DEEP DISH THEMES

ORIGIN: Raised by her Aunt Carrie after tragedy befell her parents, young Anna Marie ran away from home and was taken in by Mystique and Destiny, whom Rogue came to regard as her surrogate parents. Rogue's mutant power first manifested in her early teens when she kissed Cody Robbins. Her mind filled with his memories, and he fell into a permanent coma. Eventually realizing she could never safely live among normal people, Rogue began participating in her foster mother's criminal endeavors and came to join Mystique's terrorist Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. On her first mission, the inexperienced Rogue clashed with Ms. Marvel and permanently absorbed the hero's memories and powers, including super-strength and flight. Distraught over her lack of control, Rogue turned to her enemies, the X-Men. Convinced of her sincerity, Professor Xavier accepted her onto the team; however, it wasn't until Rogue risked her own life to save Wolverine's fiancée Mariko Yashida that she began to gain her teammates' trust.


ic121 R Rogue
Team: Brotherhood of Mutants
Range: 0
Points: 38
Keywords: Brotherhood of Mutants, X-Men

8 9 15 2

8 8 14 2

7 7 13 2

7 6 12 2

6 5 12 2

6 5 11 1

5 4 11 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

PROS: This is a good "Entry Level" for Rogue. She appropriately doesn't have any powers yet besides her own default setting of the ability to sap them from other people. She makes for a pretty decent tie-up or figure to shift damage onto for a mastermind figure. The opening three clicks of toughness give her a bit of assistance to fulfill this use, and if she can find a weak enough target, she can even heal herself up a bit to keep on ticking (For at least a LITTLE bit longer). Luckily, she has a good team ability for the purpose that I would personally find for her. Using the Brotherhood team ability she will be able to get to her destination without using up what could be precious actions in any given round.

CONS: First and foremost, this figure is not a flyer. It got errata some time ago to ignore the flight base and consider it a grounded character. That took away one of the few things that this figure had going for it. At this point, rookie Rogue is basically just semi-cheap tie up and/or point filler for Brotherhood or X-Men teams. Unfortunately exploit weakness wasn't a power at the time or else they could have given her a major boost by pairing it with steal energy like more modern age versions have come to do. It would have made her capable of actually USING her natural abilities.

THEME: This Rogue represents the earliest moments in her career, so I would be most likely to include her in a Brotherhood of Mutants team. I could see her being good Mastermind fodder (Appropriately enough) for the GSX set Mystique. This would still allow you 176 points to build a decent 300 point Brotherhood team. Slap in the upcoming DOFP Pyro, the old rookie Destiny, and the WatX Magneto for 65 and you have a REALLY capable 300 point Brotherhood team!

Other Players' comments/reviews


ic122 E Rogue
Team: X-Men
Range: 0
Points: 77
Keywords: X-Men

10 9 15 3

10 8 14 2

10 7 13 2

8 6 12 2

8 5 12 2

8 5 11 2

6 4 11 1

6 4 10 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

PROS: I'll be completely honest. It's VERY hard to come up with good things to say about this figure. She just costs so much more than the rookie for such a tiny bit of increase over the rookie. At the very least she has the flight ability that the rookie was robbed of. The Invulnerability helps to keep her alive a bit longer, and she has gained another click of life. Though she is expensive mastermind fodder, taxi, or tie-up, she can do all of those things should you need her to...not very WELL, but she can. An extra added bonus to this model is the X-Men team ability...this is yet another way that you might be able to keep her around a little longer.

CONS: I'm not sure what they were necessarily going for here. If this is what happens AFTER Rogue absorbed Ms. Marvel's powers, they certainly didn't think much of what Ms. Marvel was capable of at that time. Pretty much the only difference between the rookie and this version is a slight bump in damage and a bump up from one click of toughness that turned into one click of Invulnerability (Followed by the regular toughness). This figure was considered on the low end of acceptable back in the day, but I would be genuinely surprised if I saw her played EVER again.

