Welcome to HeroClix A to Z figure reviews for Marvel – Fantastic Forces, and thanks for reading!

Professor Xavier


I wonder what Brad and Janet are up to these days…

This is where I review a figure’s stats, cost, and overall playability. Typically these reviews are intended to discuss a figure’s use in competitive play, but for some figures that don’t make it to the tournament scene, they can still be fun to play among friends and on theme teams and will be reviewed with that in mind.

These reviews are done with Open Format in mind, and pretty much any point size game.
Since formats have become looser and its not uncommon to see anything from 300 to 1000 point games.

Today’s review is:

Professor Xavier
99 – Ultimate X-Men – 12 ///


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HeroClix A to Z – Fantastic Forces figure review:
Professor Xavier

(Whoclix: Who is Ultimate Professor Xavier?)

Not every Unique can be the premier figure, but Prof X is definitely on the top half of the list, and a great figure to start off the Fantastic Forces reviews with.

Ultimate Professor X doesn’t vary very drastically from his classic counter part character-wise. They both started a school for mutants and both have the same powers. (However, Ult Prof X was shown to have very limited Telekinesis.)

So the power set on this figure could easily represent either version, and its really only the Team Ability that distinguishes this figure as the Ultimate one. (Even the sculpt is somewhat ambiguous.)

With that said, this power set is a great representation for the good Professor. There are several ways to go with this character, so this power set may not be the one people necessarily want for him, but it is definitely suitable.
(At the extreme, its conceivable to see the Professor as a near 150 point mental monster with Psychic Blast and high damage.) Still, this version is no slouch.

As is appropriate for the greatest telepath on Earth (or so he claims), the Professor has a 12 range. And since he can grab several brains at once, triple targets also suit him well.

To give you options when playing him, and also fitting, Xavier also sports Incapacitate. Since he doesn’t always grab your brain, or if there’s not much there in the first place (ie: battle fury), he can just make you really really sleeeepy.

Also appropriate for the master mentalist is a duly high attack value. An 11 AV is on the high side for a sub-100 point figure, and Xavier can boost it against specific targets thanks to the Ultimate X-Men team ability. With that kind of attack, and the multiple targets, Prof should be very capable of hitting at least a couple of targets if he, ahem, puts his mind to it.

Defensively Xavier starts off with little more than Mastermind to fend off attacks. Or more accurately, dupe some teammate into taking the brunt of the attack themselves (jedi mind trick-like.) But with a pathetic 13 defense, pretty much anyone who wants to send some damage Xavier’s way will have no problem hitting him.

Mastermind will help with this early in the game since he’ll be able to shirk off damage, but the embarrassingly low D will be a problem later in the game. When Xavier is off Mastermind, even figures who have taken damage and are on their poor end of dial clicks will have little trouble tagging him (even a paltry 7 AV will have a better than average chance of hitting his starting D of 13! And it just gets worse from there.)

Still, as far as defensive Powers go, Mastermind and Willpower are good and accurate. As stated, MM will let him shirk damage, but it’s the Willpower that gets really nasty. Xavier’s second click is just as dangerous as his first. Possibly even more dangerous thanks to the introduction of Perplex and the ability to act without taking push damage.

This second click also allows the Professor to use the Brilliant Tactician feat card so he can use his Perplex on all the friendly Ult X-Men in range (and LOS). He can also use it to bump his own AV back up to 11, or just rely on the Ult X-Men TA to help there, and boost his range to a sick 13 and peg figures over half a map away!

Getting to click #2 is easy, a little too easy actually. Straight up, Xavier can just push off his first click onto Perplex and Willpower. (And then turn around and use perplex that turn on a teammate) Or he can Mind Control an opponent (or opponents) over 100 points and take the MC ‘feedback’ damage. Just be caureful about doing both (pushing and MCing over 100 points) since he’ll take a couple clicks and it’ll not only push him off Incapacitate, but he’s also still only 6 clicks deep and dangerously fragile.

Since Xavier’s damage value is 0 for his whole dial, he’s obviously not a strong offensive attack piece. Mind Control and Incapacitate with such a long range and 3 targets makes him an awesome strategic attack figure though. MC is great for making your opponent do your dirty work for you. Or you can force an opposing figure to move towards your force and into an ambush.
Or with multiple targets, you can do one of each!

Triple target Incap is also excellent, and is a great way for Xavier to affect the big bricks on the board without worrying about the Mind Control feedback damage.

As far as getting Xavier around the map, obviously he’s going to need some assistance. Whatever his taxi - Flier or Transporter, that figure will also, in all likelihood, be his damage sponge for Mastermind. Since there aren’t any Ultimate X-Men that are fliers and would make a particularly good damage sponge, Prof has to look elsewhere.
He doesn’t have to go far though, in Fantastic Forces, and just one spot ahead of him on the figure list is Warlock. A ‘regular’ X-Man (which is no help here), and a great taxi all around. In this case ‘Lock is a particularly good choice because of his Defend power that lets him share his 17 defense. This is doubly helpful for the Prof who gets the better defense so he’s less of a target, and Warlock gets any damage thrown the Professor’s way! Warlock also gets Toughness halfway down his dial so he can take a bit of a hit.
The main problem here though is that if a hit does get through, Warlock will take the damage naturally at first, Defend isn’t much of an actual defense. The bright side though is that when you move Prof X out, you can more or less leave him in the open since any attack targeted at him will be passed along to his techno-organic taxi.

