Welcome back to Chase or Pass, a series that talks about the expensive pieces from sets and whether or not you should chase these pieces down or pass them up. For our one and only DC set for 2019, we’re looking at a fan-favorite them with Batman Metal. So, what’s the verdict?

This set feels very different both from the last few Marvel sets we’ve gotten and a lot different from the insane amount of Batman sets we’ve had for DC in the last few years. Battleworld and Earth X were highly specific sets with a sharp focus whereas Rebirth feels more like an overall property-wide set that features a lot of the DC universe in general. Now if only we could get a set without Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman – now that would be awesome!

I don’t read DC comics, but I’m not from another planet. I knew that fans were asking for Batman Metal to be a chase theme for a while. The lore surrounding them is too hot for this theme to be anything but Chases (can you imagine some of them as rare or lower?), and when it was revealed that they were indeed the chases for this set, there was a huge reaction from people already locking in collecting the group and chattering about what they would do, mostly with The Batman Who Laughs, an undoubtedly fan-favorite of the group.

Just like the Venoms, these Chases are pretty highly sought-after thanks to their popularity, and a few look to be competitive-worthy which will keep their prices high (hey, how are those top 4/winning teams coming along, Captain Venom?). Luckily for those of you trying to collect them or simply looking for one of the group that isn’t too hot, that should keep the rest of the prices down once the “new-car smell” period of the set wears off.

If you’re new to Chase or Pass, I’ll chat about each of the pieces in-depth and highlight their strengths and weaknesses, and whether or not you should get them. Each Chase will have two different ratings: casual and competitive. Before I jump into things, let’s cover the two shared traits on all but one of the chases.

Reckless Disregard For Life: Once per turn, when [Chase Figure] targets and hits a single opposing character with a close attack, after resolutions deal each other character that is adjacent to either the [Chase Figure] or the target 1 penetrating damage. (Includes friendly characters and usually the target.)

It pays to play these chases up close and personal so that they can dish out a ton of free damage to surrounding figures. This makes the melee figures slightly stronger than their ranged counterparts, but only marginally so. We all know there’s tons of ways to bring figures closer to you, and it’s nice to have free damage if your ranged figure is collapsed on; it’s one heck of a deterrent. This trait will be a terror to fight against if you’re playing a team that sticks together as it will quickly bleed through dials.

We Will Not Hide In The Shadows Anymore: When the [Chase Figure] occupies clear terrain and is targeted by a range attack, modify defense +1. // When targeted by an opposing character that can use Stealth, modify defense +1. // When targeted by an opposing character occupying hindering terrain, modify defense +1. (The modifiers stack.)

Talk about an anti-Batman trait – these guys are making it perfectly clear that they aren’t your typical Bruce Wayne (even if all their names are the same with different spelling). Let’s face it, you’re most likely going to guarantee that first line of this trait, so you can safely bump all of their defenses up by +1 as the only water terrain will prevent them from getting any bonus (they’ll still get the +1 for being in hindering terrain or obscuring terrain as per normal rules). The other two are fairly unlikely, so it’s a good idea to pretend that they don’t exist unless you have a player at your venue that plays a LOT of Batman, which hey, I do. In that case, the lot of these Chases become virtually unhittable.

Okay, that was a gigantic intro to this one. Let’s get to it.

200/100 Points, 8 Clicks/5 Clicks, 0 Range (Single Target). No Team Ability. Dark Knights, Monster, and Speedster Keywords.

We’re starting things off with not so much of a bang this time around. The Red Death is becoming known as a giant letdown for this group as his dial is extremely expensive for what it is; a heavy-costed Flash. We’ve seen a few big value Flashes in the last few years, but the two that The Red Death is being compared to are KC Flash from The Flash set, just 5 points cheaper, and The Flash, God of Death at 125 points but Modern until next July. The Red Death has the same hallmarks; Hypersonic Speed throughout the dial with high movement, some decent attack values, high defense numbers, Super Senses, Indomitable, etc. So, what gives? Why is he so frowned upon? It all comes down to value.

The Red Death has very mediocre values and powers for his exorbitant point cost at both values. At 200 points, it’s true that you’re getting a click of Invincible that most speedsters don’t have, and the Probability Control is very nice, but you’re paying 200 points to deal 3 damage at a time, and only 1 damage against figures with reducers. With just one hit to knock him off of Invincible, he feels incredibly overcosted and more like a typical rare Flash dial. At 100 points, the Impervious is still fantastic to have, but he loses both that and Probability Control again with just one hit, and this time he basically drops into a common Speedster when he does.

