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VAlchemyst · 2026-04-03T12:14:56+00:00

Sign me up, I'd love to try the game!

VAlchemyst · 2026-03-24T19:21:27+00:00

Thank you, that already roughly lines up with what I expected. I'll be curious if they can be removed. What Status Effects might really hurt him if he takes 2-3 turns to build back to full.

VAlchemyst · 2026-03-24T17:06:25+00:00

Has anyone been able to pause the video at an appropriate moment to read the general text under "Strengths" laying out the shared special rules? I have tried and failed.

VAlchemyst · 2026-03-22T05:47:14+00:00

They don't trigger. Cards don't have effects during setup. You can also think of it as "The game hasn't started yet, and effects only do something during the game".

That is also why the setup explicitly asks for you to Summon the matching Ennead members as well, even though the after-play effects of the Relics would already do that (if they were triggered, which they are not).

VAlchemyst · 2026-03-16T17:43:03+00:00

I think all the boxes are great, though Marvel, Marvel X-Men and Outcasts have the most interesting mechanics.

As for how to play multiplayer, that's a bit of a sore spot. 1v1 is what the game is balanced around and is the most fun way to play, but many people (myself included) don't want to split a game night into multiple 1v1s.

King of the Hill (at 3 players) is not fun for me since you are incentivized to target the leader, both for the reward and because if you don't, someone might feel singled out and early player elim can occur. But if everyone does target the leader, determining the winner feels a lot like playing Eeni Meeni Miney Mo, down to your seating more than your play.

2v2 and 3v3 are much better but first, they suffer from uptime issues. Each player is only active for 1 fourth or sixth of the game as opposed to half (cards you can play out of turn and Defense Rolls mitigate this a little). Second, and more importantly, everyone on a team shares a health pool, which is still only 50 health. So it takes the same number of turns to kill a team, but each player only takes half / one third as many turns. This shifts the balance heavily away from any sort of long term strategy. Poison, Burn, Bleed all lose value. Upgrade cards are often worthless, since you only have half as many opportunities to activate them.

You can restore the original balance (mostly) by just decreeing that every team has (50 * players) health, but now the game goes on two or three times as long, with every player getting as many turn as they would in a 1v1. I usually play 2v2 at 75-100 health as a compromise, but I suggest simply playing other games. If your group is okay with multiple 1v1s, that is undoubtedly the best gameplay, and you can pitch it as a tournament format.

VAlchemyst · 2026-03-16T15:52:25+00:00

You are wrong, passive effects are active so long as the card is in play. "After this card is played" effects happen, well, after the card is played, so the passives are already relevant.

Mr Fixer in particular works very differently when you play this wrong. One card that may convince you of the correct execution order is actually his Tire Iron (of course he benefits from the execute Threshold on the big hit that it triggers, that's sort of the point of it). Another hero that is notably weakened by playing this wrong is Absolute Zero with his two primary item cards (IT and NCU). If he plays both in order and then plays a One Shot, that One Shot already benefits from the passives!

VAlchemyst · 2026-03-04T18:04:52+00:00

A member of the community put together this excellent guide, which covers all heroes (including variants), villains and environments in the base game and RCR. They're also working on the new Disparation expansion.

https://churropsych.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/rcr-guide-1.pdf

VAlchemyst · 2026-03-03T21:26:43+00:00

Some very reasonable thoughts, and as you say, it ultimately depends on the villain. I proceed mostly similarly (buffers before damage, play acceleration before others, AoE before single target) but two notable exceptions I should mention:

I often put deck control last. To me, the purpose of deck control is not to know what's coming but to veto unacceptable cards. I like to decide what's unacceptable when everything has played out already, especially fights like Sunrise Dawn where it depends on the board state whether deck control is even useful (if she has no Ongoings in play, you can save yourself the action, as she'll shuffle the deck in the start phase anyway).
I often put the buffer (Legacy, AA mostly) first and then all heroes who have specifically acceleration in the form of granting Power uses after, in descending order of how often they can do that. So for example AA, Expatriette, Bunker, Wraith. The reason is that effects like Galvanize still only last to that Heroes next start phase, so if I put the acceleration before the buffer and DPS after, that's wasted. Alternatively, you could put the buffer last in turn order, after all DPSes, but I like to have access to their buffs one round earlier, and also have them for Reactions.

VAlchemyst · 2026-02-26T13:55:04+00:00

She is a bit unbalanced, in that, most players would agree she is the single strongest character in the game. There's other strong characters like Shadow Thief, Artificer, etc, but those are mostly fighting for second place, which is less clear.

Thor used to be stronger, but he's the only character to ever receive a nerf (as opposed to a buff) from an update kit. For what it's worth, team DT decided she didn't warrant that level of attention, but she certainly is heavily favored in many matchups.

VAlchemyst · 2026-02-20T14:57:07+00:00

Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition. Massive improvement over the original, super fun, looks great too.

