HAMMER OF THOR is here! Yay! Great set! Lovin' it!
--------------
Going to focus on one aspect of the set now: "Generics".

I like that all of the 'generics' in the set are in the Common slot. But, I don't know what happened to anyone else out there, but I ended up with much more of the 'named' Commons than the 'generics' that you need multiples of for theme-y play.

Out of my four bricks, I was astounded and flummoxed that I'd pulled so many more Jimmy Woos, Marvel Boys, Malekith, Enchantresses, Bi-Beasts, Kingpins, and Pip the Trolls.

I was lucky to pull, for example, my four Hand ninjas. Lined them up along with the other Commons, it was a pretty pathetic showing. 6 kingpins, 7 Jimmy Woos, 9 (9!) each of Malekith, Enchantress, Bi-Beast, 8 Marvel Boys, 10 freakin' Pip the Trolls.....

Out of my four bricks, I felt luck to have gotten my four Hand Ninjas, and similar amounts of Asgardian Warrior, Phalanx, and the other 'generics'.

End of Part 1 of Rant.

The "Minion" class of Special Powers. This player likes!

But, hope you don't apply it to every 'generic'.

I like that those with a "Minions" SP had "Leaders" in the set. It was great for the Asgardians and Valkyries to have so many available Leaders. (With Surtur and Ragnorok Surtur only available in limited quantities and in frequency, the Fire Demons get a little shafted, though.)

I like that neither the Phalanx Soldiers nor the Hand Ninjas especially need a "Leader" though. (Yes, the Phalanx have Ultron in the set, but with him being an SR, I'm glad his presence isn't required in order to make them effective. Just other Phalanx are required, which isn't bad, just unfortunate if you didn't pull a lot of them.)

End of Part 2 of Rant

'Generics" and point-cost.

I'm not sure if you guys at "Neo-WizKids" will keep designing with the "300-point game" standard in mind, but I hope we can see some more 15-point and under 'generics' in the future.

It's great to get 'generics', but all the 30+ point ones get a little harder to round out teams with.

I hope to see some lower-point "Line-of-Fire blockers/Mastermind Fodder/Annoying Little Tie-Up" 'generics' again.

Not saying I don't want to see higher-point 'generics' either. Loved the way the White Martians and Manhunters turned out in ARKHAM ASYLUM. Looking forward to some Mindless Ones for Marvel some day.

Just saying some more powerless, Thug/Henchman/Lackey/Criminal point-level figures would be nice again. (The CM Moloids play well alongside thier SI Moloid cousins, BTW. Easy to make a team with. Just sayin'.)

End of Part 3 of Rant.

Going out on a Limb.

Okey-Dokey. So, rarity. I've made this suggestion a couple of times: Super-Commons.

The above two links were to suggest a new rarity level, the "Super-Common". It was a suggestion for a dedicated slot in each booster, to be filled by a "super-common" generic-type character, and there'd be 5 or 6 such characters in a set.

So if there were 5 "super-commons" in a set, and you kept the current set-up of five figure boosters with 10 boosters per brick, and collation was good, a player could easily get 2 each of the 5 'generics' in a brick. Four of each in a case.

Not a bad deal. "Generics" seem to hold good value for trade and whatnot.

And having a "super-common" rarity doesn't eliminate the option of still having a 'generic' in the Common rarity. The Common rarity might be better for the higher-point 'generics'.
-----------

Having said all of that, I don't know what you'd have to do to adjust the number of characters per the remaing rarity levels (Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Super-Rare), or if you could keep the 60-figure set, "Super-Commons", and keep the Super-Rares "One Per 3 Boosters" (if that's what it still is; the "God Packs" were a strange permutation in HoT).

(Hopefully) End of the Rant

Hmm. You got a couple of weird cases. I bought one case and got exactly 3 of each generic. The only other dupe I had three of was Malekith, and I obviously kept 1.

As for Super-Commons... I can't see any really good reason for it. If you're going to make a dedicated slot for generics why not just make all of the commons generic? We're already guaranteed a common per booster (well, ok, unless it's a god pack), so why screw with the collation? If the common slot was purely generic then few people would be upset by their (nearly) guaranteed duplicate from that slot. You could still have higher point generics in the uncommon slot if you wanted, but that seems excessive.

The big question is this: what would this do to theme play? Honestly, I don't think it would necessarily hurt it.

See, that's one of the reasons I also wrote that WK might want to think their rarity scale.

Putting the "God Packs" off to one side for a moment, as I understand it the per booster set-up since AVENGERS has been like this:

1-3 Commons
1-2 Uncommons
1 Rare

1 in 3 boosters will contain a Super-Rare figure, replacing a Common.

60-figure set rarity levels were:
16 Common figures (white rarity tabs)
16 Uncommon figures (green rarity tabs)
16 Rare figures (silver rarity tabs)
12 Super-Rare figures (gold rarity tabs)


Let's say we made one slot a Super-Rare, one slot a Rare, kept SRs distribution the same: How many figure would need to be Common and Uncommon?

Maybe we could just do away with the Uncommon rarity and expand the number of Commons?

(So, per booster: One Super-Common, One Rare, 3 Commons, SR distribution the same.)