Stuff still crazy here!

Hey all,

             In the last podcast I wrapped up some thoughts on the meta and where it is going. I think the we need to start looking to a new concept that has emerged as dominate in the game. That concept is fill in customization. We are using resources and relics in the similar way that feats were used in the past. The big picture that is emerging is that most figures that are being designed need assistance. Game design is making it clear that resource dials are that assistance.

           Take Melter from IIM set. He has side step, no willpower, psiblast, cheap costed, and decent range. Nul's hammer makes Meter strong. Without that hammer he is a C+ level figure. At the same time we are paying C+ level figure cost. I think that we will see the rises of C+ figures to the A rank with the uses of resources. The problem is that once you decided to lock in on this resource modification  source you need to make sure the rest of your team can benefit as well. If you have one figure on the team out of sync with the resource dial you will have problems.

         To a point this means that flexibility will be limited when it comes to team building. But you should have more flexibility in dealing with your opponent.

Thanks for Reading,
Edward Shelton, aka Darklogos

I wrote something!

Hey all,

             I'm going to be looking at flexible warfare. Between morph, split, merge, and promotion your starting force can be completely different by the end of the game. This means we have to think more organic then before. Having the best stats and no flexibility may be worse then ok stats and total control of tempo.

            I can't see it all clearly right now but the clouds are passing away.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

New Meta Rising: Scene 1 take 1.

Hey all,

             Is the blog officially back? Maybe not. I did have some thoughts that I wanted to post for you all to read and think about. The first of which is that we are seeing some complex reactions to all the new changes. The strongest reaction is to how team bases and spiral work. I think that those feelings wont go away just do to the fact that they were high priced items. The next thing that we are seeing is that the 3 man team is still the most stable format in 300pts for team building. It just seems now that all figures must be offensive in some for or fashion. The last big issue that we are seeing is the shut down of hyper abusive theme team map bonuses. This makes having a 3 or 4 figure theme team actually worth while and if you put more than that many figures on your theme team you run a risk of some sort.

That is it for now. Just wanted to give you all some content while the new episode is uploading.

Have a great day,
Edward Shelton

A brief moment of honesty

Hey all,
            

             Sorry for no blog posts. The main reason I haven't written anything is that I've got nothing really to say about the game right now as it stands. The game is a bit stagnant. I'm not one just to ramble about nothing continuously. I eventually stop. Haha. I've gotten entranced by Might and Magic: Duel of Champions and it really has me thinking and having fun. I'm still in my first week of it and I'm giddy.

          I am a person who loves games as mental exercises and outlet for a myriad of emotions including a desire to stand victorious. I hate to say that is one of my emotional needs. I've lacked that fulfillment from Heroclix and that is why some of my blog posts have been going down hill. I don't have much coming out of my own head right now. I want that feeling of really beating my opponent due to skill not because the mechanics are broken. Yes Might and Magic has some OP cards that make me cry at night. But at least it is not a whole deck from start to finish.

          So the blog will be on a break for a while. I may write more next week. I don't want to turn this into a I hate heroclix and I love "x" game. Because I don't hate heroclix. But I'm frustrated.

Sorry for the blackout.

Check you all later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos.

AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHH MY SHOW IS GONE

Hey all,

              I had a show recorded. I REBOOTED AND LOST MY SHOW. I will rerecord today some time. Feeling out job applications and other things. Thee may be a late show but I will get it up!

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

Old eps and New eps: The trals of Darklogos

Hey,

       Hope everything is going well you. I've recorded Friday's episode. Just need to do some post production after I finish watching Majestic Prince.

        I had a viewer point out that some of my old videos on youtube do not play correctly if at all. If you find such video let me know so I can delete it. Pretty much every ep up to 24 can be found on Itunes.

      I'm going to be on Dial H for Heroclix on Saturday so check them out. It is a more adult podcast so if you have small kids you may want to listen to it first before you share the cast with your children. Darklogos loves the kids!

      Anyway I'm getting somethings cleaned up in my recording area. It is amazing to see all the stuff I need to organize. At the same time I have no place to put a good chunk of it. First world problems.

Check you all later,
Edward Shelton

update: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NHETGrsI8Q

Best GLASS CABINET FILMS UNBOXING EVAR!!!!!

Show, delays, and car parts

Hey,

         I'm sorry for the late show post. I was hesitating about putting the show up. Wizkids admitted that there are some figures to watch. That made me question if I should put up what I recorded.

        I'm still going through emails trying to figure out the next show.

        I got to pick up some car parts today.

       I'm stuck in potential optimism mode right now.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

The tiping point

Hey,

       I hope you all have seen this. When I saw it I thought maybe just maybe there will be a chance for the game to get back on track. Then I read it again and I got the vibe that nothing major will be done just minor tweaks if anything. I don't see them putting the nerf hammer down on Team Bases even though they need it. The main reason is sadly the rules being printed on the card. Also they are back to the same problem as before "Why buy super boosters?" I assume Super Boosters makes Wizkids a lot of money.

I think everything on that list needs to be looked at. I think that Brother Voodoo needs a minor nerf. I don't want him to have it but he needs something so he can't mind control for free each turn. Maybe on the same turn he took an action. That way it is worth something. Oh well.

Give me your thoughts below.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

Mistakes were made...

Hey all,

            I thought for some reason Wednsday was Tuesday. So yeah. Sorry for the late post. I'm stuck trying to think of what to play for this Friday's tournament. It is a 600pt game with no team bases, resource dials, or feats. All carded figures allowed. The darkness of Spiral looms over my head. I want some creative options though. If only loaded dice and super senses dependence was legal.

Oh well.

The Batman TV show stuff looks fun. I wish more stuff was like that.

Hmmm I wonder if I should go Gotham on Friday? We will see.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

Show ideas...

Hey,

        I'm out and about. I've been trying to thinl about content and where to take the meta. I've come up with very little just due to the alpha strike nature of things. At the same time the idea of turtling harder seems to be a fools errand. The prolblem is that the amount of turtling you need to be effective takes away your offense so much that one kill can not be guarnteed.

I'm starting to think Spiral may be balanced at 300. The only reason I say that is the number of complaints about her went down.

Check you later.

Hmm and Hmm some more.

Hey,

      I've been on a heroclix play break for 2 weeks now. Just mainly due to the fact that I've been busy. I've ran around and helped some friends and family out and not to mention my big planned debut of my SHIAR KILL YOU ALL TEAM  was squashed by a street festival and parking was crazy high priced.

      So I've gone back to playing some other games that have challenged me to think differently and has helped me look at clix in a different way.

The first game is Shadowrun Returns. I finally beat the main campaign. The last levels difficulty is way to crazy to mention.  When I learned to just kill the dang bugs it turned out a lot better. I came to understand that my placement still sucks and that my squad building compensated for my lack of placement skills. It left me wondering if my placement was better what would open up to me as a player.

The second game is League of Legends. Yes I mention this game a lot and it sucks more time up then I would like to admit. This game has taught me how much I dislike relying on a team. Maybe that is why I do bad at 2v2's in heroclix. I stuck to support roles that help my team but when it comes to late game I want to get objectives and my team wants to fight. I think that is my biggest problem is that I want to get objectives and not kills.

The last game is FTL:Faster than Light. This game is hard. I mean really hard. But it has you coming back and playing more and more and more. I can say this game has me not just thinking about my next jump but the next 2 levels I will have to face. I'm using the Bravis aka the Crystal ship. I was glad to get it and have found out it is crazy hard to unlock. Oh well I didn't know I got it about 3 weeks into playing the game. FTL's biggest asset is that you don't know what you are going to get equipped with during the game so you have to treat almost everything like it is your only chance to get it.

New show may be up Thursday or Friday depending on how I feel and my time constraints.

Thanks for reading,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

Recordings, food, and thinking

Hey,

       How is everyone doing? I hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day if you are State side. I recorded a show today. It will be up sometime this week. I figure you all would want a brief break from the show avalanche I just launched not to long ago. Now that the busy season of heroclix is over we go into the lull. I'm sort of glad and at the same time want to see a bit more con action.

     While eating some steak and ribs I realized how I'm stuck thinking about how to make an actual threatening Spiral team without using Ghost Rider. Right now the only thing that I can think of is Cersie and a Cop Car. That may be the key or not. I don't know right now.

