Welcome back to yet another edition of Comprehensive Reviews. Today we’ll be taking a look at Jean Gre.. err… Emma Frost.. That’s right, It’s Cyke’s new flame (or would it be cool gal?).

Whether you trust her as an X-man or not there is little to argue about her being a pretty decent (even back in the Clobbering Time days, well.. at least mostly) piece. So click on “Read More” and let’s take a look!

On one additional note, I hope everyone here has had a wonderful Holiday!

First before the review I would like to point out a new feature that I will be instituting every week. It will be a poll of 2 or more figures that I personally am interested in reviewing. Every week I will post the poll as well as the review. The piece with the most votes will be reviewed 2 weeks from the debut of the article. For instance today I’ve got the poll for Apocalypse, Storm, and Archangel. If Apocalypse were to win the poll this week (results of poll will be determined the Friday after the post, IE. 3 days after the article is posted) then the review after NEXT week’s would be an Apocalypse Review. I encourage you all to Participate. Note that these polls may not be followed completely as I DO love taking requests. So if a particular piece gets a few requests there may not be a poll. Please vote. It gives me more motivation to write what you want to see.

Really when it comes down to this article it could be a comparison of veteran pieces, but that wouldn’t quite be comprehensive enough! So for today I’ll be taking a look at all versions of the Clobbering Time piece and the new Mutations and Monsters version. We’ll then go about figuring out a good order of utility. Let’s not delay anymore and get this started.

C079: Rookie White Queen



The Rookie White Queen clocks in at 61 points. There’s nothing really bad to say about her. Sure she could do more damage, or she could have a higher attack value, but then she probably wouldn’t be 61 points. She does have a relatively short dial, but that’s the flaw of many lower point pieces from that point in time. Finally she’s got an 8 range with a single arrow.

She’s definitely going to need help getting around the battle field with only a 6 square movement to start. It gets worse though, she works down to a 4 by the end of her dial. The first 3 clicks (of her 5 click dial) she’s got Mind Control. Now sometimes Mind Control goes wasted on pieces, but in the White Queen’s dial I think it works well. Her damage isn’t ridiculously high so it makes the option to use mind control somewhat of a tempting choice. Be careful who you target as the feedback damage will push her, but in many cases (for under 100 pts) we can find someone who can deal MORE than 2 damage on the opposing team that mind control could be a great way to inflict some extra damage to the team. If she were to have a 4 damage or even a 3 damage, we might not consider using MC as much, which is clearly an important power for this short dial. On top of that, I think the single arrow mind control isn’t too bad. Sure you can do some havoc with a 3 arrow MC, but the single arrow makes it nice and easy to know just how much feedback damage you risk taking.

Still if she can’t find a good target to use her mind control on, we can still cut right through damage reducers with a full dial of psychic blast! Sure she’s only got 2 damage, but with Psychic Blast it’s more like a 4 damage versus someone with impervious/invulnerable. So that’s ok for me! Her AV isn’t great, starting at a 9 and ending at a 5, but for her point cost it’s acceptable. She’s hardly going to be the heavy hitter on your team.

Defensively she’s ok. She starts with a 15 and works down to a 13 by the end of her dial. Ever click of her defense except the last is equipped with Super Senses, which if you’re luckier than me will help keep her alive.

Her damage is simple. She has a 2 damage for 3 clicks and a 1 damage for 2 clicks. Her first two clicks she offers some leadership however.

Really for 61 points she’s a pretty fantastic piece. With the perplex and other ways to modify stats running through the game she shouldn’t be easily dismissed. She’s pretty cheap, and offers some decent stats for her cost. She’d fit well on a team with the Black King and the Black Queen (and it’d be a good theme team also!).

C080: Experienced White Queen



The experienced White Queen is 80 points and takes what the rookie had going for her and adds one more click. On her extra click she picks up another click of mind control with 6 movement, another click of psychic blast this time with a 10 AV, another click of super senses with a 16 defense, and another click of 2 damage. Her leadership however stays at 3 in the first 3 clicks.

Whether she’s worth the 19 point upgrade, well that’s up to you. It doesn’t take too much to make the rookie one somewhat equivalent to the experienced. So if you team supports a perplex piece or in contact with oracle, it may be more beneficial to consider the rookie over the exp. I will say that I’ve had some tremendous games with the Experienced involved, so please don’t discount her as a bad piece based on my “short” review. There’s just not much to say about a piece that is so similar to her rookie. If you don’t have the rookie, or don’t have (for theme reasons or otherwise) the ability to boost the rookie’s stats, then you won’t be disappointed choosing the experienced!

C081: Veteran White Queen



The 94 point veteran! Wow, we’ve gone up another 14 points she MUST be something special.. Right???? WRONG! Garbage! That’s what this piece is. Whomever thought that there would be utility in this piece must have run their head into a brick wall repetitively. I mean I guess she’s probably seen play. Perhaps someone played her versus their newbie friend as a 94 point handicap. Because really that’s all s he is.

