Confusing Card of the Week #92 – Rip Hunter: Navigate the Sands of Time

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

For this week’s confusing card of the week article, we’re going to take a look at Rip Hunter: Navigate the Sands of Time  from the DC Batman set.

 

Ruling – Ability

Rip Hunter’s ability is a While Active ability. A While Active ability is one that works regardless of how many of the character’s dice are in the Field Zone. While Active abilities are like a light – it’s either on, or it’s off.

Rip Hunter’s ability can only be used once during your turn and only during the Clear and Draw Step. Rip Hunter must be active at the start of your turn to be able to use his ability that same turn. To use Rip Hunter’s ability, you draw dice for your Clear and Draw Step, and then you can send any number of those dice to the Used Pile and draw that many dice. You may choose any number of the dice you’ve drawn to go the Used Pile. You do not have to send them all.

The dice that you send to the Used Pile, go directly to the Used Pile and not Out of Play. This is because those dice have not entered the Reserve Pool.

If a card ability would allow you to draw extra dice during the Clear and Draw Step, you can use Rip Hunter’s ability for those dice as well. For example, if you have a Swarm trigger that allowed you to draw an extra die, for a total of five dice, you can send all five dice to the Used Pile and then draw five more dice using Rip Hunter’s ability. If any of those dice have the Swarm keyword and match an active character of the same name, you get to trigger Swarm again.

Miscellaneous Card Information

~ Rip Hunter is a Shield type character card.
~ He does not have any affiliation.
~ He has a max dice of four.
~ This card is a Common and is #30 of 124.

Examples

These examples are for information purposes only, to show what would happen in certain scenarios. I am not suggesting that these examples are the best outcomes for each scenario and each example only features relevant parts of the turn, not the entire turn.

Example One:
Using Rip Hunter’s ability.

Game State
~ I have two Rip Hunter dice and a Sidekick die active. I have seven Sidekick dice and one Batman die in my bag.
~ It’s the beginning of my turn.
(Clear and Draw)
~ I don’t have any dice to clear.
~ I draw four Sidekick dice.
~ I use Rip Hunter’s ability, sending three of my Sidekick dice to the Used Pile and I draw three more dice.
~ I draw two Sidekick dice and my Batman die.

Example Two:
Rip Hunter’s ability with Swarm.

Game State
~ I have one Multiple Man: Pile On! die, one Goblin: Lesser Humanoid die, and two Sidekick dice active in the Field Zone.
~ I have a Goblin, Multiple Man, and four Sidekick dice in my bag, and two Sidekick dice in my Use Pile.
~ It’s the beginning of my turn.
(Clear and Draw)
~ I draw four dice: one Multiple Man, one Goblin, two Sidekick dice.
~ I trigger the Swarm ability on Multiple Man and Goblin and draw two more dice: two Sidekicks.
~ I use Rip Hunter’s ability and send Multiple Man and Goblin to the Used Pile.
~ I now draw two more dice, but my bag is empty, so I refill it with the Used Pile (two Sidekicks, Multiple Man, and Goblin). I draw a Goblin and a Sidekick.
~ I trigger Swarm on the Goblin die, drawing one more die – Multiple Man.
~ I trigger Swarm on the Multiple Man die and draw my last die, which is a Sidekick.
(Roll and Reroll)
~ I roll all eight dice and proceed with the rest of my turn.

 

Official Sources

WizKids Official Rules Forum (WORF)
You can find the official ruling, here.

Basic Information

You can find more info about specific Keywords on the WizKids Keywords page.

Turn Order Summary Reference

Opinion and Strategy

I will continue to stand by my opinion that the dice moved by Rip Hunter need to go Out of Play. I’ve seen Ultraman abuse this to devastating results, as well as Parademon Swarm Burn. However, I will never rule against anything that’s been officially ruled on by WORF and I completely understand the reasoning behind their ruling. I just think it’s absolutely silly.

That being said, Parademon’s Burning Swarm is a team that Mr. DDK and I have been discussing since before they officially ruled Rip Hunter. I really want to use Darkseid: Force of Entropy with Parademon: Strength in Numbers and a cheap Swarm dude, like Multiple Man: Pile On!, because that’s just too silly. Rip Hunter’s ability can make a team like that more lethal. I’ve already played against someone that’s headed that direction with their team anyway, and the Parademon with Goblin Swarm is bad enough.

Rip Hunter has his benefits outside of breaking things. He’s exceptionally handy in drafts and he makes for a great addition to many teams that are desperately missing their PXG Global. He’s obviously not as good as PXG, but it’s totally better than nothing! I’ve been using the Uncommon Rip Hunter with my New Gods, but I might have to swap him for this version, unless I can speed the team up some other way.

I think that Rip Hunter is a good card in the competitive scene, but he does cost four to purchase. It’s not too much, but it could be too slow to use against some teams. Be sure you’re not adding him to your team as a necessary purchase, because if you’re buying him, you’re not buying your win condition (unless he contributes to that win condition). Your team shouldn’t be relying on him to function. If you’re using the rare Dwarf Wizard, this is probably going to be the character you want to target, unless of course there is a much larger threat at the time. But using DWiz to slow their churn is a really good idea early in the game.

If you’re playing casual, he’s a great addition and I don’t think he should be overlooked. He could help some of those casual teams churn through their dice a little faster to get to the good stuff!

Opinions on this card? Leave a comment!
Is there a card your confused on?
Is there a combo that seems too good to be true?
Leave me a comment here or message me on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty and thanks for reading!

Special thanks to The Reserve Pool for the use of their site.

Roll on, Dice Masters!

Confusing Card of the Week #91 – Dove: Danger!

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

For this week’s confusing card of the week article, we’re going to take a look at Dove: Danger!  from the DC Batman set.

 

Ruling – Ability

Dove has a special ability that does not require her to be active to use. Dove’s ability says that if she’s in your Used Pile and you take damage, you move her die to your Prep Area. Most of the abilities in the game require that the character be active to use their abilities, but her ability does not say While Active.

Dove’s ability is not optional. If you take damage, you must move Dove to your Prep Area.

Dove’s ability will trigger from any kind of damage, like ability or combat. Any ability or effect that makes you lose a life or pay life will not trigger her ability.

Ruling – Global

To use the Global on a card, you only need to pay the cost. The die does not need to be active to use the Global, unless it specifically says so.

Dove’s Global says that an attacking character die will get -1A when you pay a Shield. You can pay for her Global as many times as you have the energy to do so. Each time that you use her Global, the target attacking character die will get a -1 to their attack.

You do not have to target the same character die if you use her Global more than once.

You cannot use her Global during the Main Step, because there aren’t any attacking characters to target.   Her Global can only be used during the Actions and Globals portion of the Attack Step, and only to target an attacking character die. A character that is not attacking cannot be targeted.

Miscellaneous Card Information

~ Dove is a Shield type character card.
~ She has the Teen Titans affiliation.
~ She has a max dice of four.
~ This card is a Uncommon and is #53 of 124.

Examples

These examples are for information purposes only, to show what would happen in certain scenarios. I am not suggesting that these examples are the best outcomes for each scenario and each example only features relevant parts of the turn, not the entire turn.

Example One:
Dove’s ability used during the Attack Step.

Game State
~ I have one Dove die in my Used Pile and no character dice in the Field Zone.
~ My opponent has a Sidekick in the Field Zone.
(Attack Step – Assign Attackers)
~ My opponent assigns their Sidekick die to attack, moving it into the Attack Zone.
(Attack Step – Assign Blockers)
~ I do not have any character dice to assign as blockers.
(Attack Step – Actions and Globals)
~ My opponent does not use any Actions or Globals.
~ I do not use any Globals.
(Attack Step – Assign and Resolve Damage)
~ Because the Sidekick is unblocked, it deals one damage to me and goes Out of Play.
~ Dove’s ability will trigger, allowing me to move her die from the Used Pile to the Prep Area.

Example Two:
Dove’s ability used during the Main Step.

Game State
~ I have one Dove die in my Used Pile, a Fist energy in my Reserve Pool, and Luke Cage: Bulletproof is on my opponent’s team.
~ It’s during my Main Step.
(Main Step)
~ I pay a Fist energy (placing it Out of Play) to use Luke Cage’s Global, dealing one damage to both players.
~ Dove’s ability triggers, allowing me to move her die from the Used Pile to the Prep Area.

Example Three:
Dove’s Global Timing.

Game State
~ I have a Sidekick in the Field Zone. I have Dove: Danger! on my team, but have not purchased any of her dice yet.
~ My opponent has a Sidekick in the Field Zone and a Shield energy in their Reserve Pool.
~ It’s my turn and we’re headed into the Attack Step.
(Attack Step – Assign Attackers)
~ I assign my Sidekick to attack, moving it into the Attack Zone.
(Attack Step – Assign Blockers)
~ My opponent assigns their Sidekick to block, moving it into the Attack Zone and placing it in front of my Sidekick.
(Attack Step – Actions and Globals)
~ I do not use any Actions or Globals.
~ My opponent spends their Shield energy (moving it to their Used Pile) to pay for Dove’s Global and targets my Sidekick. My Sidekick now has a -1 to its attack, making its attack a 0.

Official Sources

WizKids Official Rules Forum (WORF)
You can find the official ruling, here.

Basic Information

You can find more info about specific Keywords on the WizKids Keywords page.

Turn Order Summary Reference

Opinion and Strategy

So, I’m brewing a new Teen Titans team and this is one of the Dove cards that I’m considering. I want to pair her with Hawk: Might Makes Right. My only concern in using this particular version of Dove is that my opponent can use her Global against me when I attack with Hawk. I’ve been thinking about adding Raven: Azrath, Metrion, Zinthos! to the team to protect my Teen Titans from Dove’s Global, but I’m not completely sure if want another character that I need to purchase on the team. Using this Dove won’t backfire on me that much though, because my main damage is done during the Main Step – with Hawk’s ability. I use Dove and a Sidekick to Fabricate a Golem and because Dove is KO’d for the Fabricate ability, Hawk’s ability triggers. Dove’s Global is only usable during the Attack Step, and even if it wasn’t, my opponent would still have to wait for me to pass them priority.

I’m just so torn between this Dove and the rare version of her. I like being able to spin her up, but I think I like being able to move her from my Used Pile to my Prep Area better. That makes my opponent think a little harder about swinging with a Sidekick while I have Dove in my Used Pile.

I’m also thinking about ways to utilize her ability that won’t necessarily be accessible to my opponent. For example, Luke Cage is not the character I want to use. I don’t want my opponent having access to a Global like that. I’ve thought about Rocket Raccoon: Not a Raccoon. I think he might be more useful and help me control when I trigger her ability without giving my opponent full access to a burn Global.

