Confusing Card of the Week #106 – Agent Venom: Losing Control

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

For this week’s confusing card of the week article, we’re going to take a look at Agent Venom: Losing Control from the Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy set.

Ruling – Call Out Ability

“When a character die with Call Out attacks, you target an opposing character die. The targeted die can only legally block the attacking die that used Call Out on it, and no other die can legally blocked the die that used Call Out. If the die that used Call Out cannot legally be blocked for any reason (an effect made it unblockable, two different dice chose the same target for their Call Out, the die targeted with Call Out was KO’d, etc.) then the effect of Call Out is cancelled.”

The Call Out ability will trigger automatically when the die with Call Out attacks. This ability is not optional because it does not say you ‘may’ target an opposing character die. Each die with Call Out will trigger the Call Out ability when it attacks, even if the dice are the same character. For example, I attack with an Agent Venom die and that die’s Call Out ability triggers. I attack with a second Agent Venom die and Call Out triggers again. Each die should target a different opposing die, or the effects will be cancelled.

Call Out is an ability that targets. If a character is not eligible to be targeted, you cannot target it for Call Out. For example, Raven: Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos! says “While Raven is active, your Mask Type and Teen Titan affiliated characters cannot be targeted by your opponents.” If my opponent has a Mask type character, a Sidekick, and Raven active, I cannot use the Call Out ability on any of their characters, except for the Sidekick die.

When you use Call Out on an opposing character die, the die you targeted is the only die that can block the character that used Call Out on it. None of the remaining opposing character dice can block the die that used Call Out. The die that is targeted for a Call Out ability can’t block any other attackers on that turn. For example, if I use Agent Venom’s Call Out on a Sidekick die, that is the only die that can block Agent Venom. Even if my opponent has four other character dice in the Field Zone, only that one Sidekick die that Agent Venom targeted can block him. And that same Sidekick die can’t block any of my other attacking dice.

A character die that’s been targeted by Call Out is not required to block, but if it does block, it can only block the die that targeted it with Call Out.

If the die that used Call Out is unblockable, the Call Out ability is cancelled and the die that was targeted for the Call Out ability can then choose to block a different attacking character die.

If the die that was targeted by Call Out is KO’d or removed before blockers are assigned, the effect is cancelled and the die that used Call Out can be blocked by other character dice that turn. For example, if I use Agent Venom’s Call Out to target a Sidekick die, but another character’s When Attacks ability deals damage to the Sidekick and KO’s it, my Agent Venom’s Call Out is cancelled and he can be blocked by other character dice as normal this turn.

If two dice use Call Out on the same opposing die, the effect of Call Out is cancelled and the opposing dice can choose to block as normal.

Ruling – Ability

Agent Venom has an additional effect on his card that says he can’t be KO’d the turn he uses Call Out, but only if he targets a Villain with his Call Out ability.

The Villain affiliation has two different affiliation icons. One is a red Hydra logo, commonly found in Marvel sets. The other is a stylized V, commonly found in DC sets and the TMNT sets. There have been Marvel sets that featured the V on their Villain cards.

   

Both of these symbols have the exact same meaning and are interchangeable. If a card has the Hydra icon in the text box, like Agent Venom, it applies to characters with the V icon as well.

If Agent Venom uses Call Out to target a Villain die, that die that used Call Out can’t be KO’d by combat damage, ability damage, or any other effect that says “KO”. The targeted die must have the Villain affiliation at the time it’s targeted. If the die gains the Villain affiliation later in the same turn, Agent Venom can still be KO’d because the targeted die was not a Villain at the time it was targeted. For example, when Agent Venom attacks, he targets a Sidekick die with Call Out. Blockers are assigned and then during the Actions and Globals portion of the Attack Step, I use a Global to give that same Sidekick the Villain affiliation. Agent Venom can still be KO’d this turn, because the Sidekick was not a Villain at the time Agent Venom targeted it with Call Out.

If Agent Venom’s Call Out effect is cancelled, he still gets the benefit of his second ability, as long as the die he targeted was a Villain. His ability only requires that he target a Villain with Call Out and not that the Call Out effect remains on the targeted die. For example, I attack with two Agent Venom dice. The first Agent Venom targets an opposing Villain die. The second Agent Venom die targets the same opposing Villain die. Both Call Out abilities are cancelled and both Agent Venom dice can be blocked by any opposing character die, but neither Agent Venom die can be KO’d this turn because they each targeted a Villain with their Call Out ability.

If the Villain that was targeted by Agent Venom’s Call Out blocks, Agent Venom will deal his attack value in combat damage to the blocker. He will also take damage from the Villain, but regardless of how much damage he has accumulated, he won’t be KO’d.

Miscellaneous Card Information

~ Agent Venom is a Mask type character card.
~ He has the Guardians of the Galaxy affiliation.
~ He has a max dice of four.
~ This card is an Common and is #2 of 124.

Official Sources

WizKids Official Rules Forum (WORF)
There isn’t a ruling for this specific card.

You can find the cross IP compatibility wording, here.
You can find more info about specific Keywords on the WizKids Keywords page.

Turn Order Summary Reference

Strategy and Opinion

I had a chance to use this card in our draft, but because there were so few Villains being played, I never used his second ability. I think he could possibly have a spot on a few teams out there in the casual scene. I’m not sure just how good he’ll be in competitive metas though. His stats are good and his purchase cost is okay, but I’m not sure Villains are that much of a nuisance yet to bring something like this. They reused the Civil War Venom die, which I find very amusing. Agent Venom seems to get the Venom hand-me-downs as far as dice icons go.

I really like this card for a casual Guardians team. My old GotG team had trouble against Villains, but with an ability like this, it helps to clear out some of those more troublesome Villains without risking the loss of one of your pieces. If there were more Villains in the GotG set, this guy would be a bomb in drafts!

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!

