I had the pleasure of going down to WonderCon this year with one of my friends who plays Heroclix and another friend who just decided to come down for the ride. I met some awesome players and saw some fantastic strategies presented by the other players. It was a great experience.

Our venue isn't doing the IG events, so I hadn't seen a gauntlet in play, nor had I used one before going to WonderCon. I brought a gauntlet with a soul gem with me to play, thinking it would give me a competitive edge, or at least get me up to speed with the other players.

I watched in amazement as a clear majority of the 30-ish players pulled their own infinity gauntlets out with their teams. I had heard that the gauntlet was being used a lot, but I guess I didn't expect it to be as popular as it was at the event.

I quickly discovered why the gauntlet is seen as such an advantage. The gauntlet teamed up with the right amount of luck and the right figure is quite literally a game breaker.

In my first game of the first event, I was able to defeat about 400 points of a 600 point game without losing a single figure (though a few had been weakened). I felt like the game was over at that point. A few more turns to take out the remaining figure and everything would be just peachy. My opponent then rolled his gauntlet and landed on Godhood. It was basically a massacre after that. The ability to choose HSS on a figure that has +2 to all of his stats is far from fair. It was at that point that my entire team--a moderately damaged 600 point team--was taken out by a single figure with a 15 point gauntlet that was just under 200 points.

Now, don't get the wrong idea. The guy played really well, and the biggest reason why his figure didn't die is because he made sure of it. He played smart, and I don't think the gauntlet "won the game for him".

But as one of my friends noted as he walked around the tournament that day, "It's almost like if you don't play the gauntlet, you don't win".

My other friend, who was playing and didn't have a gauntlet, uttered his frustration as he felt like he was at a severe disadvantage when playing against the gauntlet teams.

In the two constructed events (outside of the championship), the only games I lost were against teams that used the gauntlet and landed on #3, godhood. Again, I am not saying that that is the sole reason why my opponent won, but it does say something about how I feel about it.

Those of you who are familiar with the Super Smash Bros. series will know how this feels. In the original Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee, there was a really tight competitive experience when playing that game. There were some items that gave you an advantage, and there were definitely characters that were better than others, but over-all you could best most characters with whoever you were good at in the game. The game was fun, and didn't have any major set-backs.

Then Nintendo came out with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and introduced an new mechanic: Final Smash attacks. I just want to express how much I hated this idea. Final Smash attacks were gained by breaking a flying ball in the game, which would power up your character to do an attack that, most of the time, was unavoidable and did so much damage that you were likely to loose a life right away.

The game mechanic wasn't so broken that you couldn't win against a person who got more final smashes than you, but it was pretty close. Slowly I began to realize that the final smashes didn't really display a person's skill at all... it was almost like a way for the game to play itself. No longer was it a question of weather or not you were a better player, but weather or not you had more final smashes than the other person. It didn't take very long for me to switch final smashes to "off" and never use them again.

The gauntlet is the "Final Smash" of heroclix right now. It is the way for Heroclix to play the game for the player. For some players, it's no longer about who builds the better team and who plays the best strategy, it's about weather or not you are lucky enough to land on your gauntlet rolls.

I make this statement, but please understand that, again, I don't believe that it will always win the game for the player. It doesn't mean an insta-win, nor is it completely breaking the game. But can you see the problem? The game is playing itself. The gauntlet is a huge advantage if the game allows it to be; so much so that there really isn't much you can do to stop it if your opponent plays it correctly, and again, is lucky.

I don't know if anything should be changed about the gauntlet. I don't know if errata's are the answer, nor do I think wizkids will do anything about it anyway. But I, personally, am going to mark it off as the un-fun mechanic to the game--much like the annoying Final Smash.

I like Final Smashes.

Brawl was better than Melee.

The gauntlet, like all things, can be neutralized.

It doesn't fit on all teams. It requires strategy to use, and strategy to beat. Advantages and disadvantages.

This game is all about luck. That's why there's Dice involved.

Without them, this would be Magic the Gathering. Or VS System.

Yep, it's a game changer.. for now. When all 6 gems are available and attached it will be a game breaker.

So HSS is at the center of another game-breaking mechanic? The shock, it is incredible!

For 40 points, this thing is going to be better than IcWO, Protected, Fortitude and Warbound all rolled into one.

I honestly love the idea of the Gauntlet, but dread the execution of it.

Well, I've been saying for years that WK has some great ideas, but generally fail miserably at the execution of those ideas.

I hate the term 'broken', but this thing is so massively undercosted for the benefit(s) it gives, that I cannot understand how this thing got through 'play testing' at all. Like at all.

Yep. They could make several changes to HSS and it would still be better than charge/RS.

Like I've said elsewhere, it a sneaky way of re-introducing feats to the game on another level. Feats 2.0

They tried it with the relics then decided on an item that you can automatically assign to any individual figure with a ranging cost for the gems.

the gauntlet is must in any competive team, and it comes down to who makes the roll now

last game i played,

metron / nightcrawler

vs

metron / nightcrawler

my team was full health and gauntlet on "2"

he had metron left on his last click, gauntlet on "3"

he chose exploit weakness, hit me with double 5 on the second roll and one shoted metron with the nockback damage, and nightcrawler couldn't do squat.

played soundly the entire game my gaunlet didn't reach 2 tell the last turn, but when his hit 3, no matter what the previous part of the game was, it was down to who rolled first.

How do you neutralize the gauntlet? I would really like to know this secret.

Aggro. Constant, unrelenting aggro. Complete with copious amounts of pushing/Incap.

Sauron's epic action does a good job of neutralizing the IG...

edit: Also wanted to point out that my 600 Non-Generic team did NOT utilize the Infinity Gauntlet and I wound up 6th place. My one loss was against a team that did have IG, but did not get anywhere near special powers 2 or 3.

I do feel like this is the general consensus between players, but it isn't entirely true.

The winning 400pt team (shared between the top two championship players) did not use the gauntlet, but instead used the Gamma Bomb.

I still stand by my statement, though I recognize that there are competitive teams that will beat a gauntlet team without using one. It isn't an instant-win, it's just a way for the player to let their dice play for them.

Play aggressively and take out the gauntlet wielder, or incap them... a lot.