I had some junior novelization of some X-Men story growing up - I couldn't tell you what it was about - but in those pages, Cyclops was the dry, by-the-book guy. Not in a lame way (though Wolverine might say otherwise); there really was a sense of weight, of gravitas, with him.
So we could focus on that, or we could do something with his powers. WizKids went with the powers, but that's probably for the best.
The Die
Cyclops is one of only two characters (the other being Mystique, who doesn't count because it's the same distribution in a different order) that has an odd cost distribution - a TFC of three, but broken down to be one on each level. Every other TFC has the same distribution within their total value - for example, all TFC 2s are broken down 0-1-1. Not so with Cyclops.
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| Grabbed from DiceMastersDB.com |
This means that his weakest is just as expensive to put down as his strongest. Otherwise, he offers bolt energy and features absolutely zero bursts.
Cyclops is offensively skewed, fitting given the raw power of his eyebeams. My Cyke dice are in wonderful shape, among the best that I have. Let me also add that I dig the color scheme - thematically appropriate, easily readable, and overall an A+ design decision here.
The Card
Our pal Scott Summers is all about direct damage and/or area-of-effect damage. This makes perfect thematic sense given his powers and how damaging that they can be when allowed to go unfiltered.
Actually, that makes me think that an interesting take on Cyclops (perhaps a thought for future sets) would be a more unrefined version of him - something where he loses control and does a bit of damage to everyone in exchange for power in some other area. This could also mitigate the high cost of Cyke that we currently have.
- Slim - Cost 5 - When blocked by multiple characters, do full damage to all characters rather than splitting it.
- If Looks Could Kill - Cost 7 - When assigned to attack, deal damage equal to attack value to each opposing character.
- Scott Summers - Cost 7 - If blocked, you may have Cyclops deal his damage to the opponent rather than the character. If you do this, move him to the used pile instead of returning him to the field.
Slim is interesting, but I don't want to KO my opponent's characters. Since you can't control the split here, you actually sacrifice a degree of control in the game, and I'm not at all down with that. If he carried some degree of blocker control, I'd be happier.
ILCK is a finisher, plain and simple. Get him out on level two or three and that's it - wipe the board, attack, and let's all go home.
Scott Summers has an interesting means of bypassing the blocker, and that's pretty cool - but he's going to used after that. This is a bit of a bummer for such a pricey die, but at the same time, this is no different than being unblockable. He needs to go to used.
My Favorite
Slim automatically gets disqualified here - as I said, you give up advantage with him, and that doesn't work for me.
Scott Summers is something that I like - he's essentially a Canucklehead but he can attack with other characters and keep his unblockable(ish) status. That said, he doesn't give the same offense and he's pretty expensive. I see potential for him as a finisher, but ILCK edges him out here.
It has to be If Looks Could Kill. At seven cost to purchase, he doesn't come cheap, but that's ok. You only need one of him, and he's incredibly easy to field once you do purchase him. With all of the means of dice shenanigans - Beast, NOGG, Surfer - it's surprisingly easy to get seven energy to pull him into your bag. However, he's likely sending a lot of characters to used. You want to make sure that, as we've discussed with other expensive cards, the turn you play him ends with "...and then I win."
ILCK, I was so pumped to get this guy, only to realize I love Hulk Green Goliath even more, since I can trigger his sweeping ability multiple ways, even on my opponent's turn. Cyke is one of my favorite characters of all time, and I bring him with me on my 8-man team, but I have never been able to let him shine.
ReplyDeleteYeah, and Hulk can benefit from Nick Fury, too. The only thing that I don't like there is that he requires others to work (Johnny Storm and fielding others)
DeleteTrue. I use Green Goblin Norman Orborn, Silver Surfer Sentinel, and Force Beam. That seems to get the job done well enough.
DeleteI like to include ILCK with my Gobby deck. This way if my opponent KOs a bunch of my side kicks (Doctor Doom, Venom, etc.) I can typically purchase Cyclops on my next turn.
ReplyDeleteFor me, my fave part of Cyclops is the die - reliably strong attack and since he's 111 to field, very easy to plan for costs and rerolls. So even if he gets KOed, he's not too painful to refield. I agree about the common version having the weakest ability, but at 5 cost and 1 to field, he's a lot of bang for your buck. I've played with Slim in a few draft settings and have to honest, he can be pretty brutal. Multi-blocking is primarily about attempting to shift board state, and Slim basically takes a lot of those options away from the blocker. Yes you don't want to give your opponent lots of KOed dice, but when it's time to attack, its a nice thing to be able maintain board state and take away options, which allows you to finish fairly quickly.
ReplyDeleteThis has been a popular finisher here in combo with some other cards. ILCK to clear the board and get the heavy beat in. The rare Fury Patch allows unblocked Avengers to attack twice. If you get a nice combo going (and I've seen it), ILCK clears the board and Avengers come in and do their thing...TWICE.
ReplyDeleteCyclops is my favorite X-Man and I love the respect he's getting in this game. Great powers, I just wish he was easier to get on the board. The "Optic Blast" version, for the new Uncanny X-Men set, isn't very good so I'm looking forward to seeing those variations.
ReplyDeleteI actually prefer using "Scott Summers" with my unblockable themed team. "If Looks Could Kill" definitely has a place on a different roster, as Shawn Low mentioned above, combined with some Avengers.
What about using Slim with Thrown Car? Since his card says that he does full damage to all characters rather than splitting it, wouldn't that mean he could trample multiple characters at a time (if your opponent was foolish enough to block with multiple characters in that scenario)?
ReplyDelete