge to do so. Even without his attack, free move, and free attack with +1 attack, his values are sky-high for the investment, and 5 clicks of life basically insures that anything but the biggest hits won’t put him down. From a pure numbers standpoint, Casey Jones is a good investment, his attack power just doubles his effectiveness, making one attack is good, making two is twice as good. There’s just nothing bad about this figure, he out performs almost all the characters that are even twice his point level. Finally sub 50 point figures can be more than just support.

Strengths: Solid Values, Powerful Double Attack Power,

Weaknesses: No Defense Power on the First 3 Clicks

Final Score: 5/5

#013 Baxter Stockman

Baxter Stockman is more fantastic support for the Robot keyword. It’s like they didn’t realize they had already made Toymaster and Justin Seyfert. Regardless, as a fan of robots everywhere, I’m pleased with what they’ve brought to the table with Baxter Stockman. Right off the bat, he has useful supporting powers on every click, starting with Outwit, and moving into Perplex. For 30 points that’s bringing enough to the table to be more than playable, furthermore he has Stealth making him less of a target, and his special attack power. This power is the most reliable healing in the game in some ways, as it requires no dice rolls, and Baxter doesn’t have to take an action to do it. Finally, he makes the Mousers that I had a luke warm reception to a ton better with a 50% chance to revive them when they’re killed, and place them adjacent to Baxter himself. This means you’re never not going to be playing atleast one Mouser when you’re running Baxter, because having a potentially never ending tie-up piece is too good to pass up. Baxter is a great support piece for Robot teams, and brings a ton of utility outside of said team.

Strengths: Consistent Healing for Robots, Outwit and Perplex, and the ability to regenerate Mousers

Weaknesses: Fragile

Final Score: 5/5

#014 Nobody

Nobody is a really interesting finesse piece because his entire purpose is to sneak adjacent to an enemy, and hit them with his special so that they can’t make any attacks next turn. His trait is basically copied straight from The Wizard, and makes it really hard to target him without Pulse Wave, or getting in close, and if you get in close he’s going to hit you with his cape. Nobody is made to combat one specific kind of figure, the sniper. He can move up on them unhindered by their huge range, and when he does get within striking range, he can remove any threat that they create by stopping them from attacking. In the current state of Heroclix, the sniper is a really popular archetype, and appears almost as much as Hypersonic beatsticks. Sadly, Nobody is just crushed by characters with Hypersonic, as they can get in on him, and away without him being able to shut them down at all. Thankfully he’s only 45 points, and he does get Plasticity farther down his dial to minimize their effect on him. He’s a really useful piece for shutting down your opponents big hitters for a couple turns, outside of that he has some middling damage values boosted by Close Combat Expert, if smacking a target would be more help than stopping them from attacking, and the Police team ability to assist adjacent ranged characters. Overall he’s a helpful piece, uniquely built to stop characters from attacking, and shutting down ranged attackers who can’t target him.

Strengths: Inability to be targeted when adjacent to walls, Stops characters from attacking, Police Team

Weaknesses: Hypersonic characters will wreck him until he gets Plasticity

Final Score: 4/5

#015 Alpha One

Alpha One continues the trend of nicely priced characters with one really interesting power or trait that makes them an interesting inclusion on a lot of teams. Alpha One’s teleportation special power has enough potential to be built around in big games. On-top of that, Alpha One has really great values, and Willpower, making him a great piece to include on and off robot teams. His Special Attack power lets him teleport any non-robot opposing character within 5 spaces adjacent to him. It doesn’t need Line of Fire to do so, so he can grab people through walls, or off of buildings. This makes him incredibly threatening to teams that rely heavily on placement. Even Nick Fury (if Alpha One can get within 5 spaces) is going to fear this guy. On-top of that he has 6 clicks of life for 60 points, all of them featuring ways to bust through reducers. After he loses his attack power, he gets Pulse Wave and Perplex making him a legitimate threat to anyone near him. At 60 points his Leadership is actually decent, especially on a Robot theme team, where swarms are not uncommon. The Regeneration on his last two clicks make him very top heavy, as he has no other powers, but will give him more survivability. Going back to his special attack power, if you want to use it defensively, he acts as a return Telekinesis figure, but he can pull a friendly robot back through walls, and without having to worry about line of fire, making him a fantastic support piece.

