DC Comics: Deck-Building Game - Tips & Strategies

I made the mistake of playing this after I had played Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Deck-Building Game and one thing it has going for it is the ramp of archenemies (supervillains).

After playing DC Deck-Building Game a few times, I saw why the villain ladder was used for LotR because DC has a tendency to drag on with no one killing the arch-villain and then suddenly, everyone can and the whole game ends in about 4 or 5 turns.

If you take the arch-villains, and divide them up into 3 power levels (low; medium; high;) and then randomly draw arch-villains from each pile evenly until you have the required amount of arch-villains, placing the high-powered villians face-down on the bottom of the arch-villian deck, the mediums in the middle and then the lows on top with Raz Al Ghul being the topmost, face-up arch-villain.

This way, the game builds to a finish rather than feels boring before suddenly ending.

Here is my personal ranks of the Super Heroes. This is based off my experiences in a 2-3 player game, and of course there are always exceptions with the right luck. Also unable to rank Manhunter due to not having the promo.

1. Aquaman – Aquaman starts out strong and the ability to use cards you obtained for next round, is very strong. You can create combos this way and even locations get flushed out of your deck faster.

2. Wonder Woman – There are few villains that Super Heroes feel they need in their deck and no other heroes have abilities that chain off villains. Most other times villains are killed because there was nothing better on the board. This gives Wonder Woman the opportunity to focus on villains and constantly activate her ability to draw extra cards, and there is no limit to how many times you can do it in one turn.

3. Cyborg – His ability is limited to once per turn, but he has flexibility in both equipment and super powers.

4. Superman – His ability is a nice buff that is unlimited off super powers. While very similar to batman, the benefit is that if the lineup is not very pleasing, superman can always get kick cards that count as a super power.

5. Batman – Batman has a nice unlimited buff like superman but has no fallback card to purchase if equipment is not available. Equipment is also highly sought after for defenses and other perks.

6. Green Lantern – His power is versatile, so it can benefit off any kinds of cards but I can’t help but feel this is best mid game. It takes awhile before you get 3 cards to give you the bonus unless you are lucky and in end game the most you can get is 3, where as superman and batman can go above 3.

7. Flash – Going first is ok but nothing fancy. The ability to draw and extra card is nice, but it’s limited to once per turn and all other heroes love to have draw card abilities as well. So you are competing to get the cards you benefit most from. Leave Flash at the bottom for me.

This is just my take. I definitely feel there is some wiggle room to shift the ranks and I’m honestly most shakey about Green Lantern. I hope this helps!

If you have the opportunity to pick up Robins and Bat Signals, these combo quite nicely out of the discard pile.

Bat Signal: +1 power and put a hero from your discard pile to your hand.
Robin: +1 power and put a equipment card from your discard pile to your hand.

Example:
2 Robins and 1 Bat Signal are in your discard pile and you get 1 Bat Signal in your hand.

Use Bat Signal to obtain Robin > Use Robin to gain Batsignal > Batsignal for Robin again > then Robin to get another random piece of equipment.

This gives +4 power and another equipment card of your choice.

Power

For each Villain you buy or gain during your turn, draw an extra card at the end of your turn.

Introduction and Notes

Wonder Woman’s theme is obviously to buy villain cards, which is good because there is no shortage of villains in the main deck. Note the following as it pertains to her power:

a) Super-Villains are villains and thus count for her power.

b) The power modifies the number of cards you would normally draw at the end of your turn. The rules state you draw 5 cards at the end of your turn, Wonder Woman instead draws 5 + X where X is the number of villains you bought (with power) or gained (through some other means) that turn.

c) Wonder Woman’s power acts like a bank in the sense that each time a villain is bought or gained you add the ability to draw one extra card at the end of the current turn. This is different than it being a check at the end of the turn where you count up the total number of villains you bought or gained and then draw that many cards. This is important because of Captain Cold who says you have to turn your Super Hero face down. While Wonder Woman is face down all villains you buy or gain do not trigger her ability and thus do not net you extra cards (including Captain Cold if you defeated him during your turn).

Buying Villains

Buying villains is obviously going to be your main strategy, but which villains to buy? Over the course of the game if you were given the same line up and power total your choice of what to buy should be different.

a) Early Game: If you can buy a villain that gives you more power then choose that over a villain that gives you less

b) Mid to Late Game: Later in the game when your deck has either been partially pruned of the starting cards or the ratio of starting cards to cost 2 or greater cards is small enough then the cards you draw will be better. That means that drawing extra cards means a lot more than it did earlier in the game so buying multiple smaller villains in order to a) get more VP (potentially) and b) draw more higher powered cards due to her ability is actually better than buying one Doomsday. This is not a full fledged switch in strategy but rather being aware of the fact that buying the most expensive villain isn’t always the best choice later on when getting multiple 3 cost villains could be better.

