The Book of Nico Minoru

[johnny139]

The Book of Nico Minoru

C3G MARVEL WAVE 27
YOUNG MARVELS


Comic PDF


Mini PDF

The figure used for this unit is a HeroClix figure from the Hammer of Thor set.
Its model number and name is #047 / Nico Minoru.

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Character Bio - Nico isn't the sort of person who volunteers to be the leader. She's not supportive, she's not confident, and she's never been the "team mom" type. But when you discover your parents are actually evil sorcerers and members of the Pride, run away from home with five other teens in a similar predicament, and find out the only one of you with any leadership skills (and your kinda-sorta boyfriend) is actually evil? You learn pretty fast. Thankfully, Nico also happens to wield the Staff of One - her bloodright, this powerful weapon lets her cast any spell she can imagine. The catch? You can never use the same spell twice. Because even the bright side is never that sunny.
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-Rulings and Clarifications-

• N/A

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-Combinations and Synergies-

Incoming Synergy:

• As a Human with the Magical Defense special power, Nico has these
  • Human Synergies and
  • Magical Defense Synergies, and
  • may be chosen for Wong's Loyal Manservant special power.
• As a Runaway, Nico has these Runaway Synergies.

Outgoing Synergy:

• Nico may use her "Try Not to Die" special power to move Runaways you control. Current Runaways.

Immunities, Benefits, and Weaknesses:

• As a Human, Nico interacts differently with these special powers.
• As a flying figure, Nico interacts differently with these special powers.
• As a figure with the Magical Defense special power, Nico may bypass opponents' Magical Defense and have her own Magical Defense bypassed by opponents' figures with Magical Defense. Current figures with the Magical Defense special power.
• As a figure with the Magical Defense special power, Nico interacts differently with these special powers.
• Nico's Staff of One special power does not allow her to cast a Spell that shares a name with a Spell she's already cast this game, preventing her from casting multiple copies of a Common Spell in one game. Current Common Spells.

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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• N/A

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

• Initial playtest: johnny139
• Second playtest: Lazy_Orang
• Third playtest: Ronin
• Fourth playtest: Arkham
• Art: Comic Art/Mini Art/Background
• Art by japes

[johnny139]

NICO MINORU

HUMAN
UNIQUE HERO
RUNAWAY
RELUCTANT

MEDIUM 4

LIFE 4

MOVE 5
RANGE 1
ATTACK 2
DEFENSE 3

200 POINTS

STAFF OF ONE
Start the game with 6 black Mana Markers on this card. Before Nico moves, attacks, or defends, you may remove any number of Mana Markers from this card. For each marker removed, you may choose either the Move, Range, Attack, or Defense number on this card, and add 4 to that number until the end of this turn. You cannot choose the same number more than once per turn. Nico cannot cast a Spell that shares a name with a Spell she has cast this game.

"TRY NOT TO DIE"
Instead of moving with Nico, you may move a Runaway you control, or you may reveal an "X" Order Marker on this card and move any four Runaways you control. Nico can be one of the Runaways.

MAGICAL DEFENSE
When Nico is attacked by an opponent's figure that does not have the Magical Defense special power, the most wounds Nico can take for this attack is one.

FLYING SYMBOL

[SirGalahad]

Originally Posted by johnny139

NICO MINORU

HUMAN
UNIQUE HERO
RUNAWAY
DEDICATED

MEDIUM 4

LIFE 4

MOVE 5
RANGE 1
ATTACK 2
DEFENSE 3

200 POINTS

STAFF OF ONE
Start the game with 6 black Mana Markers on this card. Before Nico Minoru moves, attacks, or defends, you may remove any number of Mana Markers from this card. For each marker removed, you may add 4 to either the Move, Range, Attack, or Defense number on this card until the end of this turn. You cannot choose the same number more than once per turn. Nico cannot cast a Spell that shares a name with a Spell she has cast this game.

“TRY NOT TO DIE"
Instead of moving with Nico Minoru, you may move a Runaway you control, or you may reveal the an "X" Order Marker on this card and move any four Runaways you control. Nico can be one of the Runaways.

MAGICAL DEFENSE
When Nico Minoru is attacked by an opponent's figure that does not have the Magical Defense special power, the most wounds Nico can take for this attack is one.

