Marvel X-Men Dice Throne
review by Chad
Fan of dueling games but overwhelmed with choices? Think Magic the Gathering is cool but don’t want to buy random boosters or keep up with the meta? Like the idea of ”maining” a character in a video game and battling against others? If any of this sounded exciting to you, then Dice Throne might be the perfect fit for you. Dice Throne is a dueling game that has you choose a character from a plethora of available options and duke it out against your opponent in what can be best described as battle Yahtzee. Today, I am going to be overviewing the gameplay, as well as reviewing one of Dice Throne's newest expansions: Marvel X-Men Dice Throne; specifically my review copy that includes Iceman, Psylocke, Storm and Wolverine. This was released alongside one other four player set including Cyclops, Rogue, Jean Grey and Gambit, as well as a Deadpool “Deluxe” Expansion that includes...Deadpool. I come from a background where, though I appreciate the X-Men, I do not know much about them. I look forward to seeing how their movesets and personalities translate to the Dice Throne experience.
Gameplay Overview:
Marvel X-Men Dice Throne and all of the other Dice Throne characters follow the same rules, so I will be referring to the game as Dice Throne for the purposes of this overview. In Dice Throne, each player selects a unique character for a head to head brawl. Each competitor alternates turns gathering resources, upgrading their attacks and beating down their opponents. When there is one player or team with hit points left standing, they are declared the winner.
Turns begin with an upkeep phase, then an income phase where you draw a card and gain a Combat Point (CP). CP is the in game currency used to play cards.
After the income phase, a player enters the Main Phase. In this phase, players can spend their CP to play cards from their hand. These cards vary in effects, including upgrading attacks, producing resources, afflicting status conditions and much more. A player may also discard cards from their hand, generating one CP per discarded card. Once a player is ready to attack, they move into their Offensive Roll Phase.
When declaring an attack, a player begins rolling their five character specific dice up to three times. Dice are numbered 1-6 and have between 3 and 4 different symbols represented on them depending on the character. When rolling is complete, the player can match the dice results with the matching attack on their player board to activate that power. These powers will typically damage the opponent and activate an additional effect but this varies. When a player is attacked, that player goes into their Defensive Roll Phase and activates their character's Defensive Ability to try and ease the blow.
After the Roll Phases have concluded, players get a Second Main Phase to play any cards they wish by spending CP as well as discard any cards they wish to gain CP. The next player takes their turn after this, alternating back and forth until all but one player is reduced to zero life.
Game Experience:
Let me start by saying that I have a soft spot for the look and production of this game: The aesthetic and feel of the original Dice Throne sets that lured my partner and I into playing years ago has stayed true in each set to date. The characters and their cards are all beautifully illustrated, giving each a strong sense of self when paired up against the rest of the roster. Pair that with multicolor dice unique to each character and (up until this set) a Game Trayz container for each character board ro make me consistently impressed with the production quality of this game.
Gameplay wise, Dice Throne is an addicting experience where there is very little build up, bringing exciting combat into the mix right away and rarely allowing for a turn where nothing happens. Each character feels completely unique from one another, and Roxley Games does a great job of centering each one around a gameplay theme. This game works best in 1v1 mode in my opinion, but there are great times to be had with King of the Hill and Teams as well. Marvel X-Men Dice Throne follows the same rule book as the previous expansions, so if you’ve played Dice Throne in the past, this will offer a familiar but fresh experience for you. If you haven’t experienced Dice Throne yet, the X-Men set being reviewed today is a spectacular entry point to the game (especially if you love the X-Men specifically). Here is what to expect from the characters included in the box:
Iceman: Complexity 4 out of 6. Iceman is cool, pun intended, and my personal favorite of the set. He collects Ice Shard tokens in order to convert them to Glide, a powerful ability that lets Iceman “Glide” to another attack and use it right after his first one. He can also turn his opponents' dice to ice, freezing them into a roll the opponent may not like. Because it can take a while to collect the 5 Ice Shard tokens needed to generate Glide, Iceman can fall behind in multiplayer battles where he gets less turns. That being said, he’s got ice in his veins when it comes to 1v1s.
