Hello,
I had a great conversation with my heroclix mentee Silent Scream last night. We had a good conversation on the current break down, on first look, impacts of Amazing Spider-man. I'm not going to run down everything but I will list out my top ten buys and top ten meta pieces for the whole set. This list is in no certain order.
Buys
1. Dusk
2. Brother Voodoo
3. Ancient One
4. Ricochet
5. Wong
6. Johnny Blaze
8. Terrax
9. Madam Web
10. Texting Everyone Spider Girl
Meta Changers
1. Dusk
2. Brother Voodoo
3. Texting Everyone Spider Girl
4. Scarlet Spider
5. Madame Web
6. Jennifer Kayle
7. Frankenstein Monster
8. Terrax
9. Dracula
10. The Ancient One
I will say that morph mechanics will be pushed a bit in the local meta. The main problem will be how are we going to solve for stealth. Texting Everyone Spider-Girl is going to hurt the reign of stealth quite a bit. But without her there is nothing other than melee that really deals with the power of SoG and the Bat sets. We have nothing that threatens resource dials or vehicles. Catwoman's stock did go up a bit. Cheap damage is still good. The only minor shake up will be mind control and how it coming back into the meta foresight. Will people actually use Brother Voodoo or just pass up on him due to mind control not being easy to use?
I have purchased all my primes, super rares, and chases I want from the set except 1 and I think his price will come down. I hope everyone gets what they want in their pulls. Let me know what crazy cool deals you all struck to get those pieces that you want.
Thanks for reading,
Edward Shelton aka Darklogos
Showing posts with label competitive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label competitive. Show all posts
Friday, February 8, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
Chop Shop or 187 on an undercover cop car.
Hello,
I hope everyone was able to watch the big Dan Vs Alex match this weekend. If not please digest the links below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uUi97LEvRA&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-JK1iCLE8I&feature=plcp
You will notice the power of the GCPD Cruiser that I've said for a while is super strong...so strong. With that being said one listener pm'd at hcrealms asking how do we deal with the Cop car. Well lets really look at how to realistically deal with the Cop Car.
First things first you need to figure out if you are dealing with Cop car focused team or just Cop car support team. The first is designed to constantly run you over and many times operates with 2 cop cars. The second is there to run over and put a figure into a follow up volley position. The Cop Car focused teams have problems putting out burst damage. The Cop Car support team is the most dangerous.
The next thing you need to find out is Lt. Gordon on the team. If so then there is no place safe on the map after turn 2. Lt. Gordon's "Get these men into Position" is by far one of the strongest movement powers in the game. Just wait for a figure that can replace speed values or use the kinetic accelerator with Gordon and then you have some real abuse. Gordon means that a Cop car can move, run a figure over, and attack in the same turn.
You have to see how much someone has invested in their setup. If they invested 25 points for GF Batgirl then you don't have to worry about cuffed to the bumper from jump. If they play 30 point GCPD Officer then they are going all in. So they spent at minimum 98 points on pilot and the car. If they do Gordon then it is another 68 points. This means that there is little room for pure prob and they will have to run theme team and use theme team prob unless their heavy hitter has prob.Their other support elements will be very very very limited. So they will need mid tier attackers with upfront support powers on clicks 1 or 2.
SO HOW DO YOU BEAT IT? Right now there are very few setups in general tech that can beat it for several reasons. The first is that most teams are to afraid of the UB and Gauntlet and are set up to kill that. The second is that you have build a team with pure aggression and damage to over come the cop car.
The best solution is not to try to rush to the kill the cop car. You will need to burst down the other members of the team before dealing with the cop car. You have to remember that if you can't kill the figure in one turn then don't go after it. The main reason is that the injured figure will just end up being the pilot next turn. So you have to be able to focus down and do 8 clicks on average per turn.
The money click to consider is click 7 on the Cop car. Click 7 the car is the least effective. It no longer has will power or perplex. It is stuck with enhancement and crappy attack values. You need to do 11 clicks to kill the Cop car. Magog with the the UB charge flurry can do it. Really as long as you can flurry for 6 damage you can kill the Cop car with one go. This means any figure with a base damage of 3 can work. The reason a figure with a base of 3 damage can work is that you only need 1 perplex with the utility belt to cap your damage.
