by Kevin Afrooz
Hey fellow clixers. This is an article written to help players gauge whether it is worth buying a brick, case, or singles of that set. I know others do a similar type of review, however this article will look only at a set number of pieces for “300pt Modern” play and help to strategize whether it is worth purchasing a brick, case, or just some singles of that set in order to compete at the 300pts Modern Level.
If you’re a collector then you’ll always buy the new hotness, however for those that have the umpteenth version of Iron Man or Captain America you may be wondering if the set is worth purchasing and what figures will keep their value.
COMMONS
Looking at the common figures in the set we find that the best come from a slew of Batman’s allies and enemies. Out of the 16 Common figures in the set 7 of these figures have potential to be played. None of the figures are overpowered and necessary, but each of the 7 commons brings a unique twist to the game. And besides they’re commons so each figure is easy to pull and generally worth $0.50-$1 if you wish to just purchase them.
#001 Joker from the Jokers Wild set is 45pts and has the ability to Poison normally or instead by dealing 1-penetrating damage to one adjacent opposing figure. This figure may not look like much when we have pieces that are being played with Invincible, but it’s a great piece to hold on to in case Wizkids ever prints another piece like Outsider Bats or Guy Gardner from War of Light – figures that can move for free and carry.
#002 Harley Quinn fits the role of being a cheap Perplexer for 25pts. It seems like recently Wizkids has loved to put a 25pt Perplexer in ever set that is released in Modern. We have Irma, Betty Brant, Mary Jane, Apprentice, Jimmy Olsen, and now Harley Quinn. The more the merrier because each figure comes does something else plus Perplex, and Harley add the ability to potentially harm opposing figures by copying a high attack value through her Batman Enemy Team Ability. She also has a 16-Defense and Combat Reflexes. Should you play her because you want to play a Theme Team or need a piece that can survive a close combat attack over the others no one would fault you.
The Prime Common, Anarky, is a figure that brings something new to the table. For those League of Legends players I call him Teemo 2.0. Anarky has the ability to place special bomb markers on the map and essentially direct how the opponent will move during their turn. No one wants to chance getting hit by a bomb for 3 damage so they will essentially move in an attempt to dodge the markers. With a free TK piece like Jean Grey you can just move them right back into the trap and roll to deal 3 damage. Sadly the bomb markers roll to see if it explodes may not be re-rolled through Anarky’s Probability Control because the bomb marker is not a character just like the Missile for Silver Centurion was not a character. However Anarky is definitely a piece that brings anarchy to the table like Teemo brings anarchy to Junglers.
Longtime friend of the Bats Commissioner Gordon is the best PD piece in Modern. For 30pts he does -2 instead of -1 when using the PD Team Ability by himself making placement WAAY easier. He also has Enhancement and Leadership. If you want to play a range team without the Quinjet I suspect you’ll be playing either General Lane or this Commissioner Gordon on that team.
Another figure that brings something new to the table is #12 Amanda Waller. Her trait, “friendly characters with the Suicide Squad Team Ability may use that Team Ability to heal when any friendly character is KO’d anywhere on the map,” is devastating. This set has a lot of Suicide Squad pieces and there have been others released like the 9 range Deadshot. Also any Wild Card character can copy the Suicide Squad Team Ability making Amanda Waller at 25pts extremely playable. Plus, she’s got Leadership because she’ll threaten you until you gain extra actions.
Any time you can get an edge in map roll take it. Some maps just essentially hose teams by themselves. Someone playing Braniac Skull Ship? Put them in the Office. #15 Harvey Bullock for 35pts lets the winner of the map roll choose to let you pick map or give all of your figures with the Police keyword Sidestep. Currently that’s not a great thing in 300 Modern because you can essentially give any piece on your team Sidestep by equipping a Sin to them, but if you’re looking to play in the ROC in January with the 300 Limited format Harvey just may be the guy that turns KC Flash into a beast.
UNCOMMONS
Unlike the Commons the Uncommons are less playable. Out of 17 figures only 3 stand out. Out of those 3 only 2 will probably see play in 300 Modern while the other piece may be played in a random ROC format.
#022 The Atom is the ultimate Close Combat Fighter. At 25pts he puts Wildcat and other melee pieces to shame with his Sidestep, 10-Attack, 17-Defense + Combat Reflexes, and Close Combat Expert. He’s also 4 clicks of life and a perfect Call-In swap for the 15pt Colossal Atom. If you see a bunch of pieces sitting across the table with Energy Shield then just swap this guy in, all him out as a real boy, and show them your best “Sunday punch.”
