Out of the blue, Aiden texted me, “We should play Dice Masters.” I replied, “I love Dice Masters. I bought an X-Force set.” He said, “Yeah, I saw it and that’s what made me think that.” “Well, let’s play Dice Masters and Yu-Gi-Oh.” Only one of those things happened today. And, that’s the story of how we ended up revisiting Dice Masters this weekend.
Building My Deck
Christine and I went grocery shopping. Aiden and his girlfriend built their decks while we shopped. They waited until I got home to learn the game again. Aiden’s girlfriend wanted to play Yu-Gi-Oh, too, so he showed her how to build a deck in that game, too. I still need to either build or buy a deck so that we can play Yu-Gi-Oh.
Previously, my decks contained some semblance of a strategy. Most notably, I shared the “rainbow spin” deck I built the last time we played the game extensively almost four years ago. With such a long time between sessions and under the gun to create a deck quickly, I threw out all pretense of a strategy and just put together cards that looked fun and might give me a chance to win a game or two.
We started without knowing the intricacies of all the rules. Like, we played with summoning sickness (not a thing in the game) and that you needed to match all of the symbols in order to buy a card. Through that first game, we looked up rules and adjusted accordingly. I won that first game out of the blue by remembering to use the global ability. Aiden more or less bulldozed me in the second game because I started out on the defensive and never stabilized.
The Verdict
While I discovered that they most likely killed the game quietly, I still enjoy playing. Aiden said that he liked it, too. He also mentioned one of his friends who picked up the game after playing at our house. Even with the likely death of the game, we have enough cards and dice to keep going for a while. I also checked eBay for some more cards and dice since they are most likely cheap because they don’t follow the same collectible nature of some of the other card games out there. Thanks for revisiting Dice Masters with us. Hope to bring more content as the weeks and month go on.
This 2020 tabletop look back is going to be a bit one sided. As you will see, we branched out a bit from our traditional tabletop game of Magic the Gathering. However, in spite of our best efforts, my wife and I have not been able to get a board game night going for longer than a couple of weeks. The kids just have interests that are too varied right now.
I mean, Aiden is obsessed with anime about volleyball. How much more varied can you get?
Even so, we have been able to try some new games that became (temporarily and they might return) favorites for a time. Quinn, Aiden, and I went on an end of the summer camping trip and that led to us exploring two different games. I just have to be better about initiating. Then again, as I mentioned that doesn’t always work with our attempts at getting a board game night going. Okay, enough of the “woe is me” parenting. Let’s take a tabletop look back at 2020.
I will structure this article different from the mobile look back. The reason for this is two fold. One, there are only 3 games to discuss, so splitting them into categories doesn’t make sense. Also, I want to spend more time talking about each game.
Dungeons and Dragons
We tried to play Dungeons and Dragons as a family last year. It met with mixed results. Christine and Quinn said they had fun. Liam played along, but he could take it or leave it was my impression. Aiden, who I thought might enjoy the game the most, actually hated it. He complained that the game takes too long.
So, 3.5 out of 5 ain’t bad, right? Well, yes and no. I’m obviously glad that most of the family enjoyed the game. I grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons and have many great memories with my friends and even my brothers a few times. Being able to pass that on to my family is one of my dreams as a gaming dad. And, so, as we often do, I find myself obsessing over why Aiden didn’t enjoy himself. I downloaded some pictures and mood music on my laptop.
I even went so far as to develop my own adventure for the game. I wrote some dialogue, built the skeleton of a harbor city, and inhabited a village and abandoned mine with NPCs and monsters. Unfortunately, I’ve used none of it. We haven’t played a game since. Oh well, Christmas break is coming. Now that I wrote that, I’m furiously searching for the adventure that I wrote in order to have it for break.
Dicemasters
Regular readers of the page probably remember when we played Dicemasters. I posted an article about the team that I built. I actually promised more Dicemasters content in that article. I have not delivered on that promise. We played once or twice after that. I even built a second team.