She was the First X-man piece to have outwit.. But having the one power that made rookie Black Panther so incredibly abuse able does not make for a good piece..

She does have a longer dial that probably 80% of the X-men pieces available, but that still doesn’t help her. Apparently this version is representing her in her “diamond” form. But she also forgot how to do anything else apparently.

She’s got an AWFUL activation click. I guess when you look at the dial it’s really not that much of an activation click since the only thing that happens is her defense and damage get better, but still.

Her movement starts at a 6 and works down to a 4. Forget mind control, she’s forgot how to use it.

Her attack value starts at a 9 and works down to a 5. Forget psychic blast, she doesn’t do that anymore.. She likes to wail on her opponents with her diamond fists, which are apparently covered in pillows. Oh yeah did I mention she’s a close combat fig with 0 range?

Her defense starts at a 13 for the first click. Shortly into battle if you choose to handicap yourself further by wasting actions on her she gets a 17 defense with invulnerable. Her invulnerable stays for 4 clicks. Two clicks of 17 def, two of 16 defense. After invulnerable she switches to toughness for the last 3 clicks. She has 2 clicks of 15 defense and 1 click of 14 defense. This part of the dial is probably about 60 points of her 94 point cost, I'd have to assume.. It'd be great for her time if infinity challenge didn't have a multiple number of pieces with 11+ AV's (I'm looking at you Firelord, Thanos, Wolverine, Nightmare, Etc, etc.) As it stood in the time she came out, she was STILL too easy to hit and with nothing to try to make a good offense, she was doomed.

Her damage starts at a 1 for the activation click and then shifts to a 2. She keeps the 2 damage for 4 clicks before falling back to a 1. She stays at a 1 damage for the remainder of her dial. Oh but clearly she's a support piece! I mean she starts with 3 clicks of leadership, and then goes to 3 clicks outwit. The leadership is a waste, as in a 300 point game she's already taking up 1/3 of the team. I guess you can use it to move her sorry behind around to get her to her 17 defense clicks. The outwit comes later in the dial.. There's really nothing bad to say about outwit, it's almost always useful, but dedicating 94 points to your X-men team to get it.. Well.. That's not so great..

I suppose that there are some strategies that can be used when playing White Queen. Here's an example of a few.

1) Make a team consisting only of White Queen pieces (make sure you are under the build total). Placing her on the map should make your opponent laugh so hard that time runs out and you win.

2) If opponent doesn't laugh it might be good to have a few other pieces that aren't white queen (still remain under build total). When it's your turn move white queen around to push to 17 defense. When picking up the piece to click the dial, chuck it at your opponents eye. This should incapacitate the player and is far more effective of a psychic blast as it ignores figure damage and goes right for player damage. The time your opponent spends shouting obscenities and such should get them kicked out of the game or time will run out. *Note* If a judge asks what happened tell them she slipped. **Note** DemonRS does not condone this method of winning

Enough is enough.. Rip her off her base, and make a fantastic Rogue Mod like my friend did. Just save yourself the trouble of playing her!

MU053: Veteran Emma Frost



Damage – Headmistress: Emma Frost can use Leadership and Perplex

The NEW White Queen, or should I say Emma Frost, comes in at 107 points and seems to bring to the X-men Team all the things that made her R/E a great piece, as well as the things that could have made the V a decent piece, and on top of all that a few new tricks to make her an extra excellent X-men Piece.

The start of her dial looks like what her Rookie and Experienced looks like, complete with the psychic blast and super senses, and mind control, and leadership (with perplex this time too!) and decent stats. She transitions to her "diamond form" except this time she KEEPS the 8 range, and she's got increased damage potential with the addition of close combat expert. Then after diamond form she switches back to standard Emma Form and gets some nice attack and support options. Enough of and overview, lets break it down further.

Her movement starts at a 7 and works down to a 5, but not before jumping up to an 8 on click 2 which is the start of her 2 clicks of diamond form. She's got a bit of Mind control on her dial, specifically clicks 1, 4, 5, and 6. The mind control can do some interesting things for Emma, such as use it to mind control an opponent away from one of your allies (great during her willpower clicks to follow up next turn with a support roll on an ally), or use it up front and push off super senses to force someone into close combat when Emma goes into diamond form. Another option is knowing she'll take feedback damage. Use it on a piece with HSS or Running shot (who is 100+ points), and have them HSS/Running shot towards Emma (while hitting an ally) and hopefully place them adjacent to Emma. When the mind control wears off they'll be next to Emma who is already standing ready to clobber with her Diamond Form.

Her attack values are no slouch either. She's got a 10 to start and works down to an 8. She's got psychic blast on all but her diamond form clicks. The diamond form clicks are bare, but don't forget there is nothing limiting her from using her 8 range which may catch an opponent by surprise.

