After the Switch-’em-Up event from last week we went back to Unlimited Constructed.
What Did You Play?
The Team: Barkskin Obelisk
I decided to build this week’s team around this combo:
and a force block. Attack with Obelisk, force something to block. If I target Obelisk with a Barkskin die, he can’t be KOed by damage, will deal 6-9 damage (before buffs) and stick around to repeat the process the following turn.
I decided to include UC Kobolds for ramp and potential fuel for the Cone of Cold global, as that would be my other BAC. Wrecker and Giant Spider gave me access to a couple of force block globals, and I added Scarlet Witch: Hex Bolts who would give me the ability to Prep action dice when I used them.
UC Kate Bishop both because the global gave me a defence against Unblockable and Overcrush characters, and it gave me an alternative way to prevent opposing blockers from KOing Obelisk.
With the number of globals on this team I thought it might be prudent to add Rare Quasar, which could potentially give me more flexibility about using the right global when I needed to.
Finally, I threw in Enchantress for some Global and Action Dice hate in one.
Game 1:
This was a Red Lantern team, along with Kyle Rayner. I believe his Plan A involved using Kyle Rayner and Rare Spectre along with some cheap Red Lanterns, to make his Supergirls (who had Overcrush) dirt cheap and hit me with those. My having Kate Bishop (and her global) may have put a bit of a monkey wrench in that plan.
He brought Candlekeep and Resurrection as his BACs, and when he lost the ‘coin toss’ I bought Candlekeep dice on my first two turns. Then I got Enchantress out fairly early, and used her and a force block to KO his Kyle Rayner. He had some bad rolls and never managed to re-field Kyle Rayner, so he wasn’t getting as big a discount on his Lanterns as he’d intended, and Enchantress was messing up his ramp.
That gave me enough time to get to Obelisk, get him out and start pounding away with him. It didn’t take long.
I have to mention the moment that really stuck with me from this game was when my opponent paid 4 energy to prep a single die – He used the Quasar global to turn a bolt into a wild, and then used that for the Resurrection global. However, since my Enchantress was out he had to pay an extra generic for each of the two globals.
1-0
Game 2:
This team was about UC Collector and Beholder: Master Aberration (which when it attacks allows its controller to use all the BAC abilities). Unfortunately for him, he brought Golden PXG for his ramp, That allowed me to buy Enchantress on Turn 2, and get her in the field by Turn 4, so I was getting a lot more benefit from it than he was.
His BACs were Misdirection and Scorching Ray. He had few low cost characters – I believe his plan involved attacking with Beholder to trigger Scorching Ray (and hopefully draw one of his 6 or 7 cost characters).
When he fielded his first Collector die, he kept his Beholder die and removed his other Collector die from the game. With his only remaining Collector die stuck in the field for much of the game, he couldn’t buy many of his expensive dice that way, and Enchantress complicating his ability to use PXG he was finding it a little difficult to buy them the traditional way.
So I bought my Kobolds, and between them and Professor X, got the 7 energy I needed to buy Obelisk. I got it out on Level 2 and had 4 fists to use with the Cone of Cold global giving it 15 attack, which was enough to finish off my previously weakened opponent.
2-0
Game 3:
This was Jourdo’s Blue Dragon team. He mentioned how it went in his most recent article where he said the rolls wouldn’t allow me to go the way I’d intended. That was what I’d told him immediately following the game, but I’ve had the opportunity to think about what happened a little bit more since then, and I’ve realized it’s not quite that simple.
The truth is, I fell into a bit of a trap, and unintentionally sabotaged myself. I bought a Barkskin die on my first turn, and fielded several Sidekicks on my early turns. I had 4 Sidekicks in my Field Zone for most of the game.
Jourdo was running both Ring of Winter and the Rare Blue Eyes White Dragon. If I used the globals on both I could get an Obelisk by paying Bolt-Bolt-Fist-2 other or an Enchantress by paying Bolt-Bolt-Mask-1 other. With 4 Sidekicks in the field, I had only 4 Sidekick dice in my bag. I was drawing the Barkskin die, and 3 or 4 Sidekick dice (depending on whether I’d used Resurrection to Prep anything on my prior turn). I needed a rather specific distribution of energy to buy either of the characters I truly wanted to buy, and another Sidekick die, which might have given me another bolt or mask/fist (or wild) would have probably been more helpful than a Basic Action Die, which would only ever give me generic energy.
I didn’t realize until well after the game was over that the actions I’d taken had made it much less likely I would get the energy breakdown I was looking for on a given turn.
Now, that was a very dangerous Dragon team, and Jourdo is full marks for the victory. I’m certainly not claiming I would have won if I’d played smarter. What I am saying that, even if I didn’t realize it till after the fact, I threw away whatever chance I might have had with my poor piloting this game.
2-1
Post-Mortem:
She’s a support piece, not the win con, but Enchantress was the MVP for me on the night. She was a huge thorn in my opponents sides in my two wins.
Obelisk and Barkskin is a fun combination. He’s more expensive than Captain America: Chemistry Project (who has essentially the same ability) but Obelisk’s Level 1 Stats match Cap’s Level 3 stats. Nor does Cap have much of an edge in fielding costs.
Thinking back, I don’t remember Barkskin seeing much play – or any at all, really. The one card I’m surprised nobody ever seemed to pair it with is
Unlike Obelisk or Chemistry Project, you can’t use the Distraction/Blink-Transmutation/Kate Bishop global to remove him from the Attack Zone and still deal his damage. Double Deal was a reasonably popular win con in its day. Barkskin seems to be a natural fit with it, but I don’t remember ever seeing or hearing about anybody using them together.
Granted, Two-Face steal deals his damage even if KOed, but why not keep him in the field if you can?
Are there any combos out there that make yo go “Why was this never a thing?” Let us know in the comments.
Thanks for reading, and Happy Rolling!
-Son of L