Strengths: Long Dial, Solid Values, Pulls people around with Special Power, Willpower

Weaknesses: Last Two Clicks are only Regeneration.

Final Score: 4/5

#016 Slash

I love when Wizkids makes really powerful characters, but gives them a downside to even them out. Slash is a perfect example of a dial like that. He has an insanely high attack value for 80 points, but with the drawback of having it lowered if he’s adjacent to, or occupying Hindering. Even with the drawback Slash has a 10 attack, putting him on par with a lot of the more middling 80 point figures. Slash isn’t a complicated figure, he’s a close combat brawler, with enough attack to hit a character, Exploit to get through their defenses and Blades/Claws/Fangs to potentially hit like a truck. On-top of that, he gets Invulnerability, which is really good for an 80 point figure, and with the bonus of dealing damage back if he’s hit up close. He only really has two things working against him, no Willpower, and no way to deal with ranged attackers. Invulnerability definitely helps him with the second part, but the lack of Willpower is going to force you to plan out your actions. Luckily, he has a very pushable dial; His best click is on click 2, giving you the ability to push him without harm. Slash is a really well balanced figure, he’s fun to play, but isn’t so good as to make the game unfair, because of this he isn’t the best piece in this set, but whenever you run him, as long as you get him in close, he’s going to take a chunk out of everyone around him.

Strengths: Sky High attack values, Invulnerability, Great Powers

Weaknesses: No Willpower, Vulnerable to Range

Final Score: 4/5

#017 Leatherhead

All of the great parts of Slash are missed on Leatherhead. It seems like Leatherhead was built to hit as many enemies within a small area as possible, but I feel like his dial isn’t built in a way that really supports him doing that. His Death Roll special attack power is like a Quake that he can use from three different spaces, but I don’t think Quake is really a very powerful power, especially when paired with Sidestep. That being said, Leatherhead has all the necessary values and powers to be a successful close combat piece, it’s just a hard sell coming after Slash. Leatherhead has a really long dial for 80 points, with a damage value that never drops below 3. He’s a strong close combat piece, but his powers are arranged so that they don’t have the most synergy. His first two clicks of Sidestep make it tough to get into the fight, and after he’s through them, and potentially in the fray, he gets Charge. His last three clicks really hurt him, even though he gains Willpower, he loses any other way to protect himself. He also loses Charge for Force Blast and gains Super Strength and Empower, making him a little more of a team player, and gives him the potentially for a big hit, but he’s so vulnerable at this point in his dial, it’s unlikely he’ll get the chance to make a big hit with an object. This is all minor due to the fact he’s only 80 points.

Strengths: Long Dial, Solid Values

Weaknesses: Odd Combination of Powers, No Willpower

Final Score: 3/5

#018 Metalhead

Metalhead is the most expensive piece in the commons and uncommons, but I honestly think he’s a little overpriced. His attack value is stuck at a mediocre 9 or 10, and he starts with Sidestep, making him a mediocre ranged attacker. He does eventually get Running Shot, but his last three clicks feature Earthbound/Neutralized, which remove his Flight and Willpower, as well as limiting his mobility. On the defensive end, he does have a great 18 with Impervious, and his damage is high with 3’s and 4’s down his dial, but becomes a mediocre 2 at the end. He would be a good figure if it wasn’t for the Earthbound/Neutralized and the average attack value, he’s just too front end loaded to be effective for the entirety of a game. He does offer a trick with Donatello that allows you to give adjacent Donatello’s action tokens to remove a token from Metalhead. This removes a lot of the restrictions on Metalhead, and potentially allows him to never have to clear tokens, I just find that the investment of a Donatello, solely to remove tokens from him is pricey for a very, middle of the road attacker.

Strengths: High Damage and Defense, Impervious, Donatello can take tokens off of him

Weaknesses: Front Loaded, last 3 clicks have Earthbound

Final Score: 2/5