Need to look up a card? Be sure to check out DM RetroBox! It’s the best searchable card database I’ve found for when I’m at the computer.

Roll on, Dice Masters!

Confusing Card of the Week #102 – Colossus: Armored Up

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

For this week’s confusing card of the week article, we’re going to take a look at Colossus: Armored Up from the Marvel Deadpool set.

Ruling – Ability

Colossus has a When Attacks ability. This type of ability will trigger only when the character’s die is assigned as an attacker and will also trigger from each of that character’s attacking dice. For example: I attack with two Colossus dice. Each die trigger’s the When Attacks ability.

Colossus’s ability says that when his die attacks, any character that would be assigned to block, must first take two damage.

This ability has a very odd timing window in regards to how the Attack Step works. In the Attack Step, you assign your attackers first and after each attacker has been assigned, any When Attacks abilities will trigger. This is where Colossus’s ability will trigger. However, the damage will not be dealt at this time.

After assigning attackers, blockers are assigned. Because of Colossus’s ability, before a character die can be assigned to block, it must first take two damage. The defending player will choose a character die that they want to assign as a blocker, but before assigning that die, it’s dealt two damage. If the die survives the two damage, the defending player can then assign it to an attacking character die as a blocker.

Damage accumulates on character dice and when they have accumulated damage equal to or greater than their defense, the die is KO’d. Damage does not reduce the character die’s defense value.

Colossus’s ability does not target and it does not deal damage to all dice in the Field Zone. It only affects a die that would be assigned as a blocker – not dice that could be assigned as blockers.

Colossus’s ability is not optional. It automatically triggers when he attacks and will automatically affect any die that would later be assigned as a blocker.

Colossus’s damage will happen before the blocker can be assigned. When Blocks abilities will not trigger until the character that’s being assigned to block has survived the damage from Colossus and is then assigned as a blocker.

Character dice that are being assigned as blockers do not need to block Colossus specifically. His ability says it affects any character die that would be assigned to block – meaning his ability would affect a die that is being assigned to block any attacking character die.

Miscellaneous Card Information

~ Colossus is a Fist type character card.
~ He has the X-Men affiliation.
~ He has a max dice of four.
~ This card is a Rare and is #89 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:
Attacking with two Colossus dice.

Game State
~ I have two level one Colossus dice (5A/5D) in the Field Zone.
~ My opponent has a Sidekick and a level two character with 1A/6D in the Field Zone.
~ I am entering into my Attack Step.
(Attack Step – Assign Attackers)
~ I assign my two Colossus dice to attack, moving them into the Attack Zone.
~ Colossus’ When Attacks ability is triggered. Damage is not done to any dice yet.
(Attack Step – Assign Blockers)
~ My opponent chooses to block with their Sidekick and their other character die, but before they can be assigned as blockers, they must each take two damage from each Colossus die.
~ The Sidekick takes four damage and is KO’d. My opponent places the die in their Prep Area.
~ Their other character die (1A/6D) will also take four damage, two from each Colossus die. Their character is not KO’d and can now be assigned as a blocker.
~ My opponent assigns their remaining character to block one of my Colossus dice. They move their blocker to the Attack Zone and place it in front of the attacking Colossus they want to block.
(Attack Step – Assign and Resolve Damage)
~ My blocked Colossus die will assign five damage to the character die blocking it. That character has previously accumulated four damage and it will be KO’d.
~ The blocking character assigns one damage to the Colossus it’s blocking. This is not enough to KO my Colossus die.
~ My unblocked Colossus die will deal five damage to my opponent’s life total and then move Out of Play.
(Clean Up)
~ Character dice that were KO’d by combat damage during the Attack Step are now placed in the Prep Area. My opponent’s blocker will be moved to their Prep Area.
~ Characters blocked, but not KO’d are removed from the Attack Zone, but stay in the Field Zone. The Attack Zone is part of the Field Zone, but only attacking and blocking characters can be in the Attack Zone. My Colossus die will be removed from the Attack Zone and placed back into the area labeled as the Field Zone.
~ All effects end unless otherwise specified (like a While Active or ‘End of Turn’ ability).
~ All damage is cleared.
~ End of turn abilities will resolve.
~ My turn is now over and my opponent’s turn will begin.

Official Sources

WizKids Official Rules Forum (WORF)
WORF doesn’t have an official ruling on this card yet.

Basic Information

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

Turn Order Summary Reference

Opinion and Strategy

Mr. DDK brought this card up to me in a conversation a week or so ago. I thought is was a very interesting card and I realized just how weird and confusing his ability could be. While I like this ability, it could be a problem against certain characters that have abilities that trigger from them being damaged, like Babs, Hulk, or cards with the Vengeance Keyword. This is definitely not my type of card, but Mr. DDK thought it was kinda neat. It practically shuts down the Sidekick blocker walls.

I don’t think this card has a place in the major metas, mainly because of his cost, but also largely because his ability could backfire on you if your opponent has a card like Babs (which is very popular!). I would love to see someone come up with an interesting use for this card and if you do or you already have, please feel free to share!

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!

Need to look up a card? Be sure to check out DM RetroBox! It’s the best searchable card database I’ve found for when I’m at the computer.

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!

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!

Confusing Card of the Week #74 – Turtle Van: Basic Action Card

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

For this week’s confusing card of the week article, we’re going to take a look at the Turtle Van: Basic Action Card from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles box set. This is in celebration of the release of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Heroes in a Half-Shell box set that’s due out tomorrow!

Ruling – Ability

Turtle Van is a Continuous Basic Action. If a card ability would affect an Action Die, Turtle Van could be chosen for the effect. One such example is Constantine: Antihero.

Continuous is a keyword found on Action cards. When you use the action die, it is placed in the Field Zone and will remain in the Field Zone until the ability is activated or triggered. Activating or triggering the ability is not considered ‘using’ the die. Using the die is when you move it from your Reserve Pool into the Field Zone. It can remain in the Field Zone after your turn.

