The Tease of Things I Don't Need

Supernova Safelist

(With luck, Blogger's allowing this - which was originally sent up on Saturday - to come through intact.)

So, I'm still avoiding information on the clix to be found in Supernova boosters -- and I'm not going to aggravate myself by looking at the prize LEs at this stage -- but over the course of Friday, it appears, Wizkids unveiled all the card elements, the two new objects in the set, and the Doom clixbrick mail-away figure, all of which I consider game to pore over.

Starting with last first, we have Doom.

Harking back to one of those events that is probably best recalled through the veil of childhood nostalgia -- Marvel Comics' 1984 limited series Secret Wars -- one of the earliest, intentionally limited series, initially intended to launch a related toy line from Mattel. To be fair, though, this wasn't handled as simply a marketing tool, but was the first of the company-wide crossover events that would eventually become a staple of the comics industry.

In the story, a being of vast power (the Beyonder) set up a Battleworld and drew in heroes and villains in order to pit them against each other and learn something of the nature of Good and Evil. (A lot not unfamiliar to fans of other genres, including Star Trek fans.)

As a consequence of this storyline, for a brief time, Dr. Doom gained godlike power levels, and this clix brick mail-away (something one will be able to send away $2 for if he buys a brick of Supernova from a local retailer)is intended to represent that.

Certainly, any time one attempts to capture in something as simple as a Heroclix dial - especially one that's under 300 pts - a being who's supposed to have the ability to do whatever he wishes, it's necessary to accept some limitations if not immediately throw up one's hands in defeat.

In the short time I've looked at this interpretation I've found it helpful to remember that this was ultimately a short-term ascension for Doom, and with it being to such dizzying heights it was disorienting and disarming. The sudden knowledge that one could know all and do anything at will brought with it a lessened level of aggression and drive. Consider a small child on a schoolyard suddenly gaining not merely the size and power, but also the knowledge and perspective of a strong, healthy, wealthy adult. Rivalries of tremendous importance moments before would become laughably unimportant. It's a different matter than simply giving a child an adult's power, as knowledge and awareness were an important part of Doom's transformation.

So, at least for me, that's the lens I chose to look at this dial through.


At 241 points, possessing the Power Cosmic, Doom is secure in all his powers - they cannot be Outwitted - and has the ability to act in two consecutive turns without fatigue.

His damage-reduction powers start with Impervious, reducing most damage by at least 2 with a 33.3% chance of reducing it to nothing. The 17 Defense value in part demonstrates his initial disorientation and sense of security, making him a physically easier target to hit. That it only momentarily goes up - and even then only by 1, to 18 -- on his second click I'm interpreting as part of his sudden desire to embrace elements of his own humanity upon realizing that suddenly all things are possible. The angry, embittered, orphaned child Doom was at heart momentarily assuaged, qualities of humanity he'd previously seen as detestable weaknesses became something he was no longer smothering. Similarly, the lack of move-and-attack powers reflect the sense that he was in no hurry, as he had in the realest of all senses arrived.

It's also to this - perhaps leaning on the additional aspect that he was suddenly holding tight to his humanity for fear of being lost in a cosmic all - that I'm attributing his single target, though it's important to see that Wizkids has been having a terrible time getting the right number of targets into the gallery entries for some unspecified reason. The base appears to show more than one little lightning bold, so maybe this part of my explanation will prove unnecessary. However, if it does turn out he only has a single target -- While he had the ability to do what he chose, he was likely trying to focus his mind, much as someone hit with a wave of dizziness will reach out to steady himself against something to steady himself.

His Attack Values are impressive -- nothing below an 11 until his 7th click, and that includes a string of 3 clicks of 13 in there -- and his Damage Values are solid, too, at least in the first half of the dial. Again, had Doom had more time to adjust he would have been able to do much more, but the interpretation here is that with the sure knowledge that he held the power to satisfy all desires, much of the need for aggressive action was gone, and at the very least he was trying to remain grounded. This momentarily limited his imagination and therefore his power.

I'm never thrilled to see Energy Explosion on a single-target piece, but it can be useful, and hopefully two arrows on the base will make that all moot. The three clicks of Force Blast (the purple on his second through fourth clicks) is something potentially enhanced by the Whirlwind card (see the Feat card entries below), and could be useful it repelling multiple close combat pieces and/or simple tie-up pieces.