I like this Dove and the more I think about it, the more I like her. I don’t think she’ll see much play in the major competitive metas, but for casual play, she’s definitely a great Teen Titan to consider. I can’t wait to finish brewing this team and put it together!

Opinions on this card? Leave a comment!
Is there a card your confused on?
Is there a combo that seems too good to be true?
Leave me a comment here or message me on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty and thanks for reading!

Special thanks to The Reserve Pool for the use of their site.

Roll on, Dice Masters!

Confusing Card of the Week #90 – Jessica Jones: Ladies’ Night

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

For this week’s confusing card of the week article, we’re going to take a look at Jessica Jones: Ladies’ Night  from the Marvel Defenders Team Pack.

Ruling – Ability

Although her ability doesn’t say it, it acts as a While Active ability. You can find that ruling here. A While Active ability is one that works regardless of how many of the character’s dice are in the Field Zone. While Active abilities are like a light – it’s either on, or it’s off.

Jessica Jones says that whenever one of your character dice are targeted by a Global or character ability, she will get +1A and +1D. Her ability is not limited to opposing Globals and character abilities. If you target one of your own character dice, including a Jessica Jones die, her ability will trigger. Her ability does not target, so she would not get additional bonuses from her ability triggering.

Her ability will trigger each time one of your character dice are targeted by a Global or character ability, and not just once in a turn.

When Jessica Jones’s ability is triggered, it will apply to each of her dice that are active at the time it was triggered.

Action dice abilities can affect Jessica Jones and characters friendly to her without triggering her ability. Targeting her, or a character friendly to her, with a Global on an Action card will trigger her ability.

Miscellaneous Card Information

~ Jessica Jones is a Fist type character card.
~ She has the Defenders affiliation.
~ She has a max dice of four.
~ This card is a Common and is #17 of 24.

Examples

These examples are for information purposes only, to show what would happen in certain scenarios. I am not suggesting that these examples are the best outcomes for each scenario and each example only features relevant parts of the turn, not the entire turn.

Example One:
Jessica Jones and a friendly character targeted during my opponent’s Main Step.

Game State
~ I have a level three Jessica Jones die and a Sidekick die in the Field Zone.
~ My opponent has a level one Shredder: Dining on Turtle Soup in their Reserve Pool and two Bolt energy.
~ It’s during their Main Step.
(Main Step)
~ My opponent pays one energy, sending it Out of Play, to field Shredder.
~ They use Shredder’s ability and target my Sidekick, which is now KO’d and placed in the Prep Area and I lose one life.
~ Because a character die I control was targeted by a character ability, Jessica Jones gets a +1A/+1D.
~ My opponent spends their last Bolt energy, moving it Out of Play, for the Global on my Unstable Canister Basic Action Card. They target my Jessica Jones die.
~ My Jessica Jones die takes one damage from the Global ability, but because a character die that I control was targeted by a Global ability, Jessica Jones gets a +1A/+1D.
~ My Jessica Jones die now has a +2A/+2D, making her attack an 8 and her defense a 5. But because that die has taken one damage this turn, she can only take 4 more damage before she’s KO’d.
~ My opponent passes priority to me, but I choose to not use any Globals. I return priority and we move into the Attack Step.
(Attack Step – Assign Attackers)
~ My opponent assigns Shredder to attack, moving his die to the Attack Zone.
(Attack Step – Assign Blockers)
~ I assign Jessica Jones to block Shredder, moving her die to the Attack Zone in front of Shredder.
(Attack Step – Actions and Globals)
~ My opponent does not use any actions or Globals.
~ I do not use any Globals.
(Attack Step – Assign and Resolve Damage)
~ Shredder assigns his four damage to Jessica Jones’s remaining defense of four.
~ Jessica Jones assigns her eight damage to Shredder’s defense of four.
~ Both characters are KO’d.
(Clean Up Step)
~ Character dice that were KO’d during the Assign and Resolve Damage portion of the Attack Step are moved to the Prep Area.
~ All dice Out of Play are moved to the Used Pile.
~ All damage on character dice is cleared.
~ All effects end unless otherwise stated.

Example Two:
Jessica Jones die targeted during the Attack Step.

Game State
~ I have a level three Jessica Jones die and a Sidekick die in the Field Zone. I also have one Fist energy and one Bolt energy in my Reserve Pool.
~ My opponent doesn’t have any characters in the Field Zone and no energy in the Reserve Pool.
~ None of my characters stats have been altered.
~ We’re moving into my Attack Step.
(Attack Step – Assign Attackers)
~ I assign my Jessica Jones die and my Sidekick die to attack, moving both of them into the Attack Zone.
(Attack Step – Assign Blockers)
~ My opponent does not assign any blockers.
(Attack Step – Actions and Globals)
~ I spend one Bolt energy, moving it Out of Play, to use the Global on my Unstable Canister Basic Action Card and target my Jessica Jones die.
~ Jessica Jones takes one damage and her ability triggers because one of my character dice was the target of Global ability. My Jessica Jones die gets a +1A/+1D.
~ I spend my Fist energy, moving it Out of Play, to use the Global on my opponent’s Haymaker Basic Action Card and target my Jessica Jones die.
~ Jessica Jones gets a +1A from the Haymaker Global and her ability triggers because one of my character dice was the target of a Global ability. My Jessica Jones die gets a +1A/+1D.
~ My Jessica Jones die now has a +3A/+2D making her attack a 9 and her defense a 5.
~ My opponent does not use any actions or Globals.
(Attack Step – Assign and Resolve Damage)
~ Both of my character dice are unblocked. They each deal their attack directly to my opponent.
~ My opponent is dealt 10 damage and both of my character dice are immediately placed Out of Play.
(Clean Up Step)
~ Character dice that were KO’d during the Assign and Resolve Damage portion of the Attack Step are moved to the Prep Area.
~ All dice Out of Play are moved to the Used Pile.
~ All damage on character dice is cleared.
~ All effects end unless otherwise stated.

Official Sources

WizKids Official Rules Forum (WORF) does not have an official ruling for this specific card.

Ruling about abilities that need the character to be active, but the card doesn’t say While Active, here.

Basic Information

You can find more info about specific Keywords on the WizKids Keywords page.

Turn Order Summary Reference

Opinion and Strategy

Out of all the cards in the Defenders Team Pack, this Jessica Jones and Iron Fist: Holding Back the Storm are the only cards I like. I went straight for Iron Fist instead of test playing Jessica Jones because I loved his ability. But after playing with him a little and trying to make him work, I think Jessica Jones is the route I need to go.

When playing a card like this, you want to bring Globals that tempt your opponent into using them on your dudes, like Unstable Canister. They can target Jessica Jones as much as they want, but unless they have some other way to deal her damage, she won’t get KO’d by Canister Global strikes alone. Using Haymaker isn’t a bad idea either – or Goliath if you want to use a different Basic Action besides Haymaker. You don’t have to rely on your opponent to use Globals/character abilities on your characters. You could just pump her up on your own and then give her Overcrush for those potential blockers. You could make her unblockable with an ability like the on Silver Sable: Hero for Hire. And because it targets, it buffs her stats too.

For the competitive scenes, I think she might fall just short of being a top tier card. It’s not her purchase cost that’s the issue – I think it’s very reasonable for her ability and stats. There is way too many Cold Guns out there that can take her out. Her ability doesn’t trigger off of Action abilities, just Globals and character abilities. But even if it did trigger off of Action abilities, a Cold Gun shuts her down before she attacks. You would need to put pressure on your opponent with multiple Jessica Jones dice, which can be difficult since she cost five to purchase.

I don’t think she’s too overpowered on her own for a casual setting, but I would be mindful of what your other locals are playing.

I like this card and I think she’s probably the best card in the Team Pack. I can’t wait to give her a go this week! I might even pair her with some of this crazy new Batman stuff. And just because I don’t think she’s good enough for meta competitive play, doesn’t mean I won’t try her!

Opinions on this card? Leave a comment!
Is there a card your confused on?
Is there a combo that seems too good to be true?
Leave me a comment here or message me on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty and thanks for reading!

Special thanks to The Reserve Pool for the use of their site.

Roll on, Dice Masters!

Card Comparison – It’s Not Monkey Business with Gorilla Grodd

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

It’s been too long since my last Card Comparison article. I love doing these, even though I’ve only done a few. In the Card Comparison articles, I take a look at all the different versions of a character from one set and give the pros and cons of each one. In the end, I reveal my favorite and leave it to you to decide which one you prefer.

Every card has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some cards just have weaknesses, especially compared to their other set versions. But those versions that aren’t as good as the others still come packaged with that character’s die, so they are still good for obtaining those extra dice!

For this article, we’re going to be comparing the common, uncommon, and rare versions of Gorilla Grodd from the DC Green Arrow and The Flash set.

Gorilla Grodd: Supplanting Solovar – Common

I also want to take a look at the character’s subtitles and where they may have come from. Supplanting basically means to supersede or replace, and Solovar is the name of the ruler of Gorilla City. Solovar was a peaceful leader and he was overthrown by Grodd during Flashpoint. Both Grodd and Solovar are supporting characters in The Flash comics, but they also appear in other DC comics from time to time.

This version of Grodd has both the Villain and Legion of Doom affiliations. The Legion of Doom is subgroup of villains that work together to accomplish a common goal. There are several Legion of Doom affiliated characters in Dice Masters, but as far as I can find, Lex Luthor: Legion of Doom is the only one with a tribal ability. A tribal ability is one that affects cards that have the same affiliation. There are a few cards that reference card names or subtitles that are considered tribal abilities, but tribal abilities primarily reference affiliations. WizKids does not officially recognize the use of the phrase ‘tribal ability’ for Dice Masters on the Keywords page. It’s primarily used by players.

His affiliations are both pros and cons. There aren’t many cool gimmicks with Legion of Doom characters, but Villains are always finding ways to buff themselves. If you’re using Villains, it could also work against you. There are plenty of anti-Villain cards in the game, but not any anti-Legion of Doom cards.

Another pro for Grodd that really stands out is his fielding costs and his stats. He has a TFC (Total Fielding Cost) of four! With his defense matching his attack on every level, this is one nasty dude. The purchase cost fits in with the pros for his stats too. Characters with large attack stats are usually expensive to purchase and field, but this particular Grodd only cost five energy to purchase and can easily be fielded on any level and is worth the fielding cost.