Enyoy the rest of your weekend!

Check you all later,
Darklogos

Last Gencon episode and more

Hey,

        I hope everyone out there likes the hours of interviews I put out there. Nbperp was probably a surprise for all of you. The last Gencon episode will be up late today. I've had some things come up to keep me away from my cpu. I will say that you will enjoy the last interview.

        The Ironman set announcement seems to grab me like a childs tug on the pants leg. You can feel it but its impact is minor. The biggest problem is that Wizkids hasn't sold me on why I need improved targeting. Does making more characters like cosmic spiderman a good thing for the game? Will ignore blocking make barrier crap? I only have questions.

     Going out to play this weekend. I got a couple of good teams planned out. Theme team rules need to be looked at big time. The fact that going first or surviving going first is now the concern of all serious team builders.

Oh well,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

Hearthstone, new meta, and stuff

Hey all,

             I've been putting out a lot of videos this week. I hope you enjoy all the interviews. I appreciate that you all are watching the videos. There is a lot of strong ideas to come out of Gencon. I think the next interview will surprise you just a bit. I think that GCPD ata with wildcards is going to be the new big push in the meta. I think that we will see more abuse from this in the future.

          I've been watching a lot of Hearthstone videos on yotube. I think this maybe a focus for me in the future. I like the fact I have to think in the game unlike heroclix right now. Hearthstone is looking to be really fun and reminds me of my time in Alteil. I think there is a lot of combos that just seem to be really fun. There is less broken stuff from my opinion. I'm not going to tell people to go play because I think Heroclix is getting worse. It is more that Hearthstone is shaping up to be really diverse in multiple ways. I'm leaning towards a Priest or Paladin decks. Blizzard makes crack like games. I know that. I'm not going say "Heroclix bad, Hearthstone good." I would like you check out the videos to see if you like it. I will say card games are not for everyone.

       I got some X-Men. I'm a bit surprised on how much I got.

Check you all  later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

Out and about.

Hey,

         How are your first few days with WXM? I will say that I still have a leery feeling on what is coming. I think something sick is coming. I have had a second even a third look at Shatterstar. I think that the digging that has to be done will be done in sealed. The biggest problem is space means nothing. If space means nothing then we are left with time and stats. We can reword time into the concept of tempo.

        This isn't all about Spiral. It also has to do with Shatterstar and Bishop. The issue is this. Bishop's timeslide in combination with stat mods and the bat signal. The fact he can possibly snipe real threats then coming back home in the same turn can be sickening if done properly. Trust me I'll tell you if I think of anything. The idea off attack and counter attack has changed a lot from previous sets. The hit and run meta may take a whole new face that hss could never touch.

       Anyway I will have the first gencon show up later today. I think everyone will enjoy the shows.

Check you all later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos 

5 interviews down

Hey all,

              I got just about all my interviews about gencon done. This means you will be getting a ton of content soon. I know it is like someone telling you after you ate a full course meal that you are invited to an ice cream and cookie buffet with a soda fountain on the side. Because of that I'm going to stagger out the episodes next week. So each day next week you will get a show. Yes! A WEEK  OF PROGRAMING!

I'm a bit exhausted. I will say this. I have 1 guest that I know for sure you won't see coming.

Dragon Con is coming soon so I will be trying to get Howard Brock to give us a recap.

It's the busiest part of the year for heroclix! If you all want things staggered out a bit more let me know.

Thanks for reading,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

Show going up today

Hey really quick. Instead of a blog post today I'm going to put up my Hope Summer's power stealing list in an episode. This is a very long list. It is something to come back to. So go to my channel and check it out.

Here is the link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXYAbVk9bss&feature=c4-overview&list=UUzmQZuSuEZ5zKM-iyprzx1w

JUST READ IT!

http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=471227&page=4

Check out what the orange had to say. Welcome to the new era!

To much meta...nah

Hey,

       I've posted wxm review on Sunday. If you haven't seen it check it out. I have given you 3 hours of goodness. I will say that most of the set is nice for casual play. Hope Summers really concerns me. I think she can be crazy strong. Namely with powers stolen from Gideon, nexus of realities prob, hell fire chain, and chase thanos summon power. The most scary powers will be that of Bat-mite. To be able to give the idol another free attack and being able to lock down two pieces with the incap is way to strong. I think she will be nerfed bad. As it stands she is the easiest to abuse.  Buy two or three.

I'm going to get some interviews going this week talking about gencon. Be on the look out for that. I will say the Ghost Rider techs days are numbered. I think free actions may have a limit soon. The game has to much that can be done for free. Check out Massu's team with gcpd cycles, ata, lex luthor with belt, and batmite. Lex can attack 3 times in a turn if he wanted. First is by using the gcpd ata with lex special power, the batmite's ability then as a normal power action. Wizkids has given the milk and the cow away for free. There is nothing left to buy. I think we will see something rules and figures wise coming. I don't know when though.

Welcome to the new age,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

Waiting on Gencon

Brief update. I'm waiting on all the Gencon stuff to come in. I will let you all know there will be more Utility belt items. Sadly they are b.s broken from what I've heard. I will record a show as soon as I hear more.

Thoughts, sleep, stuff, and Sword Art Online

Hey,

       I've been running around trying to get stuff done. Mainly I have applied to get a job over in Korea teaching english. I have to get a lot of paperwork done. I've passed my first round of applications. But I can't go through the second round until I get all my "papers" taken care of. It is one of the many reasons I haven't posted anything.

     Gencon starts today. I should have some early reports starting Friday. I want to see how the world sees the game. Am I in the minority in seeing the meta as being limited? I wonder if that is true.

     I finished looking at the spoilers for WXM. If it wasn't for a few pieces in the meta I would say this would have made me a happy heroclix player. Almost everything is balanced. I really do mean that. It makes me really happy and really sad at the same time. I feel that there are going to be 3 or 4 elements that will break everything again. The first is Hope Summers. If she can copy any power including white powers she will break the game wide open. Shiar Imperial Guard at 300 is all the best elements of Ghost Rider and Justice League put in one package. Of course there is Spiral. Last but not least there is are 2 nice exploits with New Mutants. One of those exploits being Magik and the other being Sunspot.  It frustrates and makes me angry at the same time. I can say that the most fun is possible now in the game, but I can't recommend the game as it is now because of team bases and the "alpha strike" dependent meta.

    The last thing that finished taking up my time was one of the best, richest, and character complex animes I've seen in a long time. Sword Art Online is great. I watched all the episodes with subs. Take away the cousin/oni-chan love crap that is really sick, this by far is one of the best anime's I've seen in a long time. I can say that this is a 15 and older anime with a lot of mature themes that parents should talk about with their kids. The biggest topic being who you are online and who you are offline. I am me and I act the same online as I do offline. One main reason I put my real name out there is to hold myself accountable. While darklogos is my handle it is not my face. It is a gateway I walk through. I know many people that is not the same reality. When they go online it is time to be someone else they fear to be in reality or just want to remove what inhibits them in the social sphere. I can understand that reality as well. One thing that Sword Art Online showed me is that my physical and digital self are both myself. They are both reflections of my character and mindset.

Anyway it is late. I hope to get some Gencon info.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

3 out of 3 world champs agree that Spiral is b.s.

Hey all,

            I have had a lot of conversations the last few days. The main topic has been spiral. Everyone I've talked to pretty much said she is horrible for the meta and for the over all idea of this being a game that has range. Range becomes moot with her on the board. Not only that she creates a situation were map is pointless. That is dumb.

           This is all a reaction to last years Gencon. I think the developers have to many things pulling on them. The first is to sell product. The second is moving the meta game. The last is comic accuracy. That to me is the biggest problem right now. The game design team doesn't have a stream line goal. They want to have it all. We are seeing the collapse of quality because of that. I also think the added properties are also draining brain power as well. They need fresh blood. I hate to say it that way.

Can't wait for Gencon reports,

Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

If your going to Gencon another Party to try to attend...

Hey,

          A fellow listener will be hosting a party during Gencon. Here is the info.

The End of the Worlds Party   
Sunday Aug 18 2013
7:00 PM
Varsity Lounge
1517 N Pennsylvania st Indianapolis  46202

Check it out if you can.

