by Travis Roberts
Hello Apex Insiders, I am the one and only Ares Edge bringing you this edition of the Rage Report! We have a lot to cover in this one as the feelings are boiling over on all fronts. Luckily the balance between love and hate is still leaning way more to the love side of the spectrum.
Nationals have come and gone and the biggest thing to have people “triggered” is how “expensive” some of these teams are to compete with. But just like any collectible table top miniatures game, there is a price to build an elite
team. The greatest thing about this game though is that you can also build affordable teams that will still compete with the more expensive teams. It’s all in the play style of an individual. We have seen some teams in the Nationals circuit that are only a few hundred dollars and then there some that are quite a bit more expensive. But in any business there is a supply and demand. The prices of figures, just like stocks, rise and fall with new game elements and figures released in sets, new combos that are play tested, and just the overall flow of teams being played. This isn’t anything new!! So why do we continue to complain about it?? You can still be successful in this game and also budget your time and money. Many venues run sealed Wizkids Opens just for this reason, to balance the playing field and make teams as random as possible. “Well if you pull a chase or super rare it’s almost like an auto win!” No….that’s just a complete cop out and people trying to make excuses for piss poor play. I’ve seen many teams in sealed that have dominated and been commons, uncommons or rares. Different sets have different synergy to them and different play styles need to be adapted to them. So you mean to tell me that the battle royals that were ran at nationals with Avengers Infinity will be played the same at Worlds when it will possibly be Batman the Animated Series? No chance, two totally different animals when it comes to sealed.
Speaking of Batman the Animated Series….what the actual F@$& Wizkids/DC! So many lost opportunities with this one. Is it a great set? In my opinion, as I am a Batman guy, I think it’s wonderful where you’re 
leading this game. But the two most glaring things that people are losing their minds about are…where the hell is Martian Manhunter?? What are we missing that you’re not telling us?!? It would seem so simple to make certain figures but you don’t pull the trigger on them? Martian Manhunter is a no brainer here, almost as much of a no brainer as making the damn wonder twins WITH a bucket of water object. Now of course all I can do speculate that we may have your answers with next years prizing and sets and so on as we all lost our minds when you left out the Dark Knight Joker only for him to pop up as a Con figure. Butttttt you’ve always left us hanging with a useless swamp thing card and every time a new DC set was announced we all said…”Eehhhhhh hey may be in this set” . As a dedicated DC collector and fan it seems as though I get to see what is possibly coming to DC in the Marvel releases, but know it will be a watered down version. I could go on and on about this, but we have more gripes to get to.
Lastly, but certainly not least, I saw a comment on one of the pages stating something along the lines of, “ I see Heroclix dying off and it deserves to die.” Really? Is this how some of the players truly feel? If that is the case I say to you leave, this 
community was here before you and it will be here when you’re out of the game. This is the healthiest I’ve ever seen the game and it’s thriving as Wizkids seems to have a strong handle on its game and where it’s heading with strong showings of seasonal WKO tournament play. It has secured spots for USA Nationals and World Championship, not to mention more International Championships than I can even list! Oh, did I forget to mention the ever evolving and strong presence of the ROC pushing their own tournament scene from coast to coast and into Canada. “Heroclix should die”. Words spoken of true ignorance, obviously you weren’t there the first time it did die and Topps gave up on the game. For players like myself it was the saddest thing I could have read. The game then was even more flawed but we all still clung to it because it was more then just a game, it was a way to build friendships, to teach sportsmanship, to escape and have fun. That was ripped from us once, and no matter what Wizkids does or how frustrated you get with the game and the decisions that are made about the game, you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. I speak from experience.
As always I thank you Apex Insiders for stopping by! I am Ares Edge and may all over your rolls be criticals.
Food for thought –
MTG Competitive/Top Tier Decks
Current MODERN decks range from $500-$1500 a deck
Current STANDARD decks range from $200-$400 a deck