Then, and this is a familiar refrain around here, school started. We all got busy with school work, so many of our games fell to the side. I thought this one might persist because the games go quickly. Alas, it was not meant to be. Well, another game added to the revisit over Christmas break list.
Because I genuinely enjoy playing the game. Given the opportunity, I’d play once a week. I put it almost on par with Magic the Gathering and I play multiple games of MTGA every day. Both Quinn and Aiden played Dicemasters. Heck, Liam even put together a team in August. I’d much rather play a game with my children then against randos online.
Chess
Unlike the other games, I can’t remember how we ended up playing chess. I remember that I purchased a board for school because some of my students last year wanted to play during office hours. Unlike one of the other math teachers at the school, I’m no expert. I played some as a kid and a bit here and there as an adult.
I do enjoy the game, though. Therefore, when one of them expressed interest, I took advantage. Along with the Dicemasters, I brought the chess board with us camping. We played several games. I taught them some strategy about the game. Mainly, I showed them that you should be thinking several moves ahead and considering how your moves will impact future turns.
As with the others on the list, talking about chess has me wondering where I put the board. I will have to dig it out and play some games with the boys. Of the three, this is the most likely to hold their attention, followed by Dicemasters, and finally (unfortunately) Dungeons and Dragons. But, hey, a guy can dream.
The Verdict
I thought about doing an honorable mentions for our tabletop look back 2020, but I’ll just toss some names in here. We also played Ticket to Ride and the Europe(?) expansion that we just got for Christmas last year. Liam has this “flag game” that requires knowledge of geography. Quinn and I played Minecraft: Builders and Biomes a couple of times. Overall, it was a decent year of playing tabletop games. And, now, because it took me so long to write this article, I have negative one days to get the tabletop game of the year done. Well, join us tomorrow, hopefully, for that one.
Welcome to Adventures in Dice Masters! Honestly, though, I can’t promise that it will be all that adventurous. But, we are talking about Dice Masters. So, you are getting genuine retro content during our promised retro content month to celebrate the anniversary of the page. The only reason I know about Dice Masters is that I picked up a set so that we could review it when the podcast was still active.
You, uh, you do plan on having retro content on your promised retro content month eventually, right?
So, why now for Dice Masters? Well, we went on our annual family vacation to Cape Cod a couple of weeks ago. That’s why we weren’t around for a week. You all noticed that and missed us, right? Right?! Well, in any case, Liam suggested that we play Dice Masters. I don’t know if he was serious or if he thought I might forget or blow him off.
I didn’t. As soon as we got home and settled in, I pulled out the cards and started sorting through them. Life as a collector is generally getting excited that you received a shipment of cards or comic books before the sobering realization that you now have to organize and find a place to store your new goodies. And that, my friends, begins our Adventures in Dice Masters. I told you that it might not be all that adventurous.
My Strategy
I have to admit that I’m not very well versed in the strategy of Dice Masters. We have played the game a few times, but certainly not enough for me to know all of the key words and most of the cards like I do Magic the Gathering. So, when putting together my team, I started with the Green Dragon from Dungeons and Dragons. Why did I choose this particularly powerful (maybe?) and potentially game ending (not so far) card of doom to start my team? I just wanted to use an card not from the Marvel Universe. For whatever reason, we have a twice as many Marvel cards as DC and only a handful of Dungeons and Dragons. I wanted to vary my team with the three universes.
While reading the Green Dragon card, I noticed that it had an ability that allowed you to spin down the dice of your opponent. I thought that was an interesting addition that the dice allow that cards don’t. With card games, you can remove them, but there’s not the same level up or down effect. Unless you’re playing some of the older MTG sets (and there might be some obscure game that takes advantage of it, but I can’t be expected to know all the games) where they have the level up cards. And, so, the theme of my team was set in place. Also, for some unknown reason, I decided to make my team rainbow with one card for each color and two miscellaneous. And now, I present the team for your scorn and ridicule.