This Grodd doesn’t have text which is a pro and a con. “Wait a minute…” you might say, “How is that a pro?” Well, with text blanking cards being so popular, it doesn’t hurt to look at these blank cards that have a decent purchase cost and beastly stats. If you’re playing in a casual setting, this dude is actually a really good card! If you’re looking at a more competitive setting, he’s not terrible, but there are better options out there. He could be a great win condition in a draft though.

Gorilla Grodd: Force of Mind – Uncommon

Grodd isn’t just a gorilla – he’s a psionic gorilla that gained his powers by different means in different continuities. Force of Mind is likely a reference to the different psionic abilities that Grodd possesses.

As for the affiliations, they are the same as his common version, with the same pros and cons.

The main differences between the common and uncommon are the purchase cost and the card text. This Grodd has a purchase of seven – wow! That’s a little expensive, until you factor in his fielding costs, stats, and then his ability text.

His ability text is really good, in my opinion. You only need one of his dice in the Field Zone and he grants all of your character dice the Overcrush ability, including himself! If that wasn’t good enough, he can empower your other character dice by giving them a +1A. He doesn’t benefit from the attack buff, but all your other dice do, meaning that Sidekick just got a +1A and Overcrush.

One of the major cons to this version is that he can be blasted with a burst or double burst Cold Gun and lose his text. His ability is not an applied ability so if his text is removed, his static ability goes away too. Not that exciting to think about – seeing your big seven purchase cost character getting blanked and becoming useless for turn by a three cost Continuous Action die.

This card is a powerful card, for sure. The only real negative is his purchase cost, but he kind of deserves it. It just makes him harder to play in the faster metas with any kind of rush or aggro teams. I definitely consider his purchase cost to be a con, because I think a six cost would have been appropriate. I think he’s almost too powerful for a casual setting, but he has a chance to shine in the Modern Age and Prime competitive scenes.

Gorilla Grodd: Brains and Brawn – Rare

I love this subtitle. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “brains over brawn” which is encouraging folks to think first before using force, or that intelligence is preferred to physical abilities. But with Grodd, it’s brains and brawn, meaning he has the intelligence and physical strength. Why not both, right?

This version of Grodd also has the same affiliations as the common and uncommon.

The main differences with this version are, again, the purchase cost and ability text. This version has a purchase cost of six, which is definitely appropriate and not really a pro or a con.

When you look at the ability text on this Grodd, he says that only Crossover character dice can block him. I think that’s a good thematic ability for Grodd as well as a decent character ability in the game. There are not a ton of Crossover characters being played in the major metas, so this guy has a chance to shine. But a huge con is that he falls victim to the same major meta card as the uncommon Grodd – the Cold Gun. If you blank this guy’s text, any non-Crossover character can block him.

This Grodd also has a Global ability on his card. You can spin a Sidekick from your Field Zone to its single fist energy side at a cost of zero! This is a particularly useful Global in any meta, but it is a Global ability, meaning your opponent can use it too. That’s the downside to any Global ability, and one this good could potentially bite you back!

DDK’s Pick!

I like the common and even the rare Grodd for casual play. But those are not my favorites at all.

I absolutely love the uncommon Grodd. His major cons are his purchase cost and that his static ability can be easily blanked by a Cold Gun or other blanking type effect. It’s not easy, but you can work around those blanking cards and effectively take your opponent down with Grodd being the key piece to your win condition. He can easily be paired with cards like Lady Bullseye: Attack on Two Fronts or Guy Gardner: Blinding Rage. He buffs Sidekicks too, so if your opponent blocks your Sidekick with one of theirs, they’re still taking one damage! You can use a force block Global, like the one on Wasp: Fashionista, to help ensure some of your attackers make it back into the Field Zone. One of my favorite things about the uncommon Grodd is that he doesn’t have to attack to buff your other characters. If you attack with him, your opponent is likely to let him through just to get him cycling through your bag and slow you down. But with his ability, you only need to attack with your other characters.

My pick is easily Force of Mind, the uncommon Gorilla Grodd. How about you? Is the choice easy for you or are you torn between different Grodds?

I would love to hear your thoughts on Gorilla Grodd.
Leave me a comment here or on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty!
You can also find me on Twitter and Instagram.
Thanks for reading!

Special thanks to The Reserve Pool for the use of their site.

Roll on, Dice Masters!

Review! Marvel Dice Masters – The Defenders Team Pack

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

WizKids has released its second Team Pack, The Defenders. I hope they plan to release some DC Team Packs at some point, but so far there have only been the two Marvel ones, and another Marvel one scheduled for release later this year.

I did an unboxing video for The Defenders Team Pack and you can find it on YouTube, here. I goofed toward the end of the video though. I meant to say, “check out my review article” – not “check out my review video” – Oops!

Team Pack

Pack Contents

~ 24 Character Cards
~ 16 Dice

Keywords

There is one returning keyword in this set, and no new ones.

Returning Keywords:
Overcrush

Affiliations

There is a new affiliation and a returning affiliation.

New!
Defenders

Returning

Villains

Characters

Star Crossed has a ruling on WORF in regards to Overcrush – which is important to mention here. A character with Overcrush that is ‘blocked’ with Clea’s ability will deal it’s full damage to the defending player. Don’t use Clea’s ability to ‘block’ a character with Overcrush unless you want to take the full amount of damage. Since that character is declared blocked, it would also remain in the Field Zone. Not sure I like Star Crossed much and I don’t like Mistress of the Dark Dimension‘s ability that much either. On Stranger Tides is the only version of Clea I like, but at a cost of six, I don’t think she’ll be making any of my casual teams – especially since every version of Doctor Strange is also expensive to purchase.

I was desperately hoping for a cheaper Doctor Strange. There are now nine versions of Doctor Strange in Dice Masters. Three of them have a purchase cost of six and the the remaining six have a purchase cost of seven. Why can’t I have a five cost Doctor Strange. Hulk has a five cost version! I mean, is that too much to ask? He doesn’t need to have the incredible stats that both dice versions have. He’s a powerful character, sure, but there can be versions with less attack and defense if it means a cheaper purchase cost.

As for the abilities, Book of the Vishanti – thank you WizKids for the wording clarification! I would like the ability if we didn’t already have Lady Deadpool that’s cheaper (by two!) and does almost the same thing for a Bolt. The Doctor is In feels like an ability that belongs in AvX or Uncanny X-Men. But not every card should have a super awesome ability. Shields of the Seraphim would have been cool, if we didn’t already have a three cost Scarlet Witch (purchase cost of FOUR) that puts a die in the Prep Area at the cost of one energy. I do love the art choice for this card though – that’s something at least.

Thank goodness – a character cheaper than five! It’s Patsy! is a lesser version of Lyssa Drak from War of Light. For anyone tinkering with Lyssa Drak, this would be her replacement when WoL eventually rotates to Golden Age. Hell’s Belle – I love this card. I didn’t care for her ability at first, until I realized that I have various ways to get her into my Prep Area. She’s only a purchase cost of three as well, so you could buy multiples of her and keep them cycling – preventing your opponent from potentially purchasing their win condition. Demon Sight for Sore Eyes has a cool ability, but it’s way too conditional for a competitive format, and even more so for casual. I’m not sure she would be worth teching into a team build with the current metas. I like this artwork as well, and I know very little about Hellcat. This card kinda makes me want to check her out books.

I just don’t like any of these Hulk cards. If I had to choose one, I’d probably choose All the Rage, but his purchase cost and fielding cost is way too expensive for that. You also want to keep him active, meaning you’re not getting the full benefit of his beefy attack stat. I guess the others have their place on various team builds, but not for me.

I read Healing Hands first and thought, “Cool. I like this ability, but may be difficult to manage each time I’m ready to attack with him.” I was a little disappointed to see his purchase cost was five, but at least he’s under six! Then I read Pulling Punches and thought, “Now this is unique and interesting. I like this one better.” There are ways to force Sidekicks into your opponent’s Field Zone so you could always get at least one damage on your opponent with this ability. Not too bad for a five cost, but still, he could have had a purchase cost of four and been fine. Then I read Holding Back the Storm. My eyes lit up. It felt like this card was made for me – a DDK kind of card. It’s really easy to not field any characters. His attack stats then become 6, 7, 9. Holy stat increase Batman! Give him Overcrush or make him unblockable and he’s a beast! Sounds like the perfect gimmick combo team for me to build! His purchase cost of five is totally justifiable for his ability and stats – which also makes it a DDK card. I don’t usually build teams with win conditions that have a purchase cost less than five.

Mother of the Year Award – not the worst, but no. Not worth it for a character with a purchase cost of five and low defense. She can be blasted out of the Field with an uncommon Cold Gun on any level. No thanks – next. Ladies’ Night – this could be somewhat usable. It doesn’t specify opposing Globals or opposing character abilities and it doesn’t say ‘other’ character dice. You could target her with a stat increasing Global and get double what you pay for. I think I like this one a little. This sounds like another DDK gimmick combo card! Redeemed is okay too. She’s not the best, but not awful. You can give her Overcrush and your opponent can’t Blink her back. They can still Cold Gun her though! That’s why I don’t like her near as much. Ladies’ Night can stand up to a Cold Gun blast on your turn, after you get the use of her ability. She may get blanked, but she keeps those applied bonuses!

And here we have… a Villain… What? Why on Earth 616 is there a Villain in the DEFENDERS Team Pack? I’m all for diversifying affiliations in certain releases, but with such a limited number of cards in the Team Pack, don’t do that. I’d rather have had a half-way decent Daredevil or a better Moon Knight! *Sigh*

The only Loki that I feel has a remotely decent ability is Master of Delusion. But because of his purchase cost, and because he needs to be fielded to use his ability, he’s not that great. I’m not impressed at all with any of the Loki cards. I definitely would have rather had a four cost Daredevil or Moon Knight in this spot.

Harlem Raised – the only card with a bolded Keyword on it. And the funny thing is, he doesn’t just have it. You have to reroll him – if he’s blocked – to give him Overcrush. And if he lands on level one or two, congratulations, he now has a two or three attack and Overcrush! I wish you could see my face right now… I’m very confused and trying to understand WizKids’ choices for many things in this Team Pack.

But there is a glimmer of hope. Always Forward can buff your other Defenders, which is awesome. But he has to be active, and he has a purchase cost of five. The upside to his purchase cost being five is that you probably only need one of him because with a defense line of 5, 6, 6, he’s probably not getting blasted out the Field anytime soon. I look at Street Sweeper and I’m a little happier, but then I see his purchase cost and I’m not happy anymore. If I’m going to buy a cost reducer of any kind, it’s not going to be one that costs the same or one less than a die it’s reducing the cost of. He’s got that additional ability that lets you prep a die when you field a Defender character die, but I’d rather have had a three or four cost Street Sweeper with just the cost reducer on it.

