#dm033 Unique Hate Monger - As a never-before-clixed yet memorable reoccurring Cap rogue, I think I was hoping for more. While I realize that Wizkids has to dance very carefully around topics that were commonplace in comics 40 years ago but would be considered 'triggering' today, this is still the guy who took hundreds of super-soldier punches to the face (if comic covers are to be believed) and still ran the German war machine until Jim Hammond got to him. Hate Monger was never a heavy hitting powerset though, so I can't fault you for aiming for a budget cost character design.

But still, I guess what's bugging me is how close his powers come to having meta potential but in each case they went the safer route and ensured that I'd probably just use nfaos046 Imperial Hydra instead for a similar role. The best think about this dial IMO is the Reichskanzler power; it's a makes thematic sense by preying on your opponent's diversity (as represented by TA's) and could have strategic potential if you're willing to break theme and pair him with other effects that drain an opponent's action pool. Schadenfreude fails to impress me because it's pretty situational (even a theme-team can avoid it by not clumping together) and even when it goes off it's benefit is marginal (I guess you could shift a few clicks of damage from an easy target onto a hard one?). the H-Ray is a little better, as it's hard to imagine an opponent that doesn't at least have some useful TA's and damage powers to blank out. But it's limited by requiring a power action, range and line of sight, and arguably Battle Fury can be pretty beneficial at times too. I feel like HM would spend a significant effort getting set up, activate his H-Ray and gloat maniacally about it, then be soundly walloped by any charging brawler on the opponent's force.

I suppose I shouldn't expect too much from the clone of the ghost of a failed dictator from a century ago. And his point cost is budget enough for him to escape notice while Red Skull or Strucker takes center stage. Hopefully someday we'll be able to replicate all those Captain America covers legitimately, but in these politically sensitive times I guess sucker punching an anonymous nobody will have to suffice.

#dm037a Prowler - Maggia is one of those keywords I always like to see get more options. I really dig the trait that encourages you to leave Prowler lurking at the edge of the map, and the getaway jacket power that further deters opponents from trying to catch him. The rest of the dial looks like a reasonable mix of defenses to make for a persistent harasser to plink at opponents from the edges of the battle. The one big thing that this dial is missing? An actual target of his heist: something like cwsop103 Punisher's "Downloading The Schematics And Access Codes" or the btasLB-GM "Heist" effect. Being super sneaky is only useful if you have someplace you need to sneak into!

#dm037b Prime Iron Spider - This guy looks like QUITE an effective leader at 100 points. For a larger game's Sinister Six build, this is the first I'd think about assembling a non-Octopus lead team. I really appreciate that the Waldos are useful on or off Aaron's dial but there is no clear better option, except situationally. For all the advantages that Flurry and free Incap can give you, it's hard to understate the usefulness of a backup attacker with Outwit. I don't know the character but this dial makes me interested to learn more, which I think is about the best compliment you could give a dial.

#dm038 Turk Barrett - Heheheh, I love supporting cast characters given dials, and you've done a lot with Turk. I only wish there was a "Hell's Kitchen" keyword so that he could be included in Daredevil teams with Foggy and Karen Page and Stick, but Maggia's not bad either.

Personally I think the "Fall Guy" option is my favorite and the one I would play most often, since Turk would make nice window dressing for a Kingpin or other mafia style team. All of them are worth trying out at least once though, for 15 points you can afford to experiment and see what works. The Mauler option looks like it could be a nice cheap way to taxi Suited Henchmen around using the Underworld TA.

#dm039 Maker - This guy would be one of my must-haves from the set. He's so unlike anything else in the set and quite an oddity in most of heroclix. Just starting at the keywords alone. With a curious mix of powers and some unique abilities you aren't going to see elsewhere, he presents a lot of neat options both strategically and thematically. My first idea is to hook him up with Nul's Hammer and the Negative Zone ATA for another 5 or 10 points (depending on how you get them to him) Which I think should allow him to Running-shot behind a wall and incap/outwit from the safety of another room. Great on tight indoor maps!

#dm056 Dr Doom and Dr Strange - Initially I was not enamoured with a solid block of pink powers with little visible variation of powers and tactics. With all the potential of the two best sorcerers in Marvel working together it seems a little dull to have them slowly rolling forward, firing generic eldritch bolts like a magic version of a Skynet H-K tank. But adding the Cynthia's Soul minigame puts it all in better context; this is the wizards marching through Hell, surrounded by hostile demons. Your opponent (demonic or not) should be sweating bullets seeing this mystical juggernaut plodding implacably forward across the map. All in all a great tribute to a wonderful story, and a fun new change to the basic gameplay of a heroclix game.
I do wonder how they would fare against my und013 Belphegor swarm team.

#dm057 Dr Doom and Scarlet Witch - At 100 points, theis dial seems like a pretty expensive PC piece that attempts to help it's minions roll well while pretty safely protected behind Stealth and Mastermind. The odd power-negative bolt will open up targets... the rest is up to the minions. It doesn't strike me as terribly powerful, but at 100 points it shouldn't be, and it might set up your Doombots for a chance to shine. Mostly I'd play this if I wanted to experiment with the many interesting Doombot options in the set.

At 200 points, I would never use that Mastermind because this is likely your tentpole and all their best clicks are buried in the back end. Rush them into the middle of the map and dare your opponent to take a few swings. Once the Psyblast appears you can start dishing serious damage out, and you'll need to soften your opponent up as much as you can so that you're positioned well when those giant-sized STOP clicks appear. Hopefully your opponent took the bait and went for the duo instead of your support pieces, since having allies on the board will make that starting 19-Defend a lot more useful.

In both cases I'm heartened by the trait explicitly being useful only in multiplayer games (well, I guess it also helps your opponent make their Support rolls, but I don't read that as the main intent). Wizkids really needs to release a pack of 4-player maps like we used to have back in the golden age pre-carded era.

