Category Archives: Dicemasters

Just chuck some cards and dice together – that’d be too easy

dice masters, Dicemasters, Team Building

The thing I love about games such as MtG, Vampire the Masquerade Rivals, Netrunner, Ashes, etc is the deck construction.

I love putting some cards together that express an idea, a plan, and playing them. Sometimes it works, other times (more often) it doesn’t. You either give up on that idea or make some tweaks.

Decks are living things! As new cards come out I’m always evaluating whether there are cards that would fit into one of my decks, and if they would are they better than what I already have?

So naturally it’s a side of Dice Masters that I like and enjoy.

It’s also a side I need to do so that I can play with Nathan. I will need preconstructed teams for us to pick up and play. After all he has zero cards and dice. It also has the knock on affect of giving me decks I can use with friends.

I’m also going to need to build teams if I want to play in events in person or online.

The Basics

So what are the basics for building a team in Dice Masters?

Over on the official Wizkids Dice Masters site there is a page about constructed with the rules on.

A constructed team is when you select

“… eight Characters or Action Cards, and 20 corresponding dice. And… select two Basic Action Cards.”

However it’s not as simple as that, and like owning a gremlin there are some rules we need to remember when selecting and building our team.

  • Each card must have at least one die assigned to it.
  • No die may have more than its max # of dice assigned to it.
  • No player may bring more than 20 Character or Action Dice.
  • A player may not bring two characters with the same name, even if they have different subtitles (i.e. Wolverine: Wanted, and Wolverine: Canucklehead).
  • Each player must bring exactly two different Basic Action Cards.

And that is all the advice that Wizkids give in building your teams for constructed.

But like life it’s never as simple as that there are other things you need to take into account when selecting your team.

What cards can I use?

Before building your team and taking into account the other things that I mention below. You first have to decide what format you are building for.

The format defines which Dice Masters sets you can select your cards from for your team.

There are two official Wizkids constructed formats, Modern Age, and Golden Age.

Modern Age is the Dice Masters version of Standard in MtG. At the time of writing legal sets to chose your cards from are any sets from and including Avengers Infinity Gauntlet. Although once the House of X set drops this will change. There should be an official post about this on the Wizkids Dice Masters site nearer the time.

Golden Age is the Dice Masters version of Vintage/Modern in MtG. The easiest way to describe this is its every set that’s ever been released for Dice Masters.

There is also a format called Global Escalation. I’m not sure how popular this is but it was a format voted for by fans I believe in a survey Wizkids ran. On the survey it was described as an “unlimited constructed tournament where cards without Global Abilities that made the finals of World Championships…US Nationals … will be disallowed.” So basically a Golden Age format with a very particular ban list.

Just to complicate things more there is also an official Ban list. This list is a list of cards banned by Wizkids by format. Why would they ban them? To keep the formats healthy and competitive. Some cards are just broken especially with cards they were never designed to be used with. So it’s worth taking the ban list into account whilst building your team.

There are also a few unofficial formats that content creators, players have come up with. You can look up any rules for those formats as and when you need them.

So having selected the format, you know what cards you have to choose from. You are now ready to start building the team.

The make up of a team

The team we are building is 8 cards. Plus 2 basic actions. No more. No less.

In those cards we have to do a bloody lot. In reality we may not be able to do all of them.

I like to choose a card to build around. This card is usually one that I plan to win the game with. This is my win condition.

Obviously winning the game involves knocking our opponents health down to zero. This can be done by direct damage or by combat damage.

With my chosen card I need to be able to describe how I’m going to win the game. It could be as simple as “I’m going to swing in with my character and do lots of combat damage to my opponent in one go”.

It is possible to have more than one win condition. A plan B or C so to speak. But you will need to also be able to describe what those win conditions are.

Black Panther Resisting Doom with its “while Black Panther is active, if you attack with 6 or more different fantastic four affiliated characters, you win the game” could be your plan B for a fantastic four affiliated based team. Equally it could be your plan A!