Turtle Van’s ability says that you can send Turtle Van to your Used Pile and prevent all damage to a target blocking character. This ability targets a single character die when you activate it. You may target one of your character dice or one of your opponent’s character dice. When activated, the target blocking character die will take no damage from the character it’s blocking. It will also be protected from any Globals or abilities that would damage it after the activation of Turtle Van.

There is a specific timing window for when you can activate Turtle Van. You can only activate the ability on a Turtle Van die after blockers have been assigned, during the Actions and Globals portion of the Attack Step. If you’re the active player, you will have priority to use Actions and Globals. If you’re not the active player, you will have to wait until your opponent passes you priority before you can activate Turtle Van. That means your character can still take ability damage before you’re passed priority and able to activate Turtle Van.

When you activate Turtle Van, it will go directly to the Used Pile, as per the card text.

Turtle Van has a special interaction with Overcrush. Overcrush will only work if all of the attacking character die’s blockers have been KO’d or removed by an effect. If the blocker is still present, but the damage to the blocker is prevented by an ability like Turtle Van, Overcrush will not work.

Miscellaneous Card Information

~ Turtle Van is a Basic Action with no energy type.
~ It does not have an affiliation.
~ It has a max dice of three.
~ This card is a Common and is #58 of 58.

If you purchase the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turltes Box Set, 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 Turtle Van on your turn.

~ I have one Turtle Van die and a level three Gorilla Grodd: Force of Mind die in the Field Zone. My opponent has a Sidekick die in the Field Zone.
~ (Attack Step – Assign Attackers) I assign my Gorilla Grodd as an attacker, moving him into the Attack Zone.
~ (Attack Step – Assign Blockers) My opponent assigns their Sidekick to block my Grodd, moving it into the Attack Zone in front of my Grodd die.
~ (Attack Step – Actions and Globals) I activate my Turtle Van, targeting my opponent’s Sidekick die and placing my Turtle Van into the Used Pile. The Sidekick will take no damage for the rest of the turn. I don’t activate/use any other Actions or Globals, and my opponent doesn’t use any Globals.
~ (Attack Step – Assign and Resolve Damage) My Grodd’s seven damage is assigned to the Sidekick, but the Sidekick will take no damage. The Sidekick assigns its one damage to Grodd, but it’s not enough to KO him.
~ (Clean Up Step) Both character dice are returned to the Field Zone. All effects end and all dice Out of Play are moved to the Used Pile.

Example Two:
Turtle Van interaction with Overcrush, on your opponent’s turn.

~ I have one Turtle Van die and two Sidekick dice in the Field Zone. My opponent has a level three Gorilla Grodd die in the Field Zone. My opponent has one Bolt energy in the Reserve Pool and has Magic Missile: Basic Action Card.
~ (Attack Step – Assign Attackers) My opponent assigns Gorilla Grodd as an attacker, moving him into the Attack Zone.
~ (Attack Step – Assign Blockers) I assign both of my Sidekick dice to block Grodd, moving them into the Attack Zone in front of the Grodd die.
~ (Attack Step – Actions and Globals) My opponent has priority on Actions and Globals, so they use their Bolt energy (moving it Out of Play) to activate the Global on Magic Missile and target one of my blocking Sidekick dice. The Sidekick is KO’d and placed in my Prep Area. My opponent passes priority to me and I activate my Turtle Van, targeting my remaining blocking Sidekick and placing my Turtle Van die in the Used Pile.
~ (Attack Step – Assign and Resolve Damage) Grodd’s seven damage is assigned to the Sidekick, but the Sidekick will take no damage. The Sidekick assigns its one damage to Grodd, but it’s not enough to KO him.
~ (Clean Up Step) Both character dice are returned to the Field Zone. All effects end and all dice Out of Play are moved to the Used Pile.

Official Sources

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

Turn Order Summary Reference

Unlimited Competitive Play Rating

Overcrush is not a huge deal in the current meta, but as soon as you don’t bring an answer for it, you’ll face off against a rogue Overcrush team. This action isn’t just good for stopping Overcrush, it’s also handy in preventing your opponent’s blocking character from taking damage and getting some crazy effect to go off or even save one of your own blockers from being KO’d. I could see someone adding this to a team if they’re worried about Overcrush and it’s not a terrible card. But since Overcrush isn’t a major meta thing, I can’t give Turtle Van more than a rogue rating. It’s useful for other things besides stopping Overcrush, but there are also tons of other really good BACs out there that someone may want to use instead.

Turtle Van: Basic Action Card gets a rating of three out of five stars.

Prime Play Rating

Turtle Van has been a huge deal in our local Prime meta. Everyone has an Overcrush team of some kind and Turtle Van is a great tech against it. If other meta scenes even slightly resemble ours, then I could see this particular BAC making it onto lots of teams. It’s also great for stopping double damage that a character may be dealing with against Lady Bullseye’s ability. I really like this card and I’d be surprised if it didn’t make at least Prime rogue status, even with the new versions of Polymorph and Magic Missile coming out tomorrow in the new TMNT Box Set.

Turtle Van: Basic Action Card gets a Prime rating of four out of five stars.

Casual Play Rating

I’ve seen this card in lots of casual matches. It’s not a super confusing ability, but the tricks of how to use it against Overcrush are not as apparent to new players. Learning to use the card in that way is something that comes with experience. The one major thing about this card that confuses players is the Continuous part. Even after some explanation, beginners and less experienced players still have a hard time understanding that action dice do not stay in your Reserve Pool – you can’t use action dice on your opponent’s turn. Newer players confuse using an action die with activating an action die’s ability. That’s really the only thing holding Turtle Van back from a five star casual rating. I still recommend this card to our newer players because it’s a great way to learn how to use action dice and how/when to activate Continuous action dice. Don’t discourage new players from Continuous actions just because they can be difficult to understand at first. If you’re a newer player reading this, I encourage you to add at least one Continuous action to your team and play with it. There are lots of great Continuous actions out there, including Turtle Van!

