Another year, and another Dice Masters event at the UK Games Expo.
That’s right: we returned to the hallowed halls of the Birmingham NEC Exhibition Centre to once again hold a “MoDPDM” (The Ministry of Dice Presents Dice Masters”) at the UKGE. It is a place with a long history for Dice Masters and a key central date in the UK Community’s year for getting together.
Here’s what was going on…
The UK Games EXPO
The UK Games Expo is the UK’s largest (and the world’s third largest) hobby gaming convention. It is held every year in the first weekend of June.
Dice Masters has been a presence at the con for a number of years now. Organised Dice Masters play has been scheduled there for 7 of the last 8 cons. It’s has even been the location for some of our National Championships, back when that was a thing.
This year they had over 425 exhibitors from all over the world and reported 26,000 unique visitors to the convention. It’s massive – essentially 3 air hangers filled to the rafters with gaming nerds, dice, cards and meeples.
It’s always a great pleasure to be invited back to the UKGE and put some Dice Masters on. We love having a presence amongst all the other great gaming that takes place. What kind of hobby gaming convention would it be without the greatest game in the world there?
Tournament Day
There was to be two tournaments that made up the whole event: a Modern Constructed tournament and a Rainbow Draft. The Constructed event was up to Infinity Gauntlet – no Dark Phoenix Saga over here yet.
The Rainbow Draft was a special treat. Wizkids had kindly provided some Dark Phoenix Saga stock for us to use so that, despite not being widely released (and therefore not permitted for the constructed event) we could still get a chance to engage with the latest release at the Con. (Andy dubbed it the “UK Preview Draft” LOL)
We were all in good spirits as 1pm approached and players made their way to our little reserved section of the tournament hall. I can’t really describe how happy I was to see some of these fine folks in person for the first time in literally years.
The tournament hall was lively and full of folks in good spirits. Running alongside us there was some X-Wing, Digimon, Azul and some Dragon Ball (I think). Just before we took over our tables there had been a King of Tokyo tournament happening there. You can imagine the hustle & bustle.
We had 11 participants for the constructed event, with 2 players waiting in the wings eager to participate in the draft. Let’s start with the talking through the constructed event…
Constructed Dice Masters @ UKGE
If you’d like to read the format information etc then you can find it HERE.
With 11 players turning up for the event, I stepped aside to bring it down to an even number and avoid having a BYE in the mix. This gave us four rounds of Swiss to play out over the afternoon. We weren’t going to be playing any top cuts or owt, so the winner of the constructed event was to be decided by the Swiss result.
With some pretty hot prizes up for grabs we had imagined that the event might be a bit of a “Big 3 Fest”. With no Hellfire Gala Organised Play kits in the UK yet, as well as a full set of foil Dark Phoenix Saga rares up for top spot, we figured it might be a bit Becky Lynch/God Catcher/Thor heavy. This, however, did not appear to be too much the case. While present, they were not the dominant team choices. Take a look at the teams… (In no particular order)
Andy E
BASIC ACTION CARDS
- Thrown Brick
- Confront the Mighty
CHARACTER/ACTION CARDS
- Sylgar – Favored Fish
- Poxwalker – Curse of the Walking Pox
- Volo – Guide Writer
- Atlantis – City and Stronghold
- Wasp – Flitting About
- Xanathar – Paranoid Tyrant
- Aquaman – Saving the Seven Seas
- Becky Lynch – Maiden Ireland
Barny B
BASIC ACTION CARDS
- Investigation
- Villainous Pact
CHARACTER/ACTION CARDS
- Kree Soldier – Stagnant Evolution
- Kree Captain – Impact Resistant Uniform
- Kang – Council of Kangs
- Spider-Man – Superior Team Up
- Poison Ivy – Flower Child
- Tombstone – Recruitment Oriented
- Red Skull – Dust of Death
- Thanos – Go, Cull Obsidian
Martin
BASIC ACTION CARDS
- Energy Field
- Counterstrike
CHARACTER/ACTION CARDS
- Black Widow – Widow’s Hunt
- Gazer – Evil Familiar
- The Atom – Professor
- Typhoid Mary – Red Rubber Boots
- Big E – Powerlifter’s Physique
- Nebula – Space Pirate
- Atlas – Purged of Pym Particles
- Clayface – Restless
Ben S
BASIC ACTION CARDS
- Booker T Ringside Announcer
- Static Field
CHARACTER/ACTION CARDS
- Dani Moonstar – Empathic Illusion Casting
- Istrid Horn – Moneylender
- Gazer – Evil Familiar
- Turk Barrett – Mind Gem
- Spider-Man – Public Menace
- Iceman – Right on Schedule
- Becky Lynch – Maiden Ireland
- Clayface – Restless
Danny
BASIC ACTION CARDS
- Excessive Force
- Wallop
CHARACTER/ACTION CARDS
- Kitty Pryde – More Human than You!