Edward Shelton aka darklogos

Brief post

Hey all,

             WXM is coming out soon. Are you excited? I'm not qute there. I think this the first set ever I'm going to pass on.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

It's my birthday!!

It's my birthday. Codes for hco going up some random wacky time today. It will be on twitter. So look out!

lol Forgot the post

Hey,


         I was good and on time for two posts then I break down. I had a job test today and it didn't do that well. Onwards and upwards.

        I looked at the gravity feed for the WXM. I got to say my only endorsement  comes to Jean Grey and Lady Deathstrike. That Jean Grey is awesome. She will be a great x-men psyblaster. I really think that Jean Grey can be a meta-buster. Lady Deathstrike can do a ton of damage. She can do that 1 penetrating damage if she rolls low on bcf.

       I don't think the GF is a mass buy. I do think that these two figures are worth picking up.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

They didn't quite pull the sword

Hey all,

            I just checked the Excalibur preview. I have to say that I think it is ok. I don't think they really have something magical here. The frustrating thing is that the dial is not really that bad I just think that it doesn't scale with other team basis not just the Justice League. I think that the overall offense and utility it provides is interesting. The only thing that is of note to me is the Captain Britain asset power. Other then that it seems like a pass right now.

Sorry for the short post. I got to get that new show up soon.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

It's Friday and I'm on time!

Hey,

           It's Friday and I have a blog for you! Today we are going to look at TWO figures from Supernova. The first figure is V Hyperion and the second is R Silver Surfer. These two were strong meta contenders for a long time. I hope to show you why they are still great characters to play. The best part is that you should be able to get them for cheap if you can find them.

V Hyperion is a monster. He is a straight up HSS brick. He starts with an 11 attack and 5 damage. His click 3 he goes int charge mode with a 12 attack. The whole time he is rocking super strength. until his last 3 clix. He has cce, rce, and force blast to mix things up. With the range reductions that we have been seeing lately his 10 range is awesome. His stats defensively are average. You can add in a 10-14 pt utility belt and bam he is a super meta monster.

Next up is R Silver Surfer. This has been one of the strongest Silver Surfers in the history of the game. He comes in at a cheap at 121 pts. He has 9 clix of life. The big deal is that you couldn't get a better deal in the meta now. He has a lot of damage reduction to add on top of that. Starting running shot with a 10 attack and 3 damage is not that scary anymore. I would say he is a great secondary attacker for 400-600 pt games. Combine him with Gizmo you get to pick EE and your opponent will cry.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Check you all later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

Stuffffffffffffffff and more Stufffffffffffffffffffffffff

Hey,

           Hope everyone is doing well. I'm late on the blog post I know. I'm trying hard to be better at it. I had a job interview today. Always ask how people are paid before you spend gas to go to a job interview. Gas is not cheap. I wasted an hour and a couple of gallons on gas.

          Anyway I playing Trine 2 and FTL. Got to love Steam summer sale. Trine 2 looks awesome on my cpu. I didn't play Trine so I'm learning a lot. FTL is just pure tactical game play at some of its best.

            I saw the M preview and I'm not super impressed quite yet with WXM. I hate to say it like this, but without a team base killer figure we are looking at a "just okay" set so far.

That is it,

Edward "The Sleepy One" Shelton

To be a better player and teacher.

Hey all,

              I'm here reading a book reflecting on some lessons learned in the last 72 hours. My reflections are a bit odd but bear with me.

  I was confronted by one of my friends that I start my thinking from a possison of failure. I expect the worse then start my planning. This is truer then I would like to admit.  I have had so many losses that I bank my life and existence on the ability to rally and plan my way to victory. This comment made me reflect on the show. Do I present the same mindset in the show? I realized that I do greatly. Some would say it is a position of fear. I can see that to an extent. What I don't want to do is lead you the reader/listener down the path of fear, anxiety or parnoia.

The second thought came from readin C.S Lewis the Four Loves. Lewis tells a story of Dr. Quartz. Dr. Quartz was loved by his students. He would have dinner with his current and former students. Everyone thought he was a hero. Dr. Quartz would cut off fellowship with his students when they did not agree with his conclusions anymore. Dr. Quartz had trained his students to think but he rejected the product he helped to mold. Dr. Quartz was caught up being right.  That is what I have had to fight time to time doing this show. Pride creeps in so easily and it becomes easy to dicount tech or experiences of others. It is easy to think to highly of past correct perdictions. It is easy to put down things that you just don't like. These are some things I've been faced to process.

That is it. New show going up soon.

Check you all later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos sent from phone.

KUURRRTTTTTH

Hey all,


            I had a good day playing clix this weekend. I played 1200 GOLDEN AGE pt game where you could only play 6 figures, no resource dials, no feats, and no team bases. My team is as follows.

Hawkeye 135

Kuurth 199

Graviton 178

Sentry and Void 300

Dr. Voodoo 134

Magneto 189

Eye of Agamato 12

Gold K 10

Bat Signal 2

Thunderbolts 16

First things first. I wanted to play Kuurth, Hawkeye,and Sentry and Void. I hadn't played either of those figures in a constructed game. Dr. Voodoo is my boy for big point games. Graviton is a classic. The game was tough I fought an army of Iron Man armors. Kuurth was the one who cracked a lot of heads. He softened up a few targets before he died. He died so hard. He took a lot of psychic blast damage before he died. Hawkeye was incaping and miss a good chunk of his shots. Lots of positioning but in the end the Iron Man armors did not prevail. Crit misses by my opponent helped me a lot.

Over all it was a fun game. I know Kuurth is not my type of figures. I think that I need to have less restrictions to play Kuurth in the future. I was going to use General Zod or Tester. But I had to take my own advice and not over commit to putting tokens on opposing figures. Not my best team but I think it was worth the time spent.

Check you all later,

Edward Shelton

.

Sorry for the lack of updates

Hey all,

               I'm real with you all. The truth of the mater is that most of the people I've talk tech with have dried up with ideas. Either JLTB or Ghost Rider dominate their minds. There is a huge lack of creative options on the board right now for most high level players. What this means is getting ideas becomes harder. Also it means that people aren't trying to crack the norm or at least not make it public. So this mean that my content on the blog will be a bit lean. Add in Gencon coming up in a couple of weeks there is very little new public information out there.

        I've been job hunting hard. I'm at the point where I recognize I will have to relocate far from Kansas , Oklahoma and Missouri comfort zone I've been in.  That is freaking me out. I'm also dealing with a lot of lack of skills. You can see where you want to end up and then falling short. Then there are opportunities that I would feel like a fraud if I got the job. So there is a lot of internal stuff going on in my head right now.

 Last but not least League Of Legends grabbed my brain. Also FTL. Steam is robbing me legally. Next show is recorded and is in post production.


Check you later,

Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

Pass the rim

Hey,

       In Pacific Rim right now. The movie has started! Will update later.

Edward

Update: enjoyed the movie for what it is. Worth seeing for action not the plot.

The darkness!

Hey all,

             My power went out. Don't know when it will be back on. I was playing Walking Dead 400 days. Then pew my power went out. If your power went out which sper hero would you want around and why?

Happy I have a smart phone!

Check u later
Darklogos

Cry for Havok

Hey all,

             I hope everyone saw the new Havok. I looked at him and wish he was cheaper or had 2 targets. I find it funny that they are trying to put the new and changed powers front and center in this set. I think that you can see that this is the first set they actually thought about the new rules. After looking at X-man I don't think they have the hang of it yet. So I will make this bet. Most of the figures in 6 months after release of this set will outclass WXM leaps and bounds. This is them getting their feet wet.

New show up. Hope you all enjoy it.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton

New Mutants and more

Hey all,

            I saw the New Mutants preview. I like and don't like a lot of things. I don't like the fact that the asset dial only gives you 1 character to start. This would be a plus if it wasn't for the fact that the D.C team bases mostly have 2 asset dial options the entire time. The second thing that is a bit frustrating is that they are pretty much a glass cannon. They will get hurt hard and fast against most teams.

