Uncommon

#017A Superman

Where the other Superman’s offered defense, and hit and run, this one is the full on smashing brick walls over your head Superman we know and love. This Superman offers something that doesn’t exist in the rest of the set, the ability to generate objects. Where every other Super Strength dependent character relies on the placement of objects at the beginning of the game, making them vulnerable to Mr. Nobody’s ability to steal your objects, this Superman can take a free action to keep his damage value high. His values don’t offer anything outstanding, but remain very solid throughout his dial. His trait also gives him +1 damage with objects, increasing his damage to 6 with a heavy. For a 90 point character, that’s incredible. His biggest issue is his 6 range charge, but remember, if you pull a 001 Superman, you can sidestep with him before charging, giving you an 8 range charge top dial. If you pull a Superman booster with all the Superman pieces, play them all, either as 1 or 2 Superman’s. While it might seem restricting to play 2 without doubles of any of the single pieces, the ability to find the most effective Superman for the situation, have him take an action and free action switch to another Superman, then have the other fielded Superman switch to the effective figure, allowing you to use that figure twice on a turn. Superman also ignores blocking terrain for movement, allowing for surprising attack options, opening lines of fire for friendly characters to opposing characters hiding behind walls, or creating hindering terrain for character’s who rely on stealth.

Strength’s: Super Strength, Generating Objects

Weaknesses: No Range, Middling Stats.

When to Draft: 4/5 – This shifting focus Superman offers the most utility in the set. He’s the only character who can break blocking terrain, giving him a lot of utility, and his ability to create more objects, cuts down the effectiveness of Mr. Nobody. Draft him early, regardless if you get another Superman or not.

Final Score: 4/5

#017B Superman

The Prime Superman doesn’t offer the shifting focus trait, which makes me slightly less interested in him, but instead offers a waxing and waning trait that can be potentially dangerous. This Superman’s powers are very classic Superman, offering some Hypersonic, some Running Shot and some Charge, but overall only giving 6 clicks of life. This is a little worrisome, as the 90 point Superman we just talked about has 7. Superman brings two traits into play. The first allows him to not break theme when paired with any character who possesses Mind Control on their top dial, or is named Poison Ivy. The likely-hood of creating a theme team in this set is low, even with this trait, so it’s not super useful. The second gives him “control tokens”, which can be used to increase his combat values by 1. The danger is that if he has no tokens, he can be mind controlled by any opposing character. With the +1 bump, he brings his stats to higher than average, and with the strong movement powers, he can pose a threat. Honestly, this Superman doesn’t compare to the Rare and Super-Rare tentpoles, and is a little disappointing for a prime.

Strength’s: Starting Hypersonic, High values for a reasonable cost.

Weaknesses: Dependent on having tokens, 6 clicks of life.

Where to Draft? 2/5 – I just don’t see the strength of this piece. He’s decent at best, even with the stat boost, and more often than not, using the stat boost makes him vulnerable to being mind controlled. With the amount of small figures in this set that could potentially hit his 18/19 defense top dial, he could be more of a danger to your team than to theirs.

Final Score 1/5

#018 Batman

This is my least favorite of the Shifting Focus Batman’s, as he only brings one thing to the table, outwit. Yes he does that thing fantastically, but where the other Shifting Focus figures usually offer a multitude of different useful powers, Sidestep and Smoke Cloud don’t offer much that isn’t already provided by cheaper figures. The issue with his Outwit is that, to use it in it’s most effective manner, you have to leave this Batman out when you end your turn, so that he can Study another character hitting with an attack. That’s an issue already. Not only is this not the most defensively minded Batman, but in order for it to be really useful, your team needs to be hit with an attack. I just can’t get behind that. Someone right now is shouting, “what about his Willpower”. I would agree about the Willpower, except that I don’t find much use in any of the actions he can take. There’s no point in attack with his 1 damage value, and Smoke Cloud isn’t very appealing when Druid and Poison Ivy’s varieties greatly outclass Batman’s.

Strength’s: Outwit.

Weaknesses: Low Values, Relies on your team getting hit with an attack.

Where to Draft: 3/5 – Yes, I know I hated this piece, but in this set there is so little Ouwit. If you need Outwit, take Mento over this Batman everytime, but if you don’t have that option, take this Batman.

