Let's Talk About Marvel Dice Masters...

 Well, we've had some sightings of WizKids' new game Marvel Dice Masters out in the wild... (That's a Quarriors joke.) But stores are already sold out. And it's #1 on the Boardgamegeek Hotness. What's going on...? 

The game is similar to Quarriors, in that you're building a pool of dice that will help you create stronger and stronger attacks on your opponent. Each dice has an associated card, and special powers that will trigger based on which side of the die was rolled. 

There are some key differences between this and Quarriors, though. For one, it's a 2-player-only game, whereas Quarriors plays up to four. For another, each person is bringing their own "team" to the fight. So you'll bring six characters, and then you'll have up to 20 dice you can bring for those characters. So you could have Spider-Man and bring two dice, and Phoenix and bring three dice for her, and so on. You'll also bring Action cards to the fight. There are "global" abilities, and that means that if a character has a global ability, it's in place for both players. Whereas Quarriors had one "currency," the basic dice here have different types of currencies, and the characters need different currencies to bring them to your side. Another difference is that instead of gaining Glory (VPs) like you do in Quarriors, here you're in a fight, and each person has 20 Life. You win if you can get your opponent down to 0 Life. 

Here's one of the boosters. Two dice and two cards for $0.99 is a pretty good deal...

But the BIG difference--to me, at least--is that this is a collectible game. That's right. After you buy a starter pack, then you'll add to the game by buying boosters. They're $0.99 each, and come with 2 dice and 2 matching character/action cards. Since every character uses the same dice, they aren't really collectible--you just want more of them. But the cards are collectible. Each character has numerous versions that use the same dice (just like Quarriors), but each card is of varying rarities. There are common, uncommon, rare, and ultra-rare. 

So what do you think about the collectibility factor? This is very similar to Quarriors, and I didn't think it was that popular. I mean, you're building a "deck," but unlike a regular deck-builder, when you eventually pull that die, it might roll the worst side. So there's a lot of luck here. And it's a money sink--only if you let it, yes, but there are a lot of gamers who are completionists, so this will drive them batty. There are already people trading cards/dice on the Internet. And as I said, many stores are already sold out. This is going to be a big hit for WizKids, but what's you opinion on it? Let us know in the comments. Have you played it? Will you be picking it up? Are you avoiding it like the plague because you're OCD when it comes to getting everything for a game? Is it not a big deal because the boosters are only $0.99? Let us know. And thanks for reading!

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