Turtle Van: Basic Action Card gets a casual play rating of four 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! January 28, 2017 – Unlimited Format

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

With the WKO quickly approaching, I decided to give one of my team considerations a test run in our tournament. If you watch the tournament videos on my YouTube channel, I have to apologize for the excessive amount of background noise. The store is very busy on Saturday nights and it’s really hard for me to play and mitigate the excessive noise at the same time. Hopefully, the regulars will get used to me filming and be a little more aware of their volume and conversation content. My irritation shows a little in the videos and I apologize for that as well. It’s very frustrating when you can’t hear what the person sitting across from you is saying.

You may hear me reference someone named Donatella, but that’s just my life tracker.

My Team

You can find my team here, on DM Retrobox.

I want Lady Bullseye to work – really bad. But I think she’s too difficult to maneuver in such a fast meta. I do love Overcrush though and it’s almost as if Gorilla Grodd was made for me. Mr. DDK suggested using Tsarina and Guy Gardner with Grodd, which I thought was a good idea so I did it. This has been one of the team ideas I’ve been throwing around for the WKO, so I figured that this would be a perfect chance to test it. I added Elf Thief for Mask energy and little bit of control, which I never used – not in a single game. Cold Gun is there to help me get around nasty characters like Dwarf Wizard or Ronin. Rip, PXG, and Blue-Eyes are all utility cards. I chose Slander as one of my Basic Actions because it works like Cold Gun but doesn’t damage – just in case I need to blank a character without damaging it. It’s also one cheaper and doesn’t require specific energy, but it’s not Continuous like Cold Gun. I chose Invulnerability for it’s Global, and because I might be able to use its ability if I bought the die.

Round One

You can watch my first round match on my YouTube channel, here. I was up against North and the Unlimited version of his Satchel team. My first purchase was probably wrong in this game. I couldn’t decide between Guy and Tsarina and I Ripped a Guy instead of Tsarina. I think I would have been better off with Tsarina instead of Guy because when I rolled him on my next turn, I got stuck with him on a character face. I would rather have had a Tsarina since she doesn’t have to attack each turn. I also got a little purchase happy when I bought Grodd early game and I didn’t reroll any Sidekicks in an attempt to get a Shield to Rip him. I was left with a Bolt and I didn’t really have anything to use it for. I hate when that happens because I feel like I’m wasting resources. I ended up purchasing one of North’s Imprisoned dice to help me get around Ronin and any potential blockers, as well as removing characters he could spin down in order to prevent Tsarina’s ability damage. We did make an error in the game where I had Imprisoned his Ronin, but he didn’t return his Ronin after Tsarina damaged him with her ability. He should have gotten Ronin back and been able to use him as a blocker, since Imprisoned would have left before the Assign Blockers portion of the Attack Step. It happened again later when I was attacking for lethal damage. I didn’t realize that until watching the video and writing this report that we both overlooked that. If I had been paying closer attention to the card abilities, Tsarina would not have been part of the final attack and I would still have been able to claim a victory. I unfortunately won the first round with two unintentional game play errors, but without the video, I wouldn’t have noticed it.

Record after Round One: 1-0-0

Round Two

You can watch my second round match on my YouTube channel, here. I was facing off against Hannah’s Action Burn team in round two. This match was relatively short, and a bit of a revenge match from last week. The tables were turned this week and I didn’t roll as well as I would have liked, much like the trouble Hannah faced last week when her team wanted to give her issues. We both had a rough start, but Hannah’s team bounced back quickly and there wasn’t much I could do. I probably should have purchased as many of her Magic Missile dice as I could, just to slow down her damage output. I shouldn’t have Ripped my second Grodd, even though it didn’t matter much in this particular game, but I should have purchased more Guy and Tsarina dice instead. Sometimes games just don’t go the way you’d like them to and this was my moment for the bad rolls. Hannah did well with her comeback, and she made the right choice in clearing my field with her Magic Missile Global so that she could attack and secure her victory.

Record after Round Two: 1-1-0

Round Three

I got to face off against one of my own teams in round three. Olivia wanted to use a variation on my Girl Power team, so I let her borrow it. She fielded lots of Sidekicks early in the match and even purchased a she-Hulk early game. Black Cat was a troublesome character as she made me reroll some of the characters I needed to keep in the Field. Luckily, they all came back up on character faces, but the threat of them leaving the Field scared me a little. I Ripped and purchased a Grodd around mid-game, but I needed to get my Guys back in the Field. They were proving to be very difficult to work with since they are required to attack each turn. When it came time to start attacking, Guy came through for me. She blocked my first big attack of Grodd and Guys, which returned most of them to the Field Zone. I drew what was left of my Guy dice and some Tsarina dice and was attacking for lethal damage on the turn after my first major attack. She had mostly Sidekicks as blockers and no way to avoid the massive amount of Overcrush damage from my Guys.

Record after Round Three: 2-1-0
Final Standing: 3rd

Final Thoughts

I hope that everyone takes something away from this report – especially from my mistakes. We are not defined by our mistakes, but by how we learn from them. I’m so glad that error was caught on video because this gives everyone a chance to review it and make mental notes about it so that they don’t make that mistake later, or have it made against them like North did.

Now, about the team itself. I really love this team. It’s definitely a top contender for what I’ll be playing at the WKO. I do not like Elf Thief though, and I’m probably going to replace him for either Constantine: Hellblazer or Antihero. While I like Cold Gun, I almost feel I don’t need it if I’m using Slander. Sure, it does damage and it possibly blanks a dude, but Slander blanks too. I definitely  don’t think I need both, and I’m probably swapping one of them for something else. I just have to decide which one to take off the team and what to put in its place. I like Tsarina, Grodd, and Guy as the main core of the team, so that won’t be changing. It’s nice to know that I don’t necessarily have to have all of the pieces to win as they’re all great on their own. They’re just really silly together and I love it!

