The Dice Masters World Championship is just around the corner and there is a variety of events in the pipeline to bring joy to seasoned and new players alike. If you’re a bit out of the loop on all that’s going on you can check out all the details at these links here:
We’re super-jealous this side of the water of all the great dice rolling times that attendees are going to be having, and rest assured we will all be tuning in to the DMArmada/Weekly Dice Arena streaming to catch a glimpse of the exciting teams on show and see what’s rising to the top of the meta.
BUT, it’s fun to try and predict what the big teams are going to be, what archetypes are going to rule the tables, what power-plays will win the day.
So here is a list of the Modern Constructed picks from BR6/MoD to be the big noise on the day…
The Top Picks
The following teams are the ‘top picks’ selection – those teams I’m feeling reasonably confident we’ll see floating around the top tables of the World Championship.
Collector Control
I’m going to get started with a personal favourite of mine – I’m certain that a Villian Control list, centred around the Rare ‘The Collector – Taneleer Tivan” will feature heavily on the day of the World Championship final.
Some iteration of the team archetype has been a frequent contender at the top tables of National events for a few years culminating with Arge O’Neal’s US Nationals win with this popular card. Collector Control was what I had run myself at UK Nats last year and it was the team at second & third place on the day (knocked off the top two positions by the dreaded Super Rare ‘Yuan-Ti Pureblood – Epic Humanoid’ spam).
It’s a versatile build to suit any Control player. Lock your opponent down with all that juicy Villian Control (‘Shriek’, ‘Wrecker’, Scarlet Witch’, ‘Blob’, ‘Madame Masque’… whatever’s your poison) and lean into the game-text on ‘The Collector’ to spam some damage through with a “when fielded” effect (the popular choice is largely ‘Norman Osborn – Don’t Call me Gobby’) or pilfer your opponent’s win con and abuse with impunity.
It’s a lean running team but has been helped out quite a bit with the arrival of fun Globals like ‘Kree Captain’ and ‘Clayface’ to help reach that 5 cost quicker and manage your energy needs when you come to use ‘The Collector’.
We’ll likely see some net-decked twists on Arge’s build for sure, which included a lovely pivot win con with the new ‘Black Canary – Flower Shop Owner’ that combos well with the often featured ‘Danger Room – Flame Throwers and Rotating Knives’.
One to watch…
Iceman Missile
There is no doubt in my mind that another heavily featured win con will be the ‘Iceman – Right on Schedule’ and ‘Magic Missile’ combo.
It’s a relatively new archetype on the scene, but carries the legacy of ‘Nova – The Human Rocket’ from back in the Avengers Vs X-Men days, and was taken to the second position at the Canadian Nats this year by Rob.
Load up on enough Bolt energy and the damage capacity of this guy is pretty horrifying, and so expect to see this dude sitting on teams with cheap Bolt characters like the swarming ‘Chwinga’, handy Globals like ‘Clayface’ and ‘Techno’ to manage Bolt consistency, and maybe some stuff to increase his defense value to soak up more shots to maximise damage potential.
He’s not without flaws though – the good stuff goes down in the Attack Step so your opponent has a chance to wreak a little interference on him, and ‘Magic Missile’ can prove a bit of a risk, so I would also anticipate a bit of Control-y protection such as ‘Wonder Woman – Child of Clay’ to keep your opponent’s global usage in check and Static Field’ to keep him from disappearing into the Used Pile for awhile. Drop a ‘Black Widow’ taunt global on to get a bit of damage done on your opponent’s turn too.
Fixit Bomb
He’s dropped off the radar a little bit lately, but the big man may just be set to make a comeback at the upcoming World championship – his enormous capacity for damage will be too much for some Spike-y types to ignore.
It’s the “one turn kill” opportunity with this guy that some peeps love, so expect teams with a strong focus on rushing him out and clearing the field across the table in a blink of an eye. I would imagine lots of quick ramp globals like ‘Kree Captain’ and ‘Ring of Winter’ to support early purchasing and actions like ‘Hellfire Club – Members Only’ with board clear power, finishing off with some ‘Magic Missile’ global to grow him to maximum beast.
That is a bit of a “glass cannon” approach – miss an early roll and you’re floundering or face a ‘Static Field’ global and you’re locked down – so we may find some more slow-burn builds creeping through designed to be more consistent that use added protection like ‘Wonder Woman – Child of Clay’ to stop the opponent from getting in the way or have a pivot loaded and ready to go.