To cap things off, The Red Death has a trait that works much like the Rare Thor from Avengers: Infinity, spitting out Speed Storm markers that have a chance at handing out action tokens for free. This would be okay if it just happened since a lot must go right for you to even get the chance, including your opponent just not paying attention to the ever-so-slow markers creeping up on them. Honestly, this trait just shouldn’t exist, or it should have been much more highly tuned to offset his enormous point cost.

Casual: This is the only chance you’ll have to play him as The Red Death will never see the light of competitive play. However, in a casual or LGS setting, he could do some work, especially if there’s Stealth figures on the other team.

Competitive: Not a snowball’s chance in Hell. 200 points can buy you a lot in competitive play, and I can assure you no one wants to drop those points on a guy that can hit for 3 damage occasionally and might be a little hard to hit.

200/100 Points, 8 Clicks/5 Clicks, 7 Range (Double Targets). No Team Ability. Armor, Dark Knights, Monster, and Robot Keywords.

Now this dial is much stronger for the point cost and jumps from casual to competitive. The Murder Machine does what Prime Vulture does with some slight tweaks. While he can’t continually move and trigger different actions off of free attacks, he doesn’t have the glass jaw that Vulture has, and his values are already stellar to pretty much destroy anything he wants by himself. At 200 points, you have a fantastic reach with 10-Running Shot and 12-Energy Explosion which can trigger The Alfred Protocol, the trait that makes him a must-have figure. 18-Invincible for a whopping 4 clicks with Probability Control and Shape Change makes you wonder why The Red Death is the same amount of points. At 100 points, he’s a little slower to engage with Sidestep, but all the fireworks are still present for a single click before turning into a melee-focused figure. The trick with his lower-point dial is to keep him on that top click and continually KO figures with him so you can keep attacking. Obviously at 200 points you have a little more leeway. In either case, the Improved Targeting: Destroys Blocking furthers his threat and makes it very hard to stay safe from what his name sake is: murder.

If all this wasn’t enough, you’re adding on a 200-point figure for ID summoning, giving you access to full-point Wolverine’s, Cyclops’, Iceman, and the new Con LE Magneto if his own skills aren’t enough to get the job done against a certain tentpole team. Is this really a unique aspect to just him? No, but it’s worth mentioning because he’s already so freaking good that this is something that I think people are forgetting. In a metagame where Hawkeye is popping everything and has been a serious threat to any team looking to try their hand but rotation quickly approaching and sitting him on the sidelines for good, The Murder Machine has a very bright future ahead of him, especially with that Monster Keyword.

Casual: I probably wouldn’t break him out too often. His defenses are strong enough at 200 points that he’ll take a beating and still be firing back while single-handedly toasting your friends’ teams. There will be much rage.

Competitive: I think all of us on Two Clicks From KO are in agreement that The Murder Machine is going to be the surprise breakout star of this set. There’s so much to like about this dial and so many things that can make it even better like equipment and support figures.

200/75 Points, 8 Clicks/4 Clicks, 7 Range (Single Target). Green Lantern Corps Team Ability. Dark Knights, Green Lantern Corps, and Monster Keywords.

As the spoilers were rolling in, The Dawnbreaker was the Chase that everyone was talking about, and for good reason. This dial feels very different from our first two entries and is much more similar to a high-end Green Lantern than a Batman. Obviously, the big reason why people want to run this guy is for his trait, Nightmare Constructs, which has generated a heap of discussion threads about what happens if x, y, and z were to go into play and how the timing would work and yadda, yadda, yadda. The point is that The Dawnbreaker is going to love his time in the competitive setting with so many bystander teams and generators running around unchecked (until Hawkeye shows up, but I just covered that).

The Dawnbreaker is a case where I feel that many people are skipping over how efficient this dial is, and very different at both point levels.

At full points. Dawnbreaker is a brutal sniper, busting Stealth with 4 penetrating damage and a massive reach of 12 squares. His defense is stellar with a gigantic 19-Invincible up front, which means he’s almost always going to be sitting at a 20 no matter who is targeting him, and the Green Lantern TA means he can cart around all the support (read: Enhancement) that he wants to make him a cannon. He doesn’t age too poorly either, although it’s never run to see Phasing/Teleport on a 200-point figure anywhere on the dial except for the last few clicks to get to safety. At 100 points, Dawnbreaker serves an all-around exceptional figure with almost the same offense but picking up Enhancement and a much lower 17-Invincible. You’ll want to keep him on his top click at this level as he hurts quite a bit after just a single hit, but that’s fine because he serves as your team taxi, anti-bystander generator, tons of free damage through his shared trait, and improving your ranged attackers. Oh yeah, and his bystander trait also gives him Barrier which is always a good power to have.

