A buddy and I drove to B.C. Comics in Bossier City, Louisiana for a Batman Life Auction. I’ve never played a life auction before, so after I was briefed on what to expect and the rules of the format, we arrived and I handled the auction the way I handle most shopping… aim for as cheap as possible, but sensible. The results were the set below, which was a bit similar to the draft from my last round of Dice Masters.

The “The Light of Order” Dove card was mostly to keep a Hawk user from buying her (he bought another copy, so the plan failed, in a sense), but the cards synergized with each other. The “Always Prepared” Batman was mostly useful for its hero side, as the villain side could easily cause complications throughout the entire team. “Good Cop” Commissioner Gordon would be useful for playing my other dice more quickly. “Jason Todd” Red Hood was useful for compounding character dice in order to hit the opponent harder. “Growing Pains” Robin would work in tandem with Batman. The “Out of the Darkness” Bat-Signal was useful for a small attack boost every so often. “Ask the Right Questions” The Question was useful in the early game, if only as an annoyance due to the regeneration. Finally, the “Striking With Fear” Batarang ensured decent levels for my character dice, and the chance for another use was a nice touch. The Superhero Registration Act was a useful ramp, and Haymaker was useful for adding value to high strength attackers (Batman or a buffed Red Hood, for instance). Unfortunately, I don’t have much in the way of details for the other players, as I didn’t feel comfortable taking pictures of stranger’s setups. I do recall a Villanous Act card present at least once. (Which is again the bane of my team’s existence), and the super rare Darkseid made its way into the auction, but I deemed the price too high. Needless to say, that may have been a mistake, but I recall the cost being around 13+ life. I started around 30 life, which I believe was the third highest amount in the tournament. Also, my first match involved the Thrown Car basic action, which easily ate my life points.

We had a good time with great players, but eventually it was time to turn back to Texas at the end of the day. The players from the other side of the state line were some of the toughest I’ve player (I lost every round), but it’s just the way things go sometimes. One individual drove farther than we did to make it to the game. I guess dicers don’t mess around when it comes to winning a game.

Update: I made the mistake of assuming that a Life Auction format was common knowledge in the Dice Master community, and I apologize for that. For those that don’t know how the format works, What we did was give ourselves 65 life apiece, and we brought a full set’s worth of cards (excluding basic actions). We placed the cards face side down (aside from the flips) and took two rounds around the table bidding on the card that was revealed. If we had two people who wanted the card, a bidding war would happen until one of them forfeited the card. After this, we’d take our remaining health and cards and hold a tournament like other DM events. If someone doesn’t want the card, they simply have to say “pass” and let the following person have their choice.

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