#028 Vicki Vale is the second piece in Modern right now to have Probability Control for 25pts. Fast Forces Atomica is great, but giving out a token every time you use Probability Control can hurt the tempo of the team. Vicki for the same amount of points just gets to use Probability Control. She also has a trait like Jimmy Olsen’s where she can choose an opposing character within 4 squares at the beginning of her turn and make it to where that character’s combat values can’t be replaced or modified upwards until your next turn. This essentially means that she has a better trait then the Outsiders team ability because you can still Perplex down the opposing figures stats.
#030 Two-Face is the piece that I suspect people won’t be playing all that much but it does have potential. Having an 18-Defend with Perplex and the ability to Probability Control any roll regardless of range and line of fire as long as one of the die rolls is a 2 makes him versatile. The problem is that he is 65pts and not 50pts. Also his ability to heal and then roll a die to potentially switch dials to become a tertiary attacker is something that can’t be trusted. What if I want to heal and stay on the Defend dial? This is of course impossible to predict as the roll is mandatory when you heal.
RARES
In the rare section we start to find pieces that are play worthy. It seems that Wizkids finally adhered to their statement that the better pieces will be the rarer ones. Where the Uncommons only had 3 playable pieces the Rares equal up to 5. That’s nearly double. However it is 5 of 17 total Rares so that sucks.
Some employee at Wizkids decided that because Harley Quinn is crazy they would be crazy to and give her Hypersonic Speed. #034 Harley Quinn has rocket powered roller-skates that, for 60pts give her Hypersonic Speed and Force Blast. She also has Perplex, is a Wildcard, and has an 18-Defense with Energy Shield. For 60pts she is definitely playable. The question is if Roller Derby Harley is better for 10pts more than Lap Dance Harley?
#036 Flash is a perfect ID Call-In for Real Boy status with the Quinjet. He has 12-Speed Hypersonic Speed with an 11-Attack and 18-Defense. I don’t care that his damage value is 2 because every Quinjet team has a Perplexer somewhere on it. The only problem I have with this piece is that it doesn’t ignore any terrain for movement purposes, but at 35pts that complaint is more a request then a complaint.
For those of you who never read an Outsiders comic you may be unfamiliar with #037a The Looker. You may want to stay ill-informed about this character because the only things she is good for is having the Outsiders Team Ability while being 45pts. Normally I wouldn’t believe that a piece like this would ever be played in 300 Modern, however the Outsiders team ability is almost a most now with pieces getting +2 to defense from Pandora’s Box, teams having 3 Perplexers, Krang, etc.
#041 Spectre is a 40pt essential on any JSA team. Having an 18-Defense to share with other JSA Team Ability pieces and the ability to give them Super Senses but only on a 6 makes him essentially a permanent ID card inspiration to other JSA pieces.
Anytime a figure starts with a 12 Attack Value I put it on a special list so as to not forget it. #43 Lady Shiva can use Flurry, Precision Strike, and can keep the dice from one of the rolls in her first Flurry attack to use for her second one. This piece brings a new mechanic to Flurry and I love it. Without having the ability to give her Charge she’s not playable at this moment, but like I said she goes on a very special and small list of characters with 12-Attack on their opening dial.
THE SUPER RARES
Looking at the SR’s I found that the majority of pieces which are good are essentially remakes of pieces that have rotated out of Modern with a few twists. Only 5 of the 13 seem playable at this time.
#050 Penguin is a token generator like Devil Dinosaur and Dr. Demonicus. Those figures are still in Modern along with Ant-man and Namor. So what makes Penguin a playable option when compared to the other token generators? Well it’s the fact that Penguin like Devil Dinosaur creates essentially versatile pogs for only 40pts instead of 100pts. The pogs like Devil Dino also don’t count against your action total when moving, and are tiny unlike Devil Dino’s pogs so they can be carried by Devil Dino’s creations. Essentially if you’re playing Devil Dinosaur and trying to swarm but hate that Devil Dino is a unique then you should play Penguin to help make that swarm easier. Hell! Play Devil Dino, 2 Penguins, and a TK piece in 300 Limited and watch your opponents face turn Red in a matter of minutes when you double your force within two turns.
