Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ... average.
5 is the highest rating
Cram-company
REVIEWED BY
CRAMCOMPANY
Today we'll be reviewing Venom
from Sinister
After giving us the other
Venom that was nearly unplayable Wizkids made a
pretty smart move by offering him up as a Clixbricks
Exclusive. The Sculpt is awesome and very Venom-ish.
He also has another exciting concept; he has an
ability in every slot of his dial!
Everybody knows who Venom is…right?
LE: 105 points, Sinister Syndicate
Team
Before anyone
freaks
they’ve changed the rules of Combat
Reflexes.
COMBAT REFLEXES (optional):
Modify this character’s defense value by + 2 against
close combat attacks. This character may choose to
be knocked back by any attack from which it takes
damage. Knockback damage dealt to this character is
reduced to 0.
MOVEMENT:
Grr…Leap/climb to start. THEN STEALTH, THEN
CHARGE! Wow, that is so completely backwards of
what would be useful. Plasticity at the end is
decent with Steal Energy, but don’t YOU want to run
away to heal, instead of keeping a character next to
you? Charge is what needed to be first, although
having it 4 clicks down is better then have it the
second click. Realistically if he’s hit, he’ll be
hit for 4.
ATTACK:
Very nice attack values for the sets. Except his
highest attacks are on his second click L Super
Strength is always nice to be loaded on his front
dial. Incapacitate is useless on a character that
has Exploit Weakness and Charge. Blades/Claws are
great to have mid-dial, and amazing to have when you
have Outwit! Steal Energy is nice, but if you’re
playing a medic it will lead you to some very hard
choices. Steal Energy CAN be used with Close Combat
Expert, so Venom is really deadly at his end,
hitting for 4 clicks and healing one click.
DEFENSE:
17 willpower…having no damage reducers at the
beginning is ALWAYS bad for a brick. 17 is nice,
but is becoming the new standard in clix and is
losing its impressive edge. His defense gets
ridiculously low, which is great for healing!
DAMAGE:
You will never want to use him as a range character,
all of his powers work best close up. He has some
great abilities here that will always keep him
useful. Close Combat Expert is nice to have front
loaded and is not an ability you can use with
Charge, so it all does make sense. Blades/Claws and
Exploit Weakness do not work together, so that is
pick and choose, but both can be used with Charge.
Outwit is always good, but I prefer it
Front-loaded….also not sure when Venom has Outwitted
somebody in the comics? Close Combat Expert at the
end makes him insanely dangerous after being hit.
SCULPT:
You can try to complain about whatever you want,
but Wizkids is kicking butt and taking names with
these sculpts.
Feats:
Incontact and Protected are all good
for him…and every Heroclix character ever made.
Life-Model Decoy may prove to be a useful feat on
him, while it is not always useful, it does make his
opening click a lot better and his dial a lot
deeper.
OVERALL:
He has a lot of cool abilities and
much like the Joker from Legacy is probably really
fun to play with.
You pay for those abilities with his
slightly over costed 105 point dial.
Not being front loaded with a move
and attack ability means he is very hard to play and
you have to design your team around getting him a
first hit. Protected can also help with that
problem.
He does have range and that will help
him a lot.
Sinister Syndicate is a very good
ability, if you build your team around it.
Nice and playable attack
His move abilities are all wrong
His damage abilities are alright
You’ll have to memorize his dial and
work hard to play him effectively.
He’s a very hard figure to rate. He
consistently does high damage and will probably hit
with most of his attacks. His second click and his
last click are clearly his best, but his starting
click is not terrible either. He feels like he is
really easy to kill, with a little Outwit and a
couple of hard hitters he’ll go down very fast.
Life-Model Decoy may be able to save him, but it
drives up his points even more. I personally would
not play Venom in any game that is less then 500
points, he really has to move into being third
attacker to be really useful. Non-competitively I
will play him a lot, he’s one of my favorite
characters accurately portrayed as a Heroclix. Most
of all he looks like a lot of fun to play and isn’t
that why we play this game?
VENOM
RECEIVES 3 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
PS:
I agree with Dario, Mary Marvel LE is
indeed terrible.
Dario
Venom
Today we take a break from Collateral Damage to take
a look at something new from Marvel: Venom, from the
Sinister outcoming set. I imagine that you all
know, or at least have a slight idea, of who this
guy is: Eddie Brock...
