10 Mistakes that a new player will commonly make in a game

Hey Dice Masters fans, if you are looking at this article, you are probably worrying that you might commit mistakes that a new player will make, don’t worry, this article is not to judge you because of those mistakes but rather inform you about the mistakes and explain why you should not continue making them.

One: Building a theme team

This is not Heroclix; by building a team with characters having the same affiliation is not going to give you any additional benefits in the game. A new player might mistake a combo team with a theme team.


An avenger’s combo doesn’t necessarily require all 8 characters in your team possessing the avenger’s affiliation. It just means that your strategy is dependant on Nick Fury or the Team watch ability, and you need some avengers to trigger the ability. You are still allowed to use other character that doesn’t possess an avenger’s affiliation to support your team.



Professor X clearly isn't an Avenger, but with his global, it allows you to purchase your high cost avengers at ease. So don't just restrict a certain affiliation in your team. 

Two: Prioritizing the rarity over the effects of a card

Dice Masters is a collectible card and dice game, there are bound to have different rarity for each card. The problem with new players or even some veteran is that they like to use a rarer version of a card instead of a better version of it. For example, WOL Lyssa Drak uncommon is way better than the rare version. But some people might use the rare version because it is harder to find. Similarly, some player might use the super rare version of Mr Fantastic instead of the common one simply because they paid a high price for it and they want to make use of it.




I understand where you are coming from, I personally spent hundreds of dollars on super rare and rare cards, and I would love to display my collection to other players. But there are other ways to do so, you can show them your collection before or after the game, you can keep your rare and super rare in an album and show it off, but when you are playing a game, you want to be at your best, so use a better version of a card.

Three: Not maximizing your dice limit

When you decide to use a character, always make sure that you have enough dice to fully utilize that character to the maximum. For example, a 2 cost aggressive character would benefit by having 4 dice on its card. If you don’t have enough dice on that card, try to get more of it, you can buy it or borrow it from another player who has it. I believe there are always kind souls that are willing to lend some dice to a beginner. If you really cannot find extra dice for that character, use some other character instead.

Four: Not purchasing your high cost character when you have the chance to

If you have a 6 or 7 cost character in your team that is the winning factor for your game, when you have the chance to, buy that character. With all the ramping global abilities, it is not surprising for a player to roll 6 dice in a turn. So, in the early game, when you have the chance to, BUY the high cost character. If you keep dragging with the purchase, the character might not be as helpful to you in the late game.



Colossus is one example, you can end the game very fast and you don't even need to attack. So, when you have the chance to buy him, do not hesitate, you do not know when will you have the chance to purchase a 7 cost character. 

Five: Keeping too many energies in your reserved pool

Let’s continue from point four, usually a player keeps energy in the reserve pool to use global abilities, but if you are using those energies to ramp more dice for your next turn, make sure you don’t overdo it. Professor X global is a great ramp, so keeping mask energy is great because you trade it off with 2 dice for your next turn. Despite that, don’t get too focus on ramping until the point where you don’t know why you need so much dice in a turn.


Invest in a character instead of using energies for global abilities. Energies in your reserve pool are there temporarily, it helps you to buy some time or have a one turn boost for your characters, but at the end of the day, it is your characters and actions that are helping you to win the game. Only when you have bought all the characters you need to win the game, then you can start saving up energies for your global.

Six: Purchasing unnecessary dice


There are times where you have dice in your reserve pool but you couldn’t purchase any character you want because of the mismatch of energies, so the only thing you can purchase is a basic action die. In spite of that, don’t purchase any basic action die that is no help to you, sure, there is a 50% chance you get that 2 generic energy that might help you in the later game, but there is also the other 50% chance you get the action face, if that action doesn’t help you at all, you are wasting a die and it does go back to your dice bag, so your bag is filled with unwanted dice. It then becomes more of a burden than a help. Sometimes, it is better to not purchase anything than buying a die that is absolutely redundant for your game.

Seven: Being too defensive

Some new players have this mind-set that if they attack with their characters, they might end up having no blockers on their next turn. In a way it is true, however, if you are playing a very defensive game, there is no way that you are going to win the game, your opponent is just going to deal 1 damage to you and all he/she needs to do is wait for the time limit to end and wins the game by having higher life point. A defensive team can protect you from combat damage but lacks the offensive factor. If you really want to build a defensive team, you can use non-combat damage from character or action effect to deal damage to your opponent. Also, not only characters that have attacking ability can attack, if you have a character with fielding ability already triggered, there is no use of it being in the field, so why no attack with it?



Groot and Pepper Potts are one example of defensive character. They allow your character to have high defence and highly unlikely to get knocked out while blocking. But if you keep defending and not attacking, there is no way you are going to win. 



If you want to play defensive, Power Bolt BAC is a good way to deal damage to your opponent. 

Eight: Being too aggressive

Okay, not to be a hypocrite here, but being too aggressive is a mistake made by new players as well. When you want to attack, don’t attack blindly, if your opponent has various characters that have blocking ability and your characters are likely to be blocked, don’t attack at all.


If you have a chance to deal at least 1 damage to your opponent when you attack, then you can attempt to attack with your characters. Otherwise, you will just be feeding your opponent’s blocking ability or allow him/her to knock out a character with fielding ability. When you attack blindly, it benefits your opponent more than you, and never in a game should you do that.

Nine: Not reading your opponent’s card

This is one of the most common mistakes that a beginner has. Before the game begins, they don’t attempt to look through their opponent’s card and in the middle of the game, they lose the game and have no idea how they lost. This is not a trading card game, looking at your opponent’s cards is legal and you don’t have to feel bad for looking at their card. If you wondered why your opponent doesn’t do the same to you, it is probably because they know your cards and know what your game play is.


You don’t have to memorize the ability of your opponent’s card; you can just refer to it when your opponent uses that character’s die. Just look through your opponent’s card so you can estimate what your opponent is playing, and also see if there is any global ability that you could use.

Ten: Not enjoying the game

I know this might not be a mistake for a game itself but the point is if you don’t enjoy playing the game, then I suggest you to stop playing. The purpose of a game is for the players to enjoy the process of playing it, if you don’t enjoy it, you lost the purpose in it.

I see many players walking out of the game because they couldn’t win or it’s an expensive collection. I have posted articles about the game and I will still stand by my point that this game isn’t expensive and it is not a game you can easily sell your collection and get your money back. So the best way is to enjoy it when you play the game so you have absolutely no stress in it.

Conclusion


After reading this, I cannot guarantee you that you will win every Dice Masters game but I can promise you that you will stop making mistakes and get better in the game. Thanks for reading, hope this helps!