Hello, HeroClix Masterminds!
The HeroClix team, and a few trusted partners, have put their heads together in order to process the colossal amount of feedback from fans we received earlier this year, and modify Silver Age to be a more fun and interesting play experience for veteran fans and aspiring Clixers alike. If you're looking to understand this format broadly, check out this page.
FIGURAL CHANGES
HeroClix figures you encounter in boosters might have the Unique or Prime designation. Those limitations are generally enough. However, when the pool of figures grows to be as large as the pool for Silver Age has become, playing will be more fun, and teams will be more diverse, when there are further restrictions. Silver Age currently has a Restricted List, from which players may include 1 game element between their starting force and sideline. There are also two categories of banned figures – a ban list, consisting of figures unlikely to return to Silver Age, and a temporary ban list, consisting of figures that have the possibility of returning to Silver Age or the restricted list.
TEMPORARY BAN LIST
The team has seen some figures that are crushing the diversity of the format. Some figures do so because of their point total crowding out other options on your team, some figures do so because they are a prime, and others still have no substitute for the unique role that they bring to a team. As such, the following figures are being added to the Temporary Ban List:
- BP L058 Black Panther
- BP s001/ WWBP t001 Vibranium
- DP21 005 Wonder Woman
- DCX 024 Butterfly
- DCX t001 Phone Booth
- DWX 043b Colossus
- MoT 040 Per Degaton
- MoT 052 Darkseid
- WoV 048 Ghost Rider
- WBX 001 Betelgeuse
- WKX 001 Kong
Some of these figures also relate to one another – Darkseid is kept in check by Butterfly, but Darkseid's prevalence would likely become problematic in a format without Butterfly. This is a good example of why the temporary ban list exists; if the format shakes out to demonstrate that Darkseid would not be overly prevalent, he might return.
RESTRICTED LIST
Feedback makes us believe that Nekron and Carnage Silver Surfer could be removed from the restricted list. Since the metagame is going through a large shakeup, we're going to continue to monitor these figures for power level and their frequency on top teams.
BAN LIST
Sometimes game elements in HeroClix lead to some strange interactions. Professor X 037b from X-Men Xavier's School is such a piece. With some creative team construction, you'll be able to KO a lot of characters, chaining many other effects. The net effect of this is probably overpowered, but even in games where it isn't, it is a negative experience that potentially allows one player to dominate the round clock giving their opponent very little chance to play.
WATCH LIST
First, there are going to be some other changes to Silver Age described later in the article that mean Major Logan is unlikely to be a problem, and we are removing him from the Watch List.
Two recognizable characters have captured the attention of HeroClix players, and with a number of bannings, we estimate their frequency on top teams will increase. For that reason, The Spot and Hadari Yao are both being added to the Watch List.
STRUCTURAL CHANGES
In addition to changes at the figure level for Silver Age, we've decided to make two changes to the structure of Silver Age to improve the Silver Age experience.
HIGHLANDER RULE FOR SILVER AGE
Due to a surge of fan feedback, we've made the decision to make a Highlander Rule for Silver Age. This means, in effect, that no force may have more than 1 copy of the same figure between their Starting Force and Sideline. There has also been fan feedback that we should carve out exceptions – sometimes fans believe that those exceptions should be based on characters that appear in multiples, such as a generic League of Assassins member, other times players believe those exceptions to the Highlander rule should include characters whose gameplay is geared toward utilizing multiple copies of them on your force such as Dr. Fate. Creating a list of exceptions like this is a time-consuming undertaking, and we didn't want to do a half-baked version. As a result, we've decided to have playtest teams, trusted partners, and fans provide suggestions as to which figures should be included – if you'd like to weigh in, drop us an email with subject line "Silver Age Highlander" to gamefeedback@wizkids.com.
Expect an update on this list later this year.
TIME LIMIT
One of the key differences between the Modern Age HeroClix experience and the Silver Age HeroClix experience is that openings are often more complicated, featuring a larger number of decisions and game actions in Silver.
While the design team is aware of this difference and takes it into consideration while designing new pieces, such consideration doesn't change the slate of figures available in Silver Age. Furthermore, this crunchy, front-loaded decision making is something that we believe many players enjoy about Silver Age. One of the consequences of these longer opening turns is that more games don't reach a natural or definitive conclusion. In order to help deal with this, we are moving the recommended time limit for Silver Age to be 55 minutes instead of 50 minutes. We are going to be monitoring this change since we know it may impact the player experience at the tournament-level as well as the individual game-level. We are looking forward to striking the right balance.
THE FUTURE
We look forward to providing more Silver Age updates later this year, particularly after the Silver Age World Championships and before Origins, and after Origins and before HeroClix World Championships.
