Low Hanging Fruit

The local store still does not have WWE.  Just thought you should all know that.  Very frustrating when you are trying to support the local scene but cannot.  This continued blip means that I still don’t have access to the Team Packs yet.  However, a little online shopping has at least given me the Campaign Box to play around with.

Last week, I dipped my toe into WWE with Charlotte Flair as she was something a little off the beaten path in terms of “high end” characters that we have seen.  This week, I decided to grab for some of the low hanging fruit.

Bobby was coming out to play this week.  I chose to use “The Weasel” for his ability to cause life loss when characters block.  The obvious pairing here would be to include Foetid Bloat Drone for his ability to force things to block him when he attacks.  These two cards together could cause some serious damage.

However, I am not that smart… and I wanted to take the long way around to get the same effect.  I chose to go for the overly complicated machine instead of the sleek sports car.

We were going to go down the Doom Lance route in this build instead.  I will get the same effect as Bloat Drone, but I will need to roll the action and pair it with a character of some sort.  Ideally, something Deadly in order to benefit from Doom Lance itself.

What Did You Play?

The Team:  Heenan No-Drone.

Bobby and Doom Lance were the starting point here.  I knew I wanted a Deadly character next, so I went with a couple different options.  The first one included was Poison Ivy – Red.  She is basically my anti-Becky tech for the evening.  In case of Becky, I block with Ivy and take no Overcrush damage… and KO Becky.

She is great as a 3-cost, but I wanted a back-up plan just in case Ivy was taken out or I came up against Villains.  The cheapest Deadly character available right now is Grey Hunter.  At a 2-cost, he can be brought over easily at the right time with something like the Supreme Intelligence Global.

Hey… on that note… why don’t I throw on Supreme Intelligence.  Pick your version here.  It really does not matter as I will not be buying it.

Noting that my whole Team is Mask centric so far, I decided to take Asuka out for a test drive.  The 2 discount is just insane here.  With her on the Team, I decided to fully commit to the Mask build and only include Mask characters from here on out.

Bobby was going to be my win condition (well paired with Doom Lance and Ivy/Grey Hunter).  However, he only causes one life loss per Bobby.  That is good… but do you know what is better?  If you can double that effect.  Rare Absorbing Man was the next addition here.  First he will let me double up on Bobby triggers, which is good.  Secondly, I can make use of my Opponents who bring “when fielded” effects.  This could be a defensive tool as well.  Worth the addition in my opinion.

Super-rare Mimic was the next piece put on the Team.  With Asuka, he is now a 3-cost.  That is nuts for his ability.  I loaded up on max dice for this guy.  He is a major flex piece.  First, I can copy something across the board that is causing me problems.  Secondly, I can double up on abilities on my side… like Absorbing Man.  Now, Bobby triggers 3 times per die.  THAT is excellent.

I have discounts and a win condition, but no real Ramp.  I chose to go to an old favourite with Thrown Brick.  With the ever present threat of having your Bricks bought out from under you, I decided as my last piece to include the Rare Banshee as my anti-Brick tech.

You buy my Bricks, I buy my (cheap) Banshee.  Then I can burn you for your choice of buying my stuff.  I have always loved this card, but the 4-cost has always made it difficult to get out.  With Asuka, this is no longer a problem.

The plan is set:  Get Absorbing Man, Mimic, and a Deadly character in the Field.  Roll up a Doom Lance and a Bobby on the same turn.  3 life loss per Bobby fielded multiplied by the number of Blockers equals victory (hopefully).

NOTE:  There is some discussion as to if this combo works as intended.  The overlying rule of “you cannot force your Opponent to pay a cost” is definitely in play here.  Is Bobby a cost?  It doesn’t appear so, but I can see that side of things.  Over the night, it was played both ways when the issue came up.  If you want to read something a little more in-depth on the subject, check out the article written by Arge on Rollin Thunder.

Game 1:

The first game of the night was against Morph/Paige with UC Thor (damage absorber), R Surtur, and Stompa as his big purchases.  Morph makes this easy to pull off with Paige around.  He would be getting his big boys out pretty quickly.  I went for the early Bricks because I couldn’t roll a mask.  I only bought my first Mimic thanks to his Paige.  Eventually things corrected and I got Asuka.  I bought as many Mimics as I could as I figured they would be prime Stompa fodder.

I managed to copy his Surtur with Mimic and neutralized the threat of board wipe by having one of my own available.  That trick worked once as he was less inclined to attack with Surtur while I had my own.  Eventually, I had 4 Mimics in the Field and managed to copy his Thor.  That was the turning point in the game as I had 4 big bodies that could absorb almost anything.