Casual: Brutal at 200 points and hyper-efficient at 75. Still, I think The Dawnbreaker is an okay figure to play with friends or at an LGS. A good hit on him does drop him a few levels, and at 75 points, it could drop him to that last click.

Competitive: I’m sure that The Dawnbreaker will see play at his 75-point line, but probably not at full points. He doesn’t have the security that The Murder Machine does for 200 points, but he brings an awful lot to a team at lower points.

150/75 Points, 8 Clicks/5 Clicks, 0 Range (Single Target). No Team Ability. Atlantis, Dark Knights, Monster, and Pirate Keywords

The Drowned is the Chase that I feel everyone is passing by. Not incredibly but certainly no slouch, she has some seriously good aspects to her, including that glorious Pirate Keyword! Perhaps the biggest aspect of this dial is the fact that The Drowned makes all water terrain hindering terrain for lines of fire, along with her own Stealth giving her some insane security on the right map like the Flooded ROC map and giving her access to penetrating damage whenever she’s in water making her entire dial of Poison much more horrifying when combined with the Reckless Disregard For Life trait. The Drowned is capable of putting out a lot of free penetrating damage once she gets into the fight, and she’s 50 points cheaper than the first three Chases.

At full points, she’s a strong melee figure with some strong defenses for a few clicks and an average threat radius of 5 squares. Once she takes a hit, she drops into Plasticity which makes her much harder to deal with and makes her free damage a bigger threat. 8 clicks is a decent dial length as well for this point cost, especially with three clicks of big reducers and a number of ways to make her hard or impossible to hit in ranged attacks. But there lies her weakness. The Drowned will absolutely survive the trip to her targets, but once she’s there, she has to hope that her regular values will be strong enough to keep her healthy as she becomes much easier to deal with on her lower clicks/point value. Speaking of which, at 75 points you still get the strong melee attacker with a lot of free penetrating damage, but her defenses hurt quite a bit. 18-Super Senses is fine, but she only has that for one click meaning anyone with Poison or Precision Strike and easily knock her into those mediocre final clicks.

The Drowned is a sneaky play and will end up better than she seems on paper, but she doesn’t have enough to push the envelope and keep a strong price.

Casual: A great environment for her. She’ll feel strong for her points at either level and she has just enough deterrents to keep her safe until she locks everyone down and hands out free penetrating damage.

Competitive: That’s a negative, ghost rider. There are too many flaws for a pure melee figure, even if she does make all water terrain fantastic for your Stealth figures.

The Merciless 065

225/150 Points, 10 Clicks/7 Clicks, 0 Range (Single Target). Mystics Team Ability. Dark Knights, Deity, and Monster Keyword. Currently not in the units section.

Tied as the highest costing of the Chases, The Merciless is one hell of a melee-focused figure. Huge attack values, great reducers throughout the entire dial, a massive dial length, and some decent damage throughout with big potential on every click makes this an exciting figure that isn’t just a “swing for a lot” tank. The Merciless is arguably the best Chase to take advantage of the Reckless Disregard For Life trait as he will get into melee range and he will hit for damage, which makes him capable of a lot more damage than he seems at first glance.

225 points is a lot to pay for a melee figure, but at that point line you get a stellar 19-Invincible that will pretty much always be a 20, a whopping 12-attack with Blades, and 4-damage with Exploit Weakness. The worst part of this dial is his measly 8-Charge as his only way to engage the fight. Once he does take just a single click of damage, he’s relegated to Sidestep which does hurt, but the Flurry with ten freaking clicks of Blades is just scary. The best part about him at this level though is that you have all these reducers with Mystics making him truly terrifying to attack and increases his chances of pulling his weight. His 150 point cost is a little easier to swallow for a team but you do sacrifice that tasty 19-defense and 12-attack value, but everything else is the same (okay, and the click numbers).