Rainbow Spin (A Noob’s Dice Masters Team)
Captain Marvel – Human/Kree Hybrid (Red): So far, in the two games that I’ve played, this has been the key to making the team work. I got her out in the first game and was able to hold Aiden off until he made a mistake and got too aggro one turn. I wasn’t able to field her the second game and his aggro blew me out of the water.
Sabretooth – Survivor (Orange): This one combo’d very well with Captain Marvel in the first game. I’m not sure if I was applying the rule correctly, but the two of them just held down the board for so many turns until I was able to set up for lethal.
Marvel Girl – Telekinetic (Yellow): I thought this character would be an integral part of the team, but I don’t think I’ve played it once. It would have been helpful in the second game against Aiden to save me a turn or two.
Green Dragon – Master Dragon (Green): Again, this is where the team all started. But, like Marvel Girl, I haven’t even had a chance to play the die. I don’t think that I’ve even bought one of the dice yet. Best laid plans, I guess.
Beast – Kreature (Blue): Along with Sabretooth, Beast provides relatively cheap defense while I try to dig for my more expensive dice. Again, combo’d nicely with Captain Marvel in that first game even if I’m not entirely sure that I was applying the rules correctly.
Psylocke – Ninjutsu (Violet): She was an unexpected MVP in the first game. Spun down a few characters. She even got a knockout or two. I will have to buy her more aggressively in the third game.
Giant Man – Original Avenger (Miscellaneous): This character is cheap for a lot of stats. Also, with sidekicks, you can easily spin him up to max level. I like this character a lot.
Doomsday – Unstoppable Rampage (Miscellaneous): Like Marvel Girl, I haven’t played Doomsday at all in the two games we’ve played. But, he is a strong character and the Iron Will keyword is a nice touch.
Action Dice
Smash and Shockwave: Both of these hope to take advantage of all the spinning down I am going to be hopefully doing. They are a bit redundant, but smash is cheaper and so far I haven’t had a need for any AoE. Maybe I will reevaluate after the third game to see if I can replace one of them with another card.
The Verdict
And, so we conclude our adventures in Dice Masters. The team fits very well with my personality. It is a possibly terrible team, but I have a ton of fun playing it. Stay tuned for more Dice Masters content as our two games have inspired me to buy more dice and cards. They’ll be here next week some time. Until then…
(Editor’s Note: Yes, it appears that the “bad Dad” joke disease is back for this headline. Hopefully my prescription comes through soon and it is only temporary. Nothing is guaranteed in this current political climate surrounding healthcare, though.)
I don’t remember how Chris and I got involved in Dice Masters. I think that it might have been something that we played in order to have a Marvel tabletop game to discuss on the podcast and we had already talked about Heroclix. I might have it all wrong. I might have picked it up and played it with the boys first. However I became involved with the game, I enjoyed it very much.
I bought all of the starter sets that I could find. I got a booster box of Age of Ultron that I opened with the boys. We recorded it to put on our less than active YouTube page. I organized our dice and cards, joined a online community, did several articles on the game, and then (in my true short attention span style), promptly forgot all about Dice Masters.
…and not so shiny objects, and shiny non objects…let’s face it. I’m easily distracted by, well, easily distracted covers it.
Chris and I have played a few games since. I know because I remember digging through the tackle boxes that I use for storage of the dice. The boys and I have also played one or two games, mostly with the starter packs, but we might have played a pick up game or two during the Christmas break that we also rediscovered Heroclix. However, the interest has not been sustained like it is with Magic, or even the idea of Hordes/Warmachine. I think that might actually change.
As I said, in anticipation of our podcast about all things DC, one of my recent endeavors was to get one of the more recent DC Dice Masters sets. I lucked out and found a gravity feed of the set “World’s Finest” for a really good price. A subsequent text chain with Chris confirms it because he exclaimed, “That’s a really good deal!” The box sat on the floor waiting for the right time to be played and I started to worry that it might continue to be relegated to the back burner like my half of a box of Amonkhet that is sitting in the playroom unopened. However, the boys kept me honest. My youngest, especially, bugged me incessantly until I finally just gave in and we sat down to play a game.
