In addition to their more “long-game” events with weekly rounds the lads over at CR Game Room have started holding monthly “one shot” events where all the rounds take place on the same day. I took part in this event and had a cracking time.
The key defining feature of all the events that CR Game Room currently organise is that they take place exclusively online. On the CR Game Room website they have embedded Google Hangout rooms available that game play can take place in using webcams.
As a brief side-note: if you’ve never played Dice Masters online before and are intrigued then you might want to take a look at the advice on the Dice Coalition website and check out our MoDCribZ video series on YouTube that gives a behind-the-scenes peek at current, regular online player’s set ups.
The event was an 8 player pool and was three single game rounds of 35 minutes each. The format was Modern Constructed (along with the recent ‘Shriek – Sonic Beam’ ban in effect).
Here’s the team I played and a compilation of the game play footage of my matches that were taken on the day…
My Team
With the emphasis on the word “competitive” coming through loud and clear on the announcement made on the CR Game Room live stream, and with Modern rotation just around the corner, I decided to dig out one of my all-time faves from the 19/20 Modern meta and re-visited my ‘The Collector’/’Nobby’ combo team from the Online “Rest of Worlds” event last September. (I made a video discussing the original list I used at that event on our YouTube channel – My Favourite Collector Team)
Here’s my team list on the Dice Coalition Team Builder for the variant I used for the CR Game Room event: True Mister Six Collector List
The core combo will be very familiar to seasoned players: I was going to get my rare ‘The Collector – Taneleer Tivan’ out, buy up ‘Danger Room – Flame Throwers & Rotating Knives’ dice, and then use ‘The Collector’ game-text to spam ‘Norman Osborn – Don’t Call Me Nobby!’ dice into the field over a couple of turns to deliver lethal.
Spending power is an important consideration for this list. In the first instance, I need to get an early ‘The Collector’ die bought, and then I need the energy to be able to “Collector in” any dice I want to fire into the field. That’s where ‘Kree Captain’, ‘Clayface’ and ‘Cheetah’ come in. I can double up energy with ‘Clayface’ global, pick up my 4 & 5 costs at a discount with ‘Kree Captain’ global, and generate a bit of ramp for extra energy with ‘Villianous Pact’ and, mid-game, with ‘Cheetah’.
If you watched the vid you’ll notice a handful of changes I’ve made to the team. The first change I made for this event was to swap out ‘Madame Masque – Nefaria’s Scheme’ for ‘Scarlet Witch – Careful What you Wish For’. With ‘Shriek’ gone I felt less inclined to protect myself from “when fielded” effects (although still nervous about ‘Becky Lynch’) and felt the likelihood of cards like ‘The God Catcher’, ‘Yawning Portal’, ‘Atlantis’, ‘Boom Boom’ and ‘Ring of Winter’ (to name a few) would make some action control a solid addition.
I also swapped out my ‘Shriek – Dark Empathy’ for the new ‘Gazer – Evil Familiar’. I’ve always been a big fan of the large area of effect on the ‘Shriek’ game-text, but have found it a struggle with a team that runs so lean on energy generation. So, inspired by Spug’s ‘Songbird’ shenanigans at the European Championships last year, I thought I’d give ‘Intimidate’ a try. It’s a cheaper solution and was intended to keep nasty Attack Step stuff like ‘Iceman’ and ‘The God Catcher’ out of my hair. It is a bit of a sacrifice though as ‘Gazer’ isn’t a Villain so breaks my ramp combo with ‘Cheetah’. I figured I’d give it a try though.
With a little extra control with ‘Static Field’ I was ready to go…
The Rounds
Round 1 – Carl
My first round was against Carl, who was running a ‘Green Lantern’ Mask build with some ‘Green Devil Mask’ Control for good measure.
Here is Carl’s team: Carl’s Green Lantern List
And here is my game with Carl on YouTube:
Round 2 – Rob
My second round was an epic moment in Dice Masters history – my first game ever against Rob (the ‘R’ in CR Game Room)! Rob was running a ‘The God Catcher’ action team, with a sprinkle of unblockable ‘Yuan-Ti Pureblood’ for good measure.
Here is Rob’s team: Rob’s God Catcher List
And here is my game with Rob on YouTube:
Round 3 – Alex D
The third & final round was against Alex (of Breath Weapon X fame). Al was running a ‘Collector’ team also, with the same ‘Danger Room’/’Norman Osborn’ combo as the win condition, however his variant was being driven by the ‘Mimic’ ramp machine.
Here is Alex’s team: Alex’ Collector Team List
And here is my Game against Alex on YouTube. I didn’t record this one – it was captured by the guys over a CR Game Room who ran a live commentary over it. Enjoy!
And the Winner is…
That’s right, would you believe it, with a 3-0 record I took the top spot! Wonders will never cease.
It was super-fun to get together with everyone and get a little 3 rounder on the go, especially in these strange Pandemic times. I enjoyed hanging out with everyone immensely. It was also a nice little pleasure to squeeze a little bit more game play out of the ‘Collector’/’Nobby’/’Danger Room’ combo – my all time fave – one last time before the cards rotate out in the 2020 Modern format.
I’ll most definitely be keeping an eye out for future CR Game Room “One – Shots” – it can be soooo much easier in a busy work & family life to arrange a stint of a couple of hours to play than squeezing something in every week over a 4 or 5 week period. (Although not quite a tricky at the moment)
I’d highly recommend that, if this is of interest, you keep an eye out on the CRGR.rocks web page or join their Discord group for news & information on upcoming events, or tune in to their live stream every Wednesday on their YouTube channel where they often make announcements and discuss upcoming plans.
In the meantime – what did you think of my team? What did you think of my opponent’s teams? Want to congratulate me and acknowledge my awesomeness? Want to know more about playing online? Pop a comment below…
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