Final Score 1/5

#019 Crazy Jane

Crazy Jane is my favorite gimmick character in this set, and I’m still unsure if she’s worth playing or not. The last thing Crazy Jane is, is reliable, but a smart player can make use of her ability to keep her healthy, or keep her on a useful click. The only thing consistent on her dial is a mediocre 2 damage. But throughout her dial she gets the holy trinity of support powers, Running Shot/Pulse Wave, and Charge/Precision Strike. She can be an offensive piece, and with 6 clicks of life, she’s hard to put down. The best thing about her is her trait, because it says, “at the end of your turn you MAY return her to the click she began the turn on”, may being the most important word, because, if she just got hit for 5 damage, and you rolled a 1, suddenly she’s back to full. If she’s pushed, and sitting uselessly on the sideline, and you roll a 2,3 or 6, she can suddenly provide support. Because you know what click you were on, and what click you can stay on, you can decide which offers the best utility for your current position in the game. Pushing her also helps you control the powers she has available, click 4 is the only click in which pushing doesn’t give you one of the useful support powers. At the same time, this gimmick seems so unreliable that I’m not sure she’s worth the 75 points she costs. Her values are low, and her powers are mismatched on some clicks, that there’s a large chance you won’t be able to get much use out of her at all.

Strength’s: Impressive ability to regen, and use tons of powers.

Weaknesses: Unreliable, low values.

Where to Draft: 2/5 If you don’t have an outwitter, she can provide it, but I think she offers an interesting style more than a useful style.

Final Score: 3/5

#020 Mento

Mento is probably the most reliable outwitter in the set, pairing his Outwit with Phasing to insure he can get where he needs to be to outwit. He also has TK which is essential in this set, allowing you to extend your big hitting pieces farther then you would normally feel comfortable. On-top of all that he has a fantastic Mind Control that allows him to increase his attack by 2, (with two targets that’s insanely good), or give each hit character an action token (also insanely good, incap+mind control). Mento doesn’t have willpower, and doesn’t ignore feedback damage, so he’s going to burn through his clicks quickly, but his stats are so steady, it barely matters. Just make sure you won’t need his Outwit after you get him off click 2 and you’ll be great.

Strength’s: Powerful Mind Control, Phasing, Outwit, Tk

Weaknesses: No Willpower, Short Dial, Outwit only on click 1 and 2

When to Draft: 4/5- He’s one of the Best Outwitters, that’s basically all you need to know, but he provides so much more as well.

Final Score: 4/5

#021 Negative Man

Negative Man, just wow. He’s my favourite piece from this set. In my games with him he’s killed the KC Spectre, and the KC Superman. He is a surprise powerhouse that punishes people for sitting 6 squares away from him. Negative Man completely relies on his Negative Spirit to do all the dirty work, and we’ll get to the Spirit in due time. Before that I just want to mention Negative Man’s Willpower and Perplex. These are his bread and butter, both of them are going to come in handy when using the Negative Spirit. The Negative Spirit itself compares with the excellent Demon Arms of Master Pandemonium, but instead of having Mystics, Negative Spirit has Penetrating Poison and Move and Attack, which also deals penetrating damage. With the Perplex from Negative Man that spirit can slowly whittle away any big threat, even someone with Invincible. After he attacks you can leave him their, threatening their entire team with his poison, forcing them to waste attacks attacking this free Spirit. If they succeed, next turn you can do it all over again. The Negative Spirit is an endless army with PENETRATING POISON. That’s all you need to succeed in this set. Watch out for other Poisoners though, as they tend to ruin his day.

Strength’s: The Spirit is Strong, Bystander that deal penetrating damage and have poison.

Weaknesses: The Body is Weak. Weak to Poison.

When to Draft: 4/5 – He’s just SO good. He can put holes in any enemy, and you don’t have to worry about losing points. Just use him, there’s no way around it.

