This week, the Weekly Dice Arena held a Farewell to the 2019 Modern. This was basically a swan song for the Teams that have enjoyed being some of the top Teams over the last little while one last chance to see the spotlight before the 2020 Rotation takes effect.
For those unfamiliar with the Weekly Dice Arena, Ross hosts a live stream on Twitch every Tuesday, starting at 9 PM EST. The Format varies from week to week and is always a fun time. Join the games here!
Since this was a last chance to play an old favourite, I decided to revisit my World’s Team that I ran in Memphis. However, I did not want to run the same thing for a couple of reasons:
- Shriek has now been banned, so she needs to go. Also, she is horrible.
- GDM is another horrible card that I really do not enjoy using.
- I don’t feel that Iceman will be the same threat level that was predicted at World’s.
- I played this Team so much as it was here, and I needed to mix things up to keep it fresh.
What Did You Play?
The Team: The Final Fish Slap.
The core of the build is still exactly the same as it was before. Atlantis is used to churn through the bag by fielding Sidekicks and creating a really big Field. The Fast Wong is used to increase the number of Sidekicks in the Bag, and Black Widow is used to buff everything. Ideally, you outnumber your Opponent and can get some serious damage through.
I kept Professor X from the previous build, because you need a source of Sidekicks if you do not roll them naturally. Supreme Intelligence remains for the Global, so I can keep rolling the Fish turn after turn after turn. Samantha Wilson also remained… just in case I was wrong about Iceman.
The rest of the Team was used to try out some other pieces. Still needing a way to buff my characters and make use of the spare Fists that I was likely to have, I chose to swap out Haymaker for Too Big To Fly. The reason for the switch was that this action could be used for removal against the Big Bad Becky and God Catcher that was not around before. Similarly, I dropped Resurrection in favor of Wallop. Again, for protection against Becky and the God Catcher (combined with the very effective Jerry Lawler Global).
With the removal of Shriek and GDM, the Team was lacking in protection against Static Field/Bistraction. There were a few choices here, but I decided to go with Eddie Guerrero here. He felt easier to fire off when I needed to. Istrid Horn would probably have worked here, but I was worried that the timing of the “When Fielded” would be harder to trigger when I needed to.
For the final piece, I revisited a card that seemed to fall out of favor once Black Widow: Agent joined the game. Venerable Dreadnaught give everything else Range. On this Team, it serves the purpose of removal. With enough attackers, I can either remove whatever is threatening me OR just clear the way for my characters to go across unblocked.
The strategy of the Team is not really any different than it was before. Buy Fish, keep Prepping it with the Supreme Intelligence Global as much as possible. Field a bunch of Sidekicks (and Wongs) to build up a massive Field. Buff with Black Widow and swing in for the win.
In the final run of 2019 Modern, would the Fish flop? Let’s see how it ran.
Game 1:
The first Round was against fellow Canuck Reg. He was running Pirates (each one buffs the others) and Madame Webb to get them through unblocked. The Fish were rolling perfectly. The Sidekicks were not. That is one of the biggest weaknesses of the Team. If you cannot get the Fish Slap to fire early, you are likely in trouble. Reg was able to get enough Pirates on the Field and Madame Webb made it easy for them to deal lethal while my Team floundered.
0-1
Game 2:
You know when you are building a Team, and you look at a card that will absolutely wreck you, and you think to yourself that nobody plays that card and you should be safe? Well… Troy brought that card for Round 2. Blob – Big-Talkin’ Costumed Clown basically shuts down the majority of my Team (which is mostly 2 cost). That combined with Wrecker to shut down Global Abilities meant I was going to struggle against Boom Boom/Hope. I immediately shifted to Dreadnaught in this game as that was really all I had that could be useful. Luckily I was able to build a Field enough to remove Boom Boom/Hope fairly regularly… but at least one always returned. I never had enough to remove Blob as his butt was just too powerful. You know your game has gone off the rails if you actually BUY Professor X… which I did. While it was an extremely fun game, Troy’s ability to reroll when he needed to meant that it was only a matter of time before I fell to the Boom Boom burn.
0-2
Game 3:
The final round of the night was up against Black Canary/Kree Captain/Danger Room. Another set of big bodies that would be unblockable. Fish had to fire before that happened or it would be a winless night. Finally things lined up in this game. While he was working on getting his pieces in place, the machine worked. A whole bunch of Sidekicks along with Widow hit. 14 damage hit across the Field while the Wong’s stayed back thanks to their Fast ability. I was able to make use of that Fast along with the force attack to help remove Kree Captains before they got too big. His Prep Area had all the pieces in place for the next turn and I was lucky to roll through just enough damage to finish off my Opponent. I was likely done the next turn if everything hit.
1-2
Post-Mortem:
This is still one of my all time favourite Teams to run. It is Dice Masters at its core. You roll and win, or you don’t and lose. That works just fine for me. Either way, it is fun to play.
I won’t break down the Team again, as it has been done to death. I will talk about some of the newer addition though. Venerable Dreadnaught was very effective in removal with Range. It was too bad that a hard counter came out for it almost at the same time as its release. On these Teams that require a large Field in order to win, it is an easy addition. I wonder if it may be poised to make a return?
Eddie was not needed on the night, but I think he is an excellent counter to the Globals that can mess you up badly. Sure, your Opponent can mess with Eddie before the Attack Step. However, I felt the “When Attacks” of Eddie trumped the “When Fielded” of Istrid Horn in this build.
While no Beckys or God Catchers were seen tonight, the threat is real. When the big stats of these guys can potentially wipe you out in one turn, protection is needed. Wallop feels like it is almost necessary on Teams that need to defend against these Bruisers. It is an easy to use tool to protect yourself from getting stomped into the ground.
With regards to Too Big To Fly, it was fine. I liked the security blanket aspect of having another removal tool for the big bodies, but I could have easily left it as Haymaker. I still think Create Food and Water would be good on this Team, but the buff Global was needed here. It was a trade off on consistency in favor of increased damage potential. I’d be curious to try it the other way and see how it worked… maybe in Dice Fight???
The Fish Slap Team is great and I still encourage people to play it if they have not. It will be interesting to see if it can still be damaging with many of the newer tools (such as Lita) now available.
What do you think? Can the Fish still swim in the 2020 Modern? What was your favorite Team to play that is now rotating out? Let us know in the comments below.
Thanks for reading!
– jourdo
A little P.S. if you have made it to the end of the article. I am working on a little project for something coming up and could use your help. There is a little survey that is looking at Abilities that are leaving Modern. If you have a couple of minutes, I would love to hear what you think. Here is the link!
Thanks again!