Maximizing Damage (or how to properly play villains that interact with other players)

It is important to realize that many of the villains damage your opponents in various ways (Bane, Poison Ivy, Scare Crow, Harley Quinn, Suicide Squad (if you get 3 in the same hand)) so not only will you be drawing extra cards but you will be slowing down the pace of your opponents as well.

Since you will have multiple effects that act on your opponents, order is of extreme importance. Here is a guide to how to play certain villains.

Harley Quinn
An example would be how Harley Quinn interacts with other cards. Harley Quinn is not a really powerful card, but is easily under utilized. Here are 2 examples:

a) If you have Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, always play Poison Ivy first in order to ensure you don’t sabotage your Harley Quinn.

b) If you have a Bane and a Harley Quinn, always play the Bane first because your opponents may not have a Punch or Vulnerability in their discard pile and are likely to discard one from their hand to Bane.

The Joker
You have to gauge when to play the Joker based on the current state of your opponents hands (i.e. do they have less cards than they should), but in general it is best to LEAD with the Joker as the first card you play in a turn. You don’t want your opponents to have any information about your hand before they make their decision to allow you to draw a card or not. This is true not only because it is strategic but also because you want to introduce as much chaos and doubt as you can because it’s the JOKER!!!

Brainiac
Brainiac allows you to play a random card from each players hand. The more cards a player has the higher the chance you will choose a starter card. So if you have a Bane in your hand, play it before Brainiac in order to get the junk out of their hands and up your chances of choosing a good card.

Utility Villains

A few villains allow you to do some unconventional things that are of use.

Cheetah
Cheetah is a great card because it is a 2 cost card that allows you to repeatedly get a 4 cost or less card each time it is played. The main deck has a large number of cards that are 4 or less so this is a must take.

The Riddler
The Riddler costs 3 power for each time you use his power but the majority of the cards in the main deck are 3 or more (a VAST majority of them). This means that a small percentage of the time you will get something less than what you paid, a fair amount of time you will get the same as what you paid and a large amount of time you will get better than what you paid (the starting deck has 56% of the cards of cost 4 or greater). The main problem with the Riddler is that you don’t know what you are going to get so the cards may or may not fit your strategy, however when you hit you hit big, taking cards from other players as well as they will now never hit the lineup.

Clay Face
Clay Face is a good card depending on what you have in your deck. He can make it easier to get 3 Suicide Squads in one turn. He can copy very large powered cards (including Parallax, thus giving 4x power in that turn). Consider buying him mid to late game, but if you buy him early then be prepared to copy a punch.

Other cards

Princess Diana of Themyscira
This card is feast or famine because it gives you no power. I have no idea what the designers were thinking here, I mean really. That being said, if you can get this card AND a Bat Signal then you can be in good shape. Even if this card only nets you one villain each time it is played it is still a good card, you just have to be prepared to be disappointed when there are no villains in the line up.

Arkham Asylum
This card is your gold mine, buy it instantly. There are very few cards in the line-up that you will prefer over this card as it will likely net you one extra card every turn.

Summary

Overall Wonder Woman is a strong pick, no matter the number of players. The key to playing as Wonder Woman is to buy lots of villains each turn and to cripple your opponents so that they are forced to buy cards that are sub-par for their strategy.

Green Lantern appears to be an undervalued hero to many but he has a lot of potential if you get the right cards. The key to playing Green Lantern is buying multiple different low cost cards (basically the opposite of The Flash) mixed in with some drawing abilities.

1. Any card that allows you to draw a card is great. Kid Flash is, in my opinion, a better card for Green Lantern than it is for The Flash. The reason being that it a) Satisfies 1/3 of his ability and b) gets you another card that can potentially satisfy more of his ability. Cards that are best to satisfy this are: Kid Flash, The Penguin and the Batmobile. Remember: always lead with the Penguin so that you keep 0 cost cards in your hand in order to satisfy his cards effect. Locations should also be sought after, but this is true for ALL heroes as Locations are naturally the highest sought after cards in the game due to their rarity and consistent output.

2. The cost to power ratio of cards should always be considered, but even more so for Green Lantern. You want to buy as many different cards as you can so don’t fill up on Kicks if you have any other option in the lineup that gives you 2 or more power and a cost of 3.

3. Think about other cards that don’t allow you to draw a card but rather get a card into your hand in another fashion or allow you to play another card, even if temporarily.

a. Examples of cards that get you another card into your hand: Robin, Bat Signal, Super Girl and Man of Steel. Super Girl in particular is phenomenal for Green Lantern because if there are still Kicks in the Kick pile then you know you are playing it to get 2 power, 1 VP and fulfilling 2/3 of your ability.

b. Examples of cards that let you play another card temporarily: X-Ray Vision, Starro, Emerald Knight, J’onn J’onzz.

