Hello everyone and happy 2019! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year! I figured I would kick things off by looking over the first set of spoilers for Earth X, dropping next month. NOTE: WRITTEN PRIOR TO UNBOXING VIDEOS.

So how are things? Did you get everything you wanted during INSERT WINTER HOLIDAY YOU MAY OR MAY NOT CELEBRATE HERE, and was it everything you dreamed of? Did you all have a safe New Year’s? Regardless of how your holiday season went, It’s good to be back and swinging into 2019 with some fresh Heroclix articles.

I’m not going to lie though, I had some trouble coming up with what I wanted to write about for the first article of the year. I didn’t really want to start things off with a Team Build, not to mention there’s not a lot left in Battleworld that has me excited to write about. We got some spoilers for New Year’s from WizKids on the new Earth X set, so I figured it would be fun to try something a little different by reviewing these figures individually and sort of gauging the set by this small sample size.

Let’s take a look at these new dials we’ve seen so far. Oh, and if you haven’t seen these, there’s a link to the dials and evidence thread on the home page in the UPCOMING SETS area.

001a Spider-Girl

Interesting. It looks like our Prime common will be 001, and will be some sort of Spider-Girl/Spider-Woman piece. May Parker has a decent dial with some good attack and defense for 50 points. I dig the entire dial of Sidestep , always giving her reliable ways to engage into the fight, and the ignoring elevated and hindering terrain gives her more mobility than she seems. While I don’t like the 5 range as it’s a bit short, it’s honestly better than most 616 Spider-Man dials who usually end up with 4, and the double targets is nice with Incap. However, May’s damage is very lacking and requires her to creep up to adjacency to do some real damage. The 2 on click three is a bit of a bummer as I’d much rather have that on her starting click to give her some real teeth and see some play. As-is, she seems very much like a common Superior Foes of Spider-Man dial simply aged up to match the new power-creep.

017 Jackal

75 points is a lot for a dial with just 10 attack, Poison, and Outwit, but Jackal has a wicked cool trick up his sleeve of healing your characters for free; no die-roll required and no chances of rolling something low and healing for just a click or 2. It’s a bit rough to trade that healing for unavoidable damage once that character is hit, but certain figures will be thrilled to have this pocket tech on their team (hello, Prime Thanos!). Imagine giving a character with a god-like first click a new lease on life and healing them back up to full with no effort required. Or how about a character who’s on their last click, but needs to push to make an attack to KO the enemy figure? Jackal brings a whole lot of fun and tech to the game, and that already makes him my favorite figure of the set. His dial ages pretty well, too, and the combination of Stealth, Combat Reflexes, and Shape Change give him some fantastic durability to offset that 75 point cost. The best part is that Jackal has some amazing Keywords with Monster and Scientist, two very strong and easy-to-build-around options. If you haven’t read the story-arc this version of Ben Reilly is from, I highly recommend it. It’s a great read.

036 Alistar Smythe

Alistar is a bit hard to judge because we don’t know what his Mini-Slayer does, but I don’t think we need it to gauge his playability. Look at this dial without that trait. For 50 points you get Charge, Flurry, Blades, Outwit, and ignoring elevated terrain. Sure, the 10 attack is a bit low, but I dig the 18 defense on a 50 point figure and the Toughness to protect from a Poison lockdown figure. With a heavy subtheme of Spider-Family figures (more on this later), he also deals penetrating damage after resolutions, so combined with his Outwit, Alistar can one-shot probably any figure in the set with the right rolls. After he takes some damage, he’s a total pain with Plasticity, Combat Reflexes, and Exploit Weakness, and he never drops that 10 attack and actually gets some good damage. No matter what his equipment does, this is a strong dial for the points, and just one Perplex to that attack value will have him pull a lot of weight. Now WITH that equipment, Alistar can get a lot better. If that equipment has “Unequip: Drop”, then we have a very abusable way to keep adding items to your team. I’m really excited to see what the Mini-Slayer does. It kind of bothers me that we got to see Alistar but they neglected to show the equipment.