Not being able to describe how you can win the game could mean you haven’t fully understood how that card works, or how to play it properly.

Next we need 2 or three cards that either combo with our win condition or have a synergy with it.

Let’s take current darling of the competitive scene Master Mold Endless Sentinels. This card could potentially with the right support cards be getting you three tokens a turn! But only if you are able to field it each turn.

The type of cards we would want to use with Master Mold are ones that allow us to KO our own characters. Preferably a global ability.

The reason I say a global ability and not rely on a character dice is because as long as we have the right energy for the global ability we can trigger that global ability before damage is allocated (I would recommend becoming familiar with the timing of when you can activate global abilities throughout the different stages of a turn).

That’s where a card like Dark Phoenix Destructive Force comes in. Depending on other cards selected you only need one die on her. She is there for that nice global ability. Which synergises nicely with how we want to abuse the ability of Master Mold each turn.

So our plan is buying Master Mold as quick as possible, and as soon as we draw him, field, attack, and KO each turn to create as many tokens as possible. Our win condition most definitely is overwhelming our opponent with these tokens and smashing them with combat damage.

So that is an example of the sort of synergy or combo we are looking for.

You can also see from the Black Panther card that affiliations can be powerful and also combo or synergise nicely with each other giving stat boosts etc.

Master Mold isn’t a cheap die to purchase. It’s 6 shield energy. And the card you select may be just as costly or even more expensive! The problem is we are only rolling 4 dice a turn. Or are we?

Don’t forget any dice we have in our prep area we are also rolling at the start of our turn along with the 4 drawn dice.

Obviously any KO’d characters go to our prep area. But using character abilities, global abilities, and action dice it is possible to get more dice in the prep area. The more dice we are rolling the more likely we are to get the energy needed to buy the more expensive dice in our team.

We also need to consider churn. Or how quickly we can get through our bag to refill it from the used area and start accessing all those great dice we have purchased in the meantime. Now our ramp abilities (which ever form they come in) can help with this! Especially if they are allowing you to take side kicks out of the bag or used area and place them in the prep area. Thus giving us a greater chance of drawing the dice we want. Or our ramp could be in the form of an ability reducing the cost of our next purchase.

So far we have looked at the types of card to use to get us the win. But what about our opponents threats? We need some way to get rid of them. So at least one card needs to allow you to remove a particular target die on your opponents side (handy for those big hitting one off threats) or get rid of all of the characters fielded by your opponent. Aka a board wipe. Believe it or not some people like to spam out lots of cheap little characters and inflict a death of a thousand cuts by overwhelming you with numbers. You may need both types. A card may be great at removing lots of small threats but no good for much larger ones.

If we have cards that give us ramp and churn, plus targeted removal and a board wipe. That’s our 8 cards already. But we have something else to include card wise as well!

I have an admission and don’t hate me for it. I like playing blue in MtG. Being able to disrupt or slow down your opponents game plan is not going to win you the game. But it does buy you the time for your plan to kick in. So having a card or two that allows you to throw a spanner in the works of your opponent is important also. That spanner could be forcing them to reroll a fielded character for example. Or it could be an ability that switches off your opponents card abilities.

How many dice?

Remember you are giving your opponent a big hint about which cards are really important to your game plan and which aren’t by the number of dice you have on them. Generally if a card has the max number of dice allowed it’s pretty important. But as I showed above in the Master Mold and Dark Phoenix example that’s not always the case. The card maybe there just for its global ability.

Final advice

Remember whatever global abilities you have on your team they are also available for your opponent. And vice versa. It may be unavoidable that you really need a global ability that is great for an opponent no matter what team they are playing. However the more specific and less general you can get them the better.

Try not to make your team all expensive cards. It makes it very hard for you to get dice out quickly. Giving your opponent time to kill you off before you even get a chance to follow your plan. Ideally you want a nice cost curve that builds from one or two cheap two or three cost dice up to that expensive one you want. So that you can buy characters from turn one and start getting your plan into action asap.

