Basic Thoughts- I have really mixed feelings about this set. On one-hand, the lower point figures set a new power level for 50 point figures, and push a new focus on fielding multiple lower point characters. On the other-hand, because of this change, there are less must have characters, and fewer characters that can compete one-to-one to the most powerful figures from previous sets. This set also focuses a lot of giving specific traits to characters from specific teams. The All-New, All-Different X-Men trait gives a bonus to the X-men team ability, but I’ve so rarely seen that team ability ever used, it also relies on using it to heal, so you’ll have to push a character or take damage before the trait can be activated.The Avengers Unity Division has a few more benefits. All characters with the trait have the Avengers team ability, making their movement not cost against your action total, and then allowing them to heal another character for free. The Marauders come in with the Mutant Massacre trait, which helps out each figure whenever an opponent is K.O’d. I don’t love powers like these just because the distance you can get with them completely depends on your opponents team build. If they’re playing a one man army, you’re paying for that trait, and not getting much use out of it. The All-New X-men share the trait Time Locked, stopping characters from Probability Controlling attacks made against them, or by them. This trait will see a lot of use, but I imagine, will be accidentally forgotten more than it’s remembered. Finally, the best shared trait goes to the Freedom Force. Free action Force Blast after moving really opens up a lot of possibilities with the small point cost of most of their members. Overall the shared traits feel a little tacked on, and inflate the cost of some figures who could benefit from something like Willpower instead. This is the new style of Heroclix, and after playing in one pre-release, it’s incredibly fun, and allows all characters to be viable when playing against the other characters in the set, sadly, until the more powerful elements of Heroclix cycle out (Nick Fury, i’m looking at you) a lot of these pieces won’t be able to shine.

#001 Colossus

It just seems wrong to have a Colossus without Willpower, but I’ll put that aside, for now. Colossus’s claim to fame is an 18 defense Invincible top click for 50 points. For a defensive character you’re not going to get much better than that. On-top of that, Colossus has a consistent 3 damage down his dial and reducers on every click for a total of 5 clicks of life. Even if his mobility falls after his first click, he can remain in the middle of things with Sidestep. It’s everything you would expect from a Colossus, just on a budget. His values are fantastic for his low point value, and coupled with Super Strength he can really do a number to any other figure. About his trait, as much as I love the idea of Colossus getting +1 to all his values, I think that the X-Men team ability is just such an inefficient action to take as one of your actions. Healing 1, and possibly taking 1 damage isn’t worth 1/3 of your action total, boosting all of a characters values by 1 makes it slightly more tempting, but it’s still a very situational power. Colossus is going to want to push, and helping him get back to his Charge top-click is definitely built around the idea of the X-Men Team Ability, thankfully, he doesn’t need to depend on it for success with a very solid values, and a good mix of powers.

Final Score: 4/5

#002 Nightcrawler

This Nightcrawler gives me even more mixed feelings than the Colossus. His values are really good, and his movement power is useful without being overpowered, but I can’t help but want a way more powerful Nightcrawler. His first three clicks are where you’re going to want to stay, with his special movement ability allowing him an interesting Charge like power, with the secondary effect of getting him out of any square, and into any square within line of fire. That means he can teleport across the entire map potentially, and he can escape from being based. His last two clicks are almost useless, and are built around the idea of either using the X-Men team ability on him, or getting him to heal other characters. Having him heal other characters is definitely the way to go here, he’s hard to hit, and healing him and giving him the boost doesn’t change the distance of his pseudo Charge, leaving him with the need to be 4 spaces away. Precision Strike is a good power for Nightcrawler so that he can hit make damage on any character he wants, but it also limits his potential damage, making it a trade off. Those first three clicks are good, 18 Combat Reflexes makes it hard to hurt him when he gets up close, and with his movement power he will be able to get up close. It’s just hard to swallow those last two clicks that limit him to a mediocre healer.

