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!

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

Roll on, Dice Masters!

Confusing Card of the Week #73 – Batcave: Home Sweet Cave

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

For this week’s confusing card of the week article, we’re going to take a look at Batcave: Home Sweet Cave from the DC World’s Finest set.

Ruling – Ability

Batcave is a Continuous, Non-Basic Action. If a card ability would affect an Action Die and does not specify Basic Action Die, Batcave 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.

Batcave’s ability says that when one of of your character dice is KO’d, you can place it under your Batcave die instead. This is optional, which means if you forget to place a KO’d character die under Batcave and realize it later in the turn, you can’t back up to place it under Batcave. If a character ability would put the character die somewhere other than your Prep Area, you may still place that die under Batcave. When KO’d abilities on character dice would still happen but if there is a timing conflict, the active player’s abilities would happen first. If the active player controls both abilities, that player chooses the order in which they happen.

During your Main Step, you can move your Batcave die to your Used Pile and take all of your character dice that were under it and return them to the Field Zone. Those dice return to the Field Zone at level one, and they are not considered to be fielded for When Fielded effects. You can only activate Batcave on your turn. You can have multiple Batcave dice active and you can choose which die to place your KO’d character under. You can also activate as many Batcave dice as you have during your Main Step.

If a card ability would remove your Batcave die (sending it Out of Play, to the Used Pile, etc), then your character dice that were under Batcave would go to your Used Pile.

Miscellaneous Card Information

~ Batcave: Home Sweet Cave is a Shield Action.
~ It does not have an affiliation.
~ It has a max dice of four.
~ This card is a Common and is #37 of 142.

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:
Characters KO’d during the Main Step and the Attack Step.

~ I have two Sidekick dice and one level two Zatanna: Actual Magician die in the Field Zone. I also have a Batcave active in the Field Zone and three Wild energy in my Reserve Pool. My opponent has two Sidekick dice in the Field Zone.
~ (Main Step) I spend one Wild energy as a Bolt (moving it Out of Play) and KO my Zatanna die to use Blue-Eyes White Dragon‘s Global. I choose to put Zatanna in the Prep Area and not under Batcave.
~ (Main Step) I spend one Wild as a Mask (moving it Out of Play) to purchase another Zatanna die, placing it in the Used Pile. Blue-Eyes Global allowed me to purchase the die for two less.
~ (Main Step) I pass priority to my opponent and they don’t use any Globals.
~ (Attack Step – Assign Attackers) I assign my two Sidekick dice to attack, moving them into the Attack Zone.
~ (Attack Step – Assign Blockers) My opponent assigns each of their Sidekick dice to block mine, moving them into the Attack Zone and placing each one in front of mine.
~ (Attack Step – Assign and Resolve Damage) Each Sidekick has one attack and one defense. All Sidekicks will deal one damage and KO each other. I choose to place both of my Sidekick dice under Batcave instead of the Prep Area.
~ (Clean Up Step) All character dice that were KO’d by damage from blocking or by being blocked are now sent to their respective Prep Area, unless otherwise stated. My two Sidekicks will go under my Batcave. All effects clear from active dice (unless otherwise stated). All dice that are Out of Play are moved to the Used Pile.

Example Two:
Activating Batcave.

~ I have a Batcave die in the Field Zone with three Sidekick dice and three Guy Gardner dice under it. It’s currently my Main Step.
~ (Main Step) I choose to activate Batcave. I move my Batcave die directly to the Used Pile, and then all the character dice that were under it are returned to the Field Zone at level one.
~ (Main Step) I now have three level one Guy Gardner dice and three Sidekick dice in my Field Zone.

Official Sources

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

Turn Order Summary Reference

Unlimited Competitive Play Rating

I can’t think of a team that this would be good for in the current Unlimited meta. With Antihero being such a widely used piece in the meta, I can’t see this card being used much – if at all. The card isn’t bad but it’s not good to use something like Batcave when there is a counter for it being played on numerous teams.

Batcave: Home Sweet Cave gets a rating of zero out of five stars.