Don’t forget to test, test, test, your team. Make notes about what worked, what didn’t. Did you need more dice than you allocated for a particular card. Make a note of which teams yours didn’t do well against. Why? No team is perfect. But repeated plays and tweaking them will make them stronger. Just don’t play it once and if it doesn’t work bin it. One play is not enough to decide if a deck works or not.

A final bit of advice look at other peoples decks especially from major competitions. Try and work out why they chose the cards they did. What are the synergies etc.

Team building can be fun and rewarding despite the impression I give above.

My First Dice Masters Cube – A Modern Chaos Draft Experience (hopefully)

dice masters, Dice Masters Cube, Dicemasters

I do like deck construction. It’s a side of ccgs like MtG that I get immense enjoyment from.

However I have over the more recent months come to appreciate more the other aspects of game formats offered by this type of game. Such as preconstructed decks and draft.

I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy these differing ways to participate in a game before. It’s just my preference was for playing with decks I’d constructed.

But as I took an extended break away from the competitive side and the constant very expensive arms race. I wanted to return to playing these types of game casually with my friends and without the expense.

As I’ve documented in previous posts I’ve found official MtG precons for Standard/Pioneer/Commander/Game Night Kits and the Card Kingdom Battle Decks great as casual pick up and play sessions with friends.

Now I’m trying to bring that casual side to Dice Masters. Particularly using cards from sets that I already own.

Sadly in the Dice Masters world there are no precon products apart from starter/learning sets that do not give the full blown Dice Masters experience. But are great for teaching the core ebb and flow of the game.

Which is how I fell into and loving the draft format with the draft packs.

But at £10 a pack purchasing two packs a time can soon mount up. I needed a way to get more value out of any draft packs purchased, and my dated collection.

Luckily the MtG community had an answer. The cube. I’ve already written about constructing a cube for Dice Masters.

So at the moment draft whether using official packs or a cube is my preferred way to play Dice Masters with friends.

Which brings me after that rather long introduction and justification to the fact that once again this Tuesday Dave and I played Dice Masters by drafting the two Dark Phoenix Saga draft packs.

I’m enjoying our two player draft experience but in an ideal world we’d have three or four drafting and playing their teams against each other.

The first two games I was royally beaten by Dave. Game one saw me purchase two early explosion basic action dice. They helped whittle Dave’s life down but I wasn’t able to capitalise on it.

Game two I just wasn’t able to get anything going to container his bloody doubled up attacks or overcrush.

Our third and final game of the evening saw me get a consolatory victory so it wasn’t a complete white wash. My key to victory in this game was my Mystique Freedom Force comboing with Madelyne Pryor Sisterhood.

Basically I kept throwing Mystique in to chump block and pump up the loyalty counters on Madelyne Pryor, and when a suitable character die was in the used area move it to the prep area.

Madelyne at the end was getting pretty pumped at the end +7A and +7D iirc.

The three games were all we had time for before the early closing of social club (our hosts).

Did I pull a Master Mold?

After all that’s the thought that was eating away at me whilst the two draft packs remained unopened. The temptation to find out in the days since their arrival excruciating. But I managed to resist.

However we pulled no Master Mold between the two packs.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed. But that’s the major drawback of the ccg model that you live with.

Now for the bit related to the post title…

So I now have my first cube.

It’s probably the laziest one you can do. I just threw the four draft packs together. It really doesn’t get simpler than that.

It’s a modern cube.

Which means I used draft packs from Modern legal sets. In this case two draft packs from The Dark Phoenix Saga and Secret Wars.

So it’s kinda a chaos draft experience due to the fact I’m using two sets.

Nice thing is this all fits into a MtG Commander deck box!

However the play testing of this cube will have to wait until our next Dice Masters session due to the evenings time constraints.

The nice thing is that once I get more draft decks from these sets I can curate the experience better, like including a Wolverine. There were one or two cards that had abilities that triggered if Wolverine was present. But those thoughts are for another day.

