Wow….
So, if you read our recent article on Dice Masters 2022 Rotation Speculation, you saw what we thought would happen to the Modern competitive scene for the upcoming National and World Championship. Shortly after publishing, Wizkids came out with their official annoucement (which you can read here). Wizkids had this to say about our predictions:
Dice Masters 2.0 looks to be in full effect. The axe came down hard and has rebooted the game to only the draft pack products. Now that Rotation is no longer just speculation, we wanted to take a closer look at what we are losing and where the game is going.
The New Modern
Effective July 29, 2022
The Infinity Stones have been gathered and The Snap has changed everything. Only Infinity Gauntlet, The Dark Phoenix Saga, and (the soon to be released) Superman: Kryptonite Crisis have survived. That will take Modern from its current 1166 pool of cards, down to 466 (numbers from The Dice Coalition Team Builder, and include Superman: Kryptonite Crisis).
We’ll be honest… we did not see that coming. Well most of us didn’t (*cough* Jocestitch *cough*). This deep of a cut essentially takes all of the most recent Modern competitive Teams and guts them to the core. The Hope Toolbox is gone, and now you have to pay *gasp* FULL PRICE for these very powerful X-men cards that came out with The Dark Phoenix Saga Dice Masters set.
Probably the biggest loss in Modern will be the loss of Ramp and Energy Fixers. While we still have some old school options like the Wolverine Global (formerly Atlas, formerly Resurrection) and the Magneto global (which also appears on Villainous Pact), we do not have many others. We have lost the exceptional utility of the Intellect Devourer Global to create any energy type we want, and are now (currently) limited to just a Fist Energy Fixer in Black Dwarf. The Dark Phoenix Global still gives you some pseudo Ramp and purchasing discounts, which will be important in the new Modern. Reaching for those 6 to 7 cost characters will not be as easy now in the early game and will more than likely result in messing up your bag control in order to get them. 4 to 5 cost characters are probably going to be the more common place win condition slot (eg. Jubilee: X-men Field Leader (DPS)).
The Rare Mister Sinister Global has seen a lot of play already since its release, but has lost one of its best partners in the Clayface Global. These two Globals played so well together and allowed you to filter through your bag at an incredible speed. It made The Front Line an incredibly fast Team. Maybe slowing the pace is not a bad thing?
With the loss of Static Field (for now), combat centric Teams are definitely going to have an advantage. Living The Dream (Basic Action (DPS)) and Loyalty Counters will be much harder to deal with now. The loss of this Global also hurts control based strategies, as Force Attack Globals are still (and will continue to be) a thing. Spin out mechanics are alive and well and will be removing your critical pieces unless you can find a way to protect them.
Superman: Kryptonite Crisis is likely going to have a big impact going forward. Obviously it will be one third of the Modern legal card pool, but many of the abilities are poised to make a splash in the competitive game. We will avoid full on spoilers here, where possible, as this set is not due to release for another couple of weeks (unless you are a lucky reader in the UK and already have these cards in your hands).
The Watch List
While this has been a mainstay in other CCG’s, this feels like the first time that Wizkids has officially acknowledged cards that could be… problematic. There is really no surprise to see what is going on the Golden Watch List. Our favourite redhead, Becky Lynch, is seeing both her “Maiden Ireland” and “The Man!” cards onto this list (… just for the Global obviously). The latter is interesting, as “The Man!” is the version of Becky Lynch that saw the least play. Are there free action shenanigans that we didn’t yet discover in Golden Age? Similary, the Dungeons and Dragons trap card (that you trigger yourself), The God Catcher: Famous Walking Statue will be monitored to see what kind of havoc it can reign on the Golden Format. These are two thirds of what has affectionately been know as “The Big 3” for the past few years in Dice Masters.
The last member of that trio, Thor: Jormungand’s Fear, is on a different list. As it is still part of Modern after the Rotation cut, it is sitting on a potential ban list. We all have seen how powerful this card can be, but will it be ban worthy in the New Modern? Only time will be able to answer that question.
The newest kid on the block will be hangin’ tough to keep itself Modern legal. Master Mold: Endless Sentinels was released in The Dark Phoenix Dice Masters set and immediately made its case to be considered to be part of “The Big 4”. The ability to create a large amount of powerful tokens is an ability that could lead to some tilted games as the card pool shrinks.
However, both of these cards currently have counters in Modern (see the Globals on Lois Lane (SKC) and Bat-Signal (SKC), as well as Mystique (DPS) as examples) and that should help control any perceived dominance these cards may have. We’ve been wrong before… so it is entirely possible we will be wrong again.
Final Thoughts…
After the trauma of the deep cut has passed, we have come to realize that this is not a bad thing. In order for Dice Masters to grow, the game needs a way to entice new players to enter the game. With the benefit of hind sight, it is very possible that having Modern shake out how we originally predicted, it would be a very difficult thing for new players to play catch up on.
Limiting Modern sets to what is currently “easily” available to purchase at your game store of choice, means that the barrier to entry into the competitive game is almost non-existent. We use the term “easily” as there are still well documented distribution issues in areas outside of North America. Hopefully these are address with this new beginning in Dice Masters.
Right now, it looks like Wizkids is trying to steer the game into a more healthy place. Yes we are losing the wide variety of options currently available to us, but we are hopefully heading into a place where creativity can allow for some under appreciated cards to shine.
What do you think of New Modern? Do you see any obvious cards running to the front of the line in terms of power? Do you feel Thor and Master Mold are rightfully being considered for a hit of the ban hammer? What are you most excited to see with the unofficial Dice Masters 2.0? Let us know in the comments below, or on our Socials (@dmNorthTV), or join the conversation on our Discord.
For more Rotation discussion, tune into A Double Double n’ Dice on their July 11th episode.
Thanks for reading!
great post as usual.
Thanks for the article….
Good Bye to Becky, Asuka, and GodCatcher.,,,
Slowing the game down will be a good thing. but the big three will be replaced with the next speed deck. in a perfect world, every card that is threatening to be a meta staple…. should have a counter piece…
The newer sets will allow for more players to get into the game, but I hope it doesn’t piss off all the players who joined the game over the last 2 years that spent lots of money to catch up only older sets, only to be Will Smith Slapped in the face with the rotation.
Totally agree that making things a little more new player friendly will give the game a solid chance to grow.