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Pojo's HeroClix "Click of the Day"
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Godwin |
Masters of Evil week concludes with another Unique from the
Ultimate set, Crimson Cowl. She comes in at 80 points so she is a little
less expensive then the master Baron Zemo himself.
First off her movement ability is clearly her best feature.
Her starting Speed of 10, which she keeps for 2 clicks, is heightened by the
addition of Flight and Phasing her entire dial. This is one flyer who never
has to worry about terrain of any kind. Phasing is ok outside, but where
it is really useful is for inside maps. A character with Phasing and Flight
can basically carry a figure through walls, which is great for setting up
your heavy hitters. Crimson Cowl also has a few clicks of Leadership to
help give more actions to your team.
If movement is her best ability then attacking is her worst.
The bad news is that her starting Attack of 8 is pretty weak for an 80-point
character. There is some good news that her Attack doesn’t drop until her 4th
click. So that means she has some chance to land hits through her first
several clicks. Her Range of 4 isn’t really all that useful either so she
can’t sit back and let fly with ranged attacks while staying out of harms
way.
Her damage is interesting. Her natural Damage of 2 is ok, but
again she does keep it for 3 clicks. She has Incapacitate for 5 clicks, but
as I will explain in a moment I think she really could get away with
Incapacitate on only her first two clicks. What makes her intriguing is
after she loses Leadership on her third click she gets Exploit Weakness for
3 clicks. This means she can cut through even Impervious or Invulnerability
(and Toughness) with her damage. This is why I think Incapacitate is an
unnecessary duplication because most people use it to give Pushing damage to
figures with strong defensive powers. Since Exploit Weakness does
basically the same thing (only better) this could have saved some point cost
in my opinion.
Her starting Defense of 16 is ok, but not great (Notice how I
have said ok a lot in this review). She does have 3 clicks of Toughness to
soften the blow, but with only 6 clicks of life she is similar to Baron Zemo
in that if she gets hit she won’t stick around for to long.
Overall Crimson Cowl fits into the mold of those type of
figures that are too expensive to be support pieces, and not strong enough
to anchor a 300 point tourney team. In larger point games she would be
useful, but her low attack really limits her in 400 points and below. I do
like her third click. A lot of times I can see her taking 3 clicks of damage
and falling right into her best dial with still a decent attack and Exploit
Weakness with 2 clicks of damage. If she can hit with that then she can take
off with Phasing and avoid dying unnecessarily. I should add that I love
her sculpt and would love to have her in my collection just for that. I
really like how her cape seems to swirl around her as she is flying up.
Overall Score: (Out of 10. Score of: 4 = horrible, 5 = below
average, 6 = slightly above average, 7 = great, 8 = outstanding)
Unique Crimson Cowl – 6.5
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Majinxstar |
Today we continue the Masters of Evil trend with one of
its leaders, The Crimson Cowl.
Looking at her you might think you don't know much about her and that might
scare you, but don't be scared. She may have a 10 movement with phasing and
a
16 defense with toughness, but she is horrible. She has leadership and 2
damage, but only and 8 attack.
Vet Robin has a bigger attack number and he is only 22 points, not 80. She
gets exploit weakness two clicks in, but with an 8 attack anyone she can hit
has no powers to worry about. You probably don't want her in close combat
with anyone short of a medic or Destiny.
She is an 80 point secondary attacker except in the end she is nothing but
cannon fodder, expensive cannon fodder. If you pull her, trade her, "if you
can".
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vizier_usa |
Crimson Cowl
Rank: Unique
Point Value: 80
Team: Masters of Evil
Range: 4
Ranged Attacks: 1
Speed: 10/10/9/9/8/7 All Phasing
Attack: 8/8/8/7/7/6 Clicks 1-5 Incap
Defense: 16/15/15/14/14/13 Clicks 1-3 Toughness
Damage: 2/2/2/1/1/1 Clicks 1-2 Leadership, 3-5
Exploit Weakness
Background: I have no idea who the current Crimson Cowl is, which is ironic
considering I used to have the comic in which her version of the Masters of
Evil faced off against the Thunderbolts for the first time.
