This past weekend, our friends at The Ministry of Dice ran the Spring MODPDM Online Dice Masters Tournament. I was lucky enough to have my work schedule clear up to allow me to participate in the Event. The event was covered fairly extensively on Twitch and YouTube on the various Dice Masters Content Creators. Check out these various channels to see what they had to offer (If I have forgotten anybody, please let me know and I will update this list):
The MODPDM brought out 34 players to chuck some dice across the world. It was a Modern 10/10 Format, with a classic MOD Twist (check out Britrollersix for the details). These are always fun events to meet and play players from around the globe. We got to see many new names from the list of usual suspects in the online scene, which was incredible. I’ll leave the full tournament breakdown for The Ministry boys and focus more on how my day went.
What Did You Play?
For those who do not know, the 10/10 Format forces you to use 10 different cards from 10 different sets. It is an interesting Format in that it usually results in the loss of good accessory pieces due to the limitations of the build. So, the smart money would have been to focus on some of the big pieces like God Catcher, Thor, Becky, Iceman, Dani Moonstar, etc…. to build something that has a chance to compete. In fact, the Team I ran recently at the WDA with Jubilee could have been something that could do some decent damage.
However, I decided to go in a different direction and focus on something a little more goofy to play. We are breaking out a really fun card from the XForce Team Pack in Domino.
The Team: Falling Dominos
The Energize ability is great because you have the potential for a OTK if you are ridiculously lucky with your dice rolls. This won’t happen, but just the possibility is too tempting not to try. I will need to max out on Domino dice to even have a chance of this happening. With a limit of 4 dice, it might be hard. If there was only a way to get more dice…
Hello Hope Summers! Now I have instantly doubled up on Domino dice thanks to this ability. I will need to get Hope out early to copy Domino, but once that is done I am set on my Domino dice needs. Two sets, and two X-men on the Team so far.
It is great to have the 8 dice, but I really need a way to get these dice through the bag. I have no intention of fielding Hope or Domino, so cycling will be key.
Here is where we look to Rush. The Rocket Raccoon from Infinity Gauntlet has this ability for Shields… which Domino and Hope both happen to be. Win-win! In the best case scenario, I have a Rocket in the bag and pull a bunch of Hope and Domino dice thanks to Rush.
With the strategy of trying to use Energize as the win condition and pairing it with a Rush engine, I need to keep a couple things in mind;
- I will not be fielding any of these characters. They need to live in the bag and cycle over and over in order to have any chance of success.
- I need to have Rocket hit the bag when there are Hope and Domino dice in there to draw in order to maximize my chance of Rush.
- I want to minimize my Prepping by drawing from the bag. I need to shift dice around in different ways.
- With Domino’s Energize ability, her final die face will either be a single Shield or a character face. The Shield will give me something to spend, but the character face is kind of useless to me… or is it?
Let’s solve point number 3 first. Rocket is a cheap character, and easy enough to purchase. Getting him in the bag is a little bit trickier. This is where we go to an old favourite from the Avengers Infinity Campaign Box with Big Entrance. I am buying this BAC on Turn 1 and then using it for discounting Rocket, Hope, and Domino. I will target Rocket when there is something in the bag in order to actually make Rush work.
Back to point number 2 to address my Prep options. I cannot easily draw from the bag with something like Villainous Pact or Atlas on this Team. I need something that moves Sidekicks around, as I do not want them in my bad. Two cards come into play here: Atlantis and Walk with Elias. The Atlantis Global will let me get two Sidekicks out of my way by fielding one and sending the other to Prep. The action itself will let me reset my dice if I wanted to as well (say if Rush were not set to trigger on the following turn). Walk with Elias has the Global to send two Sidekicks from my Used Pile over to the Prep Area. Both options allow me to make Sidekicks bypass the bag, which hopefully increases a Rocket/Shield draw.
Now onto point number 4. This is a Ministry of Dice Event after all, so I rewatched their entire YouTube back catalog (you should too) and came across this little gem discovered by Mr. England himself. A staple of his “Fish Food” Team, Aquaman is going to work well on this build. When Hope or Domino (and even Rocket) end up on their character faces, I can punt away after the Main Step and gain 2 life for each one. I am going to probably take a lot of damage with this Team, so this will help mitigate that issue. Now I am built to be more of a pain in the butt with Aquaman on the Team. He is also a Shield character, which works back into the Rush strategy.
