Greetings HeroClix Masterminds!
As we discussed HERE, the Rules Committee has evaluated the state of Modern Age gameplay following the US Nationals at Origins 2025. On the whole, feedback from the event was positive; teams at top cut were varied, and that’s a signal that the metagame is in a healthy state. Our Special 2025 Playtest Lead PJ Bolin also spoke with the competitors at the event and compiled feedback from the fans. Given player feedback, there are some ways we believe we could improve the Modern and Pulp formats. All changes go into effect on July 7, 2025.
Summary
Banned in Modern:
DP20-s005 Nifty Traffic Barrel
MCT OS015 Rivalry
MSV OS001 Canon Event
Errata:
WBX1-001 Betelgeuse
MSV 040 The Spot
S&D L17-002 Spirit of Vengeance Red Hulk
Banned in Pulp:
MoT 040 Per Degaton
DP20-s005 Nifty Traffic Barrel
Result: Banned in Modern
Explanation: Movement-restricting effects like Nifty Traffic Barrel’s can be healthy for the game, giving players looking to field defensive teams opportunities to slow aggressive opponents. However, its hyper-efficient 5-point cost led it to be over-featured in the metagame. Rather than wait for it to rotate after the World Championship, we decided to ban it now for a healthier, more diverse metagame.
MCT OS015 Rivalry
Result: Banned in Modern
Explanation: Rivalry has the opposite issue of the Nifty Traffic Barrel, making engagement too easy. The Rules Committee was not concerned about Rivalry heading into US Nationals, since the risk of not being able to use it existed. Additionally, the cost (both points and opportunity cost) would make Rivalry desirable for some teams, but not too many. The usage rate of Rivalry and feedback from players overwhelmingly disagreed, though. To ensure that Modern remains a fun, diverse, competitive format, we are removing Rivalry from the pool of legal game elements.
MSV OS001 Canon Event
Result: Banned in Modern
Explanation: Canon Event’s ban follows similar reasoning to Rivalry, topping the lists of game elements fans felt were unfun to play against. Intended as a means to safeguard your team against alpha strikes, some teams were able to abuse Canon Event to, ironically, shield their alpha strike character from the risks of overextending. Canon Event is being removed from Modern, but we will likely revisit its effect in a more fair way in the future.
WBX1-001 Betelgeuse
Result: Errata.
Previous:
(TRAIT) FIRST YOU GOTTA SAY MY NAME SIDELINE ACTIVE – If Betelgeuse is on your Sideline, friendly characters have “POWER: Give Betelgeuse a Name token.” // When Betelgeuse has three Name tokens, remove them, generate Betelgeuse adjacent to the last character who gave him a Name token, and roll a d6. Turn Betelgeuse to the resulting click number.
(TRAIT) IT’S SHOWTIME! Sidestep. // Other characters can’t be given FREE actions. // At the end of your turn, if Betelgeuse wasn’t part of your starting force, choose one:
- Return Betelgeuse to your Sideline
- Roll a d6 and deal another friendly character unavoidable damage equal to half the result.
Errata:
(TRAIT) FIRST YOU GOTTA SAY MY NAME SIDELINE ACTIVE – If Betelgeuse is on your Sideline, friendly standard characters have “POWER: Give Betelgeuse a Name token.” // When Betelgeuse has three Name tokens, remove them, generate Betelgeuse adjacent to the last character who gave him a Name token, and roll a d6. Turn Betelgeuse to the resulting click number.
(TRAIT) IT’S SHOWTIME! Sidestep. // Other characters can’t be given FREE actions. // At the end of your turn, if Betelgeuse wasn’t part of your starting force, choose one:
- Return Betelgeuse to your Sideline
- Roll a d6 and deal another friendly standard character unavoidable damage equal to half the result.
Explanation: Betelgeuse has become a staple of Sidelines, and overall, the Rules Committee is happy with the effect he’s had on the metagame, counterbalancing FREE action-dependent teams and adding greater weight to standard actions. However, some teams exploited Autonomous characters, or characters that easily generate bystanders, to use Betelgeuse at a negligible cost, so we are taking steps to correct that with this errata.
S&D L17-002 Spirit of Vengeance Red Hulk
Result: Errata.
Previous:
(TRAIT) PILOT: CIRCLE OF FOUR When revealing your force, you may choose up to four single base characters on your Sideline that share a keyword with Spirit of Vengeance Red Hulk and turn them each to any click. // At the beginning of your turn, choose Attack or Damage. Spirit of Vengeance Red Hulk can use the standard powers of that type displayed on the chosen characters/ dials on your Sideline until you choose again.
Errata:
(TRAIT) PILOT: CIRCLE OF FOUR When revealing your force, you may choose up to four single base characters on your Sideline that share a keyword with Spirit of Vengeance Red Hulk and have distinct names from each other, and turn them each to any click. // At the beginning of your turn, choose Attack or Damage. Spirit of Vengeance Red Hulk can use the standard powers of that type displayed on the chosen characters/ dials on your Sideline until you choose again.
Explanation: Spirit of Vengeance Red Hulk has been the surprise contender this year, only becoming a popular team choice in the past month. We’re excited to see how play develops around this figure. However, some builds stack him with multiple copies of characters like Beholder or Thanos, which can lead to unfun game states. With this errata, we hope to preserve Spirit of Vengeance Red Hulk’s competitive viability while also keeping games with him engaging and fun.
MSV 040 The Spot
Result: Errata.
Previous:
(SPEED) I AM NOT A JOKE Flurry, Phasing/Teleport. Flurry as FREE, but only to target a character adjacent to his Spot’s Spot marker regardless of adjacency. // When The Spot hits, after resolutions you may place a hit character adjacent to The Spot or a terrain marker within three squares of their current square.
Errata:
(SPEED) I AM NOT A JOKE Flurry, Phasing/Teleport. Flurry as FREE, but only to target a character adjacent to his Spot’s Spot marker regardless of adjacency. // When The Spot hits, after resolutions you may place a hit character adjacent to The Spot or a terrain marker if The Spot or that terrain marker is within 3 squares of their current square.
Explanation: The Spot has shown some really exciting, dynamic play patterns that can efficiently punish teams that lack mobility. Unfortunately, in his current form, he has also enabled some unfun “killbox” strategies that seek to pull opponents across the map where The Spot’s allies can poison or beat down their opponents one at a time. This errata makes those strategies more difficult to pull off, while keeping The Spot’s fun mobility strategies intact.
MoT 040 Per Degaton
Result: Banned in Pulp
Explanation: Per Degaton has been a popular support character since his release, offering a wide variety of powers at an efficient point cost. The number of teams in Modern utilizing him gave the Rules Committee some concern, but we ultimately decided it wasn’t necessary to make any changes to him at this time. Per Degaton’s impact on Pulp, however, has been more significant. His prominence in Pulp not only reduces team-building variety, but in many situations also pulls players away from fielding theme teams. Furthermore, Pulp is intended to focus on the fundamentals of HeroClix gameplay and let figures shine for the strength of their Standard Powers. Per Degaton’s overall complexity level is out of sync with that. Overall, it is best for the spirit and metagame of Pulp for Per Degaton to be banned in the format.
This concludes the Post-Origins 2025 Watch List. The Rules Committee will continue to monitor the overall metagame health of HeroClix’s various formats and will issue Watch Lists as needed.
