With every girl going crazy for a sharp-dressed man, should you go crazy for either the bronze Limited Edition or the gold Super Rare Roland Desmond?

Of course, you may already be crazy...


The review is broken up into four parts:
How well the figure does what it is supposed to do.
How the figure compares to the REVs.
How the figure works on theme teams.
How the figure works on power/cheese teams.

"Type" tells you how the LE ranks compared to the REVs. "+" means "better than", "-" means "not as good as", and "~" means "a variation of".

Roland Desmond
Legacy #209, 90 points
Range: 0
Targets: 1
Team Affiliation: None
Based on: Blockbuster
Type: R~

Who is Roland Desmond?
Check out Whoclix!


How well the figure does what it is supposed to do.
Roland suffers from LAVS, Low Attack Value Syndrome. Although it's not a catchy acronym and thus won't be used outside of this review, LAVS emphasizes Roland's problem. When people look at Roland, they see a beautiful middle where the Attack Value (AV) is either a 9 or a 10 and the base damage is either a 4 or a 5. It does bring a tear to the eye. (sniff) However, look at that first click, an 8 AV. Look at that second click, an 8 AV. With Charge, Roland will likely be attacking, but with an abysmal AV, he'll likely be missing.

To fix this, we can give Roland Double Time... when it comes out... and let him walk up to 20 spaces on the board, or we can give him In Contact with Oracle (ICwO) (or "In Contact with the Hair Club for Men" or "Out of Contact with Follicle") to help him pump up his AV now and either his AV or his damage later, depending on what the situation calls for. Speaking of pumping up the damage, isn't that what Haymaker is designed for? Yes, but it doesn't work well with figures that have LAVS, so don't assign him Haymaker unless you plan on pumping up his AV as well. Pumping it up more than once perhaps.

This isn't the first time we've seen what I'm about to complain about and this isn't the first time I've complained about it. I like figures that get stronger when they push or take damage. I like figures that change-up their playing strategy mid-dial (provided that it's an effective change-up). What I don't like is pushing past my higher defensive numbers and better defensive powers. Bah to this I say.

So, for 90 points, what is Roland good at? Tying up pieces that he might hurt. Personally, I'd rather use Sidewinder with "In Contact with Himself".
Rating: 6/10 Stars


How the figure compares to the REVs.
To create Roland, take the Rookie Blockbuster, increase his stats here and there, and then remove the Suicide Squad Team Ability (SS TA). If you don't plan on using the SS TA, then save yourself the 15 points and either invest them in a feat or two or upgrade the rest of your team.
Rating: 10/10 Stars


How the figure works on theme teams.
There have been two blockbusters, Mark Desmond and Roland Desmond (check out Whoclix or Google it). Some argue that the LE really represents Mark Desmond, but I'm going to keep it simple. Since the Veteran has the Batman Enemy TA, that's the Blockbuster that's been terrorizing Nightwing in Bludhaven. Since the Experienced has Outwit followed by Probablity Control, that's the Blockbuster post-Neron (aka "Underworld Unleashed"). Therefore, the Rookie is Blockbuster while he's with the Suicide Squad and since Roland looks more like the Rookie than either the Experienced or Veteran, theme team wise we're looking at Roland on a Suicide Squad team. With just two other members, Deadshot (DS) and Killer Frost (KF) could use a brick/tie-up piece helping them out. On the other hand, it also means that your opponent gets an extra 90 points to add to his force. Since he'll likely die before either DS or KF, use him instead of the Rookie.
Rating: 8/10 Stars


How the figure works on power/cheese teams.
LAVS. 'Nuff said.

Seriously though, he is a tie-up piece that no one wants to hit. Believe it or not, that can really put a crimp in an opponent's plans.
Rating: 3/10 stars


Overall Rating: 27 Stars
Perfection Rating: 67.5%


Relevant Battlefield Conditions and Feats
Darkness & Deep Shadows - He Charges and has no Range.
In Contact with Oracle - If you must use Roland, please consider ICwO to help out his AV. At 100 points, it's nice to see him be a threat for more than 3/8 of his dial.
Rip it Up - Six clicks of Super Strength and three clicks of charge give you some reason to put Rip it Up out there. (If you don't have any other Super Strength characters, then maybe not.)
Large Object - Although it would seem like this is the answer to Roland's LAVS, Roland's Battle Fury means that (almost) all of his attacks with objects are going to be Close Combat attacks. As such, only heavy objects can be used in conjunction with Large Object to increase his AV by 1. ICwO would be a better spending of points unless you plan on using Large Object with other figures as well.

Christina Ricci does have some good qualities.

