This is a Guest Article brought to you by Reg from Dice Masters in the Great North with Reg and Kim YouTube Page. You can check out their content here. Reg recently participated in our TOTM competition and asked if he could do a write-up for what he ran. Here it is!
What Did You Play?
The Team: Take off, Eh?
In previous months when submitting a DM-North Team of the month, I like to put my
own twist on it.
This month, we were not allowed to submit any character cards with the letter A in the
Card name. My Twist this time was to submit a team with no A’s in either the Card
name, Subtitle, or in the Basic Actions.
I pulled all my cards out of the binder that applied and I quickly noticed that this was not
going to be an easy challenge as my list of cards went from over a few hundred (With
No A’s in the name) to a couple dozen decent cards.
In the second pass through the cards, I found two-win cards that I could build around,
and decided to go with a left and right side of 4 cards each for my team, and hoping
there was some support for them with the remaining.
Common Boom Boom (Time Bomb) was my first selection, and since this was any card allowed (including banned cards), it was an easy 1B action card in Rare Cosmic Cube – Energy of the Beyonders. I would need a good Basic Action that can rotate through my bag, and I was able to find this in the Thrown Brick from the Harley Quinn Team Pack. Simple Idea, buy brick, throw brick anywhere at a high cost character, ramp, and Boom
Boom hits for her damage. If cube is in on the turn, then damage will add up fast. I had two more spots left and felt some control would be in order. I wasn’t able to use Shriek under my rules as all her cards had A’s in the subtitle, as with the Rare Blob. I chose the Uncommon version of Blob (Nothing Moves the Blob), and If I was shrieked, Blob would need to be purchased to capture her. Rare Bishop (Butterfly Effect) was also an easy choice for this team, as I’m sure lots of nasty teams would be out there doing non-combat damage in this event.
For the B-side of my team, I came across Common Mr. Fixit (Muscle for Hire). I paired him with my usual combo in Uncommon Hellfire Club (Members Only). These two I know how they work, however my favorite BAC in Magic Missile was unavailable to help me in this build.
I then remembered an old Basic Action Card in Driven Underground. If my Thrown Brick hits something, then I can use the Global on Drive Underground to essentially “Magic Missile” global. My Fixit had a way to get huge now, and it wouldn’t be all that hard with Thrown Brick, and all the bolts I’m running. Two More cards to go, and I wanted something to deal with if someone buys the Thrown Bricks on me. I brought Rare Mr Mxyzptlk (5 th Dimension) to the team. With him in the field, whenever my opponent uses a Basic Action, I would get to use the same one in the queue. You throw a brick, I get to throw a brick.
I ended up playing three games during the weekend online and let’s see how they fared.
Game 1:
Versus Eric (Green Goliath/Cosmic X-23)
Eric had the cards that could shut me down easily in Rare Blob, and Shriek (Sonic Beam). I knew If I went the Mr Fixit route, I could be okay, but I rolled Bolts to start and went with Boom and the Thrown bricks route (Got all 3). My intent was to throw a brick at Shriek and then global her out with Driven underground, but I never rolled any bolts after initial turns.
The Thrown brick was giving me bad rolls, and before I knew it my Fixit was Blob’d, and my Boom Boom was Shrieked. I was down to 1 life (I almost had lethal against me, but I used his Professor X Magnus global to sneak a sidekick on my field), My last turn I had tons of dice to roll, I pulled everything I needed and then I god rolled Three Cubes, and Three Thrown bricks to go with my Boom Boom that came back to the field. It was overkill in damage but was a very close game that could have gone either way. Eric played his team very well and was a great player to play against online if you ever see him.
1-0
Game 2:
Versus Steven (Sinestro/Undead Team)
I knew Steven was going to be running Sinestro to put my life on a countdown once he was out, I knew Bishop could have stopped that, but I also knew Sinestro was going to take him a bunch of turns to get lethal on me. My opponent brought a card that I used against him in PXG. Fixit teams love opponents when they bring the Professor global. First two turns I bought all the Bricks, and he had Sinestro purchased. I used the PXG to get maximum dice rolls each turn and continued to buy Fixit, then Hellfire Club the following turn. The Bricks gave me ramp and using PXG kept my bag empty. I Fielded Fixit, and the next turn Hellfire rolled along with the Brick, and I had two extra bolts to ping Fixit. He walked across the line with a buffed up attack.
2-0
Game 3:
Versus Matt J from DM-North (Sinestro/Infiltrate/Nocturne)
Matt also had brought Sinestro to his team, and he watched my game 2. He went first and went right after the Bricks. I got the other two, but not having the third one did hurt this match. I went for the Boom Boom side to start and had all the pieces ready. I had bought all 4 Cubes, but the thrown brick wasn’t co-operating. When the Brick rolled, Nocturne was a thorn redirecting the damage. My life was slowly dwindling with the Kree infiltrate damage and this is where I purchased Bishop to stop that, but still the Bricks didn’t roll. Sinestro and Kree weren’t able to do their things due to a high defence Bishop fielded, and I was down to 5 life when I pulled the Cubes and Bricks. It finally rolled, and I was able to clear the single sidekick in his field and push with my attack to take the victory. Very close match, and Bishop saved my butt this match with his big butt.
3-0
Post-Mortem:
It was a good team, and in the end, it rolled efficiently. The two-side approach had good synergies, they mixed well when I had to flip my strategy. I had two very good win conditions and yes, I did feel bad using the banned cube again tonight. I’d look to run the Hellfire/Fixit combo over the Boom Boom one, as I knew there were no Kate Bishop, Blink Transmutation or Splinter’s Teachings allowed in this event to send Fixit back to the field when he swings. I knew limiting my cards to no A’s at all would cause me fits if I ran into trouble ramp cards like Elf Thief (w PXG), Mimic, and of course a blanking Shriek, but Nocturne caused me lots of trouble in game 3.
Negatives: I did find that I had lots of spare (non-bolt) energy I could not spend during the matches. 1 or 2 energies available to me and only bolts characters I had for low costs. I am wondering what the other teams that were submitted as I’m sure there would have been a card that would have given me fits. Cards that hurt me during these games were Nocturne, Shriek, Blob.
I used most of the cards during the three games, and the Driven Underground really helped to clear pieces when I needed to. The Thrown Brick is a ridiculous card, and if you ever see your opponent with it, go second and buy them both on your first turn.
It was a fun team to play, I had to go offline after three games, and I wish I got to play other teams as I’m sure there were other nasty teams submitted that I just didn’t get to play for the event. I didn’t end up buying Mr. XYZ, but that was more due to my opponent not having a Basic Action worthy of purchasing him for his ability. He would have been a fun card in the right match to mess around with.
My MVP was by far the Thrown Brick, even if you don’t roll it on your first time you pull it, then its recouped your initial purchase value back. Having played a game already where it gets thrown successfully for 5 turns in a row, and just keeps coming back is disgustingly good…
All three of my opponents were very friendly, and I suggest giving Online play a try if you haven’t already. There is a great community online, and always willing to help out a newer player get accustomed to.
Thanks for Reading, and hope you roll with luck next time!
Steelers_Reg