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| Their secrets, revealed! |
What does this have to do with Dice Masters, you ask? Well, we can use the same principle to get a better idea what you - or your opponent - will be likely to draw on a turn. This lets us plan our current moves accordingly, and makes it less likely that we'll be surprised by a really strong turn on the opponent's end of things, or let us take advantage of the fact that they'll have a relatively weak turn. And the good news is - you don't need to remember which of fifty-two things have been played!
All you really need to remember is two things:
1) How many of each die you and your opponent started with
2) How many of each action die you and your opponent have purchased so far.
Everything else can be figured out based on the state of the board, and since you will probably be familiar with how many dice you start with, the only things you should really need to keep track of is what your opponent started with, and where the action dice are being bought.
It's In The Bag
It's pretty easy to deduce what's in a player's dice bag at any given time:
Ddicebag = Dtotal - Dshowing
You know what the sum total of dice they'll have is - it's eight sidekicks, plus whatever character dice and action dice they've bought. If you're not sure how many character dice they've bought, as long as you remember how many they started with, you can just subtract the current number of dice on each character from the starting number and get how many of each they've bought. And what's showing is even easier to figure out - just look at the total of what's in that player's prep area, reserve pool, field, and used pile. Subtract that big mess from their total dice, and you'll know what's in their dice bag. Expanded out:
Ddicebag = (8(S) + Cbought+ Abought) - (Dprep + Dreserve + Dfield + Dused)
Everyone who hasn't been scared off by formulas is probably thinking, "that'
s great, but what do I do with this information?" Mostly, you should use it to inform what you're going to do on your turn based on what you have just drawn, what your opponent is likely to draw, and what you're likely to get next turn.
Dice Of Future Past
Let's say your opponent just churned a bunch of their characters against yours on their last turn, and they're down to just a sidekick for defense. After rolling your knocked-out characters and your standard four from your bag, you've got a bunch of freshly-fielded characters. Now, you could send all of them at your opponent and shave off some life, but then your opponent could come around and do the same thing to you. So you look at their board: all but empty field; nothing in reserve; a bunch of sidekicks, a couple Black Widows, and that Hulk you Stormed away in their used pile; three characters in their prep area.
A quick application of the above formula tells you they've got a Beast and another two sidekicks in their bag still. They'll need to refill after that, meaning there's a relatively small chance that they'll draw that Hulk next turn; most likely, you'll be seeing that Beast and three sidekicks, plausibly Beast, a Widow, and two sidekicks. You can then use this information to see whether you want to push your luck and attack with everything you've got while your opponent's pants are down, or maybe go in a little more moderately, especially if you run the numbers on your own bag and see that next turn you're probably only getting a Hawkeye and three sidekicks, so you might want to have some defense in case that Hulk comes around.
A more specific example: It's the third turn. You spent your first two turns buying two Beasts and a (Norman Osborne) Green Goblin. Your opponent has bought four Tsarinas. You just refilled your bag and got yourself three sidekicks and a Beast; you haven't rolled yet. You'd really like to buy yourself a Gem Keeper Loki to hopefully head those shenanigans off at the pass, but you're concerned that using that Beast as energy would leave you wide open for a Tsarina kickfest. What do you do?
You know your opponent will have eight sidekicks and four Black Widows in their bag for their next draw phase; napkin math suggests you'll probably be seeing one, maybe two (if you're unlucky) Widows next turn. Meanwhile, the turn after that, you'll be drawing from five sidekicks, a Beast, and a Green Goblin - in short, you're probably getting one of your characters; if you can swing a sidekick alongside it (easy, if it's NOGG), that'll mean you can block up to two Tsarinas, and your opponent isn't likely to have more than that if they attack you with the ones they get this turn. You risk maybe taking ten or so damage, but you figure it's a good trade to hopefully stop this nonsense early, and roll with the intent of getting some Beastly energy.
Churning To Your Advantage
While the most common use for dice counting is figuring out what you want to do during a turn, one other thing you can do with this is mess with characters who like to dig through the used pile - Brimstone Biker Ghost Rider, Norman Osborne Green Goblin, American Hero Captain America, and so on. If you figure out that the other player's dice bag is getting close to empty, activating a Mutate #666 Beast or Quasar Nova or the like could force them to draw enough dice that they'll have to refill their bag, eliminating the used pile they planned on cherrypicking. On the other hand, if you're using those characters, knowing what's in your dice bag can help you avoid doing the same to yourself and wiping out that line of sidekicks before those two NOGGs in your prep area can recycle them (to great profit, I'm sure).
Similarly, when you get a choice of dice from your churning solutions - most commonly, from the burst faces of Mutate #666 - knowing what else you've got coming will let you know if it's safe to pull some slick tricks. Maybe you like putting a useful die in your used pile with Beast (while taking something else) so you can grab it with an upcoming Brimstone Biker; if that churn will make you refresh next turn, you'd better just take that first die and hope you draw the other sooner rather than later.
With a bit of memory and a little mental math, you can frequently get a clearer picture of what you'll be getting in the next few turns. While it's not set in stone - that Tsarina-spamming opponent could draw all four of them next turn, for all you know - it'll at least clarify your options, and hopefully give you enough information to pick the winning course. Just don't take too long doing it - remember that tournament play only allows about fifteen minutes per game, so you'll have to run the numbers fast! Practice might help if it doesn't come naturally; that's how you do it with card counting, after all.
Here's hoping you find this all useful for getting the leg up on your opponents. Just don't get yourself in trouble at Dice Masters Vegas or anything, or you might find yourself unable to be around next time, when I'll be investigating the Marvel Dice Masters energy cost curve, and what it means for the set as a whole. See you then!
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