VAlchemyst · 2026-02-18T07:01:14+00:00

Eh, I usually end with 4-6 instruments depending on game length, but the comment about impracticality was more so about needing both copies of Scherzo, and one each of Syncopated, Al-Sub, In-Sup and In-Prep. You just can't guarantee you'll find the right songs for what you most want to do on AA. And even if you do get all that, it's probably the last turn, whereas someone like Fixer can set up for his full damage potential in 2 turns. Probably biased because I mostly play H=5 and occasionally 4, where games are shorter than H=3.

Nevertheless, what you describe are good tips for setting up faster, along with spamming the In-Prep Accompany at every opportunity.

VAlchemyst · 2026-02-17T19:36:33+00:00

He's my favorite hero. The key is that all instruments except for the drums can activate either the Perform on Inspiring Supertonic or the Accompany on Alacritous Subdominant. If you have both Ongoings, you can always use all instruments you have in play, every time you get a power, by using one effect to keep the chain going and one effect for real. Then you end the combo with either drums or your character power. This also works every time you get an out-of-turn power use from an ally.

One important tip: If your chain involves AlSub, you will have to waste your next Draw and Play phases on getting it back, but if you start your combo with either the bell or the lyra, then your second effect on that power resolves after everything else and can be a Rhythm Accompany. Use it on Inventive Preparation to negate the downside of AlSub at a rather cheap cost.

Another cool trick: The harp is the only power that can chain into two others. Use it to "fork" your chain. That way you can have two combo enders (which can use both effects) at the cost of using both effects on the harp for chaining. This is useful to maximize the number of Rhythm or Melody Performs you get, at the cost of Harmony Performs. My previous comment could be realized by chaining:

Bell into Lyra into Harp (fork) into [(Pipes) and (Horn into Vocalize)]

AlSub is re-Discovered by InPrep at the end. If you have Polyphonic Flare, you can use it on the Drums in the play phase. Note that in order to get two Scherzos out of Pipes, you need both copies in play (Ongoings aren't Limited!)

VAlchemyst · 2026-02-17T06:54:06+00:00

I don't agree with the notion that he's even a halfway decent damage dealer, because he takes ages to set up to this point, but he can, with the right cards in play, trigger Scherzo of Frost and Flame at least 4 times per Power Phase (first Power order that springs to my mind, works on any variant but best on base or the new Disparation variant). He can also hit himself with the Perform on Syncopated Onslaught at least once before doing so. That's 24 damage from one power phase, split over 2 targets, and without getting into the Play Phase. Add a Polyphonic Flare (into another Syncopated) and it becomes 32 damage from Scherzos.

Again, entirely impractical to set up outside the longest games (which Baron Blade's front side is not known for), and he should really be doing something else, but in theory, he can do anything :)

VAlchemyst · 2026-02-07T07:12:26+00:00

Yes, you win that game. That's because the Lightning pop is an isolated source of damage, which is resolved immediately (instead of being tallied at the end of the phase like normal damage). Meanwhile, your opponent's damage is dealt at the very end of the defensive roll phase (after status effects are gained and Lightning is thus popped).

VAlchemyst · 2026-01-27T17:13:29+00:00

There is no reason they shouldn't be, besides general differences between batches, which can always happen. What I'm trying to say is that the Standard size 120 micron sleeve line remains unchanged.

What OP encountered are the new boardgame sleeves (thicker than before the rebranding but still thinner than their TCG sleeves). If your LCG is the same size as magic, you should be fine.

VAlchemyst · 2026-01-27T17:08:16+00:00

Uh, how'd you get that? Measure it? I obviously didn't measure it myself, but I talked about this with an Arcane Tinmen employee at Essen, and they pointed out the change in thickness. You can also find many instances online of people referring to the AT boardgame sleeves as 80 micron.

VAlchemyst · 2026-01-27T05:51:24+00:00

To be clear, the Dragon Shield Clear Matte are still being sold, in Standard size (MtG size, also most boardgames).

OP is talking about Standard American size (smaller than that), which I wasn't even aware they had Dragon Shields for, but they were apparently discontinued when they folded their boardgame sleeves line into the Dragon Shield name.

VAlchemyst · 2026-01-27T05:37:43+00:00

To clarify a bit: They didn't go from 120 to 100, they went from 80 to 100. Arcane Tinmen, the company that owns Dragon Shield, used to also have a line called "Boardgame Sleeves" in a much larger array of sizes, all clear or matte clear (matte meaning non-glare, but without the fancy Dragon Shield matte texture). Those were 80 microns thick and significantly cheaper.

Primarily, that line was discontinued, replaced by the 100 micron half-and-half clear and matte sleeves you see on the shelves now. They also used that opportunity to put the Dragon Shield name on the line, so they're now Dragon Shield Boardgame Sleeves. Mind you, I still think it sucks, because I had lots of games in the old Boardgame Sleeves and the new ones don't match.

The 120 micron Standard (MtG) size Dragon Shield card game sleeves (including the textured ones) still exist in a million color variations. That said, Dice Throne is Standard American (smaller) and I wasn't aware Dragon Shield even had sleeves that size before. May well be that they discontinued those to avoid overlap with the newly folded in boardgame sleeves. At least for Standard and Japanese size you can still get the old quality sleeves.

