The previews & spoilers for the Dice Masters Dark Phoenix Saga set continue apace with a full reveal of cards for one particular character: Mister Sinister.
The cards were shown by DMArmada in a video premier on Friday night. Starting the weekend Dice Masters Spoiler excitement! Go check out the video here – it’s got some great background on the Mister Sinister character & some really interesting thoughts on the cards:
Make sure you give him a ‘Like’ on the vid from me in thanks for giving me the card piccies to use in my article when I asked his permission. Appreciate the help Steve 🙂 Here’s the channel link: DMArmada’s YouTube channel.
Each & every one of these versions of Mister Sinister was so curious (definitely qualifying for a BritRollerSix “hot-take” spoiler review for sure!) I just HAD to jot down a quick card review of my own, with some thoughts on how these guys could see some play, and how you might decide which one you might even use!
Mister Sinister – Geneticist
So – I’m not going to bury the lead – if you’ve watched DMArmada’s vid, or scrolled through to look at the pics straight away, then you’ll see the reason Mister Sinister stands out as a curiosity is that they all have different Globals, which is a fun challenge for team building if you’ve got your eye on two! When it comes to the common now – on the surface of things the value in this guy is ALL about the global.
Generally speaking I’m not a fan of Globals that cost 2 energy but a Global that gifts a die Deadly is worth having a think about. I can see a multitude of uses for this but the most immediate example that springs to mind is something like ‘Beast – Here Sir!”…
There’s a number of these “can only be blocked by two or more character dice” characters around, but this is the cheapest and most efficient I can think of. With the ‘Mister Sinister’ global in the mix this guy becomes a win/win – block him with 2 characters while Sinister makes him Deadly or let him through. Throw in some way to buff him and it could be a lot of fun. (Although going to need a lot of energy generating to afford all that global use, because I swear I’m going to try it with ‘Ric Flair – Woooooooo!’ LOL)
The global’s nice, but it could be easy to dismiss his core game-text (a life for a life doesn’t seem like a good deal) but there’s also a good bit of janky potential in there if you’re looking to get some more value out of him. I reckon there could be some fun stuff to have a go at with, for example; one of my faves from the Justice campaign box is ‘Scarecrow – Professor of Psychology’, who might just help tip the balance…
Get some ‘Instant War’ in the mix to guarantee some Sidekicks to kill and you could, in one fielded character, trade 2 of your life for 5 of your opponents. That’s just one idea from the first look. Risky, a bit daft, but could be fun.
In any case – for the global alone this one is going to be tried out, especially with the Common rarity making it accessible to most budgets.
Mister Sinister – Mutant Supremacist
I like all the Mister Sinister’s for their own reasons, but again the global is the first thing that catches the eye when you read it. It will be of interest to Control players, especially when being plagued by mean & nasty overcrushers down their local.
It’s not ideal – global Control has been made pretty ineffective in a meta with ‘Eddie Guerrero’, ‘Istrid Horn’ and the upcoming global on the new ‘Gladiator’ card – but it certainly warrants some thought & consideration around ways you could possibly make it work. I’m not sure it can work, but I’m not turning my back on it yet.
Something else occurs to me about the global – could you use it on your own Godcatcher to remove the troublesome force block game-text? I think maybe you can – that could be something to look at.
The core game-text is intriguing too. It’s a re-print of a classic game-text that has seen some play through the years as early as the first D&D set with ‘Prismatic Spray’, and later with ‘Shriek – Dark Empathy’. It comes in pricey at a 5 cost, and the fielding costs are high for rinse/repeat use, but if you’re struggling against players who like to do stuff with their characters in your turn then he might just be for you.
Mister Sinister – Dark Experimentation
One thing I am beginning to sense more & more, and this global on rare Mister Sinister is another example, is that there is A LOT of re-printed texts going on in the Dark Phoenix set. This global is yet another re-print of the global currently seen on ‘Atlantis’, and prior to that on ‘S.T.A.R. Labs’ in the Green Arrow & The Flash, albeit a little different in the energy requirement (this one is now generic).
It’s certainly proven its value and has it’s place for some ramp & churn, and taking the restriction of using two different energy types will only please fans of this global. The generic cost will make it more viable for use in a draft, for sure.
I must confess that I’ve not found the success with the previous versions of this global that some others have – I find it a struggle to make good use of it in the early game when it’s a 2 cost global, but if you’ve planned for it and got your head around it then it might be exactly what you need in a team.
I’m not too sure about the core game-text tbh, on the first look I’m not finding anything leaping to mind that might turn it into a useful card, so might be one to look at just for the global.
Mister Sinister – Biologist
Lastly we have the Super Rare, which I’ve got a feeling will be the one to really catch the eye of the spikiest players with that 3 cost global.
Cards that give dice Overcrush is not a new thing, but this is the first we’ve seen that gives it as a global and removes the randomness of a dice roll to get it.
It’s pricey, but most other Overcrush givers come at a 4 cost or more, like the Basic Action ‘Anger Issues’ or the Black Order folks in Infinity Gauntlet, so it’s more than a fair price to pay with the added bonus of having it available on demand without nonsense like churn & bag management to deal with.
I can see this having a place with low cost, big stat’ed characters in casual formats for sure. In the Infinity Gauntlet set alone there’s cards like ‘Doctor Strange – Time Gem’, ‘Ms Marvel – NJ Native’, and ‘Hulk – Hunter Green/Immortal’ with disproportionately high attack stats compared to their purchase cost. The ‘Hulk – Hunter Green’ could be especially interesting as he has the Call Out keyword, which brings the added value of forcing a weenie blocker that might go nicely with an Overcrush gift from Mister Sinister.
I’m into the core text as well, yet another type of control that appeals to me. It’s a stretch at a 6 cost, but if you’re running this Mister Sinister anyway you may want to reach for it if your opponent is getting tricksy with the ‘Deadpool – We’re X-Force!’ global or you’re getting your board cleared by a ‘Poison Ivy – Criminal Because of Love’. Let’s not forget the new Founder Cyclops from the Dark Phoenix Saga set either – which you can read about in my Keyword Profile – Founder article.
Is it a Super Rare I’d chase? Probably not, but I wouldn’t be disappointed with it either – it’s a piece to play around with for sure.
It’s really fun to see a character card with different globals on each. As anyone who has had their eye on several Black Widows will tell you: it makes for some interesting team building challenge when there’s a couple that might make for a strong fit on your team.
There’s a fair bit of space for these globals in many casual builds that I think will make this an often seen character in theme builds & restricted formats as he can give some less popular, lesser used cards some clout.
Right then – I’m off to brew a ‘Bret “Hitman” Hart’ team with the Deadly Sinister global. Let me know in the comments below your thoughts on Sinister. Catch you later folks…
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