Actually there are several very good reasons - he's a very solid piece that was fairly hard to get when his set came out (and that set has been sold out for years). I bought a case an a half and didn't get a HoT Cap. He's still my go-to Cap for Avengers teams, so for players who care about the characters, he's a must-get IMO. And it's possible to build a cheese team around him (particularly if you're willing to play him in multiples, so one being nerfed isn't a big deal).

Is he a standard on top Worlds teams? I don't think that's the case, but I don't track such things like some here do. I just know that when I see him on the other side of the table, he doesn't make me clench up automatically... I gotta see the rest of the team first. With pieces that I see as cheese, like Nightcrawler or Metron, seeing them gives an instant reaction.

I've taken all that cheese out with British Indys! And I'm a mediocre player with a penchant for playing silly yet crappy figures!

I don't give Edam what you say, they're no Gouda!

M&M cuckoos. I started playing after Arkham Asylum and never pulled a Cuckoo from the boosters I bought. I bought one individually without a card a year ago and later found a loose card among a store's donated material. I would have bought some online if they were more available and weren't so relatively high-costed at the time. I eventually sold the one that I have, and it's probably for the better, as Mind Control is not a power I often utilize anyway.

Generics are usually the most complex CUR's to get, especially when they're rares like Predator X. Arkham Asylum Manhunters are also harder to come by now that they are more playable via Manhunter Grandmaster. I need three more for a "Furious Five."

I've given up on Gravity Feed Howling Commandos. I should have bought a display had I known they would have been so difficult to pull.

It's interesting how the whole generic situation has evolved. While I kinda miss the old and cheap generics, I love the playability of the newer, more expensive (point cost-wise) pieces.
I have been fortunate(?) to have pulled a lot of the AA Manhunters, Parademons, and Mindless Ones, among other similar big point Generics. I also try to dig them up for friends and myself in the bargain bins at conventions and such.
I tend to trade pieces like predator X and soldier type generics away to people who want them as I'm not likely to play those anyway.

I think the generic that give clixers fits more than anything else are the War Skrulls. SR generics are a complete pain to try to hoard.

I didn't even bother with m&m or secret invasion I thought about 80 percent was caca. Out of the few boosters I got I pulled a cosmic wolverine and that was it. Secret invasion held NO appeal to me I just have pieces from the set because one way or another they have been included in a trade or I just have them given to me. this includes the very rare human captain Marvell

A slight caveat to my earlier post, of my entering the game around Fantastic Forces.

I actually got into the game - collecting-wise - for vastly different reasons then most. I originally intended to just get all the figures, and use them as 3-D pieces for a role-playing game.

Like most others, however, the game eventually sucked me in like a wind tunnel, shortly after that.

I did not actually start to play the game, full tournament etc, until the Armor Wars set came out. The venue I gamed at the most had a very competitive element of players to it; and, now that some here have alluded to its nature, I understand what they were using was LAMP.
Did not like that play style - to me it is almost like cheating (no one blow a gasket please!) - at least to the point that, when someone asks you, "hey how did you come up with that", and they look at you like your trying to break into Fort Knox, it seems beyond petty. I always try to help others who want to learn about the game. While it is not a specific game piece, bad attitudes also have my vote for "things that give me a complex" as well.

I have bought full cases of Fantastic Forces, Armor Wars, Supernova, and every set since then (at least 1 case, sometimes 2), and have even had the fortune (?) to have lucked onto full cases of Infinity Challenge, Hypertime, and Indy as well, in an after the fact situation. (Any set that was between Indy and FF I picked up piece-meal only, as this was really before my time in the game - that being FF.)

Now I mention this fact not to toot my own horn - quite the contrary in fact - but to illustrate a point. No matter how many full cases I have bought of any set, I have NEVER gotten the full deal; always 2 - 6 figures short. And this point burns my rectum to no end.

Not that I ascribe to the capitalism of the situation by this statement, but I can see not getting the full set with 1 case - to a point. (Chases mostly.) But when you buy 2 or 3 full cases of product, and do not come up with a full set, you are just getting screwed - period.

This fact alone has been really having me question the validity of doing so anymore, either. The economy is not helping the situation as well.

But, the point to which I have been building up to is this: when I buy at least 2 full cases of product, and do not pull a full set - not to mention getting shorted the only 2 real pieces I want out of that whole set - it is seriously time to start thinking about pulling up the ship.

I love to trade as much as the next guy, but no matter how much trouble any piece gives you in the trade-hunt; when you shell out the moohla up front, to supposedly 'beat the odds', and STILL get shafted, the end result is basically: 'what's the point'? Or, more appropriately, 'how much capitalism is enough'?

Well, your reason he wasn't cheese was his 10 attack. Is Nightcrawler not cheese? He has a hard time hitting, too.

Of course, people usually perplex his attack.

There were a lot of him at Worlds. As I mentioned, I went 3-1 with a pair of them, beating a former champ playing Metron/Nightcrawler, and beating the person/team who ended up placing 4th, and only losing to the eventual Champion.

His biggest weakness is Nightcrawler, and even then, I beat two of the three I faced.

A recent stubborn acquisition has been The Atom (Al Pratt). He is only a 50 cent figure, but every trade I try to finagle him into he gets dropped off of. Thankfully I just secured him via a trade yesterday. Thought he was gonna play hide-and-seek forever for a bit there.

I had thought about doing that too, till I saw they go for over $30 recently.

I am still having fits trying to get a CM LE Prof Xavier. At this point I am giving up and going for a mod dial - it will be cheaper in the long run and I will not have fits over it any longer - sort of, lol.

Lian Harper. I'm not lying. No one wants to trade me her. And I never pulled her...

I will try to find one for you.