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.