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!

Roll on, Dice Masters!

Tournament Report! January 21, 2017 – First Local Prime Format Event

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

I apologize for the lack of tournament reports the last few weeks. We’ve hosted events each week, but I was working on videos and neglected to get pictures of my opponents’ teams the last few weeks. I think I have a decent understanding of how to use my camera and software now, at least enough to get some featured matches up on my YouTube channel. Please subscribe to my channel on YouTube so you don’t miss any upcoming review videos or featured tournament matches!

I want to mention that we do not do ties in our local events. All of our players are aware that in larger events such as a WKO or PDC event, if you go into turns and do not defeat your opponent by reducing their life total to zero, the match ends in a tie.

My Team

You can find my team here, on DM Retrobox.

Ever since the release of the Deadpool set, I’ve been trying my hardest to find a way to make Lady Bullseye work. It’s almost impossible in an unlimited format, because it’s too difficult to get all the proper pieces to align perfect every time. But I thought I’d give it go in a prime format to see if I could make a somewhat functional team with her and Gorilla Grodd. Putting those two together is almost a no-brainer – they’re perfect for each other. I chose Stepford Cuckoos: Celeste for a few reasons. She can target herself or I can use her to target one of my Lady Bullseye or Multiple Man dice that may be stuck in the field. She gives me an opportunity to remove a potential blocker or trouble character from my opponent’s Field Zone as well. Even though my opponent gets to choose which character they move to the Prep Area, it’s still a benefit for me. Multiple Man: Pile On! is an easy choice. He’s got a max dice of six, Swarm, and only cost two. Agent Carter: Answered the Call was another easy choice, for that bit of control. I may not have an Elf Thief to steal energy, but my opponent is going to waste an energy to field a Sidekick or any character with the Ally Keyword. I like my control pieces and Captain Cold’s Cold Gun: Frozen “Firearm” was an easy choice as well. Bane: Professional Criminal and Wasp: Fashionista are both great control pieces for their Globals. I could taunt a character into attacking and either block it to KO it, or let it through to force it back into the bag cycle. The force block Global is key for Lady Bullseye and Grodd. I use it on the character that Lady Bullseye targeted with her ability to ensure I get my double damage Overcrush. I chose Heroes in a Half-Shell and Too Big To Fly for my two Basic Action Cards to help boost my attackers if I needed that extra push. Too Big To Fly’s ability is extremely beneficial in getting rid of troublesome characters.

Round One

My first round match was the featured match. You can watch the video on my YouTube Channel, here. If you watch the video, you can see that Hannah didn’t have the best rolls and I had pretty decent rolls. I was able to Rip a Grodd in this game, and she didn’t have many ways to stop or counter Overcrush. I’ve seen her team in action before and it’s a really good team, but her dice didn’t want to roll for her this time.

Record after Round One: 1-0-0

Round Two

Round two I found myself facing off against Mr. DDK. I suspected his team was going to be rather speedy and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep up. I used my Cuckoos to clear some of his characters out of the field, helping me slow down his progress a little. This particular match made me realize that I need to add one more Cuckoos and reduce Agent Carter by one. If I would’ve had a third Cuckoos die, my match may have gone much easier for me. He purchase all of his Rocket dice, but thanks to the Cuckoos I used, it kept many of them in rotation and out of the Field. His Lockjaw helped him regain some of the life I chipped away at early in the game. Agent Carter made it more difficult for him to field his Sidekicks for Justice. He used his Motorcycle Global to great effect during our match. I originally thought that this card was terrible, but that was before PDC announced Prime, and Motorcycle isn’t terrible for Prime. I fielded a Grodd very early against Mr. DDK, which I’m convinced helped me defeat him. Once I was able to get enough characters fielded and several Lady Bullseye dice circulating, I was able to overcome his defenses for my second round victory.

Record after Round Two: 2-0-0

Round Three

I’ve seen North’s Satchel team in action several times over the last few weeks as he’s worked on fine tuning it. I was thrilled that he played it in our first local Prime event. I know that several folks out there think Satchel is terrible, but this team won our event. It was slow going for both of us in the beginning, but we were both able to pick up speed a few turns in. He was using Oracle: Master Investigator, which slowed me down a little, but not a lot. She made it harder for me to Rip and purchase certain characters, like Grodd. His Ronin absorbed several of my Overcrush hits throughout the match. I tried to cycle my two Cuckoos to the best of my ability, but when I needed both to roll a character face, they didn’t. He did well in keeping a Cold Gun with burst(s) in the Field Zone in order to blank Grodd when I attacked. We went into turns, but even with my final attack, I couldn’t get enough damage through. My biggest mistake in this game was not purchasing my Cold Gun dice. By the time I realized I needed them, it was too late. North defeated me and took first place in our first prime tournament.

Record after Round Three: 2-1-0
Final Standing: 2nd

Final Thoughts

This was our first experience with the prime format in a tournament setting. Lots of things were as I expected, and others were a bit different. I expected the rounds to take a little longer as the games would go many more turns than they do in an unlimited format, and this turned out to be true in our event. I also expected to have a difficult time in buying and fielding Grodd, but this was not as difficult as I originally thought. He is a very expensive character and without ramp or cost reducers, you would think him impossible to obtain. There are several ways I tried to get around the ramp issue, like with Stepford Cuckoos and Multiple Man. They worked amazingly well, but I did realize that I need one more Cuckoos die an one less Agent Carter die. I’ve also considered changing out Heroes in a Half-Shell for Superhero Registration Act. My one concern in doing so is that I won’t have my cheaper action to purchase if my dice don’t roll the energy I want or need. Having that action that only cost two energy is a major plus, especially if my opponent is using Rip, allowing me to Rip it on my first turn for a potential two extra energy on my second turn. I’m not sure I want to make that change, but I’ll be testing it in the future. I was very pleased with how my team performed. I did some minor play testing with Mr. DDK against Bat-Family, but I didn’t test it against the team he played in the tournament. I felt like I should have tested it against other builds, just to get the feel for how it would play against other things that weren’t Bat-Family. But overall, I really like this team and I can’t wait to try it out again!