Prime Play Rating

From the matches I’ve played in the prime format, I could see someone being able to pull off some fun things with this card. I don’t see it making a top tier list, but I could see it squeaking into the rogue tier somewhere. We don’t have major threats like Antihero to worry about in prime, unless I missed them. If you find some, don’t be shy – leave your findings and ideas in the comments! But even in the slower prime format, I don’t know if this card has a place in the meta. I’m sure someone can find a creative way to build around this card and surprise us all.

Batcave: Home Sweet Cave gets a Prime rating of two out of five stars.

Casual Play Rating

I have played this card a bunch of times in a casual setting, and it’s actually really fun. A team with the Batcave and Guy Gardner is effective and fun to play. But the use of the card and die leaves many folks confused, especially when they don’t know what to do with characters when their Batcave gets removed by another effect. It left me stumped for a while too, until they posted the official ruling. A beginner may have trouble with this card until they have a better understanding of the game, but a more advanced player may find it useful. I have shown this card to newer players and explained how it works. They seemed to understand it well enough and some have even picked it up and played with it. They had additional questions, but with a little explanation, they were able to figure out some strategy and uses for it on their own. I can recommend this card for advanced casual players, and some beginners that have backgrounds in other games.

Batcave: Home Sweet Cave gets a casual play rating of three 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 #67 – Captain Cold: Rogue Leader

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

During the month of December, I’m featuring a different cold/ice/snow related card each week to celebrate the winter holidays. Today, we’re going to take a look at Captain Cold: Rogue Leader from the DC Green Arrow and The Flash 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

Captain Cold has a While Active ability. While Active abilities will work regardless of how many of that character’s dice are active in the Field Zone. Think of this ability like a light – it’s either on or it’s off.

Captain Cold’s ability involves the use of Action Dice. Action Dice are any dice that do not have attack and defense stats on them. There are Basic Action Dice that all have a Pow! symbol on them and then there are Non-Basic Action Dice that have symbols related to what the card is. Captain Cold’s ability will trigger when you use any type of Action Die, as long as he’s active. The image below shows the difference between Basic and Non-Basic Action Dice. There are many more Non-Basic Action Dice, but all Basic Action Dice have the same image in different colors.

While Captain Cold is active, when you use an Action Die, a target opposing Sidekick will lose the chance to attack or block for that turn. His ability is not optional and if your opponent has a legal target for Captain Cold’s ability, you must target that character.

Any die that is considered a Sidekick is a potential target for Captain Cold’s ability. Ally Characters count as Sidekicks while they’re active in the Field Zone, meaning they can be targeted by Captain Cold’s ability.

Action Dice normally can only be ‘used’ on your turn. When you use an action die, the die is moved from your Reserve Pool and either placed Out of Play or into the Field Zone depending on the type of Action Die you’re using. There are special abilities that allow you to use an Action Die on your opponent’s turn. One such example of this is Mr. Mxyzptlk: 5th Dimension. His ability says:

“While Mr. Mxyzptlk is active, when an opponent uses a Basic Action Die, you may use a copy of that Basic Action Die.”

When you use a copy of a Basic Action Die with Mr. Mxyzptlk’s ability, it satisfies the requirements for Captain Cold’s ability allowing you to target an opposing Sidekick and prevent it from attacking or blocking. This is one way you can benefit from Captain Cold’s ability on your opponent’s turn to stop a Sidekick from attacking you.

As a side note, Mr. Mxyzptlk: 5th Dimension only allows you to use a copy of a Basic Action Die and not a Non-Basic Action Die that your opponent uses. You need to pay very close attention to wording when playing characters like Mr. Mxyzptlk and Captain Cold.

You won’t benefit from using Captain Cold’s ability during the Attack Step because characters are already assigned to attack and block before you’re able to use Action Dice. You can still target the Sidekick, but the ability won’t have any effect on a character that’s already declared as a blocker.

Miscellaneous Card Information

Captain Cold: Rogue Leader is a Bolt Character and has the Villain 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:
Using Captain Cold’s ability during your Main Step.

~ I have two Captain Cold dice active. I have a Kryptonite: Green Death die showing an action face in my Reserve Pool. My opponent has an Oracle: Master Investigator and an Alfred Pennyworth: MI-5 active in the Field Zone.
~ (Main Step) I use my Kryptonite (sending it Out of Play) and target Oracle.
~ (Main Step) I use Captain Cold’s ability to target Alfred, making Alfred unable to block.