Defensively she starts out with a 17 and holds it for 3 clicks. After the 3 clicks she works down to a 14 by the end of her dial. Her first click is complete with super senses to help keep her safe. After super senses it's on to 2 clicks of invulnerable. You can't have diamond form without invulnerable. After the invulnerable clicks she picks up willpower for the remainder of the dial which does a great job allowing her for better support for her X-men or more psychic blasting/mind controlling more often.


Also on a side note while I don't talk much about feats, Mental Shields works well for Emma as it keeps her form suffering feedback damage on single targets (and since she only HAS a single target arrow it doesn't "gimp" her).

Her damage isn't too shabby either. She starts with a 3 damage, and then works down to a 1 damage, but then jumps back to a 2 damage for 2 clicks, followed by 1 damage for 2 clicks. It may not be all that high, but all but her diamond form clicks are coupled with psychic blast to make them hurt a bit more. The opening click provides the special power "Headmistress" which gives her both leadership and Perplex. The leadership helps provide the extra movements needed for an X-man team (there are PLENTY of cheap pieces to take advantage of this). The perplex allows her to help either herself or her x-men. An unreduceable 4 damage is nothing to laugh at! When she gets to her diamond form clicks she picks up CCE giving her increased damage potential during those clicks. Remember she can still hit at range, but try to make use of the CCE as best as possible! After her Diamond form she picks up support which makes sure that when SHE can't hit too hard her other X-men can be healed to the point that THEY can hit hard again. The 2 and one damage however is still ok with psychic blast.

So the new Emma while more costly than the other pieces seems to bring a lot to an X-men Team. She has the utility of the R/E with increased capabilities of the V. She did lose outwit, but that isn't that big since she's picked up perplex, and support. She may be costly but in a game of plenty of X-men pieces for under the 60 point range you can front a pretty nasty team with her on it..

Thanks for stopping by. Come back next week when I take a look at Professor X! I look forward to seeing you all in the new year!

Thanks for the review.

Great review! I took a little flack for saying how effective the old Emma pieces were, even in today's game. I'm glad to see I wasn't completely off-base.

Sweet review. Emma is definitely on my want list. Too bad her sculpt is of her diamond form and not what you had up there for the pic....still, great piece overall.

Nice!! Looking forward to playing Emma one day on an X-Men team!! Have not had the time yet...but soon...very soon!!!

I was surprized to see the Veteran from the older set. I never had her and now I am glad I never did bother to acquire her. WOW! Talk about suckage!

Thanks for the great review!!

I can't wait for the Superboy review, where someone finds that picture of him in cut-off jean shorts washing the tractor ...

... oh, wait. Heh. (I kid, I kid.)

Who wears just sleeves?

Seriously.



On the other hand, good review and I'm looking forward to Chuckles.

Some comments:

The CT Vet White Queen was one of only two X-men TA pieces in the CT set. The other was U Nightcrawler. Talk about bad set design!

I would use the original CT (non-Xmen versions) as a Mind Controller for my Sentinel+Hounds (non-affiliated mutant) teams.

Time and again, the biggest problem I've had with the R/E CT versions is that their movements are pathetically slow...so positioning them is a real mess.

The new version of Emma Frost is much more playable than the previous figures...and offers 1 great opening trick: Mind Control a 100+ figure to take feedback damage onto an Invuln click. But I have a few complaints:

0) Insert obligatory "I miss REVs" here. Emma is a character with enough history and variety to merit at least two versions: a Hellions/Hellfire Club pure Psychic version, as well as a version like the SR.

1) Back-end Support on a 100+ figure. The way the game plays out...if a 100+ figure (especially one with Invuln!) is on the back end of the dial, it is not usually that the REST of the team will need support healing.

2) Again, another figure with a "classic" power (Leadership) that didn't get the actual power, so cannot qualify for any of the relevant feats that make great clix Leadership pieces (Inspiring Command, Contingency Plan, etc.)

3) This is even more subjective: I think the price point is too high. This is somewhat related to my zeroth comment above, but I prefer to make X-men teams with at least 4-figures, and at over one-third of the cost of a 300-point squad, Emma is taking up a lot of the budget.

4) I don't have an SR Emma :disappoin <- The sad face indicates that the M&M set has too many SR figures that I'm interested in, and that my budget/buying habits won't allow me to get any beyond the ones I already have...unless somebody wants my extra "Mastermind'!

Very good review. I plan on playing the SR in a "Blue-colored" theme team.

the cover picture was great.

Only thing I have to say about Emma Frost is...chica chica bow wow!

Great review as always. Back when I had a X-Men campaign army, I used the V because she had Outwit/Invun. Paul found it annoying at the time. I dropped the team after it got unwieldly and didn't like to hit.

Only ever had the Ex clobberin time and like tidgey says budget retraints have slowed my Mutations and monsters collectin

ive bought 16 boosters of it and gave about 6 boosters in doubles away. Not impressed to say the least, about that but only getting 2 superrares out of the brick? man, i think that seals the deal of buyin new product

And id love me that new emma too

I can't wait to try her out.