What really excites me about this dial is his special damage power. This is just an evil “win more” power that synergizes incredibly well with a massive tentpole as you have great odds at losing the roll, continuing to heal The Merciless which makes those reducers and Mystics that much scarier. And this is where I get sad because The Merciless is thiiiiiiiis close to being an amazing figure because that special damage power isn’t on his top click. At 225 points, you have to push or take damage to gain access to it, which isn’t something I want to do with a brick like this. At 150, you don’t even get that opportunity as you’ll need to take 3 clicks to pick up the power. If The Merciless had this power on his starting click at 150, I think he could have actually had a place on some fringe competitive teams. I might still hunt one down when his prices drop because this is one badass dial.

Casual: Oh yeah, play him 100%. He’ll feel amazing as this hulking mass of war that will take a while to get into the fight and then just win the game once he does. There’s enough counterplay available that he won’t seem unbeatable.

Competitive: Unfortunately it’s a no. He’s too slow, has no protection for Outwit, doesn’t pick up his special power until he takes damage, and needs to hit before he takes too much damage.

225/150 Points, 10 Clicks/7 Clicks, 0 Range (Single Target). No Team Ability. Dark Knights, Brute, and Monster Keywords.

If The Merciless is a butcher, The Devastator is a tyrant. This guy comes with even better reducers than The Merciless and massive attack and damage values. Like The Merciless, he brings another 19-Invincible and 12-attack up front at the same point cost, but he does things a little differently opening up with Super Strength and 5-damage for a potential 7-damage first hit. Just like The Merciless though, this guy’s big weakness is how slow he is with just two clicks of Charge and no speed value over an 8. He also doesn’t have tricks for healing and hurting opponents, but his dial plays much differently. At 225, The Devastator will take half a dozen hits before he’s looking rough, and 8 clicks of Close Combat Expert and 4 or 3 damage means he’s going to hit you HARD when he does hit back. At 150 points, his first click is his worst with mediocre values but he’s extremely push-friendly. 4 clicks at the end of his dial with Steal Energy and three with Flurry gives him some good staying power. You can either let that 9-attack ride and go for double healing with Flurry/Steal Energy, or you can pump that attack value up with Close Combat Expert and swing with an 11-attack.

This all seems good, but there are a lot of issues with this dial. I already mentioned that he’s incredibly slow which is not something you want when the only healing on the dial is at the end and gives him a much higher chance of being shot down for good before getting into the fight. He can also be kited very easily (as can The Merciless), but unlike The Merciless, he only gets one chance at hitting back as he lacks Flurry on much of the dial. He’s also incredibly weak against characters that stop modifiers like the new OP Mr. Terrific or characters with The Outsiders team ability as he needs those Close Combat Expert clicks to keep himself as a large threat.

I wanted to address The Doomsday Virus by itself as I feel that this trait is actually really bad and furthers why The Devastator is one of the weakest chases of the bunch. While the flavor is very cool, it’s incredibly slow and buffs your enemies while you kill them, and the only payoff is that you slowly (and I mean very slowly) bleed them to death. Since this trait is tied to The Devastator, it’s very easy for any character that gets the +1 combat values benefit to simply focus The Devastator as a now-stronger character and nuke him before he gains any benefit from his own trait. Basically, you’re giving them +1 to their combat values for a chance to deal unavoidable damage to them. That is not a good trade-off, especially when your source is a big lumbering character that can’t catch anyone.

Casual: You can safely play The Devastator in this environment as he’ll have some shock value, but he can easily just be avoided as your opponent snatches up the other 75 points on your team.

Competitive: Take a hike, Devastator.

The Batman Who Laughs 067

175/100 Points, 8 Clicks/5 Clicks, 5 Range (Triple Target). No Team Ability. Dark Knights and Monster Keywords. Currently not in the units section.

*Exhales* Okay, I’m not gonna win this fight with some of you, so I’m just going to be honest; they screwed the pooch on this one.

Before you even look at the dial, the first thing that jumps out is the Crow, Crow, Crow… Bar! trait which gives you access to the incredibly cool Robin bystander on the base with Charge and Blades, Combat Reflexes and Indomitable, with the added benefit that Robin is immune from the Reckless trait and a gimmick where The Batman can keep cycling Robin on and off the base to avoid damage over and over again. It’s a cool mechanic, and it would be awesome if it wasn’t so easy to get around. More on that later.

