Dear HeroClix Players,

Below are the official changes to figures/game elements on the Q4 2017 Watch List (Click here for the original Q4 2017 Watch List post). The following errata/clarifications/rulings are effective immediately as of this posting.

JW #060 The Joker – An errata is being issued to The Joker that makes the D6 roll for his trait Hoohoohoohaahaahaaa mandatory and to remove his combo with Mastermind.

Current

HOOHOOHOOHAAHAAHAA: At the beginning of your turn, you may roll a d6 and halve the result. When you do, either heal or damage The Joker that many clicks and he can heal past his starting line.

Errata

HOOHOOHOOHAAHAAHAA: At the beginning of your turn, [remove “you may”] roll a d6 and halve the result. When you do, either heal or damage The Joker that many clicks and he can heal past his starting line. The Joker can’t be chosen for Mastermind.

Explanation

The Joker just offers too many clicks of life, and his ability to “camp” on his best clicks makes him much less risky than he should be for his cost (or him being The Joker). While we tried other adjustments to his points / tokens, they were more complicated and didn’t change enough of what he was doing. We did leave him the ability to choose either healing or damage, as that’s part of the fun.

The Joker’s almost certainly the greatest Mastermind fodder ever made, and while that’s not especially relevant in the current metagame, some upcoming figures might require changes (or he might require being put back on this list) if he’s still Mastermind fodder. We feel there’s still plenty of other good Mastermind fodder available in Modern Age, and this interaction was contributing to his feeling of “being broken.”

WK #DP17-008 Boxing Ring – No errata or power-level changes are being made. However, a clarification is being issued for how the Boxing Ring interacts with multi-base characters, which has been a source of both confusion and difficult physical representation.

Multi-base characters can no longer “partially” occupy the Boxing Ring (or other special terrain). During a single move, they must either have enough movement left to completely occupy such terrain, or they must stop outside it.

Click here for the official posting in the rules forums.

TMT #058 Uni-Mind – Uni-mind has undergone some substantial changes. We love the classic Eternals, and were excited to finally get the chance to bring them to HeroClix. Having their “Uni-Mind” represented was going to be essential, and the concept was something we previously did with Alloy, but hadn’t yet done for Marvel. Having a character who is a gestalt of other powerful characters and breaks into them when KO’d was a fun concept that we worked to improve the execution of, and we think that effect is at the power level we were expecting. It was the other parts of Uni-Mind that got us into trouble. With the removal of most resources from Modern Age and other rules changes, “Pick-a-power” characters really became the next-most powerful thing in HeroClix, but this wasn’t entirely clear until after Uni-Mind’s design was finalized.

Current

FORGED IN BLUE FLAME: During force construction, you may include a number of different characters in your sideline with the Eternal keyword, adding 5 points to Uni-Mind’s point cost for each. If it starts at 150 points, you may include up to 3. If it starts at 275 points, you may include up to 5. If it starts at 370 points, you may include any number. The included characters must be used at their highest point value and be turned to their starting click. At the beginning of each turn and whenever Uni-Mind takes damage, you may choose one standard power a chosen character can use. Uni-Mind can use that power until it chooses again. When Uni-Mind would be KO’d, instead replace it with all the chosen characters on their last non-KO clicks, placing them within 4 squares of it. Those characters can’t be healed this game. Protected: Pulse Wave.

CHANNEL VAST RESERVES OF COSMIC ENERGY: FREE: Until your next turn, Uni-Mind can’t use the Power Cosmic team ability, but can use Perplex and Willpower. When it uses Perplex, it may modify a combat value by +2 or -2 instead. This turn, it may use Perplex an additional time for every two characters with the Eternal keyword in your Sideline that it can choose powers from.

Errata to CHANNEL VAST RESERVES OF COSMIC ENERGY

CHANNEL VAST RESERVES OF COSMIC ENERGY: FREE: Until your next turn, Uni-Mind can’t use the Power Cosmic team ability, but can use Perplex and Willpower. When it uses Perplex targeting a character with the Eternals keyword, it may modify a combat value by +2 or -2 instead. This turn, it may use Perplex an additional time for every two characters with the Eternal keyword in your Sideline that it can choose powers from.

