Hello Dice Masters!  The Faux US Nats are over and it is time for the TOTM to return.  This month, we are going to try out an experimental Format.  One of our local players (and DM-North contributor, Son of L) suggested we try this out live, but it seems interesting enough to try out online too.  More on the details in a bit.  First, the usual “blah, blah” stuff.

For those that are unfamiliar with the TOTM, here is what you need to know:

• You will be given specific parameters for a Team Build for the given month.
• A “fun play night” will be set when people will be welcome to gather and play their Teams themselves for the competition.

This competition will be open worldwide, and anyone is welcome to  join.  The submission deadline for this month will be 9:00 PM Mountain Time on July 19, 2019.  Submissions should be filled out on the TOTM Team Submission Form.  This is not a hard deadline, but the more notice I have, the better I can get things set up.

You may have noticed one little change with things, and that is with regards to prizing.  Unfortunately, Canada Post likes to raise their costs every year, and that is getting in the way of offering the monthly prizing.

Going forward, the plan will be to assign points for wins/participation all year long.  These points will be used to enter a “raffle” at the end of the year (à la MOD Presents).  The winner of the raffle will be awarded with an assortment of OP cards collected throughout 2019.

Here is the challenge for July 2019:

This Format is making use of something that pretty much gets ignored on most Dice Masters Cards.  Forget rarity stripes, titles, or subtitles.  This time we are looking at the Collector Numbers.  Let me present to you…

What is this?

You know that little number in upper right corner of every card?  THAT is what you will be using to make your Teams for this Event.  “But how do I know what number I should use?”, you might ask.  Simple… Your birthday will determine your number.

You will break your birthday into three 2 digit numbers.  The collector numbers that you may use must contain these numbers in their last two digits.  For example, if your birthday is August 7, 1987, the numbers you will have access to are:  07 (day), 08 (month), and 87 (year).  In this situation, you could use any card that ends in these digits (so… 007, 008, 087, 107, and 108).

Make sense?

If your birth month and day are the same number… well, it means your card pool will be smaller than others.

RULES UPDATE (24/06/2019):  To try and not handicap people more than this Format already does, I am making a change to my initial rule.  If your birth day and birth month are they same, you may alter one of them by one digit.  The Price Is Right Rules will be in effect here, meaning you will be allowed to lower one of the digits by one.  If you somehow were born on January 1 (congrats on being a New Year baby) you will be allowed to raise one digit by one.

For most people, you will have access to at least 4 or 5 cards per set.  This should be sufficient to put something together.

BAC’s will follow the same limitations as everything else.  There is a possibility that some people may have more limited of a range of BAC’s than others.  If there is a situation where a player is severely limited by their BAC choices, please contact me directly and exceptions will be considered.  If this becomes a big problem, then BAC’s may become exempt from these limitation.  For now, though, they are currently restricted (pending feedback).

I know this is a limiting Format, but that is kind of the point.

The rules…

Everything is fair game in this one.  You will be able to build from the full selection of Golden Cards.  The “naughty” cards still cannot be used, but as many of them fall in the lower collector numbers, modifications will be allowed to help keep the card pool as big as possible.

• Half-Elf Bard – Master Lords’ Alliance (# 015)
• Cosmic Cube – Energy of the Beyonders (# 086)

If either of these two numbers come up for you, you will not be allowed to use these cards.  Instead, you may use 1 card number above or below these (in set) if you so choose.  FUS #014/016 and GOTG #085/087 respectively.

• Swords of Revealing Light – BAC (# 119)
• Relentless – BAC (# 031)

As the BAC pool is extremely limited in this format, these BAC’s ARE legal to use in this Format.  HOWEVER, the Global Abilities are banned from use.  Consider these two cards to not have Global Abilities for the purposes of this build.

• Yuan-Ti Pureblood – Epic Humanoid (# 132)

You know what… The only legal way to use this card in this format is if you were born in 1932.  If that is the case, you have earned the right to stomp all over us.  Proof of ID may be required here.  😉

How do you find these cards easily?  The Dice Coalition Team Builder has a handy search tool that lets you filter by Collector Number.  Easy-peasy!

Proxies ARE allowed for cards and/or dice.  Just make it clear what card you are using so that your Opponent knows what you have.  The dice do need to match the card though, but do not need to be from the same set.

The plan is to play your Teams on Saturday, July 20, 2018, starting around 9:00 PM Eastern Time.  We will be starting things off in our very own Hangouts Room.  You can find the link here.  Ideally, it would be nice to get 3-4 Rounds of Play in… but we will see what happens.

Matches will be 30 minutes long to avoid slogs.  If the game is tied when time is called, the game will go to 5 turns with the active player being Turn Andy (or Turn Zero if you want).  The player with the most life at the end of Turns will be the winner.

Looking forward to seeing you there.  Thanks for reading and feel free to reach out to us with any questions.

Best of luck!

– Dice Masters North