#dm058 Dr Doom and Morgan Le Fay - I remember this storyline and thinking it was at once cute, intriguing, and gave me more respect for Doom. I can't imagine the iron-plated balls it takes to trifle with the heart of a creature like Morgan Le Fay. What a pimp.

As others have stated, the Maleficarum trait is great fun and adds a fascinating psychological fear angle to the gameplay as you can't just lob attacks at the duo without a cost and a risk involved. And with an easily had 20-Impervious defense it is a significant risk. But at the same time, running shot and pulse wave ensure that you can't ignore them either. The one flaw to this piece is that it's VERY vulnerable to Outwit, just one or two uses of Outwit can cost you 200 points of your dial with a decent roll of the dice.
At 100 points the strategy is very different, playing a slower game of feedback damage and recovering from hits that are taken. You'll definitely want to fill the rest of your force with tie-ups and incap minions to buy Doom as much time and healing as possible. I do love the random Accolon click though, that will certainly catch some players by surprise when they get used to thinking of this piece as a fireball-tossing wizard dial.

#dm060 Dr Doom and Iron Man - Sometimes I have my preferences for one dial or another, but this duo demands that a player experience all three of the dial's point values. Which means excellent replayability. If I HAD to pick one I think I'm most impressed by the 200 point option, but again, the change in keywords and powers means that these are three very different teams you're playing. I don't have much strategy ideas for this one because it is a bit "point and shoot"-y, but the powers spell out the clashing egos between Tony and Victor and so my advice is to just relax and have fun with this piece.
For theme build ideas, I'd reccomend the 100 point option teaming up with sfsm064 Spider-Knight and ew040 Al Jhor Dan for an even 300, or sm058 Kal for larger point builds.

#dm051 Mystique and Sabretooth - Now this is a duo that I'm actually shocked hasn't been made already in one of the last couple of X-men sets, considering we've gotten a few Sabertooths and lots of Mystiques, it seems like a perfect opportunity for sculpt reuse.
To start with, I love all the keywords and feel like each of them is immediately interesting as a notable moment from comics that can be recaptured (with the exception possibly of Marauders, I associate Sabertooth with the earliest versions of that team and I don't think Mystique was a member until a much different roster, am I right?). One of my first thoughts was that if I was going to play this on an X-Factor team I'd want to mod a set of restraints on Sabertooth and wonder if that might have been an idea for a more story-specific version of Victor with a removable-sculpt element mechanic.

The one other thing I was looking for in this dial was a reference (even just a named power) to their son Graydon Creed, which I felt was a significant enough outcome of their 'pairing' as to be notable in their dial. If you really wanted to you could have made a joke about Mystique raising Rogue, NOT raising Nightcrawler, and Sabertooth's claims of being Logan's daddy once upon a time in the 90's. "Parental Neglect" (Stealth) would have been amusing.

The dial itself is a beauty, one of those times where a fan familiar with the comics can see the personality and history of those stories communicated effectively through the language of clix. These assassins strike suddenly and viciously, but are much better at bullying smaller figures than they are at punching above their weight class. Against a swarm of robots, SHIELD troopers, cops or trainee mutants this duo will shred teams apart in record time. Against Cosmic tentpoles they will crumple and hide. But I absolutely need this duo in my collection.

#dm052 Dragon Man and Diablo - This is a pretty neat way to make a couple of simple characters into one much more dynamic character, and I especially appreciate how the potion power feels like Diablo getting his own secondary attack, giving the figure shades of the lost mechanic. While I would have also been okay to see these two as individual figures with a "buddy trait" for being adjacent, this is cool too.
I think my only complaint is that the 300 point option doesn't feel like those 3 extra clicks are worth an additional 150 points, even if it does get you three clicks of the versatile and useful Diablo Potion power. His defense is just a bit too hittable; maybe it's just me but most of the teams I play have one guy with a RS/PB/3 attack ready to go, or at the very least an outwit handy. IMO the Vet dial is only about an additional 75 points over the Exp option. Maybe I'm wrong but I'd expect that full dial to go for 225 or 250 at the most.

#dm053 Grim Reaper and Nekra - I was actually expecting to see Nekra paired with Mandrill, but Grim Reaper makes sense too. I was also expecting to see Nekra in her more risque costume.
A nice set of powers and I especially love the built-in ATA for the Lethal Legion; packaging it into a leader figure reminds me of the game mechanic for "Cabal Leaders" in Horrorclix, which is a neat thematic connection to these death-themed villains. I also really appreciate the zombie raising abilities, though I wonder if it would be possible to give the zombie bystanders the "monster" keyword, for the sake of synergy with characters like Black Talon.

#dm055 Unique Thanos and Death - Well well... that "Snap" power easily steals the show, but I don't want to overlook these titanic stats and powers either. Move + Pulse Wave + PC with massive attack and damage means you can likely pick and obliterate an opponent with each action, and his towering defense means his opponents better have enough backup attackers to land a solid hit in retaliation. In the modern age of ever-shortening dials, it might even be advisable to aim for a multi-target PW, since 1 + 2 penetrating damage could wipe out plenty of modern age generics with a single blanket attack.

As for the SNAP, I'd just like to ask if Thanos himself is meant to roll for it? Because that does seem to be how it reads, but I'm not sure what would happen if he is put on his own card. Obviously this one is random... fair, dispassionate. I could still see players going mental when their carefully planned tournament team is reduced to (almost) a coin toss though. If they don't give up and stick through long enough to get Thanos to his STOP click where they are brought back, I imagine the sense of elation would make up for it.

While I personally like the design and concept of this piece, I also expect it to shoot to the top of the Watch List very quickly, and either get errata or banned outright to appease the tournament-going player base.