THEME: The only actual keyword option that she has is X-Men so if you don't want to play her on that team you have to go to the non-keyword list of teams to play with. This is about the level of Rogue that I would use for a Cosmic Champions/Secret Wars team. She was still pretty new to the X-Men at the time so it would have been accurate for her to not be the best that she was capable of.

Other Players' comments/reviews


ic123 V Rogue
Team: X-Men
Range: 0
Points: 88
Keywords: X-Men

10 10 15 3

10 9 14 3

10 8 13 3

9 7 12 2

8 6 12 2

8 5 11 2

7 5 11 2

6 4 10 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

PROS: THIS is a lot more like it. It puzzles me to no end how far off the experienced version seems from this one. For only an additional 11 points, Rogue has now picked up two clicks of charge, two more clicks of a natural three damage, and retains the things that made her potentially a good figure before. The combo of charge, three damage, and steal energy on her second click could potentially keep her hitting and doing damage to even the toughest of damage reducers while keeping her top dial via steal energy. Once again she has the X-Men team ability to help her out too. In fact, should it be necessary, she can taxi a teammate into position, and should they take a hit, she could possible heal them up and then charge in and steal back that click she might have given up from the opponent.

CONS: I will forego the normal complaint about low defense numbers in lieu of complaining about not a single click of Super Strength EVER showing up on the original three Rogues. Granted, the rookie has no business having it, but the latter two are definitely missing that power. Sure, this was pre-special powers so you would have had to give up the steal energy for her to have it, but since she doesn't have that power on click one for obvious reasons, would it have been too much to give her that one click of it? It would have made the early rogues SO much more playable. It was a missed opportunity for sure, and it just goes to show the poor early dial designs.

THEME: I wouldn't put her on a modern day X-Men team as this dial just doesn't have what it takes for me. I wouldn't hesitate to play her in a "Throwback" X-men team where you play figures that have to be "X" years old or more (No pun intended). If you wanted to make a Genoshan Mutates team, she would probably be about the right kind of Rogue for that era.

Other Players' comments/reviews


ff055 R Rogue
Team: Brotherhood of Mutants
Range: 0
Points: 79
Keywords: Brotherhood of Mutants, Teen

7 9 14 1

8 9 16 4

8 8 16 3

7 7 15 3

7 7 14 2

6 8 13 2

6 8 12 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

PROS: This is a vast improvement over the old Rookie Rogue. The dial designs were getting a lot more inventive by the time Fantastic Forces came out, and they were able to make her a flier but still represent her pre-Ms. Marvel powers by giving her an activation click with earthbound/neutralized. After she absorbs her powers, Rogue becomes very similar to the old Veteran Rogue from Infinity Challenge but with improvements like Super Strength and the Steal Energy/Exploit Weakness combo that I was talking about earlier. She also has gained a higher defense and better overall defensive powers.

CONS: Her attack values are never all that great. They stay fairly consistent, but they are not likely to see very much mileage on the dial. Be very wary of opponents getting a good hit in on her before she gets off that top click. One good hit could potentially KO her, and if it didn't, it would put her in a position that would be hard to come back from. This version doesn't have the X-Men team ability either which is accurate but is ultimately not going to help her out much late in the game or after a hit or two.

THEME: Unfortunately the most modern figures to have the Teen keyword were in GSX or Streets of Gotham whether talking Marvel or DC. There were still a ton of good figures to have that keyword and some of them could use a good taxi/secondary attack piece. She is the only Rogue to have that keyword as well, so if you are wanting to build a Teen team that is loosely X-Men based, she is your go to gal.

Other Players' comments/reviews


ff056 E Rogue
Team: X-Men
Range: 8
Points: 88
Keywords: X-Men

8 9 16 3

8 9 16 2

8 8 15 2

7 8 15 2

7 7 14 2

6 8 14 1

6 8 13 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

PROS: They were apparently going for something a little different with the Fantastic Forces Rogue figures. In an age without special powers they did a really good job of portraying Rogue as if she had already absorbed someone's powers...I've always thought of this as Rogue with Cyclops' powers. Thankfully dial design was good enough to show that she started out with her normal power set but gave her a click of battle fury to prevent her from using that eight range. It will also prevent her from from being incapacitated or the target of Mind Control. The ignoring of Shape Change could come in handy too. The changes to both Ranged Combat Expert and Energy Explosion could possibly breathe new viability into this figure and make her a more capable piece.

