Marvel Dice Throne

Today's review is of the 2022 release, Marvel Dice Throne. For 2–6 players, it takes 20–40 minutes.

Overview

Even friends fight sometimes. In Marvel Dice Throne, you are each a superhero determined to be the last one standing. Each of you starts with 50 health (in a 2-player game); reduce your opponent(s) to 0 to win.

In this game, each player has their own hero, complete with hero board (with attack an defense options based on the dice you roll), hero leaflet (with tokens you can add to your board, granting more abilities), deck of cards, and dice. You also have a combat point meter and life meter.

game setup for two players; image from here

At the start, each player sets their combat points (CPs) to 2 and draws 4 cards. On your turn, you have the following phases:

1. Upkeep phase

2. Income phase (gain a CP, draw a card)

3. Main phase 1 (spend CPs to play cards from your hand, or 'sell' [discard] one or more cards to gain that many CP)

4. Offensive roll phase (roll your 5 dice in up to 3 roll attempts. Then activate an offensive ability on your hero board based on the dice you rolled.)

5. Targeting roll phase (for multiplayer only)

6. Defensive roll phase (if you activated an attack, the defending player may have a defensive ability they can roll to activate)

7. Main phase 2 (exactly like main phase 1)

8. Discard phase (sell one or more cards to discard down to 6 cards)

For more details, see the rulebook here.

Players take turns until someone is reduced to 0 health.

Review

With a deck of cards, dice, hero board, and hero leaflet, this game seems complex and overwhelming at first, but it is surprisingly straightforward and easily grasped. There are a lot of options, but that gives the game meaningful decisions to complement the heavy luck component (from the dice and card draws). There are echoes of King of Tokyo here, with the yahtzee-style dice rolling and symbols that grant different effects. The defensive rolling phase is a nice feature, as it gives you the ability to minimize damage (or gain some other benefit). The game is superbly packaged, with each hero getting its own encapsulated tray with everything you need, making for easy setup and storage. Overall, it is a fun experience, and I look forward to trying out the different heroes. 

Rating: A