Learning Games and Draft

dice masters, Dicemasters, game night

“OMG Darren! Just stop. You need to write about something else for a while. Give us a break from all this Dice Masters ramblings.”

But, but, I actually got to play it last night.

Dave and I met up and played some games of Dice Masters.

We started off playing the learning teams from the TMNT set. So two characters each, and three basic action cards in the middle.

Starting off with poor dice rolls and being forced to basically buy basic action dice is not a great start to a game of Dice Masters. But thems the way the dice roll sometimes.

With that sort of head start it wasn’t a surprise that Dave got to claim the first victory.

I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the cards selected for the teams in this learning game. The two characters in my team didn’t have any synergy at all. Their abilities were pretty pointless.

Our second learning game was the Secret Wars Origin packs. Now these were more fun. I had the Groot led team, whilst Dave had team Spidey.

I thought this worked better as a learning game. Groot’s ability to stop a character from blocking for the turn when fielded was very useful in putting a stop to the Spider-Man blocking ability. Much to Dave’s annoyance.

For this second game I was able to go on and get the win.

Game three saw us jump right in and do a two player draft with the two Secret Wars draft packs I had.

Wow the difference in card quality and design is significant. The cards felt so much better. Although I do have one complaint. The trigger abilities by an asterisk need to be more clearly marked on the cards. So it is clear which is an on going ability and which is the triggered one by rolling a side with an asterisk.

They do foil cards now! Wow I like that.

During our draft I thought that I had drafted a Reed Richards when in fact I had accidentally taken a second Beast! How that happened I don’t know. It was not my intention. I had wanted a second Fantastic Four team member to benefit from a buff that Invisible Girl gave other Fantastic Four members. It’s why I specifically drafted a Namor with the Fantastic Four icon on.

What a blunder!

Despite losing. I just couldn’t handle Galactus. I kept throwing bodies in front of him, sometimes enough to KO him. But when he also had Thanos with him. It eventually wore me down. Although Beast was annoying as a blocker with his reroll when KO’d. We had a lot of fun.

I don’t think in this game either of us bought a basic action die.

Draft works really well like this. Much simpler than opening multiple booster packs.

Glad I ordered two Dark Phoenix draft packs now (might after drafting them, use them with the Secret Wars draft packs create a Modern cube for drafting).

It was so much fun playing the game again. Boy have I missed playing it. And now once I create some cubes, or teams I can play with my friends whenever we want.

Thoughts on creating a cube in Dice Masters

dice masters, Dice Masters Cube, Dicemasters

I think I mentioned briefly in a previous post the idea of creating a Dice Masters version of an MtG cube.

So what is a cube?

Basically a cube is a large pool of cards selected to play a limited version of the game, ie draft.

A cube is a casual format. Apart from I think CardKingdom there are no commercial cubes to purchase. A cube is normally put together by a person to play with friends or gaming group.

Usually a cube reflects a theme or mechanics that the person putting it together enjoys. So the cube could be a tribal cube containing cards that are tribes the creator likes playing like elves, slithers, dinosaurs, etc. Or it could be cards from MtG sets that the creator enjoyed playing, or a pauper cube with just commons.

There are usually at least 360 different cards in a cube, but can be more depending on how many players the cube is designed to support.

A cube is also a living thing. As you play them they get tweaked, new cards added, etc.

A cube is a very personal thing. It’s an expression of the person that created it. But they are fun. If you like the draft format that is.

So what about Dice Masters?

I think it is possible to create a cube for Dice Masters.

Currently draft in Dice Masters uses the blind draft packs that contain 2 or 3 basic action cards (depending which set draft pack you are using), 12 cards and 2 dice for each of the 12 cards.

It is this draft pack that I will suggest we try and recreate over the old draft of using booster packs.

I think as a minimum our Dice Masters cube should support up to four players (but could be built to support more players).