Most of the Team is now in place, and I am losing access to many sets with my selections. Now I need to address some of the many weaknesses that I have on this Team. Aquaman is essential (when has this ever been said??) to this Team. He needs to stay in the Field for me to survive. With the many, many, Force Attack Globals out there he will for sure be a target. 
This is where I have to look at a way to turning off those. Most of these are on Character Cards, so let’s just remove the text. Here is where Typhoid Mary joins the gang. With the special rules for this Event, we were allowed two cards from the Infinity Gauntlet set. She is now my second. She could be used for other purposes as well, but she is mainly for dealing with the Force Attack.
The next big problem is that Black Widow: Agent will ruin my day. She is one of the best Promo Cards currently available in this card pool and there is a good chance she will show up.
Mary can definitely help, but I reached for something else to deal with her (and pretty much any other annoying character. Mimic slips in for this job. Worst case scenario, I KO their character to remove them from the Field. Best case scenario, Mimic removes their character AND I get a copy of that character on my Team. He also happens to be affiliated with the X-men and Hope can pivot to him if necessary.
9 out of 10 slots available, and many sets are now eliminated. Since I will hopefully be swimming in Shields on this Team, I figured I should look at Global options for this last slot. I decided to do the smart thing and bring a Global that could be used against my Team as well. The Trish Stratus Global will decrease damage to myself or a character for the low, low price of one Shield. Yes, my Opponent can use it too and prevent the little amount of damage that Domino/Hope will be doing. I am ok with this though, as my theory is if they are saving Shields to do this, they are not spending that energy on dice they should be buying. It is a gamble, but one I am willing to take.
There you have it… a Modern 10/10 Energize/Rush Team built to be annoying and force my Opponent to do more than 20 damage in order to win. Will be be good enough to win the day? Likely not, but I think it will be a fun day to run with it.
Let’s see how it ran. Everything was broadcast live on Twitch (with a few stream crashes throughout the day), and I have included the individual matches in this article. You can view them on our YouTube channel if you prefer that (also like and subscribe if you are not already doing so).
Game 1:
I started my afternoon playing Breath Weapon X’s own CollectorRob. He brought a really interesting twist on Sylgar using the new Angela to give the fish Infiltrate. He was using Eddie Guerrero with Tag Out to potentially buff those same fish. Block and take damage from Sylgar. Don’t block and take damage from Infiltrate or Tag Out. He had a great build gives you a tough decision on dealing with his pack of mad fish. Sprinkle in a Venerable Dreadnaught and my little Field did not stand much of a chance against his goldfish on steroids. I did get to steal his Deadnaught for a turn thanks to some shenanigans, but the clock hit and Rob got the victory on life. Great fun and this is for sure a Team I want to look at as I had not thought of giving Sylgar Infiltrate.
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Game 2:
Round 2 was up against Radek and his multiple ways to burn Team. My favourite Ghost Rider was the big hitter, and Jubilee made it worse by increasing the damage when Bolt characters were fielded. Sprinkle in some Attune and more Bolt characters and I was not looking forward to what was coming my way. This turned into the craziest game on the day. His Ghost Rider’s did their thing but they unfortunately got stuck in the field with their good stats. The burn train just kept on coming and Aquaman put in the heavy lifting for me. I lost WAY more than 20 life in this game, but was able to somehow end the game at 8 life… which was exactly what Radek had. An actual tie??? Maybe there was a scoring error, as Radek definitely deserved the victory on this one. 2 for 2 in the fun game department.
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Game 3:
Game 3 was against mPire, who was using the worst card in the game in the mask discount Asuka (she is actually good… we just don’t get along). He was using Poison Ivy to clear a weak board and also bought a Dreadnaught to keep everying out. I managed the miracle Mimic roll and stole his Dreadnaught that let me swing in for 11 (of course this happened when the stream crashed). His Ivy train kept on rolling and softening me up. I needed to keep a field and that kept me from buying what I wanted so the Energize strategy was not exactly working well. An army of Kangs ran me over in the end. Another great game on the day!
