Welcome back, Dice Masters fans!

This is Part Three of our look at cards from the newest Dice Masters set – Marvel Dice Masters: The Mighty Thor, flying into stores in early 2018! You can find the links to the first two articles here and here, where we looked at the new Earth X super rares. You can always keep up with our latest Dice Masters articles here.

Today, we will take a close look at Malekith: King of the Dark.

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He’s a four-cost bolt Villain with a fielding cost of 1 on all levels, strong defensive stats to keep him on the field, and an ability that makes Sidekicks a force to be reckoned with.

While Malekith is active, your Sidekick character dice get +1A and +1D, and gain the [Villains] affiliation.

Just like in the comics, Malekith is able to take control of ordinary people and bend them to his evil intentions. Dice Masters players have always sought ways to build winning teams centered around Sidekicks, and Malekith presents a twist that makes those strategies more viable in modern gameplay.

Currently, there are a preponderance of control cards that can single-handedly neutralize opposing win conditions. If you’ve been playing in tournaments or keeping up with our articles, you know these cards. These are just a few examples:

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Click any card to enlarge.

Due to cards like these, it’s never been more important to make sure your team has multiple win conditions. Malekith’s strength is in efficiently turning something as accessible as a Sidekick die into the basis of multiple win conditions. Malekith and Sidekicks both love redundancy.

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One of the simplest and strongest cards to combine with Malekith is Norman Osborn: Don’t Call Me “Gobby”!

With the ease of getting Sidekicks in your Field Zone, Malekith would allow you to do some serious damage with Norman Osborn. You could also simply use the stat buffs Malekith gives to Sidekicks, and even combine them with other cards that buff Villains such as Wrecker: Dirk Garthwaite or Blackheart: The Abyss Gazes Back, to do loads of combat damage with your Sidekicks. Since Malekith is an Uncommon, and Wrecker is Common, you might even be able to snag this combo in draft play!

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Given how powerful your Sidekicks will be getting, you’ll want to get them into the Field as quickly and as often as possible. You can do that by using Global Abilities that allow you to field Sidekicks from your Used Pile, such as Professor X: No More Magnus!, White Tiger: Mystical Amulet, Captain America: Squad Leader, and S.T.A.R. Labs: Advanced Research.

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Captain America might not seem very efficient – but if your team has no other way to spend Shield Energy his Global Ability might be something your opponent can’t take advantage of the same way you can, making it pretty one-sided!

 

Since you’ll be fielding a lot of Sidekicks with your team, you’d also want to consider including Mimic: Borrowed Talent. He’ll let you Prep 2 dice from your bag each time you field a Sidekick. This would allow you to get even more Sidekicks into the field and also draw the dice that will do the damage that will win you the game!

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But what if your opponent uses something like Shriek or Blob to shut down Malekith? No worries. The strength of Malekith is that his basic strategy of using lots of Sidekicks in the Field to win is a strategy that other cards use as well. One example is another combination that has shown promise since Dungeons & Dragons Dice Masters: Tomb of Annihilation was released; using the Global Ability on the Insect Plague Basic Action Card to make a large Foot Ninja: Ninja Syndicate unblockable.

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Wong: Faithful Servant is another option for making your Sidekick dice bigger. He’s lower on the cost-curve than Wrecker or Blackheart, and doesn’t even need your Sidekick dice to be Villains. Wong and Foot Ninja are also Ally characters so have some inherent synergy.

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Another way you could use your Sidekicks to spell doom for your opponent is to use Ragnarok: Dark Avenger to KO all those Sidekicks you got into the FIeld and do some serious damage to your opponent.

After some deliberation, the team we decided on looks like this:

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These are just a handful of the possibilities Malekith: King of the Dark will bring to your tabletop with the release of Marvel Dice Masters Set: The Mighty Thor. Enjoy opening Mighty Thor at your FLGS starting January 3rd 2018!