So with this in mind our cube when finished will have

  • 48 cards (a mixture of character and action cards), that’s 12 cards per player
  • 12 basic action cards, that’s 3 basic actions per player
  • 96 dice to go with the 48 cards

Obviously these numbers will go up depending on the number of players we want to support with the cube.

Now the hard part choosing the cards to include in your cube.

Here are some ideas:

  • Pauper – only common cards from a set/sets
  • Only rare and super rare cards
  • Only certain teams, so just Avengers or X-Men for example
  • Cards only from certain sets like D&D
  • Hero team vs Villian team
  • Only Villians
  • Only female characters
  • No global actions
  • Only cards with global actions
  • No cards over a certain purchase cost
  • Only promo cards (are there 48 promo cards?)

You get the idea.

When it comes to play. Before hand I’d sleeve the cards. Ideally I’d sleeve the basic action cards a different colour.

Shuffle the basic action cards deal 3 per player.

Then shuffle the rest of the cards and deal 12 to each to player.

After that you follow the Double Rainbow Draft rules that Wizkids publish here.

This is a great format for breathing life into those cards from older sets or even cards you don’t use in newer sets. Let me know in the comments below if you tried building a cube and how it went when you used it with your friends.

In the meantime I will post on here any Dice Master cubes that I create.

More Dice Masters Rambling

dice masters, Dicemasters

In my previous post where I shared ideas that possibly might reinvigorate Dice Masters. More than one of the suggestions were heavily influenced by my experience of MtG.

One I missed is doing a Dice Masters equivalent of a chaos draft. This is where booster packs from various MtG sets are used for the draft instead of from just a single set.

I don’t see why this isn’t something that players couldn’t do themselves at events or with mates. But it’s also something Wizkids could run at conventions.

It’s that convention side I’d like to see the variety, using them or piggy backing on the convention to run a Dice Masters version of a MagicFest or whatever they are called these days. Not just the competitive play for a title (world, regional, etc) but side events like draft (which they did at GenCon), chaos draft, a Golden Age event, a pauper event for both Modern and Golden Age. You get the idea.

Yesterday I was chatting with my friend Freddy who lives in the US. Told him I’m back in the game. It turns out he still has most of his stuff from back when we were playing too. He’d sold off his cards that were worth money. So I’m guessing that’s cards like Gobby and Black Widow.

We agreed we should play a game or two again. Which would be using webcams at the moment. However there was some exciting news that would mean we would finally meet in real life and play a game or two in person.

Freddy is coming to the UK in December. How cool is that?

Taking into account the status of his collection our games I think would obviously be Golden Age, and what I’d call pauper. Plus when he is over here we could do a draft.

So excited.

I did start organising the cards that I have. At the moment alphabetically. Next it’s to organise by rarity. Which will make building more easy. So I know for pauper I can go to a particular box to get all my commons.

Thinking aloud is it possible to do a Dice Masters version of a cube for drafting? I need to think how this would work. Just spitballing ideas that breath new life into collections and allow players to play with friends or family.

It’s the lean, green, ninja team

dice masters, Dicemasters, first look

“Not another Dice Masters related post. You’ve not even got it to the table yet!”

I know. Plans I had to get it to the table this bank holiday weekend (in England) have been blown out. However that doesn’t stop these first impressions of stuff that lands through the letterbox.

heroes in a half shell – my first impressions of the TMNT Dice Masters box

I like TMNT.

Back in the late eighties like an awful lot of people I got caught up in the whole heroes in a half shell craze.

I really liked the first movie, enjoyed the episodes of the cartoon I caught on tv. Played the video games, and even bought a couple of the graphic novels.

At best you could describe me as a casual fan.

So the fact Wizkids did a TMNT set does appeal to my inner fanboy.

The nice thing about this product is it’s “complete” and you don’t have to go off and buy any boosters to try and get the cards/dice you want.

The box claims it has everything for two to four players to play. And I wouldn’t disagree with that.

