ROLLIN’ THUNDER! – Maiden Voyage on the Blackbird S1E01 “Welcome to Rolling Thunder! We’re talking Dice Masters – The beauty of the underlying mechanics, the hidden complexities, and the strategy, tactics, and decisions of competitive play.
[00:00:36] – Welcome to the Maiden Voyage GREETING – SEGMENT 1: I’m your host, Arge O’Neal… and I’m your co-host Lucan and together we’re attempting to pick up and carry forward the metaphorical Dice Masters’ podcasting baton. Each episode we’re going to have on the show a guest from the worldwide scene and we’re going to try to delve into how they see the game…
[00:01:46] – Guest Intro: Alright enough of the suspense – today on the show we have some top-flight, brand-name recognition joining us… a perennial contender and world renowned master brewer…
https://rollinthunder.xyz/ApologiesInAdvanceTeam
2016 Vicious Struggle Team = https://rollinthunder.xyz/2016ViciousStruggleTeam
[00:02:38] – the DiceCoalition’s very own Shadowmeld, aka Patrick Barley, aka The Nefarious Geneticist… Hello Shadow… welcome to Rollin’ Thunder We’re excited to have you…
[00:02:52] – Hela, Wonder Woman, Jarnbjorn Team is called “Gods and Mortals” “So, let’s jump right in and talk about this Shield’s Monstrosity you’ve created…”
[00:03:28] – Shadow intos his 2018 World’s team… “Chop Shop”
Here’s a link to the final build… https://rollinthunder.xyz/2018ChopShopTeam
https://rollinthunder.xyz/2018ChopShopPix
[00:04:24] – Blackbird came first…
[00:04:42] – Then came the new improved Kal L global, the UC Fenthaza.
[00:05:41] – For a while added the 3 cost common Blob…
[00:05:59] – 2 cost Common NICK FURY from Thor set.
[00:06:33] – What Patrick learned play testing against Troy.
[00:06:55] – Why he switched from 3 cost Blob to Rare 4 cost (low cost spam attack & green devil mask)
[00:07:39] – Team Strategies… DISRUPT & STEAL
[00:08:27] – Rare Blob’s ability
[00:08:55] – How the common Mask Doppelganger made it on the team
[00:09:31] – Doppelganger’s copying ability gave protection redundancy
Link to Wizkid’s Rules Forum’s “Guide on Copying”… https://rollinthunder.xyz/WizKidsGuideToCopying
[00:10:39] – More Nick Fury – 2 cost with huge D – survives Breath weapon on 2 out of 3 faces
[00:11:30] – Fenthaza takes the defensive pieces and turns them into weapons – like Bard
[00:11:58] – Discussion of Rare Bishop from XFC
[00:12:33] – Lucan asks about Rare Sunfire from XFC
[00:15:20] – points against Sunfire on his team
[00:15:45] – run the Sunfire with Jubilee on an X-Men team.
[00:16:22] – Patrick discusses the Rare Tomb Guardian
[00:18:22] – Shadowmeld discusses Venerable Dreadnaught. Nasty damned if you do, damned if you don’t aspect to this team…
[00:19:02] – Lucan asks about Confront the Mighty/Splinter’s Teaching shenanigans… If you put out characters with big D to counteract Venerable and Range, then you get pounded with Confront the Mighty and Splinter’s Teachings shenanigans.
[00:19:16] – standard flow for Ring of Winter Dragon Team
[00:19:37] – Patrick’s plan against a dragon team and his buy order
[00:20:03] -Patrick discusses confront the mighty/splinter’s teachings tactics
[00:21:14] – How to disrupt a dragon team.
[00:21:39] – His BACs
[00:22:38] – team with the biggest butts…
[00:22:56] – But if you put out something wally… plan b… confront & splinter
[00:23:15] – If you bring abilities low stats… I’ll do plan a… if you bring stats I’ll do plan b
[00:24:08] – Why Patrick loves Shields
[00:25:01] – Patrick’s goal for Nationals and Worlds
[00:25:33] – Discussion of 2016 Vicious Struggle team
[00:26:01] – Michael Le buys out VS from under him
[00:26:26] – I know these tools better than you…
[00:26:39] – Human Torch Global & tactics with VS
[00:29:13] – INTENTIONALLY SLOWING IT DOWN One of the things I’ve noticed about you overall is – it seems like you like to slow down the game and that the longer a game drags on, the stronger your teams get and the more things tilt in your favor… For example when you played your 2016 VS team you didn’t bring Kobolds or Red Dragon in an effort to keep things slower… for that matter most of the teams of yours that I’m looking at don’t contain a typical “ramp” card on that. Talk to me about that… how do you make that work?
