Superheroes Ltd (Sentinels of the Multiverse)

REVIEW #100

Are you an up and coming hero with a special set of powers?  Do you want to do more with your life besides catching bank robbers and purse snatchers?  Do you want a sweet uniform that doesn't look like you robbed an old ladies clothesline?  Then you should apply for the Sentinels of the Multiverse, the team that rights wrongs, battles giant monsters and inter-dimensional threats, and looks good while doing it.  Positions are open today!



BACKGROUND:  Sentinels of the Multiverse is a cooperative card game published by Greater Than Games for 2 to 5 players in 2011.  Players take the role of various super heroes and team up to battle powerful enemies.

GAMEPLAY:  Each player takes a Hero card, and appropriate deck, and choose a Villain character and rules card, and matching deck to battle against, and a Environment deck to determine where you fight.  Gameplay consists of the Villain turn, the Hero turn, and the Environment turn.  Villain and Environment turns consist of effects that trigger at the beginning, an action to reveal a card, and an end phase to trigger end of turn effects

VILLAIN:  Villain character cards have various abilities, and generally have two sides, which flip when certain conditions are met, and have varying abilities depending on the side shown.  Each turn, players reveals the top card of the deck, and any others according to the card chosen.



HEROES:  Once the Hero turn starts, a player is chosen to go first.  A typical turn starts by playing one card from their hand.  One Shots will apply once and be discarded, while Equipment and Ongoing stay in front of the player.  Cards with Limited mean you can only have one of that kind of card out.  Then the player may activate a Power on either the Hero character card or a card in front of them.  The turn is ended by drawing a card.  Players may get to draw or play more cards if they have a card which allows them to.  Alternatively, if a player feels they cannot make an effective turn, they may skip their turn to draw 2 cards.

WINNING:  All Hero and Villain character cards, as well as some Environment and Villain cards have Life totals either in the top left below the Sentinels logo, or the top right.  If a Heroes ever drops to 0, They flip their card, and can now only choose 1 of the 3 actions on that card during their turn.  If all Heroes drop to 0, the Heroes lose.  If the Villain drops to 0, the Heroes win.

CONCLUSION:  Sentinels is designed to be a difficult game, but it isn't nearly as hard as most co-operative games can be.  The world built in here is obviously crafted with care and love, and with more forethought than I can give some comic books.  Mechanically, it seems like a fairly simple game, but there's a lot of complexity going on.  It can be a bit frustrating to remember and deal with some of the Villains, as they play a lot of cards and effects that are all over the place, but if you can get around that, then Sentinels of the Multiverse has a good amount of replayability, especially with the various expansions of new Villains and Heroes to play.

Batman v Superman v Flash? (DC Comics Deck-Building Game)

Perched atop a rooftop in Gotham, slowly following the man known as Lex Luthor, Batman keeps a wary eye.  After being ambushed by Harley Quinn, he waits to pounce at the appropriate time.  He hears a rustling, and a rush of wind.  Pulling out his binoculars, he sees Superman, Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Cyborg all chasing after Luthor.  Luthor turns, grinning at Batman, daring him.  Batman leaps into the Batmobile, determined to get there first.


























GAME DESCRIPTION: DC Comics Deck-Building Game is a *cough* deck builder designed for 2 to 5 players.  It was created in 2012 by Criptozoic Entertainment.  Players take the role of 1 of 7 different DC heroes, from Superman to Aquaman to Cyborg.  Players attempt to build the ideal deck to defeat the revealed villain, and do so by adding powerful cards, destroying their weaker cards, and preventing your opponent from doing the same.  The victor is the player with the most Victory Points when the last villain is defeated.

SET UP:  Each player starts by randomly selecting a hero card.  Each hero has a unique special ability.  Each player starts with a deck 7 Punch cards and 3 Vulnerability cards.  During the players turn, they draw 5 cards.  The main deck is shuffled, and 5 cards are dealt face-up in a row called the "Line-up" There is also a Super-villain deck, that's shuffled, but the card Ra's Al Ghul is placed face-up on top first.

POWER: Every card, save for Punch and Vulnerability, has a number in the bottom right called the cost.  Certain cards have a term called Power.  On your turn, you can play as many cards as you want from your hand, and buy any amount of the cards in the Line-Up, from the Kick pile equal to or less than the amount of Power you have.  The cost is subtracted from your current Power, and the card is placed in your discard pile.  At the end of your turn, discard your hand and draw back up to 5 cards.  If there aren't enough cards in your deck, shuffle the discard pile and use it as the deck.

SUPER-VILLAINS: At any point during your turn, you can pay the current Super-Villains cost to defeat them if you have enough Power.  Doing so causes the Super-Villain to be placed in your discard pile, and the turn ends.  The current player discards their hand, draws back up to five, and the next Super-Villain is flipped.  Each Super-Villain will have an effect called First Appearance - Attack.  When the character is flipped up, apply that effect as an Attack.  If a Super-Villain is played from a players deck, this effect is no longer applicable.

FIGHTING: Certain Villain cards have an additional effect called led Attack.  This is applied when played, and can do things to mess with the opponent, such as discarding or destroying (i.e. removing them permanently) cards.  If you have a Hero card with Defense, you can play it to avoid the Attack card.  Special rules to note:

• If you fail to land an Attack, this does not cancel out the cards other effects.  It only prevents the cards Attack effect from applying
• Only the Hero's Defense effect is applied when being Attacked. Any other effects written are not applied during defense.
• Defense effects on Hero cards are only applied when being Attacked, and no other time.

LOCATION: There are Location cards, each representing a different place in the DC Universe.  When a Location is played, it will stay permanently in front of the player, and only applies to that player.  Every Location card also has an effect which can be applied if conditions are met.



VICTORY POINTS: VP is located in the star in the bottom left of every card.  When the last Super-Villain is defeated, players tally up all the VP in their hand, deck, and discard pile.  The player with the most

GAINING AND DESTROYING: Some cards have an effect which allow them to gain a certain card from the Line-Up, avoiding the cost required to obtain it.  Other cards allow you to Destroy cards.  This removes them from the game permanently, being placed neither in any players deck, nor the main deck.

CONCLUSION: I'm a big lover of card games, and comic books, so I may be a *little* biased.  However, I really enjoyed this game.  Since it was the first Deck Builder I played, I didn't have much to compare to for a while.  Now, after playing a few others, it's still one of the best that I would recommend.  In addition, there's also various expansions and other versions to try out, ,and mix up the regular game.  With the strong theme, solid mechanics, and wide amount of versions to try, you'll find a lot to like about this game.