Welcome to web of webhead #3, the exciting finale of the opening story-arc!

In this issue…the story of how an eleven point “generic” figure came to be a dominant force in tournament level play.

"KHAAANNNN!!!"

When people talk about what’s wrong with tournament level HeroClix, and figures that they hate, one name that comes up time and time again is the Con Artist. How did an 11 point “generic” figure become a dominant force in tournament level play, and why is she so hated? Today I’ll try to answer these questions by tracking the rise and fall of the Con Artist figure, as well as illustrating the basics of how to use her on a team and neutralize her effectiveness on an opponent’s team. Before we even discuss the Con Artist…let’s put her in perspective by looking at the Perplex power itself. Introduced in the DC: Hypertime set, Perplex was immediately recognized as a very versatile power, but with the cheapest front loaded

Perplexer, Harley Quinn – Rookie, clocking in at 27 points, it wasn’t a power that was ripe for abuse in multiples unless you carefully based your team around the power itself.

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Interestingly, DC: Hypertime also introduced us to characters with activation clicks in the true sense…Hawk and Dove. (While the Hulk technically has an activation click, he doesn’t kick in to full power right away like characters such as Hawk and Colossus do.) This is important to note…at this point in time, figures with activation clicks where considered somewhat useless…the Pulse Wave trick worked, but Pulse Wave itself was somewhat useless as it didn’t have the ability to cut through power and abilities at the time. Also, this was before the Open format which officially allowed cross-universe team building, and DC had no Pulse Wave figures at the time.

Perplex would not make a big appearance in Marvel: Clobberin’ Time, it made a huge impact in Marvel: X-Plosion. (Some even jokingly referred to the set as “perplex-plosion”.) The Con Artist had arrived, but not with a bang…more of a whimper. A generic fig without a front-loaded power, the Con Artist was largely under the radar when X-Plosion was first released. That would soon change.

Unlike DC, Marvel had a good number of Pulse Wave figures, including a strong contender from the Clobberin’ Time set, Avalanche. It didn’t take long for players to begin to abuse the power of Con Artists in multiple, using a central Pulse Waver to activate groups of them at a time. Probably the most abusive team to develop during this heyday was the “Sentinel Shortboard.” Shortboarding referred to the strategy of setting up your team not opposite of your opponent, but on one of the near sides, something the current rules do not allow for. A Sentinel Shortboarder would setup their Sentinel figure close to the opponent’s starting area, and on the first turn activate scores of Con Artists with two Pulse Wavers, then boost the Sentinels damage, range and attack to obscene levels, allowing the Sentinel to then make two devastating attacks. (One of the keys to this strategy was the fact that all of the Con Artists could draw line of sight to the Sentinel due to the Sentinel rules.) This type of strategy played no small part in bringing about the rules changes that disallowed “shortboarding” and instituted first turn immunity.

The reign of Con Artists had begun.

Con Artists received a new lease on life, literally, when they were reprinted in the Marvel: Universe set. This was viewed by many as a big mistake, a sentiment shared by some at WizKids. In a recent interview, Jon Leitheusser, the lead HeroClix designer, when asked to name a “design failure” replied, “I'm embarrassed by the Con Artist from Xplosion/Marvel Universe. The sculpt was all wrong, it resulted in the most annoying phrase in the game-“the hooker bomb”-and she was too easily abused. I was hoping the character would be a nice support piece, but her utility was too high for her points, so she became a problem.” The Open Universe format has done little to lessen her impact…though set rotation has to a lesser degree. Many of the cheapest and most effective Pulse Wave figures have rotated out, including the incredibly effective Dominic Petros LE. In their place, players must turn to more expensive Pulse Wave options such as Cyborg and Phoenix, ultimately driving up the bare minimum cost of a Con Artist three pack with Pulse Wave from 55 to 77 points.

However, the Con Artist's fifteen minutes may soon be up. New Feats like Haymaker and Pounce provide built in bonuses, and the forthcoming In Contact with Oracle feat provides a type of self Perplex that may encourage players to forgo the Con Artist. Ultimately, the Con Artists' fate will be decided by the next Marvel Base Set, due sometime next year. Considering Jon's comments above, I somehow doubt the Con Artist will make the cut a second time.

So, now that've we've tracked the rise and fall of the Con Artist character, let's talk about the basics of how she is used in the game today, and open the discussion about counter strategies to work against her.

In this very basic example, the red player has setup three Con Artists in their starting area that are prepped to be activated by Cyborg's Pulse Wave. Notice that the Con Artists are placed in front of Cyborg, and not near any walls. This is important for two reasons. First, if the Pulse Wave causes knock back, it won't launch the Con Artists into any walls or map edges which would cause them extra damage and put them past their prime clix. Secondly, it puts them in position to have as many clear lines of sight as possible to your team members.

