Anyway, let's start reviewing about this team pack, it should be fun as almost all the characters have the same affiliation.
Disclaimer: I really loved the defenders, even more ever since they came out the netflix series. So whatever I review here is really about the character's ability in the meta. So please don't take it personally if I say a character is bad, it just means that the ability in the meta is bad.
Also, there might be some words that you might not understand from this article, these are terms we used in the game,
Beefy - Strong stats
Ramp - Effects that allows you to roll more dice
Ping - Dealing damage to a character
Pump - Additional stats to a character
Spill damage - Damage from overcrush
Swarm - Having way more characters in the field than your opponent and attacking with all of them. Not to be confused with the Swarm Keyword. Character cards
Direct damage onto your opponent is always the best damage, mainly because your opponent really can't do much about it. Any team will always have at least a mask or bolt characters, it just depends if they are the kind that exits the field frequently or they stay in the field as long as they can. You can use Clea to help you deal some damage to your opponent if you see that they have a lot of mask or bolt characters that leaves the field frequently in the game.
Both Clea and Doctor Strange are very expensive characters, so getting both of them active can be quite difficult. But if you do and you use this version of Clea, your opponent is going to have a hard time, but if a character cannot be damaged, your opponent's overcrush is basically useless if blocked by Clea, and if she has overcrush, you don't have to worry about her getting knocked out from combat damage because she can't be damage, so she can be very defensive as well as aggressive.
This ability is insane, not literally but you get the point. By declaring a blocker to an attacker, especially if that attacker has overcrush, your characters are going to suffer if they have very low defense. Also, some characters have deadly which don't make your situation any easy. Clea can solve those, basically you just have to keep her active and you can declare an opposing attacker blocked, and that can really save you in the game.
Doctor Strange sets justify him being a 7 cost character. His ability however requires you to keep using action die that does target a character, being able to duplicate the effect from only 1 action die is very powerful. For example target character die cannot be blocked, or knock out target character die etc. Being able to use those effect twice sure is a great deal, the difficult part is fielding Doctor Strange which might take some time, but once that is dealt with, you can start abusing your action dice.
There are a lot of ways your character or you yourself can get damaged, global abilities are a very simple way to do so, so if you want to cycle your action dice, you can use Doctor Strange to do so, he is one of the better action die ramp.
While you really like using action die, why not just put them back into your bag, you will have a higher chance of using them over and again compared to putting them in your used pile. The effect is not as strong as the 7 cost versions but it is still pretty good for a 6 cost character. So if you are looking to use an action combo, don't forget about Doctor Strange.
If you need some way to damage your opponent while controlling their game, look no further, Hellcat can help you to punish your opponent if they kept fielding the named character die, which can either slow down your opponent or help you to chip in some damage. Plus, she's only a 3 cost.
This version of Hellcat can be scary, it totally prevents your opponent from even buying a character die. If your opponent relies of a character to win his/her game, you can field Hellcat first before he/she buys it, or if he/she does buys before you field Hellcat, you can choose another die that is the supporting die for his/her game, whichever it is, this will totally affect your opponent's game play.
Well, this version is a little weak compared to the other 2, but it still has it's own usage. Adding 1 additional cost for your opponent to buy basic action dice can slow his/her game, especially in the early game where you increase a 4 cost basic action to 5 cost, it will be very hard for your opponent to keep up with your pace in the mid game. So if you seek for some early game control, look no further.
Hulk is back! This version of him is more controlling. His attack value is high enough for him to knock out almost any character, so you can have him block a character, then he can deal damage to another character in your opponent's field, which can be any character even if it didn't attack this turn, and that could knock that character out. You can use Hulk to wipe out characters that are beefy or have high defense.
This version of Hulk can helped you to drain your opponent's blocker, however, for a 7 cost character, I think it is very expensive that you need to pay a Shield energy in order to do so. Period.
