Supporting figs are good and all, and high-point bruisers look neat, but high-level Clix is all about this weight class of moderate-priced pieces able to put the fear of KO into opponents twice the price. Here are Heroclixin’s nominees for 2014’s best:

Banshee [Deadpool 051]: He renders worthless most of the game’s defensive powers (Super Senses, Impervious, Invincible, Invulnerability) just by being a little close — without resorting to Pulse Wave — AND penalizes the characters using those powers with extra damage. He doesn’t care about Stealth OR elevated terrain and, sometimes, even blocking terrain. If he weren’t so completely soft-skinned, he’d be well within the top 10 for sure.

Proxima Midnight [Guardians of the Galaxy 050] is also soft, lacking even the Super Senses that Banshee relies on. She loses 3 range and one of her 3 targets whenever she hits an opponent from range (and as a Sharpshooter, she’s always hitting from range as long as she can). So what’s she even DOING here? It’s all about her Tracer token traits: All she need do is hit once with her Running Shot+11AV P/PB, and she could KO the target without making another attack the rest of the game, given average dice luck. KOing her could hurt as bad as NOT doing so, thanks to the Cull Obsidian trait that triggers damage to the attacker equal to whatever just killed her.

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HONORABLE MENTION

As mentioned in the series intro, Bullseye [Deadpool 036]: is one of the deadliest shooters in the game. He’s also at least 10 points more expensive than the above two candidates for 2014’s top ten.

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As good as these figs are, they’re more like specialized secondary fighters than ones to build a team around — it’s why they’re so few. Next installment will focus on team cornerstones and something Heroclixin’ has coined as “swissblades.”