Star Wars: Destiny and Dice Masters – A Balanced Comparison

As a high school teacher who runs Dice Masters tournaments for my students, I’ve been getting many questions about Star Wars: Destiny. The questions usually go something like this: “So, is Destiny pretty much a Star Wars version of Dice Masters?” To which I respond “Well, they both use cards and dice, but beyond that they are very different games!”

In this article, I will outline the similarities and differences between Star Wars: Destiny and Dice Masters. In preparing for this article I asked members of the Facebook group Destiny Shapers how they thought the two games compared to each other. I received many thoughtful comments, which you will find spread throughout this article.

The Similarities

• Cards and Dice
  • This is the most obvious similarity between the games, but you’ll see that even here the cards and dice are quite different and are used in different ways.
  • “There’s really no reason to compare the two other than the fact that they both use dice. I’m all in on DM and will also play Destiny (46 packs in and have a box on preorder lol). But the games are completely different.” – Indy Mon

• Two Player Focus
  • There are variants to play with larger groups, but both games are, at their heart, two player focused.

• Collectible
  • If you want all the cards/dice from a set, you’ll need to buy a significant number of booster packs and/or trade with other players. For some, this is a deal breaker. For others, hunting rares and legendaries is part of the fun.

• Theme
  • Both games have fun, easily recognizable themes. Star Wars: Destiny obviously centers around the Star Wars universe, while Dice Masters encompasses super heroes (both Marvel and DC), Dungeons & Dragons, Yugioh, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
  • “With Dice Masters you get Turtles, Batman, and Spider-Man. Both appeal to me and are fun.” – Shawn Ely

 

Differences

• Companies
  • Dice Masters is made by Wizkids, and Star Wars: Destiny is made by Fantasy Flight Games (FFG).

• Game Objective
  • In Dice Masters, each player starts with 20 life. Players purchase character dice which cycle through their bag and are eventually fielded. The objective is to attack with characters or play actions to reduce the opponent’s life to 0. In Star Wars: Destiny, each player starts with a select number of characters with various life totals, and draw cards from their deck to further equip their characters, field supporting cards, and play effects. The objective is to kill your opponent’s characters or deplete their draw pile.

• Gameplay
  • In Dice Masters, the active player takes any number of actions before giving priority to their opponent. In Star Wars: Destiny, actions go back and forth between players, each taking one action and then passing to their opponent. Some view Star Wars: Destiny as more interactive and duel-like, while others prefer the Dice Masters format.
  • “SWD promotes battling and a back and forth tug of war, DM promotes pinging/direct damage and stalling for a big swing or 1 turn kill.” – Jason Gardner
  • “There’s that sense of dread sitting action-less on the defense or even upon buying a die for reaction and knowing you must wait a turn or two before you see it draw. I love DM and enjoy this anxiety I must say.” – Anne Doe

• Game Speed
  • Although Dice Masters games can go long if two control decks play each other, frequently one of the teams will be aggressive and end the game in 3-5 rounds, or 15-20 minutes. To their credit, Wizkids is constantly balancing the game through set releases and trying to eliminate turn 3 kills. Star Wars: Destiny does not have such aggressive decks, and likely never will due to the back-and-forth nature of the game. At present, Star Wars: Destiny games tend to last 30-45 minutes.
  • “I like the quick action of Destiny. The one action per player rule. It allows for an immediate response to a possible attack. No 3rd or 4th round win. A longer playtime offers more enjoyment of a game.” – Virgil McClurken

• Deck Building
  • Star Wars: Destiny has specific rules about building your team. You must use either heroes or villains, and then decide what colors your characters will be (cards in your deck must match your character colors), making sure not to exceed your allotted 30 points for character selection. In contrast, Dice Masters has few rules for teambuilding, and allows you to mix and match all sets. Putting different characters like Batman, Captain America, and Leonardo from TMNT on the same team can be crazy and fun!
  • “Destiny is far more restrictive with how to build your deck. In dice masters, you can mash pretty much anything together. This allows for maximum utilization of the available cards.” – Jenna Marion
  • “The deckbuilding constraints in Star Wars: Destiny force players to be more thoughtful in their deck construction and may be used to help prevent ‘broken combos;’” – Matthew Scott
  • “With an 8-character team in Dice Masters, I found (for myself at least) RARELY were all 8 characters actually used, or a part of the overall plan. In Destiny, all cards can be used, even if it’s just to discard to reroll dice.” – Jeff Fisher

• Dice
  • Yes, Star Wars: Destiny has much larger dice than Dice Masters, and no, they are not stickers, they are heat pressed images sealed by a clear coating. The larger dice are heavier and are less likely to roll if bumped by a stray finger. The smaller Dice Masters dice can be rolled in larger numbers and take up less space on the table.
  • “Destiny Dice are much bigger, but also seem to be designed to last. They are not stickers like I was worried that they might be. The size of them does make the playing area an issue as you’ll need more space when you are playing.” – Kenneth Earnest