#052 Green Lantern is one of the few pieces in this set that is playable as a piece on teams and as an ID Real Boy Call-In. For 35pts he can use Barrier both as a Power Action and as a Free Action essentially placing 5 markers a turn. The Free Action marker is a special terrain marker that makes it to where opposing characters can’t use Stealth (which nerfs Midnight Son teams) and also modifies the defense of adjacent opposing characters to the marker -1. We’ve had pieces in the past like the DC10 Green Lantern and Geo-Force that did interesting things with terrain markers, however this take on a barrier marker is necessary in 300 Modern right now with all of the Midnight Sons teams making people waste an ID card slot for US Agent or Peggy Carter. If that wasn’t good enough for 35pts he also has 7 range which is rare to find in the new sets that have been released since World’s Finest and a 10 Attack with 3 Damage. Meaning he’s not just a barrier piece but also a good secondary attacker to help KO a piece that may be to many clicks for a Nick Fury or Green Arrow to kill.
When I first looked at the Super Rare section I fell in love with Jakeem Thunder. I use to play Zombie Super Skrull any chance that I could get because of his versatility in choosing powers and having a long dial of health. Coming in at 140pts and taking up the Prime slot on your team Jakeem is no joke. He may be restricted on the types of powers that he can choose unlike Super Skrull but he also doesn’t take damage from doing so. Having Probability Control at top dial with decent stats throughout including 18 Defense and Regeneration on the back end makes Jakeem Thunder an instant staple in 300 Modern competitive play.
Jakeem Thunder’s counterpart Johnny Thunder isn’t a bad piece either. If played at the 75pts level he becomes a different take on Legion with his trait. By having Pulse Wave and Probability Control on top click Johnny Thunder on a roll of 2-6 can essentially have Running Shot + Pulse Wave with Probability Control if he misses. He also has a 12-Attack on Click 2 and gives Engineer a run for her money on being picked to fill in the roll of a good support piece and secondary attacker.
The Joker makes it onto this list again. It seems that for a set called Joker’s Wild really emphasized how good the Joker can be as a Clix which is great because I never understood why a set would be called say, Thor: Darkworld or Wolverine and the X-Men, and have its best pieces NOT be Thor or Wolverine. #060 Joker is essentially a different take on Bizarro with his tokens and Obnoxio the Clown. The Joker however unlike those pieces really has no ability to damage opposing figures merely annoy them by making it difficult to die. Wizkids made sure to never have Bizarro recreated and chose to make each token that Joker removes when he passes one of two lines also be worth 10pts and there is no way to put back on the tokens once they have been removed. He’s essentially a Masterminds dream piece to be adjacent to and useless for everything else.
THE CHASES
We finally get to the chases. I always wonder how Wizkids comes up with the idea for which figures should be declared chases in a set or what the theme should be and having Bizarro pieces in Jokers Wild definitely puzzles me. Looking at the chases I usually mention that you can skip needing all of them and state that only one or two of them generally matters. This set is a little different in that half of the chases are essentially worth it to get. Somethings that also odd about the chases is that they are all the same number of clicks and have the same stats with 2 stop clicks at the end of the dial. Normally I would state that this is lazy work on Wizkids part but for the Bizarro pieces it makes sense because they were all manmade and identical in their chemical makeup. I just don’t get who let the designers have their way with placing 2 stop clicks at the back end of these things dials.
#061 Bizarro Wonder Woman is the 45pt support piece that Mxy has been looking for. Her ability to attack a friendly character and if she hits pull a token off of that character means that Mxy can now infinitely lock down a team as long as Bizarro Wonder Woman hits Mxy every time. The problem with this of course is that Bizarro Wonder Woman has to roll a 7 or better unless Betty or another low cost piece can make it up to him and defend him down to a 14-Defense.
#063 Bizarro Joker is suppose to be the opposite of Joker and depressed. Somehow that depression has made him the best tie-up piece since Venom from Hammer of Thor. For 45pts he has Plasticity, Sidestep, Modifies adjacent characters attack values by -1, and at the beginning of his turn he heals damage equal to the number of adjacent opposing characters. This means that even when you miss the break away and attack him your first off not going to kill him because he has 2 stop clicks and will only be tokening yourself because he’ll just heal on his turn. I just wish his heal power was called “TELLS YOU ABOUT HIS CHARACTER” instead of “BIZARRO POISON” because this is how I suspect he drains the life force from the room and heals.