Another good review, with the only thing troubling me being the trend towards people being dissatisfied with any AV that isn't what they consider to be a reasonably sure thing. Personally, unless I think the character is highly-skilled and really deserves a higher level of accuracy (which is how I view the Attack Value, since it's the Damage that represents a character's strength) I 've maintained 8 as my comfort baseline. Once a clix's AV drops below 8, then I start to worry. The game gets boring when too many players don't want to take a shot unless they need only a 3-5 to hit. This level of Blockbuster has an even or better chance of landing damage on someone with a Defense of 15 or less, and that strikes me as appropriate. The stats I see look fine for this character, with the higher AV (and Damage) in the middle representing him getting angry and moving with a furious pace and less predictable swing.

I'm not taking aim at you, TSF, just pointing out that this is an increasingly common view on the game as people are looking for that sure thing hit. I can't bring myself to think of an AV of 8 as abysmal. I'd reserve that for a 6 or lower.

LOL! Yeah, is that a new hairstyle? Hey, she's been working out, too, hasn't she?

And truthfully, I'm actually a prime example of someone who goes for the sure thing. When X-Plosion came out, it took me a while to warm up to Doc Samson and Abomination because their AVs were 10s. 10s!! I've only just recently allowed my second tier attackers to have 9 AVs because a lot of them either are self-sufficient or have support powers.

Ha! Well, certainly a great deal depends upon how much one plays competitively. I understand going into a team-building mode that's purely based on the dials -- I just don't tend to do it unless I'm hastily assembling a team to prove a point about the utility or weakness of a given set of powers. I would proably do it if I were looking at a tournament and fixed on winning the prize, and I know that for many that - along with simply being The Winner - is the goal. Perfectly understandable pragmatism. The difference in approach and aim is what keeps me from a lot of venue play; I generally only come out for marquees.

The more steps I would take towards viewing these as... super-powered chess pieces, the farther away I'd get from the characters. As I'm not a gamer, but really much more a comics fan, my focus is more on seeing the characters summed up as appropriately as possible by the often clumsy sets of stats and powers. If the Marvel & DC licenses suddenly dried up and Wizkids suddenly went with a City of Heroes set and/or generic heroes and villains of their own creation, I'd quickly be out of the market for new pieces. The game interests me only to the extent of the characters that the game mechanics (predmoninantly due to Feat cards, though somewhat to more thoughtfully worked out dials) are edging closer letting these characters move and act the way they should.

Apologies for the digression. Again, a good write-up on Roland Desmond.

I like the format and continue to look forward to your pieces.

My comfort level for a starting AV is 9, but I'm pretty much in agreement with your post, Miraclo. Some folks just take the some of these stats too seriously. "His stats drop on his second click!!! By one point!?!?! That's like dropping a bag of rocks off a bridge!!!" LOL.

Strategy wise, certainly the way to alleviate the dice factor is to go with high AVs and supplements like the Police TA, but the dice still have a heavy-handed rule over the game. I've had games where I rolled boxcars and double 5s enough times the stats didn't matter a bit.

And then I had my last tournament, where my V Saturn Girl went 1-for-9 on attack rolls; that one successful attack wound up being yet another miss by the character I had mind controlled. SG had a 10 AV w/ perplex, backed up by a second perplexer, some outwit often used to eliminate ESD and the Batman enemy TA to put her back at 10 AV when I needed to. All that for nought; I whiffed all night. And it wasn't like I was facing KC Green Lantern all night. Highest role I needed was an 8, and I was rolling so bad I missed several 5s.

Two things:

1) Large Object works very well with this character to increase his attack value.

2) Suicide Squad actually has 4 members: Deadshot, Killer Frost, Blockbuster and Enchantress.

Indeed. Doesn't have anything to do with the topic at hand, but oh well.

Good write up TSF. I do like Roland as a tie up piece, and figure as long as he has to move into position, he might as well charge.

Perplex or ICwO always help, but I'd rather use perplex, since he only needs a little help early on, and not add 10 points to him.

BTW, anyone notice that the way Roland/Blockbuster comes in the package, he looks like he's standing at a urinal?

Or is that just me?

Though I am usually a DC enthusiast, I have been trying to come up with a Marauders team (the villains in the first comic I ever bought) and they require a few substitutions. With better stats and no TA, Roland Desmond fits well as a proxy for the Marvel Blockbuster, the Marauder muscle.

Thanks for the cool review

I've never played this piece's predecessor, Emil Blonsky, but only because there was much more power gaming going in my neighborhood at the time. Granted, there still aren't too many people I know that play for fun, but at least it's a possibility with all those Mutant Mayhem LE's floating around!

If I were a fan, I'd happily play Roland. Nice write up.

I think he means that Roland also has a gigantic 'fivehead'.

C'mon. Don't sell Christina Ricci short ... that's obviously a 'ninehead' she's sporting.