Psylocke: Complexity 3 out of 6. Psylocke takes manifesting lucky dice rolls to a whole new level. Her passive gives her a 6th dice called a Manifest die, which is rolled at the beginning of the turn and can be used to replace one of your dice during an Offensive Roll phase. Hit all the dice symbols you needed? Half of the total Manifest die (rounded down) can be added as a damage modifier instead. Add Agility (mitigating damage), Paralyze (preventing characters from utilizing status effects), and Infiltration (rerolling an opponent's defense die) make Psylocke a versatile psychic hero. Her kit seems equally powerful for 1v1 and multiplayer.
Storm: Complexity 4 out of 6. Storm charges her attacks with the power of lightning, granting additional boosts on her attacks in exchange for lightning companions she conjures and places on the game board for future use. She can also redirect damage back at her opponents and even use her opponents' dice for her own attacks! Storm is probably the most difficult to pick up and learn out of the characters in the box, but players are rewarded with big damage numbers and powerful abilities for getting familiar with her. Charging up her abilities is faster in a 1v1, so she feels a bit more powerful there.
Wolverine: Complexity 2 out of 6. Wolverine does and has always done two things extremely well: get angry and beat stuff up. The Dice Throne version is no exception. Wolverine is a straight forward character that builds Rage as he attacks and is attacked, and uses that Rage to boost future attacks damage (3 damage per rage token in this case). Wolverine is a great character to use when learning Dice Throne since his kit is not overly complex, but his power level rivals the rest of the characters in the box quite handily.
Final Thoughts:
Since I got my hands on my very first two-character pack of Dice Thone, I have been absolutely hooked on the gameplay, and this newest X-Men expansion unsurprisingly enhances an already polished experience even further. Fans of both Dice Throne and the X-Men IP can have a blast with the new box sets and all of the new gameplay mechanics they bring to the table.
From a general buyer’s standpoint, if you already have a Dice Throne set and are satisfied with the variety of gameplay you get from those characters or if maybe you just don't like the X-Men, then you don't need the Marvel X-Men Dice Throne set specifically. You can get the same enjoyment level from any of the other character boxes based on your taste in characters. If you’re looking to get into Dice Throne or you’re just looking for some additional variety to your character selection, the X-Men expansion is a stellar pick up and absolutely worth your time and money. The characters are fun and expressive enough in gameplay that it’s caused me, a casual X-Men fan at the very most, to dive deeper into the lore of the available characters and create additional immersion for myself when filling the shoes of one of the heroes for a game night.
I really only have one negative for the Marvel X-Men Dice Throne expansion and that is the packaging of the current retail version. In previous versions of Dice Throne, each character had a foldable game mat and a Game Trayz container that neatly stored the mat and all of the unique pieces for each character individually. This makes it easy to grab, transfer and store characters and is, in my opinion, one of the best qualities of the Dice Throne production quality. In the current retail version of both Marvel X-Men Dice Throne boxes, the foldable character game mats and individual storage trays have been replaced by flat non-foldable game mats and one storage box with sections dividing out the different characters’ pieces. The new box is also 10.25 in x 16 in x 2 in, which looks kind of awkward next to other modern games on a shelf. Roxley always releases a “battle chest” that includes foldable game mats and nice card stock cards for pre-order, so this issue can be resolved if you’re willing to pre-order from their website. Though I can see some of the benefits the new packaging may present (the flat game boards art prints are super vibrant and colorful), I simply prefer the other packaging style better.
Final Score: 4.5 Stars out of 5. Dice Throne in general is an absolute blast to play, and I think that this themed collection is a lovely addition to the Dice Throne roster. This does not offer any major updates to the main rules of Dice Throne, but it is a welcome inclusion nonetheless.
Dice Throne and the X-Men set from this review are available now from our webstore.
