What’s up everybody? Its me The Brown Messiah ready for another Errata That! This time we decided to take on Emma Frost “Hellfire Club” from Uncanny X-Men. Well I don’t know really what to say about this one. Something always compels the designers of the game to just throw that small wretch into the cogs and throw the whole factory into disarray. Time and time again we get a solid ability at a decent price; and then it gets totally screwed up because of one super specific concession.
The funny thing is after recording the segment, I thought about how I actually like this the concept of this card. Stats are great, purchase, and fielding costs are decent so as just a body on the field she is pretty solid. But then you get to the ability. “Whenever Emma Frost is damaged by a (Fist) character, redirect the first 1 damage from her to your opponent.” Why do they always have to be super specific about abilities that are mediocre at best? The best errata we gave it is just remove the requirement of the character being a fist character. I really wish that they would stop doing these “half abilities.” Abilities that are good in theory but make are far too specific in terms of either energy type, affiliation, purchase cost, etc… The KO King mentioned how he thought that she could have been intended to be a counter to Hulk: Green Goliath from Avengers vs X-Men. I also think she could have been an answer to Black Widow: Tsarina from the same set. It really is a shame because I love her dice. It’s so absolutely perfect in regards to the flavor of the character. If you’re not sure of the character, she is a mutant from the X-Men universe that has telepathic abilities and can turn herself to diamond. So of all the dice in Dice Masters, hers take the cake in regards to flavor.
I also had a random thought about the Uncanny set. As the second set to be released there are cards that deal with two energy types. Spider-Man: Superhero interacts with Fist and Mask characters, Wolverine: Antihero with Fist and Shield, as well as X-23: Assassin does Fist and Bolts. Perhaps putting even more stock in the KO King’s theory. But maybe this could also have been where the concept of Crossover characters came about and how in a future set multiple energies could be a thing. Or maybe I’m completely wrong about the whole thing.
Mark and Layne sent in some cool ones to consider as well.
I do love how Mark and Layne just don’t even acknowledge the original ability and just go for their own custom abilities. With the exception of the two costed version which I find is the funniest one despite the guys’ attempts at making an actually funny version. That being said, it would be much more effective to have her at a two cost because then you could just flood the field with her and have decent wall up for defense. I really like the bag stuffer since we’ve been talking about it so much on the show. I’ve played against Doctor J’s Killer Frost team where he is all his bag stuffing and taxing shenanigans. The third one is interesting; being able to just willy nilly take one of your opponent’s dice in their prep or bag and put it in their used pile seems a bit powerful. Granted I think a lot of the power would be come from timing, but it’s still a neat and fun ability. The ‘redirect and one sided board clear’ version leaves me a bit speechless. I’m not really sure what the intent was but it is a silly ability for sure.
I personally would want to errata a couple different ways. One good way to do so would be to prevent all damage dealt to her by fist characters rather than just the one damage. Another would be leave it as is but make it the first two damage. Back to my point about crossover characters; another good errata would be to add another energy type to the ability. Crossover characters could become a bigger part of the game. And we had already seen some cards that interacted with multiple energies so why not give her a second energy for the ability. I would have loved to have seen a version of her where you get to look into your opponent’s bag and do something. Emma Frost is a telepathic so it would fit the flavor of her so well. Or perhaps she could get Iron Will since in the comics she can turn herself to diamonds. Granted it wasn’t a keyword back then, but it would have fit her character extremely well.
Thats gonna do it for me today. Hope you all enjoyed this nice little read. Do you have a card you want us to feature on Errata That? Send us your suggestions or your own custom Erratas. Thanks for reading everyone and may the rolls be with you always!
Diego F. Chavez
“The Brown Messiah”
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Twitter: @brownmessiah
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Tags: Dice Masters, Double Burst