Positive note – I absolutely love the art on this card. At least Daredevil was in this Team Pack somewhere!

Character Thoughts

Oh boy…These characters are all so expensive, except for Hellcat, and most of the abilities on the all the cards are underwhelming. It’s a rare occasion when I can’t find something in a starter or team pack that I really like. I just don’t know what to say about this Team Pack. I don’t think this is the best Team Pack for a beginner and I don’t think many advanced level players are going to find these cards useful or even fun to play with. The overly expensive characters are not fun – they’re frustrating. You typically just waste a spot on your team for them because most games are done, or close to being done, long before you get to purchase those characters.

I’ve heard TRP say this and I agree with them – if a character costs six or seven energy to purchase, it better be winning you the game. None – zero – zip – of these expensive characters do that.

Character Dice

You only get two of each character die in the Team Pack. If you’re wanting to put three or four dice on a particular character, you will need to buy a second Team Pack (or trade, exchange, etc.). It’s never a bad thing to have duplicates of the character cards, but I’d rather just have max dice in one purchase.

I like the image and color choices for the Iron Fist die and the color of the Doctor Strange die. Clea’s die has the ‘shimmer swirl’ look to it, so it’s pretty as well and I love Hellcat’s kitty image. But of all the dice, Loki’s is definitely my favorite. But I want to talk about Luke Cage’s die for a moment.

After filming the unboxing video, I asked the owner of my FLGS (Jeff), if he knew what the image on Luke Cage’s die might be. He studied it for a minute or two and concluded that he wasn’t sure what it was. We continued looking at this image for the better part of ten minutes, trying to figure out what it was. We didn’t think it was a flexing arm at first because we were both looking at the shoulder as the fist. I’m sure it was a sight to see us both flexing and trying to recreate the backward view we were seeing. We decided it couldn’t be an arm – it had to be a cracked stone or a wonky heart of some kind. We were searching any mental knowledge that we had of Luke Cage for a heart or stone reference and came up empty handed. I was about to leave when it suddenly hit me. We were looking at the arm backward. *Sigh*

WizKids, you have successfully trolled me, and Jeff, whether you meant to or not. Nice one. You’ve apparently claimed a few other victims too as most of the folks that have commented on my social media pictures also thought it was a weird heart of some kind.

It did give me a giggle on my way home from my FLGS last night. When I got home, I showed the die to Mr. DDK and asked what he thought it was. He quickly – without any hesitation – responded, “It’s an arm. It’s flexing, like this. See, here’s the fist.”

I felt even more silly than before. But I see it now!

Final Thoughts

I’m so disappointed in this Team Pack. I know this article probably sounds like one long rant, but I’m not going to sugarcoat how I feel or curb my opinions to appeal to the masses – or WizKids. I love WizKids and Dice Masters, but I want to give an honest opinion on their products. We’re all entitled to our own opinions and if you disagree with me, that’s totally fine. Maybe you see something that I don’t, or maybe most of these cards fit your style of play, but for me, this was a wash. Hellcat is the best character in the Team Pack. Is it worth buying the Team Pack just for her? In my opinion – No. Sorry, WizKids, but I’m not a fan of this Team Pack.

I know this is a broken record type statement, but less than max dice in the Team Pack is still an issue. That’s all I’ll say about it because I’ve complained about this particular topic on more than just a few occasions.

Just because I personally don’t like the Team Pack overall, doesn’t mean I won’t be tinkering with some of the cards. I like Iron Fist: Holding Back the Storm. That’s totally a DDK type of card. I don’t mind that he costs five to purchase because he has great stats and his ability is really nice too. I will most definitely be tinkering and brewing with Holding Back the Storm. I think he’ll be fun to play around with. I need to buy another Team Pack though, just in case I want to use four dice for Iron Fist or Hellcat.

What are your favorite cards?
What cards do you think will make it into Modern Age or Prime metas?
Leave me a comment here or message me on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty and thanks for reading!

Special thanks to WizKids and The Reserve Pool for the use of their sites.

Roll on, Dice Masters!

REVISED Confusing Card of the Week #76 – Howard Stark: Expert Businessman

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

This is the corrected article. Thanks to Michaela for making me think about my original ruling and dig a little deeper!

For this week’s confusing card of the week article, we’re going to take a look at Howard Stark: Expert Businessman  from the Marvel Iron Man and War Machine Starter set.

Ruling – Ally

Ally is a keyword that means the character will count as a Sidekick in addition to any other type that it currently has, but only while the character is active in the Field Zone. A character with the Ally keyword does not count as a Sidekick in the bag, Prep Area, Reserve Pool, etc.

A character with Ally will become a Sidekick the very moment that it enters the Field Zone. This is not an optional keyword and you cannot trigger it because it applies the instant the character is fielded. This matters specifically for abilities like the one on Punisher: War Journal.

Ruling – Ability

Howard Stark’s ability is definitely a interesting one. You can only use it at the beginning of your turn, before you start your Clear and Draw Step. You can sacrifice a Howard Stark die to give the characters your active characters that you control a +2A for the rest of the turn. You may sacrifice any number of Howard Stark dice and each will give a +2A, but you must do it before your Clear and Draw Step. This ability is optional to use. If you start your Clear and Draw Step and didn’t sacrifice a Howard Stark die first, you cannot back up because you missed the timing window for his ability.

When you sacrifice a character die, that die goes Out of Play until the Clean Up Step where it then goes to the Used Pile. When a die is Out of Play, game effects cannot affect those dice. Examples – Professor X: Recruiting Young Mutants Global cannot be used on Sidekicks Out of Play and Reclaim cannot be used to get a Howard Stark die into the Prep Area on the same turn it was sacrificed.

The buff that Howard Stark’s effect gives affects all characters you have active in the Field Zone at the time you sacrifice his die. Each of his dice that you sacrifice will give your active characters a +2A. If you sacrifice two Howard Stark dice, you characters that are in the Field Zone will get a +4A until the end of your turn. This type of ability is an applied bonus.

Miscellaneous Card Information

~ Howard Stark is a Mask Character.
~ He has the S.H.I.E.L.D. affiliation.
~ He has a max dice of four.
~ This card is a Common and is #2 of 34.

If you purchase the Iron Man and War Machine starter set, you will get all the cards, but not maximum dice for each character. You will need two starters for maximum character dice because those dice are not available in any other set.

Examples

These examples are for information purposes only, to show what would happen in certain scenarios. I am not suggesting that these examples are the best outcomes for each scenario and each example only features relevant parts of the turn, not the entire turn.

Example One:
Sacrificing more than one Howard Stark.

~ I have two level one Howard Stark dice and three Sidekick dice in the Field Zone.
~ I begin my turn by sacrificing one of my Howard Stark dice. This will give my three Sidekick dice a +2A until end of turn. I sacrifice my second Howard Stark die, giving my Sidekick dice an additional +2A for a total of +4A until end of turn.
~ (Clear and Draw Step) I clear any dice remaining in my Reserve Pool from the previous turn and draw four dice from my bag. Any character dice that I draw, roll, and field, will not get the +4A buff.

Official Sources

WizKids Official Rules Forum (WORF) does not have a ruling for this specific card.

You can find an Ally ruling in the Punisher: War Journal ruling, and many other rulings, here.

You can find a ruling about Sacrifice, here.

Turn Order Summary Reference

Unlimited Competitive Play Rating

While I think this card is quite good, I don’t see anyone playing it unless Bard gets an errata or somehow makes the banned list (not likely). He costs one less than Bard, but you have to sacrifice him for his ability. Someone like me would try to use Stark in a major event, but I don’t see him making many team lists out there. There are better options for his type of ability – the big one being Bard. He does have the advantage of getting around Cold Guns though, so he’s not a card I’d forget about anytime soon just on the chance that we see a WizKids rotation that hits Bard.

Howard Stark: Expert Businessman gets a rating of one out of five stars.

Prime Play Rating

I think this card is great for Prime, but I don’t expect a lot of folks to play him if they aren’t using Overcrush. He’s got great fielding costs, especially since you may be sacrificing him! But if you’re using Reclaim, he could easily be churned many times over for some pretty devastating results. Just remember that you don’t want a Reclaim die the same turn you sacrifice him, because he’ll be Out of Play on the turn he’s sacrificed. I have the perfect place for this card on my Grodd team and I can’t wait to try him out.

Howard Stark: Expert Businessman gets a Prime rating of three out of five stars.

Casual Play Rating

Howard Stark’s ability is absolutely confusing. I’m not sure why I thought it was a static type bonus, but he had all of us here confused. Thankfully, Michaela mentioned that it might be applied and not static, which got me to thinking and digging deeper. Glad she said something! So, Stark is lucky I don’t knock him down to a three for causing so much confusion. The needed knowledge for sacrifice can be obtained easily if the player is looking for it. Some new players may confuse sacrificing for KO’ing, but once they know the difference, it’s not usually an issue. Lots of players forget or don’t know that sacrificed characters go Out of Play instead of the directly to the Used Pile. It’s a common mistake among players of all skill levels. I can still easily recommend Howard Stark for players of all skill levels, even with his earlier confusion. He’s a great card, and he offers a great way to showcase the rarely used game mechanic, sacrifice.

Howard Stark: Expert Businessman gets a casual play rating of four out of five stars.

Mistakes Were Made!

And this goes to show everyone – I absolutely do make mistakes. I’m definitely not perfect and for all my understanding of the game, this one card tripped me up today. I’m a one person operation here, but I will usually consult with Mr. DDK and a few of the other locals that are more competitive for their opinions, just to be sure I’ve got my interpretation right. Very rarely do we have this issue, but Howard Stark had all of us fooled today! But I’m still so glad I picked him for the Confusing Card of the Week. Never be afraid to question things you think may not be accurate. You could save someone a world of problems, like Michaela did for me today! And don’t be ashamed or embarrassed by a mistake. Admit the mistake, pick yourself up, and roll on!

Opinions on this card? Leave a comment!
Is there a card your confused on?
Is there a combo that seems too good to be true?
Leave me a comment here or message me on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty and thanks for reading!

Special thanks to The Reserve Pool for the use of their site.

Roll on, Dice Masters!

Tournament Report! February 18, 2017 – Prime Format

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

We held a Prime format event this past weekend and I decided to play with a mostly TMNT team. Before I go any further, I have a little bit of bad news. I did not take pictures of my opponents’ teams, and an unfortunate technical issue has destroyed two of my three videos. I will post the video I have on my YouTube channel when I get done editing it. I did not take pictures of my opponents’ teams for this report because I was doing videos of all my matches this week. I apologize for the lack of content in this report.