CONS: This figure suffers from the same problems with attack value that the Rookie version does. She is helped out a couple clicks in if you were to use her RCE to increase her attack by +1 or +2 but then you would have to deal with the smaller damage output. Most of her combat prowess could be shut down with a little bit of outwit or a simple small point tie-up piece becoming adjacent to her, though. Then she becomes 88 points that could have probably been spent better on another figure.

THEME: The appearance of this Rogue comes from the X-Treme X-Men days so if you are like me and try to make theme teams as themey as possible, she would be on an a team based on that comic. It would still technically be a regular theme team as more (Or at least more than likely) as all of the characters on it SHOULD have the X-Men keyword.

Other Players' comments/reviews


ff057 V Rogue
Team: X-Men
Range: 0
Points: 95
Keywords: X-Men, X.S.E.

10 10 16 3

8 9 16 3

8 8 15 3

8 8 15 3

7 9 14 2

7 8 14 1

6 8 14 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

PROS: This was the best Rogue that we had to work with for quite some time. I'm assuming that she absorbed Wolverine on this one since she has the clicks of Blades/Claws/Fangs. She starts out with the standard Rogue set of powers and with some improved stats, but this time she doesn't need the battle fury as she has no range to hide. She has added a bit more of steal energy and exploit weakness toward the end of her dial which will keep her alive and cause some damage that should stick to your opponents as well. In fact, should your luck be good, she might be INCREDIBLY tough to take out given the Steal Energy, Regeneration, and X-Men team ability. SO many ways to heal.

CONS: Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. You knew it was coming. I'm going to complain about her defense values. In a veteran version of a character and for 95 points, she should really have more than a 16 defense as her largest defense value. Power creep wasn't really out of control at the time, but a 16 defense was still pretty easy to hit even then. A 17 would have been enough to be acceptable on her top dial and then it could have gone down from there as normal. If it truly WAS Wolverine's powers that she absorbed she should have at least been capable of that.

THEME: She is the only Rogue that has the X.S.E. keyword, so she is obviously the number one choice for that team, but the problem with that keyword is that there are only a handful of figures that have it and it seems to have been forgotten about by WizKids. In fact, she was one of the last figures to ever have that keyword. That being said, If you want to be daring and nostalgic at the same time, build an X.S.E. team, but it's basically the same thing as an X-Men team. I've noticed that a lot of modern pictures have Rogue running around with Wolverine claws so this might actually be a good representation of a modern day rogue even though it's an old piece.

Other Players' comments/reviews


gx030 E Rogue
Team: X-Men
Range: 0
Points: 128
Keywords: Brotherhood of Mutants, X-Men

10 10 17 3

9 9 17 3

8 9 16 3

8 10 16 3

7 9 16 3

7 9 16 2

7 9 15 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Power Absorption: Once during your turn, you may give Rogue a free action and choose an adjacent character and a standard power (other than Outwit or Perplex) that they can use. Until your next turn, Rogue may use the chosen standard power. If Rogue has no action tokens or the chosen character is friendly, deal 1 unavoidable damage to the chosen character.

PROS: This was the first Rogue that we got in the special power era of HeroClix and they didn't disappoint (At least in the opinion of both my Wife and I). She has all of the powers and abilities that a normal Rogue would have and has the improved stats and dial design that we've come to know and expect in a modern age figure. She also has a trait that makes her potential nearly limitless in play. She can "Absorb" a power that either an opposing or friendly character can use and it is hers for the turn. If she has no action tokens on her she can do a click of free unavoidable damage to the opposing character that she is emulating. This is especially fun if you TK her into adjacency and then choose a power from your opponent and there isn't anything they can do about the damage that they just took.

