Thursday 7 April 2011

GSX - Quick Hits

Giant Size X-Men has finally released. I've play a couple of games with a couple of figures, and shall give some quick notes on the set.

Madrox - not used him yet, but managed to get 3 and 3 brick figures (bought 3 bricks obviously). He might be alright, but that trait could end up giving away more victory points than it gains you, assuming it succeeds to activate in the first place.

Mindless One - these are awesome in multiples. Low defense, but decent soak and the Mystics team ability make up for that. Can't wait to try 3 in 300 points, as once my dice stopped betraying me they were great in 200 points.

Cyclops - this guy is insane. I can see little reason to play X-Men with out him now. His trait means that the team ability heals figures two clicks instead of one, on top of the usual dice roll to avoid taking damage for using it. If him and another X-man get injured then can get away, both can reach their starting clicks pretty quickly. The options for the team got much better with this set, but you have to start your build with him.

Gideon - not used him, but I will. Never thought I'd see this classic X-Force villain in Clix form. Same goes for Stryfe but at least he's ben in comics recently.

Professor X - another awesome trait, In Contact with Cerebro allows him to act, while never leaving your deployment zone. Back him up with some decent figures and your opponent is left with a choice; deal with your team while Xavier acts with impunity, or charge off and hunt him down while your team runs interference. A properly constructed team will not let your opponent do both.

Predator X - so I get 3 bricks, including a complete case, and fail to get this figure who is only a Rare? That distribution doesn't make sense, compounded by the Super Rares randomly replacing either Commons or Rares in boosters. Obtaining this will be difficult as well, since it's trait wants you to field multiples.

Magneto - Finally....Magneto....Has come Back to Modern Age Heroclix.... Before Armor Wars left Modern Age, I can safely say that 90% of the teams I built and played outside of Sealed started with a version of Magneto, and 100% of my competetive teams started the same way (apart from that time Thanos forced me to use him. I didn't even play that game, I just moved him around the table and rolled dice when he told me to. I won one game due to him allowing the opponent to hit with knockback, moving him out of line of sight and onto his regeneration clicks. One regen roll later...). Alongside him sees new versions of Sabretooth, Pyro, Blob and Mystique. Add those to the few other members from slightly older sets, and we shall see what I come up with ;)

Cable/Deadpool - these guys could have zeroes for all their stats and still be my favourite Duo figure of all time. The fact that they are actually playable is just gravy.

Nextwave - I managed to get the whole team, even the Super Rare. Tried them in a four way game. They met the team of Sentinels and kicked thier faces, then raced over and mopped up what was left of the other two teams. Didn't lose a figure, though Bloodstone was near death. Can't wait to play some more 500 point games to try them out some more.

Apocalypse - I got him, Nemesis/Holocaust, and 2 of his 3 Super Rare Horsement. My favourite villain of all time (Magneto is a good guy and Doom is neutral ;) even if they counted, they still aren't him) now has a collosal version. We shall see how good he is at some point. He is 500 points though.

We have a winner

Wizards of the Coast have announced the winner of the war on Mirrodin and the name the real name of "Action".

Welcome ladies and gentlemen to New Phyrexia

It would seem that I was right (lucky then that my analysis was the previous post :p )

I said that they would move Infect into all the colours. They said this week that there would be Red infect cards, and all but one of the colours would have access to Proliferate. A version of the Sword of War and Peace has been shown. It's not an official spoiler, so I won't reveal the whole card, but the White ability is said to be give a +1/+1 counter to target creature, which would have the side effect of being able to heal -1/-1 counters as well. This, to me, seems in line with it being a tool of the resistance, to stave of infection.

Not only are the Preators revealed in this set, but it looks like they are getting cards. The two spoiled so far suggest that they are a cycle of Legends, one for each colour, with a static ability that buffs your creatures and a second static ability that debuffs  your opponents creatures. If nothing else, they will probably make awesome mono-coloured EDH/Commander generals.

The major theme of the White cards in the set (the Phyrexian aligned ones at least), is the new religion of that faction, which Suture Priest is a part of. No mention of what the Pristine Talisman is about thematically, at least not yet. They do however say that there is a resistance movement, that still hold a small fraction of the territories available.

This post is largely self-congratulatory, but we all need one of those every now and then :D