Last weekend was the “One Big Weekend” initiative from the Rollin’ Thunder podcast. Groups of Dice Masters fans gathered at their FLGS’ around the world to hold tournament events and roll some dice. We got involved over here in the UK with a Scottish event (you can find our man TJ’s write up of that one HERE) and an event at Fanboy 3 in Manchester, which I attended.
Our tournament was a Modern Constructed format with no bans (other than the official Modern list). We kicked off at 12:30pm and the plan was to play 3 Swiss rounds with no cuts. Each round was 45 minutes, “best of three”, with five turns to complete when the timer was called.
The atmosphere was great and everyone arrived set for a good day’s play. The Manchester scene is pretty solid and we had 9 players for the event. With everyone set & team lists noted, we settled in to play…
Team Lists
To begin with – here is my team:
Me
Basic Action Cards
- Confront the Mighty
- Thrown Brick
Character/Action Cards
- Boom Boom – Time Bomb
- Black Widow – Agent
- Poison Ivy – Red
- Wasp – Flitting About
- Banshee – Hitting the High Notes
- Mimic – Calvin Rankin
- Acererak – The Eternal
The team is a tweaked up version of the team I played in the second UK Nats qualifier last June that centred around ‘Boom Boom – Time Bomb’, with a few key amendments. First – the arrival of ‘Thrown Brick’ was the perfect change out for my original ramp of ‘Investigation’ to pair up with my ‘Boom Boom’ ping with it’s lower cost and recurring prep action.
‘Mimic’ went in, wholly inspired by Arge (I thought it appropriate at the “One Big Weekend”), to double up my ‘Boom Boom’ damage or pilfer my opponent’s goodies (something I had become fond of after a long history with ‘The Collector’).
The rest were all there to serve as typical True Mister Six defensive measures. ‘Banshee’ would punish any opponent’s who helped themselves to my cheap Basic Actions or rely on Basic Actions of their own. ‘Black Widow’ was my anti- ‘Venerable Dreadnaught’ and ‘Attune’ tech. ‘Wasp’ was there specifically for any Super Rare ‘Yuan-Ti’ action as a bit of Attune of my own to throw back across the field. I also planned on using her to increase the Action ping spam and maybe beef her up for some attacks. ‘Poison Ivy’ was my blocker for ‘Fixit’ and ‘Dragons’, as well as a good combo piece with ‘Confront the Mighty’. Finally; ‘Acererak’ was there for the global to try and roll at least one action around the ‘Scarlet Witch’ gauntlet.
The rest of the day’s teams looked like this…
Cleggy
Basic Action Cards
- Villainous Pact
- Splinter’s Teachings
Character/Action Cards
- Black Widow – Agent
- Shriek – Sonic Beam
- Norman Osborn – Don’t Call Me Nobby!
- Boom Boom – Meltdown
- Venerable Dreadnaught – Snooze Fest
- The Collector – Taneleer Tivan
- Batman – Always Prepared
- Another thing (Didn’t get it!)
Pembo
Basic Action Cards
- Resurrection
- Misdirection
Character/Action Cards
- Yuan-Ti Pureblood – Epic Boredom
- PseudoDragon – Paragon Familiar
- Wasp – Flitting About
- Shriek – Sonic Beam
- Bat-Signal – Out of the Darkness
- Kate Bishop – Hawkingbird
- Batarang – What Goes Around, Comes Around
- Green Devil Mask – Lesser Trap
Mike
Basic Action Cards
- Nefarious Broadcast
- Create Food and Water
Character/Action Cards
- Black Widow – The Widow’s Bite
- Shriek – Sonic Beam
- Kree Captain – Lost Purpose
- Scarlet Witch – Careful What You Wish For
- Absorbing Man – Ol’ Ball and Chain
- The Collector – The Power Protocol
- Thanos – Prove Love for Lady Death
- Stompa – Big Meks
Steve
Basic Action Cards
- Villainous Pact
- Static Field
Character/Action Cards
- Mimic – Calvin Rankin
- The Collector – Taneleer Tivan
- Green Devil Mask – Lesser Trap
- Blob – Nothing Moves the Blob
- Scarlet Witch – Careful What You Wish For
- Shriek – Sonic Beam
- Norman Osborn – Don’t Call Me Nobby!