053b Spider-Woman

WizKids didn’t waste anytime and showed us the Super Rare Prime on day 2 of previews. I see a lot of people praising this dial already, and it’s easy to see why, yet she isn’t all that and a bag of chips. What I do like about this dial is that she has a lot of potential and playability without being busted like most big-rare pick-a-power figures (see: Jakeem Thunder). Mattie has a 10 attack on almost every click, and using her ability to take on Perplex seems like a large waste, especially when Probability Control is an option. Her Flight and Indom with the Mystics team ability for only 80 points, and this many options on what she can do provides a lot of versatility, and she can fill a lot of different roles on your team. Click one is perhaps her worst click as she has to pick between a movement power to engage in the fight, a better defense power to double up or help dodge attacks, or any other defense power to help her team. She’s a lot better on Click two where she already has Charge meaning she can Charge + Flurry if she wants, already has Super Senses to help her avoid attacks, and has Perplex so she can offset that 10 attack. I do like that Pulse Wave is a valid option on her top click though thanks to that Sidestep.

My big complaint on Spider-Woman is that she brings a useful team ability to the so-much-needed Spider-Man Family theme team…. at a time when Mystics is no longer copyable. She dangles the TA in Spidey’s face and pulls it away like a cat, toying with it’s food. I think Mattie is a strong Super Rare Prime, but certainly not competitive. She’s a neat power picking figure that you won’t feel like a jerk playing with your friends, so I dig her. I would caution you to stay away from the typical $75-$100 price tag on release though. She’ll drop over time.

057 X-21

X-51 is slow to engage in any fight with no move and attack powers and no Indomitable (or even Sidestep), but his real value is getting to his STOP click where he turns on. 12 attack with Pen/Psy, 8 Range, Perplex, Outwit, and Probability Control along with Power Cosmic is nothing to sluff off, but it’s not as incredible as it seems. Because he still only has a 6 with Stealth, which he has on every click other than top dial, it’s going to be painful to get X-51 into position to effectively use his abilities. Since this guy is an activation click that takes some heavy activation, the first portion of his dial is very important as you’ll probably be stuck there an awful lot as a good player will just ignore him. Support with an 11 attack is nice and the 12 Phasing ensures he’ll get to a wounded ally in one turn, but you’ll have to wait to heal up unless you want to push off his only click of Invulnerability and dip his attack value to a 10. His anti-colossal/Power Cosmic trait is pretty neat, but The Unseen does a better job at stopping colossal retaliation than this guy does by a long shot and he’s 10 less points, AND he fits on Cosmic theme teams. X-51 has one good Keyword with Cosmic which does give him a little more value, but the others are lost. It’s interesting though that we’re getting a full Earth X named Keyword. That could add to his value, as could some Power Cosmic in the set. X-51 is a figure I will probably avoid as he’ll most likely pull very little weight in games. If you want the holy trinity of support powers, just play a figure that has them instead, or even two support figures to make it that much harder to take down all of your powers.

058 Loki

LOOK AT THAT SCULPT! WOW! This is quite an outing for Loki and gives us a supremely powerful version of the trickster, something we haven’t really seen in a while. Up front, it’s a shame that Loki has Phasing with that 11 Pen/Psy and 4 Probability Control and he lacks Willpower. That slows him down quite a bit, but not as much as X-21 since Loki can actively do quite a lot from anywhere on the map. Loki’s first trait is a big one, and it’s a bit reminiscent of Felix Faust and the LE Doctor Strange in that he has a chance to completely change the game at any given time. For that alone, it doesn’t really matter what Loki packs as he’s already good. The only way this ability is bad is if you roll a 1, and even then it isn’t the end of the world. With fantastic support powers through his entire dial, Loki will always be useful, and the big reducers up front with Mystics and so many ways to avoid damage is a big deterrent to leave him alone.

Loki’s second trait adds so much more value to him by giving him a second way to reroll dice. This is huge because it’s an incredibly effective tool for both defense and offense. It doesn’t care about range, it doesn’t care about what the attack roll is for; it only cares if Loki can see them and they’re less points. And if you play the big guy at the full 150, you get Probability Control on top of that. Most of your figures will most likely be under his point cost at that rate, so you should be able to influence your attack rolls like crazy, which in turn really offsets a 1 rolled on his first trait. His lower point cost isn’t bad either as you get Sidestep and Outwit combined with all the tricks of his traits (including Stealth and Shape Change). This is perhaps my favorite showing of Loki aside from the common from The Mighty Thor and I can’t wait to get him.

063 Venom Gwenpool

So for Earth X, our chases are… more Spider-Man figures? Looks like WizKids wanted to revisit the chases from What If… but give them much more playability a la the “Call in Help From the Spider-Verse!” trait back in Superior Foes. I’m certainly not complaining in that regard; this is a brutal trait and gives players access to things like placing a 100 point Venom Hulk next to Gwen (or any of the chases from this set for that matter), or any other figure with Venom in it’s name. Gwen also welcomes back the fantastic Alien Symbiote trait that grants three powers for both defense and offense. This is a terrifying melee monster figure that’s all about rushing in and slashing everything and practically never going down. Her dial is very strong with good attack values and Blades, damage avoidance in both Super Senses and Shape Change, and Probability Control to make everything harder for her opponent.

