Marvel HeroClix Wolverine & the X-Men: Cannonball, Wolfsbane, and Magma!

Greetings HeroClix Fans!

Welcome back as we continue to explore the upcoming Marvel HeroClix: Wolverine and the X-Men set, specifically the last three figures from the New Mutants team base, all of which are packaged with it, allowing the team base to be playable right out of the box. Today we have the first recruit to the team as well as two founding members. First off, we go to Kentucky to meet the first member of the Guthrie family to venture out to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and who would eventually go on to be a co-leader of the team, Cannonball!

Cannonball not only has am Improved Movement: Blocking/Burst ability, allowing him to ignore blocking terrain for movement, as well as destroying it on the way through, he also bestows this ability on the New Mutants team base when attached to it via their asset dial.

Cannonball has a full dial of move and attack, thanks to Charge. The flight ability, as well as his Improved Movement ability will allow him to get to almost any target within half his movement. Cannonball also has two special powers provided by different aspects of his mutant generated blast field. The first, called Ignition, represents his early inability to fly in anything but a nearly straight line, and the devastation he caused when doing so. When Cannonball moves at least 3 squares in a direct line due to his own action, he can use Impervious, as well as modify his damage by+1 until your next turn.

Cannonball’s second special power represents how he could protect his team mates with his blast shield, and is called Blast Shield Extension. This allows Cannonball to use Toughness, and, he and adjacent friendly characters can use Energy Shield Deflection, if he has less than 2 action tokens. On the back half of his dial, Cannonball switches to standard Energy Shield Deflection to make him harder to hit with range combat attacks. Also, Exploit Weakness will allow him to ignore damage reducers.

Cannonball can be played on theme teams with his fellow New Mutants, the team they eventually became, X-Force, or his most recent team, the Avengers. Coming in at 92 points, Cannonball makes a solid secondary attacker, while providing some additional protection to adjacent team mates with his special power.

Next up, we go to Scotland, where we find the member of the team, who, with no siblings of her own, adopted Cannonball as her big brother, Wolfsbane!

As a mutant shape shifter, Rahne Sinclair starts out as a normal girl, with Shape Change to protect her. A click into her dial is where the wolf inside her comes out to play. Once off her activation click, Wolfsbane has a full dial of move and attack, thanks in part to a special power on her next two clicks, as well as her last, called I’ll Hunt Ye Down! This special power allows her to use Charge and Flurry. When this special power is not on her dial, standard Charge will be. Combining very well with both Charge and Flurry, is full dial of Blades/Claws/Fangs, allowing you to attempt to do more than her printed 2 and 3 damage values.

Providing Wolfsbane a full dial of protection from, Mind Control and Incapacitate, as well as ignoring Shape Change, again, once past her activation click, is a full dial of Battle Fury. Defensively, Wolfsbane can attempt to ignore attacks with Super Senses, and failing that, have some damage reduction due to Toughness, both thanks to a special power called Lupine Form. A last click effort to save herself by changing forms is represented by a closing click of Regeneration.

When used on the New Mutants team base, Wolfsbane gives the ability to use Blades/Claws/Fangs when she is available the asset dial. Clocking in at 63 points, with solid attack values and powers, Wolfsbane should have an easy time fitting on a theme team using any of her keywords, representing the extensive list of teams she has been a part of in her career, including Animal, Excalibur, New Mutants, X-Factor, and X-Force, or any other force build you choose to include her as part of.

Lastly, we go to the Amazon, to the hidden city of Nova Roma, to find the first mutant added to the team, able to control the earth itself, Magma!

Magma begins play with a good run of being able to move two squares as a free action with Sidestep. Once adjacent to opposing figures, her special power, Energized Form, allows her to bring a good bunch of hurt. At the beginning of your turn, Magma can use Poison as a free action to deal one click of penetrating damage to each figure, then use Quake to deal them two clicks of penetrating damage, before knocking them back. (Using Sidestep at this point can set up the free action Poison for next turn.) Magma also has some decent damage reduction with Toughness. Additionally, a special power called Absorb the Flame, allows Magma and adjacent friendly characters to ignore 1 click of penetrating damage each turn.

Around the middle of her dial, Magma begins to change up her power set as she powers down. First Toughness and Absorb the Flame both are replaced with a higher defensive value and Energy Shield Deflection. Another click in, Energized Form is replaced with standard Poison. Also at this time, Magma gains Plasticity to lock opposing figures in place, or allow her a better chance to get away. Getting away allows her to get to someone to heal her or give her some space to use Regeneration, which is on her two closing clicks.

When used on the New Mutants team base, Magma brings Poison via the asset dial. Possessing a 3 range, Magma can surprise an unsuspecting foe from time to time. Clocking in at 77 points, Magma can be played in theme with her fellow New Mutants.

That’s all we have for now. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to check back next week as we bring more previews from the upcoming Marvel HeroClix: Wolverine and the X-Men set!

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