Example Two:
Using Captain Cold’s ability during the Attack Step.

~ I have two Captain Cold dice active. I have a Kryptonite: Green Death die showing an action face in my Reserve Pool. My opponent has an Oracle: Master Investigator and an Alfred Pennyworth: MI-5 active in the Field Zone.
~ (Attack Step – Assign Attackers) I assign one of my Captain Cold dice (3A/3D) as an attacker, moving it into the Attack Zone.
~ (Attack Step – Assign Blockers) My opponent assigns Alfred (1A/1D) as a blocker and places him in the Attack Zone in front of my Captain Cold.
~ (Attack Step – Actions and Globals) I use my Kryptonite and target Alfred. I target Alfred with Captain Cold’s ability, but he’s already blocking and can’t be removed as a blocker with Captain Cold’s ability. I don’t use any other Actions or Globals.
~ (Attack Step – Assign and Resolve Damage) Captain Cold assigns his three attack to Alfred and Alfred assigns his one attack to Captain Cold. Alfred is KO’d but since I used Kryptonite on his die, he doesn’t get his ability and will go to the Prep Area.

Example Three:
Using Captain Cold’s ability during your opponent’s Main Step.

~ I have a Mr. Mxyzptlk: 5th Dimension and a Captain Cold active. My opponent has a Sidekick in the Field Zone.
~ (Main Step) My opponent has a Power Bolt Action Die and uses it to deal two damage to me.
~ (Main Step) Mr. Mxyzptlk allows me to use a copy of Power Bolt and I choose to do so, dealing two damage to my opponent. Captain Cold’s ability triggers and I target the Sidekick my opponent has active in the Field Zone, making it unable to attack this turn.

Official Sources

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

You can find a ruling that relates to the interaction between Captain Cold and Mr. Mxyzptlk, here.

You can find a ruling that explains the interaction of abilities like Kryptonite’s on characters already declared as blockers, here.

Unlimited Competitive Play Rating

Captain Cold just doesn’t have what it takes to see major meta play. His ability, with the required use of an Action Die and being limited to only Sidekicks as targets, is definitely not suited for Unlimited. His TFC of six is expensive for what he does and his stats are not worth using this character over another with a more useful ability. There are other ways to accomplish what his ability does, but on a larger scale and more effective as well – Cloudkill. I don’t see this card making it out of any binder or box for a competitive event like WKO.

Captain Cold: Rogue Leader gets a Unlimited rating of zero out of five stars.

PDC Prime Play Rating

I have limited experience with Prime at the moment, so I could very possibly being missing something or have overlooked something. I don’t think Sidekicks – even Allies – will be a huge problem in Prime. If Captain Cold targeted any character, and not just a Sidekick, then he would be much better. Even then, he still wouldn’t hit the rogue team list for me because of his Action Die requirement. I bumped his rating up to a one star instead of zero stars for Prime because there are still many unknowns about the Prime format, but I still can’t recommend this card for Prime play. His TFC for the stats are not impressive and his ability just doesn’t cut it.

Captain Cold: Rogue Leader gets a Prime rating of one out of five stars.

Casual Play Rating

While I don’t think this card is particularly useful, it’s not overly complicated. I think if you paired Captain Cold with the right cards, he might be mildly useful. I could see him with Foot Ninja: Ninja Syndicate and White Tiger: Mystical Amulet. You could use White Tiger’s Global to make them add a Sidekick to the Field, which increases Foot Ninja’s attack and defense, then use an Action Die and make that Sidekick unable to block. That’s a lot of things going on, but most casual teams that I play and see played locally have many facets to them. But my casual ratings are based on the complexity of the card and how difficult the card is for a new player to use, and not only how good the card is. Captain Cold has complex uses with cards like Mr. Mxyzptlk, which may not be immediately noticed or even understood by a beginner. That combo is a great way to teach those particular uses to a player and help them to better understand card wording.

Captain Cold: Rogue Leader gets a casual play rating of three 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 #63 – Lockjaw: Fiercely Loyal

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

Today, we’re going to take a look at  Lockjaw: Fiercely Loyal  from the Marvel Deadpool set.

