WrestleMania Special: *CUSTOM* WWE Dice Masters Cards

It’s that special time of year again. It’s time to dust off that Randy Savage impression, practice your form swinging that steel chair, and prepare for the ‘showcase of the immortals’. Today, April 7 2019, is WrestleMania 35! Indulge me while I wax poetic on some professional wrestling.

Professional Wrestling is an incredible mixing of worlds. It started out as a carnival sideshow to swindle the common folk who weren’t wise to the business. Over time, it has evolved in to a modern opera where storytellers perform in front of audiences that could be found in the Roman Coliseum. Fans watching good vs evil clash in tests of strength and agility. These larger than life characters perform incredible feats and do battle to decide who shall be victorious. Legends are remembered forever based on their accomplishments on this stage. The Ultimate Warrior, Bret “Hitman” Hart, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Daniel Bryan are just some of the icons that will live forever in WrestleMania moments.

When I found out that WizKids would be making a WWE Dice Masters set I already had a wish list of characters. While I do love the characters I grew up watching (The Road Warriors, Sting, Owen Hart, Ultimo Dragon, Psicosis, etc, etc,) I know that for pro wrestling to survive and grow, the current crop of wrestlers need to be celebrated and tomorrow’s stars need to have the spotlight. As pro wrestling fans, we can’t focus on just the stars we grew up watching, longing for those days to return. So, here are some Dice Masters cards I made, based on the modern-day roster of WWE. Some of these stars will even be in action at WrestleMania this year.

So, a little something about these cards. All of the artwork is taken from the WWE comic book from BOOM Studios. I gave each character an alignment as found in the D&D sets of Dice Masters. Good and evil are key character traits in wrestling. I’m surprised that the alignment traits haven’t appeared in any other sets, and I feel that WWE is the perfect set for them to be relevant again. I’m also using the Equip and Gear traits. Using foreign objects like steel chairs, sledgehammers, kendo sticks, trash cans, championship belts, crutches, and even a time keeper’s bell are all common occurrences and these moments should be embraced. Hence, the Equip. Let’s get started!

Let’s start with the current (as of this writing) WWE Universal Champion, Brock Lesnar. The mystique around Brock Lesnar has grown incredibly in the last 5 years. He destroyed the Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania. He’s only been beaten a handful of times since then, and each of those times were very special occasions or even involved a little bit of foul play. Because of his overwhelming presence, I gave him the ability to cancel out an opposing character’s ability. Yes, he’s an 8 cost character, and yes, that means he wouldn’t see competitive play. But in the world of WWE there is no bigger “final boss”. He has incredible stats, as many of the characters in this set do. If you’re turning off the opposing character’s abilities like Iron Will, Fast, or even Deadly, having massive Attack and Defense stats can mop up just about any opponent. Brock is evil, and I doubt there’s any wrestling fan that would argue otherwise.

Next, we have another WrestleMania icon, the aforementioned Undertaker. A massive presence, just like Brock Lesnar, he is also an 8 cost character. Unlike Lesnar, The Undertaker merely needs to enter the battlefield to make his presence known. He makes sure that your opponent will think twice about initiating combat, especially against The Undertaker’s stats. Whether it’s a Casket Match, a Buried Alive Match, or taking place inside a Hell in a Cell match, The ‘Deadman’ guarantees opposing characters will rest in peace. His abnormally low fielding cost is to represent how he can appear out of nowhere. The lights flicker, a gong rings, and there he is. He has the neutral alignment because he’s more of a force of nature than anything. He’s been a good guy and bad guy both in his career, but as he usually falls somewhere in between.

Next up is WWE legend, and Hollywood star, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Regardless if he is playing the role of a hero or villain, The Rock is beloved by his millions (and millions) of fans. While he’s always been memorable for his accomplishments in the ring, he might be better remembered for what he can do with a microphone. He had the ability to steal all of the momentum away from an opponent by talking about shining something up real nice, turning it sideways, and shoving it right up their candy… As I was saying, he had a way with words. That’s why when he’s fielded, your opponent loses all of the energy they were saving for globals. It can take the wind out of your opponent’s sails and put you right back in control. Another high cost character, but it would be hard to justify lower stats for such a legend.