I'll finish up with the Chase figs soon!

OK, here's my top 10 badguys (who are not doom)

10. Leather Boy - Yep. Squirrel killer for the win. The Character is so fun and the dial looks fun to play. I would love to drop this on some pog spamming fools.

9. Trapster - The trap mechanism is very nice, but the incap with the Immoble/BF/EBN is why this dial makes the list.

8. Silent Stalker - Just an amazing piece for its points. Of course it's the incap that got me. (Beginning to see a theme?)

7. Iron Spider - Incap with free incap. You knew the dial had to make the list.

6. Technarx - Very creative. The transmode virus is so dang cool. I feel like this mechanism could be used on a lot of characters.

5. Doom & Iron Man - This dial made the top 5 cut because it shows a duo dial where the duo are in conflict...and your done it so well. This is a hard thing to translate, trust me, I know. I've tried a couple times in the past, to not much success. The shape change is just the perfect touch.

4. Loki - Acts of Vengeance in clix. Great job on putting this into the game. A great story driven loki is right up my alley.

3. Dragon Man & Diablo - Just seems like the perfect dial for these two. Love the smoke cloud power, but it really is the entire package you've put together so efficiently.

2. Doom & Strange - The free the soul part offers that excellent game w/in the game aspect. You capture the entire TPB in the dial. Excellent work.

1. Hate Monger - If you would have told me Hate Monger would be my favorite dial from this set, I'd say you were crazy, but dang it, if you haven't made just a fantastic take on the character. I love everything about your design. You make hard things look easy on this one. You captured his powerset amazingly well. Masterful work here.

(Doom gets his own top 10 list... coming soon)

Bloody hell PETE!....ahhhh squeeze him between three and two on my list....NOT ENOUGH PLACES!!!!

Thank you, buddy, for taking the time to post a top 10 for me. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many duos on here. Since I've had to leave the mechanic behind and come at each of them fresh, they were all experimental in their own way so each design was a bit of a risk, especially since many were OMAs, and duplicating doom on top of everything. Thank you kindly for your warm words.

Abom making the cut is a big hug for me. I agree he's gotten the shaft in clix (comics, too, for that matter). He needed a dial to represent. Headliner doom just squeezed in there but I'm so glad to see infamous iron man almost make the gold. Before tackling that dial I read the entire run to make sure I understood his story, his particular characterization and could get the nuance of what should make his dial different from a standard doom. So your high praise makes all the research worth it
Lol, I'm glad I made this hard for you

I get two whole top 10 lists? Is this Christmas again already? :blush:

Thank you for your incap-infused non-doom list. I must admit that our mutual love of board control has led me to lean into it a bit more in my designs. And your list is showing me how much in this one

I'm particularly happy to see Loki. I've been leaning into very particular story-driven designs for characters we aren't hurting for. If I can tell the story in the dial, from lifting the flavor text from prose and quotes to SPs that are hopefully evocative of feats from the tale, then I see that as the path to success. The license is what got us here in the first place, so I say we crank up the nostalgia to 11 and let the good times roll

Iron man and strange duos were both very story driven designs as well. They needed to be imho. They were great stories and I'm glad I was able to retell them in clix (and reread them in research )

I was hoping technarx would make it. I worked at that for a while to get it to the simplest verbiage for the effect I was going for. And I can't tell if I'm happier to see leather boy or hatemonger bookending the list . Talk about different ends of the spectrum. But I think this just holds up my theory that anybody can make for a great dial if you just find the right angle to come at them with. That's the truly great thing about this game. There's so many ways someone can be useful on the board. From big smashing boom, to minigames and alternate win conditions, to support, to control, to carrying, to simply getting in the way . Anyone can be translated into something useful on the map



...oh, and paste pot pete ftw

So when I was putting together my top 10 list, I noticed I had like 12-13 dooms that needed to be on the list... So I went with two lists. And without further ado, here is

#10 #065 Doom - What a great dial. It's only #10 because of two things: all the other dials are amazing and he's an alternative reality doom, so...

The highlights of the dial - Karoshi Program and the fact that the reducers get tougher as he goes down dial

#9 #064 Dr Doom - Sorcerer supreme Doom. Definitely a must have.

The Highlights - Nannite Bombs has such a cool mechanic and damage trigger. The last click KO also a nice, novel mechanic.

#8 #067 Ducktor Doom - What a great inclusion. Makes sense and I would love to get more foes for Spider-Ham.

The Highlights - Nerfing animals and The attack special power. So damn cool and such a good play on a classic super-villain trope.

#7 #063 Infamous Iron Man - FSSHAAAMMM

Highlights - Change you ways trait is wicked. I love seeing the list of keywords. But especially the P/T special power. So much added playability in such a small tweak (the esd)

#6 #0(dude)69 Emperor Doom - Just a fantastic take on such a hard character to make.

Highlights - That he exists at all. Of course you know I love the built-in flaw

#5 Doom 2099 - This was another great character. I love how a century later, Doom is still around, machinating.

Highlights - Nano armor, for sure. What a cool trait. Anno Doom (such a cool name for a power) is also a sweet as sugar effect.

#4 #061 Ultimate Doom - I have a special love for this character. That said, you did a fantastic job with him.

Highlights - Reallly captured the character and incorporated a lot of story into the design. Squatter Rights will get all the fanfare, but the subtle love this dial got in packing everything in the right place shows.

#3 #001a Dr Doom - It's hard to believe there are 2 better dooms in this set...be there are.

Highlights - That's he's a common and he plays so well with the rest of the set (especially the commons and uncommons). Great powers and values. Traited Invulnerability to free up the dial for fun assortment of powers.