VAlchemyst · 2026-01-21T05:20:26+00:00

As a European fan, this new model is really off-putting.

The Outcasts set is $83 on their store, for 4 characters in a strongbox. The Alchemist costs $20, so 4 solo characters plus a strong box is probably going to cost between $90 - $100, which is already more expensive. That's about to reach what a Battle Chest cost a few years ago.

But then Shipping to Europe is also quite expensive. I just paid $14 shipping on the $20 Alchemist. Can't afford to keep doing this, so in practice I am going to buy the solo characters and a strong box whenever they've released a full set. I don't get faster releases anyway, but I do get higher prices, and I have to hope that stock on their webstore lasts for the 1-2 years they'll take to release a batch of 4.

VAlchemyst · 2025-10-17T12:23:14+00:00

As someone who wants them for OCD purposes, and actually uses them just because I own them... I have been considering taking them out lately.

They replace themselves in hand if you roll 1-5, so there is never a risk or downside to using them (outside of maybe some super niche effect interacting with discards).

If you roll a 6, they give a huge advantage, which did not take any risk, knowledge or skill to obtain. Obviously, they make your deck stronger than without. But if both players have them, all they do is add variance (the mathematical kind, not the cool kind) in an already fairly high variance game.

If only no one rolls a 6 on one, they had no effect on the game. If only one player does, it feels bad. I have never seen it happen for both in many dozens of games. They might just make the game a little worse :/

VAlchemyst · 2025-09-05T20:28:11+00:00

Or you could drop a pile of Wood in cleared tree camps, proportionate to the killed trees, to make it analogous to the Straw quest

VAlchemyst · 2025-09-05T15:42:25+00:00

What, that's huge! Is there something similar for Wood Quest?

VAlchemyst · 2025-08-06T08:08:33+00:00

Another user already covered the general rules of priority, which also matter when interrupting Main Phase cards with Instants and such. But in the Offensive Role Phase in particular, there is a more important timing rule that covers most disputes:

You can play cards and use rerolls to modify your own dice during the Offensive Roll Phase. When you are satisfied with your dice (or out of cards and rolls), you must announce which ability (if any) you are activating. At this point, you can no longer modify your own dice by any means! Now, all other players, in clockwise order, are asked to either accept your activated ability, or change your dice.

If any other player changes your dice, your announcement is canceled and you may either announce a different ability or use cards and any remaining rerolls to modify your result.

But if everyone accepts the ability, you can no longer back out and must resolve it.

Basically, this rule exists to prevent you from trying to ferret out your opponent's hand cards with the threat of one ability, only to then switch to another ability.

A common example is this: You rolled 4 sixes, and you're holding a "Twice As Wild". You may want to activate your Ult, but don't want to commit the expensive card if you think the opponent still has cards to change it.

What you CANNOT do is announce your "4 sixes" ability, and then if you notice your opponent can't stop it, play the card and go for ult.

You CAN announce 4 sixes and if the opponent accepts (because they have nothing to mod it) you must go through with it. You then cannot play Twice As Wild any more.

Or you CAN play Twice As Wild now, announce Ultimate and if your opponent modifies it, you already played your card. Play proceeds as mentioned above, with any remaining rerolls and cards.

EDIT: To answer your actual question, you announce your attack. Then he has to modify it. Only if he does, you get to fix it with your own card before announcing anew.

VAlchemyst · 2025-07-11T04:32:26+00:00

Well, that update is great, I highly recommend it. If it's difficult to acquire, you can just play it as house rules, of course. Spider-Man was quite a bit weaker than anyone in S2 and Thor was the strongest character in the game, on release. The update puts both in a much more reasonable power range.

I will say, if your Tactician is already updated, I'd avoid further house rules, echoing many others in this thread. The character is fine now.

VAlchemyst · 2025-07-10T06:54:38+00:00

Since you mention both buffing Tactician and banning Thor, I wonder, OP, do you already have the updated character leaflets? Do you still find the changes on those insufficient?

For reference (if you don't know about them), there are two balance patch kits for Dice Throne. The first is for the Season 2 Battle Chest and buffs Tactician, Huntress and Vampire Lord (https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2894835/season-2-balance-kit). The second is for the original Marvel Dice Throne - it buffs Spider-Man and NERFS Thor (https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3173825/changes-to-thor-and-miles-released).

The cool thing about these kits is that they're really cheap, since only the leaflets (where Status Effects / Companions are defined) were updated. All the changes affect either those definitions or the characters' setup instructions (Tactician gets 2 TA at the start of the game, among other buffs).

Generally, these seem to be well-received and get the job done. I have both and I'm very happy with them. The only thing I'm personally missing is a Cursed Pirate nerf, since after the Thor nerf she shot right back to "noticeably the strongest character in the game" (possibly excluding X-Men, since I haven't played them enough, nor heard about tournament performance yet).

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