Final Score: 3/5

#003 Storm

Storm is the reverse of Nightcrawler, having 2 support clicks up front, and some serious damage on the last 3. Unlike Nightcrawler, Storm’s support clicks are really good. Free action Smoke Cloud and Perplex pair well with her ability to use the X-Men team ability, potentially giving a +2 to one value. Later in the dial, Sidestep and Pulse Wave make her a threat to every figure, giving her something to do on every one of her clicks. Her Support Clicks are clearly where she’s the best, making her a little at odds with the potentially self-harm of the X-Men Team Ability. Overall she just offers a ton of potential on every click, even with her mediocre defense. Storm’s biggest vulnerability is being based, due to the fact she has no way to protect herself from close attacks. She’s well worth your 50 points, but really only benefits from being on an X-Men team, where she can activate the All-New, All Different trait.

Final Score: 4/5

#004 Thunderbird

Like Storm before him, Thunderbird wants to be a healer, and an attacker, but also can benefit from sacrificing himself for the rest of the X-Men. This makes him a very hit or miss character. He brings more mobility to the table than Colossus, as a close range attacker, but the lack of defensive powers and the average defense value makes him more vulnerable. Thankfully if he is picked off, he’s going to be healing all of your team, or potentially buffing your entire team. If he’s killed by an opponent you’re not going to get the benefit of the stat boost because it will only last until the beginning of your turn, but Thunderbird realized that, and gave you a way to force him to kill himself. Activating Exploit Weakness is the one thing Thunderbird has over Colossus, but also forces him to bite the bullet. This is an incredibly great action, potentially dealing upwards of 5 Penetrating damage, as well as buffing the rest of your team to make attacks, and all for the cost of 1 action and Thunderbird. Even with all that, I’m not a big fan of powers that require you to just hand over point to your opponents (I do a good enough job of this just playing normally), and because of that I just can’t support Thunderbird.

Final Score:3/5

#005a Emma Frost

The non-prime version of Emma concentrates on her mental mutation and makes her a physical/support piece. The first half of her dial is a pretty unimpressive Mind Controller, with a fantastic special Perplex that she can use to target all characters that share a Keyword with her within 5 spaces. This is incredibly good, and really pairs well with the amount of lower point X-Men in this set, also remember that it applies to herself as well. Offensively she’s no slouch either with a 10 Attack and 3 Damage, but she doesn’t have many tools to actually use those values, with a low range and no move and attack, it’s going to be hard to get her in on the first half of her dial. The second half of her dial is more of a straight-forward ranged attacker, with Running Shot and Penetrating/Psychic Blast on her first click, and Energy Shield/Deflection and Shape Change to provide decent defensive options. If you have the Prime version of her, you have to pay for her trait. Paying 5 points for an extra click of life is fantastic, especially when that click of life is as good as this one it. Overall Emma brings a lot of utility compared to the other characters so far, offering both fantastic Perplex support and some decent ranged combat, as well as the ability to get through any reducers. I just think she’s a little expensive for what you’re getting because her powers are so separated, giving her some overall utility, but making it hard for her to access it at any specific point in the game.

Final Score: 3/5

#005b Emma Frost

The Prime Emma is a really good close combat piece, featuring a strange power for most Charge, Super Strength characters, Outwit. The strangest thing about this piece is how fragile it is compared to the other X-Men in this set. For 125 points she only brings 6 clicks to table which is pretty low for such a high pointed figure. To make up for a low life count, Emma has a fantastic array of defensive powers, starting with Impervious, and ending with Invulnerable. On top of that, her stop click makes it impossible to one hit KO her, and even if you wanted to, you’d have to do it up close, because of her incredible trait. Reducing all ranged damage to a maximum of 1 makes those 6 clicks of life worth a ton more, because Emma completely removes the main threat to close attackers, ranged attackers attacking her while she attempts to move into adjacency. When she loses her Charge and Super Strength for Sidestep and Exploit Weakness, losing some of her effectiveness, but still allowing for offensive potential. The X-Men team ability has never been better for a character either, even thoough she doesn’t get the bonus from the Trait, because she can only take 1 damage from a ranged attack, the team ability gives her the life to survive another attack. I’m looking at her as a counter to Nick Fury. Even with his power to turn off other powers, he can’t turn off her trait. Of course, Pulse Wave gets through, so be aware of that when throwing her into the middle of things.

