Playing the TCG with Only Dice

Still on the subject of physical TCG equipment, having mentioned dice as one of the possible kinds of supplementary equipment in the previous discussion, I thought I should discuss it further. A radical proposition (by one consideration, at least) regarding this kind of equipment is that it's possible to play through entire games or matches of the TCG using only dice as the supplementary equipment. How that may be possible becomes something that can be (and in fact should be) discussed, and that becomes the point of this post.

Recall that I had mentioned a few aspects of this when I started with the local TCG such a long time ago, and those aspects are still relevant. Usage of a die to call for odds or evens in lieu of the heads and tails from flipping a coin obviously allows the former to stand in for the latter, and it can then be considered a way to obviate or supplant the use of coins. In fact, I've also seen a Pokémon-themed die with Pikachu on it that can indeed serve this purpose very well. In this way, a distinct supplementary equipment is rendered unnecessary.

Dice obviously have values on them, so they can stand in for damage counters as well, but quite (more than) a few may be needed for Pokémon that have over 240 HP (which can be represented with four regular dice showing sixes). As a "supplement" to this supplement, it may be possible to borrow the "doubling cube" from backgammon to represent greater damage in a more succinct manner. Yet for those who possess a large number of regular dice, this probably won't matter much, and the fact remains that the substitution is possible.

Then there are other markers that don't seem like they could be substituted with dice yet in fact seems quite possible. An ability that has been used could be marked with a die showing a six horizontally. Certain statuses could be indicated with dice showing certain values (or even a one for simplicity, if not many of them are in actual play) with the dice being placed on the Pokémon slightly turned to resemble a diamond. The system can totally work out and therefore make usage of only dice rather attractive. 

With the above points, it seems very much possible that a player in a TCG match could use a set of dice for their entire set of supplementary equipment - aside from the ones that affect the cards themselves - and be able to use them to represent just about everything that goes on in that match. By that account, it seems to be not such a radical proposition after all (except maybe considering the perceptions of dice themselves as game equipment), and at least in some cases, usage of only dice in TCG might just work out, and very well in fact.

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