- Kree Captain – Lost Purpose
Paul
Basic Actions
- Instant War
- Static Field
Character/Action Cards
- Boom Boom – Time Bomb
- Green Devil Mask – Lesser Trap
- Jubilee – Mallrat
- Malekith – 13th Son of a 13th Son
- Mimic – Borrowed Talent
- Scarlet Witch – Careful What You Wish For
- Shriek – Sonic Beam
- Tabaxi Rogue – Lesser Zhentarim
Seth
Basic Actions
- Big Entrance
- Resurrection
Character/Action Cards
- Malekith – 13th Son of a 13th Son
- Mimic – Borrowed Talent
- Firefly – Ted Carson
- Yuan-Ti Pureblood – Epic Humanoid
- Green Devil Mask – Lesser Trap
- Jubilee – Mallrat
- The Bifrost – Bridge Between Realms
- Professor X – No More, Magnus!
Matthew H
Basic Actions
- Resurrection
- Power Bolt
Character/Action Cards
- Professor X – No More, Magnus!
- Boom Boom – Time Bomb
- Scarlet Witch – Careful What You Wish For
- Green Devil Mask – Lesser Trap
- Yuan-Ti Pureblood – Lesser Humanoid
- Bishop – Butterfly Effect
- Mimic – Borrowed Talent
- Shriek – Sonic Beam
James
Basic Actions
- Instant War
- One Against Many
Character/Action Cards
- Jubilee – Mallrat
- Kree Captain – Lost Purpose
- Mimic – Borrowed Talent
- Billy Club – Tool of Justice
- Malekith – 13th Son of a 13th Son
- Green Devil Mask – Lesser Trap
- Professor X – No More, Magnus!
- Ragnarok – Dark Avenger
My Rounds
Round 1 – Seth
Seth was playing a team loaded with ping-y win conditions, as well as a ‘Bifrost’, which I’m certain was placed on the team to play mind games with me. It seemed that his plan was to get some early hits in with ‘Jubilee’ while fielding Sidekicks for ‘Mimic’ ramp and then start chaining ‘Firefly’ dice in with ‘Bifrost’ for some chunkier hits. SR ‘Yuan-Ti’ was there too but, I’m not 100% certain on this because I didn’t ask, I think she was present as a plan B or to serve as some SR ‘Yuan-Ti’ tech of his own.
Seeing all that ping-y stuff I grabbed up my spam (‘Boom Boom’ and ‘Thrown Brick’) and then snapped up my promo ‘Black Widow’ to keep the ping at bay. I also grabbed a couple of ‘Confront the Mighty’ dice to keep Seth’s field low and maximise my damage output.
I tried a couple of attempts to clear Seth’s field once I’d bought my ‘Wasp’ to try for a big swing but always seemed a smidge short of delivering lethal so played the long game. I got my nose bloodied doing so (Seth stung me with a handful of decent ‘Firefly’ hits, even with ‘Black Widow’ softening the blow a wee touch) and was slowed a bit by having to play around Seth’s ‘Green Devil Mask’ but my spam damage soon caught up and I took the first game.
Our second game went somewhat similarly – having the strategy worked the first time I stuck with it and ploughed on as before.
It wasn’t easy though. A late arrival of ‘Boom Boom’ and a few whiffed actions slowed down my early damage potential and things were getting a bit hairy in the later game – I had a very low life after some solid ‘Firefly’ hits from Seth. I used ‘Mimic’ to copy my ‘Boom Boom’ to make up the distance but I was only a few steps away from death myself at the point I delivered lethal.
First round win 1-0-0
Round 2 – Steve McEwan
Next up; Mr Discord himself, Stevie Mac with his ‘Collector’/’Nobby’ list. This was a Win Con I had some solid experience of myself, and was looking forward to playing against it. Steve’s plan was to get his field nice and full with Villain Control Dice then rinse/repeat fielding ‘Nobby’ with ‘The Collector’s’ game-text to deliver lethal damage.
I’m honestly not sure I won the first game with my strategy so much as Steve lost the first game with his rolls. Steve was pretty consistently unable to roll a character at … well … any point during the game. At one pivotal moment, where Steve was set to roll both his Win Con and a cheeky ‘Scarlet Witch’ to wreak havoc with my team he whiffed both of them. I was able to line things up at a pretty steady pace and, while I felt Steve’s pain from being in his position, still cracked on – taking full advantage of his misfortune – to win the game.
