How’s it going folks? Big weekend for Dice Masters – not only is it the US Nationals today, but last night was the Wizkid’s Fan Appreciation event and there was lots of juicy news and spoilers to get our teeth sunk into.

This mad Dice Masters nerd stayed up until 3am to lurk Facebook and Discord to get the breaking news live, and, as always, I’m here to fire off my “first impressions” post to share some thoughts and then I’ll do a second post to highlight my “top pick stand outs” from the spoilers that were shared. (Which you’ll find HERE)

Before I do though, here are links to the Facebook galleries with shots of the PowerPoint presentation shown at the event. Thanks to Arge O’Neal (El Primaro), Paul Kushner (aka “Rules Guy”) and Daniel Powell (from ‘Clixed Off’) for the shares on social media.

Draft Packs announcement

D&D and Spider-Man Team Up Spoilers

WWE Spoilers

So… now you’ve had a nosy, here’s are my thoughts…

Draft Packs are Back

The biggest news hands down has to be that 2020 is the year of the draft packs.

Wizkids have announced not one, not two, but three new sets for next year that will follow the draft pack model. These included 2 sets under the Marvel brand (‘Infinity Gauntlet’ and ‘The Dark Phoenix Saga’) and 1 set under the DC brand (‘Kryptonite Crisis’). I can’t wait to see if the ‘Dark Phoenix Saga’ will include some classic 70s John Byrne X-Men artwork and whether ‘Kryptonite Crisis’ will be some classic 80s George Perez stuff. That would make me a very happy dice roller indeed.

With regards to the releases as draft packs… there are so many questions about the model to consider. Will there be a return to the collectible model? Will there be rarities? Will we see draft propositions for Warhammer 40K/D&D/WWE? Will there be any product to support new customer acquisition like starter sets? (It was suggested on Discord that there wasn’t going to be any Campaign boxes in 2020) What will this mean for competitive play in 2020? Will it all be drafts?

Time will tell and we’ll keep our ears to the ground for more word, but one thing I do know is that drafting was a popular way to play in some community pockets and the move to the Campaign Box model hit the game’s popularity hard in those areas, so this will be a well received move for those groups.(Although there may be some question whether 2020 will be too late to win back the draft-fan crowd who’ve moved on.)

In any case; it’s great to see plans as far as Q3 2020 for the game, especially when you factor in the flexible nature of Dice Masters release dates and the likelihood of these spilling into 2021.

Full Art Cards

One curious announcement with the draft packs was that all the cards will be Full Art.

There was little in the way of further details at this stage (Will the cards be 2 sided?), but the fact that draft pack cards are full art, and the example provided is a re-print of an existing BAC has led to some speculation that Draft Packs may be simply a means of drafting that is supported by non-blind product. (Pick up your draft pack, bring along your Campaign Box, use the pack to draft and then build the team from the actual cards.) Watch this space on that one, but I am sceptical that that’s the case if the “No Campaign Boxes” feedback on Discord is true.

What I can comment on is how sweet the full art ‘Big Entrance’ looks. That’s some great Alex Ross art to have out on your playmat for sure, and I’m excited to see what else comes down the pipeline for full art cards. I’ve got some suggestions from my favourite artists Wizkids, drop me a line…

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That’s about it on the news & announcements. Check out my ‘Part Two’ post for more from the event on the Spoilers…