4. Defense cards are great for everyone, but any defense card that also nets you another card can be good. Early on this will hurt you in general because playing a defense card means you lose a card that can satisfy part of your ability and potentially getting one or more 0 cost cards which means you lost the chance to satisfy your ability. Get Defense cards, but be mindful of the number of cards in your hand that can satisfy your ability and make an educated guess as to whether you can satisfy it still if you defend an attack.

5. Destroy cards are great for everyone, just like Defense cards, but it should go without saying that the more starting cards (cost 0) you can get rid of then the higher the probability you will satisfy your ability.

6. Deny, deny, deny. Due to the fact that Green Lantern isn’t tied to any one card type you are free to buy whatever you want so make the most of this by denying cards to other players that they need for their strategy.

The point is, don’t underestimate the usefulness of a potential +3 power per turn (mid to late game) as well as the ability to not be tied to a specific card type. The ability will not kick in until probably around turn 7+ but if you set things up right then you will be good to go.

We have come up with a new variation to our play. We have played this game so much at our store that we tend to really break turns with crazy plays but the games can take a bit long due to this, so we put ourselves on a clock. This variation is a timed game. We decide how long the game will go. Once time is up the player who is played ends their turn and the game is over. Each player is also only allowed so much time per play turn. If they run out of time the loose the rest of that turn no more buys allowed. it has made for some crazy fast play and real excitement with big plays that may not pay off due to time. We have the games run max of 21 min for 3 player and 25 min for 4 player. So far we have not tried it with 5 players. Each players turn have been limited to 20 seconds or so. Mind you all of this can be adjusted to your taste so have fun. Expect to be a bit tired at the end of the game its a real blast.

When provided the ability to destroy a card most people will go after a weakness or vulnerability card. When these are gone, it is time to burn punches. Yes, you get power from these cards, but they take up space in your hand from the more powerful cards in your deck.

With the upcoming release of the new DC Deckbuilding game, there a variant of the game in which you work with a partner to beat the big bads. In an even group of six or more players combine both decks into one monstrous pile and pair off. Each pair will share 6 Weaknesses and 14 Punches in a combined deck, that both players of a team draw from. The players on each team make purchase as normal from the lineup during their turn but draws and discards are made into the shared pile. In the end the team who has the highest deck score wins.

Power

You may put any cards with cost 5 or less you buy or gain during your turn on top of your deck.

Introduction and Notes

Aquaman is arguably the most powerful hero in this game. There are 2 reasons for this:

a) He is not tied to any card type, giving him flexibility

b) He has the ability to put a vast majority of the purchasable cards in the game immediately on top of his deck. This means that not only can you get cards sooner, but you can utilize cards that allow you to draw a card in a more efficient way than other heroes.

Buying cards with cost 5 or less

If you have enough power to buy a card with a cost higher than 5 you really need to consider the size of your deck. Early on in the game this is a no brainer, but later in the game the chances of you getting that card by the end of the game (depending on how many
cards are left in your deck) could be small. The ability to put any card of cost 5 or less on top of your deck is amazing because it means you will immediately get that card on your next draw so consider this with each card that you buy.

Master of Locations

Locations
Locations are already great for all other heroes but for Aquaman they are the best cards because he will guarantee he will get them on the turn after he buys them. Always buy locations unless the location has very little value to your current deck strategy AND if it has little value to the rest of the players. The other good part is that because you are not tied to a card type you can really buy any location and make it work for you, so buy the one that hurts your opponents the most.

Swamp Thing
Swam Thing is an amazing card if you have a location (since he basically becomes a Super Strength) and given that you are the Master of Locations you probably will have one so take as many Swamp Things as you can.

Utility Cards

Aquaman’s Trident
Aquaman’s Trident seems to not be needed by Aquaman due to his inherent power but it is a great pick even given this. The reasons for this are:

a) You can deny your opponents the ability to put cards on top of their deck

b) You can now put a card on top of your deck on almost every turn, even if the card you buy is more than a cost of 5. This is especially useful when defeating Super-Villains

Cards that allow you to draw more cards
Cards that allow you to draw one or more cards can be used with great effect if they are used after you buy or gain a card with a cost of 5 or less. The flow goes something like this, play some cards and get some power, buy a card with a cost of 5 or less and put it on top of your deck, then play a card that allows you to draw the card you just put on top of your deck and then play that card. This is especially useful if you buy a card that allows you to search through your discard pile like Robin or Bat Signal. Also, Two Face requires that you choose even or odd, if you just put a card on top of your deck then you will know its cost and can choose correctly every time :).

Summary

Overall, Aquaman is ALWAYS a solid pick. He will ramp up the fastest every game and sort of plateau around the middle where other heroes will start to take off. It is important that you make big moves early when you have the advantage, so choose your cards wisely in turns 1-6.

In response to Mat’s suggestion let’s take it a step further to include Batman and Superman in multiplayer games…

Cap their superpower abilities at a +3 each max per turn to keep this from getting out of hand in a runaway leader sort of way. You want everyone to have fun and play a balanced game.