Ruling – Ability

Lockjaw’s ability is a While Active ability. It doesn’t matter how many Lockjaw dice you have in the Field Zone, only that you have at least one for his ability to work. While Active abilities are like a light – they’re either on, or off.

Before your opponent’s Clear and Draw Step, you name a non-Sidekick die. If your opponent draws that die, each of their character dice in the Field Zone will take two damage and all of your Lockjaw dice will get +2A. The only stipulation for this ability is that the named die be a non-Sidekick die. You can name any Character or Action die, including a Non-Basic Action die.

Lockjaw’s ability only checks that the named die was drawn, and does not trigger for each of the named dice drawn.

If your opponent has any dice that are KO’d by this ability, those dice are not eligible to be rolled during the Roll and Reroll Step on that same turn.

This Paragraph is Out of Date – See Update Below!
There is still some debate over when this ability can trigger during the turn. Some players believe it triggers only during the Clear and Draw Step, while others believe that it would trigger at anytime during the turn. I have inquired about this on WORF. Until I have an official response to clear this confusion up, I have ruled that the ability only works during the opponent’s Clear and Draw Step. Through my interpretation of the wording on the card, it sounds as though the ability only checks for the die during the Clear and Draw Step. I would think that if it was intended to check for the die during the entire turn, the wording would be a little more specific like: “If your opponent draws that die this turn…”. Hopefully WizKids will respond soon to my follow up on the current WORF topic. I will update this article when there is an official ruling.

*** UPDATE! ***

WizKids has made an official ruling on when Lockjaw’s ability triggers. They have ruled that Lockjaw will trigger outside of the Clear and Draw Step. My ruling is not in line with WizKids, so I am adjusting my ruling to correspond with theirs. You can find the update on the original Lockjaw ruling, here.

Miscellaneous Card Info

Lockjaw: Fiercely Loyal is a Shield Character and has the Inhumans 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.

Example One:
One active Lockjaw.

~ I have one Lockjaw die active. Before my opponent’s Clear and Draw Step, I name Multiple Man.
~ (Clear and Draw) My opponent clears their Reserve Pool into their Used Pile and draws four dice from their bag.
~ (Clear and Draw) They draw three Sidekick dice and one Multiple Man die.
~ (Clear and Draw) All of their active characters will take two damage, and my Lockjaw will gain +2A.

Example Two:
Multiple active Lockjaw.

~ I have three Lockjaw dice active. Before my opponent’s Clear and Draw Step, I name Multiple Man.
~ (Clear and Draw) My opponent clears their Reserve Pool into their Used Pile and draws four dice from their bag.
~ (Clear and Draw) They draw three Sidekick dice and one Multiple Man die.
~ (Clear and Draw) All of their active characters will take two damage, and my all three of my Lockjaw dice will gain +2A.

Example Three:
Drawing multiples of the named die.

~ I have one Lockjaw die active. Before my opponent’s Clear and Draw Step, I name Power Bolt.
~ (Clear and Draw) My opponent clears their Reserve Pool into their Used Pile and draws four dice from their bag.
~ (Clear and Draw) They draw three Power Bolt dice and one Sidekick die.
~ (Clear and Draw) All of their active characters will take two damage, and my Lockjaw will gain +2A.

Example Four:
Dice KO’d by Lockjaw’s ability.

~ I have one Lockjaw die active. My opponent has three Sidekick dice active and one Wolverine die in the Prep Area. Before my opponent’s Clear and Draw Step, I name Multiple Man.
~ (Clear and Draw) My opponent clears their Reserve Pool into their Used Pile and draws four dice from their bag.
~ (Clear and Draw) They draw three Sidekick dice and one Multiple Man die.
~ (Clear and Draw) All of their active characters will take two damage, and my Lockjaw will gain +2A.
~ (Clear and Draw) The three Sidekicks will be KO’d and sent to the Prep Area.
~ (Roll and Reroll) My opponent rolls the four dice they drew plus the Wolverine die that was already in their Prep Area. The Sidekicks that were KO’d on this turn will remain in the Prep Area until their next turn.

NEW! Example Five:
Named dice drawn outside of the Clear and Draw Step.

