Great review, but from my experience your ratings on Major Victory and Starhawk are reversed. MV looks so like an auto-play, but Every. Single. Time. he goes down hard with little to show for it.

Love the Captain Marvel Prime. Haven't noticed many players talking about him. He doesn't fit many theme teams I guess.

I like him to help out my Zombie teams (Zuvembies). Boosts their defense and can help prevent ranged attacks.

Good stuff. I can't say I really disagree with much. I really appreciate these.

Agreed entirely on this - I actually used a Raptor as a filler for sidestep-carry, not clicking through his dial since I had no other real filler options so it was an auto-include. At one point in the first round of the event I had to push him and HOLY CRAP the stealth outwit was a nice surprise - the usefulness there cannot be denied.

Additional thanks for posting these - with the release day being same as Gencon, this set seemed to come out fast and stealthy! Can't believe it's already been out a month!

Agreed with almost all of the above except for Starhawk, who in my handful of sealed games with him came with a major caveat - if the Past Lives roll came at a 5 or 6, he was the MVP, a 4 piece easily.

If the Past Lives roll was a 1 or 2... yeah, 2 sounds about right.

Good stuff here, definitely helps me organize my priorities when making a team in sealed. Another knock on Major V:

You noted Drax's Trait and how it only applies to 6 characters, thus making you weigh the value of that power. With Major Victory you omitted that same line of thinking. There are 25ish characters in this set with front-loaded PB or EW, and that number jumps to 35ish when counting mid/end dial appearances. Considering that might put a second thought in someone's head in regards to his playability.

No, that isn't meaner than it sounds. That sounds exactly as mean as it is!

I think he found something there that no one else saw! At least I didn't!

The best use I saw of Major Victory in sealed was as a yo-yo.

Perplex and TK out Aleta, she uses HSS and ends in the same square, TK her back. That's a huge swing. I'd have felt worse for the victim if it was Iron Man instead of Aleta, but it still wasn't pretty.

Major Victory's offensive stats are a trap; he's a TK yo-yo first, and an attacker second, either as cleanup, a glass cannon, or a last resort.


Yeah, gotta hand it to the new players now and again. They're not so ingrained in the system that they overlook cool stuff like that. I take it Darkhawk's getting an upgrade in the write-up then?

Pretty spot on as usual. Few disagreements, the two mentioned already, I do think MV should come down off the top pedestal, A trait that allows practically half the set to do an extra click is rough on a guy, and agree that Starhawk should probably come up a notch. Anytime you can get that kind of swing(move 6 with 8 range) with Probability control and outwit after deserves a minimum three in my humble opinion, sowwy. Mantis being 4 rubs me the wrong way as well, with that 16 D and no stealth or ESD she will find herself getting shot from a range where she can't see the opponent to PC, even on hindering a 17 is too easily reachable by the aforementioned Starhawk for instance. Oh but together they would make sweet symmetry, Living all this before twice(Shivers). I would also kick up, and I know this will sound weird, but Chitauri. No one wants to kill your 40 point character, he gets ignored and then suddenly he's piercing Invuln, so your opponent sends in a charge to avoid ESD, then suddenly he is based to a close combat expert with Combat Reflexes. He has definitely earned his 40 points every time I have played him is where I will end it. Everything else completely agree, except I guess we played Nebula wrong at our venue, because we were giving her a 6 RS, not 7.

I rated him high for throwing two teammates into the fight. Tell me there aren't 2 characters you'd like to throw at an opponent, just among the commons!

As for Starhawk, he failed me often in my Marquee event.

Naw, I'll leave that one strange trick to the comments! I don't want to share ALL the secret moves! Besides, I think 'use at your own risk' still covers that corner situation! How many tentpoles do people actually run in Sealed?

I'm still going to leave Major Victory as is. I don't feel that it's hard to take full advantage of his double TK, nor to have 2 other targets now adjacent to opponents and keeping Major Victory free of Psychic Blasting opponents. I see him as a back-line fighter, and one I'd probably hold in reserve a few turns. He's the kind of piece I'd pull and suddenly start looking through the rest of my figures for that Guardians keyword.

Same goes with Mantis. It's not that either of these figures can go it alone or anything. It's that, once I see them, they're determining how my team is getting built.

Count me as another vote to raise Starhawk to a 3. That guy is annoying to play against, even though the amount of Outwit/PC he can use is dice dependent.

EDIT: Thanks for doing this!

This was by far my son's favorite piece from the set. I never even considered using him in this way. When I turn my son on to this little idea I know he's going to geek out. Thank you so much for mentioning this.

Yay! My favorite article series on the Realms! It's not theme, but prime Captain Marvel plus Dire Wraiths equals awesome. Watch your opponents try to hit a meat wall of stealthy, 19 defense Wraiths with prob and traited shape change+. Glorious.

Nice reviews! I agree with just about all of them save Starhawk, as others have mentioned he can quickly become your MVP with the right support (Mantis alone makes him a nightmare).

It looks like you're using an old code for the Recorder, however, as they have no Psychic Blast or Blades, should that change your rating of them (it really shouldn't, instant tie-up and Outwit for 35 points is amazing).