After the “success” of our Pokemon event, I decided to try a rainbow draft. Only fitting that it happened during PRIDE month.
I had only heard about the rainbow draft online and from various gaming stores in the area. Like an MTG draft, I’ve never actually been able to get out to participate in one. However, they sound fun and we had 90 (maybe plus) packs, so this seemed like as good a time as any to test the format. Luckily, I was able to introduce the boys to sealed format during our Pokemon event, so they were used to the idea. We sat down, busted open some packs, organized the dice, and picked some cards.
I have to admit that I have almost no idea when it comes to the strategy of Dice Masters. I know that there are often synergies between cards like there are with Magic, so I looked for them. It’s funny because I was focusing on a Superman type deck, but I actually ended up with a decent Batman deck without even realizing it. Now that I’ve seen what some of the cards can do (especially the Batcave card that I ended up with), I think I might be able to build a better deck. Nevertheless, it was enough to beat Liam in the first game.
Aiden beat Quinn in their first game, but I’m not entirely sure that they played according the the rules. In fact, I’m almost positive that they didn’t. How do I know? Well, I was looking at the play mat that we were using as a reference and Liam and I actually made a huge mistake by putting our KO’d characters in our used pile instead of our prep area. That would have fundamentally changed the outcome of our game in major ways. So, if two players who sort of knew what they were doing screwed things up, what does that say for the 6 year old who never played and the 10 year old who often plays for blood?
I mean, how hard is it? You just follow directions. Psh, we’re men! We don’t ask for directions!
Bedtime prevented us from finishing our matches (as we were rightly going to play best 2 out of 3 to decide the winners of each round), but from the sounds of it, everyone had fun. Liam was a bit grumpy about losing. He might try to deny it or write it off, but he has a similar competitive streak as me. It lies just below the surface for the most part and when it bubbles up, the villagers run for higher ground. Luckily, he kept it in check this time. Because, I discovered our misplay the next day and we might just replay the game. Ultimately it doesn’t make a difference because it’s not like it is an officially sanctioned tournament or anything. Still, if I’m not honorable when playing against my own kids, what kind of person would I be?
Other than that, Quinn has been asking to play again daily. He also wants to crack open the other packs in the gravity feed. Aiden was less enthusiastic, but he’s had a bit of a “too cool” attitude lately regarding life. I had so much fun that I texted Chris to tell him that I’d rediscovered my joie de vivre regarding the game and he said that he wanted to play some more whenever we are able to get together again.
For such a simple concept, the game is so much fun. It is cheap. You get 2 dice and cards for 1 dollar booster pack. I got the gravity feed for 50 bucks, so that’s more or less half off. It might be one of those boxes that was gerrymandered by pulling out the foils or putting together a box without rares or super rares. I don’t know. I wasn’t keeping inventory of the cards as we opened them. The game is easy to learn. Even though he was overwhelmed, my youngest was able to pick up the basic concept and hold his own pretty well for his first time playing. There are hidden strategies in the game. As I’ve said before, the best games are those that are simple on the surface, but complex once you start to learn the intricacies. All of this boils down to one great game that I will try not to get distracted from for over a year again.
Oh, what’s this I see on the horizon? No, no! No more shiny objects.
I know that I’m a little behind the times as the A.o.U set released a few weeks ago but despite that oversight (I blame work and non-nerd life), I wanted to share the top 10 cards that stood out to me as being useful in all formats:
10. Jocasta: Patterned After Janet: A super rare but her ability to do direct damage once per turn when she is first hit is brutal..and she is relatively cheap to buy (in the game, not in real life) at 4 energy. Her defense stat also makes her tough to take out so it’s almost guaranteed that your opponent will feel the burn.
9. Giant Man: Dr. Henry Pym: <gasp> a common!? Yes, a common..no special ability..just an incredible good value at 3 energy with the potential to field a 7/7 beast in the early game.
