In part 1, we established what we were up against, and made some guesses at characters we could use. In part 2, we really focused in on what characters can work well, and decided to tap in to the potential of the Transfer Power BAC. Now, in part 3, we will define our strategy and how we intend to win with our team.
Here’s our team: Randy's Uncanny Response Team
Let's paint the picture. We show up at our UXM constructed event. Once things get started, we sit down, and start to set up our team. We notice that our opponent has She-Hulk Lady Liberator, Black Panther Diversion, and the Relentless BAC. They may even have Magik Illyana Rasputin and Ant-Man Pym Particles for this team as well. Maybe even Spider-Man Hero for Hire. We know they will be wanting to limit our blockers, for their heavy hitters to get through. Our strategy will be all about getting a high volume of characters out as soon as possible, so we aren’t short on blockers.
-Our first turn, we want to purchase Angel. The low fielding cost and ability to pull Sidekicks from our used pile should help us get a wall of defenders a little easier. But Angel only costs 3. We want to use that fourth die to use PXG.
-Ideally, we are rolling 6 dice on our second turn. As long as we have 4 energy, let’s buy Namor. Getting him out early (possibly next turn since we will be refilling our bag) would be huge since we don’t have an army of Sidekicks yet. Having Namor fielded will also let us sleep a little easier knowing that if we sacrifice everything except Namor while attacking or blocking, he will give us 2 Sidekicks back at the end of the turn. Again, we rolled 6 dice, and spent 4 on Namor. Let’s use our 2 remaining energy for PXG if we can.
-Alright, turn 3. We just saw our opponent purchase She-Hulk last turn, so we know she’s coming. We draw 4 dice, it’s Namor, Angel, and 2 Sidekicks, combined with our 4 Sidekicks in our prep thanks to PXG, we have 8 dice. We have a lot of energy to play with here. The only character we want to field this turn is Namor. If Namor is alone in the field at the end of our turn, we can field 2 Sidekick for free from our used pile. (I checked the used pile update from a couple months ago. It doesn’t say if “end of turn” abilities happen before or after dice from transition to the used pile. So for the time being, I’m going to rule this as the active player decides the order of event. End of turn, dice move from transit, trigger Namor’s ability.) If we field Namor, that leaves us with 4, 5, or 6 dice left (Depending on which face we fielded Namor on). Remember, even if we have 1 Sidekick, we don’t want to field it, because we will get 2 Sidekicks for free at the end of our turn. Now let’s buy Falcon with 3 energy. Let’s assume We spent 2 energy to field Namor on level 3, and have 1 mask energy leftover for PXG.
-Fourth turn. They have a level 2 She-Hulk, and a Sidekick fielded, while sitting on one mask energy, presumably to use PXG. They bought Black Panther last turn. We have Namor and 2 Sidekicks fielded and 2 sidekicks in our prep area. We draw Angel and a Sidekick, refill our bag, draw Falcon and another Sidekick. Our used pile is currently empty, so fielding Angel won’t help us get any more sidekicks right now. But that shield energy… oh yes. We roll Falcon on level 1, Angel on his 2-energy face, and a few more energy, one of which is a shield (that’s important). Ok, field Falcon. Sit on at least 3 shield energy, and buy another Angel (settle for Falcon if we don’t have another shield energy to spare) or maybe use a mask for PXG if you feel inclined. We attack with Falcon and the 2 Sidekicks. Our opponent cannot block our sidekicks. But they can block Falcon. They wonder if it’s worth it, since he’s only dealing 2 damage. They decide to let him through, get him off the field, so your Sidekicks won’t be unblockable next turn. Time for globals. Our opponent can see the writing on the wall, and figures we will be stealing She-Hulk’s attack of 6. Plus the other Sidekick’s 1 attack, and Falcon’s 2 attack, that’s 9 attack. Our opponent will be down to 11 life with She-Hulk in the field, Ant-Man and Black Panther in their bag, but you would only have one blocker available for next turn… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s finish out this attack step before we look ahead too far. Obviously we pay a shield for Transfer Power to swap attack values with She-Hulk and one of our Sidekicks. Now one of our Sidekicks has 6 attack power. That’s not all! We also pay 1 shield to swap our own Namor’s 5 attack power with the opposing Sidekick, then immediately do it again to swap that Sidekick’s 5 attack power with our own Sidekick who still has 1 attack. Suddenly, we’re getting through with 6, 5, and 2 attack powers, and our opponent is down to 7 life. That’s not all! At the end of our turn, since our opponent let Falcon through, Namor is our only character fielded. So we get 2 Sidekicks back in the field.
Yea, that was all pretty scripted, but it’s possible. And if your opponent isn’t familiar playing against a team like this the element of surprise is on your side. So, we won our first round match. Hooray! On to round 2, where we see our opponent setting up a Nast Boy Villains team. Let’s sum up our first few turns.
-Turn 1, buy Angel, use PXG.
-Turn 2, buy Sinister, use PXG.
-Turn 3, buy Cerebro, use PXG.