- Jubilee – Jubilation Lee
- Supreme Intelligence – Assimilated Hivemind
- Yawning Portal – Adventurous Clientele
- Manshoon – Rekindling the Zhentarim
- Kate Bishop – Straight Shooter
- Atlas – Purged of Pym Particles
- Clayface – Restless
Alex
BASIC ACTION CARDS
- Under Surveillance
- Nefarious Broadcast
CHARACTER/ACTION CARDS
- Thor – Jormungand’s Fear
- Atlantis – City and Stronghold
- John Cena – The Cenation Army
- Gazer – Evil Familiar
- Atlas – Purged of Pym Particles
- The Godcatcher – Famous Walking Statue
- Forge – Intuitive Genius
- Poison Ivy – Red
Mike P
BASIC ACTION CARDS
- Static Field
- Doom Lance
CHARACTER/ACTION CARDS
- Atlantis – Wealthy Kingdom
- Plague Marine – Festering Wound
- Dani Moonstar – Empathic Illusion Casting
- Poison Ivy – Red
- Intellect Devourer – Deadly Puppet Master
- Angela – Odinsdottir
- The Collector – Stolen Cosmic Cubes
- Thor – Jormungand’s Fear
Rob P
BASIC ACTION CARDS
- Villainous Pact
- Static Field
CHARACTER/ACTION CARDS
- Clayface – Restless
- Doctor Strange – Celebrated Neurosurgeon
- Adam Warlock – Leader of the Infinity Watch
- Black Widow – Widow’s Hunt
- Poison Ivy – Red
- Green Lantern – Human
- Asuka – The Empress of Tomorrow
- Typhoid Mary – Red Rubber Boots
Alfie
BASIC ACTION CARDS
- Jerry Lawler Ringside Announcer
- Booker T Ringside Announcer
CHARACTER/ACTION CARDS
- Istrid Horn – Moneylender
- Gazer – Evil Familiar
- Drax – The Pacifist
- The Great Drunkyard – Built for Defense
- Deadpool – We’re X-Force!
- Spider-Man – Public Menace
- Kurt Angle – Intensity
- Bizarro – Less Than Perfect
Goddamn – if they rotate out Justice we’re going to be seeing a lot of folks crying over their Clayface cards LOL.
Eagle-eyed readers will have clocked that there is only 9 teams there. The explanation is simple – we had a young blood turn up to play who’s team was not legal according to Modern restrictions. However; there was no way I was turning away a youngster who came out to play so we turned a blind eye to his team and let him get stuck in. I’m glad we did – he was so infectiously enthusiastic and fun – he fit right in and really got involved – a ray of sunshine on the day.
I dished out the pairings and the event got underway… and that’s all I’ve got for you LOL. Not having played I’ve no real blow-by-blow to share, and I spent much of my time TO’ing and helping out our more inexperienced players. What I have done is arrange some tournament reports from folks who actually played, as well as captured some audio for the podcast on the day. So keep an eye for those in the next few days…
The event came to a close at around 5pm, and much to everyone’s surprise the overall winner was our very own Andy England! Congrats Andy! (His win is technically mine – being his mentor and coach in all things Dice Masters)
We gave him a bit of clap, handed out prizes, (including the coveted Ministry of Dice wooden spoon), and moved on to the draft…
Dice Masters UKGE “Preview” Draft
At this point there was a bit of a change around with participants and we kicked off the draft with 12 players in total.
To make things more manageable I split the 12 into 2 drafting pods and set it up as a three round event on the win for each pod.
Before we even played the games we had some winners, with each draft pod pulling 3 Super Rares each! I knew straight away who pulled a super rare in pod. I even knew which super rare he pulled because his face lit up upon opening and he was grinning like the cat the got the cream. That’s right folks – Martin pulled a SR Master Mold. The true winner there LOL
This time I did get a chance to play, so can offer a little more insight into the experience this time around…
My Team
For the draft I adopted an approach that I have mentioned on the podcast a few times – draft around my Basic Action pulls.
This was very easy to do in this instance: I had “Living the Dream” and the “Mutant Research Program”. This gave me a draft focus on Founder cards and a Loyalty Token card. To further set the tone of my draft: one of my pack’s rares was “Moira – Strength of Foresight” – a Founder AND a Loyalty Token card.
I then built around that as much as possible. I grabbed a Dark Phoenix for some ramp from the global (and a pivot win con) and then any 3+ cost X-Men I could get my hands on that were half decent. An Angel, Cyclops, Rogue, Wolverine and Iceman later I was more or less done.