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Game 4:
The next match of the afternoon was against Pink Frankenstein with his take on an Anglea Infiltrate build. Instead of fish though, he used Bobby Heenan to make the blocking choice that much harder. Lose life if you choose to block. Take damage from either combat or Infiltrate if you do not. Another game of bad choices. My Energize characters chose to favour their character faces in this game, which made it tough to purchase and really hard to deal damage. My Team just didn’t fire and his did perfectly. Another interesting Infiltrate build which was really cool to see as I have always liked that mechanic. Another great game against a great guy.
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Game 5:
After hanging out in our Twitch Chat, EPICat joined me on stream for Round 5. He pulled out the new Promo Typhoid Mary for a modified Fish Slap Team. Atlantis was used to cycle his bag when he fielded Sidekicks while Mary provided a buff for those Sidekicks along with giving them Overcrush. I know how explosive a Fish Slap can be, but adding Mary to it makes it even better. It just hits hard now. Aquaman was set to put in some work to keep me in longer than I probably deserved to be, but I forgot about Black Widow’s force attack Global and lost him as quickly as I got him. An epic slap to the face with the Mary/Fish powered Sidekicks was plenty to take me out. Another loss and another fun game.
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Game 6:
A newcomer to the online scene in Maples was my final opponent for the afternoon. He was running the burn damage Jubilee paired with SR Thor. I am staring down a super-burn Team with those two across the Field. This is a job for Aquaman! His Team would burn me down and Aquaman would build me back up. Rush was cooperating the best it had all afternoon, so I was able to cycle my characters a little better than I had been all day. I managed to get 19 shots of Energize in this one, but eventually succumbed to the burn and a big swing. So close on this one. I was happy to see a new face enjoy the online Dice Masters scene.
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Post-Mortem:
I’m going to start this by thanking Jackalopespam for workshopping this Team with me. While it was not the strongest thing out there, it was a blast to play with. At some point, I am going to go back and see how much life Aquaman got me back. He is the perfect partner for something like Domino/Hope. If Energize is your weapon of choice, then these three are a match made in heaven.
Rocket was a nice addition to the mix as well in order to make things flow a little better, and I am glad he is around now to make this work better now. Big Entrance was surprisingly playable on this Team. I normally regret buying that die during the mid-game, but not on this Team. It managed to get things somewhat set up when it behaved.
I realized later in the afternoon how good Atlantis (the die) was on this build. It helped me recover from a bad roll a little easier. I am wishing I had put another die on it as I feel it could have helped out a little more.
Trish Stratus’s Global helped out more than I thought it would. She was kind of a last minute addition, and I am glad she was there. I never got burned too badly with it being used against me, nad she helped me out of a few tight spots on occasion. Definitely a good addition and an overlooked Global.
Walk with Elias worked fine, but I still find it clunky to use. I think there is something better here if you were to go outside the 10/10 Format. Given the restrictions, I am not sure what else I would have put here.
Mimic was a savior on a couple of occasions helping to keep stuff out of the Field and giving me access to an extra character. He is still one of the best removal options in the game. Mary never really made an appearance, although she probably could have helped a few times. Maybe my Shriek aversion is still in effect here, but I just never wanted to go for her. Having said that, I would consider keeping her spot on the Team.
So, what is my overall assessment on the Team? Super fun and I would run it again in a heartbeat. Would I run it again in a competitive tournament? Probably not, but I still enjoyed my time with it. You would think a winless over six rounds would make for a miserable day… but it did not. The people I played against were great (as they always are) which made for a fun afternoon. The MOD always host a good show and this day was no different. I was amazed with the turn out and even more thrilled to see so many new names on Challonge. Welcome to the online scene to all of the new players. I hope you had fun at the MODPDM and hope to see you out at future events.
Mad props to The Ministry of Dice for all of their hard work!
Mad props to the Community of Dice Masters Players! You are always awesome!
Mad props to you for reading this longer article!
As always, I would love to hear your feedback on what you would do differently. Share your experiences at the MODPDM… especially if you were new to this type of thing. What is your favourite 10/10 Team?
Let us know in the comments below!
Thanks for reading!
– jourdo
P.S. Screw the Buchholz! 😛