CONS: One of the drawbacks to her trait is that she does that one click of damage to friendly characters regardless of whether she has a token on her or not. It is fully possible to turn that into an advantage if the chosen character needs a click of damage to get them to a place that is better on their dial, but it's still a free click of damage that you are helping your opponent(s) out with. The biggest problem with this Rogue and the reason that many turn their noses up at her is the way that she can copy powers but can't copy the range values of her target so it closes the door for the potential on quite a few things. It wouldn't have seen like such an oversight if not for the Gideon figure from the same set that could copy the powers and Range values of his chosen character. Rogue's power, though useful, got the short end of the stick.

THEME: I had a VERY effective team on HeroClix Online where I was using this Rogue and the GSX Mystique and GSX Blob for a 290 point Brotherhood of Mutants team. Blob played good tie-up/back up attacker while Mystique was the tactician and Rogue was the muscle. Mystique could Mastermind onto Blob and use her Perplex at her discretion. It was a very fun team and very effective. Granted, there was a limited figure pool available on HCO at the time, but that is the team that I most fondly remember using this Rogue on. I've seen my Wife make INSANELY effective "X-Chicks" teams using her as well using her X-Men keyword.

Other Players' comments/reviews


gx058 E Gambit / Rogue
Team: X-Men
Range: 6
Points: 172
Keywords: X-Men

9 11 18 3

9 11 17 3

9 11 17 3

9 10 17 3

8 10 17 3

8 10 17 3

8 9 16 3

8 9 16 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Final Kiss: Once per game on your turn, as a free action you may choose that Gambit / Rogue can't use the duo attack ability or special powers for the rest of the game. If you do, heal Gambit / Rogue 2 clicks and remove all action tokens from them.

Sugah and Spice: Gambit / Rogue can use Force Blast and Penetrating/Psychic Blast. When they use either one, after actions resolve they may use it again as a free action, if they take 1 unavoidable damage after that resolves.

Charming Rogues: Gambit / Rogue can use Outwit targeting only adjacent characters. If they do and they counter a standard power, Gambit / Rogue can use that countered power until your next turn.

PROS: This is a duo that has a lot going for it. They have a plethora of powers that I won't go into detail about because it's not like you can't see them in the dial posted above or in the units section. Instead I will focus on their special powers/trait. Their attack special power (Sugah and Spice) allows them to essentially make a duo attack with Psychic Blast twice with knockback where applicable thanks to the change to force blast if they are willing to take a click of damage after the actions resolve. They also have a damage power (Charming Rogues) that allows them to use Outwit on adjacent characters and copy the power that they outwit (If it's a standard power). Thanks to their six range this figure doesn't suffer from the same fate as the GSX Rogue and her inability to use range based powers. Should they take some damage and need to heal up a bit, they come packed with a trait that allows them to ditch the duo attack ability and stop them from using special powers for the rest of the game to give them two clicks of healing that also removes all action tokens.

CONS: I think this figure seems to be a little expensive for what it can do, but I've never actually used it myself either. To me, the trait is too much of a double edged sword that doesn't give as much as it takes. Two clicks of healing and now I have to give up some of the great powers/abilities that this figure has? Seems a good medic figure could do that without the need to give up so much. If this is the centerpiece of your team, I could see the need to do so, but I would hope that your strategy doesn't rely on it. Please feel free to share any success stories using this figure and any helpful hints/tips concerning it as well, though.

THEME: One good thing that duo figures have going for them is the ability to bring two figures into a theme team that might cost more individually. Since the addition of the split/merge ability to duos it has made them a little bit more viable on theme teams too since you can split into different versions of the figures each time you split. With the ability to potentially heal your duo up as you re-merge combined with the X-Men team ability, this duo could potentially be a lot more viable than I'm giving it credit for on an X-Men team.

