When Black Widow, Green Goblin, Professor X and Hulk Team Up with a Red Dragon

Some of you read the title and a massive question mark formed over your head as you scoured Marvel Unlimited for a mention of when Gobby actually fought along side Black Widow and Hulk, but were quickly dumbfounded when, wait, did you say Professor X…and…a…DRAGON? What is this, D&D meets Marvel?

That’s exactly what this is.  Dice Masters, the competitive dice building game that has a foundation in Quarriors and has been out for about a year, published by WizKids.  Originally, Dice Masters was released and met with so much success it failed.  I know, that seems like an oxymoron, but consider the fact that a new game is released and blows through its initial supplies so rapidly that the stock cannot be replenished for over two months!  WizKids eventually solved their supply chain issues, and in subsequent months the game has stabilized and grown at an exponential rate.

Background

WizKids released the core set of Avengers vs. X-men in April 2014 to much fanfare and immediately sold out, but the players who were able to get started in the competitive circuit found a few cards that are still top tier in constructed formats (Black Widow, Green Goblin and Hulk).  Uncanny X-Men followed in September and introduced another staple of everyone’s constructed decks with Professor X.  This ended the Marvel releases and WizKids turned its eyes to broaden the market with Yu-Gi-Oh and Dungeons and Dragons sets in late 2014 and early 2015, respectively.  The world now waits for Superman, Batman and the rest of the Justice League as a new cycle of DC Comics Dice Masters gets ready to release in a matter of days, to be followed up quickly with The Age of Ultron expansion, originally slated for release with the film, but production delays will push it back until Summer 2015, most likely June.

Gameplay

Each team is constructed to have a maximum of 8 characters using a maximum of 20 dice, arranged around a central area which includes the attack zone, field, used pile, reserve pool and prep area where all the rolling, fielding and attacking will be done.  Each player also chooses two basic action cards, which have a large variety that provide abilities that range from pulling extra dice from the bag to moving sidekick characters from the used pile into the prep area and a particularly nasty one called Thrown Car which gives characters an ability to damage the opponent with any excess attack value that is not blocked by the defender, essentially “trample” if you are a Magic:The Gathering player.  Each player begins the game with eight white “sidekick” or “NPC” dice, depending on the set played, and they use the energy they roll on these dice to begin purchasing the dice for the characters on their team.

In Dice Masters, the energy type is a critical component of the game.  Each character, regardless of the set played, has an energy type, either fist, mask, bolt or shield.  When dice are purchased for later use, the number in the upper left hand corner of the card indicates the number of energy required to buy the die, ONE of which must match the energy symbol on the card.  In the picture above, Beast requires two energy to purchase, one of which must be a mask.

During the clear and draw step, the active player removes 4 dice from the dicebag and moves all leftover dice from the reserve pool to the used pile.  If they don’t have 4 in the bag, they place all their used dice in their bag and draw dice until they drew a total of 4.  They add these dice to any dice already in the prep area and roll them, which begins the 2nd step; the Roll and Reroll step.  During this step, the player may reroll any dice they designate a second time to try and achieve a better result.  Once the reroll occurs, the dice pool is frozen and no additional dice may be rerolled.  Some powers allow you to draw and roll dice, but usually the reroll ends this step in the process.

After that, the player enters the main step and this is where it gets interesting.  They can take any number of actions, including fielding, purchasing more dice and triggering global and basic actions.  Dice that are purchased are placed in the used pile, and dice used to purchase are placed in a transition zone, that is technically out of play until the end of the active player’s turn.  Any fielded dice go to the section of the board marked “Field” and energy used to pay the fielding cost are sent to the transition zone as well. The opponent gets a chance to respond, using any global actions they may be able to use and then we move on to the Declare Attackers step, in which the active player pushes dice he wishes to attack with forward.  The opponent responds with the Assign Blockers step and any dice blocked in this phase will always be blocked, regardless of game effects that may remove the blocker before damage is assigned.  In the picture below, Hulk dice are pictured on their various sides.  As pictured, the fist on this die with numbers indicate a character face.  The die in the foreground has numbers, in a clockwise order of 2, 7 and 7.  This face has a burst side, indicated by the asterisk.

The numbers mean that this Hulk die requires 2 energy to field, attacks for 7 and defends for 7.  When comparing attackers and blockers, if an attack value exceeds a defense value, the character is knocked out, or KO’d and goes to the prep area to be rolled again on the next turn.  If the attacker goes unblocked, it retires to the used pile.  If characters do not take damage in excess of their defense values, they remain in the field.  This is the final step, Assigning Damage.  The turn passes to the opponent.

If you think there is a great deal to keep track of, you are right.  The nuances of the game are far too many to get into with any degree of detail here, but the game is worthy of playing for fun or competitively.  With 4 sets already out and 2 more coming in the next three months, there is no shortage of possibilities when creating a team.  Some game stores are running events for villain only teams, while some stick to only Avengers and X-Men sets available for play.

For sanctioned events, all cards are legal, and this is where the mix and match teams that are currently ruling the meta are formed.  Tsarina (Black Widow) who damages your opponent for 2 just by declaring to attack, Gobby (Green Goblin) who damages your opponent every time he is fielded for the amount of sidekicks you have fielded, which pairs up with Rally (Basic Action) that allows you to field 2 sidekick dice for free and Professor X, who has a global ability (both players can use) that lets a player spend a mask energy to pull two sidekick dice out of used and place in prep for rolling the next turn.  Then there is Hulk.  ANY time he is out and either he takes damage OR you take damage (the player), he hits all the opponents characters for 2 points of damage, unless he is on his burst side, in which case he hits them for three.  Pair this with Human Torch (Johnny Storm) and his ability to do one damage to any character when another character is fielded, and you have a board wipe followed by an attack.  With the breath weapons of dragons, this is a great thing to have to wipe their board as they try to wipe yours, and it allows a hefty swing back after they fail to swing with the force they thought they would.

In closing, Dice Masters is a fun and engaging property that can ruin your pocketbook, but provide endless fun while constructing teams and playing against your friends.  The collectible format is a downer, but it inspires people like me to complete the set.  It also appeals to a thinking man, much like Magic or Hearthstone in the collectible card game realm.  The starter packs are cheap at $15 and booster packs are $1 per, which gets you 2 dice and matching cards.  Go find the super rare card you need to be a force on the circuit!

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David Villegas - GM Dave

Managing Partner at Gamer Nation Studios

Dave is a husband, father, gamer and geek. The co-founder of d20Radio and Gamer Nation Studios, he loves anything tabletop gaming related, soccer, curling and movies.

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