8. Magneto: Magnetic Monster: I know, I know, it’s a chase, which means that it’s incredibly difficult to pull/ afford one. I just really like the control ability he possesses though. He shuts down all enemy characters’ abilities if the character costs 3 or less. Screw those rush decks! Good ol’ control at it’s finest! Also, he doesn’t allow Professor X to be fielded so there goes those ramp teams too. His only downside is that he costs 6 energy to buy.
7. Loki’s Scepter: Piercing: It’s removal, plain and simple. Opponent’s character hits you. No damage done. Said character is KO’d. ‘Nuff said.
6. Rocket Racoon: Blam! I Murdered You!: His ability to pump up his attack by 2 when he attacks with another character makes him a great choice when it comes to a rush deck. Definitely worth his cost of 3 energy.
5. Beast: Bouncing Blue Beast: He has a low buy cost (2F), a low field cost, and has decent stats that make him a solid addition to any aggro team. However, the real value is his ability to give you 2 life whenever he is knocked out. Life-gain isn’t as common in Dice Masters as other games so this guy is a must-have.
4. Groot: We Are Groot: I tried to avoid putting too many super rares on this list but this guy is just really that good. He gives all of your fielded characters +3D, which obviously gives you an advantage as suddenly your characters just don’t want to go away. Put him on a bolt/direct damage team, pump up your characters and go straight to face while your opponent struggles to get through your blockers.
3. Loki: Trickster God: Speaking of direct damage, this guy’s ability is just plain nasty. When he is fielded you can roll an enemy die and he does damage to any target equal to the number of energy symbols or field cost rolled. His normal attack isn’t anything really significant but his defense values are pretty high which makes him tough to KO.
2. Phil Coulson: Man with the Plan: His combat stats are nothing to write home about but his ability to let you pay 1 energy to field a sidekick from your used pile is pretty damn cool. No longer do you have to worry about re-rolling that sidekick..roll it, buy yourself something nice, you can just field it anyways with this guy. I think he will have a home with rush teams as he allows you to flood the board.
1. Wasp: Founding Avenger: What’s the worse part of globals? Especially Professor X’s global? The fact that your opponent can use them too! Now with Wasp, they get stung for using any global ability (see what I did there? Wasp..stung…ah nevermind). I think she will see a lot of play since she only costs 3 energy which means that she can be utilized at the beginning of the game.
There you have it! Drop us a comment below and let us know what your favorite cards are from A.o.U. As always, thanks for reading!
I’ll admit it: I’ve hit the wall as far as Magic the Gathering goes. I know, I know..blasphemy! It’s true though. Lately, no matter how many times I re-tuned a deck, or bought a barrage of singles from eBay I’d ask myself “why?” I only play the game once a month. Is it really worth spending time and money on a game that I play for maybe an hour every 30 days? The answer has become clear to me over the last few months. No. Will I still play when asked? You betcha. Will I still buy new expansions? Yup. But the amount I spend will be drastically reduced. The thing is that when you co-host a podcast about gaming, you can’tjust give up any game. Especially a game that is such a huge part of the gaming industry, and in my teen years was a big part of my life. “Okay Chris, that’s all fine and good but this is an article about Dice Masters”, you are probably muttering to yourself. Well, with Magic taking a backseat in my gaming life , I’ve been taking other games more seriously, particularly Dice Masters.
Shawn mentioned that he had purchased a couple starter sets of Marvel Dice Masters for him and his boys and that he was impressed by how easy the game was to pick up and how much fun it was. At first I kind of brushed it off and thought to myself,”Eh, I’ll get around to trying it.” I was currently enamored with Heroclix at that point in time so between that, MTG, and W.O.W TCG, I wasn’t really in a rush to try something new. Especially something that at first glance looks really simplistic and not collector-friendly.