Other Players' comments/reviews


ffgsx005 E Rogue
Team: X-Men
Range: 0
Points: 75
Keywords: Brotherhood of Mutants, X-Men

8 10 17 2

8 9 17 3

7 9 16 2

6 10 16 3

6 9 15 3

6 9 15 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Absorb Psyche: Rogue can use Outwit. She can only use it to target an adjacent character, but does not require a line of fire. If she uses Outwit in this way to counter a standard power other than Outwit, she can use that power until she uses this Outwit again.

PROS: This is a good economical version of Rogue that once again attempts to make a good modern age crack at the way her absorption power works. This time it is represented by Outwit that can only be used in adjacency. It should be noted that it doesn't require line of fire, though, so you can target a character that is still considered adjacent though it might be on the diagonal between Rogue and two other characters. This is a very important concept to grasp as MOST outwitters can't do that. She isn't as blatantly powerful as other Rogue figures, but like I said, she is kind of like a discount Rogue for when you want to use the character but don't want to spend a ton of points on her. She is still a very capable fighter with very consistent stats.

CONS: It's unfortunate that she starts with a two damage over a three. It's a small nitpick, but it would change her status from decent to really good in my eyes. I can get around the fact that she doesn't have Invulnerability or some of the other shortcomings that her dial might have, but the ability to bust through heavier damage reducers unassisted by objects or teammates is a big thing for me. Finally, the outwit power isn't a bad way to demonstrate her power, but once again they failed to let her get any range value out of the power that she takes. She can at least opt to keep the power until she outwits again, but there are so many powers that are unusable with this setup.

THEME: Once again you are given the choice of Brotherhood or X-Men as far as her printed keywords go. I think Exiles would be a good non-keyword team for her, though. I don't personally remember her on that team, but at 75 points, she fits in very well with the average point value of the characters found on that team and would be a good team player that can both taxi and outwit/steal powers from opponents.

Other Players' comments/reviews


wxm064 E Rogue
Team: X-Men
Range: 0
Points: 112
Keywords: X-Men

9 10 17 3

8 10 17 3

8 10 16 3

8 10 16 3

7 9 16 3

7 9 15 2

7 9 15 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

I'll Just Borrow This, Sugah: At the beginning of the game, choose a standard power another friendly character can use on its starting click. This game, Rogue can use that power and, when she does, she has the printed range value of that friendly character.

PROS: This Rogue seems like the averaging out of all the figures that came before her. Once again she has a different take on Rogue's absorption powers. This time around she just declares a power that she is going to be copying from a friendly character but the difference is that THIS TIME she also gets to use their range value! This opens up the door to so many more options than predecessors. One key thing to point out, though, is that she doesn't have to copy a ranged base power, though. This would make her a figure with a dial full of unoutwittable Invincible at only 118 points should she have a teammate with Invincible on it's top dial. You WOULD have to have copied a ranged based power to use it's range as well, but it's not a must. There are many things that you could use her power for that would make her an amazing deal and that doesn't even take into account her other powers that she has to offer.

CONS: Though Rogue is not exactly the most eager to use her power a bunch of times, it's unfortunate that you only get to use her power once and have it over with. That's one of the things that I prefer about the GSX version is that you can do it over and over again. You can adjust your strategy as needed with the GSX one. With this one, you get one shot at it and it has to be a power that is on the top dial of a friendly character at the beginning of the game. You may choose a power that really doesn't help you towards the middle-end of the game. That isn't necessarily a bad thing about the character herself but speaks possibly more of the strategy of the user, though.

THEME: This is the Rogue that I'm reaching for when I build my X-Men teams these days. She is cheaper than the GSX one and could potentially have more to offer depending on who else I put on the team. There are so many possibilities for her on modern age X-Men teams that my mind just swims with ideas...and all for the low cost of 118 points...not even half your 300 point build.

Other Players' comments/reviews

KEYS TO THE KINGDOM

Now that we have had a little glimpse into the aspects of all the different Rogue figures, let's take a quick look at her (Unfortunately FEW) keywords and I will tell you my number one picks to use for each keyword theme available (Named keywords are bolded):

Brotherhood of Mutants: gx030 E Rogue
X-Men: wxm064 E Rogue
X.S.E: ff057 V Rogue
Teen: ff055 R Rogue

WHO NEEDS KEYWORDS?!

