In baseball, you rarely see a team aggressively steal bases, pinch hit for the pitcher, or use a play like the suicide squeeze early on in the game. These strategies are called "run manufacturing" because they're used specifically for the purpose of getting a person in position for a key score.

You don't see this early in the game because there is plenty of opportunity to score the regular way. Outs are less valuable at that time because there are plenty of them.

Later in the game, if it's still close, outs are more valuable because you now have fewer opportunities to get that run that you need, and so these plays start to happen. The need for a run becomes more important than the risk of an out because the team is running out of time to even the score.

There are many situations in Dice Masters that relate to this. Don't believe me? Let me show you.

I mentioned on the first episode of the podcast that I see all of the "bad bargain" cards as meta-shapers. These are the cards that force you to take damage or else allow some other consequence to take place - essentially a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario. These are cards like Punisher "McRook" or any of the Professor Xs.

Punisher offers a viable option for the early part of the game. His stats are nice; his ability is effective. But it's possible that he's more valuable later on. You might use him to target a key piece, but when your opponent is sitting at 15+ health, taking two is not a big deal.

Conversely, when things are coming to a close, the choice between offing a key part of his field and taking two is a much more bitter pill to swallow.

Now, two damage is two damage regardless of when you get it in, but remember the baseball analogy - 10-2 is much different than 20-2. Likewise, going for a KO of a key piece is much more likely mid-game.

Other "bad bargain" cards are priced for the late game effect, like Professor X. His dice are ones that you're less likely to see until the latter part of the game, but what they actually do is pretty devastating. Stopping an opponent from doing a key thing unless they pay life is significant and really matters at this point in the round.

Suffice it to say, if you're looking for a deck that charges your opponent some hit points as a means of sealing the deal, you want to look for opportunities to do this as their life total goes down and the decision becomes a harder one to make. It throws the other fellow off balance.

You'll probably want to add in a power bolt just to finish the job.