We finally end up at the best piece in the set, #66 Bizarrow Green Arrow. A character I did not know existed as a Bizarro counterpart until this set came out. He’s the best piece in this set because he has a trait which essentially is a copy of Human Targets trait making him the target of any range attacker to an adjacent friendly character. Normally I wouldn’t claim a figure is the best because of one power alone, but when you factor in the fact that he along with all the other chases are 6 clicks of life with the last 2 being stop clicks you start to dream of the possibilities this piece can bring to teams. Not only does he become the target but his damage power allows him to place an action token on himself to modify the attack of the opposing figure which has now target him with the attack either -2 to Attack, -2 to Damage, or -1 to both Combat Values. This is the quintessential of Bizarro Ranged Combat Expert and the name of this power. Having Invulnerability on top click makes it to where a figure without Psychic Blast must deal at least 5 Damage just to get through Bizarro Green Arrow’s Invulnerability. If they do have Psychic Blast then you choose to lower the Attack Value and see if they can roll with a -2 to their attack on a base 17 Defense. The most annoying thing about LE Scarlet Witch before she was errated is the fact that she essentially stopped all forms of Range Combat attacks. This is why she was switched. Bizarrow Green Arrow is 100x worse than her. Oh, and she’s still legal in Modern so the 2 together has me scowling and tearing like a stink bomb just went off in the office. If you don’t have this piece GET this piece because it will only go up in value until finally like every other broken piece it will be errated. I just wonder how long it will take. Iron Pharaoh took nearly a year to errata while Scarlet Witch and Tellus where done in a matter of months.
IN CONCLUSION
All in all I like this set. It has a lot of good pieces that are necessary for current and future meta play. The Call-In figures alone can net you some good trades, and a majority of the pieces in this set are essentially support pieces. I had labelled that 7 of the total 16 Common figures are worth owning. At a reasonable rate of $0.50-$1 per common figure the necessary good commons would cost $3-$6 plus Anarky, which goes for around $4-$5. So common total amount is $7-$11. The Uncommons section only had 2 figures that I would recommend immediately getting and a 3rd figure that seems like it could be good. All 3 Uncommon figures would run for the same amount as a basic common and can be anywhere around $0.50 – $1.
The Rare section seemed to have more playable pieces with 5 being essentially noteworthy, however none of them minus maybe Flash and Harley made me believe that they could win the game on a clutch last action. Rares are generally worth anywhere between $2-$5 unless they are played more. I would rate Harley as being worth $2, Flash as $3.50, Looker as $2, Spectre as $2, and Lady Shiva as $2. This totals the essential Rares out to being $11.50.
The total value for a CUR set is generally $30-$50. At the highest end estimated her the figures deemed necessary to be in your inventory would only come up to $25. That’s half of the price that it would be for a high end CUR set. Normally it could be argued that some of the other pieces have potential in the future but this set lacks powerful characters and focuses more on Support.
Looking at the Super Rares the Penguin goes for about $15, Johnny Thunder is $14, Jakeem Thunder being a SR Prime is usually more expensive than the Chases and goes for $85, and Joker is $14. We only said that 5 out of the 13 total Super Rares where worth it. This means that the odds are against you in a Brick to pull the money pieces and get your value back. That $25 that is saved from not buying a CUR set can be used to essentially get 2 of the Super Rares. I would choose Johnny Thunder and Penguin, or if you can put that $25 towards Jakeem because like Nighthawk Prime he’s not going anywhere any time soon and is competing for best Prime ever made.
This set has a ton of expensive Super Rares which makes me worried that the Chases will be hard to get. Some sets have a ton of Chase figures making it impossible to pull the one that you desire. This set is a little different. With only 5 Chase figures and half of them being good you can expect to have a high chance that if you’re going to pull a Chase it will essentially be one of the good ones. The Chases should be anywhere from $20-$50 with Bizarrow Green Arrow being the $50 piece. Other than Bizarro Green Arrow I can’t see Bizarro Wonder Woman or Bizarro Joker being played enough to demand a value higher than $30. And with more Boosters opened every day Bizarro Green Arrows price should eventually drop him because of the flood of product available to $40, which is essentially where Nighthawk Prime currently sits.
As it stands this set is best to pull for your local League tournaments and not something I would recommend buying a Brick or a Case of because every piece mentioned by me to get would essentially cost less than $200 without Jakeem Thunder. That’s the same price as a Case. You’ll even have acquired 3 Chase Figures whereas a Case will only net you 1. And don’t think that you can possibly get your money back with a Brick because the ability to pull poorly is high with this set. By having 5 of 13 total SR’s and 2 of the Primes be in my opinion untrade-able your essentially looking at a set that loses value as soon as you open it. Hopefully the next set Deadpool will be like Avengers Assemble and Nick Fury where every booster is worth it to acquire.
