Marvel Dice Throne is our first experience with this game system that started in 2018. Over the years, we’ve had countless people suggest we check it out due to our love of the Unmatched system, another asymmetric head-to-head game. Dice Throne gives players custom dice and asymmetric character powers with a Yahtzee-style mechanic.
Dice Throne with an IP
In 2021, Roxley Games and The OP shared the awesome line-up of Marvel characters that were coming to the Dice Throne universe. I’ve looked into a couple of the 16 heroes that have been published since 2018. I almost pulled the trigger on purchasing a couple 2-packs to see what the system is all about. With characters like Doctor Strange and Black Panther now part of the mix, Dice Throne is even more attractive since I have a Marvel obsessed teenager.
Licensing these Marvel heroes (and villains) are a fantastic fit for this system. Each fighter has their own abilities along with a unique Ultimate Attack. The team did an excellent job making each fighter really stand on their own. Fighters have different complexity levels, letting you know whether they are a good fit for new gamers or someone with a little experience in the Dice Throne system.
Understanding the Basics
The game supports 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, 3 vs 3 or free-for-all gameplay. Most of our games have been 1 vs 1 and we’ve had a blast learning the intricacies of each fighter. During your turn, you’ll draw a new card from your characters deck and add a Combat Point on your CP dial. These points are spent to play cards which have a wide range of uses.
The phases of each turn are very straight-forward. During the roll phase (middle of your turn), you’ll roll your 5 custom character dice and start assigning them to the action you want to take. Like Yahtzee, you’ll be able to re-roll your dice up to 2 times, keeping the die faces you want and setting them aside.
Characters have a wide range of attacks and it comes down to how far you want to press-your-luck with your 3 die rolls. Opponents will get a chance to make a defensive roll based on their characters abilities. Damage can be defendable or undefendable based on your characters abilities. Your turn ends with a with another chance to play cards from your hand before discarding down to 6 cards.
Each player records damage done to their fighter on character dials. When a player hits 0 on this dial, they are knocked out of the game. The last fighter standing is the winner.
Choose Your Fighter
Marvel Dice Throne is available in a couple different configurations. We’re playing with the Marvel Dice Throne Battle Chest which includes all 8 fighters in a single giant box. This thing is pretty awesome! If you’re not quite ready to jump in at this level, there are two different 2-packs and a 4-pack of fighters I’m going to cover below.
Captain Marvel VS Black Panther
This set has two fighters that my family loves. Erin has been a big fan of Captain Marvel and my son often picks Black Panther. With Black Panther, players can accumulate Kinetic Energy tokens to deal additional damage to opponents. He also has healing abilities and a solid defense which can be nice when you’re against the ropes in a tight game.
Captain Marvel has out of this world abilities like her Cosmic Ray that adds additional damage to an attack. Or you can chip away at your opponent using her Cosmic Flare tokens. These two may not be the strongest fighters in Marvel Dice Throne, but they are easy to learn and understand.
Black Widow VS Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange can be a heavy hitter when you combine your attacks with spell cards that sit passively on your board. Adding new spells give you more chances to hit your opponent or even heal yourself. Black Widow focuses on cards that upgrade your abilities. She gives opportunities to upgrade abilities quicker than her opponents which can be huge in getting ahead. Her ability to put a Time Bomb on her opponent will definitely add some pressure.
Both of these characters are more medium difficulty and are a lot of fun to jump into once you understand the basics of the game.
Scarlet Witch, Thor, Loki & Spider-Man
This 4-pack of fighters offers a lot to explore and quite a bit of complexity. Spider-Man is one of the easiest fighters to learn and is my default fighter when I sit down to play. I love taking on the quick hitting Miles Morales and the artwork on his character is my favorite. Thor makes use of Mjolnir to cause additional damage while hitting his opponents with Chain Lightning and other abilities.
On the more difficult end of Marvel Dice Throne are Scarlet Witch and Loki. These two fighters have a bit of a learning curve to unlock their full potential. Scarlet Witch uses spells and can choose lots of options with her die results which can be beneficial in different ways. Loki causes mayhem for opponents as they have to draw a card to see if they targeted the correct Loki with their attack.
A Marvel-ous Game?
I know why so many people suggested we check out Dice Throne over the years. I really enjoy the system they’ve designed here. Characters are always upgrading and powering up their abilities while pushing their dice as hard as possible. The cards mitigate a lot of the pure luck aspect of the game that could otherwise be frustrating. With players being able to have up to 6 cards in their hand, there’s usually an option to change terrible rolls.
After playing each of these characters, it’s definitely worth playing a couple games with the more straight-forward fighters. It can be really overwhelming to try and learn a more difficult fighter while learning the basics of the system. Your first couple games will feel a little procedural as you go from turn to turn. Once you’ve got a couple games under your belt, the gameplay is snappy and fast.
One of the things I love most about this Marvel entry into the series is the artwork from Manny Trembly that’s splashed across every aspect of this game. The character art is unique and feels fresh. Every time we bring this game to the table, the beautiful art of the player boards stares back at us from the neatly packed Game Trayz.
The character selection may not be my favorite but I’m so glad it’s not the standard Avengers characters that we’ve seen for years. Each fighter feels special and it’s not just a pretty coat of paint. The player abilities, powers and cards all connect to the source material really well.
Marvel Dice Throne is a fantastic entry into this game system and it’s honestly why I’m going to purchase other Dice Throne sets. Knowing that these fighters can go head-to-head against others in the series means that this game will have loads of replayability. Whether you’re a Marvel fan or just looking for a good dice combat game, Marvel Dice Throne is worth jumping into.
Marvel Dice Throne is available at your local game store, Barnes & Noble or you can purchase sets through Amazon.
This game was provided to us by the publisher for review. Read more about our review policies at One Board Family.
Highs
- Artwork and component quality is top-notch
- Upgrading character abilities keep the game moving
- Cards do an excellent job mitigating bad die rolls
- Gameplay moves fast once you are familiar with the system
Lows
- First two or three games will feel slow
- Playing with a more difficult fighter when learning is frustrating
Complexity
Time Commitment
Replayability