I liked the themed waxy paper dice bags. I actually prefer these paper playmats to the glossy ones in the Secret War origin packs. Although I’m not sure how long they’d last with frequent use.

I do like the rulebook a lot. Although the size does make it hard to read the cards in some of the diagrams. But that could just be my failing eyesight. Why is this an issue? Well in the quick start section at the front of the rulebook it tells you to use the cards in the diagram! Which for me was unreadable. Luckily they are actually named in the full rules section.

I do like that they give two learning game teams. However I think it would have been a great idea to include two eight card team lists for two players. Or even suggested four card teams for a four player game of the doubles format that they suggest players can use. Plus the rules for a doubles game.

The box also acts as a storage box for dice too. Ho

SIQUK Dice Storage Case Initial Impressions

I was looking on Amazon to see if I could find a second (all already have the official Dice Masters one) dice bag with a suitable pattern. When in the search results it threw up this dice storage case for £12.99.

It looked just what I needed for carrying around a team or two to an event or a game with Nathan or a friend. And at a price I really liked.

There was a slightly more expensive version that was deeper and had a second dice tray. Which I did come close to purchasing. However a rough guesstimate of the single tray version capacity looked like it’d do me.

Plus Amazon was able to deliver it to me the same day as ordering. Cool.

The case is more than enough to hold a dice masters team and dice. If I was going to a tournament/event or playing someone else with their own stuff I could easily fit two teams in the tray.

If I wanted to take two teams and everything for two players, ie me playing with a friend it’s short of space by four dice. But playing 18 dice each isn’t too much a hardship. And for me not enough to warrant getting the two tray version.

As the photos show above it can easily hold everything for two players to use two learning teams. I have the two Secret War origin packs and the TMNT suggested learning teams in the case photos above.

Removing the tray for dice allows you to use the bottom half as a dice tray. Which is pretty nice.

In the lid half there is more than enough space for your team cards, and basic action reminder cards. Plus a large zipped pocket. I have a rulebook, and couple of paper playmats in mine.

Overall my initial impressions are very positive and just what I was looking for.

I’m thinking I’m back

dice masters, Dicemasters, first look

Well I’d bloody hope so after the recent spat of posts about Dice Masters that I’ve written, and ordering some Dice Masters stuff.

I have been listening to a Dice Masters podcast called Double Double ‘n Dice. I think the hosts of the show are Canadian. In the latest episode where one of the hosts talks about their GenCon 23 experience they mention about a new VP at Wizkids. The host talks about their conversation with the VP and how the VP wants to revitalise Dice Masters, and is looking into what they can do.

I have some ideas that I will now share with you of products I’d like to see and think might help with that revitalisation of the game.

Just so we know where I am coming from if it wasn’t already clear, I am a returning player to the game. I haven’t played the game for nearly seven years.

So I am really out of the loop as to what the current meta is. There has been a rule change for the first player and their first turn of the game. Tokens have been introduced. And thats just stuff I’ve come across so far in the last week!

Which means I’m not in too dissimilar a situation to that of a new player wanting to get into the game.

Where do I start? Is it worth taking part in an event in a FLGS or online?

And thats the major issue any competitive collectible game that has been around for any length of time has.

I know that Wizkids do starter decks. And I have liked the ones that they did when I was really into the game when it first came out. Will I like the new ones when they arrive?

Starter decks have a real aim of being used by new players to learn the game. They should be fun to play with against each other. But they most definitely are not something you could play at a competitive event. I think Wizkids hit the nail perfectly here on pricing and the fun side for learning the game.

That’s where I think Wizkids could learn from WotC and the Challenger decks they do for MtG. The Challenger decks whether Standard or Pioneer are meant to be decks a player (new or established) can buy and be competitive at a Friday Night Magic. (FNM). They may not win the event but they will have fun, and not be a door mat for other players.

Usually these Challenger decks reflect popular deck archetypes such as burn or control that make up the current meta for the format.

