Game Spotlight: Marvel Avengers Vs. X-Men Dice Masters by Wizkids

    Today I’m excited for two reasons, the first being that it’s my birthday– the second is because I learned how to play the new Dice Masters game, Avengers vs. X-Men, from Wizkids. Most comic enthusiasts will pick up on the connection between the game title and the story arc that ran in 2012. I picked this game up at my local game shop the other night while looking for some cheap thrills, (it’s ok, my girlfriend was with me at the time.) Little did I know that the starter sets would be sold out the following day, due to a low shipment that Wizkids was supplying all of the retailers in my area with. It took a few days, but now that my classes are winding down, I was able to find time meet up with a couple of friends to play test this masterpiece of a game.

     I grew up as a fan of the Marvel Masterpiece collectable card sets way back in the early 90s. So, I am no stranger to the idea of collecting massive amounts of cardboard that serve no real purpose, other than to fulfill my interest in fine art. That said, the collectability of this game is very high, but even more than collecting the cards, is the enjoyment of collecting the dice. I think this game has found a very nice balance between a collectable card game, and something that can be played to fill in those gaps of the day between reading comics and doing homework.

     If you have ever played a deck building game, then you will notice some similarities and functions of this game. The premise, and goal of the game, is that you are recruiting a team of heroes and villains to fight for you, and ultimately, using them to reduce your opponent’s life total to zero. The game can be easily modified to your play style, from novice, to expert, and even to outright ridiculous—the more characters, the more strategy is required. In total, there are 132 cards available to play with. The starter deck can be purchased at a very reasonable $14.99 price tag, and will give you everything you need to play a two player game. One quick note is that the box indicates that two dice bags are included in the box; these bags are paper, and I would highly recommend getting something that you can easily reach your hand into.

      When opening the box you might find yourself a little overwhelmed by the amount of dice you are given, but don’t fret, you will only be using about 12-16 of them yourself. Of course, your opponent will be using just as many, so hopefully you will be able to find your target over the copious amounts of dice that will be blocking your line of sight from one another. Along with the dice there are 38 preselected cards that are a mixture of characters that you will choose from, and community cards that you and your opponent will be able to add to your deck that is composed of dice. An important fact about this game is that you will not be handling the cards. The cards will be place in front of you and your opponent at all times, but it is the dice that you will be adding to your pool of dice in place of each of those cards. The guide has a pretty easy tutorial on how you should start a basic game, but I found it helpful to watch videos online and get help from the local comic shop employee who already had some experience.

     To start a game, you need to first pick out the team you want to play with. Each character card has a unique ability(s) that can be triggered once a certain roll requirement has been met by that character’s dice. One of my arguments about the cards is that there are 2 or 3 different versions of the same character, usually a common, uncommon, and rare version; however, the art on the cards is the same for each one. I really hope that in the future sets they will increase the collectability by adding different pictures on each card. But, while we are on the topic of similarities, each dice is designated for a specific character, and no matter what version of the card you are using, those dice can be used for any version of the card. Having multiple dice for a card is actually a good thing, because the more dice you have for a character, increases the amount you can add to your dice/deck, and in turn increases the probability of drawing them each turn. This is where booster packs come in—in each booster you receive 2 random cards and 2 dice, one for each corresponding card. Boosters are only retailing for about .99 cents, which makes this game easily affordable. Once you have purchased the starter set, it wouldn’t be hard to have a booster draft using three random packs.
Once your team has been selected, you will then need to select the community cards, also called basic action cards. You can have up to 4 of these cards available for purchase in game, at any one time. Some of the dice that can only be gotten in the starter box have markings that will not correspond to any character card; these are either sidekick/energy dice, or community/basic action dice. Before the start of the game, you would place 3 of the same color basic action dice on one of the corresponding community cards. These dice may be purchased with your roles from the sidekick/energy that you will be rolling for on each of your turns. Once you add these dice to your dice/deck, they are permanently there. Each player is also given 8 sidekick/energy cards at the beginning of the game, and your rolls will determine if you can buy community/basic action dice or character dice from your team.

      Without going into too much more detail about the game, because the instruction booklet does a pretty good job, I think AvX has real potential to be the next game we see in tournament play. I have already heard rumors of a DC and a Yu-Gi-Oh! version, set to be released later this year. I cannot confirm these, but I think that each expansion that comes out could be interwoven with one another, much like Heroclix. My final judgment of this game is that it’s very solid. With the right group of players, you may even be able to find a way to play a multiplayer version with some tweaking to the rules. Most games tend to be no longer than 15 minutes, but that depends on how many characters each player wants to use on their team. The art is fantastic, and owning just one of each of the cards to play with, allows for easy trading. If you get the chance to pick this game up, I highly recommend doing so.