My Team

You can find my team here, on DM Retrobox or in the Slideshow below.

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I put April, Michelangelo, and Leonardo on my team to decrease the cost of my TMNT characters. I like Donatello because he does ability damage directly to my opponent for each of my other active TMNT characters when each of his dice attack. Metalhead is a really beefy attacker when you have lots of TMNT dice active. Raphael protects my TMNT characters from Action Dice and Globals, which came in handy! I put Casey Jones on the team to help me clear Sidekicks/Allies out of Metalhead’s path. Rip was the only card on the team that wasn’t from a TMNT set. I wanted to have access to the Global if my opponent decided not to bring it. Reclaim was useful for moving over those recently purchased character dice. Mutation is just a great card for Mutating Sidekicks out and bringing in those TMNT characters as well as Mutating out characters on my opponent’s side, for less threatening characters.

I had lots of fun playing this team, and every game I played was somewhat close – except for my first match. I ended with a record of 0-3-0 for the event, but the fun I had was totally worth playing with my Turtles! I would like to take Casey Jones off the team and add a force block Global, like Wasp: Fashionista so that I can force my opponent to block my Donatello dice, hopefully putting them back into the Field Zone. I would also like to swap my Metalhead out for this one:

Using Dissociative Identity with the four Turtles would be a huge benefit. I can attack with all of my dice; Donatello dice will be doing their direct damage first; then Metalhead’s ability will make the four Turtles unblockable; then the four Turtles will all hit my opponent, hopefully for lethal. I can use one or multiple Donnie dice to soften my opponent up first, making the victory easier to accomplish.

I played against a Bat-Family team, an Action Burn team, and a Satchel team. The Action Burn team won the event on tie-breaker points, but all three of those team were 2-1-0 for the event. I plan to make the appropriate adjustments to my team and play it again in a future Prime event. I also have a Gorilla Grodd team that I enjoy playing and Hypervelocity team that I’m working on.

I apologize again for the lack of content in this report, but I wanted to put something out there for folks to read. Something is better than nothing! I hope I have the technical kinks worked out for next week.

What are some changes you’d make without changing the spirit of the team?
Have a build you like better?
Leave me a comment here or on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty and thanks for reading!

Special thanks to The Reserve Pool for the use of their site.
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Roll on, Dice Masters!

Review! Annual Marvel Starter – Iron Man and War Machine

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

WizKids has decided to make starters an annual release instead of releasing them with each gravity feed (I can’t tell you how happy my wallet is right now!). I feel like this is a really good move on their part because it makes it easier to format a rotation and also makes it easier and more affordable for new players to enter into the game. To my understanding, Marvel and DC will each have an annual starter release.

You can find my review video on YouTube, here.

Starter Box

Box Contents

~ Iron Man and War Machine Rulebook
~ 2 Dice Bags
~ 12 Basic Action Dice
~ 16 Sidekick Dice
~ 16 Character Dice
~ 24 Character Cards
~ 10 Basic Action Cards
~ 4 Action Reminder Cards
~ 1 Rules Reminder Card

Rulebook

Standard rulebook, but it does not detail the first turn rule change. WizKids had already announced that the earliest rulebook to detail that change would be the DC Superman/Wonder Woman starter rulebook.

Rules Reminder Card

The rules reminder card is a great quick reference tool for all the affiliations and keywords in the set.

The back of the rules reminder card has a bump for tournaments, which is a great promo piece.

Keywords

There are several returning keywords in this set, as well as a new one.

Returning Keywords:
Ally
Continuous
Fast
Iron Will
Overcrush

New Keywords:

Suit Up – NAME
Suit Up is a new keyword ability in this starter. Each character with Suit Up has the name of another character or characters directly after it. When you purchase a character die with Suit Up, you may KO the named die in order to field the Suit Up die at level two.

Suit Up can only happen when you purchase the Suit Up character die. It replaces the location of where the purchased die will go. If you purchase the die and place it into your Used Pile and continue with your turn, you will not be able to back up to use Suit Up.

I really like Suit Up because it lets you field that character die at level two, even though you have to KO another (specific) character to do it. This ability can be particularly useful with characters that have a When Fielded or When KO’d ability, like Pepper Potts: Stark International for Rescue’s Suit Up.

WizKids has a comprehensive list of Keywords on their site. You can also find expanded descriptions for all the keywords on The Reserve Pool‘s site.

Affiliations

New!
Stark Industries

Returning

Avengers
S.H.I.E.L.D.
Spider-Friends

Characters

So… I like all three of Howard Stark’s cards. I can think of several teams that each one could find a home on. Brilliant is definitely going to find a home on my casual version of Hugs that I played at the WKO. I can easily take La Jinn off the casual team build and put Howard Stark in his place. I guess Iron Will is a good benefit too, I just haven’t seen it used much. I love Expert Businessman for any of my Overcrush teams (and I have several). Father is great for any Sidekick/Ally based team because he can’t be the target of Globals on his burst side. They’re all fairly good in their own way and I’m sure folks can find at least one of these that they like. I want to throw a reminder out there for sacrifice – A sacrificed character will go to the Used Pile and not the Prep Area. I’m sure folks can find a way to use this to their advantage, but it’s something to keep in mind when playing Brilliant or Expert Businessman. They also require that you do it at the start of you turn, which is a specific timing and reduces the amount of shenanigans, but they’re still really good cards. Howard Stark could also find a place on a S.H.I.E.L.D. team. His costs are low and he’s a Mask character too. There are plenty of uses for Mask energy, even in Prime.

Rocket Powered Punches is really the only one of the Hulkbuster Iron Man cards that I like. I’m sure there are plenty of folks that like Model 36 for his ability to barrel through those cost six or higher characters, and Bustin’ Makes Me Feel Good’s ability to gain life from KO’ing a six or higher cost character die, but those are not my style. I prefer to Suit Up a cheap Iron Man into Rocket Powered Punches. It could really throw off your opponent’s game if they aren’t expecting it! I don’t think these cards are going to see much play in unlimited, but depending on the pilot, we might see some make an appearance into Prime.

Celestial Slayer is definitely my favorite of the three because it’s got the ability and Global of the other two versions in one card, but it rightfully cost one more to purchase. If you like just the ability or just the Global, you could get one of the other two for one less on the purchase cost. To use the Global, you don’t really need to purchase the die, so what would hurt to use Celestial Slayer instead of Earth X? I love cost reducers of all kinds, and the fielding cost on some of the Stark Industries dudes are kinda high. Spinning one dude down to decrease that fielding cost could be the difference between some wasted energy and being able to buy a cheaper dude. One energy can make a difference. I’m a little excited for future Marvel sets to see what new Stark Industries characters we get! You could definitely build a solid, casual Stark Industries team just form this starter, but the prospect of improvements is always exciting.

I like Version 2.0 because he’s a cheap Stark Industries character. Waldoes is too, but I’m not sure his Suit Up is all that useful. Spider-Man: “Public Menace!” is the only Spider-Man I can think of to use with Iron Spider: Waldoes. You could always use Iron Spider for itself. I’m not sure I like Waldoes at all. Hopefully we’ll end up with a better Spider-Man in the future that we could pair with him. For a Stark Industries team, I’d much rather use Version 2.0 though. Too Cool For Words, not Iceman, looks fun but he may be a little harder to maneuver as a four cost on a Stark Industries team. If there were other two or three cost Stark Industries characters, other than Rescue, I would definitely consider Too Cool For Words instead of Version 2.0. All of these Stark Industries characters make me excited to try this theme team out! Worth noting, Iron Spider is the name of this card, but the one in the Amazing Spider-Man set is Iron Spidey. That means you could use both, but Iron Spidey will not work for Suit Up.

Oh my! An Avengers Ally!!! This could be rather useful. I really like all of Jarvis’s cards, but Chief of Staff is probably my favorite, even with a purchase cost of five. I think he needed to be expensive though, because it’s not too hard to field a bunch of zero-low fielding cost characters and then drag the game out because you just gained a bazillion life. I’m glad his purchase cost is five, and it doesn’t mean he isn’t viable in certain formats, just that he’s got the right cost for his ability. I really like that Butler has that Global that we saw on Iron Manor, but if you’re using Jarvis with Avengers, it’s not going to be all that useful. I guess that’s why he has that direct damage ability on him that does ability damage to a character die equal to the number of character dice you fielded that turn – and it counts Jarvis, so you’re doing at least one damage. I think I like Loyal Confidant and Chief of Staff equally. It just depends on the team, really.

Mark 1616 is perfect if you need a cheap Stark Industries character, but she only has a max dice of two. Resilient and Catching a Jet are both awesome for using their Suit Up abilities with their other card abilities. You purchase a Rescue, KO a Rescue in the Field Zone (sending it to the Prep Area), and then field the purchased Rescue at level two. Next turn, I get to roll that Rescue that I just KO’d and hopefully get to use her other ability. I really like Resilient more than Catching a Jet, but they each have their place. I would likely use Resilient on Stark Industries team, or almost any Prime team. Her ability works whether she’s active or not… How good is that?! It’s similar to Rescue: Stark’s Equal from the Civil War set, just hurting and not healing. Too bad you can’t use both on one team.

Model 5 is a cheaper Suit Up character with the Stark Industries affiliation. No other frills, just Suit Up. He’s okay, but I like Deep Space and #14-C much more! I can’t decide which one I like better. I guess Deep Space would be my pick if I didn’t want to add a six cost character to my team, and he’s got some potential for life gain. #14-C has that possible KO avoidance and Overcrush on two sides.Such tough decisions with Space Armor Iron Man!!! I like two too many!

And yet another dilemma. I like all three of War Machine’s cards. I like Model II because he’s the cheapest and has Fast. I like “Rhodey” because he also has Fast, he has the additional ability to do direct damage to my opponent if he KO’s a character with combat damage, and he only costs one more to purchase. There are plenty of ways to boost an attack stat in Dice Masters, making this guy pretty good. I’d likely pick him over Model II, unless I just couldn’t put a four cost character on my team… But honestly – I usually have room for four cost characters. I also really like JRXL-1000, and not for his Suit Up. He’s Fast, and Sidekicks can’t block his level one side. You can always boost that attack stat to do more damage, and he only costs four to purchase.

Character Thoughts

I like lots of these characters, especially for a more casual setting. I think these are great characters for a new player to start with and build off of. There are lots of fun gimmicks and different types of abilities that make the game interesting. I think any player could enjoy building and using a Stark Industries team for any fun local event.

On the more competitive end, I think one or two characters might squeak into the unlimited and Prime formats, but overall, not many are going to find a place in the most competitive metas at this time.