Sidekick Army
Lots of great stuff going on with Sidekicks at the moment, and I would fully expect to see builds making the most use of the character face on your base resource.
Quick access to Sidekicks using the likes of ‘Instant War’ , ‘Professor X – No More, Magnus!’ Global and the ‘Atlantis’ have made Sidekick strategies much more consistent. Just a handful of these little guys can get pretty horrific, pretty quick with cheeky stat bumps from characters such as ‘Wong – Faithful Servant’, ‘Batman – Strikes Terror into Criminal Hearts’, ‘Karai – Unwasy Alliance’, ‘Malekith – King of the Dark’ and ‘Black Widow – Widow’s Bite’. Take your pick as to which one works for you.
There’s lots of nice little twists within the Sidekick Team archetype too; ‘Insect Plague’ to make your beefy Ally’s unblockable, ‘Jubilee – Mallrat’ for some early direct damage, ‘Mimic – Borrowed Talent’ for crazy ramp, or give them Infiltrate with ‘Captain America’ or ‘Rogue’.
It’s a “shock & awe”, quick, punchy list that will appeal to some and we’re most definitely going to see Sidekick teams around.
Parasite + Unblock-able Character
The use of Unblock-able characters in Dice Masters as a win con is nothing new, but the arrival of ‘Parasite – Maxwell Jensen’ in Justice may be just the cherry that takes it a bit higher up the meta at such an event.
With a low cost, high attack character this can kill an opponent pretty quick. Expect to see ‘Parasite’ paired up with unblock-able favourites like ‘Ant-Man – Petty Theft’ with a spin up global, the aforementioned ‘Insect Plague’ global with an ally, Uncommon ‘Yuan-Ti Pureblood’, ‘Kitty Pryde – Madame Headmistress’ and many, many more.
Other nice twists to be on the look out for with the ‘Parasite’ build is further attack bumps like ‘The Outsider’ global to take the damage capacity even higher.
It can be fast and all up in your face so be ready, but it can take a few turns to deliver the killer blow so you’ll have some breathing room. Killing off the unblockable characters or pushing them back with ‘Static Field’ global is a strong way to go but be on the look out for the aforementioned ‘Wonder Woman’ or cheeky ‘Blackbird’ global on the ‘Parasite’ teams to mitigate your defense.
Hope/Boom Boom
I have a bit of a (probably mis-placed) faith in this combo, and would expect to certainly see it give a half-decent showing in the placements at least.
It’s very indicative of the pace of the meta presently; it’s a list that builds up steam to a mid-game finish as you start to layer the pieces together bit by bit to go for the win.
The fundamental core of the team is ‘Boom Boom – Time Bomb’ and popular low cost Basic Actions like ‘Thrown Brick’ and ‘Ping’. ‘Hope – Pluripotent Echopraxia’ sits on the team to copy the text on ‘Boom Boom’ to grow the damage potential. As you build up your Basic Action count the team begins to deliver more & more damage each turn until the win.
The recent ruling on ‘Boom Boom’ that the damage is delivered through the Actions has definitely made this build more attractive as it circumvents a few meta-counters for Direct Damage like promo ‘Black Widow’ and Rare ‘SP//dr’.
‘Scarlet Witch – Careful What You Wish For’ is this team’s nemesis so expect to see the team padded out with ‘Acererak’ for the Action re-roll global or solid removal options to take her out of the picture.
You may also see some ‘Dragonborne Sorceror’ contributions too to really snowball the damage output of the team.
The 50/50s
This section outlines a few teams I’m a bit undecided on, ones I think may be knocking about but perhaps won’t go the distance.
Ring of Winter + Gold Dragon
While the ‘Ring of Winter’ and ‘Gold Dragon’ are still in rotation I would expect to see some Timmy-types bring this combo along.
I must admit that I’ve not looked at it in a while, so wonder if there are some recent releases in the campaign boxes that might give this build a little spring in its step. It definitely seems to have fallen out of fashion a little bit lately, most likely because one missed ‘Ring of Winter’ roll can send things a bit awry. There are certainly some capable brewers out there who may have been tinkering away to combat the weaknesses of the team to bring it to the top tier event.
