REVIEWED BY CRAMCOMPANY

Today we'll be reviewing Mystique from Armor Wars

            As my favorite writer Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly) says; “Blue Chicks are hot!”

Nuff said!

Unique:  52 points, Shield Team, 6 range with a single target.

MOVEMENT:  Stealth is good, but it is no running shot.

ATTACK:  Only one click of psychic blast to start…so I guess you can’t push her.

DEFENSE:  Just terrible.  Willpower it is useful, only when it is worth attacking.

DAMAGE:  YES!  My favorite ability…shape change.  The excellent combo of psychic blast and ranged combat expert.

SCULPT:  The gold looks pretty sweet.

OVERALL: 

·                     Shape change and stealth is pretty neat together.

·                     The powers are horribly placed.

·                     Willpower after you click off her “best” clicks

·                     Ranged combat expert or psychic blast which will you choose?  It usually will not matter.

·                     The second and third clicks are pointless

·                     2 damage L

·                     Low defense

·                     Low attack

·                     Rarely used team ability.

·                     She is like an expensive Asp with a lower damage.

·                     No upsides.

She is just horribly designed.  The powers are okay, but they need to be mixed up and placed differently.  Willpower to start with stealth on the first, second and 4 forth click.  Ranged Combat expert to start, not in the middle.  But she is a mess just like the wacky world she comes from.

That being said…blue chicks are hot.

HE RECEIVES 0.5 OUT OF A POSSIBLE 5 THUMBS UP!

Good, Bad, I’m the Guy with the Clix

Cramcompany

Questions, comments, sexually confused?  email me at cramcompany@hotmail.com.

Please no hate mail

Here's a little unique from the Armor Wars set: Mystique. As a unique she clocks in at a respectable 52 points, has 1 ranged attack with a range of 6, and sports the S.H.I.E.L.D. Team Affiliation. She only sports 7 clicks of life, but her dial feels very deep.

At first glance it may seem like she is very weak, but the progression of powers makes her useful on almost any force as a tertiary attacker (but definitely not primary and probably not secondary). She is definitely useful as a ranged attacker, but that range of 6 is limiting. Still, if you can position her, she will be able to pack quite a punch. All her values are average, but she does keep a consistent 2 damage for her entire dial, which is a plus. Still, there is something somewhat disturbing about this figure. Let's take a closer look.

Her first 2 clicks are fairly unimpressive. She has stealth and Shape Change to let her get into position (a good thing), but with a range of 6 she is going to need to push get close enough. Psychic Blast is very powerful and could come in handy, but she loses it on her 2nd click of life. This makes her less useful since, as I said, you will need to push her to get into position. Of course, you could just have her sit around and be more defensive than offensive -- but remember, offense wins the match (and her range is weak).

Her defense is respectable and consistent, dropping from 16 to 15 on her 3rd click of life, but this is where she becomes dangerous thanks to Willpower across her 5 remaining clicks of life! Willpower = staying power, and Mystique will be staying for while. She still has Stealth and Shape Change, and with Willpower this lets her take potshots on her opponent with ease.

Of course, she may get knocked into her 4th and 5th clicks of life, losing Stealth and Shape Change, but gaining Psychic Blast (PB) and Ranged Combat Expert (RCE). I don't like her as much here because PB and RCE is redundant due to the damage value of 2. Off-hand I cannot think of any reason to use PB instead of RCE, since both would do the same damage against an impervious/invulnerable opponent, and RCE would do more damage against other opponents.

In any case, this combo is clearly a waste on this character, although it does help if one of the two is outwitted. Regardless, you are able to do 2-4 damage against an opponent with these abilities (2 damage guaranteed). Her Attack Value drops down to a still respectable 8, but once again that Willpower is gold. Still though, she is an open target without stealth or Shape Change.

At the end we are left with 2 clicks of life with a low Attack Value, fledging defense, but still 2 damage. She gets Shape Change back, giving her 1 in 6 chance of avoiding an attack (16.7%), and she still has that willpower.

So what's the final verdict? Hard to say. On one had you have the redundant Psychic Blast + Ranged Combat Expert in the middle, with no stealth and no Shape Change, making her a sitting target. On the other hand, she does sport some great powers early to hide and slowly get into position, and those 5 clicks of Willpower goes a long way. Her range is useable but can make her difficult to position.

On a final note, we have the S.H.I.E.L.D. team affiliation (TA). This TA has not been useful since they made it require a power action. While the extra damage is nice, I feel that you should be able to find better uses for your limited action tokens.

While I think Mystique can be useful, I also think that it requires a lot of work and some luck to pull off. She's definitely useful in the end game thanks to her Willpower, but she would take a beating pretty quickly once she loses that stealth, or if any opponent bases her. And the redundant middle powers and fairly useless TA just increases the overall cost for no reason.

For 52 points, you can do better.

Rating: 3 out of 5 (average)

--The' Le

contact: TheLeGames@gmail.com
website: www.TheLeGames.com