I think that Wizkids could do a similar thing for Dice Masters. Create a team pack that is competitive and allow a new player to take part in competitive events and win one or two games. Think of all the new content content creators could make such as “the three best cards to replace for under $10”

Another precon Wizkids could copy the idea of from WotC is the Commander decks. Dice Masters has its golden age format which is basically the games version of Modern, Vintage, etc. Well I think Wizkids could look at previous World Series team lists and reprint them as something new players or even current players could buy and play. Although thinking of it this is more in line with the decks WotC used to print with gold borders of Grand Prix winner decks. However they could do decks that are golden age format recreating popular archetypes.

I know that there was mention of getting more IP outside of the Marvel/DC stuff they currently release around. I’d love to see LoTR, maybe The Witcher. But I can see these licenses being real expensive if they can even get them. I love the FFG Android setting. It’d be so cool to see that licence in Dice Masters but not sure if that would have mass appeal. I could see My Little Pony, maybe He-man and She-ra being very popular. Would Nintendo IPs work? Going by how many people backed the Last Airbender RPG on kickstarter I would think that would sell like hot cakes.

Going back to MtG I’d love Wizkids to expand on the formats for the game. They have the two most obvious ones. However it would be cool if they could come up with the Dice Masters version of Commander. I think a multiplayer free for all format would be cool. Would it work with all players starting with say 30 health? Would we still need the current first player first turn rule? It would need it’s own ban list? Are we just looking at a rules tweak for golden age to make it work as a multiplayer format?

I’d also like to see Wizkids push a Dice Masters version of the MtG fan created pauper format for both Golden Age and Modern. So basically versions of each format that only common rarity cards can be used for team building. Making it more accessible to new players.

Which brings me onto conventions like GenCon. At least I’d like to see more variety in the type of events being run. They can still do draft and the competitive modern. But I’d like to see Golden Age and pauper version events also being run.

That’s some early thoughts for Wizkids to consider, or I hope they would. I think they can learn a lot from WotC (although not the releasing too much product and milking the players like WotC are currently doing, no One Ring stunts please).

Will anyone in the Dice Masters community read these? Nah. That’d require me to become active in the community and share these thoughts. I’ll stick to my little corner of the internet shouting into the void.

A first look/initial impressions of the Secret Wars Origin Packs

Just got my grubby mitts on my first bits of new Dice Masters. I went with the two Secret Wars Origin Packs and a couple of draft packs. I’m not going to touch the draft packs until I have a chance to play a draft game with Nathan or a friend.

In the meantime I thought I’d give my initial impressions of the two Origin Packs.

To start with I was caught off guard with the size of the boxes (both the origin packs and the draft packs). They were a lot smaller than I was expecting.

Once I had got used to the size I actually like the fact they are more compact with very little wasted space. Heck you can very easily through them in a pocket.

So what about the contents?

I did like the “play mat” although I would have liked it to be a little bigger. The little rule book is nice as well.

I was rather disappointed that the Origin Packs only had two character cards and two basic action cards.

At the cost of the product I wasn’t expecting rare or super rare cards in the box. So it wasn’t a surprise that these are common versions. There seems to be some synergy between the four cards and looking at them the game plan for each team should be easy for an experience player to explain to a new player. A nice touch would have been to include a sheet or in the rulebook a little bit about how to play the team.

These packs are what I would equate to the free Welcome Decks that WotC used to give to FLGS to give to new players to learn to play MtG. These are clearly aimed at teaching the game and giving the new player the required sidekick dice for future plays.

I didn’t mention this in the earlier part of the post but if Wizkids were to do a similar thing to the Welcome Deck for stores to give to new players to learn to play with this is exactly the sort of thing I would have suggested.

Sadly these are too expensive for that to be the case. They are not even up to the old starter packs which I would have said are the Dice Masters equivalent to the MtG Starter kits.

Overall these look like fun little intro teams to teach the basics of Dice Masters. But I will say there is a large asterisk over the fun bit until I get a chance to get them to the table.

