We continue the Seeing Red series with the dynamic duo, #adoubledoublendice4eva and ladies of the DM-North Team, Jocelyn (jbouwme) and Kim (SuperK).
What did they build?
Our fearless leader, jourdo, said – pick a number between 1 and 5. I picked 1, and was assigned Adam Warlock: Leader of the Infinity Watch & Dr. Strange: Trusting in Destiny to build with. After a brief stint into justifying that technically all Modern builds are also Golden, I jumped in with both feet and started building around these two red stripes.
What Did You Build?
Super Rare: Adam Warlock: Leader of the Infinity Watch
Format: Golden
The Team: All About Domino
Adam Warlock is a pretty cool card to build around. I like the Energize keyword and I love that we are getting more of it in this Infinity Gauntlet set. I also think it’s pretty cool that Adam Warlock gives us another opportunity to trigger Energize. I hope that I can get my hands on this one at some point to test it out. In case you’re not familiar with, or have forgotten about Energize, here is the description from the WizKids Keywords page: Energize: Whenever you roll this die on one of its double energy faces, you must use its Energize effect (this isn’t optional). During the Roll and Reroll Step, only check at the end of the Step. The character with Energize does not need to be active for the ability to trigger. (MDM11).
Adam Warlock’s card reads: While active, when a die with Energize is spent as energy and leaves the Reserve Pool, roll it. On any energy face, use it’s Energize effect. (The die does not return to the Reserve Pool, regardless of the result.)
So, I started out by looking at all the cards with the Energize keyword and narrowing it down a few favourites. Then I started looking at the best ways to reroll my dice to get as many Energize triggers as possible. At that point, I decided I would go all-in on an actual full Golden team and add in any pieces I could to make it as consistent as possible.
I selected OG PXG ramp…Professor X: Trainer, with the strategy to ramp all my sidekicks for a turn 2 outright purchase of Adam Warlock. Resurrection for bag management and to ideally prep my friend Adam as soon as I’ve bought him.
Then I turned to my Energize characters. There are several cool Energize abilities, but as far as win conditions go, not that many to choose from yet. Many of the Energize abilities are better support pieces. I selected Domino: Not Really A Party Girl as the main win condition…and added in Cosmic Cube: Energy of the Beyonders. With Cube active, each Domino Energize trigger increases from 1 damage to 3 damage. That means that with 7 triggers, I can kill my opponent.
Now, I need to be able to reroll my Domino as much as possible in this build. Therefore, I put Parallax on the team for the Global Ability, which allows you to pay 1 and reroll your dice before the attack step. Also on the team for Global Abilities are Intellect Devourer to fix sidekicks, and Clayface to help me get more energy as needed.
Finally, I need a way to protect myself against anything that prevents non-combat damage, such as Bishop: Butterfly Effect. So I went ahead and put in Shriek: Sonic Beam. It’s an easy to include card (Sorry Chris) that will achieve what I need it to – namely, blanking Bishop. I have to admit that I considered putting the new Rare Spider-Man on the team, but since his removal effect isn’t until he attacks, I didn’t feel like he was the best fit for this build. #rarespiderman4ever
For my final card, I added in Create Food & Water to help with bag management and as another opportunity to use a Global Ability on my opponent’s turn, which could permit me to potentially trigger Energize if I can use a Domino die’s energy as the purchase cost.
I kind of want to play this team to test it out…I’ve never actually played a team with Cube before.
Click to the next build …