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!

Roll on, Dice Masters!

Confusing Card of the Week #71 – Hit-Monkey: He’s A Hitman. Who’s a Monkey.

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

For this week’s confusing card of the week article, we’re going to take a look at Hit-Monkey: He’s A Hitman. Who’s a Monkey from the Marvel Deadpool set.

Ruling – Ability

Hit-Monkey has an ability that can be activated when he’s blocked. When he’s blocked, you may pay a fist energy to assign Hit-Monkey’s combat damage to the defending player as if he wasn’t blocked, but only for that turn.

His combat damage has no effect on the character or characters that block him, because you are using his ability to redirect his combat damage to a different source other than the blockers. Hit-Monkey would not deal damage to his blockers, but they would deal their combat damage to him, possibly KO’ing him.

If you pay the fist to use Hit-Monkey’s ability and an effect would remove his card text, you would no longer be able to assign his damage to your opponent. This is because his card would have been blanked before the Assign Damage portion of the Attack Step. You would only be able to assign damage to the characters blocking Hit-Monkey. You would not get the fist energy spent for his ability back.

It is also important to remember that even though you’re able to assign his combat damage to your opponent, Hit-Monkey is still considered blocked and would gain no benefit from effects that affect unblocked characters.

If the blockers are not able to KO Hit-Monkey, he would return the Field Zone during the Clean Up Step. This is because he was blocked, but not KO’d. It does not matter that he assigned his combat damage somewhere else, only that he was blocked and not KO’d. If he’s KO’d, then he will go to the Prep Area.

Miscellaneous Card Information

~ Hit-Monkey: He’s A Hitman. Who’s a Monkey is a Fist Character.
~ He has no affiliation.
~ He has a max dice of four.
~ This card is an Uncommon and is #58 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:
Hit-Monkey blocked and not KO’d.

~ I have one level three Hit-Monkey die in the Field Zone and one fist energy in the Reserve Pool. My opponent has one Sidekick in the Field Zone.
~ (Attack Step – Assign Attackers) I assign my Hit-Monkey as an attacker, placing his die in the Attack Zone.
~ (Attack Step – Assign Blockers) My opponent assigns their Sidekick to block my Hit-Monkey, placing it in front of his die in the Attack Zone. Since Hit-Monkey has been blocked, I can now activate his ability. I spend the fist energy (placing it Out of Play) to activate Hit-Monkey’s ability. Hit-Monkey will now be able to assign his combat damage to my opponent instead of the Sidekick.
~ (Attack Step – Actions and Globals) I do not use any Action dice or Globals. I pass priority to my opponent and they choose not to use any Globals.
~ (Attack Step – Assign and Resolve Damage) Hit-Monkey assigns his four damage to my opponent. The Sidekick assigns its one damage to Hit-Monkey. Damage resolves simultaneously after it’s been assigned, so my opponent takes four damage and Hit-Monkey takes one damage. Hit-Monkey has a defense of three, so he is not KO’d by the one damage from the Sidekick. The Sidekick is not dealt any damage, so it’s not KO’d.
~ (Clean Up Step) Hit-Monkey is blocked and not KO’d, so he is placed back in the Field Zone. The Sidekick blocked and was not KO’d, so it’s placed back in the Field Zone. All effects end and all dice that are Out of Play are placed in the Used Pile.

Example:
Hit-Monkey blocked and card text is blanked after his ability has been used.

~ I have one level three Hit-Monkey die in the Field Zone. I also have one fist energy and a Flying Car: Buckle Up! action die in the Reserve Pool. My opponent has one Sidekick in the Field Zone.
~ (Attack Step – Assign Attackers) I assign my Hit-Monkey as an attacker, placing his die in the Attack Zone.
~ (Attack Step – Assign Blockers) My opponent assigns their Sidekick to block my Hit-Monkey, placing it in front of his die in the Attack Zone. Since Hit-Monkey has been blocked, I can now activate his ability. I spend the fist energy (placing it Out of Play) to activate Hit-Monkey’s ability. Hit-Monkey will now be able to assign his combat damage to my opponent instead of the Sidekick.
~ (Attack Step – Actions and Globals) I use my Flying Car action to give Hit-Monkey a +3A/+3D, but it removes all of Hit-Monkey’s ability text. I pass priority to my opponent and they choose not to use any Globals.
~ (Attack Step – Assign and Resolve Damage) Hit-Monkey assigns his seven damage to Sidekick that’s blocking him. The Sidekick assigns its one damage to Hit-Monkey. Damage resolves simultaneously after it’s been assigned, so the Sidekick takes seven damage and Hit-Monkey takes one damage. Hit-Monkey has a defense of six, so he is not KO’d by the one damage from the Sidekick. The Sidekick has one defense and is KO’d by Hit-Monkey’s seven attack.
~ (Clean Up Step) Hit-Monkey is blocked and not KO’d, so he is placed back in the Field Zone. The Sidekick is placed in the Prep Area because it was KO’d. All effects end and all dice that are Out of Play are placed in the Used Pile.

Official Sources

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

Turn Order Summary Reference

Unlimited Competitive Play Rating

As much as I like this card, I think he’s too difficult to work with in an Unlimited format where there are better cards. His ability is good and I think that the right pilot with the right team build might be able to make him work. It takes special care and specific building to make something like this viable though, so I don’t think he’s a card that will see a lot of Unlimited play in the current meta. He’s still a good card, just not the best choice for this particular format. I don’t think he’s fast enough for the current speed of the meta.