#2 #059b Dr Doom - This dude is so right up my alley. Honestly, this would be my goto doom and there is a strong argument that it should be my #1, but as it is a prime, therefore the likelihood I would ever own this is so slim, I felt justified and bumping it to #2.

Highlights - All the wonderful 's and the powers that play off it. The 4x outwit. Such a perfect anti-FF dial. The fact that it is only 100 means he can team up with a VotW to face off against that accursed Richards and co.

#1 FF#001 Dr Doom - This guy has it all.

Highlights - Geosorcerous Engineering is so dang cool. That you were willing to go there with such a dramatically new effect and linking it not direct victory, but victory points (which could ultimately lead to victory but do not ensure victory in of themselves) and it worked wonderfully. Love the game within the game.

Really a fabulous and fun set, Baron. Good job all around. Around 30 dials made my initial cut for the top 10 list. That has to be a record. There were some many doombots that didn't make the list. Just the overall quality was outstanding for the entire set.

As always, I look forward to your future projects.

thanks for returning, this batch was randos flowing into doom duos then offtheme duos. I tried to alternate to keep things interesting and being too doomy all at once. gotta space that out

#dm033 Unique Hate Monger - i'm glad you liked reichskanzler. that was my favorite part of the design, because it punishes an opponent for not running "pure" teams as you pointed out. I do think schadenfreude has more potential though. on the surface level it'll let you turn any attack into "splash" dmg, but with a penetrating bonus to cut into hard to hit/hurt enemies, and because the opponent is the one dealing the dmg, that can lead to some interesting effects (mystics ta). but even if they do avoid it by not clumping together, you're hurting several strategies for teams that really on it (sin syn, defenders, empower/enhancement heavy teams, etc). so that could have a better potential.

#dm037a Prowler - mmhmm, something to nab would've been a great idea. I guess i'll have to rely on special objects or other characters with alternate shenanigans to provide a macguffin for him

#dm037b Prime Iron Spider - thank you, kindly! that's the highest compliment any designer could get. uncle aaron as the a/b combo seemed like a good go, especially since he was still rocking the coat in his iron spider armor and the costumes are so similar. for this take, I leaned on his leadership of his newly formed (and successful!) sinister six. I think the ttpc recharge may be as big a boon as the free move&attack. with the removable waldoes, I knew they had to be good in either arrangement, so thank you that they seem equally useful on or off.

#dm038 Turk Barrett - thanks, man. i'm very proud of this one. he was a pet project of mine since I was really disappointed he didn't show up in abpi. he's such a great joke-villain that shows up all the time to get harassed and fall on his face. knowing he shouldn't be deep I decided to make his dial varied to showcase that history on many slightly better-than-a-bystander dials. I think fall guy has the most flavor, too, though I'm fond of the simple skulker on the arms dealer option. what can I say? i'm a sucker for cheap enhancement

#dm039 Maker - awesome! I enjoyed getting to give him a nice smattering of some fringe KWs, though he's going to want to lose map choice, so the sparsity of characters with those KWs will help in that regard, I guess . one subtle design effect I went for here was the flow towards the middle. the spike on click 4 makes it apparent, but with topdial invince not letting him take more than 3 and the enddial regen reaching to heal him for 3, that peak is more prevalent. plus I love seeing pw and plasticity together

#dm056 Dr Doom and Dr Strange - I would love to see that battle . that's a fair criticism, they're not very tricky up top, mostly geared towards dmg, even their sp is about a passive nerf to opposing defenses so they can make their ps & ppb stick, combined with the opened lines of fire from cynthia von doom's soul, these two:

they're on the highway to hell to do two things and they're all out of bubblegum. the tricks don't really come out til doom inevitably betrays strange and then it gets whacky. the soul mechanic felt like the necessary kind of minigame, if i'm going to add an alternate win condition, this is the story for it. because beating him wasn't how the beat him

#dm057 Dr Doom and Scarlet Witch - i'd say the 100pt dial would shine most in a battle royale, when you can make the most use out of the encouraging your opponent's to go at it while not being a big enough of a threat that they're too afraid to deal with you later. plus the sp plays into this strategy by making opponents very vulnerable to follow up and if the rest of your force can't fully capitalize on your turn, your opponent's +1/+1 may be too enticing to pass on a juicy target in the open. the 200pt option will have less backup and will need to make the most of their fancy pc. the defend, btw, was to demonstrate doom's benevolent intentions ...that everyone immediately ignored and attacked. poor doom, the world just doesn't understand him

#dm058 Dr Doom and Morgan Le Fay - yeah, giant bird monsters'll throw anybody for a loop . I really liked that in the camelot arc so i shoe-horned it in, but given the dial placement, it's got a shot to shine if you can land on it healing. the two of them put monstrous armies together a couple of times, the first was the dead, the second mindless ones, so that seemed like neat flavor for PBAoE powers to spare slots in the set for their minions or to deep into the pog well again (too easy to do over and over again). so, it'll be an unconventional way to show their conventional forces, but feel free to reach back to gsx mindless ones or the skeleton army from undead, i know i would! maleficium was a darned-if-you-do-darned-if-you-don't effect to pair with their mystics ta and showcase some more mean witchcraft than with wanda or stephen (he hangs out with wizards a lot...). while i agree with you on the outwit vulnerability, i'm okay with the achilles heel, because that can get out of hand really quick absent bf. imagine a 600pt match with these guys and apocalypse

#dm060 Dr Doom and Iron Man - yay, fist pump! i split this up amongst the three parts of the trilogy by s in a real effort to take a base dial and see how many times i could alter its play. mixing up the generic KWs of past/future/mystical was an overt effort to get players to find new experiences with them and really feel like they got 3 different dials in 1 deal. more value added is what i'm all about. i'm super pleased out how well this one is being received

