This was something I started to build last week… before I found out I had some parental obligations on my regular Dice Masters night. No pesky kid stuff to keep my away this week though.
When I was browsing through the Waterdeep card, this was one of the ones that caught my eye. Manshoon – Clone Wizard has the most amazing hair in all of Dice Masters… and the ability to deal out spray damage when you use Basic Action Card. The minute I saw this, one BAC came to mind… Seething Corruption. Now, DM Armada already discussed this combination in one of his recent videos. You can find the link to that here. Basically, the combo here is to have Manshoon active and use Seething Corruption to clear out the opposing Field. Pretty simple, but not a win condition.
To make good use of Manshoon’s ability, I decided to pair him with Ork Nob (shout out to Peter VDV for having the same idea). There is no big secret here. If I was going to be KO’ing most of their characters, this little guy becomes a big guy in a hurry. If multiple of these guys are on the Field, the damage can add up pretty quick. With a maximum of 5 dice available, this is entirely possible.
This is a pretty basic combination. Get out as many Orks as I can along with a Manshoon. Use a Seething Corruption to kill lots of things and then swing in with buffed Nobs. As long as their Field was big enough to begin with, this has the potential for a single lethal swing. In theory, it should not be too difficult to pull off.
What Did You Play?
The Team: Manshoon Typhoon.
I have a 3 card combo as my core. Since combat damage was my goal and Static Bishtraction is still a thing (Static Field/Kate Bishop Global), protection of my Orks was goal number one.
This is where Istrid Horn comes in. A well timed fielding of this character will end the threat of my Orks being bounced back. She also can mess with any other annoying Global Abilities that might be in the game.
However, the trick with her is timing her appearance. Both Istrid and my Orks are 2 costs, and we all know of a really good Global Ability that can move around 2 cost dice… Supreme Intelligence. Pick your version here. It really does not matter, as you only want the Global Ability.
I am 5 cards into the Team and need to start adding some accessories. Gazer was put in place to help remove whatever that one piece that was causing me a headache (most likely culprit here would be Black Widow Agent). Seething Corruptions is a 4 cost action, and I like discounts. I chose to include Malekith here as the coupon because his Global would allow me to recycle Gazer and/or Istrid Horn easily.
I still need some Ramp on the Team. Here, I went back to an old favourite in Thrown Brick. I thought this might actually pair well with Manshoon as well. A little spray damage while setting up does not seem like a bad thing.
There are only 2 slots left and I decided to have a little fun here. I put in Wolverine Lord of Vampires because… why not? If, and that is a big if, I get him out Manshoon/Seething Corruption can create a decent swing in life totals between players. Not the easiest character to purchase, but it is worth a try.
For my last card, I decided to experiment with the freshly errata’d Intellect Devourer. I didn’t really care which version I had, as it was the Global I was interested in.
So, there you have it… Can the Orks ride the Manshoon wave and stomp across the Field to victory? Let’s find out.
Game 1:
BYE! Not really the way you want to start the night when you missed out on the previous week. I took the opportunity to buy an Aero bar. It was delicious.
1-0
Game 2:
My first actual game of the night was against a particularly nasty Golden combo: Blue Beetle, The Penguin, Malekith, and Instant War. For those that don’t know, Malekith makes his Sidekicks Villains. Blue Beetle deals burn damage when a Villain is fielded. The Penguin deals burn damage when a non-Villain is fielded. Instant War makes that burn damage happen all at once.
Off to buy Thrown Bricks for some Ramp to build to my other stuff. I managed to buy and field lots of Orks, got Manshoon out… but failed to roll Seething Corruption. By the time it was going to come around for a second shot, I was burned to death. I was actually surprised how quickly his combo was able to take me down. Well played!
1-1
Game 3:
This one was up against the Beholder that gives your free Globals, along with Dragon buying Globals (Ring of Winter and Kree Captain) to get to a very cheap Black Dragon or Dracolich. I stuck to the plan with the Bricks and bought my pieces. This time though, Manshoon decided not to roll… not even once (4 times through). I even bought the second die because I determined that the first one was cursed. Without Manshoon hitting the Field, I had no stats to withstand the Breath Weapon attacks. It did not take long to die.
1-2
Post-Mortem:
It seemed to be one of those nights. In both games that I played, one part of my combo refused to roll. The Orks were never a problem. It was Manshoon, with his beautiful hair, or Seething Corruption that caused me grief. There was not really much that I could do about that. Having said that, let’s dissect the Team regardless.
I like the core here. It SHOULD work if it rolls. I wouldn’t change a thing here. The same can be said for Istrid Horn. Even though she was not needed all night, the security of having here there was worth the Team slot.
Supreme Intelligence is another piece I probably would not change. With low drops, there is no better way to get those dice in the right spot. I did toy with including Rip Hunter’s Chalkboard here, and I even thought about including both of them for acceleration’s sake. I am still open to that idea.
Thrown Brick actually felt a bit like a trap for me. Even though it provided excellent Ramp, and some extra spray damage from Manshoon, I felt like it messed with my tempo. I may have been better to focus on buying my main pieces instead of spending the extra time getting the early Bricks. I think this slot might be better served with Resurrection, Misdirection (to avoid stupid dice that refuse to roll), or something similar. It feels like a flex spot after playing a couple of games.
Gazer is another spot that I could take or leave. Black Widow would shut this Team down hard, so it is nice to have something to deal with it. I am honestly undecided what I would do here. I didn’t use Gazer all night… but the threat to the Team makes me think it is still worth having around.
Malekith was fine for his Global. I did not need the recycling part of it on the night. You could easily sub in any of the Action Dice discount Globals here. I might actually try again with Red Dragon for the damage.
Wolverine was a pipe dream. I did manage to buy him in the Manshoon no show game because I had plenty of energy. He never made it out, and in all honesty, it was a wasted slot. I definitely could have made better use of this space.
Intellect Devourer was just… ok. I really needed better Ramp instead of the energy fixing. The Global was worth experimenting with, but was not a great fit on this build.
So… would I play this again? Absolutely! While I didn’t get this to fire how I wanted, there is something there. The pieces need to be tweaked to focus more on getting everything out a little faster. However, I am bringing other dice for Manshoon in the future. These ones need to be shamed for how they performed tonight.
Even though the dice didn’t cooperate tonight, at least it was still a fun evening with a great Community. Also, the Aero bar break was quite satisfying.
How would you make the Manshoon/Seething Corruption combo work? Are Orks the way? How would you speed it up? What is your chocolate bar of choice during a Bye Round? Let us know in the comments below.
Thanks for reading!
– jourdo