“Single Affiliation” teams is one of the more popular themes we like to hold for our casual event get together down at Element Games (my FLGS). We re-visited that classic format a few times recently, so I thought I might share a team build I’ve been tinkering with for it: The X-Men.
Before we begin – I’ll fill you in on a house rule for Single Affiliation down my local: we allow actions on the team provided they are thematically linked to the Affiliation (ie ‘Bat-Signal’ on a Bat-Family team or ‘Eye of Agamotto’ on a Mystics team). On this particular occasion we choose to go with the Golden format too so that there was a nice big card pool to build the teams from.
So… on to the list…
Basic Action Cards
- With Great Power…
- Resurrection
Character/Action Cards
- Multiple Man – Pile On!
- Boom Boom – Meltdown
- The Blackbird – SR-71
- Sunfire – Solar Flare
- Wolverine – Xavier’s School
- Bishop – Butterfly Effect
- Storm – Wind Rider
- Colossus – Piotr Rasputin
Breakdown
First up – a win condition – and I’ve loaded the team up with several ways to deal some damage.
But the main play is to get ramped up to the big guy: ‘Colossus’.
I love this card. I’ve been playing it for years. He suits my love of “sit back and ping away” strategy that has always been my preference. He’s not going to win in one turn, but he usually gets the job done in two or three.
So… to cover the costs of this guy I’m going to need some Ramp. I’m going to do this with two cards – ‘Wolverine’ and ‘Multiple Man’
I’ve always been a big fan of ‘Swarm’ for Ramp; it give me a route to Energy spending that my opponent can’t make use of and I find it reeeeal satisfying rolling fistfuls of dice every turn with the high volume of Swarm dice from ‘Multiple Man’. But, he also served a dual purpose – once I’ve ramped up to ‘Colossus ‘ I can start fielding them to bump up ‘Colossus’ damage. You can field 2 or 3 of these bad boys and still enjoy the ramp and churn potential of his Swarming, His fielding cost is quite painful though, so that’s where this guy comes in…
In fact, all the X-Men have pretty painful fielding costs so he’s a massive help. Not only that – but look at those stats for a four cost character. Those big attack stats are going to go nicely with my plan B pivot win con: ‘The Blackbird’.
The Team isn’t short of strong Attack stats, and in the Golden meta there is no shortage of blanking and removal options to interfere with ‘Colossus’ so its nice to have this in the tool kit for a back up. One well timed ‘Blackbird’ when your opponent is short of energy with a ‘Wolverine’ and ‘Colossus’ and your opponent is facing down some pretty hefty damage potential.
‘Colossus’ can still prove to be a stretch to purchase, so a cheap character with a little bit of attack strength could prove handy so I’ve also thrown in this little gem: ‘Boom Boom – Meltdown’
She’s got a strong attack of 4 at her third level and comes with the added advantage of a little extra ping damage early doors to soften the ground before ‘Colossus’ comes along.
With both my potential win conditions relying on higher level dice in the field (for the ‘Colossus’ game-text or to maximise combat damage) I’ve also dropped on the Basic Action ‘With Great Power…’ to get everyone spun up.
So… that’s Ramp, Churn and Win Conditions boxed off – now to look at some defensive measures.
First – in a Golden Single Affiliation Set Up I’m anticipating lots of direct damage strategies to be floating around. Playing Single Affiliation regularly I’ve come to realise that there is quite a bit of nasty ping-y things out there (Villain Retaliation, Villain Nobby/Gobby, Guardians Yondu/Adam Warlock, X-Men Boom Boom/Storm, Teen Titans Starfire… to name but a few) and I need to be prepared, and X-Men have just the guy with ‘Bishop – Butterfly Effect’.
I’ve used this guy to great effect to lock down damage strategies before. He’s got strong attack to contribute with a lethal ‘Blackbird’ swing, he’s tough to shift defensively, and has a solid game-text. What’s not to like? He’s a bit pricey at a 5 cost, but I should be able to have the spends through Swarm, and his fielding costs will be mitigated by ‘Wolverine’. A strong addition.
No team is complete without a bit of a removal option, and for this I’ve decided to go classic Dice Masters with a Card I’ve used loads over the years: ‘Storm – Wind Rider’.
I get that she’s a 50/50 shot, but the fact the targets two dice and does a little bonus damage is too an option to pass up. She’s not ideal – playing the team I’ve found it hard to recycle her sometimes for repeat use and ‘Multiple Man’ is cutting into my Dice allowance to load up on her, but I still like the card a lot.
I want to make sure my guys stay in the field too, so I’ve filled my last slot with ‘Sunfire – Solar Flare’.
This guy is great for keeping blanket board clear strategies at bay (such as Monster teams with Breath Weapon Dragons) and helps a little with Overcrush (For example Villain Grodd teams).
And finally, for my last Basic Action, I’ve popped good old faithful ‘Resurrection’ in – just to speed things up in the first handful of rounds until my Swarm kicks in.
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There you go then folks – my Golden X-Men team built for Single Affiliation events. This team has been serving me really well and I’d highly recommend you give some version of it a go.
What’s your favourite Single Affiliation Team? Want to discuss the format some more? Let us know in the comments below…
