The PAX Unplugged Game Fair took place this weekend, and in addition to the Dice Masters World Championships taking place (big up to Arge again, congrats man) we got some lovely spoilerful goodness from the DC Justice and X-Men Forever Campaign Boxes.
As always; I have perused the spoilers and chosen to highlight a few of my “Top Picks”, the Cards (or other stuff, as you will see) that have leapt out at me for some reason or another as ones to watch, or certainly ones I plan to play with.
If you want to check out the full spoilers then go take a peek at Josh Body’s Facebook post HERE and the Dice Coalition’s post on their site HERE.
First up; DC JUSTICE…
The Riddler – Creature of Pure Pride
This dude jumped right out at me the moment I read him.
He’s a bit pricey at the 6 cost, but I reckon this guy is going to be a pretty fun win condition to play around with.
There are sooooo many cool cards that will nicely combo with this guy, it is so not hard to force your opponent to re-roll there field. UC ‘Green Devil Mask’, ‘Batman – Always Prepared’, R ‘Billy Club’, C ‘Danger Room’, and ‘Harley Quinn – Gotham State Grad’ are all ones that spring to mind as I’m typing.
And in Golden, with ‘Storm – Wind Rider’, the damage potential could be frightening.
He’s also great for discouraging a number of ramp solutions, particularly popular Basic Action ramp Cards like ‘Superhero Registration Act’ or ‘Investigation’. I’m totally going to using ‘Spot/Investigate’ safe in knowledge that if my opponent pilfers my ‘Investigations’ they’ll regret it!
Once he’s out he’ll be pretty hard to shift too, with some decent defensive stats to withstand ping-y stuff – this dude’s used to dodging Batarangs!
Definitely one to watch.
The Joker – Not Funny Anymore
My love of Villain cards is coming through strong in this batch of spoilers, as evidenced by my next pick. I think this is actually more impact-ful than it appears on the surface.
While it might seem like the circumstances of this card are pretty specific, I think it might be more common than we think and that 2 damage will be flying over the table frequently, particularly in a casual setting.
One thing I did notice and mull over is that it would be a great card to use against teams in which someone is relying heavy on weenies. Ever faced a team where you’re looking down the barrel of several ‘Wong’ die or ‘Dum Dum’ die relentlessly smashing into you? I have, and a 4 cost grab to give a little back (especially if you can KO some dupes) would be super-useful and would give your opponent pause to re-consider re-fielding them.
I think its going to be a fun one to play with.
Lex Luthor – Leader in World Politics
What’s this? Another Villain Control card in my Spoiler picks? Surely not…
There’s the obvious value to this guy – a 4 cost that will prevent a SR ‘Yuan-Ti’ from spamming cheap Action purchases will be a boon to many teams and will see him fill a team spot in competitive play while the Attune terror is still at large.
We may find he has value more than just as a ‘Yuan-Ti’ tech card, he’s could be a nice bit of control that will put your opponent in a tricky spot and run solid interference on their decision making.
Time will tell, but I definitely plan on giving him a go.
Green Lantern – Human
I suppose it’s about time I put a pick on the list that wasn’t a Villain affiliation.
The Justice League Affiliation was always on of my favourites in early ‘Single Affiliation’ theme events at my local store, and I’m generally very excited to see the affiliation get an awesome boost to its roster with the DC Justice set.
And what a boost this guy is – a Justice League only return of the long favourite ‘Lantern Ring – Limited Only By Imagination. Fun.
How competitive this card can be is yet be seen (we don’t know what other Justice League-y gems there may be in the Campaign Box or Team Packs that combo well with him) but it will be one I plan to use in Casual Golden events down my FLGS for sure.
Now onto the X-MEN FOREVER spoilers…
Blob – Big Costumed Clown
More Villain love from me for this next pick…
I can think of a multitude of 2 cost characters I’d like to prevent my opponent purchasing and fielding, and think it’s a particularly handy game-text to have on a 4 cost character too. With some clever prep/bag management you could have this dude out nice and early to cause your opponent some pain.
Immediately I can think of Cards he disrupts. The obvious choices of characters like ‘Yuan-Ti Pureblood’, ‘Jubilee’, and ‘Boom Boom’ spring to mind, but he’s going to be super-handy against cheap swarm characters like ‘Kree Soldier’ and ‘Chwinga’ too. And that’s just in the Modern formats, he’ll be a tremendous utility addition in Golden formats.
He’s got those lovely defence stats too, so he’s not getting shifted anytime soon. True that this will likely make him ‘Shriek’ fodder, but in this meta she ain’t too tough to get rid of and with a ‘while active’ text we won’t meet some of the same challenges his popular counterparts from X-Men First Class encountered.
Psylocke – Reforming X-Force
There’s a few reasons for my next pick I’d like to share.
First: I am really into the artwork on this card. It’s perfectly framed and I love the wisps of psychic energy coming of the blade and the flowing scarf belt flapping in the wind. It’s everything I want from Dice Masters artwork.
Second: it’s got the new ‘Energize’ Keyword, and while I’m not wild about this one in particular, I like the idea of shifting the value of character dice when you whiff the roll. It’s new, it’s fresh, and adds a new element.
More interesting things to come from this new keyword I think.
Mystique – Brotherhood of Her Own
Surprise, surprise, Chris has picked yet another Villain as a top pick.
I’ve got a feeling that this beauty has got some potential to get reeeeeeal big. +2/+2 is a pretty eye-catching boost, even if the base stats are a bit ‘meh’.
Already in the current meta we’ve got three Brotherhood of Evil Mutants seeing some degrees of play in ‘Blob’, ‘Scarlet Witch’ and ‘Avalanche’, and that is before we’ve seen any further additions to their ranks in the upcoming Campaign box and Team Packs, so I don’t believe it would be that hard to form a team around her.
It makes me even more eager to see what other exciting Brotherhood members there are to pair up with her – hopefully something fun.
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There we go folks – my top picks from the first look at these cards. Thanks to Michaela and Josh for getting these out to us all – sterling work.
I think both these sets seem to be shaping up well and can’t wait for them to come out.
Let me know your top picks in the comments below…
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