I would still recommend purchasing at least one of these starters for some fun characters to build teams with. For a new player, I definitely recommend the starter for the characters, or even two starters for the max dice.

Basic Action Cards

This starter has some really interesting Basic Action Cards that are new to the starter, and it has some revamps of older Basic Actions Cards. If the characters weren’t enough to prove this starter is worth buying, hopefully these Actions will!

I’m not a fan of this card. Suit Up is too new and there are only ten cards with the keyword. I guess if you were playing in a semi-limited type format where players were supposed to use Iron Man and War Machine cards, then I could see someone possibly using it. This card is likely not going to be in the unlimited major meta or even Prime, unless Rescue finds a place, which I doubt too. One thing that I do like about this card is that it causes loss of life and not damage. That’s typically a big deal because you can’t effectively redirect or avoid it. Life loss is a mechanic you would need life gain to overcome.

Cone of Cold from Battle for Faerûn has been revamped! It needed it too. They updated the wording and for those that didn’t want Dungeons and Dragons Dice Masters, they now have access to this BAC. It’s a great way to spread the damage around, but if your opponent only has one character die and you have two, your dice are getting blasted too – unless that’s what you want. I like that both Cone of Cold cards say that you can’t use that action if there aren’t at least three character dice in the Field Zone. I like that Global for teams that use a force block ability as well. Overall, I like this card for both the Action and the Global. The revamping of the wording makes it much easier for newer players to understand.

Wow! What?! This card is so crazy. This Action Die hangs out in the Field Zone and slowly depletes each player’s life if they don’t attack. Hypervelocity causes loss of life and not damage, which is a great way to get damage across with minimal resistance. You have to keep an aggressive streak or you’ll start to lose life as well! It looks like action removal is going to be a major addition to many teams, because unless this is on one of the two burst sides, it’s not leaving! There isn’t a ton of action hate in Prime – if any… so watch out for this in Prime. Folks may be adding some life gain cards to their team to help balance that loss of life.

Here is yet another great direct damage card. This card is ability damage and not loss of life, so any abilities to reduce, alter, redirect, etc are viable for folks to use against this ability. I still really like this card for some of the Prime Storm: Extra Lightning teams floating around. It’s not a huge deal if your opponent doesn’t field many characters because it’s still going to do a minimum of two damage. It’s a little expensive to purchase against a team that doesn’t look like it’s going to be putting dudes in the Field Zone though.

Here we have a revamp of Smash! from AvX. They have updated the wording on this card as well. I love seeing these older BACs being revamped. This makes them available for Prime, and also more easily accessible for new players. I’m not big on using Smash! for the action, but the Global is great against Overcrush. If Turtle Van isn’t your style, you can always go for Smash! if Overcrush is a problem you’re running into.

This is a revamp of Surprise Attack from Age of Ultron. This is another card with updated wording that definitely reads better than it’s AoU version. I haven’t used this card a lot in the past (if at all…), and I guess this is an okay BAC, but there are definitely better ones out there. I’m still not a fan of this particular card, but even so, glad they revamped it for newer players!

Upgrade BACs

The last four BACs in the starter are all called Upgrades and each have a specialization. They all cost two energy and they each have a risk/reward for using them on specific energy type characters. I like this idea a lot and I can’t wait to try some of these on some Prime teams! These also make for great limited additions when you can’t decide what to use and you don’t want to bring Power Bolt because your opponent may want to buy it too. I also really like that they called them all Upgrade – Specialization. That leaves room for them to make different BACs that have a name like Smokescreen that’s different from Upgrade – Smokescreen.

Upgrade – Fortification
The name sounds stout and sturdy, like a character with Iron Will. When you use this action, your character will gain Iron Will. The risk to doing this is that you will lose two life if that character is not a Shield energy type. It’s a risk vs reward type of card, so if you want your Gorilla Grodd to have Iron Will, it’ll cost you two life. And since it’s loss of life, you can’t get around it as easily without life gain. I like this Upgrade because you don’t typically see Iron Will on any team. There are several characters with Iron Will, but they just aren’t worth playing in a competitive meta. I think this Basic Action may make Iron Will a more usable keyword.

Upgrade – Proton Cannon
Wow, that sounds like it could shoot thru anything, like a character with Overcrush. This Upgrade will give one of your characters Overcrush, but if they aren’t a Fist type character, they get KO’d at the end of the turn. This is another risk vs reward, but for certain teams, that risk may actually be the reward. I think Lady Bullseye: Attack on Two Fronts just got a a Proton Cannon attached to her.

Upgrade – Smokescreen
This Upgrade sounds like something a ninja would use to sneak away or sneak around a bunch of folks. When you use Smokescreen on a character die, that die gets +1A. If it’s a Mask type character die, it can’t be blocked. So there isn’t a risk on this Upgrade because you get the +1A no matter what. You benefit more if it’s a Mask type character die that you use it on. I can think of a few Mask type characters that would great to pair this with.

Upgrade – Unibeam
And lastly, the Unibeam. It sounds like something a character would use on a more focused attack, maybe to take someone out before they had a chance to do anything to them. When you use Unibeam on a character die, it gets +2A – not too shabby for a two cost action. But if that character die is a Bolt type, it gains the Fast keyword. That sounds about right for a Unibeam! So like Smokescreen, no real risk, just an even better reward for using it with a Bolt type character die.

BAC Overview

There are quite a few new BACs that I really like, mainly the Upgrades, but a few others too. I like the assortment of abilities on the BACs, and I’m really digging the increased use of loss of life instead of just throwing damage in there. With the increase in abilities that use loss of life or paying life mechanics, we might actually see an increase in the use of cards that have life gain. Hypervelocity is definitely my favorite of all the Basic Action Cards and I can’t wait to start building around it!

Action Reminder Cards

There’s nothing super special about the reminder cards. They’re Cyan, Orange, Pink, and Gray.

Dice Bags

I most definitely like the artwork bags more than the plain colored bags. I like to collect these bags too.

Starter Dice

Sidekick and Action Dice

You get a pretty standard assortment of Sidekick Dice and Action Dice.

Character Dice

You only get two of each character die in the starter. If you’re wanting to put three or four dice on a particular character, you will need to buy a second starter (or trade, exchange, etc.). It’s never a bad thing to have duplicates of the character cards and BACs.

Final Thoughts

The only negative thing I have to discuss about the starter is the number of character dice. I’m not sure if WizKids is entertaining other options or not, but I would like to see this changed in the future. I would be okay with certain characters only having a max dice of two while most of them have a max dice of four, and then changing the packaging to accommodate the extra dice. The TMNT characters have a max dice of three… but a box big enough to hold more than four of each. I’d pay five more dollars just to get max dice with my characters. If Mr. DDK and I both want to use Howard Stark with max dice, we will have to buy four starters… Maybe releasing the starters in the big box format, like the TMNT boxes, would be a solution to the max dice issue because they would have plenty of room for the dice. They could keep a lot of the characters as a max dice of four, and reduce some of the more expensive characters to max of two and put the max dice for each character in the box. I have never found a moment that I wished I had three Splinter, Shredder, or Krang dice… they could have easily been a max of two to allow for a fourth die on the cheaper dudes, like the Foot Ninjas. Maybe this is something WizKids can look into doing? I’d rather buy two big box releases, like TMNT, than four starters to accommodate two players.

I really do like the starter contents though. I like how fun and easy the characters are to use and understand. I love the new and revamped BACs. I really hope they continue to make different ‘Upgrade’ styled cards for BACs. Those fit very thematically in the starter and all of them have fun and interesting abilities, especially for a draft team! I love the idea of a Stark Industries themed team and can’t wait to build it and play it – after I buy a second starter for the additional dice I need. I like the Suit Up ability too, but I hope they continue it and add more of the needed characters with abilities that will have better synergy. It’s still a fun and unique ability to play around with and I plan to use Rescue and her Suit Up in my Stark Industries team.

This is a great starting place for a new player. You can add a Team Pack to the starter and roll with it!

What are your favorite cards?
What cards do you think will make it into the unlimited or Prime metas?
Leave me a comment here or message me on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty and thanks for reading!

Special thanks to WizKids and The Reserve Pool for the use of their sites.

Roll on, Dice Masters!

 

Confusing Card of the Week #75 – Renet Tilley: 79th Dimension of Null-Time

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

For this week’s confusing card of the week article, we’re going to take a look at the Renet Tilley: 79th Dimension of Null-Time from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Heroes in a Half Shell box set.

Ruling – Ability

Renet Tilley has a While Active ability. A While Active ability is one that works regardless of how many of the character’s dice are in the Field Zone. While Active abilities are like a light – it’s either on, or it’s off.

Renet Tilley’s ability lets you spin an action die that’s on an action face to any other side, but only right after you complete your Roll and Reroll Step and before you begin your Main Step. The action die must be on a non-energy face for you to be able to use her ability for that die. You can spin the die to any energy face or any action face.

Miscellaneous Card Information

~ Renet Tilley is a Bolt Character.
~ She does not have an affiliation.
~ She has a max dice of three.
~ This card is a Common and is #35 of 58.

If you purchase either of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Box Sets, you will have one copy of each card in the entire set, as well as the maximum number of dice for each card.

Examples

These examples are for information purposes only, to show what would happen in certain scenarios. I am not suggesting that these examples are the best outcomes for each scenario and each example only features relevant parts of the turn, not the entire turn.

Example One:
Using Renet Tilley for one Action Die.

~ I have one level one Renet Tilley in the Field Zone.
~ (Clear and Draw Step) I draw four dice from my bag. I draw two Captain Cold’s Cold Gun action dice and two Sidekick dice.
~ (Roll and Reroll Step) I roll my four dice and they land on two Wild energy, one Cold Gun on an action face with no bursts, and one Cold Gun showing its single generic energy side. I choose to reroll the Cold Gun on the energy face and it lands on the same single generic energy face.
~ (Roll and Reroll Step) If I want to use Renet Tilley, I must do so now before I begin my Main Step. I choose to spin my Cold Gun on the action face to an energy face with the Bolt and Fist energy. I could have used her ability to spin it to an action face with bursts or even the single energy face, but I want the Bolt/Fist energy this turn instead.
~ (Main Step) I now begin my main step.

Official Sources

WizKids Official Rules Forum (WORF) does not have a ruling for this specific card.