My top recommendations are as follows...
10th Cap 63
10th Thing 82
CW Cap 60
AVM Frost Giant 80
GF GG Namor 100
IH Lyra 88 ( Best pow for your points)
Hulkmairner 115
GF Bat Batgirl 88
JL ff Wonder Woman 100
SM Chase #55 Superman
Bt #8 Nightwing 72 (charge flurry)
NML Batgirl 67 (charge flurry)
All of these figures can kill a cop car for cheap and serve other aggressive functions with the utility belt. Another option is is Moleman,FF Bizzaro, and IG with the power gem. Tk up Bizzaro, have him RCE from power gem for 6 damage. Then mind control him to RCE again.
The biggest thing you must remember is that you may have to offer up a piece to die to kill the Cop Car. Don't be afraid of this. Listen to the podcasts about coming from behind and sacrificing pieces.
Hope this helps,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos
I hope everyone was able to watch the big Dan Vs Alex match this weekend. If not please digest the links below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uUi97LEvRA&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-JK1iCLE8I&feature=plcp
You will notice the power of the GCPD Cruiser that I've said for a while is super strong...so strong. With that being said one listener pm'd at hcrealms asking how do we deal with the Cop car. Well lets really look at how to realistically deal with the Cop Car.
First things first you need to figure out if you are dealing with Cop car focused team or just Cop car support team. The first is designed to constantly run you over and many times operates with 2 cop cars. The second is there to run over and put a figure into a follow up volley position. The Cop Car focused teams have problems putting out burst damage. The Cop Car support team is the most dangerous.
The next thing you need to find out is Lt. Gordon on the team. If so then there is no place safe on the map after turn 2. Lt. Gordon's "Get these men into Position" is by far one of the strongest movement powers in the game. Just wait for a figure that can replace speed values or use the kinetic accelerator with Gordon and then you have some real abuse. Gordon means that a Cop car can move, run a figure over, and attack in the same turn.
You have to see how much someone has invested in their setup. If they invested 25 points for GF Batgirl then you don't have to worry about cuffed to the bumper from jump. If they play 30 point GCPD Officer then they are going all in. So they spent at minimum 98 points on pilot and the car. If they do Gordon then it is another 68 points. This means that there is little room for pure prob and they will have to run theme team and use theme team prob unless their heavy hitter has prob.Their other support elements will be very very very limited. So they will need mid tier attackers with upfront support powers on clicks 1 or 2.
SO HOW DO YOU BEAT IT? Right now there are very few setups in general tech that can beat it for several reasons. The first is that most teams are to afraid of the UB and Gauntlet and are set up to kill that. The second is that you have build a team with pure aggression and damage to over come the cop car.
The best solution is not to try to rush to the kill the cop car. You will need to burst down the other members of the team before dealing with the cop car. You have to remember that if you can't kill the figure in one turn then don't go after it. The main reason is that the injured figure will just end up being the pilot next turn. So you have to be able to focus down and do 8 clicks on average per turn.
The money click to consider is click 7 on the Cop car. Click 7 the car is the least effective. It no longer has will power or perplex. It is stuck with enhancement and crappy attack values. You need to do 11 clicks to kill the Cop car. Magog with the the UB charge flurry can do it. Really as long as you can flurry for 6 damage you can kill the Cop car with one go. This means any figure with a base damage of 3 can work. The reason a figure with a base of 3 damage can work is that you only need 1 perplex with the utility belt to cap your damage.
My top recommendations are as follows...
10th Cap 63
10th Thing 82
CW Cap 60
AVM Frost Giant 80
GF GG Namor 100
IH Lyra 88 ( Best pow for your points)
Hulkmairner 115
GF Bat Batgirl 88
JL ff Wonder Woman 100
SM Chase #55 Superman
Bt #8 Nightwing 72 (charge flurry)
NML Batgirl 67 (charge flurry)
All of these figures can kill a cop car for cheap and serve other aggressive functions with the utility belt. Another option is is Moleman,FF Bizzaro, and IG with the power gem. Tk up Bizzaro, have him RCE from power gem for 6 damage. Then mind control him to RCE again.