Final Score:5/5

#022 Alura

Alura is an interesting piece to pull when playing sealed. She can stand up to some of the bigger tentpole pieces, but suffers from a lack of Willpower and having to push to get to Hypersonic. Unlike some of the other Tentpoles, she doesn’t need to rely on Super Strength, while she has it down most of her dial, her Hypersonic clicks give her the ever useful Precision Strike. There are three places in which she bypasses the big Tentpoles of the set, 1) Being a Wild Card, giving her the Mystics TA or Superman Enemy when running Lex and Joker give her a lot more versatility. 2) Having two starting lines. This is more important for drafting as it lets you have more control over your build and gives you more options. 3) 8 Clicks of Life. This is an impressive amount of clicks in this set, and she becomes really hard to take down because of it. She also offers a little support for Superman and Supergirl in the set, giving them +1 attack while adjacent, (as well as making them Wildcards). She’s not a must play piece, but if you got the short end of the stick with pulls, she can make a solid centerpiece for your team.

Strength’s: Long Dial, Solid Values, Wild Card

Weaknesses: No Willpower

Where to Draft – 0/5 or 4/5 – If you didn’t pull a tentpole, grab her up as fast as you can. If you did, she won’t offer much diversity to your team.

Rating 3/5

#023 DeSaad

DeSaad has all the parts to make a good piece, but I find he can just never properly perform. He costs a steep 75 points, especially with no move and attack. His biggest draw is his Outwit, which he can follow up with Perplex to insure your attacks hit your opponent. But for 75 points, that’s really all he has going for. For the same point cost, Mento offered a powerful Mind Control special power, and TK. DeSaad’s ability to take tokens off when his master hits with an attack is potentially useful, but I’m unsure if the actions available to DeSaad are really worthwhile. He’s not a bad piece by any stretch of the imagination, but to me he seems a bit undercooked. Outwit is so limited in this set that he might be worth using just for that, but even with his ability to copy his Master’s defense, he’s incredibly vulnerable.

Strength’s: Outwit followed with a perplex down, decent values, able to take tokens off himself

Weaknesses: Short Dial, Mediocre Defensive Power.

Where to Draft – 3/5 – The only reason I put him so high is because, he does have outwit, and it’s so hard to find in this set and can really tear apart some of the bigger pieces.

Final Score 1/5

#024 Major Force

Major Force is majorly effective. He’s almost a must play if you pull him, but he’s slightly less effective than some of the rares and super-rares. The first thing you’ll notice about Major Force is that he’s 150 points, putting him on the level of other Tentpoles like Metallo. Major Force is strange in that, he doesn’t play like a traditional tentpole, instead he’s more of a ranged secondary attacker. He has solid values, and offers ways to get through reducers on every click except his last one, which only has regeneration. Not only does he do good damage, but he has immense survivability. He has reducers on every click, (except his regen click obviously), and for half his dial has ranged Steal Energy allowing him some control over where he sits on his dial. The biggest hit against him is that he has no Willpower, but he offers so much lower on his dial, that it’s almost helpful to push him. So, what do we have so far, a decent ranged secondary attacker with tons of reducers, the last thing you would expect on him would be poison. But his poison is more effective than anything in the set. Being able to hit every character (yes friendlies included) within 4 squares for 1 penetrating damage is insanely useful, and unlike character’s with special poison like Presence, Major Force doesn’t need line of sight to inflict his poison. Major Force pairs up fantastically with the Shifting Focus 001 Superman, who’s invincible will ignore the poison damage, and his defensive power gives Major Force a boost to his defense. If you pull another Superman who can fly, then it also gives you someone to carry the Major into battle, then switch to the defensive Superman to avoid poisoning his allies. Remember, Major Force is going to be the biggest target on the battlefield, as his defensive values drop a little as he takes damage, making him easier to kill. He is the Metal Men killer though, if a Metal Men team doesn’t pull Platinum, there isn’t a ton they can do to get through his hard shell before he poisons them to death.

Strength’s: Solid Figure without Poison, Has Poison Anyways, Lots of Steal Energy and Regeneration

Weaknesses: No Willpower, Defense Drops Low

Where to Draft -3/5 to 5/5- He can be the tent-pole of your team like Alura, but requires a little more finesse. If you manage to use him to the best of his ability, he’s almost unstoppable.

Final Score 4/5

#025 Copper

Copper is the exact opposite of Major Force. Where he was a offensive, capable attacker, with enough tricks to fill multiple rolls, Copper has a single roll, Tie-Up. All you want Copper to do is run adjacent to a big piece and sit there. With an improved Shape-Change when near to other Metal Men, she has a 50% chance of avoiding being hit, and her plasticity keeps people next to her. Her plasticity also lets her shut down the large amount of Hypersonic in this set, protecting your bigger pieces. If she does get killed, all you’ve spent is 25 points. She’s cheap and perfectly suited to her job.