#dm051 Mystique and Sabretooth - while i failed to reference graydon in their dial, i can only envision the massacre of them going up against a force of friends of humanity . they are very well suited to bullying, as you put it. pairing raven's ps (surprise!) with vic's bf (raw anger) made for a very helpful combo added onto their flurry to get past lots of defenses and make their hits count, especially for their steal energy's purpose. but honestly, the main reason i had to make them, is just as you pointed out, how have they not been made already? they're CONSTANTLY getting paired together over an over again like bad exes that can't seem to move on. they glorious waterfall of KWs available to them is just a cry for clixing. and it leans heavy into their whacky wildcarding of . x-student, headmaster: x-men, x-men first class, x-factor, my mutant brothers and sisters, new school, i stand with wolverine, cyclops was right, mutant massacre, extinction team, x-force, even headlines (not that'll do them much good). there's tons of ways to mix these guys up. i am surprised that the elephant in the room of a complete lack of sc on the dial never came up with anyone, but i guess the reason i left it off was obvious and perplex ain't a bad consolation prize

#dm052 Dragon Man and Diablo - the both of them are woefully underclicked. i decided to duo them here to continue to fill the sr theme I've got here and because i'd made them singles back in my fantastic four set. defensively i had hoped the stop clicks and the free smoke (both to camp in and to nerf opposing attack values) would pad their impervious. i was mostly concerned that the offensive strength of the sp was close to the edge and getting so much of it on 300 was worth the investment.

#dm053 Grim Reaper and Nekra - done! great call on the monster kw. in-for-a-penny-in-for-a-pound, i added the mystical kw, too. that's some perfect backwards compatibility there, and the lethal legion can use all the love they can get. nekra really needs to be made, and having done her solo, i wanted the duo with reaper over mandrill (though that one is very warranted, too) because that's my main desire for her getting made, to finish off lethal legion teams. plus, it opened them up to be the leader for the team. and let me get a story in on the dial. this set is setting us up for some wild double date matchups. villains need lovin', too

#dm055 Unique Thanos and Death - likely. it's a very strong effect. i tried to balance it best i could, including making them vulnerable to the snap itself (as well as anyone you bring along in any 400+ pt teams) but it's a potential crapshoot on the roll so the whole map could be wiped or no one or anything in between. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ i can see that being not fun on the tournament scene, which is why i made sure it was on a 400pt line only, so most tournaments are exempt. and in a battle royale, man will they be coming for them 'cause everybody wants to get their pals back

thanks, man. I really appreciate doom getting his own list. that just feeds his ego mightily, though

I try to put together a quality product every time and as you well know that means months of research and theorycrafting to get things where they should be. ...and then you poke at it again and again til you post it

so I really appreciate your comments, brother, it means a lot. getting to see why you liked what you liked of the dials helped me to see what lands and what experiments work (and which ones don't). this is also shows me I made enough dooms that you could make a top 10 of him alone . I ran with it here with the gamble that between the chases, the common, the prime, the duos and the ff pack, I could make a different experience for each one that would be appealing. so this list validates that gamble for me, one I hope I can continue to cash in on in future sets

btw: I really dig the format you used on this list, I may have to borrow it going forward

And to finish it off! I'll follow this with a shorter Top 10 summary soon after.

#dm061 Ultimate Doom - I'm not a big fan of the Ultimate comics line either, but I think it's for the opposite reason as compared to most other Marvel readers. What I understood the purpose of the Ultimate line of comics to be was to retell the mainstay Marvel tales in an updated setting with new, edgier takes on things. So I didn't really blink at "Ultimatum" abruptly killing off characters, shock moments like Hulk or Blob being cannibals or Wanda and Pietro being, ahem, "close". This was a new take on the character concepts, it didn't change how the 616 characters were. What actually did annoy me is when characters seemed nearly identical to their 616 selves apart from new costume designs. I mean, why am I buying Spider-man's origin story AGAIN if it's the same as the last three times I've read it? So Dr. Van Damme being a goat-legged metal mutant was fresh and interesting, at least until the writers backpeddled after too many fan complaints of "not MY Doom!"

Getting to your dial, I appreciate most the things that make this guy different from the Victor we are more familiar with. The unusual smattering of keywords and the Hydra TA is great (although not as great as it might have been when MoD was still a Wildcard ability). I am excited to try including Goatboy on a SHIELD or a Monster team. I'm not sure what sort of figure would best represent the mass of Latverian refugees that his trait sets up if you wanted to do a comic-accurate team. But whatever force you put him on, I see lots of benefits to starting the game within striking distance of your opponent, yet still protected by first-round immunity. Whether rushing in with PB or PW, either way Doom is likely to draw first blood. I generally favor the more expensive dial option here, but losing first turn RS-PW is a bitter pill. My favorite touches though are the powers that you don't normally see on a Von Doom that sprout up unexpectedly like metallic quills growing from uncomfortable parts of your body. Super-Strength/Sidestep might catch Johnny by surprise when Doom is clobbering like Thing, Poison may take a couple of clicks off Sue or Reed, and Mind Control could be great to turn Ben's big swing back at his family. Van Damme's attack is never less than 11 without PC to back it up until his final retreat click, so he'll always be dangerous unless his forces are depleted and he's outnumbered. A combo of a brick like Thing holding him in place while Reed de-fangs him from a short distance away could contain him effectively. A lot depends on what minions this Doom brings to back him up.

#dm062 Doom 2099 - Just realizing that both of these chases have gotten the naming convention of using their comic book title rather than their in-universe name, which would have called them both "Doctor Doom" or "Dr. Doom". I can understand an argument for this and I know Wizkids has (inconsistently) been in favor of this approach at times too, but it doesn't sit right with me. For one thing it messes with game mechanics like ID cards and makes existing game mechanics less applicable to new pieces. "So wait, Boris won't work with Ultimate Doom? I need to wait for them to release an Ultimate Boris? siiiighhh... I won't hold my breath." I am happy to finally get the blue-cloaked 2099 Doom from that fantastic issue #1 cover, sadly missing from the 2099 collector set. Honestly, this figure should be chrome like that one convention Surfer we got too.