The Probability Control he gains halfway down his dial gives him greater control of situations, and a couple clicks of Pulse Wave towards the end give him a desperate recourse if he's been under intense attack.

All in all an interesting piece, and the first real Dr. Doom we've gotten since 2002's Clobberin' Time. At 241 points I don't expect it to become a long-term favorite for anyone -- the single attack (if true), a lack of move and attack powers, overall Damage values will strike many as low for the cost as will the relative ease of hitting him will likely find the points better spent by most - but it will be a fun addition.

As mentioned up top, they've also spilled all of their cards and the two special objects in the set so that there would be just over a week for rules lawyering to be done and official answers to be settled on before October 28th's pre-release events. While judges are expected to think on their feet and make locally-binding decisions, I pity the poor judge who'd have to go into a pre-release event having to make multiple decisions on completely new game mechanics on the fly. Almost inevitably someone would lose due to a call and one of those calls would end up being different than the official one from Wizkids a week or so later. One is unlikely to ever hear an end to varioations on "I was cheated!

While doing posts on clix is relaxing, I don't want to be at this too long -- the week was long and exhausting and left me with too many other things to do now that I have a little time -- but I at least want to touch on eack of these additions. The subtleties and nuances of each I'll most likely wait at least a few days to pick up on via the Wizkids' messageboards, as official rulings are sometimes counter-intuitive.

Supernova includes five Battlefield Conditions -- cards that modify one or more elements of a game, one of which can be played at no cost by each player at the start of a game. Four of these are new to the game.

By and large, Battlefield Conditions are cards one doesn't usually build teams around, but rather uses them with specific opponents in mind. They're elements to toss out to foul the plans of specific types of opponents who use the same strategies over and over. In a standard tournament one is facing three different opponents, can only play one Battlefield Condition in each of the three matches and they have to be different cards. While one wants to build a team that will be adversely affected as little as possible by the cards, you can see that an individual Battlefield Condition card isn't something one can count on. For instance, building a team with a strong aquatic character element because one's going to bring an Atlantis Rising card (which floods all ground-level terrain with water) would be a lousy idea, since it would only be able to be used in one of the three matches and even in that one match one's opponent could play his Ordinary Day card, trumping it and leaving your team dry.

(On the other hand, building a team with grounded characters which all have Leap/Climb, Phasing/Teleport or have Swingline attached, so that hindering terrain won't slow them down, could see one bringing Atlantis Rising and Crosswinds cards along. Each could be used to mess up an opposing team's mobility while leaving one's own team unaffected.)

So, here are the Battlefield Condition cards of Supernova:
The first is Damage Control, something intended in part to simulate a city's crack clean-up and repair crew, but which will be used strategically to neuter an opponent whose strategy appears to be dependent upon objects -- especially characters with Super Strength who might be Charging or rushing in with Hypsersonic Speed to add 1 or 2 clicks of Damage to their own Damage Value, one with Stealth, hoping to hide on strategically placed islands of Hindering Terrain, or a team with one or more characters using the Nanobots feat -- granting the ability to cannibalize objects for healing. Playing a card that sweeps all objects off the map means that those 10 pt Nanobots cards become immediately worthless, and an opponent's strategy of pushing or otherwise endangering a piece because he knew there was a means of healing him 2 clicks at a time -- that's also gone. If a player's grown dependent on a strategy, suddenly cutting that option off could see him demoralized and unable (or simply unwilling) to adapt, leading to an easier defeat.

This will be one of those cards that will immediately go on some players' Loved lists and others' Hated lists, depending upon what strategies they've been bored and/or plagued with and which ones they've found effective.

Next is Alpha Strike, which is one of those poorly written cards. Here's the text:

Before the beginning of each player’s first turn, that player chooses a team symbol possessed by an opposing character. All opposing characters with the chosen team symbol are archenemies of all characters on that player’s force until that force defeats an opposing archenemy. That player’s characters are not archenemies of opposing characters with the chosen team symbol.

The intent appears clear enough, in allowing each team to select one or more potential archenemies on his opponent's force in a way that benefits only him (though his opponent can presumably do the same in turn), though it will only work once for each player. The benefit of saying that everyone on an opposing team with the Defenders TA, for instance, is to be considered a one-way arch enemy of anyone on one's team is that the first time one KOs a Defender the player will receive twice the victory points (ie twice the point cost of the piece), while the reverse won't be true unless the other team has declared likewise.

