The title pretty much speaks for itself.
It’s my contention that ‘Ring of Winter’ is outrageously imbalanced when you sit back and think about it. The card has been confounding me quite a bit lately.
The heart of its ability is actually pretty cool; speeding up the process of getting your Dice (specifically in this case Dragons) to the field is as old as Dice Masters itself. Using abilities & actions to circumvent parts of the dice drafting cycle has been going on for years and is a key part of the tactical depth of the games.
But this card does it with such efficiency and power it appears imbalanced. Let’s start with the purchase cost of two. There seems to be a spate of low cost Dice lately where the cost/ability balance seems oddly weighted on the cheap side when compared to other similar abilities of the past. It really shouldn’t be so easy to buy & utilise when you consider the potential board advantage it provides early game. You can buy it in your first turn with energy to spare for a bit of global use or, if you’ve gone second, another two cost die.
This becomes especially mental when you factor in the global. Not only is the die cheap itself, it gives you the tools to grab the terrifying, but normally high cost, Dragons a little cheaper. As I’ve just mentioned: this Dice, when combo’d with the right Dragon (which, let’s face it, there’s lots of great ones to choose from), can set up the aforementioned overwhelming early board advantage at a crazy-efficient pace.
And to add to the craziness – you move that Dragon into the field at level 3. LEVEL 3! Sheesh. It’s not just a big nasty I’ve grabbed super quick and slammed in the field in my third turn, it’s the biggest the big nasty can be. In addition, one of the key defining features of Dragons is the Breath Weapon keyword – a great game-text to clear the board of the few weenies I might have been able to afford to chuck out so early doors. It’s loopy.
There’s ways around it for sure: I’ve been playing around a little bit with the new ‘Poison Ivy – Red’ as a nice counter to an aggressive early ‘Gold Dragon’ in my face and the ‘Kate Bishop’ global is handy in a pinch too. There is also the classic “First turn Shriek” to blank the dreaded Dragon.
You may also find a bit of breathing room (pun intended) when the player is running lean and can’t afford the breath weapon until the following turn, but it’s still pretty scary stuff even when slowed down: any player worth their salt will be good and ready for such counters. (The new ‘Black Widow’ taunt global has been seeing to my ‘Poison Ivy’ strategy of late – it’s bloody annoying – and I’ve seen a few ‘Shriek’ dice shot dead with a well placed ‘Batarang’ in my time)
So… I don’t really know what the point of this post is other than to say I find ‘Ring of Winter’ a bit silly, and I’m jealous I don’t own one LOL
What are your thoughts on this crazy die? Do you think it’s frighteningly OP, or am I being a wet head? Let me know in the comments below…