Streangths: Plasticity, Hard to Hit

Weaknesses: Isn’t an offensive piece? I tend to think shes so perfectly suited to her job that she has no weaknesses.

Where to Draft 3/5- You can always find a use for her, draft her if you see her.

Final Score 4/5

#026 Lead

Ugh, Lead, you could have been so good.Lead isn’t bad persay, he just isn’t nearly as good as his job as any of the other Metal Men so far. Having Impervious that succeeds on a 4-6 is great, but, its hard for him to really threaten any opponents with a Sidestep Close Combat Expert, especially for 50 points. I just don’t seem him ever being as effective as any of the other Metal Men. His best use is as a defensive buffer to grant other Metal Men their special traits, and possibly threaten anyone who charges in on a Tin. Overall just Meh.

Strength’s: Impervious

Weaknesses: Middling Stats, 4 clicks of life to Iron’s 5

Where to Draft 1/5 – 2/5 – If you only have one other Metal Man that you REALLY want to play, I guess play him too.

Rating 2/5- He’s a little better if you can Mastermind to him, but the only piece that can do that in this set is Lex Luthor and Joker.

#027 Blackbriar Thorn

Blackbriar Thorn is similar to Desaad, in that his dial isn’t aggressively offensive, and has a weird progression making him a piece that requires finesse. His best tool, and the main reason to play him comes in the form of his attack ability that lets him use penetrating poison on any character occupying hindering terrain within 5 spaces. In this set this is incredibly helpful, as there’s a huge amount of figures who depend on Stealth for protection, including Blackbriar himself. The issue with relying on Blackbriar Thorn’s poison to deal with Stealth is that it’s not fast. Its much more of a disuasstion tactic than an offensive ability, because it takes so long to be effective. The best case scenerio, it pushes them out of hindering, or pushes them off of stealth.

Outside of his poison, Blackbriar is no sloutch, with decent combat values, the Mystics team ability, and the triple defensive powers of Stealth, Shape-Change and Invlunerable. After he loses those abilities he gains Flurry and Blades, after that he regains his poison power and gets Regenration and Battle Fury. Regen and Mystics has always been a great combination, and on a dial that has reducers the entire way down, it’s especially good.

The main issue with Blackbriar Thorn is just getting him into position, and keeping him on his good clicks long enough for him to utilize his poison. While I think his potential is high, his lack of mobility and strength for 90 points is going to make him a little tougher investment to swallow, especially without Willpower. The only thing that negates his very niche role is the Mystics team ability which can really turn the tide against bigger tentpole pieces.

Strength’s: Mystics team ability, Poison Special Ability

Weaknesses: Very niche for large point value, No Willpower, No Mobility.

Where to Draft: 1/5 – I don’t think Blackbriar offers a ton of utility, especially compared to some other characters in this set, and while his poison can be effective, there’s a lot of ways of getting around it.

Final Score- 2/5

#028 Blue Beetle

I really love Blue Beetle, and I think that he doesn’t get his due. He’s a small investment at 60 points, and he has the duo role of Perplex support and close combat piece. Now as a close combat piece, he doesn’t shine without his own Perplex, slightly negating his supporting role, but with his special Perplex, he becomes the No-Name Brand version of 3-D Man. With his double perplex, he can boost his damage to 4, his attack to 12, or his defense to 19, really allowing him to react to the changing battlefield. The only attack power he has is Incapacitate, giving him more options. Pushing him is a little dangerous, as he can lose Charge to Force Blast, which limits him slightly, but his stats are fairly solid throughout his dial. After 3 clicks, he loses his perplex, making him quite a bit worse. Keep him healthy and he’ll bring a lot to the table.

Strength’s: Double Perplex, Solid Stats

Weaknesses: Vulnerable to OHKO, loses a lot of power after losing his Perplex, No Willpower

Where to Draft: 4/5 – I think he’s a solid piece with a lot of utility, that can seriously help almost any team. There are better supporting pieces in this set for less, and there’s better attackers for around the same amount, but there are very few character’s who can do both as reliably as him.