Final Score: 5/5

#006 Wolverine

I’m having a lot of trouble with this Wolverine dial, just because of how vulnerable he is. His values aren’t bad, except for his defense, which caps out at a 17 top click. This paired with Combat Reflexes makes Wolverine incredibly vulnerable to ranged attacks, especially with his paltry 4 movement charge. That’s not saying that Wolverine doesn’t offer anything to your team, after losing Charge for Flurry, his attack takes a steep hike with 2 clicks of 11 and 1 click of 13! IF you can get Wolverine into a fight, then he can really cause a problem on hist last three clicks, with the potential for 12 damage on any of them. The trade-off, however, is that he becomes even more vulnerable to attacks with a 14 defense on his last click. Wolverine also shares the X-Men team ability, allowing him to heal other characters, but I don’t see you using it much on Wolverine except to push him to his more dangerous clicks. His Trait that allows him to heal also seems almost a waste of this figure. Yes, getting an extra click of health can give him the freedom to push, especially when clearing heals him, but you want a little more control of when he gets down to his Flurry, Blades clicks to insure he’s dealing the most damage possible, it also seems unlikely that you’ll be healing anything more than pushes, because if someone decides to put Wolverine in the ground, you’ll be hard pressed to stop them. Healing is just a waste on a figure that really wants to be lower on his dial, and doesn’t have the bulk to survive multiple hits.

Final Score: 3/5

#007 Genoshan Magistrate

At first glance, the Genoshan Magistrate isn’t a good use of 30 points. He doesn’t offer much support without being pushed, only gets Plasticity on click 2, and their values aren’t high enough to threaten much with the Incapacitate they use. Genoshan Magistrate is an eclectic group of powers tied to the Police Team Ability, and while they’ll definitely find a place for themselves on a Police or Soldier theme team, by itself it’s going to struggle. It’s big Incapacitate trick is a good one though. Placing a character adjacent to Genoshan Magistrate can really help to support figures like the Wolverine we just looked at. Later down their dial, they get Enhancement, which pairs fantastically with the Police Team Ability, and Penetrating/Psychic Blast, which potentially makes them threatening in groups. Overall, it’s not the most useful generic, as it’s Incapacitate is restricted to a 10 attack and 5 range, and his Plasticity is done better by the Soldier generic from Superman/WonderWoman. If you can find a way to use his Incapacitate well then he’ll fit into a Soldier theme team, but without it, you’re playing it for its last two clicks for Enhancement.

Final Score: 2/5

#008 Morlock

One of the other generic in this set is the Morlock, which has a really interesting concept in that he can be played on one of six clicks, and can be played at a lower point level to allow your opponent to choose which click he uses. I love the idea that for 10 points you’re getting a surprisingly decent click, with the only downside being that your opponent is choosing the one with the least effectiveness against their team build. The biggest problem with this is that there are a few stinker clicks that you don’t want to have to use. Going over the clicks quickly, there’s a few that will show up, the best being the Second, with Plasticity and Combat Reflexes, making him the most inexpensive tie-up piece in the game. Strangely, the Morlock’s offensive clicks are also fantastic, especially the fourth click with Running Shot, and 5 Range, and the sixth click with Charge and Super Strength. While the Running Shot click can’t break through reducers, a 15 point figure with an 8 range swing is good, especially when he’s running with a 9 Attack and 2 Damage. 9 Attack might not be much to work with usually, but for a 15 point figure that’s way above average. Super Strength allows the Morlock to hit way out of his weight range, dealing 4 damage with an object. The rest of the clicks are decent too, offering Flurry and Shape Change on one click, and Blades/Claws/Fangs and Leap/Climb on the other to get into combat quickly. Finally, the worst starting line with Energy Explosion and 5 range, just isn’t as useful as the others. It’s not bad, but with one target you’re not getting much out of that Energy Explosion. On top of all that, all the Morlocks have traited Stealth, giving them a defensive power to survive on. Now, while I really like these figures, having only one click and a 16 defense makes them really vulnerable to powers like Poison, Pulse Wave and Energy Explosion, so when you’re playing Morlocks be aware of the threat these powers impose. In the end you’re paying for a very vulnerable figure, with a large potential for damage, thankfully, what you’re paying for them is very, very low.

