Monsterpocalypse: Thematics in Mechanics
by Emanuel Class
Ideas for Developing from the Starter Box
Hello giant monster fans—I hope you are having a kaiju-filled day. Today, I want to launch an Insider series that I started a few years ago when I first began writing Insiders for Monsterpocalypse. When I first arrived on the scene, I noticed there was a massive crowd of players who wanted to play Faction pure or according to a theme in order to make the game feel more cinematic. Over the last few years, a metric ton of releases have reshaped the landscape of the game. So, I feel there’s never been a better time to lean heavily into a Faction or to come up with a theme that speaks to you, all so you can show the world what you’ve found.
I also had a second goal in mind when creating these articles: I wanted there to be easy reference guides for players who are thinking of getting into the game. To that end, I’ll make this an expansion from the starter box. Since most games are two-monster games, this will help a player find their way to a two-monster list. Later in this Insider series, I’ll revisit these theme lists and expand on them more in depth. This theme today I am calling the Natural Disaster theme list.
The Protectors starter box contains
Let’s start by looking at my First Guardians and Ancient Ones forces. When I developed these Factions, I did so with the idea that they would be great to mix with other models but should still play synergistically together in a way that made leaning in on their theme a viable option. Think of the basic list of Faction models as an ideal starting point if you’re looking at picking up a Faction and want to expand from the starter kit.
The First Guardians Faction as a whole consists of
- The Master of Xolotl
- The Queen of Ixmiqui
- The Warden of Teocali
- Hummingbird Spirits and Temple Giant
- Jaguar Spirits and Arbiter Monoliths
- Gargoyle Monoliths and Temple Monoliths
- World Clock First Guardians Faction Building
This list has four monsters, twenty units, and one building. Let’s assume these models are in our pool of models for future articles as we expand this list. You can start with any of these monsters and be on the right path. For this Insider, we are going to look at Hurricanius paired with the Master of Xolotl.
This pair is a match made in the heavens, as these two monsters have a lot of synergy. The Master of Xolotl is a Flying power battery with Demolisher on both sides. This is important because Hurricanius needs a good power battery to help her make the most out of her kit. The Master of Xolotl has the ability Invigorate, which offers two Boost Dice on a brawl attack within five spaces of the Master. This is perfect for Hurricanius because she has Fling on her brawl attack. Since Fling uses dice in play for the second attack, Hurricanius gets to double dip and use those Boost Dice from Invigorate a second time.
Elemental Champions_Hurricanius_2022
With the Master of Xolotl’s ability Reshape, he has ways to sneak Arbiter Monoliths onto the table. Hurricanius can help that model get where it’s going using the action Blitz. At speed 3, they aren’t going far, but you can chain that with the action Ley Line to have them zipping all over the table, ready to offer Death Sentence or pop onto a power point to use Amplify after being handy. You can set this up easily with Hurricanius’ ability Spawning Locus, allowing you to spawn Air-named units adjacent to her once per turn. If the Master is in hyper, this is a great way for him to have food—er, I mean a willing Offering nearby to help him fly around the board. Couple that with Tailwinds from Hurricanius when she is in hyper, and Xolotl can get +1 speed. If your opponent decides to try to put Hurricanius into hyper first, the master can use Invigorate to help jumpstart the unrelenting storm chain or she can end it with a super-efficient brawl attack, tossing 8 Boost Dice into her brawl attack. If your opponent decides to put the Master in hyper first, the Master can use his crazy snake-rolling combo of Drag and Ravage triggers on his brawl and power attacks, respectively, to reliably serve up the enemy monster on a platter to Hurricanius. One thing to note about this list is that both monsters are flyers. This means neither of them will take damage from stepping into hazards. The downside to this is that neither monster can force themselves into hyper by stepping on those same hazards.
One of the best aspects about this set up is that if you are really enjoying the First Guardians, the Queen of Ixmiqui has a lot of cross comparisons to Hurricanius. But I am going to save her for the next Theme List insider, where we’ll explore the Queen of Ixmiqui paired with the Vegetyrants Lady of the Flowers Flourina in a Garden of the Gods theme list.
Destroyers’ players, don’t think for a moment that I left you out because I can’t pass up the opportunity to talk about things from the other side of the coin. So, let’s look at the Destroyers starter kit. This box has one of my all-time favorite Destroyers in it: Dynastavus.
The Destroyers Starter Box contains:
The Ancient Ones Faction as a whole consists of
- King of Camazotz
- Lord of Mictal
- God of Vemana
- Skull Bats and Skull Keeper
- Lake Serpents and Lake Witch
- Shamblers and Bramble Hunters
- Ancient Altar Faction Building
Add on:
I love giving my lists cheeky names that make them feel complete and thematic. This one is no exception: the Royal Crush list combines the lethality of the Queen of the Savage Swarm, Dynastavus, with the utter destructive power of the King of Camazotz. This pair of sinister flyers has the same advantage and disadvantage that the above list has: both monsters are flyers, which means they won’t take damage from walking into hazards but they also can’t step into a hazard to force themselves into hyper. Here’s the catch, then. This list is all about trying to keep itself in alpha for as long as possible. If you look at their health tracks, they are also nearly opposite in how they were built. The King of Camazotz has only 4 of his 11 health in alpha, whereas Dynastavus has 7 of her 10 health in alpha. This can make the math difficult for your opponent when choosing how to dislodge your monsters from a good defensive position.
One thing you may have already noticed while looking at this list of models and comparing it to the Protectors list is that I added a neutral building to the list. Because Dynastavus has the ability Hard to Kill, it’s a good idea to start collecting these buildings. With the way Hard to Kill is worded, Dynastavus loves having the ability to heal damage in hyper. With Swift Strike, she can smash a Downtown Highrise to set up Hard to Kill again and still get her power attack off. The King of Camazotz loves having these snacks around the table, too! With Vampirism in alpha and the Onslaught trigger on both sides of his card, he can also gobble up a building and heal. If he is hyper, he can use a Downtown Highrise to heal back into alpha and then use Vampirism and Onslaught to heal back to full health.
These two monsters love to gang up on an enemy. With Bloodsport in alpha, the King of Camazotz can advance into position if the opponent is damaged by an attack during your Monster Activation. And with Scent of Blood, the King will leave Skull Bats around to Scout for Dynastavus. She loves extra accuracy on her already very accurate Penetrator attacks. In hyper, the King becomes an absolute tyrant as he Sprints around the board, using Battering Ram to knock enemies around and causing maximum disruption to the enemy position. With Onslaught, Energy Thief, and Siphon, the King of Camazotz can also hit the opponent’s resources, making fighting back against the Dynastavus’ 9 DEF that much harder.
Both of these monster love to flatten the table and topple buildings onto their opponent until they have leveled the playing field…in their favor, of course. In the endgame, they will punch and stab their opponents to death as they struggle to fight off these destructive forces of nature.
One of the best things about Dynastavus is that she has a great 1-v.-1 setup in her kit. Because of this, she makes an awesome pair for the God of Vemana as well. You can sub her into the same list as Camazotz and watch her tank like no other. With Sacrifice and 12 health, she can play a similar game.
In my next Theme List Insider, I am going to take a look at the next monster in the Agenda, the Lord of Mictal, and discuss his pairing up with Karkinos, the fireproof zombie crustacean from the Necroscourge Faction, in my Grave Titans theme list!
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