The dial is more durable than it looks at first thanks to the Nano-Armor working in conjunction with his standard defense powers. But I'd still feel pretty worried if I saw him on those Supersenses clicks, and pushing him towards his end dial as quickly as I could.
What is the Chrono Corps keyword, and will we ever see it again? Given how the Doom 2099 series ended, would it maybe make more sense to give him the Kang Council keyword instead/in addition?

Also, this comic gave me my favorite Dr Doom moments ever. "But now is not the time for fond remembrances."

#dm063 Infamous Iron Man - This dial feels reminiscent of the critiques that I gave your "Victorious" dial. Perfectly functional and eminently playable, likely to win you some games at the very least. A bit light on the "personality" to me. I am trying to anticipate how this would play and by and large it's a fly-shoot, fly-shoot piece, much like most Iron Mans are. The notable exception to this is the boost against Marvel villain organizations, which could potentially add quite a wallop, but it's entirely outside of your control what your opponent puts on the table. Now I'm not overly familiar with the events of this storyline but I was hoping to see more of Doom's villainy leaking through the Iron Man shell. The lack of named keywords and possibilities for synergy also make this a less interesting dial for me; he's a great weapon to win games with, but I just don't think I'd have as much fun playing him as I would many of the other dials in this set.

#dm064 Dr Doom - Well this seems like a more likely Sorcerer Supreme than the Starks or Castle that we got in WI?.

Now this, this is a clever and original mechanic. Kinda the opposite of Iron Man immediately prior; I don't expect the nanite bomb to be so instrumental that it wins you any games. Maybe, if you're lucky enough to tag your opponent's tentpole AND then use the remembrancer and other healing options to maximize the amount of KO lines being crossed before it goes off. But whatever, this idea is FUN! I may have lost the game but I feel like I've won if I've forced them to KO their favorite character from beyond the grave. The rest of the dial is a fairly expected colorful mix of Dr. Strange spells that I was expecting to see on the earlier Doom/Strange duo figure, so everything else is in order. This guy would be a great time to dig out some Witches, Warlocks, Apprentices and Occultists from the World's Finest set.

#dm065 Doom - WELL worth paying the extra 30 points for this one, IMO. Just to lure your enemies closer into clowing range before you hit that 3rd click if nothing else. Peppering them with some MC or RCE shots first doesn't hurt either, and the Kiroshi program could surprise some enemies or just help you get the most out of your robot minions (I would have to play this guy with my Terminator mods).

When he finally does hit that 3rd click... wow. Don't be in the same room. He might lack Logan's healing, but pound for pound I think he would win most fights against the mutant that originally owned this skeleton. Speaking of... could you make an argument that he should have the Weapon X keyword? I mean... probably not, but... it'd be kinda funny, and technically correct right?

#dm066 Dr Bob Doom - Hilarious, as Byrne's Shulkie always were. In a game I expect him to get a laugh and then mostly ignored, which is to his benefit. If he's able to triple-incap your opponent will be convinced to send someone over to deal with Dr. Bob, but likely still won't want to commit too much effort to the dental appointment. Which is Bob's one big chance to surprise everyone. Once he gets hit he's going to land on that STOP click and get ONE chace to roll before your opponent realizes what horrible danger they are in. And once someone loses a mid-level character to 6 clicks of damage from a dentist you can be sure that they will never ever make that mistake again. Just like in real life, a painful visit to the dentist creates lasting memories.
Strategically, I'd like to find room for him on my Incap-based team. But thematically he's more of a silly joke to add in when you're just playing for fun.

#dm067 Ducktor Doom - If it wasn't for the "Face Your Doom?" trait, this dial could have been any golden-agey Dr. Doom dial since the fact that he's a duck doesn't really come up outside of the cartoony flavor text on the powers. I would like to have this guy on my Sideline when playing wkD-024 Animal Man. Played on his own, he's a simple sort of Doom dial that I might use to teach a younger friend how to play clix with. He might look odd tagging along with five members of Spider-man's rogues gallery, but at least it'll look normal if you know your opponent is playing Spider-Ham in advance. Plus, synergy with Aloysha Kraven!

This has also given me an idea for a new Howard the Duck dial I need to make, so thank you for that.

#dm068 Leather Boy - I guess I missed this issue. So Am I supposed to play him with the GLA, or against them? Very funny powers, useful in how effective he is at killing bystanders (and if you're lucky enough to run up against an opponent that happened to build their strategy around it, great job!) but otherwise a low investment tie-up annoyance.
I can see his utility and the jokes, but if I bought a case and pulled this as my chase I think I'd be a little miffed.

#dm069 Unique Emperor Doom - And finally we get to the big man himself. Interestingly not a guaranteed win in a set that has a few other 250+ point characters you could pull, which is good set design for sealed play. It can be tricky to judge how balanced a character is when dealing in the cosmic scales, but 400-point Doom is within the same ballpark as King Thor, trading some amount of action economy for power versatility. Doom has the necessary raw numbers, prerequisite power cosmic, damage reducing and attack powers and some pick-a-power for good measure, so Doom is suitably cosmic.

So then we get to the interesting content that sets Emperor Doom apart from other cosmic tyrants. "I Am Flawed" is the best of this, feeling very in character both for Victor and Cosmic Marvel in general. I'm assuming Doom is protected from his own Prob Control as well, simulating his hubris?
https://imgur.com/Royzn4t
It's quite a fall from power to suffer, but it is heartening to see that even stripped of the power cosmic, Doom is not completely humbled. 3 clicks of Invuln and 3 + RCE attacks can still win a game if they're already in the endgame.