Things went a bit more positively for Steve in the second game of the round. I stuck to the plan of being mr Spammy McSpamface and grabbed up ‘Boom Boom’ and my ‘Thrown Bricks’ while Steve moved forward with his ‘Collector’/’Nobby’ combo. He couldn’t get his pieces together as fast as me though, and my early damage advantage paid off when I bought my ‘Mimic’ and started to copy his ‘Collector’ and field in his ‘Nobby’ dice to deliver lethal damage.
it was a Second round win for me 2-0-0
Round 3 – Mike
Mike’s team was mega-interesting – designed to use the ‘when fielded’ effect on his ‘Stompa’ to great field clearing effect and run that big dude across for large thumps. I was also really into the use of the Common ‘Collector’ – it is even more the definition of shenanigans than his Rare counter-part.
We’d play tested these teams against each other in various earlier forms and we both had taken games from each other so it wasn’t going to be an easy ride for either of us.
This also meant that Mike knew what I was all about, so purchasing my ‘Thrown Brick’ dice and buying ‘Scarlet Witch’ & ‘Shriek’ early featured heavily in Mike’s strategy in all three of the games we played.
That ‘Scarlet Witch’ is a pest, but in our first game I just bought up as many cheap actions as I could and rolled enough dice that eventually they got through her gauntlet by luck or by putting my ‘Acererak’ global to good use. (Which, incidentally, hadn’t done a great deal of good up to this point in the day’s play)
The second game was a different story though. Mike spilfered my ‘Thrown Brick’ dice and used them to great effect as a replacement for his own ramp strategy to get his ‘Collector’ then use him as a route to ‘Stompa’. I also failed to roll through ‘Scarlet Witch’ as effectively as I did in the first game. With an ‘Absorbing Man’ in the field, the crazy ‘when fielded’ effect of ‘Stompa’ and the Range of 2 Mike cleared my field down and whacked me with lethal to take the second game.
Into the third game of the round and I was finally in a position to go second, meaning I could grab up a pair of ‘Thrown Bricks’ before Mike got his filthy mits on them, and was even more loaded up with cheap actions to spam with ‘Boom Boom’ than I had been previously.
It was close though, Mike got himself up to the ‘Stompa’ after slowing me down with ‘Shriek’ and ‘Scarlet Witch’ (we went through a fun game of “Kill the Scarlet Witch, watch her roll back in next turn” for a few turns) and then went on to whiff him just as I was on the cusp of dealing lethal.
By the skin of my teeth I had won my third round 3-0-0
Round 4 – Cleggy
Round 4? That’s right. Everyone was having such a good time a discussion was had and we all decided to throw on an extra round. It was going to freak out the WIN, but who cares, right? More games.
So onto my fourth round and I was up against Ste Clegg, who was playing a Collector’ team with… well… basically every ‘when fielded’ win con he could fit on.
The Gods of Dice clearly felt that Steve McEwan’s whiffs earlier against me deserved some payback and I proceeded to play 2 whole games with barely a character ever in the field. I rolled two characters total through both games and, in the first instance it got ‘ranged’ off and then the second couldn’t field because it had been Blobbed.
It was a miserable car crash of no one’s making but Lady Luck choosing not to smile on me. Even Steve, who usually relishes the chance to deliver me a good beat down, found it depressing to basically walk his characters through an open field, twice, to win both games.
I had lost my fourth round 3-1-0
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A tremendous day’s rolling had concluded and a good time was had by all. We had 4 players by the end with a 3-1 record and down to Strength of Schedule I came out on top. Woo hoo!
We did the prize giving (thanks once again to Arge, Jourdo and Peter for their contributions, as well as the extras put in by Paul, me & the store) and that’s Cleggy & I as the top two to move on to the Online face off of the OBW winners.
We’ve got an awesome, thriving scene in Manchester, UK, across two stores, and we had great time getting together to play once again. Thanks to Paul for organising & TO’ing the event, the staff at Fanboy 3 for hosting us, and to all the other players for being proper sound to hang out with for the day.
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