Greetings and welcome to the Clixed Off Preview for the House of X Heroclix Set. This set releases on December 9th. Many thanks to Wizkids for sending us these previews. Pre-Order this set at your FLGS or at https://shop.wizkids.com
First up Daniel will talk about our two Team Cards.
First up we have a Marvel Girl Team Up card for when she teams up with at least two of the following: Black Tom, Beast Domino, Kid Omega, Sage, Wolverine. This card will grant them a free move of up to two squares if they occupy hindering terrain. I think this will work best with Beast and Wolverine given they are the most popular characters and provide the most options for team building. A very solid option for Marvel Girl.
Secondly, we have a team for 044 Magneto when he is on a Brotherhood of Mutants or Acolytes theme team. It allows him to generate a heavy object and use Telekinesis at no cost when he only attacks characters with the X-Men Keyword. This doesn’t specifiy it has to be an attack with Telekinesis so Magneto could use this retreat back to safety or bring another friendly character into the battle. This Magneto is already building hype for his powerful 25-point line. I think this card has some great potential on the Brotherhood of Mutants option with some of the figures we received in the X-Men Animated series set.
Alex tagging in here to talk about two figures I’m very excited to try out.
First off, let’s take a look at Black Tom.
Did you know the last time we got a Black Tom Cassidy was in the Deadpool set over 6 years ago?
Coming in at 65 points, Black Tom returns to the Heroclix stage rocking an 11 attack and 4 damage top dial. Black Tom has the “The Mutant C.I.A” trait which grants him Stealth and Improved Movement/Targeting Hindering, similar to the “Espionage” trait we saw in Captain America and the Avengers. While he lacks a true move and attack power, he does possess a Special Move Power “Krakoan Defense System” which grants him Sidestep and the following power:
FREE: If Black Tom occupies hindering terrain, place Black Tom in a square of hindering terrain within 5 squares.
This special power gives Black Tom a “pseudo-move and attack”, but is highly dependent on what map Black Tom ends up on. If Black Tom is stuck on the map with little hindering terrain (like Ultron’s Lair from Battlegrounds: Avengers vs Masters of Evil), you will be forced to rely on his own smoke cloud to fully utilize his special power. Alternatively, you could equip him or another teammate with the Nightbringer Ring to give him places to “BAMF” to. If you are able to keep Black Tom in hindering, he could be a formidable piece for any Brotherhood of Mutants, X-Force or X-Men team
Last, but definitely not least is Hope Summer, one of the “The Five” from House of X. Similar to the Hope Summers in X-Men Regenesis, House of X Hope Summers utilizes her teammates to fill out her standard powers. Coming in at only 50pts, Hope Summer rocks two power granting traits.
First up is “The Five: Hope Summers”. While you don’t want to build around utilizing this trait, if you find yourself in a position where it is activated you have tons of options. Whether it be Energy Shield/Deflection from FF002 Marvel Girl, Outwit, Mind Control, or Super Sense from 042 Professor X, or even Probability Control or Precision Strike from Kate Pryde, Hope Summer has a lot of options at her disposal if things start going awry.
It is Hope Summer’s second trait “Psychic Power Duplication” that makes her a magnificent support/secondary attack piece on X-Men teams. Built correctly, Hope Summers has a large slew of powers to choose from, and remember all the powers do not have to be on one figure. Hope Summers can pick 3 standard powers that adjacent friendly characters with the X-Men keyword can use.
Here’s a brief list of potential powers Hope Summers can duplicate from X-Men pieces.
Running Shot, Toughness, and Outwit – Bishop (HoX003b)
Sidestep and Impervious – Dark Phoenix (xdpsG020p)
Sidestep, Precision Strike, and Energy Shield/Deflection – Storm (xdpsG023bp)
Running Shot, Penetrating/Psychic Blast, Energy Shield/Deflection, Super Senses, and Probability Control – Scarlet Witch (wkMP20-102)
EVERY POWER THAT SHE GAINS – Moira X (HoX030)
The list goes on and on, and it gives Hope Summers a lot of avenues to work with. Just make sure she has teammates alive, because if your opponent gets her alone, she will have a rough go.