Errata to FORGED IN BLUE FLAME

FORGED IN BLUE FLAME: During force construction, you may include a number of different characters in your sideline with the Eternal keyword, adding 5 points to Uni-Mind’s point cost for each. If it starts at 150 points, you may include up to 3. If it starts at 275 points, you may include up to 5. If it starts at 370 points, you may include any number. The included characters must be used at their highest point value and be turned to their starting click. At the beginning of your turn [remove “and whenever Uni-Mind takes damage”], you may choose one standard power a chosen character can use. Uni-Mind can use that power until it chooses again. When Uni-Mind would be KO’d, instead replace it with all the chosen characters on their last non-KO clicks, placing them within 4 squares of it. Those characters can’t be healed this game. Protected: Pulse Wave.

Rules change

One note that a sharp playtester brought up is that the ability of some characters to stop Uni-Mind (and others) was being unnecessarily hampered by the rule that when an effect says “can’t use defense powers”, it’s only referring to the actual power in the defense slot of that dial, but not standard defense powers that a character may have acquired by other means. The rules team did an analysis, and determined it really wouldn’t have a broader impact on the clarity of the rules to add that to the Comprehensive Rules. Plus, it just makes more sense intuitively this way when you read the powers, and we always want to try and move the rules towards more intuitive interactions.

So, from now on, any character that says “can’t use [TYPE] powers” (where TYPE= Speed, Attack, Defense or Damage) applies to BOTH powers in that current slot and any standard powers of that type a character can use through other means.

There’s only a handful of these characters in Modern Age, but they now are much more effective (and work more intuitively) against all “Pick-a-power” characters and equipped characters.

Explanation

Uni-Mind’s perplex power was meant to be an enhanced version of the standard Eternals effect, and it definitely was. However, allowing it to be applied to ANY character was ramping it much higher than we’re comfortable with. By limiting it to any Eternal (both on your force or opposing) it limits the options to an appropriate degree, but is still a bit more than the standard Eternals version of this effect. Also, it retains its power in the mirror match.

Uni-Mind being able to choose a power to use at three different times was also intended to be a “ramping up” of the standard kind of pick-a-power, but it just proved itself to be too good with the ability to play both offense and defense very effectively. Also, it was more disruptive to the flow of your opponent’s turn than we realized. As such, we’re changing him to bring him more into line with the standard versions of these kinds of effects: he gets to choose once at the beginning of your turn, and that’s it.

As for the rules change, we wanted to make sure Uni-Mind had some weakness/silver bullets available, and we tested several options. This option makes so much sense we probably would have done it eventually regardless and it allows design to seed in more “silver bullets” for characters granted effects by other powers, without inventing a lot of new rules language and baggage.

In the course of investigating this Q4 Watch List, it became apparent from our playtesters that Jakeem Thunder, a previous resident of the Watch List, would be potentially dominant in Modern Age for the next ~18 months with other characters adjusted but not him. As such, though he was not part of this Q4 Watch List announcement, we’re making a tweak requested by many of our playtesters to bring him more in line with other game elements in the Modern metagame.

JW #053b Jakeem Thunder – An errata is being issued to Jakeem Thunder to add Shape Change to the list of ‘powers he may only select one of’ with his trait.

Current

YOU KNOW WHAT I’M THINKING, JOHNNY?: At the beginning of your turn, choose 2 standard powers, but only one of those powers may be a defense power, Hypersonic Speed, Outwit, Perplex, or Pulse Wave. Jakeem Thunder can use the chosen powers until your next turn.

Errata

YOU KNOW WHAT I’M THINKING, JOHNNY?: At the beginning of your turn, choose 2 standard powers, but only one of those powers may be a defense power, Hypersonic Speed, Outwit, Perplex, Pulse Wave, or Shape Change. Jakeem Thunder can use the chosen powers until your next turn.

Explanation

Shape Change is really a defense power in disguise that for historical reasons lives in the damage slot. As such, his ability to choose it along with other powers, including defense powers, lets him “double-up” in a way that wasn’t really intended. As such, we’re adding Shape Change to his list.

While we strive to avoid making changes to figures after they have been released if possible, our ultimate goal is to have a fun, friendly, and healthy game paired with a positive gameplay experience for both our casual and tournament players. Thank you to our players and playtesters for providing your feedback on how we can further improve the game of HeroClix.