Before the last podcast recording session, Shawn agreed to teach me the game to see what I thought so at the very least it could be fodder for the podcast. I bought 10 boosters of the D&D set thinking that was enough to play with. Yup. Mistake. You definitely need to buy a starter set if you are new to the game. We ended up using his AvX starter set for our first game. I chose Human Torch and Spider-Man and he went with Beast and another character that I can’t remember right now. It’s late, don’t judge me. After a few minutes, I was comfortable with the game, and also. I was hooked. Shawn was right. The game is fun. Really fun. I kicked myself for not purchasinga starter set myself. I ended up winning the game thanks to getting lucky and rolling a Human Torch die at full power. I was able to keep Shawn at bay and unable to get anything going on his side of the board. Although, to be fair I think he was sand-bagging a bit in order to let me get a good feel for the game.
Now that Dice Masters had it hooks in me I found myself scouring the web for Dice Masters forums later that night. I was surprised at what I found. Although simple on the surface, there are different metas just like MTG. Surprisingly, control, ramp, and aggro are all archetypes shared by both games. Being a sucker for a good control deck in MTG,I’ve gravitated towards that strategy for building my DM team.
I can’t recommend this game enough. If you are looking for a fun, quick, low cost game then give Dice Masters a shot. Starter sets will run you $15-$20 and booster packs are only a buck a piece. It’s not all rainbows and kittens though. Some people have complained about the quality of the dice and the fact that the cards in the booster packs come a little bent (not creased though, big difference). I think I’ve only noticed a few dice with chipped paint so far and I’ve remedied the bent card problem by storing them in a card album for a day or so. Works wonders. Those issues aside, I’m pretty happy that I was introduced to this game. Feel free to leave your opinions/thoughts on Dice Masters below. Like it? Love it? Hate it? Let us know what you think! As always, thanks for reading!
(Editor’s Note: Depending on the demographics of our audience, that might be a severely bad reference. Either way, it’s a bit of a stretch, I admit.)
I went to Wal*Mart a couple of days ago. By itself, that isn’t newsworthy. I go to Wal*Mart several times a week. Sometimes I go there twice or three times in the same day. In fact, I think that I’ve been to “Big Blue” at least once a day for the past week. The trips aren’t usually worth mentioning. During this trip, I checked their game aisle. Again, not really out of the ordinary. I check the aisle almost every time I’m there, even though it rarely changes in any significant way. However, I went there for Aiden and Quinn, who had $10 each of birthday money burning a hole in their pockets. Aiden wanted Pokemon cards and Quinn wanted a Pokeball with a miniature Pokemon. I found both things, but initially nothing for me. I had just bought 15 packs of Magic a couple of days earlier, so you can argue that I didn’t need anything. Then again, does anyone ever “need” more collectibles?
The previous paragraph brought to you by Wal*Mart. I wish. I hate the place, but I’m not above taking their money. *hint, hint*
So, why am I wasting your time with this story about my trip to Wal*Mart? You must be new here. In that case, welcome! (If not, skip to the next paragraph.) I hope you enjoy the page and podcast. I do things a bit less conventionally than other gaming sites. I wander off on tangents. I abuse parenthetical phrases. Luckily, I often warn you when I lose focus and I (almost) always wind up back on topic eventually.
Oh, what’s this? I notice that Wal*Mart now carries Dice Masters. I’ve heard of the game through my research into Heroclix. Also, for some reason, I am in a Dice Masters community on Google+. Yeah, I know, but I don’t have a phone and it lets me text using my tablet. I never considered the game–not seriously, at least–until Free Comic Book Day.
The actual day turned out to be less about free comics and more about riding bikes, but that’s okay. The best days are often those that do go according to plan. We eventually made it to the store for the books, but it was too late and there wasn’t much of a selection. As he often does, since he is under the impression that money is limitless, Aiden asked me to buy him everything from new Pokemon cards to a keychain for keys that he doesn’t own. While dodging his persistent demands, I saw that the store offered Dice Masters.
“That’s a fun game”. The store owner offered. Unsure whether he meant it or was just trying to make a sale, I forced a nod, pretended to admire the packaging a little longer, and escaped with my uninspiring free comics and unmolested wallet. That’s how I learned about Dice Masters.
You never know when or how an addiction will start.
