Earth-X Origins: Bah, Not Becky!

On June 20, 2020, Dice Masters had the biggest online Tournament, Earth-X Origins. There were 45 participants from all over the world!, Incredible. This was a Modern Constructed event with no bans. There were awesome X-Men animated promos cards, play mats (2 provided by Lonni) and more promo cards up for prizes provided by Wizkids.

Did I go for a fun, non-meta team or ‘I am here to win’ team?

What Did You Play?

The Team:  Bah, Not Becky!

You would think based on the title, I went with a non-Becky team, non-meta, fun team but I decided that the promo cards was worth a winning team.

I will take you on and little journey of how my team came to be. My original team that I was tinkering with was Mystique, which then became ‘The Man’.

Main win condition:
Mystique was the highlight. She was a cheap cost at 4 and cheaper with Kree Captain global for the discount and I would use Becky global to move her to prep when purchased. If I can get two in the field, then I can start my over-crushing using Raised Shields BAC. I would keep pushing with her as well if her attack was at least 6/7+. To help pump her up, I put Parasite: Maxwell Jensen on the team, “While Parasite is active, instead of declaring Parasite as an attacker, you may add his A and D to an attacking character die. You may do this once for each of your Parasite character dice that do not attack”. If I am lucky and get a small defender, I can use the Jerry Lawler global to double the damage. Having her out, I know I would have to use an aggressive approach. This could also backfire on me if my opponent didn’t keep a big field. Then I would have to pivot to my second win condition.

Second Win Condition:
Becky doesn’t really need much of an introduction but at a 5 cost that has over-crush and when she fielded, re roll two characters and if successful, also deal 1 damage for each rolled out character, bonus. This is a great ability which has a win condition and control built in. If I had to ‘tag’ her in (see what I did there), I would also use parasite to pump her and also use the Jerry Lawler global.

Control:

There were three control pieces that I had put on the team, Black Widow: Agent was there mainly for Iceman teams to at least slow down the damage and if I saw any characters that dealt 1 damage from thier ability. Big E: Powerlifter’s Physique for the heavy hitters, such as Becky and God Catcher. He is such a great card in reducing damage down to 2. Istrid Horn: Moneylender to turn off the Static Field or Kate Bishop global, which pushes back a character from attacking as well to turn off Nihiloor global, “Pay . Once per turn, you may KO a character die you control.” if faced with Hope/Rachel teams. 

Ramp: 
The only ramp card I had was Xanathar: Paranoid Tyrant that allows you to prep a sidekick die each turn (yours and your opponents).

BACs:
Raised Shield was meant to be purchased for Mystique and global to help if any bolts were kept back for pumps and Jerry was there for the global, to deal the double damage.

After playing testing the team a few times (thanks to Jocelyn and Rob) with Mystique, it was working but not fast enough. I tested against, Iceman, God Catcher, Hope/Rachel and Becky teams. After discussions with Jocelyn, I wanted to win games, so I decided to make a couple of adjustments.

Main win condition: was switched to Becky Lynch: Maiden Ireland. Now you know why I call this article, ‘Bah, Not Becky!’. Use Jerry Lawler global to help double the damage.

Second Win Condition:
I was debating to put God Catcher in but I had never played with God Catcher and didn’t want to learn how play it properly with 24 hrs to go to submit your team. Jocelyn threw out, Deadpool and I was like …ya! I like that. I added Deadpool: We’re X-Force! who gets +3A and over-crush if blocked. Deadpool replaced Mystique.

Control:
The other question was either to keep parasite or replace with another control piece. Jocelyn had Gazer: Evil Familiar on her test teams and Gazer was very useful in intimidating out characters. And gazer can intimidate out God Catcher which would make the token go bye bye, SOLD!

BACs:
Since I didn’t need Raised Shields BAC. I put on Booker T BAC for the global that forces a character to block which is very useful for Becky and Deadpool.

After playing testing with the new team, games were going much better and fast. The goal each game was to buy Gazer first turn and use Becky global to prep and hopefully next turn, buy Becky and use her global to prep.

The games were best of three, 50 minutes in length. How did I do in my games? I will keep these short and sweet (and apologizes if the game context is wrong as it was a long day and I am going purely off memory, which is poor to begin with).