Tabaxi Rogue
It’s been talked about and flirted around a bit in a few online tournaments, but I’m in-experienced playing either with or against it, and wonder if this is its year.
you can’t rely on your opponent to be damaging themselves while ‘Tabaxi Rogue’ is out so there will be some key combo cards to force your opponent to draw dice to fire the ‘Tabaxi’ damage across the table. You can expect to see the Corrupt keyword and the ‘Instant War’ Basic Action paired up with ‘Tabaxi’.
I just can’t pin down in my mind whether it’s got what it takes and I’d love to see it do well.
Common K Bish
Is this the year that the mythical Common K Bish team enters the mainstream?
Doubtful – nobody would want to make that many of their opponents cry…
Venerable Dreadnaught Board Clear
This was a popular meta card for a short window of time, and *may* make an appearance at Worlds.
The reason I say *may*? Well… its because ‘Venerable Dreadnaught’ and ‘Black Widow – Agent’ has been locked in a weird reciprocal back & forth since the latter was released.
Will players bring ‘Venerable Dreadnaught’, after a short hiatus, banking on ‘Black Widow’ getting considered less required? Or will ‘Black Widow’ be everywhere regardless. Let’s see…
Atom/Energy Field
The ‘Atom – Professor’ card, combo’d with the ‘Energy Field’ global made a big splash for a while (particularly at Canadian Nationals) but has been hit with a ruling that nerfs it’s potency – but did it nerf the potency enough? Could it still be as viable with a “just buy two Atoms” strategy. I’m not sure it can, but will be on the look out for a team someone has optimised to still deliver efficient damage in light of the new nerf.
Meta Cards
Here’s a few meta-cards that, while not being a direct win-con piece in their own right, I suspect will be frequent features on a number of teams…
Shriek – Sonic Beam
Everybody just loves to use the worst card in the game. Why? Because she’s cheap, easy, requires no imagination at all, and runs interference on every single team. She will be everywhere.
Green Devil Mask – Lesser Trap
Another example of a one card, one size fits all bit of interference to drop on a team to mess with your opponent’s plans. It went a little bit out of fashion for a while but has crept back into favour since it featured heavily at the Canadian Nationals.
Scarlet Witch – Careful What You Wish For
There’s so much nasty action stuff about in the current meta that ‘Scarlet Witch’ is bound to be making an appearance at the World Championship this year.
Madame Masque – Nefaria’s Scheme
Great card to counter all the juicy ‘When Fielded’ effects that may be used against you, and there’s a fair few of those, including…
Mimic – Flying, Blasting, Slashing
Every good team needs itself some removal to clear away any pests on the other side of the board, and this one has only upsides. Repeat KO option or a game-text steal. Bloody marvelous card.
Wrecker – Enchanted Crowbar
There’s a quite a bit in the meta right now that lean heavily on globals to be successful, and so I’m certain some will be looking at this guy to put a stop to any global based stuff.
Polaris – Hail, Queen of Mutants
See above, but with the slight added flexibility of giving space for one global use.
Kree Captain – any one really
The discount global on this guy has changed the way we look at 4 and 5 cost characters and will be a regular feature of many, many teams.
Bishop – Butterfly Effect
It’s a Direct Damage heavy meta right now, so I’d expect to see some damage control on teams. This guy is the best candidate for a full on shutdown of the pings, and much easier to purchase in today’s meta than ever before.
If not ‘Bishop’ then expect a few rare ‘SP//dr’ cards or Promo ‘Black Widow’ to be floating about.
There we are folks – I’m going stop typing there because it’s getting waaaaaay too long. There’s so much more but with the big event just days away I’m going to leave it at that. I could still yet type up pages on ‘Clayface’ global, energy fixers, the new ‘Jubilee’ cards and much, much more.
Keep your eye out on DMArmada’s YouTube page and the Weekly Dice Arena’s Twitch channel for all the streaming coverage of the event. Here’s some links to help you find your way:
I’ll be watching so I’ll see you in the chats. The best of luck to all the players (except Laurier – I hope you lose miserably); I hope you all have a great time.
Be sure to listen to the next episode of the Ministry of Dice podcast (coming the 16th September) for live audio captured over the weekend by our intrepid “man on the ground” Andy May.
See you later folks. 🙂
