Here’s part 2 of my Fan Appreciation Event coverage coming out of the Origin Games Fair.
In my first post (Found HERE) I provided links to the Facebook galleries of pics and shared some general thoughts on some of the news items/announcements from the event. Now I’m back to focus in on the spoilers and highlight my “stand out top picks” from the cards that were spoiled.
Lots of juicy stuff was spoiled, and if you’re new to the site then I’ll point out that this post does not contain all the spoilers; it will just be my gut-instinct reaction to the cards that caught my eye and leapt our at me as the spoilers were being shared. Head on over to the links in the first post for full pics of the spoilers.
Right… onto the cards. I’m going to start with the stuff from the upcoming Spider-Man sets…
Aunt May – Uncle Ben Foundation
The first card to catch my eye sets a precedent of “returning favourite” when it come to Game-texts that will be a bit of a theme in this post.
Seasoned players will recognise this game-text as a re-visit of the popular ‘Constantine – Hellblazer’ that was a Super–Rare card from the ‘Justice League‘ set. This ‘Aunt May’ is going to be popular for all the same reasons he was for sure.
First: it’s an excellent, low cost counter to pesky ‘When Fielded’ effects, as you only need to ignore its text on the turn it’s fielded. For example; it takes the legs right out from under teams that rely on ‘Shriek – Sonic Beam’ as a flexible, one slot solution to their control needs, can easily stop a ‘Norman Osborn – Don’t Call Me Gobby’ dead in its tracks.
My ‘Constantine’ experience also tells me that ‘Aunt May’ could really help take the wind out of the sails of shock & awe aggro attacks. A one turn respite from a quick-fire bit of aggro by your opponent could be all you need to stay on the front foot and get your own defensive tech lined up.
It’s not all rosy. She’s defensively weak and at a 3 cost will need the best chunk of your resources early game to pick up, slowing your own win con down. (Unless you’re doing something with Spider-Friends or Sidekicks – she’s an ‘ally’ – that can have her contribute to your win con) Despite this though, I would be very surprised not to see this one on teams when the set comes out.
Elektra – Dangerous
This one caught my eye because it left me hungry for more.
We’ve only seen one other Hand Affiliation character so far – ‘Typhoid Mary’ – and it’s not one that synergies well with this ‘Elektra’, but a 2 cost character that provides some protection AND helps you out with your buying power seemed to be worthy of note.
As a spoiler card it’s definitely got me excited to see what else there is for the ‘Hand’ Affiliation that will combo up well with her. Perhaps a solid win condition character that is both expensive and would benefit from some protection from popular blanking & removal options like ‘Shriek’/’Blob’/’Mimic’ etc
Can’t wait to see…
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And now onto the stuff from the WWE stuff…
Becky Lynch – The Man!
Next on the “returning game-texts we love” we have this card in the WWE set.
It’s the global that stands out here and marks the return of the popular ‘Rip Hunter’s Chalkboard’ global from the ‘Green Arrow & The Flash’ set.
As if there wasn’t enough stuff going on to speed this game up we get this. The benefits of buying a die and cutting out the dice drafting cycle are immeasurable sometimes, and this global saw a lot of play on teams looking to rush out a beat stick or speed up those valuable ‘When Fielded’ die.
While I have opinions about the meta shifting in pace again with globals like this (and the global on ‘The Rock’ I’ll mention in a bit) I’ll confess that it does have a certain thematic feel to it – I sort of imagine this global like the surprise wrestler rushing down the ramp to help a buddy out or settle a score over some smack talk.
The Global is a double-edged sword too – I stopped using ‘Rip Hunter’s Chalkboard’ because it benefitted my opponent too much too, and I’d be wary of it again with Becky. So be certain you can make better use of it than your opponent can if you’re going to be utilising it on a team, it may speed you up, but it’ll speed up your opponent too.
Check out those stats as well – they strike me as particularly beefy on a 5 cost.
Asuka – The Empress Of Tomorrow
This looks like a fun card to play – Anything that offers purchase cost discounts is worth a closer look I reckon.
While it’s only available to Mask characters a standing discount of 2 energy across those characters from ‘Asuka’ could mean some interesting things. Have a think about all those 5+ cost Mask characters you’ve never really got to work because they were a touch too expensive. My first thought was of those big beefy ‘Thanos’ cards in the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and ‘Kree Invasion’ sets that always looked super fun to play with but were always too costly to really pull off. Or the Super Rare ‘Valindra Shadowmantle’ my man Andy is a fan of. ‘Asuka’ is just the lady to help reach for them.
Plus she gets a cheeky little stat bump when you Field a Mask character, which has some potential. Having a 4/4 character at lvl 3 is no slouch at a 3 cost.
I suspect she’ll be more casual than competitive, but she’s done a job as a spoiler getting me thinking about some brewing ideas and I’ll def be trying her out.
I’m particular looking forward to pairing her with my next pick…
The Rock – “Know Your Role”
Have you ever found yourself lamenting the absence of the legendary ‘Blue-Eyes White Dragon’ (“BEWD” for short) global in Modern? Then take a look at this guy…
OK, so it’s not exactly the same, but it’s still a hella useful global. As I mentioned above; anything that discounts purchase costs is worthy of a closer look.
When compared to ‘BEWD’ the global has been nerfed a little bit by making it ‘Sacrifice’ instead of ‘KO’, so it doesn’t have that additional functionality, but the discount is enough it will surely see play.
It’s going to be real handy having a global that provides a discount Of 2, and just like ‘BEWD’ it’s not restricted to ‘Once per turn’ so you can spam this to your hearts content. Throw a couple of Sidekicks in the field as sacrificial lambs or a character that you want back in your bag rotation (excess ‘swarm’ characters, characters with ‘Energize’ or stuff you’d like to re-field) and start buying up those hard-to-buy high cost dice at a significant discount.
Also – double ‘Intimidate’. That’s awesome. Use ‘Asuka’ and his own global to stock up on ‘The Rock’ die and clear down fields like you’re cooking something painful.
Kevin Nash – WWE Hall Of Fame
There are couple of things of note on this next guy that made him leap out at me from the spoiler selection.
Before I noticed anything else I noticed that the WWE set marks the return of ‘Crossover’ cards, which was first seen in the ‘Green Arrow & The Flash’ set and has featured heavily on Super Rare cards in subsequent sets.
If you’re new to the game and not familiar with ‘Crossover’ then here’s the text from the FAQs page:
Crossover: Crossover characters have two or more types of energy. To purchase them you’ll need to spend at least one of each type of energy they require. You won’t be able to reduce their cost to avoid paying each type of energy to purchase their dice. They count as every type of energy you must spend to purchase their die. (DCDM4)
The next thing I noticed was that outrageous global – yet another, slightly nerfed, version of an older global. Pay a Fist to prevent a blocker OR force a 2 life hit. WOW.
In fact; it’s an interesting global to see the return of as it was an earlier variant of this global that led to the very first pair of banned cards in Dice Masters ‘Relentless’ and ‘Sword of Revealing Light’. some could argue that it’s been balanced out by adding the counter to global into the global itself, but choosing between an unblocked character or a hit of 2 life (Which gets around damage counters like ‘Black Widow’ and ‘Bishop’) is still pretty terrifying.
I’m not sure how I feel about this one, which leads me to one final thought…
A General Meta Thought About WWE
What I’ve seen here in these spoilers make me a little nervous about the impact WWE may have on the Dice Masters meta. Why? Because it feels like it might be swinging us back towards third turn, in your face power plays. I’m not a fan of this play style and found the age of power-play teams supported by earlier versions of these Globals a bit of a miserable time. I’m a wombo-combo Direct Damage guy, and had found the present meta much more of my pace. I mean – I’ve not even mentioned the ‘Cross-Pulse’ character than can be attacking turn 2.
It’s thematically on point though, so I can’t be too critical, as Wrestling is all about smack talk and thumping into each other so it all adds up, I suppose.
We’ll see, but now might be the time to get your ‘Boom Boom’, ‘Iceman’ and ‘The Atom’ fun in because they’ll be on the back foot soon enough I suspect.
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There we go then folks – my initial picks from the spoiler selection. What are your thoughts on the cards we’ve seen? Are you excited or as nervous as me? Do you have a stand out I’ve not mentioned? Let me know in the comments below…
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