Incredible movement and damage potential. Impressive attack and defense numbers. Great keywords and a deep dial. Even with the watch list changes, she's still an absolute beast.

It is amazing that a few people's short lived ideas can change a company's mind about this character. I don't understand why they introduced her, team bases, shatterstar and other's without surveying the special powers. No one would be upset (either way) if the character was not introduced. Couple this with the poor quality control, the key decision makers are looking real inept.

You are turning me around here. Thank you so much. What was I thinking? You have pointed out my great ignorance and now I see it. I plan on dropping everything, quitting my job, selling my house, cashing out my IRA, getting a divorce, and putting my kids in an orphanage, so that I can spend the next few years researching and educating myself on the history of "the collectible game," lest I remain in such woeful ignorance. It is soooo important. If it had not been for your great brilliance I would not have been able to sleep. I didn't realize that Spiral was so broken and that Heroclix was in such grave danger. Thanks to all who have saved the game! Again, thank you PsychoHippie, I was getting so worried.

Hippie has a point. Players get frustrated. The watch list proved the squeaky wheel gets the oil. The reaction to these broken figs was obviously interpreted as a possile threat to future sales for wizkids. They screwed up and admitted it by creating that list.

Errats were made before. Yes. But I can't remember when they were this drastic. The list leaves the window open for future broken figs to "slip" by them. They're product testing with us. They want to see what they can get away with. That's fine. The game did need change. Special powers were introduced. Traits. Resource dials. Team bases. Vehicles. All new game mechanics. All of them introduced so shortly.

The games changing. Evolving. Growing up. But so are the players and the days of buying all of the shops legacy packs because supply was so low are gone. Now we have to pay to play (fear itself). My venue has boosters, bricks, fast forces, gravity feeds, super boosters, All that product just sits there. The faithful players buy a booster here and there, sure. But hippie has a point when he said why buy a brick when you only need to buy a handful of clix to be catch up to the competitive meta? Assuming that's your scene. Maybe you want to collect them all. That product flooding will leave the people broke.

The future is secure for a bit but how long can they continue to evolve the game at this rate?

/ramble.

This whole thing is spiraling out of control...

With AVX Magik making the rounds, Spiral can take a breather and just be awesome the way she's designed.

Don't mention it.

Truth be told, the bulk of the game's fan base has already joined the exodus. And it happened WAY before this figure hit the scene. I'm only in here now because a good friend is still plugging away at this game and told me about NECA's neurotic panic attack against their own figure. I just wanted to see what the few players left are saying about our sextidextrous siren.

There was never anything inherently wrong with Spiral from the beginning. Just like there was nothing wrong with TK, or Stealth, or Wild Cards, or most of the other raft of rules they screwed around with. Given that NECA doesn't use a consistent Point Value algorithm for the pieces, there's no comparative baseline to verify that she's underpriced. (Various folks in here may chestthump and swear that they lunch with the designers, or do their landscaping or some such, and they have inside info that there is a magic formula to Point Values, but make no mistake, they're set arbitrarily.) She, like innumerable pieces before and after her, are STRONG, and that's it. People bandy 'broken' all about so often that it actually has come to simply mean "strong". 'Broken' used to mean flawed, misapplied, or destructively imbalanced. Spiral was never any of these things. Poorly - or not at all - playtested? Perhaps. But she wasn't a detriment to the game like, say, unreliable and mercurial rules. Sadly, vociferous alarmists with influence lobby NECA like Congress to make things do what they want them to do, and the game has suffered tragically for it.

Oh, and PsychoHippie, I was a Corporate Rep. for WoTC before the Hasbro sale, and worked with the original WizKids (man, Clix misses Jordan) at Origins and GenCon for years. I know the history of the collectible game like few others. You're not entirely off in your assessment, but it is drastically overstated. Here's the fact: though game imbalance has been ONE factor in the demise of a few games, rules instability or product oversaturation have each been THE causes of far more collectible game deaths - Dragon Dice, DiskWars, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, OverPower, The Lord of The Rings CCG, UFS, Mage Knight, MechWarrior, HeroClix.......wait, don't tell me we've forgotten that Clix has had the paddles put to it TWICE already to revive it from flatlining. And yet, the rules keep mutating and the product keeps flooding........

On her own, she's a decent figure. However, she is an Asgardian Troll charge with an object from being almost dead. One ranged shot for 3 at that point and gone. Yes, she has an amazing power (coupled with say, WoS Nightcrawler with his grab and plant SP).

