Big Entrance is a card that’s had an impact on the Dice Masters metagame since it was first printed in War of Light. As you’re getting ready for WKOs, we wanted to share this team with you in case you’re thinking of using it (or preparing to beat it!) this March. For more details about Roll of the Wild WKOs, check here.
First, on Big Entrance math…
Every energy die that you roll translates into you buying a 2-cost character die the turn you use it. This is an ENORMOUS swing in momentum – you’ll have 8 energy’s worth of character dice at your disposal, and your opponent may only have about 6. Plus you have the Big Entrance die ready to cycle through your bag and do it again.
Next, there might be no more notorious tag team in Dice Masters than Guy Gardner: Blinding Rage and Miri Riam: Beacon in the Dark. They’re 2 Lanterns who work in tandem for some huge leverage.
Guy Gardner has a drawback, however – he must attack every turn. It’s a drawback that you can sometimes circumvent by KO’ing him or removing him as an attacker. Your goal is to attack with each of your Guy Gardner dice once: on the turn you win the game. There’s some math behind this as well.
Since each Guy die is getting +1 for each other attacking die, if you have 5 other attacking dice, each Guy is going to hit your opponent for at least 7. First, let’s look at the worst-case scenario: you only have 2 Guy Gardner dice attacking, and each of your other dice only has 1A.
Damage = (Number of Guy Gardner Dice) x (2 + Total Number of Attacking Dice – 1) + (Number of non-Guy Attacking Dice)
So for 2 Guys, and 3 other dice…
2 x 6 + 3 = 15
So that’s not enough. Adding an extra die still isn’t enough — the damage only comes to 18. So we either need to get 5 attacking dice with 2 Guys, or 4 attacking dice and some damage from other places. Most of the time, 5 attacking dice, plus 2 Guys, means you’ll need to be rolling 7+ dice or having a leftover Sidekick or two from earlier turns. Right now, in Modern, that means some big ramp – and for our purposes Fabricate will be the best way to get there.
If you’re going for the win as fast as possible, unobstructed by your opponent, getting a third Guy Gardner die might be the efficient answer. It’s important to remember that option exists for you, but the remainder of your team is built for when that doesn’t work out.
Early versions of this team focused on including things on your team that would help you weather the storm or push through for the win; Constantine: Hellblazer and Doomcaliber Knight: Fiendish Fighter. Unfortunately, neither of those cards are in Modern at present time. Luckily, we have some cards that haven’t gotten as much attention to fulfill similar roles.
Elektra: Way of the Stick helps protect your character dice from Global abilities, since they’re mostly 2-cost characters. The two primary Globals you’ll be protecting yourself from are Magic Missile/Unstable Canister and Blink – Transmutation. If your local metagame includes answers to your characters that aren’t Global based, maybe you leave Elektra in your binder.
Iron Fist is an amazing card to utilize if opposing characters are going to deal damage from their abilities. He’s got a beefy defense on each level (3, 4, and 5 respectively). Considering that ability damage to him is going to be reduced, his staying power is even more advanced. He can even protect YOU from damage, whether it’s from Attune or Nobby. He even combos well with Fabricate (which is a pretty strong candidate for this team, too). At 2, he’s the perfect size for Miri Riam to bring in. Iron Fist is cool in a lot of ways for this team – but if he’s the wrong choice for your metagame he’s still the wrong choice for your team no matter how synergistic or appealing he is.
Fabricate is good with nearly every character die on your team. Guy likes being KO’d so he isn’t forced to attack when you don’t want him to. Miri likes being KO’d so you can field her again next turn for her ability. Iron Fist likes being KO’d so you can use his second ability to Prep your Clay Golem and swing with it next turn. Just like Elektra or Iron Fist, you’ll find yourself choosing among the different character cards with Fabricate 2-4 depending on which one suits your local metagame and playstyle. Having to make choices like this because you can only fit one Fabricator on your team — and are only allowed 1 Clay Golem card on your team — is one of the fun tradeoffs of Dice Masters.