Turn Order Summary Reference

Unlimited Competitive Play Rating

I could see her being a useful rogue level card. There are not many action cards that benefit from a burst ability in the unlimited meta, but Cold Gun is definitely the biggest one. She can be useful in getting energy from a die that rolled an action face that you didn’t want an action for in that particular turn. In an unlimited setting, she is a good card, but I don’t think she’s that good to make a huge splash in the major meta. There are too many ways to get rid of her – easily. Her defense stats make her an easy target for the Magic Missile/Unstable Canister burn Global (or even the action ability). I think the most useful spot she can find is on a Bolt Ring team variant. She can spin those Kryptonite action faces over to bolt faces to help boost your damage. She does make for an easy DWiz distraction if your opponent is worried about you benefiting too much from her ability which could keep some of your other major pieces safe from the DWiz. But overall, I don’t think she’ll be as useful as some players have thought, and mainly because I think some folks have misread her ability. She doesn’t spin energy faces to action faces, which definitely would have made her over powered.

Renet Tilley: 79th Dimension of Null-Time gets a rating of three out of five stars.

Prime Play Rating

As far as Prime goes, the limited ramp and churn options make Renet Tilley a little more valuable. You don’t have to worry about a whiffed energy roll on an action die, or you could easily spin that Momentum to it’s double burst from its other action face. I think we’ll see her a lot more in Prime than unlimited. There are definitely less threats out there for direct removal in Prime too. A Cold Gun would KO her on any side because of her low defense, so she makes for a great no-burst Cold Gun target. I really like this card for Prime and I think we’ll see a lot of her in this format.

Renet Tilley: 79th Dimension of Null-Time gets a Prime rating of four out of five stars.

Casual Play Rating

I love how easy this card is to understand for a new player. The ability is worded well and there isn’t a lot of room for confusion. This is one of the many awesome cards in the newest TMNT box. That box is truly a comprehensive box of goodness and I will be recommending it to every new player! I’m really happy that the characters in this box are easy for beginners to understand and use, including this Renet Tilley. A new player will benefit from using this character because she’s not one that they would want to attack with, teaching newer players about the benefit of leaving your character active instead of attacking. I definitely recommend this card and the Heroes in a Half Shell box set for every player out there!

Renet Tilley: 79th Dimension of Null-Time gets a casual play rating of five out of five stars.

Opinions on this card? Leave a comment!
Is there a card your confused on?
Is there a combo that seems too good to be true?
Leave me a comment here or message me on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty and thanks for reading!

Special thanks to The Reserve Pool for the use of their site.

Roll on, Dice Masters!

Tournament Report! February 11, 2017 – WizKids Open Winter Regional

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

I’ve just had the greatest weekend of Dice Masters! I went to this WKO with the intention of playing a non-meta win condition and just having fun with it. I wanted to focus mainly on chatting with old friends, making new ones, and trying to make the experience fun for everyone. I hope that everyone else had as much fun as I did!

I also want to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day! Spread the love!

My Team

You can find my team here, on DM Retrobox.

I changed my mind about Grodd – I’m a woman, and therefore change my mind frequently and for no reason at all sometimes. I had been test playing this team as well as Grodd and was really liking Grodd, but in the end, I’m glad I decided to play my competitive version of Gandhi instead.

This team earned a new nickname from a friend this weekend – Hugs. My win condition is Colossus. His ability allows each character die of level two or higher to deal two damage my opponent at the end of my turn. The idea was to field dudes and keep them there if possible and spin them with the Poly Global when I needed to. Poly was there as a potential purchase to help me get dudes into the field or get opposing dudes out of the field. Blink was a crucial piece to help me survive unblocked attackers or bring my taunted level 2-3 characters back to the field.

The rest of the pieces are either utility to help me get to Colossus or meta control pieces. Blue-Eyes and PXG were a must for Colossus to even get going. Elf Thief was an easy pick for the team because he costs two and if my opponent was using Rip Hunter’s Chalkboard Global, I could Rip a Thief on turn one for some early game momentum. Oracle was another easy choice. She is supposed to chill in the field and tax my opponent when they use a Global. Scarecrow was a card I added through test playing. I test played against Bard variants and decided that this Scarecrow was the best piece to add for what I thought would be a predominant piece on other teams. Cold Gun was a really easy choice over Dwarf Wizard. I’m so sorry, my poor DWiz… I loved you so, but in all my test playing with Mr. DDK, I ran into many problems with losing my DWiz to his Cold Gun and Imprisoned. I ultimately decided that an action die would give me more versatility than a character.

For my final card, I had a difficult time choosing. I didn’t know what to add to my team to help it or what I could add to slow my opponent to more my speed. There were a few options that I ran through. One of the options was RareCrow (Scarecrow: Hallucinogenic Vapors), but that would mean I would have to take off Scarecrow: Legion of Doom and I wasn’t willing to sacrifice him. Another option was Rip, just on the off chance my opponent didn’t bring it. There were loads of other options, but none of them seemed better than Rip. I don’t like Bard so he wasn’t even considered. I’m not a fan of Hellblazer, but I did consider him at one point. I decided to test play what I had, with Rip as my eighth card, against some Ring variants. I had way too much trouble with them, so I started digging for a possible response. Ronin came up as an option and I just wasn’t feeling the flow with him on my team. Then, like a glorious ray of sunshine, beaming through the clouds onto a field of pink and purple flowers, I remembered Lex Luthor.

I love my Grodd team and I want to play it in something big, but when the universe tells me to play something else, I listen. I always go with what I feel is right and Colossus just seemed right. I had test played both teams for a while and did all my adjusting to both teams while mulling over which to play. Grodd was a shiny new toy for me, but I’m glad I went with the team I first started working on.

Round One

Lauren H. was my first round opponent. Apologies for the glare on that gorgeous full art Joker. When I sat down across from Lauren, I was so happy to see her playing a team with a rogue win condition. I have so much fun against fellow players that use something outside the box. Her team was really fast compared to mine, and before I knew it, Angels with Helicarriers were smacking me in the face for double their attack. I think the highlight of the match was seeing two unblockable level two-three Angels with Helicarriers flying at my face while Nick Fury was active. Each of those Angels would have hit me for twelve damage. And seeing her team function like that was amazing, and absolutely a highlight.

I only survived the aerial onslaught because of Blink, which allowed me to push both of her attackers back. I had an Oracle and a Scarecrow in the Field Zone with Colossus, and Scarecrow was stopping her lower level Angel from attacking. She had her Invulnerability Global to increase their attacks in order to get around Scarecrow, but I kept energy handy each turn for Blink. She had hit me for quite a bit with a couple of Angels before I got my Scarecrow in the Field, and if not for Blink, she would have very likely defeated me. She played an excellent game and I couldn’t have asked for a better opponent for my first round. Lauren is a beautiful person and really fun to play against. I hope to see her again at a future event! Many hugs to my new friend!

Record after Round One: 1-0-0

Round Two

I got to play against Dennis B. in round two. I’ve seen him in the Facebook groups plenty and was excited to be playing against him! He was playing some characters that I’ve been tinkering with as well, Katana being one of them. I loved that he was using Superhero Registration Act – I think it’s a highly underrated card. But then I saw his Betrayal and Iron Fist. Both are not nice against my team. I wasn’t sure which way this match was going to go, but I was determined to have fun either way. Playing against someone as nice as Dennis, it’s easy to have fun and enjoy the match. I got super lucky and had really good rolls, while Mr. Dennis was not as lucky. He attacked me with Tsarina and Iron Fist, knocking my life down quite a bit, but then his characters weren’t being nice to him. I was able to get set up before he could get anything going for him. He needed to get a Hulk, or at the very least a Nightwing, to help clear my dudes out of my field.

I had fun, but it would have been more fun if his dice had been nice and rolled halfway decent for him. I get that it’s a dice game, but Tsarina is the meanest die out there. When she’s on a two fist side and I reroll her hoping for a character, she always comes back up as energy – usually a single fist. I watched that very thing happen to Mr. Dennis and I was heartbroken for him. I still enjoyed chatting with Mr. Dennis, who is super nice and a very good sport. I almost cry when Tsarina does that to me, but he took it in stride and pushed on in our match. He did the best he could with what his dice gave him. I really want to play against Mr. Dennis again one day because he’s such a pleasant person to chat and play with, which makes the game that much more fun.

Record after Round Two: 2-0-0

Round Three

I faced off against Craig R. in round three. He was playing a Bard variant, which I knew I would have some trouble against. We both had average rolls, with the exception of his Imprisoned die. It did not want to roll up an action face for most of the game. I was able to slowly chip away at his life total with Colossus until he finally got his die to roll on the side he wanted. He then scooped up most of my field, leaving me with only two blockers against a Bard army. When he attacked, he wasn’t able to deal lethal damage to me, which returned my characters to me from Imprisoned. I was able to get my Colossus, Oracle, and Scarecrow back into the field and all of them were level two or higher. This put his life total at six. I realized I didn’t have enough Cold Gun dice to stop all the Bards he had and I thought I was done for because of the massive army that was going to be attacking me next turn. I had forgotten my Scarecrow had returned to the field which would prevent all of his characters from attacking. He had a Dwarf Wizard in the field that had my Oracle blanked. We were about to sign match slips when a spectator pointed out that he couldn’t legally attack and KO me if my Scarecrow wasn’t blanked. We realized our mistake and continued our match.

I felt like the most horrible person in the world at this point, and I told Craig that if he didn’t win, I was going to feel even worse. He used the energy he had in his Reserve Pool and KO’d his Wizard in an attempt to roll and blank Scarecrow on his next turn. He also had an Imprisoned die to roll that turn too. He had to get his Imprisoned die in order to secure his victory, but it didn’t roll for him. He could have used his Wizard, but I could use my Cold Gun when priority was passed to me and KO or blank the Wizard. I was not happy about this victory at all. I felt so awful about it, and I still feel a little bad about it – even now. Craig was a real gentleman and very polite about the situation which I know couldn’t have been easy for someone that was trying very hard to qualify for Nationals. We did get to play again later – which definitely was more fun.

This was the army that was staring me in the face. It’s missing the Dwarf Wizard because this was taken after the match was officially over. I will discuss my opinion on Bard’s ability later, but all of these characters would have had a +12 to their attack and defense if those Bards had been able to attack.

I’m just glad that Craig did well and made it into the semi finals. He was a great player and I’m happy to have had the opportunity to play against him multiple times in this event.