Hit-Monkey: He’s A Hitman. Who’s a Monkey gets a rating of one out of five stars.

Prime Play Rating

I don’t think this card is getting the recognition it deserves for the Prime format. I think this card may see more play, and even a few top positions in some upcoming PDC events. If it doesn’t, I would be very disappointed, but not surprised since he doesn’t get much love anyway. I could be totally wrong about this card, but it seems like such a good card with the current list of available cards. There are still plenty of build options for using a card like this and not a whole lot of ways around it. I suspect Captain Cold’s Cold Gun: Frozen “Firearm” is going to make every team list, but there are ways to play around those. Hit-Monkey may not be everyone’s style, but I think he has great potential and folks would be remiss to not give this card a shot on a team.

Hit-Monkey: He’s A Hitman. Who’s a Monkey. gets a Prime rating of four out of five stars.

Casual Play Rating

It’s not often that a card receives a five star rating from me, especially for a beginning or casual player. I don’t think a card ability can be written any more clear than how this one is written. It even has reminder text that helps remind the player that the combat damage is not dealt to the blocking character(s). The confusion around this card begins when you get into more advanced level of play, like the examples in the WORF ruling. But for beginners and casual players that don’t see a lot of the competitive type cards, this is probably one of the best cards to start someone off with. This character’s ability is great to play on its own or with some combo cards, which is one of the reasons it’s such a good card for beginners. I can easily recommend this card for a player of any skill level.

Hit-Monkey: He’s A Hitman. Who’s a Monkey 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!

Confusing Card of the Week #69 – Negasonic Teenage Warhead: Bored in School

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

For this week’s confusing card of the week article, we’re going to take a look at Negasonic Teenage Warhead: Bored in School from the Marvel Deadpool set.

I’m also adding a new Prime Rating to each of my Confusing Card of the Week articles. They will follow the same rating system as the Unlimited Competitive Rating, since Prime is also a competitive format. You can find a breakdown of how I choose my ratings on my sticky article, Helpful Sites and About this Blog.

Ruling – Ability

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has the Underdog keyword. Most of the Underdog abilities do different things or have different effects depending on the character. The one thing that all Underdog abilities have in common is that they require you to have less characters in the Field Zone than your opponent. If you have the same number of characters in the Field Zone as your opponent, you do not meet the Underdog requirements. Characters that have a when fielded Underdog ability will count themselves because they see themselves in Field Zone when they are fielded.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead’s Underdog ability says that when she attacks, you spin her up to level three and she gains the Fast keyword. She does not spin back down after your attack is complete. She will lose her Fast keyword at the end of turn since it was an effect of a when attacks ability and all effects end at the end of turn.

Fast allows that character to deal their combat damage before other characters.

Miscellaneous Card Information

Negasonic Teenage Warhead: Bored in School is a Bolt Character and has the X-Men affiliation. This card also has a Max Dice of four.

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:
Meeting Negasonic Teenage Warhead’s Underdog requirements.

~ I have one Negasonic Teenage Warhead die and my opponent has two Sidekick dice in the Field Zone.
~ (Attack Step – Assign Attackers) I assign my Negasonic Teenage Warhead die to attack. Her Underdog ability checks and sees that there are more characters in my opponent’s field. Negasonic Teenage Warhead’s die will spin up to level three and she gains the Fast keyword.
~ (Attack Step – Assign Blockers) My opponent assign a Sidekick to block.
~ (Attack Step – Assign and Resolve Damage) Negasonic Teenage Warhead deals six damage to the Sidekick and it’s immediately KO’d because of her Fast ability. The Sidekick will not assign any damage to Negasonic Teenage Warhead.
~ (Clean Up Step) Negasonic Teenage Warhead returns to the Field Zone because she was blocked and not KO’d. She loses her Fast keyword because all effects clear at this time.

Example Two:
Not meeting Negasonic Teenage Warhead’s Underdog requirements.

~ I have one level two Negasonic Teenage Warhead die in the Field Zone. My opponent doesn’t have any characters.
~ (Attack Step – Assign Attackers) I assign my Negasonic Teenage Warhead die to attack. Her Underdog ability checks and sees that I have more characters in the field than my opponent does. She does not gain any benefits of her Underdog ability.
~ (Attack Step – Assign Blockers) My opponent does not have any characters to block with.
~ (Attack Step – Assign and Resolve Damage) Negasonic Teenage Warhead is unblocked and deals her attack value of three to my opponent’s life total. Her die will go Out of Play until the Clean Up Step.
~ (Clean Up Step) My Negasonic Teenage Warhead, along with any other dice that are Out of Play, will go into the Used Pile.

Official Sources

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

You can also find an additional ruling about Underdog, here.

Turn Order Summary Reference

Unlimited Competitive Play Rating

I think this is a very unique card for a format like unlimited. With the right team build, I think this card could possibly sneak in a top somewhere, but I don’t think she’s quite on the rogue level yet. You would probably need a specific team build that was more focused around this card as a win condition for her to be of great value. She’s got a good ability, her purchase cost is great, and her fielding costs are really good. Her only downside is her defense and that she requires Underdog to trigger her ability. In a format dominated by Bard variants, not having blockers is a bad idea unless you’re running a team that can race Bard to the final blow. This character is worth looking at and playing around with because someone could find a way to make her work.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead: Bored in School gets a rating of two out of five stars.

Prime Play Rating

I believe this card is great for Prime. The biggest challenge will be the Underdog part because without Fabricate or Blue-Eyes, you’re limited on abilities that can KO your own characters. All of her pros that I listed in her unlimited rating also apply here. Her purchase cost is cheap, her fielding costs are great, and her ability isn’t too shabby. She’s not a card to be overlooked in the Prime format.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead: Bored in School gets a Prime rating of three out of five stars.