Final Score 4/5

#029 Jason Blood

In the final series of “Pieces that have potential but are too niche to be really effective” Jason Blood takes the stage. Jason’s big power is Outwit and Probability Control, while also giving protection from Probability Control to adjacent characters. There’s no team that wouldn’t find this useful, yet, for 100 points Jason doesn’t bring much more to the table. His attack starts at a great 11, but falls quickly, and ends up at a paltry 8. His damage does the same thing, only having a single click of 3 damage. His stats fall so quickly. Expecting him to have a great defensive power? He has Stealth and Super Senses. He also gives a worse Super Senses to adjacent characters, but only if they share a Keyword with him. In this set the only options are Gotham City for the Batman figures, and Mystical. He loses so much effectiveness after taking even 2 damage, that I just can’t recommend him. He does have the Mystics team ability, giving him slightly more efffectiveness, but for 100 points that’s a lot to rely on.

Strength’s: Outwit and/or Probability Control down his entire dial, ways to get through reducers most of the way.

Weaknesses: Mediocre Defensive Powers, No Willpower, Stats fall very quickly.

Where to Draft: 1/5 – He can be useful, but I just think hes way too much to spend on a piece that loses effectiveness even after a single push.

Final Score: 1/5

#030 Wizard

Wizard is really really good. There’s literally nothing bad about him. He has every single support power down his dial, allowing you some control of what power he has at what time, especially when it’s nearly impossible to lay a hit on him. He has traited Shape-Change, which i’ll get back to in a second, and an immensely powerful Movement power, that stops him from being targeted if he’s in hindering, or adjacent to blocking. Of course, Pulse Wave will shoot right through that, but there’s not a ton of Pulse Wave in this set, and even if someone was to Pulse Wave him and kill him, you’ve only lost a meger 50 points. Back to Shape-Change, having traited Shape-Change is really good, but it’s even better, that when he succeeds, he puts a dangerous Tiger out in his place. While the Tiger won’t be surviving many attacks, if your Tiger does manage to survive, it can put a dent in any opponent with a 10 attack Blades. Wizard is best when he’s in the shadows, using Probability Control, Outwit or Perplex to screw with your opponent, but his first click is actually decent for attacking. With 6 range, 10 attack and 3 damage, Wizard can safely break any damage reducers, making him a competent threat, especially when your opponents will have to go out of their way to target him. Remember, his movement ability just requires him to occupy hindering, and not requiring a hindered line of fire, meaning that Superman Team Ability will not ignore it.

Strength’s: Supporting Powers, Impossible to Hit, Traited TIGER SHAPE-CHANGE

Weaknesses: Nothing, he is perf

Where to Draft: 4/5 – He’s not the lynch pin to your team, but he’ll support anything that is.

Final Score 4/5- He’s a great piece for this set, but all the supporting pieces that are 50 points kind of overwhelm him outside of this set.

#031 Apprentice

Apprentice is a very, very simple piece. He has Perplex for friendly characters. He gets other stuff down his short dial, but really, you’re using him for friendly Perplex, and for 25 points that’s exactly what he does. There’s not much else to say. It’s nice that he gets Willpower top dial, and Incapacitate later so he can do some work, but you don’t really want him getting close to your enemies.

Strength’s: Friendly Perplex for 25 points.

Weaknesses: I dunno, he’s fragile, but what do you expect for 25 points?

Where to Draft: 3/5 – There are better support pieces, but he’s super solid for any team, and cheap enough to fit in almost anywhere.

Final Score: 4/5

I know this is Daredevil, but this whole storyline deserves to be represented by this crappy piece.

#32 Demon

Where Apprentice is solid and useful, Demon is mishapen and strange. He’s 5 points more than Apprentice, and he’s religated to only being able to Perplex down opponents. That’s all hunky dorey, but he starts with a 16 defense, and doesn’t have Willpower. Unlike Apprentice who can hang back to help out allies, Demon needs to get in the fray to be effective, and he’s just not…really…good….at all. He’s a body to through into the fray, if you play him, use him to tie up opposing character’s and annoy the crap out of them.

Strength’s: He’s Cheap, Opposing character Perplex.

Weaknesses: No Survivability, Needs to be close to Perplex.

Where to Draft: 1/5 – Demon is cheap, he might find a place on your team, but to use him, you’re basically giving your opponent 30 points.

Final Score: 1/5