Monsterpocalypse Monday: Masters and Mutates

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Catch up on Rory & Angela’s story here

Doctors Rory Bennet and Angela Waters had been working tirelessly to rectify the horrible events with Gorgahdra. Although the day was saved from the supercharged monster, the destruction and loss of life remained immense. For some, the horror of that situation would never go away. But now both doctors had committed themselves to working with a group of scientists outlining a new way to put the power back into the hands of the people.

Bennet was inspecting her newest prototype—a massive gun to be carried into battle by twenty-foot tall elephant-human hybrids. This particular gun would be her crowning achievement: easy to use, exceptionally accurate, and powerful enough on impact to punch a hole through four-inch-thick steel plating.

Waters entered the lab, stretching. “Rory, you should take a break. We only just finished project Cassander—it’s not like there is anyone to even wield those guns yet.”

Bennet glanced over at her partner and smiled. “The prototype might be done, but if this is to work, I have to make all the pieces easy to assemble together.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to go to Taco Tuesday all on my lonesome.” Angela said in a sing-song voice. Just the same, Bennet could tell Waters was putting on a false front of bravado. Though it had been months since the horrible events, they were just barely beginning to get back to normal. While Bennet didn’t hear the strange voices anymore, she still felt a constant terrifying presence at the back of her mind.

She shrugged, acknowledging that the power of tacos was greater than her obsession with righting her wrongs. “Fine, fine. Off we go.”

As she pushed away from her desk and rose, that dim presence in her mind surged. She hesitated for a dizzing moment, scanning the lab for anything and listening carefully for the voices to start again. She swallowed, sweating. “Angela. Something is coming.”

“The voices again?” Dr. Waters’ voice lost all semblance of authority.

Bennet shook her head slowly and she walked over to the window, certain she would see a sky filled with the source of the presence. But as quickly as it came, the force in her mind vanished.

“They are coming…” Bennet said again, her throat clamping at the thought.

Waters’ eyes were wide. “Who?”

“I can’t even explain it, not completely. But they can see it all. They manipulated me into…” Bennet trailed off.

On the near horizon, a crack appeared in the air—a literal opening, as if the sky were made of glass that could be cut, broken and shattered. The crack slowly began to expand into a chasm as bits of the sky snapped off in broken pieces from the crack and plummeted to earth. When they struck the ground, they shattered like glass, sending shrapnel flying in every direction.

Both doctors could hear screaming in the distance as the shards of air slashed into the ground below, some so great they decimated buildings like knives dropped among orgimai structures. The crack only continued to expand as larger and larger chunks of air broke off from the skyline. In no time, enough of the sky had broken away to reveal a swirling purple mass of energy from deep within.

And then surreal spherical shapes started to swarm out of the empty space.

With unnatural beams of what Bennet assumed was light, the spheres targeted the city below, wreaking more havoc and destruction. Screams, car horns, and the unnerving crashing of buckling metal were drowned out by the devastation of skyscrapers crumbling like vertical earthquakes.

Bennet shielded her eyes as Waters looked to her for an explanation. Bennet could not meet her desperate stare. “Those… are just the beginning…”

As if on cue, an arm of unbelievable girth smashed its way out of the crack among the clouds, sending huge chunks of broken sky dropping into the vulnerable city. With flourish, the arm swept side to side, shattering the glass that had been the horizon, expanding the hole until it was large enough for a head—or what could loosely be described as such, given its overall shape—to push its way out.

“The Preceptor…” Rory Bennet said as a massive, terrifying creature smashed and clawed through the crack in the sky.

I have been really looking forward to talking about Masters and Mutates—and that time is finally here!

The Masters of the 8th Dimension are without doubt the weirdest thing we have ever made for Monsterpocalypse, so I hope you are all ready for some strange twists and turns.

Yup, it hands out Power Drain—and there may also be a unit that has Siphon. Have you ever wanted to really mess with your opponent’s Power Dice generation? Well, then, the Preceptor is for you. With abilities like Tactical Shift and Kinetic Distortions, the Preceptor will provide a strong support role for the units of the 8th Dimension.

Rapid Fire and Siphon seemed like a pretty dang good combo, so we decided to put it on a monster. And in many ways, the Preceptor is the opposite of monsters like Komkor and Defender X, both of which play toward efficiency. By contrast, the Preceptor sees everything and has a plan to deal with any contingency.

Voiders are the most straightforward of all the Masters of the 8th Dimension units. Still, Nullify is a pretty oddball ability that can be savagely punishing. If you are ahead on the unit game, using Nullify to cause your opponent to lose even more Power Dice has the potential to be devastating. It’s an optional effect, however, so if your opponent is already suffering under the weight of the Preceptor, you can just take the Power Die. One important thing to note is that only the grunts have cargo, which brings us to the Facilitator.

This unit is the only currently planned access to Transport. Also it will only have two choices to Transport: Voider grunts and the upcoming Dervish grunts. However, it also has a pretty solid gun—nothing special but not bad either. The most important aspect is Radar. Unlike Radar Network on the Comm Array, this only affects models within 2 spaces. But it also stacks and affects your monsters. (All Masters of the 8th Dimension monsters will have blast attacks).

*Crackling Radio Sounds*

Eccentric scientists everywhere bring you an important news alert! Have you ever wanted to join the fight against creatures from other worlds, dimensions, and realities? Well, those scientists have a great deal for you! Order your mutation formula and big fricking gun package now, and you too can join the Legion of Mutates!

*Crackling Stops*

There’s a ton of new abilities on this Legion of Mutates card. Tooth and Claw will appear on both Cassander and Numitor (another upcoming Mutates monster), and it has proven to be quite good in playtest. Watch out, though—Action Dice economy ends up becoming difficult with the Legion of Mutates. King of Beasts is the strongest unit buff we’ve put on a card, and it works really well in Mutates. A lot of Mutates units have multiple attacks, both brawl and blast, so it will get quite a bit of use. Otherwise, Cassander plays a pretty strong denial game; between Pounce and Intimidate, he can effectively and safely hurt an opponent’s power base.

Yeah, he keeps King of Beasts in Hyper, which is quite nice. His Mighty Roar goes from pushing around units to pushing around monsters in Hyper. Cassander has a very focused and aggressive hyper form, trading mobility and disruption for outright destruction. Overall Cassander is going to be the go to monster for players wanting to play with several Mutates units, the first of which is this happy hippo.

Bashers are surprisingly fast, considering their bulk. There isn’t much to say here: they smash things, and then press on to continue to smash. They play very well with Cassander and with the next model!

So…Stampede on a unit. SPD 7 (with an Industrial Complex) Bashers can really get up there and do some serious smashing. Lead From the Front plays very well with the aggressive nature of Mutates units. And the Blaster itself is no slouch either, having fairly good blast and brawl attacks, each with built in rerolls.

Okay, that’s all for this preview!

I hope everyone is having a tremendous holiday season and that this update brings a bit of joy at the end of a crazy year. I’m also looking forward to 2021 and to Masters of the 8th Dimension and the Legion of Mutates hitting stores early in the year!

Insider, Monsterpocalypse
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