Disclaimer: I loved Batman, he's my very first superhero that I admire, so whatever I said here is purely based on the strategy of the game and nothing personal against any character.
Also, there might be some words that you might not understand from this article, these are terms we used in the game,
Beefy - Strong stats
Ramp - Effects that allows you to roll more dice
Ping - Dealing damage to a character
Pump - Additional stats to a character
Spill damage - Damage from overcrush
Swarm - Having way more characters in the field than your opponent and attacking with all of them. Not to be confused with the Swarm Keyword.
New Keywords
Boomerang - When you use an action with boomerang keyword, you may roll it, if you land on an action face, place that action die in your prep area.
Common Ground - When you attack with a character with this keyword and a villain, you may trigger the ability.
Flip - Cards with flipped keyword have 2 sides, you begin the game on either side, then at the beginning of your turn, you can flip that card to another side. When dice on that card is active, the character's ability is on the card that is facing up.
Gadgeteer - When a character with this keyword triggers this ability, you may roll an action die with continuous keyword, if you roll on an action face, you may field that action die.
Stun - Characters with stun token in them cannot attack or block unless the owner pays 2 energy any time they could use global ability.
Character/Action cards
We begin this set with Ace. There's nothing much about him except that he is a low cost Bat family character and possess the ally keyword, so a decent cheap cost character.
This version of Ace does not have the Ally keyword, but depending on how you look at things, Ally might not necessary be a good thing. His ability is great even that he is only 2 cost and that 2A additional pump will definitely come in handy. Villain is not hard to find, and even if your opponent doesn't have one, just use some global ability to make them one. Another cheap cost Bat family character, quite decent card.
This version of Ace plays more of a controller, at 3 cost, you definitely can't purchase him or cycle his dice as fast as the other 2 versions, which are both 2 cost, but instead, you force your opponent to attack or block cautiously. Getting your opponent to KO one of your character is not a hard thing to do, just engage it with a sidekick. Giving a character the villain affiliation is also not a hard task. Dealing 3 damage to that character from Ace's ability could knock out that character, and could help get rid of his/her characters.
Gadgeteer helps you to use a continuous action. Bane's gadgeteer triggers when he attacks, And if you successfully roll that action on an action face, you get to field it. In a way, if your luck is good, you can cycle your continuous action very easily using Bane. Don't underestimate this ability, you can change the outcome of the game if you field the correct action using this ability, plus, Bane's attack is high, so what's the loss of attacking with him.
Before you say anything bad, let me remind you that Bat family affiliation could be given to a character using global abilities, so Bane's ability could actually work in a constructed format. You can give a target opposing character the Bat family affiliation, attack with Bane, KO it, and deal it damage to your opponent. It helps you to get rid of an opposing character, deals damage to your opponent and what's great is you haven't even resolve combat damage, so what's so bad about this version of Bane?
Sometimes I really hate it when a rare card is bad because it just makes a person feels bad for pulling this rare from their booster packs. Before anything, I need to emphasize that you can't use global to make a character outside the field gain Bat family affiliation, so the trick that works for the uncommon version can't be use for this one. Bane is great if you are using him in a format where your opponent heavily relies on Bat family characters, but apart from that, you won't get the chance to spin him up and pump him using his ability. All I can say is that if you are playing a draft, you can consider picking him and putting him into your team, and then hope your opponents plays Bat family characters.
What is Batman without a Bat signal? If you are using Batman in your team, you can consider using this Bat signal as your support, it's a continuous action, so you can use it when you have a Batman die in your bag. Plus, the burst effect allows you to flip a card, and it doesn't need to be Batman, and that's great because you don't get to flip characters as and when you want so this action could help.
Instead of searching for Batman die, you deal damage to villain instead. As said earlier on, villains are not hard to find because you can always use global to make someone a villain. The burst effect is still there so no complaints about this card.
This might be shocking to you but this is the first 1 cost action for the DC Dice Masters universe. For 1 cost, this effect is very powerful, you get to spin a character up a level and give it +1A. And if you just want a bat signal for card flipping, you just need to use this version because it is cheaper.