The  biggest positive is that E/V dials are super strong and really take advantage of the team dial mechanic. At the point values they are at they can not be one shoted by another team base. The figures they pop off would be really hard to tackle. Not only that you still have more then enough points to create some very strong meta combos. We still have other team dials to look at. I feel that this will be a silent meta piece like Gen 13 is. Not many people know how strong they are until it is too late.

I'm not fully feeling where Wizkids is going in WXM. I think they need to address some core problems out there so they could get back some consumer confidence from me.

Check you all later,
Edward Shelton.

The piles of plastic crapola!

Hey,


        Played Fear Itself today. Bought 6 boosters. Didn't get much worth righting home about. I will be listing most of my stuff on ebay soon to recoup losses. I have enough Thule priest to start a cult.

Check you all later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

Happy 4TH, thoughts and Corrections

Hey all,

           By the time you read this the new episode should be up. So enjoy episode 68 while you watch people put food in their mouth.


I was wrong on how Longshot powers work. You still have to hit. It was a bit confusing with the wording.

I got my second FI coming Saturday. I hope I pull Angrir, Colossus or  Juggs. 

I'm still trying to get a bunch of things laid out for the next show. I want to try to get some more guests on.

To all you fans outside of the U.S. big up to you all and it means a lot to me for you all to watch my show and read the blog.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

It's a longshot of you not getting yelled at.

Hello,

            Not feeling to well. Had a nap and threw off my plans for the day. Still job hunting. Stomach hurts just a tad. But onward and upward to the topic at hand. Longshot.

The new Longshot is funny. We are in the world of the absurd now. Wizkids makes us teams so we don't have to design teams. Now they give us a figure so we don't have to roll dice. They try to balance this by giving him low damage. As well all know that can be fixed really quickly with the Utility belt or any other methods. His range is ok. The goal was to make his range low. But in all honesty it is rather ok in the new meta. Gizmo makes this guy way to broke.

One thing I don't think they thought about is the fact you will always be knocking back your opponent. This forces Longshot to always move in close. He is rather fragile. This will be bad in a post-Fear Itself and TT meta we are in now. Will WXM change how the game is played? I don't think so...right now. But I do see this set as a transitional set. They are depowering while experimenting. This can be really bad or really good. Ignoring the JLTB for a moment. Wizkids has presented some really broken concepts into the game recent.y I think we are beyond the point of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. We are seeing what happens when we know what sticks and decide to mix poo and honey with the mixture and ask people to hang around. They know that figures that break the rules or normal conventions sell. But at the same time breaking those rules either prove that they where there for a reason or that they are pointless. Longshot takes dice throwing away from a dice throwing game. That is functionally dumb. Next up we will have a figure that will ignore the rule of 3.

Maybe I'm just sleepy and a little grumpy. Who knows. I got a show done. I need to post it soon. I'm a bit behind on a bunch of real life stuff. I will give you a guess about the new show. I have a special guest on who I talk about a lot and also appeared on the show only once.

Thanks for reading,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos.................................................................................

P.S. I don't know why I put the periods there other then I felt like it.

Not feeling well

Hey,

       I won't tell you the details because they are bit gross. I had to go to the hospital today. That is why there was no blog post earlier. I'm a bit tired. But here is my insight or pondering of this present moment.

What does the meta need? I know there is a lot of things we want to see. But what does the meta need? I'm taking that approach right now. I think it is a open place to think. The biggest thing I think it needs is a means of punishing free actions. We see the beginning of that with the Trinity of Sin. Can the the idea be taken further? If so what would be its most beneficial end? That is where my mind wanders right now.

I saw Man of Steel. I had a good time with my uncle. The movie opened up some thoughts that just made me take a step back. I can see why some of the heroclix are designed the way they are but over all I think we have some major stretches just to create figures.

Check you all later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

X-Men Blue team: Liking it but not quite afraid of it.

Hey,

       I saw the preview for the X-men Blue team and I will point out some things I felt were noticeable. First off we don't see killer stats and combos unless they are on their 600 point version. Next we see them come in at 165 and 265 to start. So this means we could see another Villains for Hire like team base come into the meta.  Lastly we do not see double stacking of asset dial effects until late dial. This is the biggest nerf or balance element to the base I feel. Having several combos on the base would make them something that could go toe to toe with the JLTB and possible win. But only having one option makes them a lot weaker. With that being said being able to regen with Wolverine is pretty strong. Sadly they have an ability that throws Wolverine off the base thus devaluing him a bit.

Overall I like what I see. I think we will be paying top dollar for this base. I also think that having most of these figures on solo adventure might be quite interesting. What are your thoughts?

Didn't see WWZ on Friday. Going to see Superman in about an hour with my Uncle.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

Stating the Obvious

Played against a 600pt JL TB. Not fun to play against whatsoever. That is all.

Full of openings...

Hey all,

                I will try to get a show up today. I just need to get the post production done. So happy friday to everyone with that. Also I will have another show soon after that. Maybe it will hit on monday or tuesday?

               My goal this weekend is to continue the trend of playing figures I haven't played yet but spent tons of money on getting. As of right now the star of this evening is War Machine from IM3 set. He will be teamed up with Brother Voodoo, eethel vine, and maybe a black lantern. I call this team Circuits and Sorcery. I got a 600 pt game this saturday. I don't know what I will play for that yet.

            I also plan to see World War Z today. I hope it doesn't suck. Haven't seen Superman yet.

Check you all later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

I'm not dead...really

Hey,

             Sorry for no posts. I was looking at the origin results and thinking about options in my head. I like the Ghost Rider team but now that it is out of the bag it pretty much means that a JLTB player has another match up to prepare for. We are back to perfect cell syndrome. I will also say that without the new ATAs and the UB we would be in a darker place of fighting the JLTB.

Another reason I haven't put anything out was that there was a thread about Team bases and mind control that I thought would settle some things. In the end it only made things more complicated and jaded. To make solo adventure characters replacements and to have a venue agreed limit on replacement characters is dumb. So a venue has to say how many replacement characters are going to be allowed. I was making a lot of decisions based on the implications of solo adventure characters being replacements. I don't mind being wrong but I don't want to put out stuff that I even thing is questionable.

Without the new ATA's were would we be?

Check you all later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

p.s bonus content coming soon. 

What would you do?

Hey all,

            Check out this link.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-interview-video

It is a lot of things to think about. It leads me to today's blog thoughts. If you had the tech to beat Justice League and Uatu at 300 would you tell everyone, save it to win at Gencon, or keep it under wraps and let Justice League run its havoc in hopes of Justice League or team dials getting nerfed?

What would be the best course of action?

Thanks for reading,
Edward Shelton

Pizza clix the next frontier

Hey,

        I'm ot and about. I have ordered pizza and am thinking how to turn pizza hut pizza into a game. The game is a tactical placement of pizza and mouth balance game. Right now this is a one player game but it seems mouth has a distinct advantage.

On a heroclix related issue let's talk about talk about money.
What is your plan for Fear Itself? I'm thinking of taping out of it and go on ebay when it is all over.

A real starter kit

Hey,

       I had a good pm sent to me the other day.

Anyway, to try and take your mind off killing the Justice League, I was wondering if you could talk about some common/Uncommon/Rare figures that you would give to someone whose just starting out? I'm trying to make 2 300 point modern teams to use as a Demo of sorts and any input would be appreciated. Thanks again and keep up the great work.

-Jesse

I thought this was a good topic for a blog post. I'm going to post the list and if anyone has any questions on certain figures I can do some follow up on some other blog posts.

Supes Set
Superman
Brainiac 5
Sunboy
Silver Banshee
Eradicator
Cyborg Supes

Hulk
Bruce Banner
A.I.M Agent
A.I.M Renegade
Black Tranctula
Rick Jones
Amedeus Cho

GG
Nova Prime
Mole Man
Dr. Strange
Gamora
Astral Dr. Strange

CW
Donald Blake
Tony Stark
Wasp female
Victoria Hand
Hawkeye

JL52
Cyborg
Firestorm B
Mindwarp

M10
Ironman
Green Goblin
E Storm
E Thor

DC10
Catwoman
Batman
Nightwing

BM
Common Batman
Nightwing
Barda
Hired Henchman
Arkaham Guard
Alfred Pennyworth

ASM
Dr. Voodoo
Spiderman A,C
Blade
Johnny Blaze
Jenifer Kayle
The Ancient One

IM3
Tony Stark
MK 7
mk 42
Pepper Pots
Extermis Brute

TT
Jinx
Robin
Red Star
Centerhall
Leash
Thunder
Green Lantern
Superboy

All these figures are low rarity and at the highest rares. No SR's or chases. I think this will help a lot of players out with a cheap way to start to get figures that are playable. Just give players this list as a starting point and work from there. Trust me I don't think everyone should own every figure in this list and there is some overlap in roles and effects. That is on purpose so you can pick or drop the figures that fit your play style.

