Greetings HeroClix Fans!
Continuing with previews of the upcoming Marvel HeroClix: Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Booster Bricks, we take a look at one of Nick Fury’s closest associates and former love interests, Contessa Valentina!
At 85 points, the uncommon #018 Contessa Valentina makes an affordable team-focused addition to your S.H.I.E.L.D. or Spy keyword teams. The Contessa has two traits that make her an excellent team player, both in helping her teammates as well as benefiting from them. The first trait, Changing the World, is shared by other characters with the S.H.I.E.L.D. keyword, but with different variation of it. For the Contessa, her version of the Changing the World trait is called Superior Espionage— this restricts the opponent’s ability to use Willpower and Outwit if there are two characters with the S.H.I.E.L.D. keyword adjacent to them! With her second trait, Setting the Table for Betrayal, Contessa Valentina shows her true colors. She also has use of the Mastermind trait for her entire dial, but can only use it to transfer damage to characters with the Hydra or S.H.I.E.L.D. keywords. When she uses Mastermind, you add a ‘Traitor’ token to her card, roll a d6, and add 1 for each Traitor token she has on her card. If you roll high enough, you can replace her with #057 Madame Hydra (see below) on the same click number!
While she plots her betrayal, the Contessa sports a healthy mix of close combat and ranged combat options. She has a 5 range with two targets and the S.H.I.E.L.D. team ability to help her adjacent allies with their ranged attacks. From the start, she is ready to draw in opposing characters for close combat using Stealth; then she can use Precision Strike with her 10 attack value, Combat Reflexes with her 17 defense value, and a base 3 damage. For her second and third clicks, as her defense and damage values slowly tick down, she changes gears and trades Stealth for Running Shot and Combat Reflexes for Energy Shield/Deflection. For the back half of her dial, Contessa Valentina switches back to close combat mode with three clicks of Sidestep, Poison, Combat Reflexes, and Close Combat Expert; a deadly combination. Remember that Sidestep and Poison are both free actions that can be used at the beginning of your turn in any order. With Mastermind granting her the ability to transfer damage to friendly characters, you could keep her on her Poison clicks for as long as you need, just watch out for opposing characters with Precision Strike!
Whether or not her true intentions are revealed throughout the course of the fight, Contessa Valentina brings a solid mix of teamwork utility, self-survivability, and has the potential to be deadly up-close or at range. What happens if you choose to replace her with her Betrayal trait? Let’s find out and take a sneak peek at Madame Hydra!
At 100 points, the super rare #057 Madame Hydra is 15 points more than the piece she replaces. The great thing about her is that you can play her on your force like a normal character, too, rather than using her as a replacement for Contessa. She has 6 range with two targets and the Hydra team ability to help her allies hit their marks. She also has the Assassin, Hydra, S.H.I.E.L.D., and Spy keywords. Madame Hydra brings two traits to the table; one to hurt opponents with and another to aid your own cause with. As the Contessa takes her role as a leader of Hydra, she features one of the Hydra’s Reach shared traits that can be found on other nefarious Hydra villains. Her version— Hydra’s Reach is Never-Ending— adds an action token to and deals one penetrating damage to a character of your choice adjacent to an attacker that dealt her damage. Either the opponent is going to break up their forces and forfeit any advantages they get from keeping their characters adjacent to avoid triggering this trait, or they’ll pay the consequences. Her second trait, Beauty With a Black Heart, grants her a click of healing every time a friendly character that shares a keyword with her is KO’d. With the right mix of lower point value S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra soldier teammates, you can definitely keep Madame Hydra in play for a while.
Thanks for joining us for another preview of the upcoming Marvel HeroClix: Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. set. Join us again next week to see some more new ‘Clix!