Fairly straight forward. This provides three cheap and effective Perplexes, a good way to amp up a characters power to the limits of the Rule of Three. Now let's talk about some simple counter measures. The first example is shown below...the blue player has gone first and TK'ed out a Vanisher - Rookie, a very effective 18 point tie-up piece. Vanisher is able to move under his own power across the remainder of the board, landing adjacent to the red players grounded Pulse Wave figure. Since grounded figures can't make ranged attacks, Cyborg can't Pulse Wave, and the team will need to deal with the Vanisher and his Super Senses before continuing to setup their attack. In the meanwhile, the blue team is likely moving into position to strike.

Of course, the Con Artist's themselves are incredibly fragile...so any attack is likely to either KO them or at least knock them off of Perplex...figures with multiple bolts such as Dagger would be capable of managing a herd of Con Artists if within range. Energy Explosion is another great way to deal with groups of Con Artists. The trick of course is getting them within range, typically, Con Artists and other support figures like the Paramedic are kept safely tucked away in the opponent's starting area. I'm sure everyone has their favorite way of dealing with support pieces like this, I invite you all to share.

To conclude...the Con Artist is very straight forward support piece that requires an effective method such as Pulse Wave to bypass it's activation click and become a very cost effective Perplexer. Its cheap utility, combined with the fact that it doesn't have a very strong "comic book feel", tends to make the figure both easy to abuse, and easy to hate seeing on the table across from you. Fairly easy to user, and fairly easy to neutralize, the Con Artist faces competition chiefly from new Feats, and almost certainly faces early retirement sometime next year.

That wraps things up for this week, thanks for playing along. See you in seven. - webhead817

Good article. I also like mentioning that cheap figures like Vanisher can easily stop the bomb

The con artist will never die!

ahhhh shortboarding.....now we have the short map with to re create the Hooker/Sentinel attack.....

Simple answer.

Since you have the designer of the figure on record saying the figure is a bad design, just ban the figure in competitive play (Con Artists aren't an issue in causal play).

Admitting that a figure is a bad design, then leaving the figure in play for competitive play is well... , you fill in the blank.

It's time for WK to step up and take action on errors that they have admitted they made, instead of issuing some lame apology, or pointing to some game mechanic that they think will solve the problem. If the figure is a bad design take it off of the competitive table.

Great article webhead. I would like to point out that you said that perplex didn't appear in CT, but just off the top of my head, V Doc Ock and Vet Dr. Doom both had perplex (Enchantress, too, I think).

Who needs a Con Artist when you can be In Contact With Oracle. Unless they change the wording on it, now you can have Sentinel Agents of Oracle.

I hope you're wrong. I don't have a problem with them when you use them all around (I use them on my range occasionally to psyche people out) but to just load an extra 3 on your Hulk or Black Adam? Tired...

D'oh! You're right of course, I jumbled that thought a bit...you'll see I've corrected that statement in the article.

It says
I love it.

The "solution" I've been touting for a while now is a revision to the Pulse Wave rules (and not the con artist, or perplex).

Simply clarify PW to state that an ememy figure must be in range in order to make the attack. That effectively eliminates the cheap bomb, and forces a team to burn loads of actions just to activate several con artists.

Its such a simple, and elegant solution, I really wonder why it hasn't been implemented yet. Especially since no other attack in the game can be made against your own force except PW.


Also, great article Webby. Really. I like your Vanisher suggestion (except it only works if you get to go first), and I also liked the little retrospective on the game. Ahh, a stroll down memory lane...

Perplex was in Clobbering Time. Doctor Octopus being the most well known.

I love this format with the photos! I like the direction HCRealms is taking with its content and articles!

Thanks.

Certainly, this particular trick only works if you have first go. However, I've found Vanisher and Sidewinder to be excellent medic killers. They don't even need to get an attack in, they just need to 'port in and stand there next to the medic and the wounded character, preventing Support from being used until you can move in and mop up.

I'd rather use figs with perplex that are useful for other things, for example V Taskmaster. He can give someone nearby a boost, or he can boost himself when there's no one else around. A con artist would be useless boosting itself. And one of my favorite ways to get rid of large masses of weak people is Ultron, though he's a little expensive. Energy Explosion three different targets, with a practically guaranteed hit, from ten squares away. Or better yet-- V Kang. Pulse Wave with a 13 attack! He's expensive too, though.

I wouldn't mind seeing Con Artists go away, mainly because I never use them anyway and only see them used against me. At my venue we already limit the maximum number of con artists on a team to one, so there's no such thing as an army of perplex.

Oh yeah, and great article.