Yes I am that guy...

Hey all,


             I had a lot of fun this weekend. I learned some cool stuff about Fear Itself. The set within itself is very balanced. Lots of melee. Lots of face pounding. The sad thing is when you start combining in other elements outside of the set that it becomes unfun. That is a big bummer that I have experienced. I played two worthy figures and had a blast. I knew that I would never play those figures again unless there were a special scenario. In the end I think this whole affair is a mixed bag.

          I sold some figures on ebay since I was able to buy 3 boosters of Fear Itself. So far my weekend will be paid for in two weeks.

Check you all later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

Gizmo and the fun to be had

Hello,

             I've been putting in job resumes all day so sorry for the lateness. The figure to look at for today is Gizmo. Gizmo is by far a figure that will be awesome  in the new meta.

First up we have TINY TINKERER: Gizmo can use the Flight ability. Give Gizmo a power action and place a light object from outside the game in an adjacent square.This ability is awesome because you can fuel your super strength characters damage and also give cover to your stealth figures. Think of this the feat rip it up on a non-super strength character.

The second thing we need to look at is INSANE ENGINEER: Give Gizmo a free action and remove an adjacent standard object from the game. If that object was a light object, choose a standard attack power; if that object was a heavy object, choose a standard damage power. Friendly characters within 4 squares can use the chosen power this turn. This power will be great for characters that have 3 targets and no psychic blast or energy explosion. You can also remove heavies so that your whole force can get prob, perplex, or outwit for a turn. Most importantly your whole team within 4 squares can use support. The attack power element will be the biggest strength since you will be able to give figures powers like tk.

Gizmo over all is sturdy starting with toughness and ok stats. I would say you have to look at him a deus ex machina sort of figure for your games. I would also say tracking how you are going to move on the battlefield is essential.

Hope you had a good break. I will have a new show up soon.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

Memorial day and Superman

Hey all,

             It's Memorial Day. I hope everyone is having a great day off. If you got to work sorry to hear that. Superman set is out in target. I got to say it is a bunch of crap. It doesn't do much under current or future rules. But if you want to round out some more Kyrptonians then go ahead and make your purchase. New show coming soon.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

Justice League has burned me out.

Hey,

        I got burned out on testing team dials, but mainly the Justice League. Show coming this weekend. I will be taking a minor break from heroclix. Updates coming soon.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

The Perfect Cell

Hello,

          Sorry for the late blog post. I've been play testing for 8 hours. Yes I kid you not. I have fought the Justice League team base at 300. I know at this stage I actually despise the piece. It is like Dragon Ball Z cell saga. When Cell had all the androids absorbed he became perfect. That is the Justice League. After over 50 games, each around 10 minutes, Justice League has lost 5 times. That is a 1 in 10 games. Justice League lost to solid teams. Cop cars couldn't stop them. Mighty Master Mold went 1 and 1. I think we are going to see an errata.

      I'm working hard on some more teams but man I'm a really frustrated.  AHHHHHHHHHHH! I'm not a sky is falling guy but man the ground is getting really wet and foggy.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton

I am the darkness. I am the night...

Hey,

        I had a tough weekend. I played my Friday nights tournament for the Batcave. I went through 3 rounds undefeated. My team was Red Star x2 and Robin. Sadly I didn't win the Batcave. I lost on points. On Saturday I played 600 and 3 boosters. My team was Centerhall, Aquaman, Omen, Brother Blood Acolyte, Leash, Jinx, Robin at 50pts, and Solstice.  First round was tough. I lost my Robin. I got into a ok position but Aquaman won me the round. Second round I played the person with the buy. Omen's mind control and perplex are crazy good. Those elements frustrated my opponent. I won on time only getting a few points. The last game was the toughest I fought in months. My opponent had GL, Rose Wilson, Shimmer, Grymm, Jinx, Lil Lobo, and Kid Flash. The battle was epic. I captured his GL but he crippled my Solstice. I put in some work and scored a kill on Lil Lobo using Omen. Last action Centerhall kills Grymm. I go 3-0 and win a batcave.

I'm happy I got it. I haven't had this much stress and fun at the same time. Jay beats me out on Friday due to points. I beat him on Saturday. Overall it was a blast. In the future I don't know how I will feel when Fear Itself month 6 rolls around.

Two shows coming  out soon. Be on the look out.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

The PULL

Hello,

           I pulled a Justice League. I'm really happy about that. I played midnight sealed and in all TT is not that fun. Now here is the kicker. We willbe buying TT for Fear Itself for at least 2 months. This means rushing to get a lot of after market product is not a good idea. Also it means that there are not going to be a lot of standard constructed games that will be coming out in the next few months. All in all I say don't burn out your wallet on this set really early.


Show coming some time this week. Weekend show possible as well.

Check you all later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

Killing the Justice League

Hello,

          I feel a bit like Batman right now. Not because I want to wear all black and haunt the night. It is due to the fact that I've been pondering with others how to kill the new Justice League Team Base (JL TB). The JL TB has just about every counter to the stuff that haunts one man teams (oma). So far I came up with some of the following tech. Credits to Silent Scream and rorschachparadox for some of the ideas.

First thing we need to look at is stopping their first strike ability. This will mainly come from map choice. JL TB has a +7 to map roll so you are pretty much guaranteed they will get map selection. This is where Nightmare comes in at. The JL TB can pick map and have a -1 attack or let map choice go. Thing I found is that a lot of narrow spaces that stop JL TB normal movement is needed so they are limited in placement or have to waste turns blowing up walls.  Nightmare the main issue comes in is having and selecting the right map to screw over JL TB.

This is will work but will be really unfun. Stealth suit Iron Man, the Infinity gauntlet or batcave. Just run around until you get godhood. Nothing they can do.

Next up comes something very experimental. I call this the burn out tech. Pretty much you play the Batcave with the Bat Computer only. The rest of your points are dedicated to aggressive attackers. You deploy those attackers with one goal. That is to knock at least 7 clicks off JL TB. Some how some way you got to do it. Since JL TB can auto break away from figures there is nothing that can time them down. So range or a move and attack option is needed. Once you burn out your offense the Bat computer kicks in. It can psi-blast for 4 damage on click 1. If you land this 1 attack and you have done 7 or more damage you win. If not it becomes very nasty. This tech is expensive and very 50/50 right now. Remember the Batcave gives you the Utility Belt. That leads into the next element.

Handcuffs are going to be most accessible way of locking down the JL TB. Handcuffs reads as follows: Give this character a close combat action that deals no damage. If it hits, the target character may be given power actions to roll a d6, but cannot be given any other actions until it rolls a 4-6 for this effect. This one effect can give you a turn or two for a breather. The only problem is is that the 4-6 roll can be probed.

Gas Pellets, Flash Grenades, Batarangs are also interesting tricks that can mess with JL TB. The only problem that came to mind is do you actually put the utility belt on your prime attacker or not?

The last bit of tech is the Hand and League of Assassins ATA. These ta's mess with their line of fire. It forces a melee fight. That means that combat reflexes becomes very useful. There are some figures I'm looking at that would be really awesome for this. One of which is Hobgoblin Prime and Collen Wing and Misty Knight. Both figures have Hand keyword and can really do some damage on their own. Combine in the fact that JL TB will have some major problems taking an extra token a turn from Hobgoblin this may be in fact the main element to kill JL TB. Also we can stack wild card abuse on top of all of this to make this tech very viable.