Symbiote... coolest Spidey's nemesis... coolest
Spidey's ally... bla bla...
So, onto the figure itself: Very nice sculpt indeed,
105 points, Sinister
Syndicate TA, 6 range 1 target, 9 clicks of health
and:
Speed: 10, 10, 9, 8, 8, 7, 7, 6, 5. Starts with
Leap/Climb, then moves to 2
clicks of Stealth, then follows 2 clicks of Charge,
then 2 of Leap/Climb
again and finishes with 2 of Plasticity.
Attack: 10, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 8, 9, 10. Begins with 2
of Super strength,
follows 2 of Incapacitate, 3 of B/C/F then, and ends
with 2 of Steal Energy.
Defense: 17, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10. Starts
with Willpower then
comes Toughness for 3 clicks and the rest is Combat
Reflexes.
Damage: 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2. Starts with 3
clicks of CCE, follows 2 of
Exploit Weakness, then 2 of Outwit and finished with
2 of CCE.
Analysis: Wow... what a rainbow, i must say... but
is that any useful? let's see... First things first:
His range means pretty much nothing as his base
damage is low and he has no useful powers to use
from range (Incapacitate is no good with 1 target 6
range, and Outwit is way too far from the
beginning). His TA is pretty much nothing, too...
moving on, the second half of his speed dial, i
like. Leap/Climb and Plasticity are good for running
to the medic, or you can choose to tie somebody up
with Plasticiy if you want.
The first half... i dislike very much that he
doesn't start with Stealth,
it's a big downside... Flurry is ok, especially on
those clicks; Charge will come in handy, i think.
Attack: Super Strength without HSS or Charge isn't
reaslly good, neither is Incapacitate in this guy's
case... B/C/F is nice,
especially with the Charge; Steal Energy isn't too
great, but it's a nice
little ability. IMO that his numbers here are darn
good. Defense: Starts
nice (17, 17, 16), but drops way too fast to way too
low numbers, and he has almost no damage reducers
(Toughness, and for only 3 clicks... :S) I guess
the starting Willpower is nice, but would have been
much better with
Stealth... the whole lot of Combat Reflexes, with
the new ruling for this
power, helps him but not too much... Damage: Very
nice, if you can get him
next to somebody he'll wreck him.
Conclusion: I can't like him even though i want to:
with Leap/Climb,
Plasticity and Combat Reflexes he has a way of
running to the medic, and his low defense makes him
very healable; but that same low defense with almost
no damage reducing powers will be his doom. As well
as his inability to be a danger to characters with
range. I mean, when dealing with a figure is
easier than playing it, it's pretty obvious it's not
too great, and dealing
with Venom is easy: just outrange him, or use a 6
range character (would be
withtin his range) but with Impervious or
Invulnerability, and he's yours.
Just make sure you finish him swiftly so he doesn't
get heal.
The Le
Wizkids recently announced it's Clix Brick special figure,
and it's VENOM! To get this unique figure, you need
to buy a Clix Brick of the new Sinister set, coming
out later this spring -- which allows you to get Venom
for free! Make sure you save the Clix Brick UPC symbols (on
the booster), since they are required to get your free
Venom figure.
Let's get right to it. Venom has a low cost of [105] and a
range of [6], with one lightning bolt. Taking a close look
at the dial there is one glaring fact -- a full dial of
color! That's right, Venom sports a power in every
single slot of those [9] clicks of life, and the Sinister
Syndicate Team Ability (TA) to boot.
Even at a quick glance it is easy to see that each and every
power is carefully placed for maximum effect. I'll tell you
right now -- Venom is a very nice figure!
We start off with Leap/Climb (L/C) to go anywhere, Super
Strength (SS), Willpower, and Close Combat Expert (CCE). He
starts with a very high Speed and Attack of [10], excellent
defense of [17] and respectable damage of [2]. All of these
are fantastic starts. Willpower is gold in my book, and this
combination allows you to quickly get in close and deal
[2]+[2] damage with a heavy object or [2]+[2] damage with
CCE. (remember, SS and CCE cannot be used at the same time).
First clicks of life are critical for any figure, and this
first click is gold.