• Quality Control
  • Low quality components were a recurring theme in the Facebook thread. Many people are frustrated by the apparent lack of Dice Masters quality control, though things have certainly gotten better since the original Avengers Verses X-Men set. In contrast, I have not heard anyone complaining about the quality of Star Wars: Destiny components, though I have seen people opening packs with mismatched cards and dice.
  • “One of the biggest complains of Dice Masters is the cards would come out ‘WONKY’ they would have errors sometimes as well as be torn from bad quality control.” – Kenneth Earnest

• Cost
  • Whereas the quality of Dice Masters products may be inferior to Star Wars: Destiny, the price is incredibly reasonable. Dice Masters booster packs retail for $1 and include 2 cards and 2 dice. Star Wars: Destiny boosters retail for $3 and include 3 common cards, 1 uncommon, and 1 rare or legendary with corresponding die. While I still believe Star Wars: Destiny boosters are a good value, Dice Masters boosters are extremely affordable.
  • “DM has quite a number of meta cards from their starters and commons. I really appreciate this. As a matter of fact there have only been about a dozen $10+ rares and super rares needed to stay competitive over the 2.5 years that DM has been out.” – Jacob Kojiro

• Clarity of Rules
  • Numerous players expressed frustration with the lack of clarity in Dice Masters rules and rulings. At the time of the writing of this article, Wizkids has already published rulings/clarifications on the new Deadpool set, which is very encouraging for Dice Masters players. Star Wars: Destiny rules appear to be thorough and well written, and have already been updated just days after the game release, which bodes well for the future of Destiny.
  • “Wording issues and trying to keep up to date with the most current Wizkids rulings became daunting!” – Ryan Pace

• Rarity Distribution and Potency
  • Dice Masters has 1-2 super rares per 90 count gravity feed, but that doesn’t matter much since rarity does not correspond to power. If you want to play with a powerful super rare, you only need one copy of the card and can use dice from lower rarities to reach the max number of dice. This saves a lot of money in the long run and is a very positive aspect of Dice Masters. Star Wars: Destiny has 6 legendaries per 36 count gravity feed, with each pack containing 1 rare or legendary. In Star Wars: Destiny, rarity does correspond to power, and if you want to run two dice on a legendary card, you will need to pull or purchase two copies of that card/die. This is a much costlier system than Dice Masters, though you are guaranteed a rare or legendary in each booster.
  • “[In] Dice Masters…I could easily construct a decent deck with a handful of commons and uncommons. I wasn’t punished for not buying 2-3 booster boxes and could easily near collect a non-super rare set with a single box, and every starter came with the big headlining heroes and villains most casual players would want that were not hobbled at all just to get you to buy more packs.” – Mike Stevens
  • “It’s a bit frustrating that you’re stuck trying to find, trade for, or buy doubles of legendary cards in Destiny. I appreciated that in DM you only needed a single copy and could then use your common/uncommon dice with that character’s super rare card.” – Matthew Scott

• Information
  • Dice Masters is open information, with both players having the same information. Star Wars: Destiny, on the other hand, has 30 hidden cards per player, making it impossible to know what your opponent brought or has in their hand.
  • “I liked in dice masters that I could anticipate my opponents moves each turn and easily read what cards are across from me. That also meant I only had to know what 10 cards did.” – Jenna Marion
  • “I personally feel that the level of information present in Destiny as compared to Dice Masters makes Destiny much more comparable to magic, force of will, or hearthstone.” – Remington Morris
  • “The open, public element of Dice Masters is very attractive to me.” – Christopher Williams
  • “1 thing I didn’t like about DM is that there is no mystery. Both players know what the other player has from the very start. There is no surprise.” – Jeff Fisher

• Organized Play
  • Wizkids provides many promotional cards for Dice Masters tournaments and organized play. These include both alternate art versions of existing cards as well as unique cards/characters. Fantasy Flight Games does provide organized play prizes, but not as frequently as Wizkids.
  • “Wizkids has excellent OP support. From the ranking systems from WINs, to card support.” – Ronald Schachtner II
  • “DM has regular OP kits that are great for weekly prizes, SWD has seasonal OP that provides support for events much less frequently.” – Jason Gardner

As you can see, Dice Masters and Star Wars: Destiny are superficially similar games, but differ in many significant ways. Ultimately, both games boil down to having fun within a community of players. Isaac Villa, an authority on Dice Masters and co-host of The Reserve Pool podcast, affirmed this sentiment. “I play DM bc I love the community locally, nationally and internationally. I wouldn’t play it if that wasn’t true.” It is my hope, and the hope of The Chance Cube, that both games and both communities will continue to thrive, resulting in epic battles and lasting friendships for all.

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