This game is like the opposite of Magic the Gathering. Instead of making a deck and playing a game to win; the deck creation is actually the game. DC deckbuilding utilizes the Cerberus engine (whatever that means).
First you choose a DC superhero champion or avatar; Your options are Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Aquaman, Cyborg, Green Lantern, or Flash. Each hero gives the player some static ability to assist with the deck building.
After you have your hero, you are given 10 starting cards. 7 PUNCH cards and 3 VULNERABILITY cards.
There are 5 basic types of cards available for "purchase". These types include: heroes, villains, super powers, equipment, and locations.
While you are getting your cards for your starting hand, the remaining cards are set up in different stacks with the majority of the cards in a stack called the main deck. The first five cards from the main deck are turned face up and these are called the line up. As cards are removed from the line up, cards are drawn from the main deck to replace them.
So how do you build your deck? You shuffle your 10 cards and draw 5 of them. This is your starting hand. Some cards "produce" POWER when you play them. POWER is the currency a player uses to buy other cards. So on your turn you play your hand (lay down your cards). Lets say you have 3 PUNCH cards and 2 VULNERABILITY cards in your hand. That turn you have a total of 3 POWER to "spend". The order in which you play your cards doesn't really matter at the start of the game, but it can make a difference on your later turns.
Different cards give the player different options for building his/her deck. For instance, the SUPER POWER card "KICK" to the left costs 3 POWER to purchase and when played produces +2 POWER.
As you play and purchase cards, you put those into your discard pile. Once you have no more cards to draw, you shuffle your discard pile and use it to draw from. So you are constantly recycling your cards.
Game play continues with players purchasing basic cards until players can produce enough POWER to purchase a SUPER Villain card. The JOKER card to the left costs 10 POWER. The game ends when the last SUPER villain card is purchased.
Every card in the game is worth a number of victory points. Let's look at the JOKER card again; its worth 5 victory points (the number in the orange star). The winner of the game is the player whose deck "produces" the most victory points.
There are a few other game mechanics not mentioned in this review, but this covers the basics.
PROSE AND KONS
PROSE
Game play and rules are pretty simple.
Card art is visually pleasing.
A decent game could be played under 2 hours.
Rules are flexible enough that allow variations.
KONS
After a while the game can get monotonous.
Need to have at least 3 players for a decent game.
$40 price tag.
Game packaging is a bit cumbersome for storage.
THE VERDICT
Being a superhero fanatic, I love DC deckbuilding. While I listed monotony as a con, it's only because that's what some of my friends said to me; as I could play this game forever without boredom (ok, maybe not forever...). The reason for this review is that a new expansion for DC deckbuilding called HEROES UNITE is coming out. This expansion is said to have new hero champions/avatar including Batgirl, Hawkman, and others... Stay tuned for more info
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