-Then it’s time to start buying more Angels. You field them for blockers, and drag Sidekicks into the field to block as well. If you don’t field Angel, he is shield energy. Going against a Nasty Boy team, your opponent WILL bring Iron Man with a global to give characters the Villain affiliation. Play Cerebro on your Angel, so you can continually knock out opposing Mister Sinisters. Letting Villains get knocked out, both players taking damage from Sinisters will work to your advantage here. I would be more than happy to play even up, both players losing life everytime a Villain is KO’d until about 6 or 7 life. Remember, if you get to a point where your Sidekicks outnumber your opposing characters, you can attack with all of them, and sit on 1 or 2 shield energy. Your opponent will probably have Pyro in the field, which is a GREAT attack power to steal, giving it to a Sidekick that gets through.
We barely won our second round match. We were down to 3 life before we pulled it out, but that was kind of the plan. We never let the game get away from us, and seized the moment when it presented itself. On to the final round, where we see our opponent setting up Falcon Recon, Professor X Trainer, Angel Inspiring, Namor Imperius Rex… someone is playing a Super Sidekicks team.
-Alright, turn 1, Falcon and PXG. If our opponent is going to try to pump up a bunch of Sidekicks and make them unblockable, blockers do us no good. I’d rather work on making my own Sidekicks unblockable.
-Turn 2, buy Toad. I’d love to use PXG twice here, so I can try to buy Red Hulk next turn. This leaves myself pretty wide open going in to turn 3 without a fielded character, but I don’t think I can lose yet. Worst case scenario, I don’t think I can lose on turn 3.
-Turn 3, hopefully field Toad and purchase Red Hulk. I’d like to start forcing my opponent to attack with characters that help buff their sidekicks. At the very least, I can force a Sidekick to attack before the buffs are in place and knock it out. The opposing team relies on Sidekicks being in the field. If I knock them out, yea they go to the prep area to be rolled next turn. But my opponent only has a 1/6 chance of refielding them. The main thing to remember here is that my opponent wants Sidekicks in the field. That’s their win condition. I’m fine with knocking out Sidekicks, sending them to the prep area, giving them oodles of energy, to keep them from achieving their win condition.
-Turn 4 I might be able to field my Hulk. The perfect scenario here is level 3 Toad, level 2 Hulk. Toad forces an opposing Sidekick to attack, but does not knock it out. Instead, Red Hulk blocks, knocking out the sidekick (while on his burst face) to deal 3 damage to my opponent. Remember how we purchased Falcon early on? Well, on our turn we can attack with Falcon and a Sidekick, use 2 shield energies to swap Hulk’s attack with an opposing character, then swap that character’s new Hulklike attack with our own Sidekick. To be honest, this team is probably the one that gives us the most trouble out of the 3 we mentioned. But I think there are enough precautions in place that we can handle it.
So there we have it. Our UXM constructed team, and some strategies to take down other popular UXM constructed teams. I know I typically write more of a “review or look ahead” kind of article, or a “how does this relate to the comics” kind of thing, but every once in a while I need to get in to the trenches and talk about gameplan and strategy. Maybe you can try this team out for yourself and let me know how it goes. Tell me its flaws and what you hate about it, or how you enjoyed playing it. As always, .
P.S. This coming weekend, Feb 20-22, is Wizard World Cleveland. I will be there with all of my Dice Masters stuff, looking to play games as I enjoy the convention. Leave a comment down below, or send an e-mail to if you’re interested in meeting up for a game, or have something else on your mind you’d like to share.
There are two flaws that I found with all scenarios. The first is a minor one that can be easily fixed. You can't use PXG on your first turn or times when you start a turn where your Used Pile is empty. WK has ruled that energy dice used to buy characters goes 'out of bounds' and does not go officially into your Used Pile until the end of your turn. Using PXG can still be done, but you'll have to do it instead on your opponent's turn after his main phase.
ReplyDeleteAs for using PXG to get out your forces quicker one thing that's not acknowledged in the article is your opponent also using it against you by also doing the same tactic. This also goes for using Transfer Powers.
The negative effects of using cards with Globals to my knowledge hasn't been examined when it comes to strategy. With DM being a new game players are currently only seeing the positives of using Globals, but once everyone understands their full power by getting familiar with the game they'll see how each powerful card is balanced out with a Global. Globals are actually equalizers to not make a card broken.
A good example is Kitty Pryde - Shadowcat. Her main ability is to not be blocked on the turn its fielded. WK then gave her a Global that is really there to help your opponent to stop her from using that power by having them pay a Mask to stop her or any another character on your force from attacking unless you pay 1 life. Now Kitty and her Global doesn't seem so great.
Well said. Globals are indeed a double-edged sword. If PXG was only available to one player, I'd understand the complaints.
DeleteI guess I wasn't clear. I wouldn't be using PXG on turn 1. I would be saving an energy to use it during my opponent's turn. I assumed that was implied. My bad.
DeleteI acknowledged my opponent's being able to heave their She-Hulk out on turn 3. That's only possible with PXG. Again, I implied it but didn't outright say it. My bad.
As for my opponents using Transfer Power's global. Yes, it's a concern. But using only UXM, I don't see an easy way to counter it. I think you just have to play your team how it's meant to be played, and make sure you have more shields in you reserve than your opponent when you go to attack.
Thought you might be interested to know that WizKids ruled on Namor - Imperious Rex.
ReplyDeleteHis ability will trigger before dice enter the used pile from out of play.
Yea, I saw that they released that ruling shortly after this hit the page... oh well. I'm not going to take it down or edit the crap out of it because a new ruling was released. But you're right... that part is now out of date.
Delete