This has been a series that I have wanted to see resurrected for quite some time.  I finally took this lovely covid-lull to reach out and do just that.  Many of you old timers, like myself, will remember this series from The Reserve Pool days.  It was created by OddballNarwhal, and he would take a random selection of cards for the Team Builder and try to create something somewhat functional.  The limitations of this were that he could only substitute out 4 cards from the original, and generally had to follow a random meta rule.

As I was not able to get in contact with the Narwhal himself, I approached the last person to write an article for this series (memmek2k) and asked for permission to bring it back.  Since I am taking the time to write this, the blessing was given.

Without further ado, let’s bring back the Team Brew Switcharoo!

The Rules

In case you missed the start of the article, we are going to take a random selection of cards from the Dice Coalition Team Builder and use that as a starting point to make a functional Team.  The limitations are as follows:

1.  I am only allowed to substitute 4 cards from the initial selection.
2. I must follow a randomly selected “rule” to build the Team around.

We are going to wade slowly into the waters for this first one and make it a little on the easy side.  The rule we will build around for this week is…

Modern Marvel Only

All cards must be from Marvel sets and be Modern legal.  Now, I did cheat a little with the random selection of cards in that I did limit it to Modern and Marvel.  We’ll open it up fully in the future.

The Cards

You can click on the image above if you want to play along.  When I saw this group, three cards immediately jumped out to me.  Iron Man, Kree Soldier, and Sandman.  I have wanted to really play around with Rush, and am really curious how it pairs with Swarm.  Reg and I have discussed this Sandman a few times and now feels like as good of a time as any to explore what he can do.

However, the rest of the cards do not necessarily fit with what we want.  Iron Man and Kree Soldier together should be a really good Ramp engine.  In fact, Sandman himself seems to pair with Iron Man’s Rush.  You know what… so does Sabretooth.  All of those fist characters will make the cut.  Anger Issues will pair well with Sandman if I can manage to get his ability to trigger.

This leaves Spot, Madelyne Pryor, Psyloke, Iron Lad, and Team Work all on the chopping block.  I think we can make Spot work as a cheap option to maybe help get Shields for Iron Man.  So, I think my cuts will look like this:

The Substitutions

My win condition is to try and get Sandman buffed and make him a legitimate attack threat.  In order to do that, I need to have the highest fielding cost die in the Field.  Go big or go home is what I say.  Let’s grab the only character with a 4 fielding cost in Tombstone.

I chose the rare version because he is one of the lower cost versions of the character, but might also keep some weenies out of the Field.  That cost will hurt thought if I cannot get the energy for it.

My energy problems should be solved with Rush and Swarm.  In theory, as they both trigger during the Clear and Draw Step, they should play off each other and let me draw a crazy amount of dice.  Let’s double down on this play and add in Kree Captain though.

The Swarm ability should play into my stragegy of “ROLLING ALL THE DICE”, but more importantly… the Global should help make the 4 cost characters that much easier to grab.

I still have a problem if I can only get low level Tombstones out though.  I need a way to get him spun up to level 3.  There are Globals for that, but none that fit into the Modern Marvel restrictions.  Seeing as I already have plans for that other BAC, I need to find someting in the character slot.

Enter Ghost Rider.  Energize is probably not the most efficient way to get things up to higher level, but it should work.  He also has horrible fielding costs, so he could work as a substitute for Tombstone if something were to happen to that character.  For the most part though, I do not intend on using Ghost Rider as a character.

I previously mentioned I had plans for that last BAC slot.  On the one hand, I could consider Villainous Pact, as most of my Team is made up of Villains and this would be a solid alternative win condition.  Instead, I chose to go with this card… Whoever Assemble.  In theory, I should not have an issue paying fielding costs, but just in case this will take care of that problem.

Those are the substitutions I chose to make on this group of cards.  For those playing along, here is the final Team Builder link:

Modern Marvel Switcharoo

Here is the plan:  Use massive Swarm and Rush draws to get all of the Sandman dice in the Field with a level 3 Tombstone and start punching.  Use Anger Issues (with the spare Fists I should have) to pump up my characters further, or even the action itself for the Overcrush…  The choice is yours.

If the plan works, I should be swinging with multiple 4-6A characters every turn.  The fist synergies on the Team should actually make character a legitimate threat.  Anything that forces your Opponent to make choices is a good thing.

To be fair, this Team is all theory crafting at this point… but I would have no problem running it.  Perhaps a future episode of Strange Brew?

What do you think?  How would you change the Team?  What would you do differently?  What random meta rules do you want to see in future TBS articles?

Let us know in the comments below.  Talk to us on all of the Socials @dmNorthTV.  Send us an email at mailbag@dm-north.com.  We would love to hear from you.  Next time, I think we will dive into the DC Universe.

Thank for reading!

– jourdo