At that time, I also had Absorbing Man in the Field.  When his Stompa finally showed up, I was able to copy his ability and send him right back to the card.  That worked better than planned.

I missed lethal with combat damage… because math… but lined up Bobby with a Doom Lance shortly after.  He had a pretty decent Field at the time, and each blocker lead to 3 life loss thanks to Bobby/Absorbing Man/Mimic.  More than enough for lethal the second time around.

1-0

Game 2:

Game 2 was against another Asuka-Mask Team.  Rock, Free Global Beholder, SR Doppelganger, and Nihiloor were the main players here.  The presence of Banshee on my Team was enough to keep him away from my Bricks.  We both went for early Asukas in order to buy our stuff cheap… and buy we did.  Mimic served to copy the best stats on the board at the time until I was ready with Absorbing Man and Bobby.  It took some time to set up, but I had Mimic and Absorbing Man in the Field when two Bobbys hit with Doom Lance and Grey Hunter.  Now, blockers were going to cause 6 life loss each.  That was plenty when the dust settled.

2-0

Game 3:

Becky!!!!  Here she was… and set up with the Jerry Lawler and Booker T Globals.  This could hurt if I couldn’t roll.  I opted to go for Ivy ASAP here.  I bought all of them right off the bat to match his Becky dice.  That way, I would have one Blocker against each of his Beckys that could not be KO’ed by her.  I used Mimic to copy his giant Beckys while I got set up.  This was the game where the question came up about “forcing your Opponent to pay a cost”.  I was ok with not playing it the way I was earlier in this one.  Since I was changing gears here, I went full Mimic with the Asuka discount.  He had Kurt Angle to clear out our boards, but I always kept an Ivy to pair with his Becky.  I eventually swung in with everything and was able to take advantage of his Lawler Global to double my Mimic-Becky damage for lethal.  I guess Becky won this game.

3-0

Post-Mortem:

Let’s start off with the question as to whether this combo works or not.  I can see either side here, so Wizkids really needs to step up and answer this one.  Bobby Heenan is going to see play in the meta without a doubt.  Doom Lance or Bloat Drone are going to be the tools used with him.  Does his ability count as a cost?  I honestly don’t know, but I am leaning towards “no” based on much of what Arge said in his article.  Either way though… we need something official here.

Absorbing  Man was key in this build.  Without him present, Bobby was more of an annoyance than anything.  Doubling up on the ability made him more of a threat.  He was also invaluable when I came up against Stompa in my first game.

Let’s quickly talk about Asuka here.  Laurier already discussed her in his last article.  She is nuts with the discount you get.  I would almost say that this is borderline broken with the size of the discount.  Masks have gotten the ultimate tool to reach for some of those previously difficult to get characters.  If I do not see a lot of Asuka locally, I will be surprised.  She is that good on a Mask Team.

This ties into Mimic.  SR Mimic has always been a good card.  With Asuka though… he is amazing.  Mimic was really the star of the show tonight.  He was whatever I needed most as the time.  Protection?  A big body?  Triple the effect of Bobby?  Sure!  Whatever you need man.  At effectively a 3-cost in this build, I see no reason NOT to run Mimic with Asuka.

Grey Hunter and Ivy served the same purpose in the build, but Ivy definitely took care of Becky on the night.  Without other forms of removal, Becky was neutered when she came up against Ivy.  With the threat of Overcrush real in this new meta, pieces like Ivy are definitely helpful.

Banshee actually worked perfectly on this Team.  I only bought him in one game.  Just the threat of him being there kept people from buying my Bricks.  Again, with Asuka, it was not hard to buy when I needed.  This left the Bricks for me to buy and let them do their bricky thing.

Supreme Intelligence has been discussed so many times.  There were enough things on this Team that I could use with it to make it useful.  I almost did not include it, but I am happy that I did.

How about Bobby himself?  If he works like I think he does… he is amazing.  Doubling (and tripling) the effect turns him into a beast.  A beast that things like Bishop cannot stop.  Please officially rule on him Wizkids.

Would I play this again?  Not locally.  I’ve done the Bobby thing and would probably save this kind of a thing for a more competitive environment.  This was super fun to run though, and I absolutely loved dusting off this Mimic.

Where do you stand on Bobby?  Is he a “cost” and therefore cannot work with Doom Lance or Bloat Drone?  Does it work like I feel it should?  How would you build a Bobby-centric Team?  Let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

– jourdo