The Weekly Dice Arena ran its regular event last night, and with the continuing social distancing measures in place it has become my covid home to Dice Masters. If you are not aware of the WDA, it runs every Tuesday night starting around 9 PM Eastern on Twitch. This week, they ran the Modern 10 x 10 Format, where you needed to use 10 cards from 10 different sets (promos counted as their own set).
I decided that I wanted to dip my toe into a Team that I actually enjoyed getting smashed with. This was something Son of L ran a couple months back. You can read the original article here.
The whole Team is centered around Citizen V – New World Order. He is a Flip card that is not super useful on his starting side. It is the other side where the fun comes in. If you manage to flip him, your Villains gain +1A and Overcrush. The challenge with this card though, is it is not a flip at will card. The only way to flip it is to get his Infiltrate ability to trigger. This could be challenging to pull off without some way of making him unblockable, and by that time, my Opponent knows what is coming. What I wanted to do, was hopefully spring the same trap that I fell into. I want the flip to happen when Overcrush was going to be at its most overcrushiest.
This is where the other central pieces come into play. The first is the Rare Bat-Signal from the Batman Set (RIP… Love this set). This is a super cheap action, whose main ability does not actually matter here. I want the burst ability. That ability allows me to flip a card I control. That just so happens to be what I want to do with Citizen V. With Bat-Signal, I can control when that happens. I just have it sitting in the Field until I am ready to spring the trap.
So, I have the engine to my win condition, and the way to make it fire. I just need something beefy to make Overcrush super effective.
Enter Mystique. She is a favourite of our local youngster, and a card I have always felt should see more play. The more things that are out there, the bigger she is. She has probably been hurt by her purchase cost in the past, but I think there is a way around that now.
The goal is pretty simple here. First, get a Bat-Signal out as quick as possible. Have Citizen V and Mystique in the Field Zone. Attack with Mystique and hope for a chump blocker as she is not that dangerous… until you use the Bat-Signal and perform some flippy shenanigans to ensure that your damage is now going to go through. If you have multiple Mystiques attacking, this is even better.
What Did You Play?
The Team: Citizen M.
The biggest problem with this Team so far is that the purchase costs are high right off the bat. I need a 6 cost and (ideally) multiple 4 costs in order for this to work well. One tool that Son of L did not have access to when he ran this, was Asuka. She is an automatic include here purely for the discount ability. This drops Citizen V to a 4 cost, and Mystique to a 2 cost. All of a sudden, purchasing my stuff is not as difficult.
With her on the Team, I decided to focus on Masks for most of the other tools. If I have a discounter on the board, why not take the maximum advantage of it?
I have my win condition and the path to it, now I needed the accessories. The first thing I was worried about was Big E. He would make combat damage less fun, so I needed a way to rid myself of him should he show up. Mimic – Wall of Text was an easy choice here. Guaranteed removal and a mask character? Yes please! I wasn’t really planning on using him for anything other than that. Just get whatever was in the way, out of the way for a turn and hopefully punch through for some damage.
The other big concern that I had was Bishtraction/Static Field. This too would rain on my attacking parade. Digging into Guardians of the Galaxy, I slotted in Madame Masque (not that one). I decided to include Whitney Frost here as she prevents my stuff from being targeted by Global Abilities. I was not planning on using Globals on my character, so it didn’t look like she could hurt me too much.
Dormammu – Burning Ambition was the next addition to give me a little protection against action heavy Teams. I included Under Surveillance as one of my BAC’s (as a back-up plan to get Mystique through) and wanted to minimize the use of it against me. He is not a character that sees much play, but I have always liked this card. It benefits from the mask discount and is worth the try here.
Villainous Pact was my choice of Ramp for this Team. I am focusing on Villains and this seemed like a safe bet. In a pinch, it can also be used to further the win condition by buying the action itself.
For the final slot, I struggled with what to include. I put in a card that could be detrimental to myself (until I got Madame Masque out), but had too much shenanigan potential not to try. That was the Rare Danger Room from X-Men First Class. This turns EVERYTHING into a Villain. A well timed flip of Citizen V might give me some use of Retaliation in addition to Overcrush. It was worth a try at least, but definitely not the central piece to the puzzle.
Much of this Team depends on Citizen V being a bit of a surprise. If they know it is coming, they can be a little better prepared for it. Potentially giant Mystiques are still threatening either way.
