Marvel Dice Masters Review - Casual, Collectible, Cheap
- Thread starter JonB
- Start date
I might be sold by $0.99 cent boosters alone. I've never managed to get into collectible games due to the pressure of having to get the "right" deck before you start having fun, so a few dollars for a good selection seems pretty enticing. Too bad the rules are complicated, but I should be able to get someone else to go in on it with me and we can learn together.
The rules can be summed up as 'Dice based Magic'.Thunderous Cacophony said:
You 'draw' four dice from your bag (deck) each turn, which you then roll in your 'reserve area' (hand).
There are four different energy types (colors from magic). You can use that energy to either buy character dice (requires at least one energy of a certain type) or Basic Powers ('colorless').
Spent energy dice and just bought character and power dice go into your used pile which gets returned to your bag when it runs out.
In order to 'field' (play) characters you need to pay the amount of energy in the top left corner of the side.
Once fielded, characters stay on the field until they successfully damage the opponent (go into your used pile) or get reduced to zero health (sent to your prep area to be rolled again next turn).
Attacking and blocking works the same as in Magic.
If you can't pay the required energy cost to field a character they go into your used pile.
My friend and I recently tried our first game and after muddling through the rules for a bit, found that the best was to just start playing. The rules sound complicated in text and the printed rules could be written a lot better, but once you get going they're pretty simple.
One thing that was hinted at but not directly said: The die for a character is the same for all rarities (That was said). They've explicitly made it the case that you can use those identical dice for all rarities of the card. So, despite this game featuring four rarities (common, uncommon, rare, and super rare), you'll only ever need to get one copy of that chase card, and can fill out your play set with dice from the common. Also didn't directly mention, the other properties WizKids currently has Dicemasters products for are D&D and YuGiOh, with a DC Comics expansion coming in the near future. I felt this last point should have been spelled out, as ALL of those properties are of more interest to me than Marvel. Just remember, the rule books for the different brands call your dice different things, but "heroes", "monsters", and "adventurers" are the same thing, just like "sidekicks" and "NPCs" are the same thing.
One more thing, it's been a bit difficult to find information as concerns the color-blind friendliness of this game. The character dice are all unique so there's no issue there, but the basic action dice are all visually identical except for color. I can't speak for the Marvel sets (which have a different color scheme), but my friend assures me that he finds the D&D basic action dice to be visually distinct.
Last thing to note, the starters come with "Dice Bags". They're good for a laugh that someone would consider THOSE to be dice bags, but their inclusion was an obvious necessity. Regardless, do yourself a favor if you're going to play, and buy a real one from your local game store, make one yourself, or tap into that oldest of nerd standbys, the Crown Royal bag.
One more thing, it's been a bit difficult to find information as concerns the color-blind friendliness of this game. The character dice are all unique so there's no issue there, but the basic action dice are all visually identical except for color. I can't speak for the Marvel sets (which have a different color scheme), but my friend assures me that he finds the D&D basic action dice to be visually distinct.
Last thing to note, the starters come with "Dice Bags". They're good for a laugh that someone would consider THOSE to be dice bags, but their inclusion was an obvious necessity. Regardless, do yourself a favor if you're going to play, and buy a real one from your local game store, make one yourself, or tap into that oldest of nerd standbys, the Crown Royal bag.
And the Marvel, Yu-Gi-Oh, D&D, and DC sets can all be played against each other or combined.ccggenius12 said:
My current team consists of Beast, Shadowcat, Psylocke, Morphing Jar, Professor X, and a Beholder.