The story does not end there, loyal readers! Oh, no! As I have said, our main mission at 2 Guys Gaming is to make games fun. Part of that fun is discovering new games. Another part of that fun, for me, is playing those new games with my sons. You can, of course, see where this incredibly obvious plot twist is taking us. Please, though, no spoilers. Allow this frustrated story teller a moment of intrigue and surprise.
The shop owner’s comment stayed with me. I mentioned it to Chris, who showed some interest in playing. I put the game on our tentative schedule for discussion on the podcast later in the year. I let the comment “That’s a fun game” marinate in my brain stew until it reached the proper level of roasted succulence. Well, now, that was a weird metaphor. I must be hungry.
No matter how I ended up in the gaming aisle at the local Wal*Mart looking at the Dice Masters and thinking back on my brief history with the game, there I was. It didn’t take long to make the decision to get the Avengers v. X-Men Starter Pack. They also had the DC Justice League Starter, but I am an unabashed Marvel zombie.
Avengers vs. X-Men Starter Pack contents.
I brought the boys home their spoils. Aiden immediately broke open his packs and they have gotten him back into the Pokemon mood. We played two games this afternoon and he kicked my butt severely. I got away from my comfort zone of darkness and psychic type and tried to build a fighting and water deck. Unfortunately, Quinn got a hold of my deck and the Blastoise EX never made it back. The replacement EX got buried in my prize cards and he handled my Pokemon pretty well with one of his. After I KO’d his first Pokemon, he used a great strategy to get a strong one off of his bench to destroy me.
Quinn, since he is 4, absolutely loved his Pokeball and Pokemon. I found the other figures that they previously owned and he played with them for a day or two. It now sits forgotten somewhere in the house. Sad and lonely, it waits to be played again. Hopefully, Quinn finds it before something drastic happens. I will spare you the dark depths of my mind and tales of toy suicide. Just pray with me for the poor Dusk Ball. It has a family (possibly) and friends (presumably) that love and care about it.
It *is* a Dusk Ball, so it is pretty emo to begin with.
Well, despite my better intentions, that got dark. Let’s get back to having fun. After giving them their stuff, I sat at the dining room table to learn the game. Christine made fun of me for playing with myself. That one is for you, perverts. I wanted to make sure that I understood the game before trying to teach the boys.
The starter set rule book illustrated a very helpful tutorial game. I played through that solo and got a much better grasp of the game than I have even for Heroclix after playing a full game. That might have more to do with Heroclix being a more complex game, but it was nice to have the tutorial as an introduction. They also wrote a more complication explanation of a turn, but I didn’t read that. I don’t have infinite time. The tutorial is more than enough to learn the basics of the game and it is not nearly as complex as Magic or Heroclix. There is still strategy and decision making, but it is an easy game to pick up and play right away. I taught both of the boys how to play in less than a half an hour total.
They both took to the game like a fish in water. Is that even a saying? Probably not, but they did love the game. We had plans for Memorial Day weekend with the in-laws and they asked to bring the game to the cookout. We played many more games over the next few days. It has gotten busy with school, Tae Kwon Do, field trips, and soccer, so we haven’t played much recently.
…and the Justice League contents. Batman is off fighting crime somewhere in Gotham.
Even so, I ended up buying the Justice League starter set, too. While the one starter offers a wide variety of teams and games possible, I also wanted to play as Batman and maybe Superman. Little did I know that Aiden would discover Deathstroke as one of the most OP characters we’ve played. I want to keep expanding into other sets and buy more dice for the sets that we have. While each game has been different due to the variety, you can never have too many cards or dice. My wife, of course, would disagree, but I don’t take her advice in these matters.
The game is fun to play. It is easy to pick up and learn strategy as you play. My kids, especially Aiden, love it. Even with a limited collection (one starter set for around 15 dollars) the games are virtually limitless in their possibilities. Booster packs are cheaper than Magic or Heroclix. The game isn’t as collectible as those other games, but that’s a minor consideration. I would definitely recommend this game to any gamer who is looking to expand into something new, fun, and quick.