The plan was simple – get Moira out to build loyalty tokens, spam 3+ cost X-Men, use a couple of Founders to maximise Mutant Research Program for a bit of ramp/churn, and go for a big Living the Dream swing when the time was right. I would pivot to Dark Phoenix as a surprise bit of damage if my opponents ran a lot of X-Men. (Which the undoubtedly would in this draft)
The key was going to be not to sweat the early damage I may take and just keep my head on a Single Turn Kill with a buffed Moira and my high attack characters like Wolverine and Cyclops – all supported by the Overcrush award of Living the Dream.
With the teams made, we all took a short break to grab some snacks/drinks/nip the loo etc, then we began…
Game One – Andy
Andy had drafted a team that used Gambit for ramp, his Super Rare D’Ken for control, and the overcrushing Beast for damage.
I stuck to the plan by picking up my Moira to start building up Loyalty Tokens then just bought up my 3+ cost Founder X-Men using Dark Phoenix’ discount global as often as possible for the discount, but also a bit of prepped ramp for next turn.
Andy got his Beasts out and knocked me for a few cheeky hits, but soon I had some decent defense characters in the field to start soaking it up. Also, after one big whiffed roll of energy, I managed to buy myself a Dark Phoenix that I used to KO a Beast and do her 4 damage with.
Rogue, Cyclops and Wolverine all eventually came together as a squad under Moira’s leadership. At the moment I was ready I took a big swing with the Living the Dream in effect and drove enough overcrushing damage through to finish Andy off.
First Draft round and I was one game up…
Game Two – Rob P
Rob drafted a team centred around the Brother of Evil Mutants. He had Madelyn Pryor, Magneto, Sabretooth and a few useful ramp bit like Mr Sinister and Common Deadpool.
Rob had brought me A LOT of tools that helped me out. His globals really improved my ability to get those 3+ cost X-Men bought up. However, he did also have some Loyalty Token cards of his own, meaning I’d brought a pivot win condition for him.
And he knew. Early doors Rob bought up one of my Living the Dream dice and started working on an overcrushing squad of his own, but thankfully I took a bit of an edge with some slightly cheaper characters and a rare instance of actually managing my bag a little bit.
Once I was ready to go I swung in with the combo and took my second round.
Game Three – Alex
Alex built a list that was all about buffing up his sidekicks, and was running with a pretty classic wide field strategy to overwhelm me. He was using the Mr Sinister global to get the sidekicks in the field and I remember an Iceman in the mix there too.
Once again I proceeded with my plan – I picked up a Moira to start the journey to my Living the Dream swing. I grabbed my X-Men characters and worked towards getting the Loyalty Token count up.
Alex was running a cheap team, and even with Dark Phoenix global in the mix I was building my X-Men strike team a lot more slowly than Alex was filling his field with Sidekicks and smaller (but strong) characters.
Eventually it got too much – I was lacking the blockers to withstand Alex’s killer blow and lost my final round.
The draft was a hell of a lot of fun, and it was nice to add a second element to the event at the UKGE overall. If there was one criticism: we were all waning quite a bit after approx 8 hours straight of Dice Master-ing LOL!
It’s an interesting set to draft. I definitely found it easy to find a place for some weaker cards to integrate and contribute towards my win condition combo. It does, however, feel a little “on rails” as you draft and not as creative.
Despite this though – it was a fun time, and we were glad to get the opportunity to get some Dark Phoenix Saga involved in our UKGE event.
Congrats to Alex and Barny who won their pods respectively! Much deserved.
Final Thoughts
It was an absolute pleasure to get to see some of the stalwarts of the UK community for some face-to-face play. We even had a few of the longer-standing players who were unable to play, but were attending the Expo, swing by to say “hi” and have a bit of natter. It was also great to have some younger players, who are just starting out, get involved and we hope to see them again at future events.
The numbers were a little lower than we’re accustomed to for Dice Masters at the UKGE. Taking place on the same weekend as the Queen’s Jubilee had a little bit of an impact, as did the lack of face-to-face play over the dark blur of the lockdown years. It’s not a surprise that the vast majority of the players in attendance were individuals who had kept their hand in with online play over the last few years.
Suffice to say – it was a tremendous re-entry to face-to-face Dice Masters and was just the push I needed to invigorate me back into action and start the good work of MoDPDM’s and getting more stuff going on around the UK.
Massive thanks goes out to all the players in attendance, to Jimmy over at Wizkids for his continued support, and Richard over at UKGE for once again welcoming Dice Masters with open arms despite our small size compared to other games being laid on over the weekend.
We’ve got a couple of reports from a few participants coming in the next few days, and some further coverage on our next episode of the podcast. But… now it’s time to get to work on planning our next event…
