With the release of the super-duper deluxe DVD edition of the PC game City of Villains (CoV) comes 7 new HeroClix, 6 of which can be won at WizKid's supported tournaments. Despite the name of the game and since it's following on the heels of its successful predecessor City of Heroes (CoH), the HeroClix included with the super-duper deluxe DVD edition have both a 300 point team of heroes and a 300 point team of villains.

Today, the Villains.

How evil are the Limited Edition Black Scorpion, Captain Mako, Ghost Widow, and Lord Recluse?

(please click "Replies" below to continue...)

FYI: The Arachnos Team Ability (TA) is the same as Crossgen and Mystics.



Black Scorpion
City of Villains #003, 72 points
Range: 4
Targets: 1
Team Affiliation: Arachnos

Black Scorpion is a figure I want to like but can't. The obvious badness of Black Scorpion include: 1) An Attack Value (AV) that, at its best, is a 9 on the first click and usually a 7 or 8 everywhere else; 2) A defensive value that starts at 15 with Invulnerability and ends at an unprotected 11; and 3) No movement powers until Charge at the end of the dial... when Black Scorpion should be gittin' hisself out of Dodge.

So, what keeps making me want to like him? With the Arachnos (TA), his eight clicks of life mean that your opponent is taking damage. Thanks to two clicks of Invulnerability and three clicks of Toughness, if your opponent is pinging and slowly damaging him, then your opponent's figs are taking quite a few clicks of damage. The dual edge sword of having an easily hittable defense conversely means that the figure is easily healed with Support--that eight clicks of life comes into play again!

While most of his dial contains a base 2 damage (one 3 at the beginning, one 3 at the end, and one 1 near the end), Black Scorpion's ability to dish out damage is decent. Four clicks of Super Strength occur at the same time as the four clicks of Close Combat Expert (CCE). Since you can't use an object at the same time you use CCE and you must use the object in a close combat attack, be wary of picking up light objects. (The advantage to picking up a light object is that it can be thrown six spaces, two spaces farther than Black Scorpion's natural range.) Following Super Strength and CCE are two clicks of Quake and Ranged Combat Expert (RCE). Following those two clicks are his two clicks of Charge with a 6 AV and an 11 defensive value.

Although he's already costing more points than he's worth, give him an extra feat card combo and... well, it's just for fun anyway. ^_^ With four clicks of CCE and his penchant for being in close combat situations anyway, tack on Damage Shield so that when he's hit back he's sending back an extra click of damage besides from his TA. Combo this feat with Armor Piercing and now Black Scorpion is sending two irreducible clicks of damage for close combat attacks. (The Armor Piercing isn't a bad card anyway if you're going to use any ranged combat attacks when he's sporting CCE or close combat attacks when RCE is on the dial.)

Evil-O-Meter: 3/10 Evil Stars



Captain Mako
City of Villains #004, 52 points
Range: 0
Targets: 1
Team Affiliation: Arachnos

First came Magog. Then came Persuader. Now has come [echo effect] Captain Mako [/echo effect]. The Captain's first click is a beautiful Charge/Exploit Weakness (EW) combo with a 10 AV and base 3 damage. (Haymaker and/or In Contact with Oracle can up that damage a bit more.) On the Captain's second click, he trades in EW for Battle Fury (BF) but still has a base 3 damage. The next two clicks drop the damage down from 3 to 2, but a 9 AV with Blades/Claws/Fangs (BCF) can continue to apply some major damage to your foe. The last two clicks bring us a non-compatible Flurry/EW combo, but the AV is down to 8-7 and the damage runs from 1-2. The first three clicks of the Captain's life are protected with Toughness while the last three are completely unprotected. However, the defense value itself stays fairly steady as it starts at 16 and meanders down to a last click at 14. This is good for staying alive, but it's bad if you're planning on Supporting him.

Evil-O-Meter: 7/10 Evil Stars



Ghost Widow
City of Villains #002, 54 points
Range: 6
Targets: 1
Team Affiliation: Arachnos

You may have noticed that the figures haven't been presented in Collector's Number order. I've presented these first three LEs in the order in which you should want them (from least to most) and Lord Recluse last because he's available only in the super-duper deluxe DVD edition. If you haven't seen the beauty of Ghost Widow, let me introduce you to her.