In this section, I'm going to list some possible theme teams that you could play Rogue on that are definitely comic accurate but don't require keywords and provides links using Comic Vine and/or Wikipedia to tell you more about them. Unfortunately, using these teams mean you are going to forego keyword bonuses, but every once in a while Judges might let you slip by with one of these teams:

Avengers (Unity Squad)
Cosmic Champions/Secret Wars
Exiles
Genoshan Mutates
Jean Grey Academy
Red Guard/House of M
X-Treme X-Men

This wraps it up for Deep Dish Themes: Rogue edition. Thank you to Nitz52 for the nomination. Feel free to post what you think about the article and feel free to nominate a character for an upcoming edition of Deep Dish Themes. Join me on February 26th when I go to the future for Deep Dish Themes: Cosmic Boy (In honor of the release of Superman and the Legion of Super Heroes).

i will never forget the game I first used the GSX Rogue... my whole bunch of X-Men, versus Onslaught and a few others. I had just whittled his Onslaught to that very last click. Rogue was adjacent to him and had no tokens. Time for the choice, and I got thinking... huh... so I chose not to sacrifice. I told him "Rogue will choose your Phasing". Free Action, no roll required. Onslaught was KO'ed.

Couldn't find ANYTHING saying it wouldn't work... but we decided to play it out as if it were illegal... He stomped the field and picked off figure after figure... it was UGLY.

You won. You chose not to sacrifice and then he gains impervious. Rogue then did the last click of damage needed to KO him. End of game. Still fun to see "What might have been" though. I'm sure it was ultimately more fun that way than just ending the game then and there.

Great write-up, nice review of the Rogues we have to choose from. Thanks for the effort!

I did catch a few hiccups in the WatX section though:You mean friendly instead of opposing.

And Rogue can only copy powers, not combat abilities. But maybe you meant to say Impervious instead of Indomitable.

Oh, and HoT Ultron has Indom, Imperv and 12 range, for one example

Yeah, I totally meant to say friendly character and I meant to say invincible, but my fingers had a mind of their own after staring at a computer screen for several hours while writing this!

Going to fix now! (Thanks for the assist!)

Oh i totally called it a win in my favor... it doesn't happen often, so I takes what I can gets. We were just curious to see if my bad rolls would get me through and beat him. They couldn't. So thankful that he ignored her beside him, and that Phasing wasn't part of a special power!

Man, Anna Paquin is as hot as the old Rogue figures are bad!

I've always had a soft spot spot for the duo, and done some fun stuff with them. And the GSX is a solid fig! I want to like the TB version, but not having her and not being willing to spend $20 on her makes me biased...


Great article!

Np...

Also, this was a nice window to the past for me since the FF Rogues came out during my hiatus from clix.

I love the Steal Energy/Exploit Weakness combo. That's a wonderful way to showcase Rogue's energy absorption. Drop a hamma on her (why not, everyone else is doing it) and let that Rogue send dials spinning.

Great article. I've been meaning to play by watx one, but haven't gotten around to it. The duo has been pretty fun though. I liked the shoutout to the older X-treme X-men.

I played her on a clone team recently using the Vet from FF, and all of the modern age Rogues except WatX . It also was a X-Men keyword team with other Gambits and Bishops. I had a blast, going 2-1.

Like I said when the nomination was accepted, this seriously made my night.

Happy to see such an awesome article about an awesome character, and one that I've always had fun throwing down. I've never had a match with any Rogue piece whereI haven't pulled some crazy stunt that ended up giving either myself or my whoever I was playing a smile.

Mad props SLVRSR4.

Question: Is the FFGSX Rogue able to outwit stealth if adjacent since she doesn't have draw line of fire?

Yep. "Adjacent" becomes the new targetting requirement. So she's good to go.

Statesman has Invulnerable and a 12 range- that he can't even use until the end