~ I have one Lockjaw die active and my opponent has two Sidekick dice active in the Field Zone. I name Multiple Man.
~ (Clear and Draw) My opponent clears their Reserve Pool into their Used Pile and draws four dice from their bag.
~ (Clear and Draw) They draw four Sidekick dice.
~ (Roll and Reroll) My opponent rolls and then rerolls the four Sidekick dice and the result is a Shield energy, two Mask energy, and a Sidekick.
~ (Main Step) My opponent spends the Shield energy (placing it Out of Play) to use the Global on Resurrection. The die that’s drawn is Multiple Man. My opponent’s two fielded Sidekicks take two damage and my Lockjaw die gets +2A.
~ (Main Step) My opponent fields the Sidekick in their Reserve Pool. It doesn’t take damage because it wasn’t active in the Field Zone when Lockjaw’s ability was triggered.

Official Sources

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

Competitive Play Rating

Lockjaw’s ability is definitely interesting and potentially useful, but I feel like he’s only going to be really good in certain local metas. He’s probably not good against a Vicious Struggle team or even a Front Line team. I can’t just toss this card aside and claim he’s not viable in certain metas though. He only cost four to purchase and has a TFC of one – which is pretty awesome. His stats aren’t horrible for a defensive character, and his ability could give him some bite with that bark and possibly change your opponent’s mind about attacking. I can give him a rogue team rating, but he’s not a card that I see turning up on every team.

Lockjaw: Fiercely Loyal gets a competitive play rating of three out of five stars.

Casual Play Rating

If not for the confusing text on this card, he’d easily have earned three, maybe four stars from me for casual play. He’s a great card once a player understands exactly how he works. He’s got a great purchase cost, good stats, and an awesome TFC. I just wish his ability was a little easier to understand for a beginner. Players with a better understanding of the rules could probably find ways to use this card in casual play and I encourage those players to use Lockjaw. He’s not a terrible card, he just needs a bit of explanation to help players better understand how he works.

Lockjaw: Fiercely Loyal gets a casual play rating of two 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!

News! New Rulings

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

If you are not familiar with WORF, I would highly recommend that you bookmark it. WORF is the WizKids Official Rules Forum, and this is where WizKids releases information and rulings on individual cards that are very important to the competitive scene. These rulings are also very useful for casual play and I can’t express how important it is to follow appropriate protocol and correct rulings in casual play. It’s not as a big a deal if you mess up in casual play, but for casual players that venture into the competitive scene, they could be in for some shock and surprise when they find out that they’ve been doing basic procedure wrong. Encourage proper procedure and protocol in casual scenes, but don’t be super serious or harsh about it.

So, the first ruling that came down is about Lockjaw: Fiercely Loyal. He was planned for my CCW tomorrow and since WORF ruled on him today, I will now have an official source for that article! There is an additional ruling about Lockjaw: King’s Best Friend.

The next ruling that they added is a huge one. We’ve been waiting for official word on Vicious Struggle for a while now. Most TO’s ruled it consistently with the new ruling, but it’s nice to have that confirmation from the big folks.

And at time of writing, there was a final ruling, and it is about Miri Riam: Beacon in the Dark. As far as I know, most TO’s also ruled consistently with this ruling for Miri Riam prior to the ruling today. Again, confirmation is never a bad thing!

Thank you, WizKids, for these rulings – two of which are huge for the community.

Roll on, Dice Masters!

Tournament Report! D&D Strahd Rainbow Draft Weekend – October 8, 2016 and Casual Talk

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

 

We had a Strahd Rainbow Draft Weekend event a couple of weeks ago. I love limited formats and I love D&D stuff, so I was ecstatic to be playing in a Rainbow Draft Weekend event with a D&D theme. We hadn’t drafted the first D&D set at our FLGS, and lots of the locals really wanted cards from Battle for Faerûn, so we decided to draft from that set. We had a total of eleven players and we broke into two pods for the draft, one pod of five and one pod of six.

I had so much fun drafting this set! I didn’t take pictures of each team I played against, so this report will be a little on the short side and I apologize for that. I went into this draft with several ideas.

1. If I pulled a Stirge: Epic Beast, I was totally going with it as a win condition.
2. If I saw lots of Adventurers and Gear, build a team around that.
3. If I saw a Half-Dragon, go dragons.

