Format: Casual Golden Age (Modern strongly recommended)
If you’ll recall, a few weeks ago, I did a R Danger Room team, and at that time, I intended to revisit R Danger Room with other cards that it makes better.
And so, I went for my “B-team” that I avoided because they were too silly, inefficient or, in one case, too strong. But this isn’t about the one that was too strong. This is about…
Ronan the Destroyer
The Team: Villain hate: Ronan edition.
Look at this guy. Expensive, silly, but with R Danger Room, he destroys your opponent’s entire field (since everything’s a villain). To be clear: there are cheaper, more efficient ways to remove an opponent’s entire board (Staff + Jubilee/Breath Weapon/Banshee/insert other mass damage), but I couldn’t resist trying this out.
Now, for the other obvious thing: Nobby’s in here. The Nobby + Danger Room combo needs no introduction. Turn everything into a villain, and hit your opponent for damage for every single character die on the field. It’s the most meta part of this team by far.
I also put in Shriek for blanking. At which point I realized that I needed some removal to deal with Wonder Woman and Madame Masque. I went with Batgirl and C Doop. (so that if one is blanked, I can go for the other) Note that Batgirl also synergizes well with R Danger Room. When I use Danger Room, I can then Intimidate any opposing die with Batgirl. A neat little interaction.
Stone Golem serves to KO my own characters, either to use my “When fielded” effects the following turn, or to use Doop’s ability on my turn to capture annoying control pieces. Fabricate is also fun ramp (though I’d rely more strongly on Resurrection for that purpose).
As a backup win condition, I went with S.W.O.R.D. Agent and Insect Plague (yes, the Agent is less strong than Wong; this team was meant to be slightly off-meta on purpose). Since the Agent’s an Ally, he can swing in for unblockable damage with Insect Plague’s global. Good to have if I need those last points of damage.
With that said, on to the games!
Game 1:
I started off against the Immortals team from last week. Again, Hela is the lynchpin, and from the moment she’s Shrieked, the pace of this team is completely broken apart. He never got to buy Hela because he could never coordinate having Jane on the field, having Shriek out of the way and having the energy to buy Hela. I couldn’t roll bolts to get Ronan, so I used Nobby and S.W.O.R.D. Agent to wear him down. He used Wonder Woman to try and stop Nobby, but I’d Fabricate with Doop to get her out of the way. I eventually won.
1-0
Game 2:
I was up against a triple Attune team with Pseudodragon. It didn’t have Gold Dragon as a secondary win condition. This was an annoying one, because suddenly, nothing rolled. Nobby was Blob’d, so I went for removal to deal with this (Doop and Batgirl), but neither rolled. Worst part is, my opponent did a major misplay (attacked with everything, not realizing Stone Golem was active and reduced her damage), which should’ve opened the door for me to win…but again, nothing rolled. So eventually, she got her Attune stuff set up and she won. Such is life.
1-1
Game 3:
My third game was against a C Yuan-ti + SR Jubilee team. Interestingly enough, he buffed Yuan-ti with Upgrade: Unibeam instead of Improvised Weapon. And he hit me pretty hard with it. This is a game where, again, characters didn’t roll. But I got to get Ronan this time, and use him to get rid of my opponent’s control. At some point, I was going to roll Ronan, Nobby and Danger Room on the next turn and he could Blob only one threat. He Blob’d Ronan. Nobby + Danger Room dealt way too much damage and I won.
2-1
Game 4:
Again, another Attune team, very optimized and obviously meant as a prep for Canadian Nats. This was a very quick one, because my stuff wouldn’t roll. I also made the mistake to go for Shriek too late. He set up, bought actions, dealt tons of damage, and won before I could do much.
2-2
Post-Mortem:
-This tournament was definitely extremely meta-oriented. It seems like everyone’s in full Nationals mode right now. I find it a bit silly myself; we’re more than a month away. But it seems like I won’t be able to play silly combos until after Nats unless I want to lose a lot. Message heard.
-This taught me some fun lessons though, biggest of which: I need better bag control. Attacking with Nobby to get him KO’d messed up my bag control a lot. I maybe should’ve gone for Tomb Guardian (Fabricate 2-3 means I could KO Nobby and a sidekick).
-I often had tons of fists and little of anything else (bad rolls). Having a Haymaker or Hulk global would’ve helped.
-R Blob is a massive pain and I hate him so much.
-C Doop is an awesome card. The fact that the capture lasts during my opponent’s turn is absolutely hilarious. I want to revisit this guy for sure.
-While this was meant to not be optimized, attacking with an unblockable S.W.O.R.D. Agent is fun and deals a fair bit of damage. It’s not fast enough to be a reliable win condition, but if I’d otherwise put an Ally on my team, it’s worth looking into.
Overall, yeah, Ronan’s fun, but not fast enough for the current meta. Nobby’s definitely the best use of Danger Room right now. Until the Harley Quinn pack comes out, at any rate (love that Batman!).