Marvel Dice Masters: Avengers vs. X-men Preview!

At BGG.Con I got to play two games of Marvel Dice Masters: Avengers vs. X-men and it was pretty rad.

Adapted from the system they created for Quarriors, Mike Elliott and Eric Lang have created a head to head dice battle game that makes use of a Marvel Comics license and will be followed by a Yu-Gi-Oh! and DC Comics version. I was told that Marvel Dice Masters will hit shelves in March followed by Yu-Gi-Oh! in the summer and DC in the fall.

The biggest difference between Dice Masters and Quarriors is that in Quarriors there is a common draft, but in Dice Masters each player brings their own team of eight characters and twenty dice. Not only do players get to select the roster of who they will bring to a match but they also get to distribute the dice in any way they want.

In one of the games I played, the most powerful character was Charles Xavier. He was also really expensive so my team only had one of his dice because if it had more there would have been little chance that multiple of his dice would’ve been able to get into play.

On the flip side, Black Widow was a cheap little character that was excellent for blocking so I had three of her dice available and ended up using all three in the game.

So comparatively, Dice Masters is a more customizable game than Quarriors. It’s that customization which puts it in an almost CCG category because in addition to a $15 starter set, blind booster packs for the game will be sold for  $.99 and will contain two cards and two dice.

The dice for each character will be the same, but each character will have multiple cards. Some will be basic and some will be rare though I was told that the rare and super-rare cards would be much more common than in a normal CCG.

I’m not into CCGs and like many I hate blind booster packs. I’d much rather pay a large sum up front to get every piece of a game then make micro-payments hoping I get what I want. That being said, I really enjoyed Marvel Dice Masters and even though it has a CCG element I’m going to get a copy.

I’m itching and excited to get Marvel Dice Masters into my photography studio. The dice are are so cool looking and I know with proper lighting that I’ll be able to take some really gorgeous photos. However, what I’m most excited about it is simply playing it again. In the two games I played I got my butt kicked, yet I loved every second of it. WizKids definitely has another hit on their hands.