Final Score: 4/5

#009 Arclight

Arclight is more in line with the 50 point figures from before TMNT, she has some viability in combat, but her strength just isn’t enough to compare to figures like Colossus, Storm or even Wolverine. She is also the first Marauder in the set, and so we see the first instance of the Mutant Massacre Trait. Arclight doesn’t get a ton of use out of this Trait because to really benefit from it she needs to be adjacent to an opponent when another opponent is KO’d to gain a benefit besides an increase to her Defense. Arclight is a finesse close combat piece, with decent values, good defensive powers, and a potentially useful Trait. Seismic Punch allows Arclight to threaten weaker characters and the positioning of the enemy team with the two chances to hit and knock them back. Overall her dial is just a little bare to be really effective. Her first three clicks have average values boosted by Close Combat Expert, allowing her to do some serious damage, mixing that with Force Blast allows for potentially more damage and the disruption of placement. Overall she’s a cheap close attacker with a few tricks, that’s just outclassed by other 50 point pieces in this set.

Final Score: 2/5

#010 Blockbuster

Blockbuster is a slightly more expensive Colossus with a little less mobility, Willpower and a trait that lowers the defense of opposing characters when he hits with an object. He suffers from having Charge on only his first click and no other movement power down his dial. His values are pretty decent, but his defense falls lower than Colossus’s on his last to clicks. His Willpower definitely distinguishes him from the other low point characters, but he needs someway to get into the thick of things if he gets hit off of his first click. His ability to modify the defense of characters when he hits with an object won’t come into play much due to his low mobility, and average attack. Overall he’s a pretty big letdown for 65 points.

Final Score: 1/5

#011 Harpoon

Harpoon has one role on your team, hitting your opponents biggest figure with a ranged attack, forcing them to stop moving. It’s a powerful ability to possess for 50 points, but Harpoon pays for it in his lack of defensive prowess. He has absolutely no defensive powers and average to low defensive values. He makes up for that with Ranged Combat Expert and Precision Strike, mixed with Sidestep and Running Shot respectively. Harpoon can shut down one man armies like none other, especially those who rely on getting close to attack. Two Harpoon’s could theoretically keep a character like the Hulk from ever getting close enough to attack, and one can really put a dent into the mobility of big characters, if he can get within range to hit them. Regardless of how effective it is, being able to control the mobility of an opposing character makes Harpoon a threat, even if he’s slacking defensively. For 50 points it’s hard to find anyone aside from Hand Ninja (Chain Kama) who offers a similar power to shut down characters, and none who are also reasonable ranged attackers.

Final Score: 4/5

#012 Lady Mastermind

Lady Mastermind doesn’t bring a lot to the table for 45 points, and doesn’t get much use out of her titular power, not to mention she only has it on her last two clicks. Aside from that, she’s basically a very cheap Mind Control piece with the ability to give out tokens when she hits. She suffers a bit for coming about after Mento from World’s Finest, who a similar Mind Control power, plus a bunch of other tools for 30 points more. Lady Mastermind gets Perplex on her last two clicks giving her a little more utility as a Support attacker. There’s not much to say about her beyond that, she has pitiful defenses aside from Stealth and Shape Change, and just high enough attack to be able to threaten people with Mind Control. If she was any more expensive she would be awful, but at 45 she’s just cheap enough to fill the niche as a cheap Mind Controller, with just enough protection to survive a few attacks.

Final Score: 2/5

#013 Prism

Prism is really fantastic, especially at 35 points. There are three major things Prism can do on the field, the first is the pure threat he can pose with 3 other characters adjacent to him. His Special Defensive power means that if an opponent does want to target Prism with an attack, they’re going to either need to get close, or hit him four times, making him one of the toughest figures to take down from range. The main issue with this is the ability for the power to be Outwitted, but even so that requires an attacker to focus on Prism for a turn leaving your other units unharmed. Offensively Prism is empowered by adjacent characters with range 4 or more. With three characters like this Prism has a 10 attack with 4 damage, allowing him to strike way out of his weight-level.

