To have a decent understanding of what Clix FX bases are you can read the design Insight by WizKids here. The sentence from that article that sums it up best is this, "the Clix FX Bases in themselves do not have any inherent game play effect, but rather can be used as visual indicators of game effects from standard powers as well as for traits/special powers/etc on certain characters (and, in fact, if players so choose they do not have to use the ClixFX Base and can instead use any other markers as has always been done)."
So with that understanding lets look at some of the Clix FX bases that can be found in the new Marvel Heroclix set, Uncanny X-Men. We'll start first by looking at #40 Magneto's trait:
To apply this FX base Magneto needs to take a power action, and if there's already one on the map he has to remove it from whoever has it and attach it to a friendly character. This means that you can't keep adding them to your whole team, so you have to choose wisely as to who gets his Magnetic Shield marker as you can only have 1. Magneto's particular effect is that whoever has his Magnetic Shield marker gets Energy Shield/Deflection (ES/D), and if you read my Heroclix: Head to Head entry when I played this Magneto you'll see I chose Quicksilver to have this effect. I chose him because Storm already had ES/D, Nightcrawler had Stealth so he was already hard to hit from range, and between Professor X and Quicksilver, Quicksilver was the more dangerous member of my team, so it was necessary for him to have as much protection as possible. Plus with Hypersonic Speed he was always going to have some distance between him and the enemy, so ES/D would definitely come into play. I would be hesitant to put this on close attack characters like Wolverine and Colossus because they're usually going to be in someone's face and won't get the +2 defense bonus from ES/D. Instead try attaching Magneto's Magnetic Shield marker to range attack characters or those with Hypersonic Speed as they'll often keep their distance and that ES/D bonus will come into play.
While we're on the subject of Quicksilver let's take a look at his trait:
His is a little more complex than Magneto's as it has to be placed during his movement. The cool thing about his is that it doesn't require a power action to activate, you just simply place it anywhere you like as long as it's a square he moves through. This allows him to attack groups from relative safety. For example, if you see a group of two or more enemies you can move, place his Speed Shadow marker among the group, move behind blocking terrain, and attack from behind blocking terrain. Why is this different than just attacking them in their face? This way allows him to avoid getting targeted by Probability Control as they need to be able to draw line of fire to him, and if they can't see him they can' make him re-roll his attack. To add to this tactic I'd even suggest throwing a tie-up piece in the group to keep them clumped up so Quicksilver doesn't even have to move to attack and can stay safely hidden behind a wall and attack through his Speed Shadow marker.
The last type of Clix FX base are those that work when a successful attack is made. Let's look at Storm's:
Notice that while it says "targets and hits one or more" you can still only place 1 Cyclone marker. Storm's marker is unique as it stays on the character she chooses until that character successfully breaks away and move. I'll point out here that in the Head to Head battle she attached it to Beast. The following turn Beast got carried by Angel, but you'll notice that being carried and placed somewhere else is not the same as breaking away and moving. This is important because this means the Cyclone markers stays on the character you choose, and the same goes if they get placed by Telekinesis or a similar placement effect. They have to break away and move in order to remove the Cyclone marker! now, it only does 1 damage so be sure to place it accordingly because damage reducers like Toughness, Invulnerability, etc. can negate the damage by her Cyclone marker. The final part of her trait reminds us that her Cyclone marker stays on until that character successfully breaks away, so that means it will stay on them and keep dealing 1 damage to them!
Let's recap the types of bases we have, and while they might be a little different they fall into three categories:
* Power Action - Professor X (rare), Magneto (rare), Scarlet Witch (super rare)
These are the hardest to do as they require a power action to be given, and that means they can't take a non-free action until your next turn so make it count. Placing them adjacent to someone with Leadership can help keep them in the game as Leadership can remove tokens from them. So consider that when including any of these 3 characters in a team.
* Movement - Nightcrawler (rare), Quicksilver (super rare)
These on the other hand are the easiest to pull off. They just require the character to move in order to place their Clix FX marker on the map. Positioning is still important so take that into account when placing the marker. Having someone with Telekinesis on your team can help give them more options when deciding where to place their markers.
* Attack - Storm (rare), Iceman (super rare), Sunfire (chase), Wolverine (chase), X-23 (fast forces)
While these are not necessarily hard to pull off, they rely on making a successful attack. Having Perplex, Outwit, or Probability Control to ensure they hit is important to have when building a team with one of these characters in it.
That's it for this edition of New Toys! Please leave a comment if I left something out, or if you want to chime in on your favorite Clix FX effect!
