Karl "Hair10" Markovich was one of the earliest HeroClix rules arbiter for Wizkids for many years. He's since left the world of arbiting, but his legacy still stands. We sit down with Karl to get his thoughts on HeroClix, and more.

The Le: I was personally a fan of Hypersonic Speed (HSS) option 2, and believe HSS option 1 is still too powerful. Are you okey with the current state of HSS?

Hair10: I liked HSS option 2 myself and used it now and again (although I don't think it should have been capped by the rule of 3!). I was sorry to see it go. HSS is a bit on the 'abusive' side, but I'm not sure what change could be made to tone it down. Maye only usable when a fig has zero action tokens on it? No ranged attacks with HSS? I dunno

The Le: What are your feelings on the Hammer of Thor set and how "the return of HeroClix" was handled?

Hair10: I've got mixed feelings on it. Disclaimer time... I bought a case and feel a bit personally 'burned' by it. My case had only 4 Super Rare figs in it and was several figs shy of a full CUR set. It was the WORST case of HC that I've purchased since the change in packaging came about in Avengers (and maybe my worst ever). I know I'm not the only one that had an issue either (including at least one person that didn't get any SRs in his case!). It would have been nice to hear something from the powers that be at WK regarding all the funky collation issues with this set... god packs, shorted SRs, big holes in CUR sets, etc. All I think we heard was "we won't do god packs again". With a reboot of the company I was kind of hoping for a return to the old customer-focused WizKids. So far that hasn't really happened.

It also felt very 'rushed'. Cases shipped out but sometimes no brick figures. Organized Play prize support was sporadic at best. Nothing happened that couldn't be worked around by players, envoys, and venues... but things happened that they probably shouldn't have had to work around in the first place.

As for the HoT set itself, it has a handful of characters that interested me and a large majority that didn't. But I realize that's personal preference and just because I couldn't care less about the Runaways or Bi-Beast, I know that there are people who wanted to see them (you know who you are ;)).

Having said all that, I think WK did quite a bit right. Releasing the Chariot to the mainstream markets was a great marketing tool to get people thinking about HeroClix again. Having the brick figure available at the point of purchase was something that everyone loved (including both venues by me). Making OP kits available for purchase and letting the venues handle the events was a wonderful change over the "floor, restricted, floor, sealed, floor, unrestricted" mandates for running events that were forced upon us before.

The Le: Are you excited about Brave and the Bold set and/or Blackest Night starter?

Hair10: Again, it's a mixed bag. I need to know more (specifically a set list) about Brave & Bold before I make a real judgement on it. I'm always more excited for DC sets over Marvel stuff but I have my reservations. Duos are a nice niche piece but I don't want to see a glut of them. They should be used where it makes sense and not just to be making a duo fig. I really dread seeing a new mechanic introduced. Every time it happens it raises a whole crop of questions and causes a lot of confusion, especially with the more casual players. I have some reservations about the new game designer, based largely on what some former WK employees (who's judgment I trust) have told me. And I'm not keen on going back to a mail away brick figure (the in store method just worked so well on so many levels). But we'll wait and see what happens. As for Blackest Night, I'm hyped for the figs while worried about changes to rules. I just need to see/know more about all of it before I form any concrete opinions.