Hello Dice Masters Fans! This past weekend, we ran the Team of the Month (TOTM) Competition for February. We decided to put the Modern Global Escalation Format (created by the Ministry of Dice) to the test. For details on the build challenge, you can read the original article here.
The doors were wide open for your card choices in this one, with a few notable exceptions. With that being said, we did see a nice mix of old and new cards show up to the event. Here were the Teams that participated:
- Ryan (1-2-1): Drow Obscure
- Matt J (1-0-0): Manshoon Field Wipe
- Kim (1-2-1): Unblockable Robin
- Dan L (2-2-0): Staff Field Wipe
- Carl (2-2-0): Sam/Spot Swarm
- Laurier (2-2-0): Jubilation Lee
- Nick (3-1-0): Heenan Drone
Sorry, but Challonge failed me on the night so I don’t have the round by round breakdown. However, I did manage to figure out the whole Twitch thing and we were able to broadcast the event live. Check out, and follow us on Twitch at twitch.tv/dicemastersnorth to stay up to date on future TOTM Events.
This was an interesting build challenge going into this Event. The big bad God Catcher was on everyone’s radar, as pretty much everyone brought something to deal with it. However, nobody brought the Famous Walking Statue (which was actually nice to see). With that off the table, it was interesting to see some of the varied win conditions on the night.
Some form of unblockable combat damage was high on the popular list. To no surprise, Parasite was the fuel to this engine. The Teams that chose to go this strategy paired this Villain with Drow Mercenary (using the new Obscure Keyword) and Robin – Reckoning. When they hit, they could hit hard.
An off-shoot of the above, Field Wipe was another popular strategy. I fell into this category myself. I decided to take another shot at my failed Manshoon – Clone Wizard/Seething Corruption Build (you can read the original article here) by pairing him with good old Ork Nob. Turns out this works fairly well when Manshoon actually rolls… who knew? The other Field Wipe Team used a nasty case of VD (Venerable Dreadnaught) paired with the Staff of the Forgotten One. That Team also made use of the Ork Nob as the beneficiary of the opposing character KO’s.
Yawning Portal, to no surprise, was another centerpiece to many of the Teams on the night. For myself, the free fielding cost aspect of it was worth it alone. We got to see a variation of the Jubilation Lee Team using the Portal. That Team can hit hard and fast thanks to this tool (you can see my recent run with it here).
One Team that I was happy to see a return of was the old Sam/Spot combo. While not your classic Ally-based build, it still churned like mad when the combo went off. Maybe this has a place in the MODMGE meta? I hope so, as it is a fun Team to play.
Last but not least, let’s talk about one of the new kids on the block: Heenan Drone. This one first popped up on a recent Weekly Dice Arena and returned for this Format. This one pairs the new Bobby Heenan – The Weasel with the Foetid Bloat-Drone who forces all opposing characters to block. This was surprisingly effective all by itself, especially when more than one Bobby was fielded on the turn. This will be an interesting combo to watch in the Modern Format as it has some devastating damage that it can dish out.
It was nice to see some variety in the Teams. It was even nicer not to see the God Catcher roaming around. I suspect that card could have potentially brought a dark cloud over the evening. However, it would have been interesting to see if some of the tools to deal with it were effective or not.
The entire night was broadcast live on Twitch. You can go to here to follow us and check out future TOTM. The video is kept for a while on Twitch, but if you are not up for replaying the live broadcast, I did break up matches for YouTube. Those are posted below.
Hopefully, some of the other participants who did not make it onto the Stream will be willing to share their thoughts on what they brought to the table. Please feel free to leave them in the comments below.
Final Thoughts
I honestly expected this Format to be a little samsies. While some Teams used a similar theme, they went about it in different ways. There was enough variety in the builds that I feel the MODMGE Format is really fun to play. In fact, I personally preferred this to the original Global Escalation Format. You did not face that T3 clock that exists in the original Format. This felt more Dice Mastery to me.
With Dice Fight running this previously, and the MOD boys running it at the next MODPDM (for all of you UK player, check out the details here), I hope this shows the people at Wizkids that this Format has some legs.
One final thought on God Catcher – Famous Walking Statue. This was the Boogeyman lurking in the shadows of this Format, and most Formats. While people prepared for it, the card has the potential to ruin the game going forward. As of the date of this article, nothing “official” has been done to address the God Catcher. I do not want to outright ban this card, as it should be available for play. For all TOTM’s going forward, God Catcher will be errated. The Trigger for God Catcher will now read: “Your Opponent uses an Action die“. This will be in effect for all Dice Masters North run Events until Wizkids decides what they are going to do with this card.
Thanks, as always, for reading! Hope to see you back for next month’s TOTM!
– jourdo