Next up is the one who rises above hate. He lives by the credo of hustle, loyalty, and respect. You may not be able to see him, but the champ is here. John Cena. When the odds are stacked against him, he seems to always find a way to win. He’s often compared to Superman with the way he overcomes impossible odds. So what better way to showcase impossible odds that having his ability only go in to effect when you’re in Underdog status. The quintessential good guy. He’s got good enough stats that even if he’s not currently impervious he should be able to withstand any normal amount of punishment. He has pretty good stats for a 5 cost character and could be a fun character depending on the gameplan. Aside from Dice Masters, I used to absolutely hate John Cena. I thought he was the antithesis to everything I considered good and pure in pro wrestling. I was wrong. Cena is great. I will miss the fact that he’s not a full time wrestler anymore.

Next up are probably the cards I’m most proud of. The most dominant trio in pro wrestling history, ‘the hounds of justice’, The Shield. Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins debuted as an unstoppable force. There’s so much to unpack here. First, their subtitles. “Sierra, Hotel, India, Echo, Lima, Delta.” is the opening vocal track over radio static that plays at the beginning of their entrance music as they entered through the crowd. They would make their way to the ring and surround whatever wrestler happened to be unlucky enough to be in their crosshairs. Their abilities reflect their swarming the ring against a unprepared opponent. Next, the Tag Team keyword ability. “Tag Team: When you are declaring attackers or defenders, you may attach any number of different characters that meet the Tag Team requirements of a character involved. These characters are treated as a single attacking or defending character, with combined Attack and combined Defense values. The combined Tag Team attacker/defender also has all abilities of the combined characters.” So, if all 3 shield members were attacking on level 3 together, they would act as a single 20 Attack, 18 Defense character. If you haven’t been able to tell, my WWE Dice Masters set would be VERY combat focused. But a lot of the characters have been pretty expensive so far. So, let’s look at some characters you can get on early turns.

Finn Balor is such a strange case. When he is just “regular guy” Finn Balor, he is kind of a chump. That’s the 2 cost. He can win matches here and there, but he loses the big matches. But when he paints himself up as “The Demon” he is nigh unbeatable. I feel like giving his 4 cost version the demon token ability makes him a lot more fun to use. Regular Finn is a nice guy, but he starts to come unhinged as The Demon, which is why he gains the neutral alignment. FYI, Finn Balor has a match for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 35, where he has already said he will bring out The Demon. If you get a chance to see his entrance as The Demon, you should definitely check it out.

Women in WWE have been putting on amazing matches recently. There was a day and age where women were not respected performers and were rumored to be hired based purely on appearance. Now, women’s wrestling has just as exciting matches and involved storytelling as the men’s matches. There is a level playing field. In fact, women are the main event of this year’s WrestleMania. Charlotte Flair will face Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey in a triple threat, winner take all championship match in the last match of the night. That said, you can’t make a WWE Dice Masters set based on current wrestlers without including some of these amazing women. Charlotte’s finishing move is a submission move, called the Figure Eight. When Charlotte is fielded, she puts her Figure Eight submission hold on to an opposing character. That character remains captured for as long as you want. However, you will draw 1 less die at the start of your turn for as long Charlotte has that opposing character trapped in the submission hold. As an ability design, I’ve wanted something like this for a long time. I like the idea of sacrificing the number of drawn dice at the start of your turn to establish board control.