FLYING SYMBOL

yea to editing

[johnny139]

Comic Art:

Spoiler Alert!

Background:

Spoiler Alert!

[Ronin]

Cool design.

Any specific reason for 5 Life?

[johnny139]

So, we've got the last Runaway here. A few points:

--- The big benefit here is that she'll be giving movement bonding, something that the Runaways desperately need. The current version is pretty bare bones and simple, but we can tweak it (and strengthen it) if need be. One idea I have is to have it trigger based on the OMs you have on Runaways you control. Something like this:

"TRY NOT TO DIE"
Before revealing an Order Marker on this card, you may move one Runaway you control for each unrevealed Order Marker on a Unique Runaway Hero you control. If you do, Nico Minoru cannot move this turn. Nico may be one of the Runaways moved with this special power.

That would give you a maximum of NINE figures per round, but only if you take a turn with Nico all three turns.

(By the way, the name is a reference to THIS PAGE.)

--- We could fold Curse of One into Staff of One but I couldn't find a way to do so without it feeling tacked on (which it is).

--- I'm hoping that she comes out to 180-200, depending on where Gert/Old Lace end up. Between them, the full army will look like this:

Nico (180-200)
Gert/Old Lace (150-170)
Chase (130)
Karolina (130)
Molly (180)

The total there is 800, nice round number. And it leaves headroom for Alex, Xavin, Victor, and whoever else is designed in the future. Is this Nico worth that much? No idea!

--- Also open to personality suggestions. Dedicated works but I'm kind of liking Sardonic? But that might overlap with Gert's Cynical a bit too much...

--- Also, while I'm here - the original Nico figure is linked in the first post, and we have pictures of it, but it's nightmarishly ugly even by Heroclix standards. The new What If? set had the Runaways but most of them were in weird superhero outfits - we did, however, get a new normal Nico:



Unfortunately, it's $10+ and I can't find any good pictures of it. We should be good to go, but if anyone wants to pick one up and see how it looks, be my guest.

Originally Posted by Ronin

Any specific reason for 5 Life?

Keeping her points up. Realistically she should probably have less Life and more base Defense, though. She's absolutely a normal human without the staff.

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by johnny139

Keeping her points up. Realistically she should probably have less Life and more base Defense, though. She's absolutely a normal human without the staff.

Fair enough! I guess there was that one time in Avengers Arena where she died (?) and then just got better for reasons that weren't clear to me.

I lean toward the simpler version of "Try Not to Die", if only because she's a four-power card.

[Yodaking]

Edit

STAFF OF ONE
Start the game with 6 black Magic Markers on this card. Once per turn, before moving, attacking, or defending with Nico Minoru, you may remove one Magic Markers from this card to increase Nico’s Move, Range, Attack, or Defense number by 4 until the end of that turn.

Can't see myself ever burning one of the 6 markers to make a ranged attack of 2 over a melee attack of 6 or roll 7 dice on defense, but don't have a problem keeping it in for the theme.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

I'd personally go with 'Mana Markers' or whatever over 'Magic Markers', that way no one tries to throw a bunch of Sharpies on her card.

[Lord Pyre]

Love it! Great how you captured the Theme of the Staff of One!

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Originally Posted by Soundwarp SG-1

I'd personally go with 'Mana Markers' or whatever over 'Magic Markers', that way no one tries to throw a bunch of Sharpies on her card.

^^^

[johnny139]

Originally Posted by Ronin

Looks like you forgot to call for the vote to go to initial, but I don't think anyone had big issues with the design.

I think bumping Attack by X is going to be a lot more of a draw in most situations than increasing any other stat by the same amount. If you're okay with that, it looks like they're in alright shape.

...yup, definitely did. Sorry guys! Everything was settled so I forgot the actual details. Hopefully no one had any unresolved questions.

I'll also tag the CRB at this time, since I also neglected to do that: @Dysole @dok @weebaer @Soundwarp SG-1 (though you're already here so I doubt you need the tag), any thoughts? HERE is a link (that should work?) to the current Runaways synergies if needed.

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

Sorcery Marker? Witchcraft Marker?

Originally Posted by Soundwarp SG-1

^^^

Witch Marker, Mana Marker, and Spell Marker stand out to me as workable. Maybe something reusable in the future? In that case Mana/Spell would work best.