Let’s see how it ran.
Game 1:
The first game of the night was against fellow Canuck Kim. She ran one of her TTTD Teams for some practice for the upcoming Tournament. I won’t spoil her surprise as the Tournament has not started yet, but it involves unblockable things. Asuka did not roll the first time through and I was forced to buy a second immediately. This Team fails if I do not have the discount. I took some hits that I could not prevent before my tools all hit the Field. When I had Mystique ready and there were a decent amount of characters on board, I attacked with the solitary character. Her Sidekick chumped Mystique and then Citizen V was flipped. Instant Overcrush. A missed roll on her next turn allowed more Mystiques to join the game. By that point, there was nothing that could be done to stop her.
1-0
Game 2:
Game 2 was against iamawalrus from the Discord. He was running a pretty classic Bolt double burn Team with Firefly and Jubilee. Yawning Portal was there to help with discounts and Fielding Costs. He also had Resurrection and Clayface to help me with some bag control and purchasing power. With Switch on the Team, I went for Bat-Signal early. I needed it to hit before she showed up. Once it was in the Field, it would be too late for her. Once that was taken care of it was back to the plan: Asuka-Citizen V-Mystique. He was having some unlucky rolls early on, but eventually started the burn and man it was bad when it started. It would not take long to kill me with this Team. As soon as I got the first strike set-up I decided to spring the trap and start swinging. It was similar to the last game where it was only one Mystique the first time, followed by a whole bunch more the second time. Luckily I was able to fire it off right before I was set to die the next turn.
2-0
Game 3:
Battle of Canada in Round 3 as well, when I met up with Reg and his Blank Team Up Team of Legend. Team Up is pretty basic. Get lots of things out and swing for unbelievable big stats. I knew immediately that Dormammu would have likely shut the door on his Team pretty fast, but where is the fun in that. I figured we would go beat stick on beat stick. He was setting up his Field while I was setting up mine. Like the other games, only one Mystique was involved with the first hit. Like the other games, more joined in for the next swing. It definitely helped Mystique that he needed a big Field in order to be the most efficient. If he had hit his Team Up, I think things would have been a little different here.
3-0
Post-Mortem:
I love this Team. Citizen V is such a cool card and pairs great with giant villains. Mystique was a great choice to pair with him as her buff is independent of what Affiliations are present (until Kree Captain). Bat-Signal is a great way to flip Citizen V at the right time.
This Team would not work without Asuka though. Her discount power is really what allows it to happen. Turning your beat stick into essentially a 2 cost makes it easy to have multiple dice on the Field. Making all of the accessory pieces cheaper is just icing on the cake.
While Dormammu could have come into play tonight, I didn’t feel right buying him. I love this type of action control, and maybe in a different type of tournament I would use him. Kind of one of those pieces I would keep unless something better comes along.
Mimic was never considered once on the night, but just having him there provided some peace of mind. At a 2 cost (thanks Asuka) I would not hesitate to keep him there. The same goes for Madame Masque. While I didn’t ever really consider buying her, it was nice to have her around.
Danger Room… I probably did not need to include this one. I never once really considered the Retaliation option over the Overcrush one. That Global was risky to include with Citizen V being vulnerable at the low to mid levels. Although, if someone wants to waste that many Bolts just to remove him, maybe I am doing something right? This is definitely a take it or leave it slot. I am sure there are things that are even better to be honest. I am just not totally sure what they are right now.
Villainous Pact worked as it should have. I got lucky and everyone else had better Ramp options, so I made use of those. When I needed it though, it worked. I never considered buying Under Surveillance once to be honest. Overcrush was always the better choice. I think if I had seen some other threats, I might have considered it. I would keep both BAC’s as they are though. They worked, or at least had the potential to work.
Would I play this again? In a heartbeat! I want to see if there is something in New Modern that can be done with it. It is likely a little slow, but I am curious. I know Son of L used Black Viper to trigger his Citizen V, and that might be the way to go here. Not as easy as a Bat-Signal, but still gets the job done.
What do you think of these surprise damage Teams? How else have you made use of Mystique? Has Asuka changed the game for Masks? Let us know in the comments below.
Thanks for reading!
– jourdo
Just a reminder that our TOTM runs this weekend. Check out the details here! Join us for a night of dice rolling!
