Marvel HeroClix: X-Men House of X is coming! The Charles Xavier has created a new respite for mutantkind on the isle of Krakoa! He has also uncovered a brand new technique for bringing X-Men back to life. With all of mutantkind living in harmony, what will the world have to say about the X-Men’s newfound world. 

X-Men House of X will feature the usual fan favorites, including Wolverine, Beast, and Magneto, as well as some unclixed characters, characters that haven’t been seen in Heroclix in a long time, and some new variants of existing characters such as Glob Herman, Apocalypse, and Old Man Phoenix! This set also features some exciting new mechanics such as Krakoan Revival, as well as the debut of Team-Up Cards in a Marvel HeroClix set! 

First, we’ll be taking a look at one of the two characters that we’ll be showing that has a Team-Up Card, Rogue: 

 First, we have Rogue, who has a dial full of strong stats, and powers to go with her bruiser power set. Her standard powers include Hypersonic Speed, Charge, and Super Strength. She also has a dial full of damage reducers, as well as Steal Energy later in the dial to heal back a few clicks and stay in the fight. She has two traits, in addition to her Team-Up card. The first trait, which is seen on Excalibur characters in this set, gives her a limited form of the Mystics team ability, only for range attacks, as well as PROTECTED: Mystics Team Ability, to give her immunity to it. Rogue also has a trait representing her ability to absorb other’s powers and abilities. This trait allows her to take a FREE action to use a standard power and the printed range value of an adjacent character (either friendly or opposing), until your next turn.

Team-Up Cards are chosen each game, during force reveal, replacing the default cards. However, they can’t be used if you have more than one character with the same name on your starting force, so keep that in mind when team building! 

This Team-Up Card works when the character named by the card, in this case, Gambit, is on a force with Rogue. When Rogue is using this Team-Up Card and Gambit is on the map, both Rogue and Gambit will be able to use Support, but only to target each other.

Next we have Elixir, whose dial focuses on healing, as per his powerset. He has a trait based on the use of the Krakoan Revival trait, which we will go over later, and is one of “The Five” characters with such a complementary trait. When Krakoan Revival is used, after resolutions, any characters that chosen character is adjacent to are healed 1 click. He also has a special power on his first few clicks, which will allow him to use Support, even if he and his target are adjacent to opposing characters. This special power also increases the D6 roll for all friendly uses of the X-Men Team Ability (which is described on his card), decreasing the chances that the character will be dealt 1 unavoidable damage for using it. Elixir starts with Sidestep to stay mobile, and position to use Support. He ends with Stealth and Regeneration, to stay safe and heal, as well as Exploit Weakness with 4 damage, to threaten adjacent opposing characters that attempt to finish him off, which goes well with his Stealth.

Finally, we have Marvel Girl, with a range focused dial, including the very synergistic Improved Targeting: Characters. She has one special power which she starts with and has intermittently throughout the dial. This special power gives Marvel Girl Outwit, as well as the chance to deal 1 penetrating damage to an opposing character that targets a friendly character with the X-Men keyword with Outwit, if you roll a 4-6. Marvel Girl starts with Telekinesis, as expected, as well as Running Shot, with 6 Range and two targets. She also has the Krakoan Revival trait, which we will go over a little later in the article, just after taking a look at Marvel Girl’s Team-Up Card.

Marvel Girl has a Themed Team-Up Card, which, instead of requiring another specific character, requires her to be on an X-Men Themed Team to use it. This Team-Up Card gives Marvel Girl +2 to Attack and Damage, but only when attacking only characters that can use Mind Control.

Now, back to Marvel Girl’s Krakoan Revival trait, which is one of the more intriguing new mechanics in this set. This trait is based on the recent development in House of X, whereby mutants can be resurrected. 

When a friendly standard character with the X-Men keyword is KO’d, the Krakoan Revival trait allows you to instead return that character to its original starting click and place them adjacent to a character with the Krakoan Revival trait. This does have a cost, however, as your opponent will still score that character. Also, in addition to the character being scored, your opponent will be able to generate a Krakoan Revival bystander adjacent to one of their characters. These bystanders represent enemies of the X-Men’s new Krakoan ventures. They will then score 10 points for each of these bystanders that they generated this game. In other words, the first time a bystander is generated, they will score 10 points. Subsequently, the next time a bystander is generated, they will score an additional 20 points, 10 for each of the two bystanders. As you can see, these points scored will start to add up quickly if you use Krakoan Revival a lot in a game. Here are the stats for these bystanders:

Each of these Krakoan Revival bystanders are displayed on a card, which is inserted into boosters with Krakoan Revival characters. These bystanders should each have their own use for an opponent at any point during a game, and there are 6 to choose from! They each have different support powers, including Coven Akkaba’s Probability Control, Phobos Armor’s Outwit, and PhD Apes’ Perplex! They are also all viable combatants in their own right, whether that is Skinless Assassins’ Blades/Claws/Fangs, Phobos Armor’s Energy Explosion with two targets, or Orchis Soldier’s Penetrating/Psychic Blast. In any case, while these bystanders are strong, they can very well be worth allowing your opponent to have, if the Krakoan Revival will help you not lose your advantage in a game. 

That’s all we have for today! These Team-Up Cards make team building even more interesting, as you consider the combinations of characters that will best work with their various options. We also hope that this first look at the Krakoan Revival trait, as well as the other traits that further improve it are making you as excited for this set as we are. 

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