Teen Titans will be out soon. I think we are seeing a transformation in the meta to something I don't quite like with the team dials. I'm all for high end meta but most of my solutions I've offered are crazy expensive. If you don't win a Batcave then you can't use the Batcave tech period. You will notice that we are not limited to principles but figures. That is a sign of a bad meta. All 3 world champs I've talked to said that JL TB is unfun. That means something. I think we can have a united front on this issue. Sadly I know wizkids will not ban JL TB . So the only hope we have is a mechanic nerf coming.

Thanks for reading,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

Mothers day.

Everyone I hope you are having fun on mothers day! 

Golden...never mind lol trolled myself.

Hey all,

              I'm sad to inform you that there will be no show this weekend. Mainly due to the fact that I have to work on this upcoming Monday, do a final clean out of my apartment in Topeka, and figure out something for Mother's Day. I'm still working on content so you will see something next week. I just don't know when.

              I could go into how unity in Heroclix cultures is not possible. I won't. But I do see that we have to extremes in the culture that will lead us to some very bad places. I recognize that there will always be power pieces. There will be those that play them to their full might. There will also be those that go out and just want to have fun. Out of those there will be people who don't care about what is on the other end of board.

             I've learned a lot from my time dealing with general discussion on the realms. I think that biggest lesson I learned is that we are only going to see more and more thinkers leave the community because they can't state their opinions. Currently we see only a handful of meta thinkers that post on the strat forums. If not for Johnidschultz that forum would be dead.

           I think the bigger problem is that there are no verbal creative minds out there stating how to make clix better with actual ideas. I had my problems with a cat named ULTRDRGN in the past, but he was a player who posted on the wizkids boards and hcrealms. He had radical ideas on how powers should work. He talked about his home games and his various rulings. It made things interesting because with every 5 or 6 "wtf" moments you get 1 solid "This man is right!" moments. I really miss that in the community. There is no real public tinkering to make things ideally better.

         I want to see how things play out. I tried communicating the idea of unity in a hippie lovey dovey way in the past. That didn't work. I tried this time to present the dirge in prose form. I don't know what else to try. I talked with a player in a pm he said the game doesn't need missionaries it needs players. With the currently level of disdain why would players not just play with their own camps.

         Evaluating some stuff right now with the podcast. I got to figure out some directional stuff.

Thanks for reading,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos.

The gun is only as good as the slinger.

Hey,

         Back at work. Things are a bit interesting. I was delayed in posting due to this and this . I seek Puuka story as something we will see more of. With that being said I got an awesome email question from Ray Anderson. Pretty much he asked me is tech limited by the person using it. I will tackle this in two ways. The first is looking at what tech works for you. The second is what tech doesn't work for you.

Briefly lets define skill in how it relates to heroclix. Skill is the application of knowledge, placement, and selection that moves toward apply specific ends in the game of heroclix. You can have lots of skill and still lose. Skill doesn't mean you will win. It means the chances of you winning are increased.  Dice can screw up everything.

Where is the tech coming out of? Did you make it up or did you find it on the internet? Do you tinker with or adapt what you play. Usually tech we make ourselves nine times out of ten shows what we can handle. The next thing to do is a simple number game. I want you to write the number 1-15 spaced out. Then I want you to cut up those numbers into little squares the exact same size. I want you to spin the around then stack them up. I want you to look at the top 5 numbers then put them face down. Wait a minute and then write down the order those numbers are in. Keep going up in the number of numbers until you get two of the numbers incorrect. How many numbers you can remember is how many elements you can juggle without really pushing your mind to hard or without prompts.

How do you know if the tech is in your skill level. First off can you explain to me why the team on the map you are selecting works? If you can't answer that then the tech is beyond you. It doesn't mean you can't play or win with an advance team it is just you don't understand fully why you won. The second issue that comes up is that some people get caught up in the moment of the game more often then other people. So I would say that internal distractions can cause us to have a break down in our level of skill. We can be a great at home but at loud venue we are horrible.  This can be fixed with a little bit of training.

If you want any expansions on the thoughts above let me know.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

Stars went black

Hello,

          I'm back. Sorry for the lack of content. I hope I made up for it with a bonus episode on the channel. I have some cool stuff in my head about some future content. Depending on my time here is what you can expect this summer.


         I'm going to get Alex,Dan, and George on the show. Talking about what...not saying.
  
         The training series will start rolling out this summer.

          A live show with myself and a special guest.

         Maybe a give away...maybe.

I have to go back to Topeka today. So I know I will be working this week, I don't know about next week. It is not the blog post you are looking for but there will be something there Wednesday.

Big crazy summer,
Edward Shelton AKA Darklogos

Big BLog post this weekend

Working on a big show concept wise. So no blog post today. Earliest  will be this weekend.

Sorry,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

Things are ramping up.

Hello all,

                  It looks like things are getting interesting. There are a lot of previews and the official announcment of Wolverine and the X-men. Fear Itself will be coming out soon. So now is the time to prepare for what is coming next. I will say that from what I've seen so far we are seeing days similar to Collateral Damage era. We are see things getting powered down and getting more expensive. This means that bruisers are going to tempt us at their over 150 point cost. It also means that what used to be cheap is not expensive. I know Fear Itself will have us thinking big. This is time were stuff sneaks past us. I've seen it many times.

             One of the figures that will sneak past will be Tony Stark from the Iron Man 3 movie set. The main reason is that promotes and doesn't AE. As a support piece that is risky. But when you look at him he has a lot of new meta elements that just scream play me. With support being more expensive to get the same effects of the past he really is a cheap deal.

            Another figure that will slip by people will be Sarah Rainmaker. She ignores characters for movement, two targets, 11 attack with rce, smoke cloud and oh yeah 80 pts. She will be over looked because she is on a team dial that is not super strong nor popular. She will surprise people big time.

         Aldriach Killian will be really annoying. He shuts down ata. He has support that modifies attack and damage until your next turn. Hydra tA is always good. Can't forget he is 35 points. People will not see him coming.

        The meta is changing. Keep your eyes open. There are going to be major upsets. Some cool stuff like Madam Web are proving to be weaker then we had hoped. But now is the time for the crafty!

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka. Darklogos

Iroman Man 3 movie experience

Really quick. I played 1200 game against some of those new Iron Man movie clix and I had a tough time killing them. Each figure preformed well. That Tony Startk is killer! Enjoy your Iron Man 3 movie clix because they are better then I thought.

HAMMER TIME! OH OH OH HERE COMES THE HAMMER!

Hey all,


                We got book of the Red Skull preview today. I think that it is awesome. I just recorded a show talking about it. It will be up some time this weekend.

               First impressions is that it is really strong. I understand it is not broken. What it does is power up your whole team and not one character. The problem is this. It takes to long to fully power up. That is where I am concerned. It will take 14 actions to get 7 hammers into play. That is bad. Slow build up I understand. But bad.

             The hammer swapping can be really broken. I think the idea of having a figure with the second phase hammer is going to be the big thing. Lets say that you get character 1 who is your main attacker and has a hammer that is good while they have power A. You have the support character or just an ok secondary attacker holding the second hammer. When the primary attacker no longer benefits from the hammer it has you then have your other character swap hammers with the primary attacker so it can synch with power B.

            That is my first thoughts. It will get better over time. I will also remind you that The book of the Red Skull does not require you to have 7-8 different hammers.

Thanks for your time,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

What's next

Yo,

           I hope you all have been going through some old sets and looking at old figures to see what is going to be awesome in the near future.

          Just some stuff really really fast. The ROC West Regional is this weekend. If you are going let me know. I would like to know about the experience.

         My two venues are playing TT sealed for the Batcave. That sucks!

        BUNKER IS HELLA STRONG!!!!!!!! Perma barrier for the win!

          Lets look at smoke cloud now. Smoke cloud will be under estimated in the future. The -1 to attack will be an offensive option. So here are some characters that have a great use of smoke cloud that will be really strong.

Brother Voodoo
Mysterio
Skrull Commando
Astral Doctor Strange
The Question
Shadow Assassin


Out of this modern age list I would say that Mysterio with his fakes became really really strong. With a bunch of fakes he can cover the map with smoke cloud. This could be a really strong control element. Large point games would benfit from Mysterio as something more then novelty.

Skrull Commando is another surprise. I think that he has a lot of potential for both wildcard and smoke cloud abuse.