Casual Play Rating

Negasonic Teenage Warhead’s ability is not too confusing for new players, once it’s been explained thoroughly. I could recommend her for a player of any skill level to try out in any casual setting. She’s a great teaching tool for field management and abilities, like Fabricate. Underdog abilities can help players feel more comfortable with KO’ing their own characters for the sake of the ability. I also feel like this Underdog ability is probably the most useful one in the game. This character can easily work as an add-on to a team or on a team built around her. This makes her exceptionally good for casual play.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead: Bored in School gets a casual play rating of four 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! December 17, 2016 – ‘Cold’ Constructed

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

We had a constructed event with a twist for tonight’s OP Event. Everyone was required to play a ‘Cold’ themed character or Non-BAC on their team. I chose to add Killer Frost: Coldsnap to my Gandhi team for this event.

My Team

You can find my team here, on DM Retrobox.

I love my Gandhi team because if it works the way it should, the characters on this team never attack. I’ve had this team for a long time now, just tweaking a few things here and there. Rip, PXG, and Blue-Eyes are all utility cards. Colossus is my win condition and Wonder Woman helps the win condition along. Elf Thief is a cheap Mask character that has an awesome ability, makes for great BEWD food, and can also feed Wonder Woman’s ability. I added Killer Frost for tonight and never had a chance to use her. I had hoped that she would come in handy to force a troublesome character into my opponent’s bag. I originally was going to use either Beast: Genetic Expert or Bane for his taunt, but when I thought about it, Multiple Man seemed like a better idea. His purchase cost, Swarm, and Max Dice were all major bonuses. Blink is on the team for the Global, to push back those heavy hitting characters and since this team isn’t concerned with attacking, it’s really only me that benefits from the Global. Big Entrance was just a default choice for me and could possibly help me get my Colossus a little cheaper. It would also help me get my Multiple Man dice for one Mask energy and add them to my bag.

Round One

Round one I had to face off against a Guy Rush team. I was fairly certain I wouldn’t win this match, but it wasn’t as much of a train wreck as I thought it would be for me. The Multiple Man dice that I kept on energy faces helped me Blink his Guy’s back and keep them in check while I tried to build up to my Colossus. I was able to defend myself really well with blockers and Blink and it came down to a single turn. I was at two life and my opponent was at twelve. I rolled all but one of the characters I needed for Colossus’s ability. My opponent was at two life now along with me. It came down to my opponent’s last turn. He needed to roll several characters to get past my blockers and Blink energy. He rolled plenty of characters and then purchased a Morphing Jar and fielded a Miri to add that extra punch. It was such a close game and without Blink, I would have been annihilated early on. I didn’t think my team would do well against an aggro team since it’s much slower. I was very pleased with the performance of my team.

Record after Round One: 0-1-0

Round Two

I knew just by looking at this team that I was probably in for a world of pain. I felt like I possibly had a chance defending myself with Blink. Blink is the bane of any Overcrush team, and it was definitely my savior here. My opponent had several rough turns where his Wolverine dice refused to roll character faces for him, but he played around it really well by KO’ing his Lady Bullseye and using Beholder’s Global to keep his Hulk Out stashed. The pressure he was putting on me kept me from being able to purchase extra characters, like Killer Frost. Every time I wanted to buy one, I couldn’t because I knew I’d need the Masks I had for Blink. It came down to the wire with this game too, but in the end I rolled up the characters I needed for Colossus’s ability to gain me a victory. This game was all about blocking vs not blocking and what characters to Blink. There were a few times I considered keeping a Bolt to KO the character that Lady Bullseye targeted, or even KO a character that was forced to block so that I wouldn’t get hit with a trillion bazillion damage.

Record after Round Two: 1-1-0

Round Three

Once again, I found myself sitting across from Mr. DDK. We always seem to end up playing against each other, and this game was possibly going to decide first place. He was the only player that was undefeated and I was 1-1 with decent tie-breakers. But I knew I had an uphill battle against his Bat-Bomb team. He had built it as a Prime team, but forgot one of his BACs. I know how good Bat-Bomb can be so I knew what I needed to do – buy all the Multiple Man dice and Blink his Dick Grayson back. Oracle was such a pain! It took me forever to get my purchases set up, but I had all six Multiple Man dice cycling through my bag or fielded. Even with Oracle, I was able to Blink Dick Grayson while blocking other characters, and still PXG once or twice. That was definitely thanks to Multiple Man who was my MVP for this event (excluding Colossus – since he is the reason I won twice). Mr. DDK would KO Alfred with my BEWD and use Bruce Wayne’s ability to take out my Multiple Man dice so that I couldn’t benefit from Swarm all the time. That was definitely a good move for him, but I did eventually end up winning with five Multiple Man dice at level two or higher with a level two Colossus in the Field Zone.

Record after Round Three: 2-1-0
Final Standing: 1st

Final Thoughts

My tie-breakers boosted me to first place tonight, but every game was down to the wire and every game demanded a strategic plan just to stay alive. One mistake and that would be it – game over. I made a few mistakes in my first match and it cost me dearly. Killer Frost would have been a huge benefit in that particular game and I never purchased her. I love my Gandhi team and I wish I could make it work in a more serious competitive like a WKO, but it won’t work because of how slow it is to set up. I don’t know when I’ll play this team again, but it’ll likely go through another minor change or two between now and then. I’m thinking about keeping Multiple Man on the team and putting Oracle: Master Investigator in the place of Killer Frost. I hate playing the Lottery, so I definitely don’t want to put Parallax on this team. I already rely too much on Globals to make this team work, so I don’t want to add another. I just love playing a team that never attacks and never uses Actions to damage my opponent. Colossus is a unique character and I’m just happy I can make him work in a casual setting.

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!

Roll on, Dice Masters!