The Tease of Things I Don't Need

Clix: The next moves

With the marquees for Fantastic Forces just behind us - I'll cap that later in this piece - the next points of focus for clix fans are September's Icons and November's Armor Wars. Those with more of a DC fixation are likely more mindful of the former, Marvel fans the latter.

Icons will be the new DC base set, which is to say that it's designed to be an introductory point for the DC fan into this game, replacing Hypertime -- which not-so-coincidentally first hit stores the same month three years earlier. The Icons checklist is already starting to fill up, between clix and cards. The third official sneak peek hit yesterday, unveiling the new Darkseid, this time presented as an REV so we can choose a level for him. This time they went with what strikes me as a sculpt based on a John Byrne version of him, vs the more Jack Kirby-derived version we saw in Hypertime. The new version is on the whole more powerful, and certainly more mobile at the front and ends of his dials, along with the mobility gained from being a flyer. A better Range -- the veteran version's 12 Range is a first among the DC set -- will certainly help him. This is a less wily, guileful version of the dark lord of Apokolips than we saw in 2002, with far less power-nullifying Outwit and nary a speck of Mind Control. The newer version is more dangerous and otherwise versatile. The new one is without question more dangerous and difficult to harm. If one does start to do any damage to him it had better be part of a concerted assault, since after a couple clicks of damage his Damage goes up to 5, his Attack Value climbs, and he gains Psychic Blast, enabling him to make those 5 clicks of damage be felt through any damge-reducing powers. Despite an absense of move-and-attack powers, Darkseid is more of a boost for this set than the previous Sneak Peeks -- Lex Luthor and Terra -- were.

They've also been showing us several cards from the set, the most interesting of them probably being the Battlefield Condition card Rally and the Feat Submerged. The former simulates a little adrenalin rush among one's team when the highest point character on the team is KOed, which seems like a nice and natural enough angle that I'd be tempted to make it a standard game effect. The latter provides stealth to an aquatic character while he's in the water. Ads have shown us a (better?) Aquaman in this set, so I'm guessing this is part of what will be helping to make him more of a contender if one plays Atlantis Rising or whatever the DC equivalent will be called. Even the old Aquaman might get some mileage out of this combination, though it's even more the case for someone with some Ranged attack capabilities, like Arcane. Not being able to be struck at range, even apparently by someone with the Superman or Ultimates team abilities, is a nice plus for 5 points.

Other cards, such as the latest addition - Sidekick - appear to largely be a waste. Yes, it's nice to be able to assign one character sidekick status to another, and allow the sidekick to share his partner's Defense when they're adjacent, but 10 points strikes me as too much to pay for such a situation-dependent power. They did think it through in terms of blatant abuse by preventing one character from carrying the other, but while this prevents the obvious, cheesy uses, we're back to it being an expensive card to use when one has to move both pieces around independently. Still, maybe there'll be some interesting dials in this set to take advantage of it. Some sidekick material with late-dial usefulness who can be sent out to do and take some damage, then get back next to his assigned mentor to be defended while he dishes out Perplex or Outwits opponents.

That's more than enough about that set for now. It's still over a month away.

Concerning last weekend's FF marquees, before wrapping this I want to mention that I did get to that Sunday evening event I was considering. While I played terribly, they took pity on me and I was given the Fellowship vote. So, I had second pick of the prizes. The judge packed in many prizes so there was plenty to choose from, and I decided to pick up Dr. Curtis Connors. A Lizard variant who has an intellect rather than being a nearly-mindless engine of destruction, once he transforms from his human form (an Earthbound activation click) he has two clicks of Outwit. He still has the claws, too. He's another potentially dangerous sort to consider in flooded terrain using that Submerged card...