Dice Masters Online

dice masters, Dicemasters, online play

As I slowly dip my toes back into the world of Dice Masters I find out that the online side of playing the game took off.

Now I’m not talking about using platforms like Tabletop Simulator or Board Game Arena. Although I’m sure some are using these platforms to play it. They just ain’t for me. Plus I have other issues with them (maybe I’ll write about that sometime).

I’m in fact talking about the use of webcams.

Back in 2014 when I was really into the game when Dice Masters first came out we were using webcams to play.

I even shared a post or two of mine showing my setup at the time with others wanting to do the same.

There aren’t many games that work really well using a webcam. But Dice Masters is one of them. As long as you can see your opponents play area you are good to go.

Playing Dice Masters this way is how I met my friend Freddy. We moved on to the Star Realms app, where he regularly beats me. But still that’s nearly a ten year friendship that’s grown from first playing Dice Masters via a webcam.

Obviously during the lockdowns this type of play would have become even more popular with fans of the game. As did many other games that were playable this way.

But it’s cool to see tournaments and weekly matches being organised this way now.

I should join some Dice Masters communities online at some point and dip my toes into playing the game again this way. Maybe once my project of sorting my home out is finished.

Epilogue: I did have a Dice Masters play mat. Looking back at the post of my old webcam setup there front and centre in the photos was the play mat. Pretty sure that went with everything when Gav took ownership. So must have been lost at some point. Oh well. At least I’m not going mad.

Belated apology! I should say sorry to those that take the trouble to read the words I put on the internet and these Dice Masters posts. Yes there have been one or two lately on Dice Masters. Like most things on this blog, my blog reflects my current addictions within the gaming world. So I’m sorry for talking so much about Dice Masters lately, and at least for the immediate future too.

No no he’s not dead, he’s, he’s restin’!

dice masters, Dicemasters

After I wrote those last paragraphs in yesterdays post about getting back into Dice Masters I started looking for play mats (could have sworn I had one, but no longer the case).

It was during this search of the Internet that I discovered I had been incorrect in calling the game deceased.

There does indeed appear to be a scene for the game. Apparently there was a world championships at GenCon. Plus a tournament at this years UKGE.

It’s also had a lot more releases than I’d thought over the years since I got out of the game. Some have even been within the last three years! Not sure in the last couple though.

Heck there are even a couple of active podcasts for the game too.

Obviously Dice Masters fails my test for if a game is popular and has legs. The game just isn’t being played at any of the FLGS in my area. I don’t care if there is a “scene” in big cities like London. They are the outliers, not the norm. You’re not going to travel hundreds of miles or many hours regularly to play a game or two. So unless you live in those cities with their larger communities they are irrelevant and don’t prove the game is alive and doing well.

“…you assured me that its total lack of movement was due to it bein’ tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk.” Monty Python Dead Parrot Sketch

The Ashes Reborn (I also loved playing this when it was Rise of the Phoenixborn) also fails this test. It has some die hard hardcore players mainly in the capital from what I can tell. It does seem less active than the Dice Masters scene.

It’s this rule that I judge new kids on the block such as Lorcana with as well.

Back to the play mats for Dice Masters.

I think I’ll have to go the custom route. There are some cool designs out there. I need a couple. One for me and another player (most likely Nathan).

Oh and before I forget a second dice bag. I hate those waxy ones that come with the starter and box sets.

Also like any ccg Wizkids have had to deal with the rotation issue. My current searches have uncovered that Wizkids have two official formats, Modern and Golden Age.

Not owning any sets from the last couple of years means I won’t be playing Modern anytime soon. However with Golden Age being everything ever produced it looks like this will be my format of choice for the time being.

Heck Wizkids also have their version of the banned and restricted list. Surprising to me that the ol’ Gobby and Black Widow cards that were so op when I was playing the game are not on it. So I’m assuming that in the intervening years since I left the game that they became less powerful or there are solutions.

I’m looking forward to teaching Nathan the game.