by George Massu
Hello, Apex Insiders!
Every now and again the game pivots and the meta shifts more heavily than usual. I’ve been tracking this trend for a while now, reading the characters that are being produced and what new elements they will share with the game. I know going to Nationals and seeing what figures are being played and how they work only confirms the patterns and my suspicions. Archetypes are a typical pattern you see in the Heroclix metagame. In the past you probably seen rush down with Samcap call ins, Shredder teams, and Uni-Mind Cosmic domination. I’m going to tell you now that it’s all shifting into a different direction. Welcome to the meta of “Chance!” In the past it was certainly a safe proposition to say that a player with a high level of skill and well-practiced with a competitive team has very good odds of winning or placing high in tournaments as compared to other players who’s skill level may have topped off a level or two below the top tier players.
Moving forward you’re going to see that skill and practice will only take you so far before the realm of probability and dice take the prominent roll of being the driver in this game. For 
example, what I’m trying to say is you will have the #1 player in clix playing say the #20 best player in the game. Now imagine a line graph, at some point the two players skill level will intersect, now typically the player with the better skill would out-maneuver and best the other player. But in today’s meta you’ll see that once the intersection occurs skill level won’t have as much a prominent role in deciding the winner, chance will. Here’s a few reasons why.
With the simplification of rules and the manufacturing of the metagame there’s less creativity outside the box where it was hard to predict and you have more creativity inside the box, which I only suspect is by design because its much easier to monitor and regulate a smoother, error-free game. When was the last time we saw a “Watchlist” roster appear?? So, once you’ve corralled all the wild horses into the pen you can easily produce a controlled competitive environment, the most obvious being Cosmic. With a controlled meta it’s near improbable to find something outside of that meta that can compete and successfully take down teams like this. I know, I used to do it all the time. I can’t do that anymore, those tools are no longer hidden or available.
Ok, back to our #1 player Vs. #20 player. They each have similar builds, one player obviously has more skill than the other, but now what’s hard to predict is the “Multi-Roll Out” factor. Player 1 out-maneuvers player 20 and sets up what would be a kill shot but doesn’t succeed because of the base two rollouts his opponent has or even 3 roll outs. Back in the day (yea, I’m old) teams really only have 2 options of roll outs, either it was Impervious or it was Super Senses, which meant your opponent had a roughly one roll at a 32% chance of evading your attack. Today I bet that number is probably close to double that (Adam Friedman, Please double check). And this is where skill level, once peaked according to the line graph is almost going to be checked much sooner than it probably should have been, and why the number #20 guy has nearly the same chance of winning a game he/she probably shouldn’t be winning.
Going back to Archetypes for a moment, You have 4 new archetypes sprouting in the meta:
- Multiple Free Attack, teams
- Multiple Rollout, teams
- Multiple Lock Down/Immobilize teams
- Hard to kill teams
All in some way are designed to increase your odds or decrease your opponent’s odds of successfully damaging and winning.
- Multi free attack teams obviously have Boomerang Ninjas (as PJ piloted), but look at the subtle elements of characters being given “free” attacks: Free Incapacitate, Generate this bystander and Autonomous attack, Quake as Free, Move action then attack as free, KO a character trigger another attack at no cost, Force Blast as FREE. Elements like these by themselves go unnoticed, but each time an element like this is introduced it gets stronger than the last one, until they make it good enough that it finally captures the players attention and it’s fielded, then they know what power level to produce similar elements. Again, I suspect this is done by design.
- Multi-Roll out Teams. These teams may not have all the freebies of the above mentioned but in return you get a traditional offensive battery but with an amazing ability to be slippery and hard to hit. These figures and teams stack defenses like Super Senses, Shape Change and even Impervious. Sometimes with the right location bonus you’re capable of a 4th roll out as you can re-roll Super Senses. This is the reason why having more skill and out maneuvering your opponent won’t carry as much weight into the future. I have roughly a 65% chance of rolling out of your attack.
- Lock Down and Immobilize teams are really just sprouting but with the popularity of Kobik at Origins it’s definitely worth the mention. I remember people thought Barbatos could be broken with Immobile, then Kobik dropped. It’s that power creep to find a fit in the meta.
- Hard to kill teams. In the past Lockjaw and HAHA Joker dominated this sector alone, and weren’t too powerful with their low damage values. Now you have beefier, more offensive characters with better stats that have a similar hard to kill function maybe by removing tokens, or removing Special Terrain from the map when damaged, multiple STOP clicks, or can’t draw lines of fire, can only be close attacked etc… In any regard it’s a signal that hard to kill is going to stick around and be active post-retirement.
*An honorable mention goes out to Themed Teams, Map choice and Initiative is more relevant now than I’ve ever known it to being the past, and that’s because of on board equipment. The ability to score opponents equipment or capture it is a very relevant tactic in the big picture of things.
In summary I think each archetype has its benefits to maximize your winning potential, I also think that with the new top tier section of heroclix about to expand it’ll draw in a lot more players to competitive play. I think Team Sealed will be the new “Skill-Tester.” You really only have to pull well and your skill will most likely take you farther than it would in Modern competitive. Some of these archetypes are already being blended together, again its being creative inside of the box.
Comment below with your thoughts, I’d like to hear them. Thanks for reading and I hope you found value in reading this article. Thanks, readers!
-George Massu