So, we have a 175-point figure that can dodge all damage. Why is he bad? For one thing, his powers just aren’t good for this point cost, nor is his damage value. Incapacitate is a great power, and even better with 3 targets, but not when you’re paying 175 points to use it, or even 100 points for that matter. At full points, you get Perplex for three clicks which is really nice (but what exactly are you going to increase other than maybe damage to get 4 in and hope they have literally nothing to stop it?), and at 100 points you get Exploit Weakness, but again with low damage. Even with the Running Shot at full points and some decent reducers for three clicks, why would you ever want to pay this price for Incapacitate, even if you get the gimmick of not dying? He’s a bit more playable at 100 points, but even then, he drops so hard from his first click that you’re quickly going to question why you spent the points on the dial. 10-attack and 2-damage with Sidestep and Combat Reflexes on a Chase? What’s the appeal?

Like I said earlier, this trait with Robin would be very cool and a big saving grace for the dial, except that it’s so easy to counter. Since The Batman specifically says that Robin re-attaches if Robin would be KO’d by an attack, any form of damage outside of an attack will take him out. Poison comes to mind, and it’s not like we don’t have a ton of those, right? Another option is to shut off the trait via something like Pulse Wave. If you can get both The Batman and Robin within your Pulse Wave radius, you’ve effectively neutralized this Chase, and it’s not like we don’t have any items out there than can give a character Pulse Wave, right? This wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but The Batman’s entire schtick is Robin, and it’s so easy to permanently neutralize that he feels completely overcosted and just so… bland for his points. I was expecting a really neat dial for this figure. Instead we got a good Incapacitate dial on a massive point cost.

Casual: Sure, go ahead and play him. Most people aren’t worrying about packing the tools to dispose of Robin on an everyday team, so you should do okay with him. You’ll still feel that massive point cost though.

Competitive: The Batman Who Laughs is gonna be sitting on the bench with the other Joker’s who are about to rotate out of Modern.

Barbatos 068

200/100 Points, 9 Clicks/5 Clicks, 8 Range (Single Target). Quintessence Team Ability. Dark Knights, Deity, and Monster Keywords. Currently not in the units section.

Monster teams just got yet another Chase that makes them insanely powerful. Barbatos gives us an incredibly unique new figure that doesn’t care about attacking himself or what his offensive abilities are; no, Babatos is all about complete control and just telling your opponents “no, you can’t do that”.

Kicking things off with a bang, Barbatos grants all Monsters the Batman Enemy Team ability, which means that now all your buddies can share Surtur’s giant 12-attack value no matter their cost. The reverse side of this trait is more or less giving himself Stealth as the odds of playing him with another of these Chases is really low, although I could potentially see him with The Murder Machine or The Dawnbreaker at lower points. By far the strongest trick in his book is his Drag You Into The Dark Multiverse trait which lets him move 4 squares through any terrain for free and give all adjacent opponents Immobile until your next turn. Think about that. This guy gives out Immobile for. Free. Turn 1, Phase over carrying some offense with him 11 sqaures/9 squares (100 points) behind some terrain (actually 15 squares/13 squares because he can still move for free). Turn 2, free Phase 4 squares next to the enemy team, then movement back to safety and watch said carried offense blast away with no threat of retaliation. No Charge, no Hypersonic Speed, no Running Shot, no Sidestep, no nothing. That’s a game changer, folks.

If this wasn’t enough, he hands out Battle Fury to opposing characters within 6 squares if they can use Outwit, Perplex, or Support. And if he takes some damage and ends up at the back of the dial? How about Outwit, Steal Energy, and the ability to make as many close attacks as he wants targeting different characters with Giant Reach? Hey, how about taking on Stealth busting with that 8 range and Giant Size too? Barbatos might not share the other traits that the rest of the Dark Knights have, but that’s okay because he frankly doesn’t need them.

It’s not like his dial is bad either. At 200 points, you get 12-Penetrating/Psychic Blast, 19-Invincible, and 4-damage with the anti-support field. He has massive reducers the entire dial, so you won’t feel like you wasted the 200 points on a single figure, and four different clicks to heal up, which in a perfect situation could get him right back up to full health. At 100 points, you get more average values with 10-Penetrating/Psychic Blast, 17-Impervious, and 3-damage with the anti-support field, but it’s still a ruthless dial.

Casual: It might be a good idea to keep this guy out of your casual games. My opinion is that any figure that stops someone from playing the game is not good for overall game health and your friends might not want to play anymore if you abuse this figure.

Competitive: Oh, 100% he’s going to see play. Monster teams are going to love him, and his strategies for absolutely stopping what your opponents can do is disgusting.

What are your thoughts on these Chases? Do you think I hit the mark or did I make a complete goof? Let me know in the comments below!

See you all next week on Clix Fix, and remember, the real fun begins when you’re Two Clicks From KO!