Buuuuut... She's no more broken than Firelords carrying Firelords. TK's TKing. Capture for triple points. Several Nova Blasts on turn 2 wiping out your entire opponents' team. Anything is abusable.
How many people had a Goblin Princess? TK and PC together? How expensive is that damned FF set for the Scarlet Witch alone? 251pt Superman with Fortitude and Repulsor Shields? Or how about SIF... there is always a way to take a glitch in the rules and run with it.

Don't play by your opponent's tempo. Get your own first strike in. remember that if Spiral wants to get that portal up, she's getting two tokens. There are plenty of (albeit older) cheap snipers you can sacrifice to threaten her with (if they fall for the feint, clean up. if they don't, take the shot!)

The rules of the game have changed, but honestly, while powerful, she's vulnerable. a single hit getting through from most characters in the recent sets puts her into a Close Combat stance, and leaves her vulnerable to a followup strike from afar. Take out her support if you can't get to her first, Plasticity is phenomenal now just for this (especially for setting next to a portal already open- make her take another two tokens if she wants a chance for the team). Take an alpha strike, making your late bloomer stronger (the new Juggernaut, Black King, etc..).

Take the victory. No team is perfect. No power undefeatable. At least not since they got rid of SIF, hahaha.

I'm considering running her, but she's such a target, and won't last more than a round if she gets targeted. But she does play well with others- and that's where the bulk of her issue comes into play. She's nothing special alone...its team and strategy.

And that's the game, gentlefolk.

It's become very obvious that the only people who don't think Spiral was a problem are the ones who are demonstrably ignorant of how this game is actually played. First Yondu77's deathless "plug the portal" gambit and now Phoenix Icewing's "hit her first" strategy. Do either of you even PLAY this game? Are you aware, Yondu, that by the time you get a chance to "plug the portal" my team has already moved through it and attacked your team? Are YOU aware, Phoenix, that you would have to cross the entire map in a single turn to be able to successfully threaten Spiral before she opens the portal and sends her whole team through? I would LOVE the chance to play either of you using old school Spiral...just once...just to show you that which you obviously do not even slightly understand.

pH, it must be nice, this making you feel like such a better person. Like Gary Oak i guess.. If you can't see either of those strategies working, don't get bent out of shape.. not everyone is made for thinking. But enough feeding the Troll.. shoo, shoo.


As for Yondu, and the other nice folks who took the time to be constructive, it is a nice strategy if you know where they're going to portal (or set up your lineup to force them into it). If you can plot that, you can easily set up a defense. So keep a variety of options in mind, and don't rule out the most obvious of all- fight fire with fire! Map choice is fantastic control as well for setting up the bomb. Some nice old-school Prison Map is a nightmare, heheh.

You think the Prison Map would save you, Phoenix? My God, you only prove me more and more right with each word you post.

Psychohippie…I concede to your greatness. You are too amazing. You're right. I stink. I don't know how to play this game. I am an ignorant boob. I could never beat you even if I had Spiral with Sentry/Void and you were playing golden age figs. You're the best.

This post made me literally laugh out loud.

First, NECA never had a panic attack. Players were concerned and rightfully so.

Second, what few players are still around? Laughable, This game has gotten nothing but bigger since I started. Gencon and Origins full of gamers so where are you getting your information from?

Also, if you were the big popular boob you say you are I find it interesting you have 2 posts since joining in 2011. One being the starter post and the second being your post here.

The game is far from death, I think you need to troll elsewhere.

Now, that's precious, hatter, sparking out for Baron NECA! I expected the reflexive sheltering sooner, honestly. FYI, I used to post under phoenixgamesus (clarifications, rulings, etc.) but since that company went out of business, I no longer represent them.

So, no need to get all defensive, seriously. Lose the Chihuahua routine. I'm the LAST person to be starstruck by my old job. It was just a job. But, it DID give me insight into the industry, and this year's Clix turnout at cons was heartbreaking compared to the WizKids days. You likely weren't there then, so please don't be so combative in your assumptions. It's....rather silly. Not hard to tell where the troll traits actually are, no?

Last post from me off-topic, I promise. Please forgive me for digressing. I started out talking Spiral and strayed. For further PLEASANT discussion, let's take it to the forums (PM me and I'll join the talk) ;-] b Now, back to our regularly scheduled figure reviews........Spiral, though apparently poorly play-tested, was nowhere near the pox on the game that the incessantly mutating rules are. It's a DICE game. She moves people in -- wow. A couple cruddy rolls and now they're sitting ducks. I've SEEN it happen; I'm not hypothesizing or conjecturing. My group still plays her as printed straight off the card.