Apparently she was one of the main villains faced by the Thunderbolts in the
series. If anyone is curious, this link to Whoclix should be helpful:
http://members.aol.com/whoclix/multae.htm Anyway, the only thing I can say
about this character is if you name yourself after your flying fashion
statement, your costume better back up your rep.
Review:
First Thoughts: I usually put Unique figures into three categories: 1)
Broken goodness, (i.e. Ultimates Thor), 2) Average, but usable figures,
(i.e.
Ultrahumanite) and 3) Figures Wizkids makes to stay true to their comic book
roots. Guess which one I m putting Crimson Cowl in .
Strengths: Phasing with a movement of 10 to start with is great, and on a
flier that makes you a really good taxi. The 16 with Toughness is good to
survive a hit, and with Exploit Weakness, after you take that hit your
opponent will think twice before basing to finish you off. Incap is always
good to slow down other figures in a pinch. Oh, yeah Leadership once again,
free moves are ok, especially if you re in low point total games, I guess
Weaknesses: First thing that comes to my mind about
CC: she s an 80 pt taxi with six clicks. About
taxis: they should NEVER be worth 80 pts if they re six clicks deep. After
Wizkids instituted NAAT (No Actions After Taxiing), the current format
became hostile to dedicated taxis since they weren t move efficient anymore.
Fliers these days have to do more than just carry stuff around if they re
over 80 pts, and CC just doesn t do that. You could say that with Leadership
CC tries to get over that limitation by giving you back an action, but the
point is that taxiing makes most teams vulnerable, both to the figures that
are taxied and to the taxi itself. With a 16 Defense, CC is still going to
be a tempting target considering how much she s worth.
Opportunities: My theory is that CC was designed to be a sitting duck. That
is, she taxis, your opponent notices, sees that she s worth 80pts, starts
thinking up ways to try to give her fashion advice, and ignores whatever it
was you taxied to begin with. Even if your opponent notices, they ll have a
very difficult
decision: dedicate enough moves to take out the 80 pt taxi, or just ignore
it and go after whatever was taxied in the first place. In addition, if your
opponent does ignore CC, she can either hit for 2 damage or Incap, both at
up to 4 range. Causing headaches for your opponent is what good strategy is
all about.
Threats: Solution to the above: Either Incap or ignore CC and go after the
larger game. If whatever was taxied isn t worth the attention, hey, CC is
just
6 clicks deep, and worth 80 pts. I say go for it.
Oh, and please consider this situation with Exploit
Weakness: Since its two clicks in, its not move-efficient to obtain by
pushing, which means it was meant to come up after CC takes a big hit. Ok,
fine, say that your opponent didn t know CC s dial and succeeds. If you re
hit from Range, that red on her isn t from the costume. If it was a Close
Combat attack, and you re still alive, congratulations, you re based next to
something and you have the opportunity (hopefully) to use EW. Now what?
Taxis are usually hit after they taxi, so there s still a token on her. Do
you push, knowing you have an 8 or below AV to work with and knowing you re
going to end up with an even lower Defense on a shallow dial, or waste a
move and run away because CC IS worth 80 pts and you have Phasing? (Doesn't
it suck when Wizkids makes figures with powers that aren't complimentary in
the game?) Creating headaches for yourself is what bad strategy is all
about.
Conclusion: It s not that CC is bad, it s just that there s really no reason
why she should be Unique. If a figure is Unique, then it should bring
something special to the game. I could replace Crimson Cowl with a R
Sidewinder and a V Shadowcat, have about 20 points left over for something
else on my team, and not bat an eye over what I lost. There are strategies
that could probably involve this figure, especially on a theme Masters of
Evil teams. (Continuity Alert:
Wouldn t Baron Zemo II hate Crimson Cowl?) Tournament-wise, well, if the
format is big enough to accommodate an 80 pt taxi, and you re dying to have
the best dressed supervillain on the field, well nah ..
Tournament: 2
Casual: 3
Closest Comparison: Hmmm . Well, actually, there are no fliers that have
Phasing with Leadership, EW and Incap, so I guess you could say CC is Unique
in that
regard . Otherwise, consider Shadowcat REV for some
cheaper taxiing with Phasing.
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