I was starting to get worry about Hulk, his AVX version is super strong and there hasn't been a version on par with it, until now. This version of Hulk is super controlling, all you need is to field Hulk, and your opponent's nightmare begins. You can attack with your characters, then if your opponent blocked and knocked them out, Hulk deals your opponent damage, if they don't, they take combat damage from your attackers. You can block with your characters, the attackers get blocked and your blockers get knocked out, Hulk deals your opponent damage. Or simply ping your character till they are knocked out and Hulk deals your opponent damage. Either way, it's hard to stop the menace when it begins. Good job Hulk!
Basically Iron Fist gets additional attack if you have a mask in your reserve pool. Depends on how you see him, if you see him as a vanilla card with good stats and high cost and you can make use of the stats, then it'll be good for your team, otherwise, it is another expensive card with no other ability.
This version of Iron Fist is an anti sidekick character, your opponent pretty much wouldn't dare to field sidekicks if you field Iron Fist. And keeping sidekicks outside the field would be not be beneficial for your opponent unless he/she can ramp very fast with those sidekick dice, it's controlling in a way.
More attacking stats for Iron Fist, this time round you don't have to keep any energy in your reserve pool to pump him. And again, that extra 3A is great if you haven't field any character, which can be hard to trigger since at some point you need to field characters. So if you can make use of the extra attack value, go ahead and use him.
To make use of this version of Jessica Jones, you need to attack with her and protect her from getting knocked out, one way is you can flip her stats and she will have very high defensive stats, or you can block with her and ensure that she is knocked out. That die ramp can be very powerful if you can keep her ramp going in the long run.
This version of Jessica Jones can be use to attack with overcrush or block characters, because your opponent will likely use global or abilities to target your character, and she gets pumped each time your opponent does so, so she can get pretty beefy. It's not easy to use her though but if you have 4 Jessica Jones active and each being very beefy, it's disastrous for your opponent.
Simply put it, you can make her unblockable and your opponent cannot do much about it.
This version of Loki is very difficult to use, controlling characters is very powerful, it's been ages since we have an ability that can control another character. However, he can only use it on a character with lower level, means level 3 character are immune to him, and his defense is so high, so it may be hard for him to exit the field.
Loki can be a great attacker if you flipped his stats and he can be a great blocker. Blanking abilities are very powerful, and when Loki attacks or blocks, characters he engaged with him loses their ability, which won't benefit your opponent. This will nerve abilities like deadly, overcrush, iron will, aftershock etc.
A little similar to the Lex Luthor common version is World's Finest set. Oh wait, it is exactly similar. This ability can control your opponent's game, making character more expensive to buy and harder to field can really be annoying.
This version of Luke Cage is tricky, when he attacks, if you rolled him at a character face, he gains overcrush, other wise, he retreats back into the field. Either way, unless you flipped his stats, his level 1 and 2 are a little weak for overcrush, so you need to reroll him into level 3 for the best outcome and it is really luck base, which I wouldn't recommend in a competitive game.
I was wondering if anyone is going to do anything about the Defender's affiliation. Luke Cage supports your defenders by pumping them, and that additional pump is really powerful if you use them well.
Another supporter for the Defenders, reducing their cost by 1 is good enough and if you can keep fielding them, you can ramp a lot of dice in the long run. I believe more defenders will be released in the future, so this version of Luke Cage can definitely come in handy.
Conclusion
I feel that Dice Masters Team Pack is a great product, it provides you additional 8 characters with their cards and dice. As said earlier on, you won't get any sidekick dice or basic action dice from Team Packs, and as a collector that has 12 starters, the excess number of sidekick dice and basic action dice sure is a problem. You actually pay more for starter because of those dice which you don't really need if you already have 1 set of starter dice, so a Team Pack is great for collectors or players like myself.
This Team Pack is actually really good, all characters have their usable versions and that makes this Team Pack even more valuable. All in all, I love the Defenders and if you want to build a team only around the 8 characters in this team pack, it is possible, and judging from how Wizkids is releasing old affiliations, I believe that this won't be the only defenders in the Dice Masters Universe, so when more Defenders is release, this team pack might be more valuable, so do get them before they inflate in price. I hope my review helps and thanks for reading!