Astral Strange is by far the cheapest and  easiest to abuse. I would watch out for him because now people have a reason to ko him as fast as possible.

Thanks for reading,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos.

Side note: If you want to watch something hilarious watch the show "Find me my man" it is on OXYGEN. I had to laugh hard at the show and women who the match maker is trying to set up. The show is not for kids. I would even say teenagers shouldn't watch this.

New Meta tactics that will suprise your opponents.

Hey,

         I wanted to get back to new meta thought. I saw some cool old tactics that are really strong now. I also am thinking that with the new changes certain things that were going to be crazy good are just ok but not weak.

GL Tank

I would say that the whole GL tank comes back as really strong with the new changes to rce. To be able to shift the +2 to attack instead of damage means that those AIM Renegades help make up a 4 attack deference.

Plasticity Zone out

I mentioned it in the podcast that plasticity you can zone out major players with plasticity because they have to stop when they become adjacent to you unless they ignore characters for movement.

LAMP

LAMP is on the come up. Even with precision strike coming out here in the future with the right taxi line of sight will be tough. 

This is just the start.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

Cosmo, Incap and other random things

Hey,

         New rules running through my brain. I've done a bunch of searches and realized that some power combos are seen way less then others. Good luck finding a lot of EE and Forceblast on the same click. Today we are going to look at incap. Incap changes means that running 2 incapers becomes an actual threat. Add in 2 or more targets you get into some crazy stuff.

So why look at Cosmo as our first template? Well mainly he gives us a lot of things we should start looking for. First off incap is strongest early to mid game but not at the start of the game. So having it on click 1 doesn't serve us until turn 3 or even 4. Cosmo starts with enhancement and tk. This means he can be of major use early game and can serve a purpose as an enhancer until he pushes off of tk. I'm not going to touch mind control or barrier right now. Those things are a bit more complex now. Having a 6 range and 18 defense is not bad. With the 6 range we see Cosmo hitting the current average interaction zone for heroclix.

 Now when we take this understanding to the next step we can point to some very interesting conclusions. First off incap of 6 or higher range has a lot more lock down potential then before. Next we see is that running shot and will power becomes mandatory for high level incap play.  The last element we can see due to the new rules making it so incapers can do 1 penetrating if an opposing figure has 2 tokens makes our average desired figure to be point costed no more then 80 points. I know the 1 penetrating is great but it is not a lot of damage that can be consistent. So that means we can't invest more then 80 points in an incapper. To be more clear we can only spend over a little over a quarter of our build total on incap. Incap and EE could be crazy good in the future but EE with everything range right now is crazy good.

For sure Wasp stands on top of the incap meta with Batgirl from the Batman set. Misty Knight, Hobogoblin prime, 100pt Ronin the Accuser, SOG Black Canary,piloted Robin Cycle, Mr Freeze, nml Poison Ivy, DC 10TH Batman, Maxwell Lord, Silver Banshee, and you can't forget....ZIRAN THE TESTER!

Needless to say that incap getting better has really threatened a lot of common safe fall back powers and team abilities. Willpower, power cosmic, quint, indom, and anything that allowed you to ignore pushing damage doesn't help you any more against incap. The only thing that got more powerful was Battle furry.

Hope this helps. Just a side note about EE it does damage equal to the number of targets it has. So if a person only has 1 target it will do 1 splash damage. Also if you read the power closely now the splash only effects the untargeted parties.

xx
abx

If you target a and b you would only do splash to x's. If you target only b all other figures would get splash. Since EE can now trigger off of psyblast the splash would be penetrating as well if you used it with psyblast.

That's it have a good weekend. I'll try to get you some more content soon. The next podcast will be about No Man's Land month 6.

Check you all later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

Some picks to think about.

Hello,

           I'm going to list out some figures that I feel are new meta. I will list the characters that will be modern age when this goes live.  I will post the combo of powers so you know what you are looking at. I will try to make notes on things that stand out.

Running shot/Energy Explosion

M10 V Ironman 225
M10 Green Goblin
CW Avengers Prime
AVM Ironman 160
Avm Odin
GG Chase Doom
TT Starfire
TT Burnout
TT Gen 13
SOG Deathstroke
SOG Starfire
BM Rocket Red
BM Socialist Red Guardsman
NU52 Green Arrow
SM Livewire
SM Wildfire

M10Ironman gives us the running shot pulsewave and EE combo that is oh so broken. This means that in big point games it doesn't matter if there is a resource dial or not he is worth using. His value on the secondary market will go up.

Odin and Ironman are sleeper agents that have been primed. I think most people wont see them coming until they deal out the additional damage.

Burnout's ability when he uses EE is way stronger then it looks. CATCH FIRE: Burnout can use Energy Explosion; when he does, characters successfully hit are dealt damage equal to the number of times it was hit by this attack times two.The question is does this power remember who it hit during the game or does it only go off when it is attacked. I think that this may be the hidden danger from Teen Titans.

Rocket Red. I knew his day was coming. It is coming soon.

Socialist Red Guardsman falls into that new support world. He will do lots of damage and he has enhancement.With 2 targets his splash will be ok. The big thing is that he finally has value. 

Next blog will be on more figures worth noting. Also new show going up soon.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos.

PAC MAN

Hey,


           As everyone knows the new PAC is out. Also with the rules update. I'm reading them now. Lots of stuff. Lots off stuff. Did I forget to  tell you lots of stuff. I had some shows recorded yesterday now they are worth slag. That is why there was no blog posts the last few days.

Back to reading. New stuff coming soon.

Rush rushing rushest,
Darklogos

Its amazing how vaction ruins blogging.

Hello,

           I'm sorry for the delay. I've been caught up being on vacation or something like it. I've played way to much League of Legends. I hear "Welcome to Summoners Rift" in my sleep and Teemo and Lulu saying "Silly noob more AP." Anyway I haven't been fully lazy. There is a new show up as most of you may know with Normalview. Also there is going to be an special episode going up this week as well. So be on the look out for that. I'm also going to get started on NML Month 6 analysis and what it means with the elements we know about now.

       Winter is Coming! Many League of Legends is calling me.

Check you all soon,
Captain Teemo...I mean Edward Shelton aka Darklogos.

Ray of Hope

Hello,


        Late blogpost I know. I just getting some other things done and trying to get some interviews lined up.

        I saw The Ray preview and it made have a glimer of hope. Hope for something awesome in Teen Titans. Then I saw he was a super rare and a bit of me cried inside because he will be a 20.00 super rare. Simple he is going to be really helpful for all your Justice League and JLI teams because he can give them stealth. Add in HSS and descent damage. Ask yourself what stops you from playing him in sealed or constructive. There is very few reasons. Being a super rare and able to have multiples is pretty cool.

       Hope is coming from Teen Titans but sadly  I don't think it is enough. If the next few previews are awesome they haven't sold me not to cherry pick.

Thoughts?

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

Moving...

Moving stuff today. Will try to have something serious on Monday.

Call of the wild

Hey,

        Sorry for the delay on the blog post. I've had a couple of things starting to wrap up around here that caught my time. I also have another writing and research article for another website I write for.

       I hope everyone saw the Beast Boy preview. I think they are doing a good job with Beast Boy. This is the first time I said to myself for this set "I can really use that." At the same time the Red Beast Boy messed me up a bit because the old outsiders version will be retired soon. It looks like animal keyword is getting some power.

        What would get me to rally back into wanting this set is really simple. First give me something I can use frequently. I'm not asking for broken. I haven't seen anything that really should motivate me to play the figure outside of character preference. The second thing I need to see is something that fills out some under used or coming up mechanics. Where is the anti-resource dial tech. We got 2 figures and that is it. Where is something that can help our poison figures or even help out or even something that messes with map choice like Nightmare. I think there is a lot they could showcase that would get me excited. Lastly, I've never thought I would say this, show me chases and how awesome they are. That is how desperate I am at this stage.

That's it. It is a bit in flux this week. SORRY. SORRY. SORRY.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

Ps. I'm looking to do the beta for infinite crisis. If you like LOL or DOTA then check it out and sign up for beta.

Just to clear the air

Hey,

        Yesterday's post was an April's Fools joke. I couldn't think of anything good. Oh well maybe next year.

check you later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

New anouncment

Hello,

          I got some great news for  you. I've struck a deal with HCRealms to put out exclusive content and help drive some of their media branding.

