Stats:
No. of players: 2
Amount of time to play: 30 min
Age requirements: 14+
Set-up time: about 5 min

DC Comics Dice Masters is dice-building game in which you pit your heroes and villains against your opponents.

DC Comics Dice Masters Rules Description:

DC Comics Dice Masters starts with you building a team. Your teams are made up of character and action cards. These cards start with one to five dice on them. In a standard tournament game you may use up to 20 dice, up to 8 characters, two basic action cards and 20 life.

On your turn you take four dice out of your bag and roll them. Your starting eight dice are sidekicks. Sidekicks are weak characters but can provide energy. You put characters in play (if they cost anything) and buy dice off your cards with energy. In order to buy a die you must have and spend one energy that matches that card’s energy type. Dice you buy and spend go in your used pile. You may only buy dice from your cards or any basic action card.

Each character die has an attack and defense value. Characters you put in play may stay put to block in later rounds or attack your opponent. If they attack your opponent can use any of their in-play dice to block yours. When attacking compare your die’s attack value to the blocking die’s defense value and vice versa. If a die’s defense value is equal to or lower than the attack value of the die it is engaged with, it is knocked out. Dice that get are knocked out are placed in your prep area and added to the four dice from your bag that you roll on your next turn. An unblocked hits your opponent and he takes damage equal to its attack value. Unblocked dice go to your used pile after attacking.

Your characters might grant you special abilities or actions that are free or cost energy. Basic action dice trigger the basic action they are associated with. And some character or action cards have global effects. These effects may be triggered by either player that is able to pay their energy cost.

You may hold onto energy until the beginning of your next turn and use it to trigger any reaction abilities you have that cost energy. But at the beginning of your next turn all leftover energy goes to the used pile before you roll.

If at any time you need to draw dice and your bag is empty you take the dice in your used area and place them in your bag.

The first player to deplete their opponent’s health wins the game.

Quick Review of DC Comics Dice Masters:

Some have called the Dice Masters system a mash up of Quarriors and Magic the Gathering. The latest addition to the series adds heroes and villains from DC Comics to the mix. You get to make your team and battle your opponent.

The components for this game are good. The art is well done and the dice look really good too. I do wish they included play mats and better quality bags, but neither of these is a deal breaker. The rules are easy to follow but might be a bit disorganized. The rules for customizing your team and setup for non-demo games are in the very back of the book. Again this is a small annoyance and not that bad.

I like how quick this game is to teach, learn and play. You can start your first game within minutes of reading the rules. The starter set has demo teams to try and get you right into the action.

The depth added in Dice Masters makes for a better overall game experience than Quarriors. The big difference is in the attacking and blocking. Deciding when to keep a die for blocking versus pressing the attack is key to victory.

New to DC Comics Dice Masters are keywords. Cards in older sets explained each rule on them. This set has keywords for some of the more common abilities. This helps clean up the cards and standardizes some abilities.

You should be aware that since this is a dice game it can be luck driven. The actual game is more tactical than strategic. You need to make the best of what you roll. Your strategy comes when you build your team.

This is a collectible game. This might mean a lot to you or nothing. Some people hate collectible games. Dice Masters seems to have done a good job of keeping prices and if you are not a completionist you should be able to buy the starter and several boosters and be done.

One thing I wish was different is the starter set doesn’t have enough to play standard tournament game. You can play the demo and basic game but having enough dice for the standard tournament format requires some boosters.

DC Comics Dice Masters is great for families and super hero fans. It blends seamlessly with other Dice Master games too. And though collectible it seems like you could buy enough to get some fun teams and stop for a reasonable price.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction 6 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6