Another great option in this set is Lockjaw (who will likely be a Transporter of choice from this set). Veteran LJ is wonderfully inexpensive, starts with Toughness, has a deep dial, and has high movement & Phasing for his whole dial. So anyone he’s carrying around is going to be very mobile, and the pooch can take a punch.

For any other options you go with, keep in mind that if you’re playing Brilliant Tactician on the Professor, it adds to his point total and will allow him to use Mastermind to slough off damage to figures less than his total cost.

Professor Xavier strikes a fine balance for fitting on 400 point teams. At 300, he takes up too much of the team and doesn’t have enough offense.
Much over 400 or 500 points and you get into the realm of opposing characters that are too many points to successfully MC, and who deal major damage able to take Prof (or his MM dummy) out in a single hit.

Prof X works thematically on any team with Ultimate X-men, and you can play the Moira pog (call her ‘Bride of Chucky’) for extra theme points. (Even though she really doesn’t *do* anything.)
Since this Prof looks and acts so much like the ‘real’ professor, he also fits fine on any regular X-Men theme team.

For Feats, as mentioned above, Brilliant Tactician is useful with him (he’s one of the few who can even use the card), but you practically have to build an all Ult X-Men team to make it worth the extra points.
Obviously Stunning Blow is not a good card for him.

There aren’t many Battlefield Conditions that actually help Xavier, but there are several that can really hurt him. Obviously Darkness and Deep Shadows will hurt his range advantage, and Poor Teamwork will kill his taxi and force him to rely on his slow natural movement. But you may not realize that Low Gravity will also be a bad one for him. If he uses Mastermind to shirk damage, his teammate will go skidding away from him and leave him vulnerable.
Overconfidence and Disbanded will also put the hurt on Brilliant Tactician.
And Earthquake will pretty much ruin him.
Come to think of it, he really sucks for Battle Field Conditions all around. It boils down to the fact that you’ll really have to play Ordinary Day to try and limit his exposure.
Ones that (kinda) work for him are Astral Plane, if he has to move on his own, at least he won’t get tangled in the bushes. And Bright Lights will allow him to really maximize his huge ranged advantage.

I like this version of the prof!!!!!

Big problem I have with mindcontrol is the "fedback" click for 100points worth of mindcontroling.

Prof X should have at least a 200point feedback limit.

I suggest you take a feedback click for mindcontroling any amount of figures totaling over 100points of the point cost of the character.

So Prof X can mindcontrol up to 199points without taking a click.
It would make him much more playable

Quality review AZS. Any thoughts about fortitude on Xavier or does it pump his cost up to much? If his mastermind gets nixed, his is toast!

My Infinitiy Challenge Professor X once got his taxi killed while on a rooftop Mind Controlling. He was left basically immoblie on a rooftop.Wasp then shot him in the back with Knockback and fell to his apparent doom.

This one is much nicer.

Not a big fan of him. I used him last week on a 400 point team with V nebula w/ trickshot a R and E lockjaw for MM foder. Also had CM Invisable Woman, destiny, and medic to heal after mind control feedback. Team did ok in 2 out of 3 rounds. In the one I lossed my friend just waited till Prof X was pushed then just based him with a lockjaw. That gave him enough time to swing into place to take out my medic and then Prof X, it was all downhill from there.

He might be good on a 1000 point team where he wont be the main focus of an attack.

Do you guys have any idea on teams based on Chuck?

Quote : Originally Posted by azs

Getting to click #2 is easy, a little too easy actually. Straight up, Xavier can just push off his first click onto Perplex and Willpower. (And then turn around and use perplex that turn on a teammate) Or he can Mind Control an opponent (or opponents) over 100 points and take the MC ‘feedback’ damage. Just be caureful about doing both (pushing and MCing over 100 points) since he’ll take a couple clicks and it’ll not only push him off Incapacitate, but he’s also still only 6 clicks deep and dangerously fragile.

Great review as normal. One thing I want to point out. Pushing to mind control an opponent (or opponenets) over 100 points should be fine. Due to the way everything resolves, Xavier should take the click of damage for figures over 100 points first. He will then have willpower showing on his dial and will not take the click of damage for pushing. So to get more bang for your buck, go ahead and push!

Imagine if it was Chuck's bald noggin poking out from the purple and green superarmor below him on the homepage instead of Lex.

swoon :knockedou

odietamo - I'm unclear on the timing of this, so I'd double check with someone who can give an official ruling.

Dr. Scott rocks!

nice reveiw azs

Great theme: Prof X (Dr. Scott), Cyclops (Brad ### HOLE!), Jean Grey (Janet SLUT!) and White Queen or Black Queen (Dr. Frankenfurter)

You can further enhance it with a much larger though still appropriately hideous Solomon Grundy as Riff Raff! And maybe even Doc Samson as Rocky (or The Thing, as a pun)

When you show your team, point to each and go "Janet, Doctor Scott, Janet, Brad, Rocky, Unh!" Do this several times

Great review, azs. I'm planning on tryiing him out tonight in an X-men team; one thing I'm thinking about trying is pairing him with the Bishop LE so that he can MM onto Bishop's impervious...