On first reading of the three different Elf Thieves from Dice Masters: Faerûn Under Siege, it’s tough to decide which one is best. Like many cases in Dice Masters, it all depends on what fits within your strategy or what counters your opponent best.

All three versions of Elf Thief have a consistent fielding cost of 1. Each one of them also has a “When fielded” ability, so it’s as if you’re paying the fielding cost for their effect but with the bonus of having a character die in your Field Zone to use to further advantage.

Elf Thief: Lesser Harper

At a cost of only 2 energy to purchase, the Lesser Harper version of Elf Thief is the most accessible. It’s also the most common. This card will no doubt be an early Rainbow Draft pick for many players.

The first benefit to this Elf Thief is that he is free to field if you have at least one energy in your Reserve Pool. So as long as you don’t roll character faces on all of your dice, you can virtually field Elf Thief for free. After fielding this die twice, it’s basically paid for his purchase cost.

The second benefit, perhaps the most critical one, is that when Elf Thief is fielded you may use an energy from your opponent’s Reserve Pool. So you’d normally pay 1 to field Elf Thief, and then you’d get it back. So really, fielding Elf Thief JUST ONCE pays for his purchase cost if you and your opponent both have energy in your Reserve Pool.

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Click to enlarge.

The most typical situation will involve your opponent saving some energy for the chance to use Global Abilities during your turn. You’ll be able to field Elf Thief and have him steal that energy. This presents your opponent with a handful of bad choices:

  • Save extra energy, and hope that it becomes useful.
  • Spend all of their energy, and avoid using Global Abilities during your turn.
  • Play no differently, and hope that you don’t roll a character face on Elf Thief.

Situationally, any one of those choices could be the correct one, but your opponent will have a hard time knowing what the best course of action is until your Roll and Reroll Step is over. By then, it’s already too late.

Three Global Abilities from this set, and one from Battle for Faerûn stick out as abilities your opponent would want to use that you’ll be able to disrupt with Elf Thief.

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Straightforward. This is one of the most popular Global Abilities in Dice Masters. It’s simple and effective. With Elf Thief on the scene, your opponent will get to use it one less time. You might even get a chance to use it instead! In the very best case scenario, you’ll field your Elf Thief, steal their energy, use their Global Ability, and finally KO their character die.

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Blink – Transmutation has a lot of uses. If your opponent is going to use it during your turn, their goal will be to remove an attacking character die that they aren’t prepared to deal with yet. Elf Thief will force them to have an answer where they may be none available – your character die’s attack will put you one step closer to victory.

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[Mordenkainen’s Sword]

Mordenkainen’s Sword shouldn’t be dismissed as just a more expensive version of Magic Missile like it’s a bad thing. Sometimes you’ll prefer to have Mordenkainen’s Sword as an action, but also the increased cost might put it out of range of your opponent’s ability to pay for it!

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[Power Word Kill]

Power Word Kill’s Global Ability might be one of the trickiest to take advantage of in the entire game of Dice Masters. Elf Thief is ready to disrupt those tricks. Two main possibilities exist: either using an ability to deal damage, or a blocker, followed by using Power Word Kill’s Global Ability. This is an instance of Elf Thief helping to protect your bigger, more desirable targets instead of your smaller more fragile ones such as in the case of Magic Missile.

Elf Thief: Greater Emerald Enclave

The Greater Emerald Enclave version of Elf Thief does something very similar to the Lesser Harper version, but there is a subtle difference: you can save this energy for later. There is a tradeoff – now you must usually pay the Fielding Cost on this die, and you’re going to need to pair him with some other characters to steal the right type of energy. Here are some low cost options for each type of energy.

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Kobold: Greater Humanoid

A fan favorite from Dice Masters: Battle for Faerûn, it’s the lowest cost option for Fist energy and has the added bonus of having Swarm to help you further accelerate your energy.

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Skeleton: Legendary Undead

Middle of the road stats, but also has the benefit of Swarm. Right now, Skeleton: Legendary Undead is the only option for Swarm and Mask energy. Then again, you could always just have Elf Thief pick itself to take your opponent’s Mask energy.

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Intellect Devourer: Lesser Aberration

Intellect Devourer isn’t interested in stealing your opponent’s energy – it simply wastes it! It makes for a one-two punch when you combine these two together. Eliminate their energy with Intellect Devourer, then steal a Bolt energy with Elf Thief!

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Blink Dog: Lesser Fey

Blink Dog is a low-cost option for getting a Shield character die, and it refuses to tolerate chump blockers. So while your opponent might choose to put their energy toward fielding characters so you can’t take advantage of Elf Thief, Blink Dog will help you make sure that strategy comes back to bite them when they need to re-field those characters repeatedly.

Elf Thief: Paragon Emerald Enclave

While the most expensive to purchase, this Elf Thief cuts straight to the heart of the matter. When you field him, if your opponent wants to use Global Abilities that turn, they’re going to have to pay for it with their life.

This tax on your opponent’s life puts a limit to how many Global Abilities they’ll get to use. Barring any life gain, they can use no more than 10 Global Abilities on your turn if you keep fielding Elf Thief each turn. Sometimes, paying life will be the right option. Other times, their inability to pay 2 life will help you deal the finishing blow!

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At a cost of only 4 energy to purchase, the fact that he could be a game-ending die is mind-blowing. Dice Masters veterans will love this card – it’s difficult to use, difficult to adapt to, and if you play it right, it’s sometimes even good to reroll into energy.

Since he’s a higher cost, there isn’t a direct need to combo Elf Thief with other cards. That being said, he’s a great complement to any rush strategy. After an opponent has attempted to stabilize, reeling from a life deficit, Elf Thief tries to take options from them. How you try to drain your opponent of early life points is up to you. One option would be to fall back on tried and true strategies from Battle for Faerûn, and utilize Red Dragon’s Global Ability in conjunction with Magic Missile. Ring: Epic Gear or any version of Halfling Thief or Hellhound are also valid options.

Elf Thief: Lesser Harper (4 dice)

Hell Hound: Minion Fiend (4 dice)

Dwarf Wizard: Paragon Zhentarim (2 dice)

Intellect Devourer: Lesser Aberration (2 dice)

Giant Spider: Greater Beast (2 dice)

Magic Helmet: Paragon Gear (2 dice)

Red Dragon: Epic Dragon (1 die)

Human Paladin: Lesser Emerald Enclave (3 dice)

Basic Actions:

Magic Missile

Resurrection

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There are countless ways for you to steal the win with Elf Thief and we hope you enjoy discovering them upon the release of Dice Masters: Faerûn Under Siege!