Why play without Rares and Super Rares?
When you’re just getting started with a game, you might not have all the hard to find cards yet. Even after getting some of the cards you’ve been looking for, it’s usually a good idea to have a second team together either to help friends learn or to practice a secondary strategy. If you’ve been watching the teams that did well at the WizKids Open events, many included rares or super rares. Check out this team from Nick Pham that uses only common and uncommon characters!
PBC – Power Bolt Control
(3) Distraction
(3) Power Bolt
(1) Professor X: Recruiting Young Mutants
(4) Beast: Mutate #666
(3) Falcon: Samuel Wilson
(3) Mr. Fantastic: Brilliant Scientist
(3) Gambit: Ace in the Hole
(3) Storm: Wind Rider
(1) Cerebro: Cybernetic Intelligence
(2) Dr. Strange: Master of Mystic Arts
General Strategy:
This team falls under the control archetype, which means it wants to keep the opponent from dealing damage while capitalizing off of incremental advantages.
This team is very good on fending off your opponent’s attacks with a wall of characters and Distraction. Tougher threats are taken off the field by Storm and Cerebro. Meanwhile, your opponent is whittled down by Power Bolt and Dr. Strange. The team runs a substantial number of Mask energy characters, so it takes advantage of Professor X’s Global Ability better than most. With careful management, Power Bolt can be rolled every single turn. For a team that has no rare cards, it performs surprisingly well.
Card Overview:
Distraction- This Basic Action from Marvel Dice Masters: Avengers vs. X-Men is the quintessential control card. There are multitudes of ways to remove or disable blockers, but there is no way to prevent a character from being targeted by Distraction’s amazing Global Ability. Just make sure you don’t use Distractions that would otherwise cut too deeply into the Masks you have reserved for Professor X’s Global Ability. Slowing down your dice engine is often worse than taking five damage.
Power Bolt- Another Basic Action from AvX, this card is the title win condition of this team. With few exceptions, it is always used to deal direct damage. You will want to always buy the first Power Bolt die early on and promptly buy the last one if your opponent buys one. It is very difficult to deal combat damage with and against a control team, so after both sides build up their walls, the game can easily be decided by which player bought two Power Bolts.
Professor X: Recruiting Young Mutants- This Uncanny X-Men card’s Global Ability single-handedly reshaped the Dice Master’s metagame. This Global Ability allows you to remove a large number of Sidekicks from your draw each turn. Starting turn three, using this card’s Global Ability at least twice a turn is almost mandatory. The prepped Sidekicks from Professor X will supply Masks needed for the next set of activations as well as one additional energy. Distraction should be planned around having Masks left over for Professor X. Since Sidekick Dice are constantly kept either on the Field or in your Prep Area, this team will find itself rolling Power Bolt almost every single turn.
Beast: Mutate #666- Character Dice outpace Power Bolt in damage. Power Bolt doesn’t shine until both players reach a stalemate and Beast is the favored defender of the AvX Starter Set. Mutate #666 is especially useful because his ability activates when he is declared a blocker, which is before the action window for using Distraction’s Global Ability. Whether you field Beast or keep him for Mask energy, this card will do wonders for stabilizing the game.
Falcon: Samuel Wilson- This Uncanny X-Men card serves as an additional locker to add to the wall that you are slowly building up in order to stabilize the game. Beast is preferred, but when you need to save your Masks for Professor X’s Global, Falcon can be bought without slowing the team down. Falcon has high stats for his cost and is not as easily killed as other cards that cost two energy.
Mr. Fantastic: Brilliant Scientist- This card is mostly used for his Global Ability, which once dominated AvX. Since you can activate multiple Beasts by having them block a single target, forcing just one character to attack can allow you to prep as many as four dice from your bag. His extremely high defensive stats also make him a wonderful buy against certain opponents.
Gambit: Ace in the Hole- This AvX card is a slightly more expensive Mask energy body which can be bought after Beast. Gambit also has an interesting combo that is made possible by the Transition Zone. With proper use of Professor X, you will have turns where your roll the entirety of your bag and Used Pile. Any dice you purchase on those turns will therefore be the only die in your Used Pile and can be instantly rolled upon fielding Gambit. This combo can turn a game around with Storm or Cerebro.
Storm: Wind-Rider- This uncommon card is considered one of AvX’s best. It is a powerful removal card that doubles as direct damage. Unless your opponent has a significant threat on the board, Storm prefers to target Sidekick characters since they are three times as likely to get sent to the used pile for two damage. Since Professor X keeps your bag slim, Storm benefits both from being unblocked or knocked out, so attack with her as much as you can. There are some very strong teams with Storm as their only win condition.
Cerebro: Cybernetic Intelligence- This common Uncanny X-Men card is one of the most reliable removal cards from the set. Knockout abilities of this caliber usually come with either a huge purchase cost or a restrictive condition. With just five energy, Cerebro turns 2-Cost X-Men characters into powerful assassins. Cerebro overlaps with Wind-Rider in many ways, but would typically be purchased for characters that are too dangerous to risk a 50/50 with.
Dr. Strange: Master of Mystic Arts- Sometimes you will just end up rolling too much energy. You might even do so on purpose. At 6-Cost, Dr. Strange isn’t too affordable, but you will rarely regret purchasing him. He doubles the damage of each Power Bolt you use and is potent attacker himself. Just make sure you don’t end up unable to use Professor X at least twice after buying him. One Power Bolt and three activations of Professor X’s Global will be better in the long run than a quick Dr. Strange.
Replacement Thoughts: Oddly enough, there are not many rare cards that improve this team without breaking its core gameplay. One good replacement would be Professor X: Trainer in favor of the common Professor X. Falcon could also be replaced with other rare low cost characters like Scarlet Witch: Unity Squad or Black Widow: Killer Instinct for some extra utility. Psylocke: Kwannon the Assassin can fill Beast’s low cost Mask niche as well as Cerebro’s reliable removal utility. Her impact is not as large as the two cards combined, but it opens a slot for splashing a different powerhouse control card like Loki: Gem Keeper.
Conclusion: This team matches very well against both hard control teams, and can put up a good fight against many aggressive teams. Aggressive teams that rely on brute force rather than direct damage are particularly weak against Power Bolt Control (PBC). Like any control team, PBC requires a lot of practice in order to recognize the situational adjustments required to stabilize the game. It is also very satisfying and not something many players are prepared to face in a tournament. I highly recommend giving it a try.