Another woman in WWE, and honestly one of my favorite all around wrestlers, Asuka. Asuka is a vicious, unorthadox, fighter who is lethal in so many ways. She’s an incredible striker, with backhand strikes and roundhouse kicks. She has been known to knock opponents out with one of those kicks. She’s also a submission specialist. She’s used everything from armbars to her patented Asuka Lock to defeat opponents. While in WWE’s developmental program, NXT, she had and undefeated streak that eclipsed Goldberg’s undefeated streak from 1990s WCW. She oozes charisma without speaking a word. She dances her way to the ring wearing vibrant colors and elaborate masks, but when the bell rings, she’s scary intense. I love Asuka. She is always looking for a challenge, claiming “No one is ready for Asuka.” So when she does find a worthy opponent, she has the Call Out keyword. But with her high attack and Fast keyword, she’s absolutely right. No one is ready for Asuka.

We need a few basic actions. And some of those are bound to be reprints. I couldn’t think of a better Basic Action to include than Betrayal. This image is when Seth Rollins turned his back on The Shield. To set the stage, The Shield just got done feuding with one of the most memorable factions in WWE History: Evolution. The Shield had gotten the best of Evolution on numerous occasions, which is odd in itself because WWE usually books its legends to go over its new talent. In the blowoff match for their feud, The Shield faced Evolution in a 3-on-3 elimination match. (In elimination matches when a person is pinned or submitted they are eliminated from the match, and the match continues until all members of one team are eliminated.) The Shield won in a clean sweep. They eliminated all 3 members of Evolution without a single member of the Shield being eliminated. No one dreamed that would have happened. The Shield was now untouchable. And the next night, Seth Rollins turned his back on his Shield brothers, joining HHH and the evil Authority. It was a moment no one saw coming, and will be burned in to wrestling fans’ eyes forever.

Championship Belts are a cornerstone of wrestling storytelling. The Championship Belt is gear you equip to a character. Anytime that character KOs an opposing character, they gain a Championship Token on their card. Those tokens give your character +1A/1D as long as they have the Championship Belt equipped. So if your Champion is knocking out characters, succesfully defending their title, they get stronger. This image is one of my favorite WrestleMania moments of all time. Lifelong underdog, Zack Ryder, finally won a championship in a ladder match. Zack was only added to the match days before WrestleMania due to injury, so no one expected him to actually win. The camera cut to Zack’s dad and best friend in the crowd who were both going crazy. It was an amazing feel good moment for fans who had followed his up and down career. Woo, woo, woo! You know it!

Microphones are dangerous things in the right hands. Gear simply giving a keyword doesn’t happen enough in Dice Masters. I really feel like this is a perfect, simple, useful piece of Gear to equip. The image comes from a now infamous moment from the cancelled Talking Smack show. Talking Smack was a memorable series because it let the wrestlers have some freedom to be their characters in an unscripted environment. Here we have The Miz talking to Daniel Bryan. The two of them had a long history with one another as rivals. Daniel Bryan, who is renowned as a master of technical wrestling, claimed that The Miz wresltes in a cowardly style. Miz snapped and delivered one of the best on-air promos we have seen to this date. This card captures that moment and the power of a microphone in the right hands.

Last but not least, we have Tables! Tables make every move more devastating, and being able to send it to the Used Pile to double ANY instance of damage is so thematic. Giving your opponent a body slam? Do it through a table! Head scissors off the top rope? Through a table! Ping them with a Magic Missile global? Through a freakin’ table! You get the idea. Here we have the Dudleys. Their catch phrase is “Get the tables!” So having them on this card is only fitting. This is when they returned to WWE after years away for a very impressive run that showed they could still deliver fun and exciting matches. …and still put people through tables. I’m not typically a fan of hardcore or extreme rules matches. But man, tables matches are fun.

So, there we have it. Some custom Dice Masters card inspired by the announcement of WWE Dice Masters. What do you think? Should the WWE set incorporate the ggod/evil alignment? What about the Gear and Equip keywords? And what are your thoughts on the Tag Team keyword. Personally, I think it’s everything Heroic should have been. Obviously, I couldn’t create EVERY great WWE wrestler from history. Randy “Macho Man” Savage, Ric Flair, and Booker T would all be great additions as well. Who do you want to see the most? Let us know in the comments!