This is by far the most flexible Hope Summers we have gotten in a long time, and a piece I’m definitely interested in building around for my future X-Men teams.
Lastly we have Tylor to tell us about his 2018 World Champ Piece Juggernaut –
Hey. guys!. I’m here to introduce Juggernaut! In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last week Juggernaut was the figure that I got to help Wizkids design for winning worlds in 2018. First, I want to thank Wizkids again for letting me do this. I am so thrilled with how it turned out! I’m going to go over the figure and what he does as well as a few insights into my ideas when designing him.
Ok now to the figure. The first thing I want to talk about is the sculpt. Wizkids did an amazing job here and I obviously can’t take much credit. They did ask for general poses and the terrain which I gave them but they really took the concept and blew it out of the park! Having held this guy in hand already the most important thing I can stress is how BIG he is! He towers over most other figures even in a set with increased size. The figure is amazingly detailed and the perfect classic juggernaut look and design. The only other thing to mention I guess would be the writing on the bricks at his feet signifying that it is a world champion piece. I actually didn’t request this but having seen it I am so happy they included it! It is pretty subtle when you actually see the piece but it is very clear and a really nice touch.
Alright, moving on to the figure’s powers and traits. When designing Juggernaut, I really wanted to convey three main things. First, I wanted to represent that the Juggernaut, to me, has always been one of the toughest foes to take down in all of comics. I have always seen him as maybe being slightly less strong than the hulk but more durable with his helmet and personal forcefield giving him the edge. Second, I wanted to convey that he is, well, unstoppable! This is his main claim to fame of course and I really wanted to try and show that in a unique way. Lastly, I wanted to show that when juggernaut shows up all the plans you had kind of go out the window because of how powerful and relentless he is. He is powerful and cocky and is running straight at you, not leaving enough time to think.
Taking a look at how he turned out now his solitary trait is “Mystical Helmet”. This is his classic equipment and a big part of his identity. It helps with goal one and two giving him access to colossal stamina, PROTECTED: Outwit, and the ability to reduce penetrating damage. This along with his 4-6 impervious stop click, are what really sets him apart defensively. Next, let’s look at his special speed power. “once he starts, he can’t be stopped” is obviously an attempt to drive home the second goal of being unstoppable in what I hope is a unique way. Being protected from immobile was a must when I was designing him and the power also represents that gaining momentum is a core part of juggernaut. The only way for him to be stopped is if he does so willingly. Lastly, we can look at his damage power “Nothing stops the juggernaut. Battle fury was another thing I knew I wanted him to have when designing him. It shows that he has never really worked well in a team setting. Always sort of doing his own thing. I also didn’t want him to be able to be taxied because that didn’t seem very comic accurate to me. I didn’t want to see him being carried around by the likes of kite man (hell yeah). This power also helps with the second and third design goal. Shutting off STOP is a clever way to use the “unstoppable” gimmick and then shutting off leadership and perplex was meant to show him breaking apart plans and strategies when he shows up on the scene.
Looking at his keywords quickly he has a pretty well-rounded set. I wanted this to be the definitive juggernaut and not from any specific run so there are teams on there that he clearly wasn’t on at the same time. Thunderbolts has always been one of my favourite teams to build in a casual setting and it’s nice to finally get a juggernaut to fill that role. Looking at the meta he has a few good options here but the best is probably going to be mystical, brotherhood, and X-men.
All in all, I am so incredibly pleased with how this figure turned out. My goal was to make a comic accurate Juggernaut that really encapsulated the character and home it feels when he shows up to a fight and I really think that was successful. I am excited to see how this guy does in the meta but mostly I am excited to see others enjoy him and build with him. The responses I got when he was first shown were amazing and I am so happy that so many like him as much as I do. Thanks so much, guys!
0 Comments