Kill the parademons and then he has no way to mastermind the damage... Sometimes you gotta kill the body before you can cut the head off of the snake.. its poor play to let your opponent dictate how your damage is spent.

Party pooper!

But yes, there are too many good things that could be said from "Boom Tube Invasion" in the way of juvenile jokes. I plan on using them quite frequently.

How are you going to profitably kill X Parademons with Darkseid slapping you for four plus penetrating damage every turn? Even if they kill all of your fodder, Darkseid has a dial full of damage reducers. Will there be enough of your team left by that time to deal with the rest of him? It IS poor play to let your opponent dictate where their damage goes, and that's exactly what Mastermind prevents them from doing.

That's the whole point of mastermind-- you do have a timer, but you're going to wreck house in the meantime. That's my criticism of so many mastermind figures-- there's not enough there to protect! In this case, there is! With Quintesence, 5 DM and that range, how much damage can I deal before you kill the support? A *lot*.

Re: The Crisis version-- I'm glad this one is so different. Now you can play Darkseid two different styles, depending on what you like. The old one is still a beast as well.

It'd be a bugger if someone TK's Darskeid away from his Mastermind fodder then smacks him for 4 or 5 damage right through his dial. This would be quite easy considering people keep talking about using him in 500 points. Okay, you get Darskeid + all the Mastermind fodder you want. I'll take plenty of TK, Prob, and big damage.

Bottom line here, Darskeid won't be a standout piece. He may be fun, but I look at this dial and see a shocking lack of creativity compared to what I've come to expect from Wizkids with primetime characters. A full dial of Psychic Blast to represent his Omega beams? Really? First they gave us a Superman dial that might be the "definitive" Superman that isn't even the normal continuity Superman AND the dial is pretty boring (yet good). Now we see Darskeid and there just is a tremendous lack of any kind of design-brilliance here. I expect some lazy design on Commons, Uncommons, and maybe even Rares, but the Super Rares?

I know I sound like I might be nagging a lot here, but I was just so pumped for Darkseid and we get this. Sure it will be usable, it's just not the creative figure I wanted... not even close.

I'm failing to see the crushing lack of creativity. What did you want, exactly? Besides, Crisis Darkseid was basically definitive. They could have put that dial in this set, but people would have complained. I'm excited to see something different that still reflects the character well. Not having a ton of special powers doesn't read "lazy" to me, and the one he does have is both accurate and powerful.

How is somebody TKing Darkseid if I'm outwitting them, or not walking into their LOF?

I think this is a nastier combo than people are considering. Not that it's broken, or Worlds level or anything, but it's very potent.

My most hated piece lately is those damned Hellfire guards hanging around Magneto, for similar reasons.

The Boom Tube power is cool. They should have represented his ability to maneuver the Omega beams around obstacles. I also think simply having Mastermind is too simple. I think it'll be too easy to deal with. Anyone who reaches for him in 300 points is going to go down hard and fast (that's a bad thing in this case). Darkseid is someone that can take a beating even when he doesn't have minions. This Darskeid is a pushover if he isn't surrounded by hoards. Call me greedy, but I wanted more out of my Darkseid.

Where to start? Well placement is key, basing said darksied lowers his effectiveness by choosing where his damage is going, which is why mastermind is a GOOD power. But allowing yourself to damage the parademons and minimizing wasted attacks/damage. Especialy if his fodder has invuln/imperv. After slaughtering his fodder you line up the shot and hit him for 4-5 possibly 6. and blow past his imperv without a chance to see it.

I realize we can go down the road of "Well then, I have X on my team. Now what?" until it's a team specifically meant to take him down. But I think it wouldn't be unreasonable to see Pulsewave + TK (maybe x2) + a bunch of attackers in 500 points. Heck, maybe I'll have poison and TK, now you need to outwit my poison instead of my TK. Darkseid only has 1 outwit and where are you going to use it? It could turn into a game of cat & mouse for positioning, maybe? I think a good player facing him will take him down, but sub-par players will get frustrated fast.

No, absolutely not Worlds level, but "Worlds level" is entirely a negative thing anymore. He'll never be usable in 300 points.

This Darkseid can take a beating when he isn't surrounded by minions. He has seven consecutive clicks of heavy reducers. It would have been nice to see some non-straight line of fire abilities from him for his Omega Beams, but I'd just as soon not see more Cosmic Spiderman shenanigans.

I should say that I'm not a fan of Darkseid at all as a character. I like Superman, but I think Darkseid is a ridiculous and boring character most of the time. If this dial doesn't live up to your expectations and does to mine, it's probably because I'm mostly evaluating him as a figure and not as a character. As a figure, I wouldn't price him at less than 267 points and I would play him, which are the two ways I gauge whether or not a figure is a success. As the character as I understand him he should have 40 range that can shoot around everything with infinite penetrating damage, but I wouldn't put that in Heroclix.

What I like is that the powers work well together

1) He can carry 3. That's MM fodder.
2) One of those can shoot or move-and-attack, or just move for tie-up.
3) MM and Q make it unoutwittable
4) He has hsi own Outwit on top of that.
5) He has very long range meaning this could be happening far from his opponent
6) He has phasing to reposition (with fodder, still) if he has to.

I do agree that it's a very bad day if he's naked on top without having crippled the other team already. But the odds are stacked in his favor that that's not going to happen.

TK+RS/PW is a serious thing for him to contend with. But with the fodder, that's likely to put him 1 click in, on his 18 IMP, which is not so bad.

In Golden Age he has to deal with Nova Blast, but in Golden Age all sorts of crazy things happen.

Basing Darkseid isn't going to make him that much weaker just like basing Thanos rarely mattered, because he can not only free break away and then push to hit next turn, but he can bring all of his buddies with him and let one of them attack in the process.

Not sure I get what you're saying here.

Well of course. Absolutely. But basically what that boils down to is "hitting characters is how you beat them". Having Mastermind doesn't mean you can never take damage, it just means that you'll probably be much higher in your dial come late game than your opponent will. If you can still do six damage to him after taking the time to take out all of his fodder, you're probably still going to win if he had Impervious on that click instead.

That's fine him moving is him not attacking.

That's probably the case here. I keep thinking of what he is capable of in the cartoons and comics. I think this will be a good dial in fun games, but it will not hold up in a competitive environment. Now don't make me back-peddle anymore!