[00:30:04] – GETTING COMFORTABLE and Practicing with Dirty rolls, sloppy bag and no globals
[00:30:53] – People who draft know how to handle less than ideal bag management and ramp
[00:31:31] – Patrick talks Economy and what it means to him “I’ve also noticed how much more you tend to talk about the concept of economy than most other players. Talk to us about what does that term mean to you?” – How do you evaluate economy, what’s your process – when you look at and weigh abilities and stats? – Is it a substitute for ramp? If so, how?
[00:31:40] – Ramp & Churn
[00:32:50] – JR’s 2 Cost team needed no ramp
[00:33:39] – Patrick “I just want to churn through my guys… one of the best ways is to make Sidekicks”
[00:34:09] – Discussion of Resurrection & Ring/Res era and churn tactics
[00:35:26] – Resurrection to get the perfectly planned turn or… Blackbird – so nobody has a perfectly planned turn and everyone has to play sloppy.
[00:35:48] – SEGMENT 2 – Break it Down… The Blackbird: Under the Radar Uncommon from X-Men First Class – Global: Pay 1 (generic). Target Global Ability cannot be used until the start of your next turn. Use this Global Ability only once per turn.
[00:37:31] – Blackbird… “an investment in choosing to play without globals”
[00:37:45] – BB doesn’t really work against PXG… just makes it a Heimdal
[00:38:55] – BB plays best on a team with zero globals
[00:39:07] – Transfer Power/splinter’s teachings pairs fairly well with BB due to timing (hurts it’s defensive ability though)
[00:39:50] – BB hurts teams that need Resurrection most.
[00:39:53] – How to play BB in early turns.
[00:40:21] – Super disruption
[00:40:35] – type of teams that could use BB
[00:40:52] – go 1st or 2nd with BB?
[00:41:29] – almost just a mind game
[00:42:36] – Good with low cost team… and good against high cost teams because they have to waste an energy every turn to stop it.
[00:44:06] – Types of combat tricks BB works against.
[00:44:35] – How to use Splinter’s Teaching/Transfer power combat tricks
[00:45:10] – INTRO “Rollin’ Blunders!”
[00:45:54] – Shadowmeld’s top 8 2016 world’s blunder against Guillermo… Vicious Struggle Discussion (see link to team above)
[00:47:13] – Sage Words… “If you’re going to do something to try and distrupt your opponent… it’s got to be part of your plan to win first.”
[00:48:38] – Hoping Bard eliminated Mask teams
[00:49:00] – VS blows Bard out of water… but Guilermo had Mask-Bard
[00:49:51] – Riddler’s Rumble and Mastermind Riddler’s Rumble https://rollinthunder.xyz/RiddlersRumble Original Prep Area Podcast https://rollinthunder.xyz/PrepAreaWithRiddlersRumble The Mastermind Format https://rollinthunder.xyz/Mastermind
[00:51:02] – HALL OF FAME! “One of the things we really want to talk about on this show is the history of the game and the personalities of some of the great players that have made a mark on it. So with a little bit of hubris, we’re going to institute an unofficial “Dice Masters Hall of Fame”…
[00:51:54] – Shadowmeld debates his HOF nomination… and it’s…
[00:53:18] – Michael Le!
[00:54:34] – The PUZZLE!
[00:58:14] – Submit Puzzle answers to arge@rollinthunder.xyz or lucan@rollinthunder.xyz
[00:58:34] – One Big Weekend Announcement
[01:00:22] – Final thoughts
[01:00:47] – Outro – You can find us at rollinthunder.xyz (without the “g” or an apostrophe) where you’ll discover all the links necessary to listen or subscribe to the show. You can also reach us by email at arge@rollinthunder.xyz or lucan @rollinthunder.xyz. Our theme music was created by Jesse Wiener. We’re in no way affiliated with Wizkids other than we love and celebrate the game of Dice Masters. So keep on rollin’ agus “nár laga Dia do lamh!” We’ll be talking again in two weeks time… so stay tuned, and ’nuff said.”