Well, I had a rare Half-Dragon in my first batch of packs. I checked the dice on the table and saw lots of dragons and plenty of Half-Dragon dice. I had another Half-Dragon in my other batch of packs, so I knew I would be able to get at least two dice for him. Luckily for me, dragons continued to get passed in my direction, meaning nobody else was actively drafting Dragons.

I was very pleased with my draft picks, but I was concerned that Swarm teams and low cost teams could overwhelm me. I added Big Entrance to help reduce the cost of my dragons and Resurrection to help me with some energy ramp.

Half-Dragon was of course the key purchase for my team, because after fielding him, the cost of my dragons would be greatly reduced. Green Dragon proved to be my MVD (Most Valuable Dragon) because of his ability to prevent my opponent from blocking. My opponent could ignore the effect, but at the cost of some of their life. Copper Dragon was on my team for additional Breath Weapon attacks and to help against Gear oriented teams. Dracolich was added for his Breath Weapon as well and also because he hits really hard. Blue Dragon was added because he would be a cheaper dragon with a Breath Weapon as well as an additional attacking body. The Unicorn, Umber Hulk, and Prismatic Spray were added because I couldn’t find anything else that I drafted that I wanted to put on my team. I didn’t add Red Dragon because I didn’t want my opponent using it to buy up my Big Entrance dice and I didn’t want additional damage done to my life total because of extra Red Dragon Globals.

My team worked way better than I had hoped and I ended up with a record of 3-1-0, with a faster team being my only defeat for the day. I couldn’t believe how fast I was able to purchase some of the larger dragons with the help of Half-Dragon and Big Entrance. I was even able to purchase two Dracolich dice in one of my games. Green Dragon was a shining light on the team and a huge threat after I built up my Field with other dragons. There wasn’t anyone with a 4-0-0 record, and my tie-breakers (strength of schedule a.k.a. SoS) put me in first place!

Prize Distribution:

1st: Magic Missile, Human Paladin, Kobold
2nd: Human Paladin, Kobold
3rd: Kobold
4th: Kobold
5th: Kobold

All participants received a Strahd blank card, regular art card, and die. As additional prizing, the store gave out booster packs to all players in the event. The event was a huge success and loads of fun! Thanks to everyone that attended!

For anyone interested in my FLGS events, you can find links on my Dice Dice Kitty FB page. Each event has a link to the WIN Event, so you don’t need to have FB to sign up. It’s always recommended that players sign up on the events in WIN ahead of time. If you’re from out of town and plan to attend one of the events, you can also call the store and let them know! Be sure to keep an eye on the events as some change depending on release dates.

Collector’s Connection
1663 Hwy 51 Byp N
Dyersburg, TN 38024
Phone: (731) 285-6262

Store Hours:
Monday – Saturday
10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Sundays
Closed except for special events (call ahead).

Mondays – Casual play at 5:00. Come up anytime between 5:00 and 9:00 and play as much as you want.
Saturdays – 6:00 for Constructed or 5:00 for Drafts

Guests are always welcome for any event or even for casual play on any day, at anytime during regular store hours.

Casual Talk

I also want to take a moment to point out a thread on The Reserve Pool’s Forum. This person has been working to compile a list of places to play by state. If you don’t see your local venue listed, let them know! This is a great resource to help spread the word for casual play. Thank you for putting that thread together!

Casual Play Location Thread

I wish WizKids would add an tool to WIN that allows stores to register casual events, something that just logs a player as having attended the event. The casual event doesn’t need brackets, just a way to register the players and upload the event after all the participants have been added without needing to run a tournament. Some players don’t play tournaments and only play in casual settings. I would love to be able to list our Monday night events in WIN, but I can’t because it’s casual and not a tournament. WizKids – please add this template to WIN.

Casual events are a great way to spread the word about a game, demo the game, and teach beginners some of the more intricate workings of the game. Having a way to list casual events that are searchable in WIN would be a huge advantage for many locations.

Did you play in a Strahd Rainbow Draft Weekend event?
What are some of your favorite D&D cards?
Thanks for reading and please remember to follow me here and on Facebook at Dice Dice Kitty!

Roll on, Dice Masters!