Round 1: vs ChazzKaz

Team: Catcher of Gods

Chazz had a God Catcher team. Field a God Catcher token when you use an action die. The action he was using with the token was Under Surveillance BAC to make a character unblockable. And had Raised Shield BAC to pump the A with bolts. The first game went smoothly for me, following my plan and Becky dominated. The second and third game, he had his God Catcher and action moving well. Using the Becky global for bring over the Under Surveillance die to prep. I wasn’t fast enough.

Round Results: 1-2
Overall: 0-1

Game 2: vs Rawtravel

Team: Riddle me Dani

Ryan was using the Dani/Riddler combo. He had some bad rolls and my Becky kept rolling out his characters. Forcing Dani or sidekicks to block Becky helped. I think also, I had bought Deadpool in this game.

Round Results: 2-0
Overall: 1-1

Game 3: vs TJBoz

Team: Oh, Look, Becky

Becky vs Becky and all I am going to say is, This game was EPIC! Watch to see why

Round Results: 2-1
Overall: 2-1

Game 4:  vs Dascottman33

Team: Red hair Becky?

Becky vs Becky games but Dascottman had two Poison Ivy: Red in the field and that just stalled with Becky as I couldn’t roll her out at all. She kept coming back. I had some open field which I had taken 7/7 damage from Becky. His rolls were great and I believe I missed two Becky rolls in one turn, which really set me back.

Round Results: 0-2
Overall: 2-2

Game 5:  vs JLucero

Team: Catcher of Gods, Corrupted

Jlucero played a God Catcher team with a sneaky twist. These games went so fast, I didn’t even know what happened. He would get his God Catcher out (Field a God Catcher token when you use an action die.) and then put Seething Corruption into play. I was wondering the first game, what he would use to deal the damage to my characters and hidden in his team was Seth Rollins with the ability, “Crosspulse – Deal 2 damage to all opposing Superstar dice.”. He got me good and in one game, he had two God Catchers, cleared my board and went in for 20 damage. What a sneaky sneaky team, I love it!

Round Results: 0-2
Overall: 2-3

Game 6:  vs MrMcCat

Team: Here, Fishy Fishy

MrMcCat was using Atlantis to roll two dice every time he fielded a character in the turn. He would hope to roll sidekicks to field and he was using Black Widow to help buff the characters and overwhelm you with characters when attacking. My Becky went well the first game but he had refused to buy Lita (that lets you spin your sidekick dice to level 1 characters) but then he gave in and bought Lita on the other games. He would intimidate out my characters and swing with a big field. I didnt really have a field built up to help with blocking. Fish team is pretty good once it gets going.

Round Results: 1-2
Overall: 2-4

Post-Mortem:

I was happy with my team build and there was no card(s) that I thought was missing from my team that was critical to make it work efficiently. Some thoughts …

• Surprising card I saw that I didn’t even think of was Poison Ivy: Red.
• Becky failed me after round 2. She just didn’t want to roll and when she did, I couldn’t roll out Poison Ivy: Red to save my life! She was being very good for my opponents.
  • The Good thing with Poison Ivy out in the field. If i have 2 or 3 Beckys in the field, I would attack with my lowest level, hoping they block with Ivy and I would get Becky back again next turn to roll out characters.
• At least in a few games, I was able to buy three Becky’s!
• I kept forgetting that you didn’t have to roll out all the characters for Becky’s ability and I was rolling out sidekicks when I should have kept one to force block and do the double damage.
• Once I saw a Becky or God Catcher teams, my first purchase should have been Big E, I think I waited to long to purchase him and was to late as they were ahead of me.
• Happy I didn’t go with Mystique as my opponents were not keeping big fields to make her beefy. I would have had to pivot to Becky anyways.
• Black Widow: Agent didn’t see much play and I was surprised but with Becky, God Catcher and Hope/Rachel teams, she wouldn’t have been useful.

Special Thanks:

Huge THANKS goes out to Arge & Lucan from Rollin’ Thunder and the crew at CR Gameroom for organizing this event. Also, THANKS to all who participated and the streamers (Dice Masters North, CR Gameroom and Friday Night Clix). I had a blast and was very happy that I participated. CONGRATULATIONS! to the winner of the tournament, tuba2k7 aka Alan A

Keep it Rollin’