Another interesting aspect is the Battleworld keywords. I wanted to at least float the idea past you of writing the trait so that Doom can unify the various Battleworld keywords into a single theme, since I understand that's his role in Secret War. But picking up all the Battleworld keywords (and accepting that this isn't going to be a theme team) could still be very effective given how the "Baron/ess of Battleworld" traits work. Who needs theme rerolls when you're dripping with +2 stat boosts?

I'm slightly more interested to play the 250 dial because the "Flawed" power is neat and thematic, even if it is a drawback. But a huge 1500 Secret War battle of Doom and his Barons vs a Council of Reeds (or a 70's Secret Wars team) would be a fun place to flex the 400 point dial's muscles and see what it can do. Good work. It's not the most excited I've been for a Baron Impossible dial (it'll be hard to ever outdo Zero Hour tbh), but it is a fine addition to the set and would easily be the most sought-after chase for most players. Personally I'd try to pick up Ultimate and 2099 on the cheap and make my peace with not dropping $100 for this one, but that's just me.

thanks and looking forward to it!

#dm061 Ultimate Doom - thanks, man. the squatter's rights (only available at full points) will certainly shorten the gap and make all kinds of beta strikes possible. to keep it fair, I put the pw on the exp dial. vet's interested in assassinating a target hard. when given an opportunity to make this guy again, I hope they make him distinctive and not just another doom. that's why I focused on the weird bits that are different than 616. might as well, right? as far as who would work best with him, he mostly used disaffected eEuropean millennials, which we surprisingly don't have in clix , so I guess maybe latverian soldiers will have to do

#dm062 Doom 2099 - well, tbf, there was no ultimate boris . I wasn't as concerned with the inhibitions of the naming convention, because there aren't any doom id cards (and I wouldn't expect them) and most of these alternate takes weren't inherently playing with 616 counterparts, largely off on their own with different supporting cast (and the KWs to show it) so I opted to give them more distinct names instead of a set list with dr doom dr doom dr doom down the line. makes it easier to keep track of whom we're talking about. I wholeheartedly agree that doom 2099 needs that iconic chrome and blue look to show up in clix. though I reference his later armor in clix 5 & 6, the classic look is for me, most embodied by the hildebrandt brothers' trading card. chronos corp was a kang created team of alternate timeline versions of characters that's fun to approximate in clix, and while it's not in clix proper, I've used it in sets prior, so it's me trickling them out as appropriate. as for that comic link, now i'm going to be all upset that the fantastic four 2099 aren't likely to show up in this year's fan4 clix

#dm063 Infamous Iron Man - the story didn't really have doom leaking villainy out of the suit, but instead him genuinely trying to be a hero and the world just not letting him. that's why he's got a to make frank castle jealous and his sp was intended to have a selfless flavor to it, pointing all the support on his dial to external use and putting a bigger target on him so the heroes he's not allowed to share KWs with (nobody wanted to work with him was a plot point) can breath easier while doom is taking the heat

#dm064 Dr Doom - thanks, the combo of the two distinctive mechanics working together can lead to all kinds of shenanigans. for a range-heavy piece, the nanite bomb may even be just enough of a deterrent that your opponent will think twice about basing him. speaking of wi, i thought about the from an alternate earth , but he was already stacked with my own shared and the nanite bomb felt more fun, so he's just going to be his own thing. real shame the embargo kept the fan4 side of things out of that set, it felt so toothless without them, and the other not-strange's just made me miss this one more. he was an easy and early inclusion in my setlist

#dm065 Doom - when I first came across this take on doom I think my eyes fell outta my face. doom's brain in logan's unbreakable skeleton? yikes. so it was with great pleasure that decades later I could introduce it into clix, particularly for those that don't know this og guardians tale. the design came pretty quickly, too. full track of heavy reducers (direct quote on that impervious flavor text ), full track of trademark outwits, full track of blades. it practically designed itself. after a refresher on the story, the vet clix add some story-specific effects (yet another global mind control plot, oh doom) to mix things up, and bob's your uncle (well, 5th cousin, but that's the next dial ). I love the idea of the menace of this sculpt across the board and you're opponent completely thrown the loop with mc running at them. i'm gonna have to pass on the weapon x kw, though, I did float him the mutant kw (refreshed as a generic, tell your friends), so at least he's got that going for him

#dm066 Dr Bob Doom - the look on their face, though . going through all these reviews reminds me how much I really did play up incap. sealed would be bonkers, pulling out a team from the box that grinds the opposition to a halt. but afterwards, if dr bob's relegated to the bin with dr bong, I hope they at least hatch a crazy plot to make a mort revenge squad that forces together an amazing team up of she-hulk, deadpool, howard the duck & his giantsize manthing and squirrel girl that results in an ongoing of misfits comics truly need .

#dm067 Ducktor Doom - your welcome. you do make a good point about the lack of duckness, though it didn't really pop up much in the funnybooks, but i'm going to edit him in as , that'll definitely be something we don't expect on a doom dial

#dm068 Leather Boy - but for a fleeting moment, you'd thought you'd pull leather sorcerer doom! adding to the miff. kw-wise it didn't feel right passing on giving gla to anyone that was on it for a minute, but his dial will be a weird inclusion admittedly. he's definitely single-minded in his role and this is probably better than any dial we'd get for him (who're we kidding, he's unlikely to get made on creative corner, let alone in the reals), but it's a doom gag I always wanted to see "coming out of the box," so here we are

#dm069 Unique Emperor Doom - thank you. there's some added pressure for the ultra chase, and for a long sought-after iteration of doom, AND a 400pter needing to represent, so I was hoping to get enough power but still be able to tell the story of a man with good intentions and bad morals basically imploding on a cosmic scale. so i'm glad he meets expectations.

and thanks for the shout our for zero hour

looking forward to your impending top 10

TOP TEN

10) Salamander Kruel
The most interesting and useful of the Killmonger Crew. With a rogues gallery that is three-quarters voodoo shamans, Salamander is such an oddity yet somehow looks both effective and fun. I don't think he'd convince me to play an anti-Panther squad on his own, but without him I think I'd have put the whole group in the storage bin.