The biggest thing you must remember is that you may have to offer up a piece to die to kill the Cop Car. Don't be afraid of this. Listen to the podcasts about coming from behind and sacrificing pieces.
Hope this helps,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos
Friday, January 25, 2013
Road split in two.
Hello,
I've had an interesting conversation with a listener and made come back and think about a looming issue from last weekend's post. I feel I honestly asked to look again where fun and competitive meet. If you read the "Rough Weekend" post you will see that I had some advice about not treating your figures like an issue of a comic book. I would like to stand by that position, but I would like to expand that thought. Play your favorite figures well. It is a simple thought but means a lot.
Many times people think that just because their favorite figures are on the field then any action they do is a good one. Or even worse that the situation may be loaded against that figure. How many times in comics does one person take down whole armies alone. Now ask yourself how do you make that character into a balanced heroclix figure? You can't. That is why Supes can get owned by Captain America with the help of Black Panther. Just because Power Man runs in head first every comic through a brick wall to hit the first guy he sees in the throat doesn't mean that you should do that tactically. Also if the version of the figure are playing is range glass cannon and you want to play it as an in your face brick because you feel that is the true nature of the character I'm sorry you will have problems. The key is to understand and separate your desired fantasy from consequences.
Just like people clix have layers. No good character is one dimensional in their attitudes. The same goes for many heroclix. Take time to learn the tempo of your favorite figure because that is their personality. You have to be careful because if you force to much of your plans on that figure that don't work with the nuance of the dial then you are going to struggle. I can't tell you how many times lately I wanted the cop car to move just a few more squares. In that focus I have ignored its attacking or perplexing abilities. See the figure for what it is not what you want it to be.
Think on how the actual team dynamic works. If in the comics there is a poor team dynamic and they fumble through their missions guess what is going to happen in clix. Also what type of missions did that comic team do. If they are a stealth team that snuck in and took out one evil dictator the whole time they would have problems against the super x-ray squad and their bombs of doom. Take for example X-Force. That team plays exactly as it reads in the comics. The problem is that it is not flexible in the amount of situations it can deal with. That is why Justice League, X-men, Avengers, and the like are the most popular theme teams. Not because everyone likes those teams or books. They might enjoy them but it is mostly for the tactical options.
Now this leads us to some very shaky ground. I want to make it clear that this is not a "casual" versus "meta" conversation. We can see that some theme play is easier than others. Some people think theme play is better because there is a disadvantage. That is not true. Some thing that min-max has a total sum of efficiency, that is not true as well. The first thing to note is that you can make a killer Gencon level Justice League team or Avengers team right now. Their are ton of high and low meta tech options to deploy. At the same time you get theme team bonus to map and theme probs. That is a really good deal. But it takes guts to make the needed decision to say that you are not playing the exact line up from your childhood with the figures that correlate to your favorite issues. I know players like that. On the opposite end look at Push to Regen's Avenger team from the 2v2 and you will see a monster team that is theme. Just because you min-max it doesn't mean you have a superior edge. The thing about min-max is that in the end the mechanics are very obvious and simple. You can't do anything complicated or subtle with min-max thinking most times. Min-max limits options so you can most effectively do 1 or 2 things. That is the one element people forget. There is very little psychological trickery or edge to be gained. Alex Avilla taught us that mind games of heroclix have yet to be cracked. His world teams played on the two biggest weaknesses of min-max thinkers. The first is that the highest point piece is the most important. The second is tempo/timing manipulation. Do you kill the 160 point support piece or the 77 point real damage dealer? What do you do when you can't get all your major effects lined up and you are taking damage?
You can see how labels can get us into trouble. Some times the labels will disarm us and make us not think. We categorize so that we can make judgements quickly. But I would challenge you to slow down at the beginning of each round and rethink through your opponents team.