This is one where it's best to let the officials duke it out and see what the final word is. The immediate questions are: 1. Does this only work for the first person to achieve such a knockout, or do both get the full opportunity at it? and 2. Does "unaffilitated" (lacking a TA) count as a default team affiliation? (ie Could someone assemble a team of unaffiliated characters, play this card and be the only player able to use it because his opponent can't name a TA to target?)

This will be a card competitive players will hate, because it will increase the likelihood that during a tournament some of the players will be able to gain a sudden, sharp point advantage. It will draw a large target on many medium to high point pieces.

Extraordinary Day extends the disadvantages of rolling a 2 (a Critical Miss) - an automatically failed attack roll that causes 1 click of irreducable damage to the one attemping the attack - and the benefits of rolling a 12 (Critical Hit) - automatic hit with a +1 to the Damage - to rolling 3s and 11s, respectively. A kicked up random element that could be fun, and would probably be best for a team of middle to low-end pieces finding itself up against a team with one or more high Attack Value pieces, especially if they also have high Defense Values and/or excellent Damage Reducers -- and even more so if the disadvantaged team has some Probability Control. When facing someone like the Cosmically-enhanced Doom seen above, with Attack Values of 13 he's most likely going to hit what he aims at, so increasing the chance that he'll not only miss but do himself damage in the process is worth the risk of taking 6 clicks instead of 5 from a hit.

Loyalty is another spoiler card, this one designed to lock wildcards into choosing one team ability each at the start of the game and being stuck with it. Wildcards drive some players crazy on the competitive gaming scene (mention "wildcard abuse" to a group of gamers and catch the reactions) as players can - if they have both TAs on their team - give a Legion of Superheroes Member the ability to target someone hiding in Stealth by copying the Superman TA, and then, before ending the turn, switch to the Batman TA so that he can hide in Stealth.

Poor Teamwork, the last of this set's Battlefield Conditions, is a repeat card, having appeared in both a DC set and in the Marvel Fantastic Forces one, too. Presumably it's considered to be an important mix-it-up element and cheese-grater, since it not only prevents characters from carrying each other but also from using their TK to launch someone into battle. Once upon a time it was the TK limitation that was the focus -- and it still is, because no one seriously puts TK on a Heroclix team in order to hurl objects at opponents, so the TK becomes mostly wasted points - but it's likely that the game designers wanted more of these in circulation to help screw a specific pooch: Lockjaw. That tough, teleporting puppy has become a staple of many teams. (In fact, with Thanos - to the best of my knowledge - set as a grounded figure in this set we can expect he'll become a taxiining thrall of the mad titan.

There are seven Feat cards in Supernova.

First up is the only Alternate Team Ability (Alt TA or ATA) in this set: Squadron Supreme. Several Squadron Supreme members are in this set, and they've each been given a default TA symbol - that of the Defenders. See, Wizkids announced a while ago they wouldn't be expanding the number of actual team symbols, presumably because the Powers and Abilities Cards for each line (Marvel & DC) are each crowded enough. That it would just be one more thing to potentially screw up probably works in the calculations somewhere, too.

There have been times when I've been bothered by the lack of new TAs, too, but I've come to appreciate that so long as they continue to come up with useful alternate TAs to cover these subsets I don't mind. It just gives me a broader flexibility, since this can be used to cover anyone with the Defenders TA logo on it.

The alt TA card reads as follows:

Cost: 5/team member
All friendly characters with the Defenders team ability have the following team ability instead of the Defenders team ability:

When at least two friendly members of this team are adjacent, their controller chooses one of them to gain the Mind Control power, if it does not already possess it. Once the choice is made, it can’t be changed until the chosen character loses Mind Control. This team ability is canceled at the end of an action in which the two team members are not adjacent.
This team ability can’t be used by wild cards.

I'll leave it to the game designer to officially blame the mechanic on the Squadron's attempt to create a utopian Earth via a mind-altering device.

Sneak allows characters with Stealth and/or Super Senses, for a mere 5 points, to be able to pass close by an opposing piece without being noticed and having to stop as soon as he gets adjacent.

Toxic Burst is a card with its heart in the right place -- many characters with Poison should be able to affect opposing pieces up to two spaces away (Someone like the Radioactive Man, for instance, or the one version of the Human Torch with that power, each of whom deal in radiant energy), but having it both cost 10 points and require the user take a click of unavoidable damage strikes me as too expensive. In any event, anyone using this is also going to be spending an additional 10 points on Armor Piercing to be sure it's truly useful at affecting everyone in the area. This could be a good one for a character with multiple clicks of poison in the middle or late dial that otherwise might not see much use... not that adding 20 points to them is going to necessarily make them more attractive to a team-builder.

