Greetings, dicefans! Not content with the big old pile of Dice Masters news over the last week or so, WizKids has also started to give us spoilers for Uncanny X-Men. So far, they've given us the full set of cards for eight characters - Apocalypse, Bishop, Cable, Emma Frost, Magik, Mister Sinister, Marvel Girl, and Namor, and as you might have gathered from yesterday's podcast, I'm pretty excited about what I'm seeing.So excited, in fact, that I just can't hide it - or help myself from giving some first impressions.
Apocalypse
Overall: Nice, beefy TFC 5-progression character. Theme seems to be 'really hard to take out' - I could see him being a nasty mid/late-game bruiser.
Awakened: While it has the effect of making it really, really hard to KO Apocalypse on the turn he gets fielded, you can see how that's self-counterproductive - it'll be difficult to churn him to keep that up. Weakest of the three, in my opinion.
Archvillain: If this was in AvX, it'd be amazing, but there seem like there are so many good villains coming out that it'll be a lot less likely your opponent won't have any. Also, while not taking damage is nice, something that is a little easier to take advantage of to put the hurt on your opponent would have been cool.
Time of Testing: Now we're talking! This is the bad penny ability - outside of 'straight to the used pile' effects, this flavor of Apocalypse probably isn't leaving the board for a while once fielded...especially if paired with something that can spin him up. Combos very naturally with Mister Sinister - Nasty Boy, which is pretty fitting.
Bishop
Overall: Like Thor, but for bolts...mostly. Bolt characters are really common, though, so this isn't such a bad thing. Solid stats for a TFC 4 progression.
Omega Squad: While being able to soak Gobby etc. is nice on its own, note that the wording of this also means he can't be hurt by Human Torch's pinging, Bishop's global, and a bunch of other effects. Pretty nice.
Branded a Mutant: Useful for taking out the very high-end bolt characters on the cheap. Four purchase cost with that statline is a pretty good deal.
XSE: It'd be cool if this came with something to up his survivability a little more, but I like the idea of using War Machine's global to play hot potato with damage. Works well with Mister Sinister, too; I think there's going be lots of teamups for this flavor of Bishop.
Cable
Overall: Fantastic art pick; people on Facebook have noted it's a homage to Aliens. Not amazing stats for his TFC 5 progression, especially his sad 2/3/3 level 2 face, but I think his abilities and global make up for it. The global is pretty expensive, but has amazing utility - pull things for the rare Phoenix to toss at your opponent, assassinate any die you like that you can KO through combat, and so on.
Man of Action: Not the most amazing ability, but it is a free damage to mess up your opponent's plans, and it is a cheap incarnation of the character. Nice way to pick off backliners - the enemy die doesn't have to be in the fracas to be hit.
Techno-Organic: Kind of fitting that his uncommon works like his dad's uncommon! This is pretty nice - on his lower faces, your opponent might be inclined to let two or three damage through rather than have their entire line get blasted. If not...hey, blasting! Pretty cheap purchase cost for a board-clearer.
Time Traveler: Expensive to activate his ability, but unblockable damage with no other conditions is nothing to sneeze at. Not entirely clear what happens to him if his ability gets used and his blocker knocks him out; I imagine he goes to used, but if not, that's some shenanigans waiting to happen.
Emma Frost
Overall: Like the split team affiliations, don't like her kind of plain art. Amazing stats for a TFC 4 progression, especially considering her relatively low purchase costs. Her theme seems to be 'mess up fist characters' - breaking their hands on her diamond skin, I suppose. Seems a little weak ability-wise overall, but that'll depend on how good the fists in the set are; I'm warming to her as I think about how to use her.
Archvillain: Like Apocalypse's Archvillain card, but more limited in scope. Given the base set's relatively pigeonhole-ish distribution of fist characters, seems likely to walk down that Thor path of 'too niche.'Graceful: I find it really funny that the only non-villain version of Emma is the one that works best with Reed Richards' Rival and Angelo Fortunato. If lots of fist characters follow the Tsarina template of 'small, fast, punchy' - seems likely given some characters we've seen - this version will help blunt their fangs a bit, especially with how easy she is to pick up, even early.
Hellfire Club: Underwhelming for a super-rare, in my opinion, but not as awful as I originally thought. Even more crippling than Graceful to a squad that relies on small, fast fist characters to sandpaper your opponent down, and could help in wearing down your opponent late-game if he uses fist characters. Also, if a fist character that can deal damage to characters (like how Human Torch does) shows up, she'll be quite nasty.
Magik
Overall: Obscene stats for a TFC 1 progression, though she's a little pricier to buy than most 'cheap' characters. More kind of plain art, unfortunately. Theme seems to be 'roll dice for shenanigans,' which is great - nice to shake things up a bit with some uncertainty.