Consistency is key for Dice Masters, so you’ll want to pack some stuff onto your team to turn your mediocre rolls into great ones. The biggest effect available to us for this is the Global ability on Parallax. Unfortunately, since it’s rolling dice it doesn’t always give us the right effect, and it costs 1 so it’s pricier than the single-fixer Global abilities. When we say “single-fixer” Global abilities, we’re talking about cards like Merlyn or Grodd that let you spin a Sidekick to a desired energy face. Merlyn and Grodd are the go-to picks for this team so you can get a Sidekick to be the right type of energy to buy a Miri or Guy on your critical turn with a die that would otherwise be stuck as a Sidekick. Furthermore, sometimes you’ll be able to turn a Sidekick die from an earlier turn into a bonus energy.
Professor X: No More Magnus is helpful for two reasons. One is that you’ll be able to generate a Sidekick to help boost Guy’s attack on the turn you try to win the game. Earlier than that you’ll be able to field Sidekicks to thin them out of your bag.
An often-overlooked card that we were considering for this build was Shriek: Dark Empathy. Her ability to single-handedly ignore your opponent’s defenses felt really good. Unfortunately, after some testing, and in part due to the fact she cost 4, we didn’t include her; this is all despite the fact that some players saw success with Prismatic Spray in earlier builds of this team.
There’s one combo in particular that had us especially, excited for utilizing Big Entrance in the upcoming WKO metagame, and that’s Jubilee: Life on the Streets with Giganta: Standing Tall.
Jubilee’s Awaken ability can clear out opposing chump blockers like Sidekick dice, other Jubilees, Yuan-ti Pureblood, Miri Riam, and more. This is part of what Relentless, Swords of Revealing Light, and Magic Missile did in earlier builds of this team; but your opponent can’t turn it around on you. If her ability fires twice, you’ll be clearing all opposing character dice with 2D or less. Even better, if Miri brought your Jubilee into the Field Zone it guarantees she’ll be at level 1, so you can spin her up twice without needing extra tricks or a second Jubilee. Furthermore, she can get extra attack from spinning up, helping to pull her weight in bringing your opponent from 20 to 0.
Let’s check back on our math.
Jubilee at level 2, two Guy Gardner dice at level 1, Miri Riam at level 1, and a Sidekick:
4A + 2x(2+4)A + 1A + 1A = 18A
So another character (or 2 of your Lantern characters) being above level 1 makes this lethal damage.
Conveniently, Giganta or Professor X’s Global abilities can easily help you bridge that gap. If you’ve used Clay Golem to get to this point, you might even have it as an attacker, too. With practice, you’ll start to see lots of ways to turn your rolls into wins.
If you don’t like the sound of this team, or you’re afraid to face off against it, we’ve got some other cards for you to consider. The first of them has been a beloved card without a home on a championship team since its release in Deadpool. That card, of course, is Lockjaw: Fiercely Loyal.
Lockjaw will let you predict one of your opponent’s dice to come out of their bag, then maybe obliterate their Field Zone. Two damage across the board will wipe out almost all of their Miri, Guy, or Jubilee dice. Furthermore, Lockjaw has such substantial defense that Jubilee is going to have a hard time KO’ing him. He’s not always the most effective control piece, but he’s pretty brutal against Big Entrance teams.
An all-around strong pick that also may hinder this team is Oracle: Clock Tower Surveillance.
Increasing the cost on your opponent’s cheap dice can be devastating because they’re depending on the quantity of dice they’ll accumulate to rush you down. By slowing them down you’ll have extra turns for your own strategy to develop, whatever it is. Oracle’s got some great defense, and combos with tons of great win conditions. At only 3 cost, you might even be able to buy her and ramp on your first turn (going 2nd).
Overall, here’s the Big LOTS (Life on the Streets) team we settled on:
Big Entrance
Resurrection
Guy Gardner (4 Dice)
Miri Riam (4 Dice)
Iron Fist (2 Dice)
Jubilee (3 Dice)
Clay Golem (4 Dice)
Gorilla Grodd (1 Die)
Professor X (1 Die)
Giganta (1 Die)
If there’s one last tip we could give you to make the most of this team and your upcoming WKO Prep, it’s to practice, practice, practice! It’s the best way to improve your DM skills while having fun with your friends. Until next time, keep on rolling!