GW has five clicks of life and only two of those slots don't have a super-power, the first click defensive slot and her last click damage slot. She has five full clicks of Phasing with a 9 movement that drops to 8 and then three clicks at 7. Her defense starts out at 18, drops to 17 and 16 with Super Senses, and then finally two 15s with Regeneration (regen). Given her TA, this Regen makes her even more annoying, and she can heal up to her first click with a roll of 5/6 on her first regen click and a 6 on her second regen click. (That was a "hint-hint" concerning the feat card Automatic Regeneration.) On her attack clicks, she starts off with two clicks of Poison followed by two clicks of Steal Energy. Armor Piercing is a must have so that the Poison can affect figs with damage reducing powers and so that she can actually apply a click of damage when she's on her Steal Energy clicks. The other advantage to Armor Piercing is that her ranged attacks act like Psychic Blast (her first click has a base 2 damage while the rest have a base 1). Her last click has Pulse Wave and, since she's a flyer, her 7 AV makes it a decent hail mary attack. However, let me specifically say: Be on the lookout for anyone dishing out five clicks of damage--they will kill her. GW has four clicks of Support, which coupled with her Phasing and initial 9 AV, makes her an excellent evil medic.

Evil-O-Meter: 10/10 Evil Stars



Lord Recluse
City of Villains #001, 122 points
Range: 4
Targets: 2
Team Affiliation: Arachnos

Lord Recluse... the click so reclusive that he's available only in the super-duper deluxe DVD edition (anyone else tired of this phrase?). Compared to bricks in the Lord's price range, he's not very tough (sort of like Apocalypse who always seemed like he should work).

Starting with a click of Charge (9 movement), a 9 AV with Super Strength, a 16 defense with Invulnerability, and a base 3 damage with Leadership, Lord Recluse reminds me of the never-used-except-on-theme-teams Colossus. To his benefit, Lord Recluse falls very steadily over his eight clicks of life so he'll remain useful even after taking some damage. ...truthfully, we're going to give him some feats to make him useful. First off, his AV drops to an 8 on click #3 and to a 7 on click #6. Secondly, after two clicks of Super Strength, he has nothing until his last three clicks of Poison. If you're thinking Armor Piercing, KUDOS to you! Not only will it help out his damage-dealing ability (base damage of 2 for clicks 2-6), but it will work perfectly with his four clicks of Flurry (immediately follows his first click of Charge) and with his dual-target ranged attacks (remember: range of 4). Turning Lord Recluse completely evil means that we give him Damage Shield which will work on four of his eight clicks. The reason why it's so delightfully evil is because he has Mastermind on his Poison clicks; when someone successfully close combat attacks him, Damage Shield returns a click of damage irreducible thanks to Armor Piercing and he is still Masterminding that damage away.

(Icing on the cake are the three clicks of Outwit... the same three clicks that have Poison/Mastermind. As such, you could skip the Armor Piercing and Outwit any Toughness/Invulnerability/Impervious powers and than apply the Poison.)

Evil-O-Meter: 6/10 Evil Stars

Nice review..thanks!

And Ghost Widow is AWESOME!!!!

Great review

Lord Recluse will be fun to play Tk him out haymaker to push to flurry clicks follow up with a lockjaw w/ double time next to him - to pull him out or use with MM when he has poison and put AP on him

Excellent point about how easy it is to kill Ghost Widow on her first click (if you can hit her defense). I have a feeling she won't be as effective as some people think b/c any time she's on the board she's going to have a HUGE target on her back. Of course you can use this to bait your opponent and trade Ghost Widow for a dogpile against a primary attacker. Personally she's got Pouncing Ult Rookie Spidey written all over her for me.

If you have Ghost Widow exposed to attck, you are playing her wrong, IMHO.

She's beind your other support figs, givng them all an 18, and waiting for your gunner to come home for some healing. Poison and steak energy are there to keep away those pesky little medic-killers.

She's a medic. Period. An extremely efficient figure, too! I want her.

Whoops, I though she had defend on that first click. Point stands, though.

Mmmm, more CoH/CoV goodness/Evilness! Must get them. They are all on my wants list.

Yeah...hey didn't she have defend on her first click?? I remember seeing it...not just on the WizKids site, but somebody who had actually seen it at a convention had listed its first click stats and nobody could believe it. It definitely had defend. Was the figure they saw a mistake or is the website mistaken now?

Ghost Widow should only be spoken of in hushed voices.

He may not be great, but Black Scorpion might be the greatest looking figure EVAR!

As should all the dearly departed.

She'll die so quick you'll think you had KC Batman on your team.

Bring it!!

P.S. I still want one.

Just wanted to point out that Haymaker and EW cannot be used together - but everyone already knew that, right? Haymaker is still nice to increase base damage against unprotected targets, though.

Also, I think it's nice that they did a Fantastic Four here - all four pieces together equals 300 points.

i just have to find a way to get the Lord Recluse.....I don't plan on buying the game, not after what I went through with the first one...

Ghost Widow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:P~~~~~~~~

She's MY girfriend, not YOURS *ahem*