         It is a tough decision but I think it is one of the coolest things I have a chance of doing.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton

Light burns dim

Hello,


          Quick blog update. Checked out the new preview of Dr. Light. I must say that I am not impressed. I think he does way to little for the cost. The trait that should lower his cost doesn't do a good job. He has a "live" power that is okay. I feel that the cost of playing this figure is not worth it. I don't feel that this is good product.

        What are your thoughts on Dr. Light? What needed to be fixed and what needs to stay?

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

You choose my adventure!

Hello,

         Today is a special posting. I will be doing a first. You will pick most of or build my whole team for a game this weekend. I will not punk out. But you got to give me something to work with. I'm not the wizard of Oz so I can't turn crap into magic. The tournament is 800pts modern age. I will say what elements I picked up and what stayed at the side line. I have just about all the modern age objects and I have just about all the modern age figures minus some chases. At least I have a full CUR or everything since Superman set for sure.

       All entries must be in by Thursday this week.

DUN DUN DUH!

Check you later,
Edward Shelton AKA DARKLOGOS

The Fear I have of Fear itself.

Hello,


          After reading up on some Fear Itself promo material that came out recently I am a bit concerned. The idea of a prize support set was already bad. Add in the possibility of chases everything really gets scary. If you check out hcrealms spoil list section you can see there are about 35 figures outside of the le's. Add in the fact that events are said to be run with 1 FI booster and one booster from the current set. That is a bit weak if you ask me. This also can imply that there will not be a lot of product for restocking.

        The Le's look cool. We will see if they are powerful or not. I hope they are not. If they are we will see crazy prices for them on e-bay. Speaking of e-bay. Supposedly retailers have to sign a contract saying they will not sell the prize support on the secondary market. How are they realistically going to enforce this? I don't see it happening. There are enough small business' that buy prize support just to sell back on the market. What then?

     Over all I think this is one of those situations in which we will see how much good and bad comes out of this. I like the LE's selection and that everyone gets a hammer. I like the ATA's and the theme play. But the business model is whoring out the players a bit much for my taste. But hey if Teen Titans keeps going the way it is I may have money when it is June.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos

Lab day goals

Hey,

          I've been doing some thinking lately. I've come to realize that we have a great oppoturnity right now. Since the prize support is not that great we can actually play around with team ideas that do not use resource dials. Some might say that this is a foolish idea I would like to go against the grain. There is not much to lose out there in the game sphere right now. Most of the prize support is moderate at best. Why not experiment.

         After having a couple of various conversations I see that we can play with some strong combos. The bat signal is really strong and when combined with tk can make any figure on the board Cape Crusader. You can play the soul gem or any of the other infinity gauntlet gems by themselves. We already have forgotten about the power of kryptonite. Combine Dr. Octopus Arms, bat signal and red k what type of chaos could you cause for your opponent? It would all depend on the team I would assume.

     I would say now is the time to have  lull with our Brother Voodoo's and Cop Cars to actually develop some new tech. When everything is said and done when Teen Titans comes out we will be several steps in front of everyone else.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

Harvest is plenty but the scythes are few.

Hello,

           Hope everyone had a good weekend. I played the SC2 Heart of the Swarm campaign and multiplayer. Lets just say I'm not going pro in SC2. On other news, due to my gaming fun there is no episode this weekend. Good for me. Bad for you. I will try to make it up next week...maybe. I'm nearing the end of my work period so I will be gradually moving stuff back to K.C. in the next 2-3 weeks.

           The meat of today's post is about the recent preview of Harvest. Lets jjust say I'm not that impressed. You are paying over 200 points for this mediocre attacker. He has running shot pulse wave but in the end his values and his consistency does not beat Ultron or Brainiac 5. He is a wildcard that is limited by a keyword. His scythe adds another double power action option on to an already pushed figure. All in all we are stuck looking at a pretty worthless figure unless you are a fan of the story arc.
           I think by creating an object that con only be picked up on a 6 is poor game design. It doesn't fit the tempo of the game. There is no reason I would pay 15 points for this object let alone 5 for the odds presented. I have to give up a full UB or a partial IG for this I really must have some super strong game plan. I don't see that happening unless feats are involved. I mean it. Feats must be involved to make this worth considering.

        All in all they haven't sold me on Titan's like they grabbed me with Amazing Spiderman on the last half of their advertising blitz. I was giddy for Brother and Doctor Voodoo for various reasons and not just because they were broke good. With the massive amount of D.C. Batman stuff we had gotten lately with the street level grimy combat it was time to crank up the power. I think they have failed with that exercise. I don't know what they are trying create. Whatever it is it is rubbing me the wrong way. I will be amazed if I spend 100 let alone 50 dollars on this set when it comes out. You know what that means. We will see a lot more sealed events for No Man's Land Month Six to get rid of all this dud product.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

P.S. I will not talk about No Man's Land Month Six until we see all of Teen Titans set. Some venues will allow it and the meta will change. If Superboy is solid the stealth game may be dead? A big may on that. 

Smells like Teen Spirit

Hello,

           I don't know if anyone remembers the brand of deodorant called Teen Spirit? It was an interesting product that had a weird smell when combined with teenage perspiration. I fill the same way when it comes to the Teen Titans set so far. There is nothing that has really popped out in Teen Titans to make me say "Must buy that now!" I will admit that at first I was hesitant about Amazing Spiderman as well.

         I guess the thing that grabs me is that I'm not looking for the next meta piece that will make the game balanced or really unbalanced. I'm looking for fun and more importantly filling out current tactics making them stronger or at least doable. The fact that the "teen" keyword has gone the way of "mutant." Without any solid foundation it seems that the only thing Wizkids had left was gimmicks. Thus enters team dials.

       Ok, lets look at some solid modern age Teen Titans team without the Teen Titans set.
FF Hawk 100
FF Dove 100
Bats Beast Boy (Pterodactyl) 60
Blue Beetle 94
DC10 Robin 52
JL52 Cyborg 100
SM Supergirl 100
DC75 Donna Troy 79
DC75 Osiris 101
Eye of Amagato 12
Bat Signal 2

800

This team is pure bruiser Titan goodness. You have prob from Dove. Robin gives you enhancement and a potential promotion. You can have Blue Beetle pick up the the Eye of Amagato.If need be you can push Donna Troy to get prob.  Beast Boy comes in as the Pterodactyl to deploy your ream. Then he can turn into whatever you want on your sideboard. It's not comic accurate by far but at least you stand a fighting chance against some of the major meta pieces out there.

Hope you had fun with the read. Tell me your favorite Teen Titan team below.

Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos

Music selection in the new show

Hello,

           I stayed up late last night to get the post production done on the show. Intro's and outro's are back. I picked the songs because I thought they fit the show. I talked with Wize for my another website I write for. I got his permission to use the song. He is a big comic book fan and has comic references throughout his music.  He has a lot of references to Johnny Storm. A common phrase he uses a lot is "Johnny...Flame on" in his music. The "Spiderman" song comes from is called Course Language.

           The second song is "Ali" by Sho Baraka. I picked the song mainly for the greatness theme. I think a lot of us think we can't be great heroclix players. Heck even I feel that at times. I wanted to set a tone from the start that we are shooting for greatness and not mediocrity. I also wanted to set up a tone from the start that we are taking steps forward. The song also addresses doubt. Having talked about doubt in the past we forget it is something we have to overcome.  The previous intro I used was TheBreax "Better" I really liked that it got people hyped and it said a lot of things I aspired for the show. I feel this new intro is a lot better because getting better is worth shooting for. But we also can walk greatness. "Ali" comes off of Sho Baraka's Talented Xth album he just released.

         I wanted to give about a minute for the intro and outro. I wanted the music to set tone and mood. Glass Cabinet Films and Push to Regen have made me up my game when I think about intro's. I think that they have distinguished themselves with really good intro's. Class Cabinet has some cool graphics and dubstep/techno music. Push to Regen has a custom theme song. It is one of the best intro songs in Heroclix podcasting. Don't be afraid to Push! To regenerate. New Episode on your dinner plate. lol.

  Thanks for reading,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos