Building for an S/C/U Only Event

I’m heading down to one of my FLGS’ tomorrow night for a Casual Constructed Event that is Starter/Common/Uncommon only.

Up to this point my experience of a limited constructed event is…well…limited. But I’m well up for the team building challenge it presents and have all night to get the build done.

So I’ve sat down just now to get it figured out tonight and thought I’d like commentate the build here & now for all to see. (Maybe some will have some pointers for me to put in the comments?)

I’ve been toying around with a Basic Action build that’s been rattling around at the back of head for a while now and I noticed earlier that the key components I fancy using are all common or uncommon. They are:

The plan is to buy up ‘Magic Missiles’ at a discount with ‘Red Dragon’ global (and a nice bonus ping), get some direct damage in with the BAC, and walk ‘Batman’ in with some unblock-able battle damage.

I reckon maximising my burn damage a bit more would really help my win con. In a usual unlimited set up I would maybe turn to ‘Cyclops – Field Leader’ for this function, but sadly he has to be excluded as a rare. Thankfully, some Reddit advice pointed me in the direction of a card I’ve often over looked for one of his counterparts:

This guy can really help me pump up the aggression – providing some ping damage of his own and helping drive up the impact of the ‘Magic Missile’.

Up until now I am yet to build and field the team as I’ve always struggled to problem-solve against the challenge of rare ‘Jinzo’ and ‘Wasp’, but in an S/C/U event these are no longer a risk.

I am, however, concerned about my opponent using my own ‘Red Dragon’ Global and ‘Magic Missile’ against me – which, ironically, is a situation I would consider using the rare ‘Jinzo’ or ‘Wasp’ for myself. My next addition on the team needs to address this issue and putting some thought into it I’ve decided on this guy:

I may not be able to keep my opponent from pilfering part of my own strategy, but there’s at least the possibility of make them think twice about it with the Captain pinging them back.

Another worry is driving Batman’s unblock-able damage through. The ‘Distraction’ BAC is very popular in the meta at this particular store and that will really disrupt the strategy. Thankfully – the most practical defense against that particular problem is one very popular uncommon:

He’ll keep that pesky ‘Distraction’ at bay, and, as an added bonus, he fulfills the “Adventurer” requirement on ‘Magic Missile’ should I need some Plan B ping for character damage.

That’s 5 spaces filled – 3 left to go.

I’ve only currently got my win con locked in so need to turn my attention to the other cornerstones of team building: a bit of Ramp and some Removal.

I’m considering 2 removal options that I think would have good synergy with my team already – ‘Hulk-Jade Giant’ or ‘Millenium Puzzle’.

I’ve used ‘Hulk’ many a time before and consider him pretty tried, tested & true; especially with ‘Magic Missile’ on the table to ping him on demand. ‘Millennium Puzzle’ on the other hand is an interesting proposition. It’s another action to use with my ‘Red Dragon’ Global, can contribute to making ‘Batman’ unblock-able, and I like that it sends my opponents characters to the used pile.

I’m thinking ‘Millennium Puzzle’ is the way to go – if for no other reason than I’ve not used it before and would like to give it a go-  but the decision is soon made for me when I discover that I only own one ‘Millennium Puzzle’ die and ideally I’d want at least 2. Clearly there was a reason I’ve not used it before. ‘Jade Giant’ it is.

(I’ve just opened another Window and had a quick peek at a couple of online singles providers I like – no one’s got any in stock!)

The presence of ‘Jade Giant’ makes my ramp decision pretty straight forward – the bald wonder himself:

No further commentary required here – there is just no one more efficient when it comes to ramping up to buying up the 5/6/7 cost dudes on my team.

With one last space on my team I look to another card I’m yet to ever use:

She’s a cheaper bolt, a cheaper fielding cost than some of my other dudes, an Adventurer, and has some nice jiggery-pokery around my Action Dice strategy.

The last thing to address is the last Basic Action, which I admit has me a little flummoxed. My immediate instinct is ‘Polymorph’ to help get a quick ‘Hulk’ if I need him and to spin my ‘Batman’ up and make sure he’s hitting for top whack when he can’t be blocked. But I can’t help think I’m possibly overlooking something and I’m keen to use cards I don’t habitually use. Besides which – I can never seem to pilot the use of ‘Polymorph’ very well & balls it up.
I’m considering whether something like ‘Anger Issues’ or ‘Ambush’ might be a good idea to get my ‘Batman’ pumped up when he sneaks through. Another option is to push the burn out there by partnering up my ‘Magic Missile’ with a ‘Power Bolt’.

Because I’m keen to have a bit of fun I’ve decided to take the ‘Power Bolt’ – I think it’ll be a riot to have a go at some good, old fashioned burn and I think the guys at the FLGS will take the aggro in good spirit.

So – onto the event tomorrow night. I’ll be writing up how it went – probably on Wednesday night.

If anyone wants to see the team on the DiceMastersDB you can find it here:

http://dicemastersdb.com/teams/team/?id=12512