What I really like about Gwen is his defense power that gives her Energy Shield/Deflection on top of the Super Senses, but also gives adjacent figures ES/D as well as long as she hasn’t failed a Shape Change roll. Knowing me, that will always happen, but it’s fantastic that she has to be targeted first from range if the opponent doesn’t want to deal with high defenses on a taxi or anyone else who doesn’t already have the power. The best part of this dial though is her fantastic Exploit Weakness that gives her the ability to deal penetrating damage to opponents or unavoidable damage to allies at the beginning of each turn to heal her 1 click. Combined with her Steal Energy on clicks 4-6 and her Regeneration on click 6, this gives her a ton of survivability and makes her dial a lot longer than it looks. So the question is, is she worth 100 points? I don’t know. It’s a lot to pay for a pure melee figure that has no terrain avoidance and no Willpower or Outwit protection. Gwenpool looks like she’s more of a fun piece that will catch people off guard then a competitive figure, but that Venom-Verse could push her over the edge based on other figures in the set and the coming months. Keep your eye on her, especially if you like Venom figures.

065 Venom Rocket Raccoon

Rocket is a pretty wicked-looking chase, and looks quite good at a glance. Like Gwen (and probably all of the chases), he has the Alien Symbiote trait, Call in Help From the Venom-Verse, and he also has a slew of terrain avoidance in hindering and elevated for movement, and destroying blocking for targeting. He’s also got another trait that gives him tokens whenever he destroys walls that allows him to basically use Perplex at no cost in one stat for each Rummage token he removes a turn. I don’t really like this trait because it’s slow and clunky, and I think a lot of players will be gimmicked into trying to make it work. Rocket is much better as just a mobile harasser that breaks walls when he shoots and happens to get a bonus later on. Don’t fall into the pit-trap of trying to accumulate 3 of these tokens, just burn them when you need them. Dial-wise, Rocket is a bit expensive to be completely honest.

He has a short range and just once click of Hypersonic (which doesn’t pair well with Outwit), but he does push incredibly well with Running Shot, Pulse Wave, and Enhancement. The Regeneration is nice at the end of the dial, but I still feel like this dial isn’t really worth the 100 point cost, especially since you’re going to need to include someone with Venom in their name to really gas him up. Rocket has to get pretty close with his Hypersonic Speed, and his movement value isn’t the best, so there’s a decent chance he gets attacked the next turn. At least he has Super Senses and Shape Change to help him get out of trouble. I’m not saying Rocket is bad… I’m just saying he’s a bit costly for what he seems, and I have a feeling you’ll really notice that cost once you build around him. He’s a good Chase, but I don’t think he’s the gem of the set and we have something better coming down the line. Hey, why doesn’t he have the Animal keyword?!

So we’ve seen a handful of figures and all but two of them are Spider-Man related. While this could be the only helping of Spider figures in the set (extremely doubtful), it’s not a strong showing for the actual theme of the set, which is Earth X. I can say for certain that Jackal, Alistar, and Rocket are all from your normal Earth-616 Marvel. It’s also strange that WizKids wouldn’t start off previews with some figures that are essential to the storyline (although I did write this before the X-51/Loki/Venom Gwenpool spoilers) that the set is about. It’s just an odd choice, and I’m hoping that this set doesn’t turn out to be the Spider-Man set of the year in disguise, especially after the disappointment of the lack of characters in Secret Wars: Battleworld (whether we already knew about it or not going in). This set is a good chance for WizKids to show us that they do care about the source material, and I’m worried that they aren’t going to step up to the plate, but only time will tell. Don’t condemn the set just yet; we’re only just cracking into previews, but I figured I would throw my $0.02 into the fountain. (Editor’s note: as of the first unboxing video on Monday, there appears to be a LOT more Earth X characters in the set.)

What are your thoughts on these first spoilers? Which is your favorite, or do you dislike all of them? How do you feel about the first showing of figures? Let me know in the comments section below.

Next week will be the inaugural article for the new year over on Two Clicks From KO, so make sure you don’t miss it! If you have some suggestions on some content you’d like to see or read about this year, let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear what you guys are looking for!

Cheers!