At the 2nd click of life we get a drastic change as Venom
loses L/C for Stealth, and Willpower is lost for Toughness.
Stats are pretty much the same, except we have a bump in
Attack to [11], meaning he can hit pretty much anyone at
this point. SS is still there, so you can always throw that
heavy object you are carrying for [2] damage. The loss of
Willpower is sad, but tougness will do for now, and we do
still have a high defense of [17].
The 3rd click of life sees a drop in all values, but they
are all still very good. SS is also lost for a more useful
Incapacitate (INC). With an attack of [10], you can hit
anyone for [1] damage, but more likely you will want to use
INC, a power I like to call the "Hulk Stopper". Of course,
if they base you, you can always use that CCE for [1]+[2]
damage.
The 4th click is more of the same, with drops in all values
again, except for damage. Damage actually increases to [2],
and CCE is lost for Exploit Weakness (EW). You can still
stop that Hulk figure with INC, but EW is where the fun
comes in. And if you aren't in range, just close in on them,
since Stealth has been dropped in favor of Charge! Remember
though, Charge cannot be used with INC or CCE. But who
cares? It's nice to have all these options at your disposal.
The 5th click sees the biggest change, with a Speed of [8],
Attack of [8], Defense of [14], and Damage of [2]. Charge is
still there, but INC is dropped for Blades/Claws/Fangs (BCF).
That's always a nice option to have, but only if your EW is
outwitted.
The biggest change, however, is that the rest of the dial is
full of Combat Reflexes (CR). His defense drops to a
mediocre [14] and gets worse, but take a look at the new
rule change that takes effect this summer:
COMBAT REFLEXES (optional): Modify this character’s
defense value by + 2 against close combat attacks. This
character may choose to be knocked back by any attack from
which it takes damage. Knockback damage dealt to this
character is reduced to 0.
That's just sweet. Looks like all those complaints about CR
has finally paid off. With this change, Venom's [14]
defense is now looking like [14]+[2] in close combat, which
is very good at the 5th click of life.
The 6th & 7th clicks of life loses Charge for L/C, BCF is
still there, CR is there, but Exploit Weakness is lost for
Outwit. I'll take Outwit over EW any day. L/C will let you
break away and heal, or just get up close and personal for
that BCF. Lots of options here. And don't forget that
Venom has a range of 6.
There's also an interesting change starting with the 7th
click. Venom's Attack went from [7] to [8], and keeps
going up by +1 every click thereafter. That's just... well,
really bad for opponents.
The last 2 clicks of life (8th & 9th) are still very
dangerous. L/C is lost for Plasticity. BCF is lost for Steal
Energy (SE), CR is still there, but Outwit is lost for CCE
again. Speed and Defense is pretty lousy, but CR helps with
this, and this is the last 2 clicks of life after
all. However, Damage is still [2] with CCE, and that Attack
Value is very dangerous at [9] and [10]. Now, before you
blast SE for being weak (you heal 1 life for a successful
close combat attack), please note that SE works with any
close combat attack, even CCE! So, you can do [2]+[2] damage
and heal [1] click in the process! I'll buy that for a
dollar! With such a good Attack value here, I'd be willing
to take a chance and push Venom with an attack, since
SE will be able to offset that push damage.
And finally I end with he Sinister Syndicate TA. Sinister Syndicate: A member of this team may use the
unmodified attack value of an adjacent friendly member of
this team instead of its own.
There are two kinds of figures that fit into this mold:
lenders & borrowers. Venom is definitely a lender.
His attack value dips to [7] only once (on the sixth click),
And stays at [9] or higher for six of those clicks. That's
really good.
Which brings me to my conclusion. Venom is fantastic.
His color dial is very good and each slot is very well
chosen. Kudos to the designers for putting together a good
figure. There are definitely some overlaps in abilities, but
this simply means Venom is very versatile and should
not be afraid of opponent's outwit.
I'd hate to say it, but I think Venom may be
overpowered, especially at the paltry cost of 105
points. That's a whole lot of powers packed into a very deep
[9] clicks of life. The defense does drop in the end, which
some would consider his "glass jaw", and he is certainly an
easy target against ranged attackers.
Rating: 5 out of 5. (Perfectly placed set of powers, for a
measly cost of 105 points)
