It’s Valentine’s Day, that Hallmark holiday on which we express our love to significant others.

I do this blog, so it’s obvious that I DON’T HAVE a significant other. But at least I’ve got HeroClix, right?

Yeah. Play the sad violin music for me.

(OK, done now.)

Here’s my favorite piece of 2012.

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Number 1

Vixen (Streets of Gotham 028)

WHY I WANT TO PLAY HER EVERY WEEK

It’s all about two words: “Tantu Totem,” her trait allowing her to use a standard power from fellow Animals, similar to Animal Man, my 2010 #8 fave.

Only I read it wrong. It says she can use ANY standard power possessed by a fellow Animal on the field, not just ONE. That means, if she’s teamed up with, say, Armadillo, Animal Man and Cosmo, she could Charge in using Animal Man’s BCF, then share Animal Man’s Combat Reflexes AND Cosmo’s Super Senses AND Armadillo’s Impervious on top of her inborn Energy Shield/Deflection to weather the counterattacks next turn.

EDIT: Or, at least, that’s how it WAS. Finally, more than six months after her release, her trait was clarified/got errata to read that she can use ONE power from ONE character.

Sure, there’s a 1-in-6 chance she might take a click for all this power. But late-dial Regen softens that potential blow. She’s a piece that literally can have a completely different dial every time you play. Her steady but mediocre stats keep her from being a mean piece.

One of the drawbacks of Animal Man in my 2010 list was that I wasn’t a big enough fan of the Animal keyword to play him and it often. But Vixen singlehandedly makes me want to play both him and other Animals all the more.

WHY I DON’T

Honestly, I don’t want to wear her out. She’s also a bit limited in keywords and I haven’t come up with other cute or goofy themes to run her in — the one I have just doesn’t work:

FOXEY LADIES

• Vixen (Streets of Gotham 028) 74
• Ghost Fox Killer 68
• Crimson Fox 44
• Vet Vixen (Collateral Damage) 44
• Exp Vixen  (Collateral Damage) 38
• Rookie Vixen  (Collateral Damage) 33

= 301 points! DAMMIT!!!!

EDIT: And, of course, her trait wasn’t intended to be as awesome as it looked. 

I’M PLAYING HER NEXT

Trying hard to build a black Animal team, but that’s gonna stick me with just her, Falcon (sans a Captain America to boost him) and maybe Killer Croc to work with in Modern Age. That’s not a great team.

But, as I alluded above, the real challenge is NOT running her every week with at least one other Animal-keyworded figure to leech powers from. Truly my favorite HeroClix figure of 2012.

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That does it for the annual look back! Very glad to wrap it up by Valentine’s Day this year instead of April. Looking forward to getting back to the old routine next week:

MONDAYS: Card Arts
TUESDAYS: Token Totin’
WEDNESDAYS: Battle reports
THURSDAYS: Token Totin’
FRIDAYS: Extra features

Thanks for reading!