Illyana Rasputina: 50/50 chance of not getting knocked out when she's KOed is neat, but she's so cheap to field that it's not really a big deal unless your opponent is knocking on your door in a big way. Still, a generally useful ability for someone whose stats scream 'use me to block big guys.'Lightchylde: The new answer to 'I don't really want to deal with this guy that my opponent will be attacking with every turn' - Lightchylde can mess up their churning plans or 'when damaged' plans. Her ability is gameable if you work at it - retain Sidekicks to make it happen more, rotate them through to have it happen less. Another character I'm really looking forward to working with.
Redflag #133: Interesting, as it makes Magik into an offensive threat, too; two damage isn't much to worry about most of the time, but if your opponent gets lucky, it could be five (or more), and that's not cool. If they really do mean that the effect only wants her single mask face to stop the chain, she'll be amazingly potent.
Marvel Girl
Overall: So far the only TFC 6 progression character we've seen spoiled, her stats are pretty low for that lofty cost - Emma, for example, roughly meets her stats for almost one less cost across the board. She's not cheap to purchase, either...but her abilities compensate for it.
Superhero: I was really unimpressed by this until I realized it doesn't mandate the die spun down has to be one of yours; crippling an enemy (or two - if you attack with both, does their effect trigger twice? Hopefully we'll find out in the rulebook) and gaining life for doing something you were going to do anyway is pretty nice.
Telepath: Not sure how I feel about this one; while making sure she gets her decently-statted 2/3 faces out (and weakening some other die in the process) is of some utility, with her relatively weak stats and high cost, it seems like it's accentuating her negatives more than anything else. Also, useless if you roll her level 3 face.
Mister Sinister
Overall: Archvillain aside, his theme seems to be 'does stuff when things are knocked out.' Interesting. A little on the expensive side, purchase- and fielding-cost wise, but he's a solid offense-oriented die. His global is sort of weird, and expensive, and sometimes it might not be great to allow your opponent choice on who they get to damage, but I think there's uses for it.
Archvillain: Increased defense if your opponent is villainless isn't awful, but his purchase cost ventures into the 'actually expensive' region here, and again, with all the nice villains we're seeing, I have a harder time seeing the same villain void that we did in AvX.
Nasty Boy: Potentially brutal, especially with the rare Apocalypse or a bunch of weaker villains. Makes it bad for your opponent to field villains, which could help pave the way for some other Archvillain you have on tap. Very interested in this fellow.
Nathaniel Essex: I really like the ability thematically, but it might wind up being a little hard to use in practice? Having NOGG around will likely help. Still, an offensive attacker who won't go down (for real, anyway) easily is never a bad thing.
Namor
Overall: Stats are decent for his progression, though I'll admit I like 1-1-1 TFC 3s better than 0-1-2. Kind of surprised to see him as an Avenger on his uncommon, though I admit I have relatively little knowledge of him in the comics. A Fantastic Four affiliation might have made more sense, given his pursuit of Sue Storm (who is, of course, still not present). Stat/purchase-wise, pretty solid value - a likely decent early/midgame character.
The Sub-Mariner: More unblockable options are always welcome, and this is a pretty gentle one - put out two Magiks or something and wail away. Five purchase cost is slightly unfortunate, but unblockable teams tend to want a little time to get defenses up anyway. Natural Teamwork combo with Angel - Soaring, too.
Atlantean: The die's a solid value for four purchase cost. The ability is nice for messing with people relying on action dice to manipulate the field of battle; will be a brick wall for squads that rely on Throw Car for chip damage. I remember the wording on this card being a bit different when we saw it a few months back, but it seems pretty clear now so it's all for the best.
Imperius Rex: Gobby's new best friend, assuming you can keep getting Gobby and the Sidekicks knocked out every turn. Unclear if you can have multiple Namor dice and get the effect to go off, or just one; if it's multiple, you can do this while still having an okay defensive line.
Judging from how far they are through the alphabet, we've got a few more days of spoilers to go. Look for more impressions once they're done, but I think we can all agree - what they've got so far is pretty nice. If I had to pick out standouts so far, though, I'd say Magik - Lightchylde, Mister Sinister - Nasty Boy, Cable - Techno-Organic, and Apocalypse - Time of Trials piqued my interest the most. Also, I'll definitely be trying a villain deck at some point; even with only a few of the options revealed so far, the potential seems marvelous.
October can't come fast enough!
I actually think the Namor cards have been the strongest we've seen thus far. And Cable is potentially the most game changing.
ReplyDeleteI really like Psylocke too that was just previewed today. For the most part, I'm not super interested in many characters and none I've seen fit into the teams id like to play but ill give em all a shot!
ReplyDeleteI saw the Professor X cards and I changed my mind. The global on the common and rare cards are completely meta altering. I actually think I've got Gobby pretty DOA with this. This is kind of a big deal I think.
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