The second use Prism brings is as mobile blocking terrain. Prism’s penchant for taking hits is going to make him a less than perfect target for an opponent with a ready attacker. Placing him in the way of attacks is a great way of dissuading opponents to throw away attacks, though this only works from range, as Prism will quickly fall to close attacks.

Finally, Prism supports other Ranged Attackers with Empower, making him simultaneously strengthen and be strengthened by ranged attackers close to him. No of course, Prism has his weaknesses, especially the small thing of being instantly K.O’d by Knock-back. Since most forms of Knock-back come from up close (Force Blast) he’s mostly safe as long as he keeps away from other characters, but things like the Bulldozer construct really threaten him. Overall Prism needs some support to be effective, but also supports those that are helping him, making him a really great character to add to a team with a lot of ranged attackers.

Final Score: 4/5

#014 Riptide

I thought Riptide was just a gimmick of a character until I saw one played in a pre-release. He moved 9 spaces across the map, then used Sidestep and free action Pulse Wave to hit the entire enemy team for 1 damage. The turn after, he managed to survive, and was able to Sidestep, and Pulse Wave again dealing damage to three of his opponents characters (he had wisely moved the others out of the way), before being taken down by a close combat attack from a Colossus. By this point, the opposing team had been weakened, and pushed off of their best clicks, and were quickly cleaned up by the rest of his team.

Riptide can continuously push out damage with his free action Pulse Wave, and does so without spending any actions what so ever. For 45 points there has never been a character that has been so action point efficient, and so reliable at dealing damage and getting through opponents defensive powers. Not that he’s not without weaknesses, his low range forces him to get closer than he would normally want in order to hurt them, and when paired with Energy Shield/Deflection, he’s going to be getting a lot of flak from close combat pieces. Thankfully, if he survives a salvo of close combat attacks, his Improved Movement: Ignores Characters means he’ll never be tied up. Riptide burns brightly and quickly, he won’t last long, and can be quickly dispatched, but every turn he’s left unchecked is a turn he’s dealing 1 damage, and moving into position to do it again next turn.

Final Score: 4/5

#015 Scrambler

Scrambler is a 30 point tie-up piece with a nasty Outwit power that leaves even the strongest figures vulnerable. The biggest issue with this is that Scrambler’s easily killed in a single hit, removing his Outwit, and allowing the character who was targeted by Scrambler to start hitting people again. What Scrambler needs is a taxi. He’s the perfect tool for a big flying beat-stick to carry into battle. Placing him adjacent to his target, removing all their powers and weakening their counter attack. Even without someone to carry him Scrambler can’t be left alone. He’s strongest when he’s paired with someone to keep him alive when he gets up close, and weakest when left alone for him to be picked off by the person who he’s stolen powers from. Scrambler isn’t bad, but he’s so vulnerable to attacks that his Outwit can’t always be relied on to last until your next turn. Use him wisely, in tandem with other characters, to insure you get the most uses out of his special outwit.

Final Score: 4/5

#016 Stonewall

Stonewall is the first member of the Freedom Force in the set, and he sets a precedent for the strength of that team. He’s a very reliable tie-up piece, with high enough values to threaten whoever he’s tying up, as well as his trait that stops him from being moved at all by opposing characters, something other Tie-up pieces lack. If figures want him to get away from them, they have to do it the hard way, and that way is really hard with Stonewall’s high defense values, and reducers down his entire dial. Stonewall only has 5 clicks of life though, which does make him more vulnerable to Outwit. Stonewall also shares the same fantastic trait as the other members of the Freedom Force, allowing him to use Force Blast after moving. Stonewall is the piece for messing up character’s placement, tying up bigger pieces, Force Blasting dangerous pieces away from him, and dealing tons of damage with his very high values. While 70 seems a little steep compared to what we’ve got for 50 from other figures, Stonewall is incredibly hard to take down, and is the king of disrupting your opponents plans.

Final Score: 3/5