Domino is a mutant with the ability to influence probability in her favor. This grants her the ability to make improbable things happen, from winning a poker game to saving a nuclear reactor.
After M-Day, Domino reformed X-Force with Shatterstar and Caliban and joined Cable on Providence as part of Six Pack until she was assassinated by Flagsmasher. She later returned to X-Force and helped Pete Wisdom turn it into a proactive black ops unit.
Origin
Domino is a name that carries with it an aura of authority. Its Latin roots, along with its historical meaning and connotations, impart a sense of mastery and expertise. As such, it has become a popular choice for both personal and business names.
When she fought for mutant rights, Domino joined the mercenary group known as Six Pack (Cable, Grizzly, Hammer, Anaconda and Solo). She later assisted Malcolm Colcord’s clandestine Weapon X program in a series of missions before fending off the mutant-devouring entity Aentaros.
Domino helped found X-Force after her former teammates were killed in the line of duty. Although she remained on the team for years, she was actually a duplicate created by Cable’s estranged son Tolliver, who used his shapeshifting agent Copycat to impersonate her.
Rules
After the dominoes are shuffled, each player draws a number of tiles from the stock according to the rules of the game being played. The player who draws the heaviest tile makes the first play.
Keeping the initiative is a key strategy in domino. By driving down the board count, you limit your opponent’s scoring options and increase your chances of retaking the lead on their next play.
You can also protect both ends of your count dominos so that your opponents cannot pull them in subsequent turns. This technique is called a “flank play.” By doing so, you can prevent your opponents from making large chains and maximize the points of your own dominos.
Variations
There are many different variants of domino, but most fall into two categories: blocking games, where the objective is to empty one’s hand, and scoring games, where players score points during play by creating certain configurations in the layout. There are also some other kinds of domino games, such as trick-taking games and solitaire, that have been adapted from card games.
A standard set of dominoes includes 28 double-six tiles with spots from one to six. Most sets also include a matador, which is a tile with a blank end that acts as a wild card. There are several ways to arrange these tiles into a layout, including a circle. Some games use this layout to track the score, while others use a separate domino board.
Materials
Dominoes have a back side that is blank or decorated with a design, while the face of each domino has a pattern of spots, called pips, or no pips at all. These dots indicate the value of each domino, which is usually a number, but can also be an empty circle or a cross.
Domino sets can be packaged in a variety of ways, including card boxes or paper envelopes. Some are also sold in a soft plastic case, like the vintage double-6 set shown here.
In the 18th century, European dominoes were made from animal bone (often ivory for the wealthy) or sheep and cattle bone for commoners, which had shallow holes drilled into them inlaid with thin pieces of ebony to form the black spots. More recently, dominoes have been made from natural materials such as stone, metal, ceramic clay or wood, often with a contrasting color for the pips.
Scoring
Domino has a psionic ability that alters probabilities, giving her “good luck.” She can make improbable events occur, such as an enemy’s equipment malfunction or hitting just the right button to shut down an overloading machine. She also has excellent reflexes and luck.
Many different scoring systems exist for domino games. One of the most common is called Muggins or Fives and Threes, a variation on cribbage where points are scored for making ends of chains add up to specific totals, in this case multiples of five.
Another scoring system is found in All Fives, a game that is played in British pubs and is the basis for a domino championship. This scoring system uses the same rules as cribbage, but uses a total of 15 domino spots instead of 15. A player who can count all exposed ends of their chains wins.