Flames Of The Faltine

Dormammu’s leadership is all about twisting your favourite Marvel characters into dark versions of themselves – while also powering them up to levels they couldn’t previously reach.

Fly too close to the sun (i.e have a little too much power) however and you’ll start taking damage. This, coupled with Dormammu being a hulking 8 threat in himself that needs to pull his weight in your games – and it’s a leadership that many people struggle with building.

In today’s article, we’re going to go through all of the tips from the London Meta for how to get Flames Of The Faltine really flowing.

Asgard

Asgard’s whole schtick is that they get two power a turn because well…they’re Gods…which is fair enough. This means they should always be considered when talking about leaderships that grant additional power.

The Mighty Thor and Thor, Prince of Asgard for example, both have great charges that cost 3 power. They’re clearly designed to not have much of a Round 1, in exchange for having these charges online from Round 2 onwards. In Dark Dimension however, their charges are ready to go from Round 1!

It’s worth mentioning however that Lady Sif & Valkyrie do not have this problem as their charges cost 2 already. But the extra power in Dark Dimension does let them move, charge the midline and still interact with an objective. Very useful on Inhumans Deploy Advanced Weaponry.

Charge!

As with Asgardians, most characters with charge aren’t designed to be able to do it in Round 1. But big boy Dormammu is here to change that! Basically any character with a charge will be able to access it from the get-go in Dark Dimension, so it’s worth dusting off any charger in your collection and giving them a spot. Like the much maligned Black Swan!

It’s also worth shouting out Wolverine here, as his charge lets him count Wilds as doubles, so pulling that off multiple times a game gives you more pulls on that sweet sweet slot machine.

Ulik is leaping his way into this section as he’s not quite a charger…not quite an Asgardian…but he does fall into both categories nicely. Getting a Crushing Leap off from Round 1 will get the Ulik train rolling nicely. Not to mention Shatter Mountains, Shatter Bones is fantastic, but expensive. So he also gets a hand with that in Dark Dimension.

Dormammu Enablers!

Playing an 8 threat leader means you really need to make the most of his activations. Dormammu needs to be in the right places at the right times so that can get off the most effective attacks. Here are some characters that can help with that;

Back at it again with the Asgardians-that-aren’t-supposed-to-do-their-thing-in-Round-1…we have Heimdall. 

Guardian Of The Bifrost is a great tool for getting Dormammu further up the board to do his thing.

Silver Sable can use Shot Caller to move Dormammu around, as well as pumping him with extra dice with Want My Help? Pay Up which will then fund more uses of Shot Caller. It’s not a Round 1 tricky, but she’s a great back point sitter who can help keep Dormammu relevant throughout the game.

Cute Tricks

Dracula can use Shapeshifting Round 1 to move long to the midline (this is the same measurement as everyone’s favourite safe grab, Namor, the Sub-Mariner) and then use the extra power from Dark Dimension to pick up an Extract with an extract left.

Black Cat with 2 power a turn means she can always use Troublemaker. Stagger for days!

Black Bolt with 3 power a turn means he can use A King Serves His People to protect Dormammu, while also boosting his defence dice with Anti-Graviton Field. 

He’s everyone’s favourite good boy! It’s Lockjaw!

With the power from the leadership coupled with Who’s A Good Boy, Lockjaw will be starting his activations with a whopping 5 power! This will allow him to Teleport Dormammu around, while also giving him access to Inter Dimensional Bloodhound for some extra punching power.

Tactics Cards

This is the card most people think about when they are talking about Dark Dimension. It’s very unique and really cool. There are plenty of 3 threat candidates for this. Baron Zemo, X-23 and more recently…Weapon X.

Weapon X’s entire job here is to recklessly charge the enemy team, cause as much damage as possible and then likely get KO’d. Dark Restoration lets him come back and do it all again! Not to mention his Charge is online immediately thanks to the leadership!

The reason we don’t see On Patrol getting much play is because both characters start the game with 1 power each…and when do the most amount of Interacts happen? Round 1!

Dormammu fixes this by allowing Spider-Woman or Carol Danvers to play this at the start of the game. With the right amount of Extracts or Pay-To-Flips on the board, this is going to give these characters a ton of free movement. It’s a lot of fun (and feels like it’s what this card was actually trying to achieve thematically…).

When your characters have too much power, they’re going to start taking damage from the leadership. Helios Laser Bombardment is a great way to purge your team of power and deal a ton of damage!

It’s worth shouting out Red Skull, Master Of The World for the same reason here. He can use other people’s power to fund his own turn, potentially helping them avoid Dormammu’s wrath from the leadership!

This is fun! Hulk can yeet Dormammu up the board. This card was errata’d to be during Hulk’s activation, which usually means he’s left with no power to do anything else. So it doesn’t see much play. But in Dark Dimension, Hulk will have 1 power left to then double move and pick up an extract, which is much better!

Thank You

Shoutout to Pat Dunford, Hamicron1, Angus, Valerian, JayMundo, Ron Wilde, Crimson Bear, Will Benson, Ollie Lowe, Liam Watt, Darren Kelso, Dave Miller and the rest of the London Meta for all of your contributions to this article!

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