Sometimes, you want to do something just to see if it can work. You build a machine to see if it can get you what you want. It may not be the most effective thing out there, but it is something you just need to test. Enter this week’s Team build…
What Did You Play?
The Team: Death By Prep.
The plan was really simple… I wanted to see how much damage I could cause by forcing my opponent to Prep dice. The whole build centered around Tabaxi Rouge and his ability to cause damage when my opponent drew dice. Paper cuts are fun and all, but I needed this ability to be better. Hello Cosmic Cube! This felt like a good “last hurrah” for the Cube before it sits on the naughty spot next month. Every instance of Tabaxi’s damage is now a little more serious.
The Global would be one source of damage, but I needed other ways of forcing Prep on my opponent. I added in Investigation and Resurrection as temptations for my opponents. If they used them with Tabaxi active, it would only hurt them.
The big hitter would be Hogun. He makes both players prep two dice. If he could be fielded on the same turn as a couple of Cubes, it could be fun. The next addition was the Rare Absorbing Man to double up on Hogun’s ability. With the basics set, I needed some accessory pieces.
Iron Fist was added because some players here like Rare Wasp and I need to use Globals here. I don’t want to burn myself to death while I am trying to burn them to death. The next addition was Acererak for two reasons: 1. The Global allows me a little bit of help if I whiff my rolls, and 2. The Attune ability is not a bad Plan B. Billy Club was there for a little bit of ramp help with the Fixer and also a removal option if I needed it. Finally, Malekith was put on the Team as an easier way to KO Hogun (as his stats are fairly beefy and he will be hard to KO otherwise).
Definitely not a top tier team here, but let’s see how it ran…
Game 1:
Bye!
1-0
Game 2:
Larfleeze/Insect Plague here. I have been wanting to try this Team out myself, so it was fun to play against it and see how it worked. This was more or less a race. His unblockable 8A Sidekicks vs lots of Cubes. I managed to get in 14 damage from Prepping, but fell to the Larfleezekicks. Not bad for a first try.
1-1
Game 3:
I think tonight was play against Teams on your “To-Do” list night, as this opponent was also playing one I am working on. Rare Black Adam with lots of Deadly characters. One of which was the UC Basilisk (a great card by the way). I’ve got some other ideas for Adam, but this was an interesting one. Not as much of a race here, but his Basilisk was effective in taking out Tabaxi and Doctor Light prevented my Sidekicks from blocking. I still managed 14 or so Prep damage, but eventually got hit for lethal when I couldn’t block anything. On a side note, I managed to get an Experience Token on Tabaxi… so there is that.
1-2
Game 4:
SR Darkseid and One Against Many. This was the first game where I went for Absorbing Man. I could not get Hogun to line up with Cube at all in this game, which was disappointing. I forced myself to keep my field lean because of One Against Many, and I missed my chance for lethal by missing one of my own. Eventually died when I got OAM’ed a few times and his field outnumbered my own. I still managed a fair bit of Prep burn though.
1-3
Post-Mortem:
Sure this Team did not win anything, but it was really fun to play. Cube is ridiculous, and makes Teams like this possible. I don’t see that as a bad thing to be honest. I would definitely play this again, but would probably make some changes. First, I would put Parallax in for Acererak. This is an all or nothing Team. Win by Prep, or die by Prep… no Plan B. I would also maybe actually buy a Billy Club. Many times, I could have (and probably should have) but chose not to. My bad. The final swap would probably be Blue-Eyes for Malekith. There were times that I would have liked to KO Hogun on my Opponent’s turn, and that Global allows me to do that. I think there is something here for those who like the shenanigans.
What are your thoughts on this Team? What changes would you make to make it more effective? What Team builds have you tried that would fall under the “dumb ways to die” category? We would love to hear from you in the comments below.
As always, thanks for reading!
– jourdo