Spoiler Review – The Defenders Team Pack

Hi folks,

Dice Masters has another “Team Pack” on the way in the form of ‘The Defenders’ set. This “Team Pack” comes in the same form as the previous ‘Doctor Strange’ set – a limited 24 card/16 dice standalone set, without Sidekick dice or Basic Actions, centred around a particular theme.

The fine folks from the Double Burst podcast at ktdata.net had some spoiler-y goodness to share with us all last week (I’d highly recommend the podcast if you ever have a chance to listen) and, as usual, as soon as I heard there was some lovely spoilers floating around I poured over them and jotted down some initial thoughts.

Here are those thoughts…

Hellcat – Hell’s Belle

This card leapt out at me for a couple of reasons.

First – the ‘Hellcat’ cards are the only ones in the set that have a purchase cost below 5. Everything else in the set is a 5,6 or a 7 cost. Purchase costs have always been something to be mindful of, but with the new formats of ‘Modern Age’ and ‘Prime’ as the future of the game, powerful ramp solutions like ‘PXG’, ‘BEWD’ and ‘Kobold’ are out of the picture, and so high cost cards require even more consideration. (At least, until the new ‘Darkseid’ comes along.)

Second – she’s another bloody Mask Control character. I don’t play Mask Control, but I’ve been on the receiving end of it, so have a somewhat fiery limbic reaction to yet another Mask character who can mess with my plans. She’s good for any team though, really. I can definitely see how a few well placed ‘Hellcat – Hell’s Belle’ in a game could really screw with an opponent’s strategy.

Hulk – All The Rage

One of the things I was saddened by with the rotation out of the Justice League set was the death of the ‘Retaliation’ key word. While it never reached the heavy heights of the Top Tier competitive teams, it was super fun to play, and I’ll miss my “Death by a Thousand Cuts’ Villain team loads.

So – I was pleased (to some degree) to see Retaliation survive, at least in principle, with cards like ‘Hulk – All The Rage’.

I mean, let’s get real; with that purchase cost & fielding costs he’s not going to be easy to get out, certainly nowhere near as efficient as ‘Black Manta’, and I’m going to have to put some thought into how I tech this out to maximise the return on investment. (No BEWD in Modern 😢) but nonetheless, when scanning through the spoilers it stood out to me.

I just wonder why they didn’t use the ‘Retaliation’ key word?

Loki – Sibling Rivalry

So, there appears to be some interesting possibilities with this guy.

I’m not sure how competitive this guy would be, but I’d imagine if your local meta was filled with lots of ‘Deadly’ or ‘Fast’, or cards like ‘Nova – The Human Rocket’, for example, this could be your guy. 

His downfall is that he doesn’t stop ‘When Attacks’ game-texts, I’m pretty sure they will have fired before ‘Loki’ get a chance to swing in, but if you are going to be playing exclusively ‘Modern Age’ format (in which the ‘Bard’ is banned) that might be less of a concern for you.

‘Loki’ is a curious card and one that I’ll be putting some thought into.

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There we are folk, my highlights from the upcoming ‘The Defenders’ team pack. I must admit to be being a little touch underwhelmed by this set so will likely do just a single purchase – I can’t see me particularly wanting “Max Die” for ny of the cards.

What about you? What are your thoughts on the set? Do you agree with my highlight cards? Let me know in the comments below…