Sunder is a handy little card to allow a character with Blades/Claws/Fangs to routinely be able to cut a hole in a wall or destroy an object. A good and useful card for a mere 3 points.

Tactics allows a character with both Leadership and a Team Symbol to potentially pull two extra actions instead of one out of his commanding hat. I like the general thought behind it, including making it specific to a team (though the "same team symbol" cuts wildcards out of this, which is limiting), but will have to play with the idea a little to see which places it's best applied. Teams with low-point characters, especially generics, have been crying out for extra actions. Since it costs 20 points I can't see spending it on a character with only a single click of Leadership. That it changes the Leadership roll to the far more likely 3 to 6 range (a 66.6% chance) is another boost the card offers, making it more potentially worth its 20 points.

Whirlwind helps boost another power that's usually not one players rush towards: Force Blast. For 6 points it allows a Force Blasting piece to roll a singe die and split the results among multiple, adjacent targets, forcing each one back some share of the total. So, if someone's being mobbed and wants to clear some space, or wants to land next to some snipers on a rooftop and not only scatter them but likely knock them off the roof, this could work well. Odds favor him being able to force more than one target back at least one space each. Will this make Whirlwind the new darling power of the game? Likely not, but the special modifier on the Space Map made for Supernova's release has that cool, micro-gravity simulation element that makes Force Blast a double dice throw instead of just a single die one, so some fun scattering or even just single-character tossing is in the offing.

The seventh and final Feat of the set is at least my initial favorite: Mental Shields.

This grants someone with Willpower and/or Mind Control immunity from Mind Control, and additionally allows a Mind Controller to use his powers against any open target without having to deal with the 1-click per 100 points feedback damage headache that usually is the Mind Controller's lot. All in all, it strikes me as worth the 15 points. The only potential downside is that there's nothing on the card that notes it as optional, so a Mind Controller with multiple targets might lose the option of being able to MC more than one character at a time. This is another element I'll be watching for a ruling on. (Indeed, it might already be posted -- I'm letting them hash it out for a day or two before I go looking.)

This leaves only the two, special objects in the set.

I must point out that my grasp of the newer rules for "special" objects was weak and even that's grown rusty, so I'll need to recheck some rules to even reacquire a handle on what they mean by "Continual."

The first is a heavy object -- well, at least potentially and judging by its red border: METEORITE. Using this successfully in a close combat attack allows one to potentially add 4 clicks of Damage to the attack, above one's own base damage. Roll a single die, subtract 2, and don't drop it below 1 - that's the mechanic, so in the worst case it'll be a "heavy" object that hits like a light one. Someone's going to luck out and be beaten with a "soft" meteorite.

The second one is SATELLITE, a light object which has the special attribute of allowing a character carrying it to use a special power action to turn it into three squares of contiguous debris. I may write "FOX News" on my satellite, as turning that into three squares of debris will make it far more useful. This will mostly be useful for a team that wants to create more hindering terrain, which most likely would be for characters with Stealth to hide on or behind.

Some interesting additions, and new tools to apply to not only the new characters but dozens of existing ones.

If looking over the list leaves me disappointed it's mostly because I was hoping that with a new Vision (and an REV at that) and some other Phasing/Teleporting characters that we would get at least one Feat building on that power -- preferably something bestowing a move and attack ability on it, as someone who's able to materialize on the spot or suddenly step through a wall should be good for a surprise attack, wouldn't you agree?

Well, the pre-release is now just under a week away, so by this time next week there'll be many people with their first, small wave of Supernova figures in their hands. (And probably loads of them already up for sale on ebay to those who couldn't get to an event but don't want to wait until November 15th.) As mentioned before, elsewhere, I'm signed up for one locally, but I have no idea if the turnout will, well, turn me out. I know that space is limited, and it isn't as if I've been there in the past few months; that they'd want to be sure regulars have a spot would be understandable.

Closer to today, though, is Monday evening, when I'll be aiming to get to a local New Guy Night to pick up that 80's era Iron Man, which I did a brief review of in the latter part of an entry in mid-September.
Tags: Battlefield Condition Cards, Doom, Feat Cards, Heroclix, Supernova