I may do a podcast on morale, or not. I don't know yet. I will not be going to K.C. this weekend so I will have to assess some stuff. I hope you can see with this post that fun and competition are not two separate paths. I also hope you saw the weakness in some of the common community thinking in heroclix.
If you have any show or blog post ideas hit me up.
Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos
I've had an interesting conversation with a listener and made come back and think about a looming issue from last weekend's post. I feel I honestly asked to look again where fun and competitive meet. If you read the "Rough Weekend" post you will see that I had some advice about not treating your figures like an issue of a comic book. I would like to stand by that position, but I would like to expand that thought. Play your favorite figures well. It is a simple thought but means a lot.
Many times people think that just because their favorite figures are on the field then any action they do is a good one. Or even worse that the situation may be loaded against that figure. How many times in comics does one person take down whole armies alone. Now ask yourself how do you make that character into a balanced heroclix figure? You can't. That is why Supes can get owned by Captain America with the help of Black Panther. Just because Power Man runs in head first every comic through a brick wall to hit the first guy he sees in the throat doesn't mean that you should do that tactically. Also if the version of the figure are playing is range glass cannon and you want to play it as an in your face brick because you feel that is the true nature of the character I'm sorry you will have problems. The key is to understand and separate your desired fantasy from consequences.
Just like people clix have layers. No good character is one dimensional in their attitudes. The same goes for many heroclix. Take time to learn the tempo of your favorite figure because that is their personality. You have to be careful because if you force to much of your plans on that figure that don't work with the nuance of the dial then you are going to struggle. I can't tell you how many times lately I wanted the cop car to move just a few more squares. In that focus I have ignored its attacking or perplexing abilities. See the figure for what it is not what you want it to be.
Think on how the actual team dynamic works. If in the comics there is a poor team dynamic and they fumble through their missions guess what is going to happen in clix. Also what type of missions did that comic team do. If they are a stealth team that snuck in and took out one evil dictator the whole time they would have problems against the super x-ray squad and their bombs of doom. Take for example X-Force. That team plays exactly as it reads in the comics. The problem is that it is not flexible in the amount of situations it can deal with. That is why Justice League, X-men, Avengers, and the like are the most popular theme teams. Not because everyone likes those teams or books. They might enjoy them but it is mostly for the tactical options.
Now this leads us to some very shaky ground. I want to make it clear that this is not a "casual" versus "meta" conversation. We can see that some theme play is easier than others. Some people think theme play is better because there is a disadvantage. That is not true. Some thing that min-max has a total sum of efficiency, that is not true as well. The first thing to note is that you can make a killer Gencon level Justice League team or Avengers team right now. Their are ton of high and low meta tech options to deploy. At the same time you get theme team bonus to map and theme probs. That is a really good deal. But it takes guts to make the needed decision to say that you are not playing the exact line up from your childhood with the figures that correlate to your favorite issues. I know players like that. On the opposite end look at Push to Regen's Avenger team from the 2v2 and you will see a monster team that is theme. Just because you min-max it doesn't mean you have a superior edge. The thing about min-max is that in the end the mechanics are very obvious and simple. You can't do anything complicated or subtle with min-max thinking most times. Min-max limits options so you can most effectively do 1 or 2 things. That is the one element people forget. There is very little psychological trickery or edge to be gained. Alex Avilla taught us that mind games of heroclix have yet to be cracked. His world teams played on the two biggest weaknesses of min-max thinkers. The first is that the highest point piece is the most important. The second is tempo/timing manipulation. Do you kill the 160 point support piece or the 77 point real damage dealer? What do you do when you can't get all your major effects lined up and you are taking damage?
You can see how labels can get us into trouble. Some times the labels will disarm us and make us not think. We categorize so that we can make judgements quickly. But I would challenge you to slow down at the beginning of each round and rethink through your opponents team.
I may do a podcast on morale, or not. I don't know yet. I will not be going to K.C. this weekend so I will have to assess some stuff. I hope you can see with this post that fun and competition are not two separate paths. I also hope you saw the weakness in some of the common community thinking in heroclix.
If you have any show or blog post ideas hit me up.
Check you later,
Edward Shelton aka darklogos
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)