Record after Round Three: 3-0-0

Round Four

I was so very excited to play against my fourth round opponent and she tried to make me feel better about what happened in my previous round. I’ve had plenty of conversations in Facebook groups with Michaela K. I loved the episode of TRP’s podcast where she was interviewed and was also a guest host. I heard she was making the trek to Owensboro and I couldn’t wait to meet her! I was lucky enough to get to play against her, even though I knew exactly what was going to happen when I saw that she was playing Beholder. Beholder was the biggest weakness for both Colossus and my Grodd team because I couldn’t tech for Beholder on either team without compromising my team. But Michaela is a great player and pretty much as nice as I expected! Our match didn’t go very long before she blew me up with Beholder and Front Lined Kobolds and Sidekicks. I did what I could, but it wasn’t much. A slow control team like mine does not stand a chance without RareCrow or an action tech like End of Days or Oppression Begins. But I couldn’t risk swapping one Scarecrow for another and even though I lost to Michaela, I think I made the right call in the end. My Scarecrow was way more beneficial in my other matches than RareCrow would have been. I don’t mind losing to a player like Michaela, especially since she was playing such a strong team. I’m still super excited to have met her and I definitely can’t wait to meet up with her again at a future event. Even if we don’t get to play against each other at the next event we’re at, it’ll be awesome just to chat with her again!

Congratulations to Michaela on her Top Eight finish!

She has her tournament report up on The Reserve Pool, which you can find, here. I love seeing multiple reports from the same event because it gives players a multi-perspective view of a single event. Please be sure to check out her article as well. I always enjoy reading her work.

Record after Round Three: 3-1-0

Round Five

Something pretty amazing happened in the fifth round. I got paired against the same fifth round opponent that I had last year! Josh K. is a super cool guy with a really nifty playmat. Josh and I had fun last year and this year was more fun. I was happy to see him playing another rogue team this year, and that Bard is not the nasty Bard, it’s Half-Elf Bard: Apprentice Order of the Gauntlet. Travis (Mr. DDK) and I like this particular version of Bard, so to see someone playing it at an event of this level made me very happy. It was even more awesome that Josh was playing it! He has a way with rogue teams and if you aren’t careful, he can have you KO’d before you know it. I was being careful and he still Magic Missiled me and attacked me Angels enough that before I knew it, I was at three life! Scarecrow saved me a lot in this game by keeping level one Angels from attacking me. I was using Polymorph to swap his level two-three Angels out with other Angel dice, putting them in at level one. He used his Enrage Global to boost their attack so he could attack with them. Poly-Global is great to use with Elf Thief dice and then feed them to Blue-Eyes, or attack with them, just to see if they get through. This was the only match that I remember attacking in, and if I hadn’t attacked those few times, the outcome would have definitely been different. Luck was on my side again in this match. He had rolled all three Magic Missile dice, got two of them on an action face, but he needed all three of them to secure a victory. With me at next-to-no life, and him sitting in single digits as well, I only needed to end my next turn. Using Poly Global on Thief dice and then cycling them is what helped me get my lower level characters up to Colossus range. I even used Poly Global on my level three Colossus to spin another level one character up, just to push that additional two damage. I ran the risk of him being easier to KO by doing that, but it was the right call.

I was so excited to see Josh and the other players from Indianapolis. They are a great bunch of folks and they’re always fun to play with. I look forward to playing against Josh again in the future and I can’t wait to see what uniquely awesome team he brings nest time!

Congratulations to Josh on his Top Eight finish! Josh finished Top Eight last year as well at Owensboro. I’m rooting for him to finish Top Four or better next year!

Record after Round Three: 4-1-0
Top Eight Seed – 3rd

Top Eight

I couldn’t have been happier to see that Craig and I would be playing each other in our top eight match. I really wanted to play against him again, and we took special care to pay attention to all of our dice in these matches – lesson learned! I had some pretty terrible rolls, but Craig’s Imprisoned die continued to roll bad. His victories were relatively quick, even with the bad rolls on both sides. I couldn’t keep a character in the Field after he got one of his Imprisoned dice to roll an action face, which left me completely vulnerable to attack. His Bards made quick work of me in both games. We had much more fun in these matches. It didn’t feel as stressful and we just cut up with each other most of the time as we were more carefree and just happy to be in top eight. We both earned our foil, alt-art The Front Line and foil Big Entrance from making it to the top eight. The Big Entrance was the one card that I wanted really bad from this event because I use Big Entrance on lots of my teams.

I was so very proud of my team for doing so well for me. I was so very proud of Craig too, because he was trying so hard to get his Nationals qualification. There were going to be three qualifications given out from this event, meaning three of the top four players would qualify. As the matches around us finished, we realized that one of the top four already had his qualification, meaning all of top four would be qualified for Nationals! This was super exciting and I was so very happy for Craig. He fought his way up and earned his qualification.

It was a pleasure to play against Craig, and I’m so glad that he got his qualification from this event. He finished in the Top Four and I know how much it meant to him to achieve that goal. I’m also happy to have made a new friend in Craig as well as the other folks from St. Louis! They’re a great bunch of folks and also really great to play against.

Congratulations again to Craig on his Top Four finish, as well as his Nationals Qualification! He absolutely deserves that qualification.

Final Standing in Top Eight – 8th

Final Thoughts

So, I set out to use a crazy rogue win condition, play some Dice Masters, and write about the folks I played against. I think I accomplished that. I had so much more fun this year than I did last year. It felt like there was no passage of time as my friends were arriving and greeting me. You can’t get that warm, fuzzy feeling in any other competitive gaming community. I’ve been around a lot of those other scenes and none of them can even compare to Dice Masters. I got to play against an old friend from last year and lots of new folks. My opponents are no longer opponents – I call them friends. I’ve never seen a community of players like this and it makes my heart swell with joy. I also feel like I picked the best possible team to play. Colossus is definitely all Hugs. My buddy Joe said that I was playing Ponies without using Pony characters. I didn’t realize it until he pointed it out, but he’s totally right. My team matched that awesome MLP playmat! Lots of folks were commenting on how cool and unique it was and I totally have Mr. Glen to thank for that (Review article, here).

Now the world is not all full of sunshine and rainbows, though I wish it was. I have never been so upset in a match as I was in round three against Craig R. He was a really good sport about it and he was upset as well, but I think for different reasons. It really didn’t make me feel good to win that round and when I realized that I was going to win, I couldn’t hold back the tears. I’m super sensitive and wear my heart on my sleeve. But got to match back up in top eight and that was much more fun. So it all worked out in the end and I felt much better about it all after Craig defeated me in top eight.

As far as the meta goes, I didn’t go there with a meta team. Yes, I had meta control pieces, but my win condition is so far from the meta that lots of folks don’t know that card exists. I play different and unique win conditions in order to give those cards a chance to shine, even if every round is a loss, those cards were used and loved for a time. I didn’t go to win – I went to have fun. I feel like everyone should go with that mindset. We drove about three and a half hours, paid $15 entry fees, and had zero expectations about winning. The focus was completely on the fun for me. But Travis and I have discussed the state of the meta for hours upon hours with each other and our locals. We all dislike Bard, with a great passion. Bard should not have the ability it does for a character that only cost four to purchase. We hope they’ll errata the card to a While Active effect, so it won’t stack, but still be a very viable meta piece. If they don’t then I hope they errata it to something to keep it from being too overpowered. Bard’s ability to stack its buffs is just too much. As you saw in my picture above, Craig R. had a +12A/+12D buff to EACH character die. That was an impressive army he going. I just think Bard has too much power and not enough responsibility and he needs to be taught how to be responsible!

I didn’t have room for a Beholder tech, and if there had been a flood of Beholder teams, I would’ve been losing each match for sure. It was a risk I took, mainly because if I had to face a bunch of Beholder teams, I wanted it to be over quickly and not drawn out. I did put it out there on my Facebook that Beholder was my weak spot, but I honestly thought I’d see more Ring variants. I didn’t play against a single Ring team, but I know there were some there. I put a very specific card on my team to help me against Ring teams. Because of how specific Lex Luthor’s ability is, he was of no use to me the entire tournament. I basically played with a seven card team the entire tournament. But that’s part of the risk you run when you’re building and don’t know what the meta will look like at a particular venue. Cold Gun could have been useful against Beholder, but it’s not always the easiest thing to buy and you need them cycling consistently to keep yourself alive against Beholder.

The top eight at Owensboro consisted of my team, Josh K.’s rogue team with Protection Bard, Beholder/Imprisoned, a Mask Ring team, and four Bard variants. I’m happy that we only had four Bard variants in the top eight, but that quickly became the Bard top four slugfest. I’m totally not disappointed that I didn’t make it further, as I didn’t expect to do anywhere near as well as I did. But I thought at least one of the other non-Bard (I’m including Josh’s team as a non-Bard team) teams would make it. I’m proud of all the players in this event. They all played the best they could and I hope that everyone had fun. I didn’t have to try too hard to have fun because everyone was fun to be around!

I know how much it killed Travis’s soul to play with Poly-Venom Bard. He didn’t want to play it, but he wanted to do well and he felt that his Bard variant would get him at least into top eight. He ended up finishing second, losing to Mr. Craig H., in an epic defeat that made the entire crowd erupt into a huge uproar of excitement! They each had won one game and time had been called after they finished their second game and before they had begun their third game. They had to start their third game in turns. I wasn’t watching the game too closely because I always get so nervous when Travis is playing and I don’t want to make him nervous! I did watch the final turns of the match and saw where Travis had a lead on life (by one!) and Mr. Craig H. needed at least two Sidekicks to secure a victory. He rerolled three of his Sidekicks that were showing energy and two of them hit a Sidekick face! Travis jumped up cheering along with all the spectators! Mr. Craig has visited us in Dyersburg before and so Travis and I were thrilled that he won the event! Travis said that it wasn’t really a loss a for him because a friend won, and I couldn’t agree more. There were many hugs between the two of them, cheers, and lots of congratulations going around to everyone for a well-played tournament. Travis and Mr. Craig H. earned their Nationals qualifications in the top four alongside Craig R.

Travis did tell me that RareCrow was his MVP for most of the event, so I bet the KO King from Double Burst will be tickled to hear that!

Big Bang is a stand up venue with the most amazing Tournament Organizer, Mr. Jason A. Cory C. was a wonderful judge and they deserve some super kudos for rocking this event like pros. The event ran smoothly and quickly with a break after round three for lunch. All the players were prompt in finding their seats and everyone seemed to be having a great time. We had 22 players and most of the teams were either rogue or variants of meta teams with a personal tweak. The other employees at Big Bang are always helpful and very patient with folks. Thank you Big Bang for having a copy of IvX #1 for me to pick up! Our store is still waiting for our copies that were short from our order… One of the employees got down into the comic boxes with me, trying to help me find a copy of Uncanny Inhumans #6 (I still can’t seem to find it anywhere – besides online). Great store and great tournament location!

Congratulations again to all those that got their Nationals qualifications!

What have you built or seen that looked like fun to play?
What was one of your highlights from a match?
Leave me a comment here or on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty and thanks for reading!

Roll on, Dice Masters!