9) Trapster
A fun affordable piece that you can easily squeeze into most teams and won't make you sorry to have him there. Even with just a couple of Incap hits he pulls his weight, and dares your opponent to take a big swing at his punchable face. Weaponizing his own punchability is an impressive accomplishment.

8) Abomination
There was once a time, when the game was young and my friends collectively owned less than 30 heroclix figures, that E Abomination from X-plosion was hotly contested as "too good" and an almost guaranteed victory for whoever had drafted him. I look forward to those days returning. Emil really deserves the respect that this dial gives him.

7) Apocalypse
A very well crafted dial that would finally get the X-men fans to shut up about Apocalypse for a few years or longer. I can't imagine this dial would fall to power creep very fast, since his dial seems scalable to his enemies and the more cost-efficient enemies your opponent has crammed into his team, the more Shape-change rolls and attribute boosts you're going to get.

6) Iron Spider
Nominated for the same reasons as Hood, but doesn't make it as high up because the selection of figures that he breathes life into are more limited. Still, he's an impressive enough dial to win fights and what he adds to his teammates is more than what Hood gives his, so it wasn't an easy call.

5) Maker
I really like this oddball, and want to find interesting teams and strategies to fit him in with. He's not higher on the list because those strategies aren't readily apparent and may take a good deal of effort to find something that really works well, but I look forward to the challenge.

4) Mystique & Sabertooth
The couple that makes you keep asking, "but who is the REALLY toxic one in this relationship?" Fun to play dial with huge number of options for team builds and traits to add them to. I just now realized that these two can even acquire "Do You See The Comic Panels Telling Me What To Do?" or "Merc With A Mouth" if you play them on a Weapon X theme with some Deadpools for even more customization.

3) Dr. Doom & Iron Man
As I said in their individual writeup, with one dial you've effectively created three very different play experiences, each of which is enticing enough to be worth trying out individually.

In retrospect the one thing that could improve this for me would be a (rule breaking) mechanic that allows a player to play different teams during a tournament. Ever sit down with a team you're excited to play, then by the final round of the afternoon you're sick of them and want to play something else? What if there was a new product, market it as "epic quest clix" or something, where you play the first round of the tournament with dial A, the second round with dial B, and subsequent rounds with dial C? Doomsday and Hulk begin just barely tearing out of their clothes, but end the afternoon as OMA beheamoths. Reed Richards and Brainiac 5 start out tinkering in their labs, but finish the day with a massive new Kirbyesque invention that spits cosmic bubbles all over the map. Judges would hate it, but I would love it.

2) The Hood
With one character slot, you've revitalized a huuuuge swath of characters already in my collection of figures, doubling their utility and usefulness to me. You've also pioneered the concept of the "anti-theme team" theme, which I think could have lots of future potential.

1) Molecule Man & Volcana
I count these two as a single piece because their obvious synergy is more apparent than some of the actual duos in this set. I am a fan of abstract cosmic reality manipulators, but rarely do they still retain as much personality as Owen and Marsha do. The dials really look like the wimpy schlub trying to impress his girlfriend. If I had to pick one (or two) figures to appear unchanged in a future Wizkids set, this charming couple would be the ones I would want the most.

Honorable Mentions
1a Dr. Doom
Loki
Doomsman

All three of these dials are well designed and I'd look forward to playing them, but didn't make the list proper because half of my excitement is the team that I'd be playing them on, rather than the figure itself. Doom with a sideboard full of Doombots to build, Doomsman (or rather, Andro) leading my cross-property Robot army, and Loki masterminding the Acts of Vengeance roster are all great teams that I want to play, but as standalone figures they are not as exciting and the top 10 figures above.

a very different list than the others, i'm glad to see some new names make someone's cut. but I think i'm even more excited to see trapster make another list. I don't know if it's just because it's been soooooo long since we got him (2006! he's as old as my marriage!) but I'm heartened to see i'm not the only one with a soft spot for paste-pot

same goes for abomination. we're all still itching for a good abomination dial to scratch us the right way. it foes to show there is still plenty of room for classic characters in sets, just not the same tired ones that keep getting love. part of this set was to revisit classic villains that have gotten the shaft in quantity or quality or both. and sadly, many qualify.

iron spider and the hood are kinda pulling in opposite directions. iron spider plays best tightly themed whereas hood wants tightly unthemed. funnily enough, prowler would go well with the hood, so long as uncle aaron isn't making a play for the bigtime he'll play well with hood.

thank you for the kind words on apocalypse. interesting perspective on him aging well (there's a joke in there somewhere) in scale of power and scaling against increasing cheaper (and therefore more numerous) forces. i'm quite fond of that design, and it was my first apocalypse, so i'm glad to see he made a list

the versatility of mystique&sabretooth and doom&ironman show that the more replay a dial can get is more value added for the player, something I try to cram as much as possible into my dials. adding more mix/match and/or point values to a dial makes more teams possible and that's more fun to me

but i'm over the moon that maker made it, but even more that molecule man and volcana top your list. that's awesome to me. classic villains with no love, I tried to give them all the love I could in design and potential and synergy to give them to you proper. molecule man in particular was quite a lot of work and tweaking and retweaking to get him at both values where I wanted him to be. so thanks

and thanks again for all your support in the thread. appreciate it