Batarang is back! This version allows you to deal damage to villain and what's even better is you have a chance to use it again next turn because of the boomerang effect. You can combo this with your action combo team.
If you are playing Bat family team, the Batarang can help you to deal up to 8 damage, with that 1 sidekick gaining the Bat family affiliation. That high damage can help you knocked out almost any character. The boomerang effect is still here so you have a chance to keep using it.
This version helps you to spin your Bat family character up a level, quite useful for Bat family team and boomerang effect is still around.
Here's another option for a low cost Bat family character. Her ability is not hard to trigger as there are other Bat family character that you could use to help get her pump and her stats is decent.
Intimidate is a great ability and you can always give a character villain using global so you can intimidate them with Batgirl.
This version of batgirl helps you to pump your Bat family, so you can go aggressive with her and a few cheap cost Bat family characters, or just cheap cost characters that is given Bat family affiliation using global. She is not hard to exit the field so you can keep triggering her ability.
This our very first flipped card in this set. The good thing about this version is you can choose which side of Batman you want to begin the game with. Both versions have their own usage, depending on your opponent's character. Batman's stats are awesome and his ability prevents your opponent's character from attacking alone, so they can't just swing with 1 character, it's not really a big deal but it's to tell your opponent to go aggressive or to play safe and no option for fine line in between.
Both versions look great yet again. The Bat family face allows him to gain that additional pump which will be very powerful if even overcrush. The villain face helps him to be more durable when blocking a non-villain and have a higher chance of knocking the character he blocks. That 5 cost is a bit costly but if you see the value in his ability, it is not hard to purchase a 5 cost character.
Batman stats really doesn't suit him having a fielding ability, but, his abilities are awesome, forcing your opponent to reroll their active character can be a pain because some of them might turn into energy and your opponent has to place those energy into their used pile when your turn ends so it can really change the outcome of the game when you field Batman. And this is one of the fielding abilities worthy of a 5 cost character.
The Bat family face of Batwoman is not very powerful, it relies a lot on luck and if you don't draw a villain die, you basically waste her ability for the turn. The villain face however, is really powerful, your opponent will definitely draw 2 or more non-villain dice in the late game if he/she isn't playing a villain team, so you will have plenty of chance to ping them 2 damage. My suggestion is keep her on the villain face, the ability is more useful.
This version of Batwoman has both face being very useful. Her Bat family face allows her to be unblockable as long as she attacks with 1 villain, and that's not hard to trigger, and her attack value is rather decent so she can be your source of attack. Her villain face however is more for draining your opponent's energy, your opponent has to pay 1 energy for each character to block her, give her overcrush and your opponent would have to spend a few energy in order to block her and take no damage, regardless both situation benefits you. Good card.
This is crazy, give her overcrush and you can see the damage she can potentially deals. Both faces can be used for different situation depending on what your opponent has, but the ability works the same way. Imagine you attack with her and give her overcrush and your opponent blocks her with 2 sidekick, she deals additional 8 damage, and that would be disastrous for your opponent.
If you intend to build a team of New Gods, you might want to use Big Barda to increase their stats.
This version of Big Barda helps your New Gods to be immune to villains' damage and action dice damage, which can be very powerful since making a character villain is not a hard task. New Gods are already very powerful and making them immune to damage makes your opponent's life even harder.
This version of Big Barda has no support for New Gods, but she alone is very powerful. When a character cannot be KO by combat damage, it basically neutralize opponent's overcrush and she can go very aggressive without worry that she'll get knocked out.
Catwoman is an alternate cheap Bat Family and Villain character, but her fielding cost at level 3 is ridiculous, so you need to be wary of that if you are going to use her.
If you intend to keep flipping your cards every turn, Catwoman can get ridiculously powerful. One easy way to do so is to have all 8 characters having the flip keyword and flip all 8 of them at the beginning of your turn, then Catwoman gets +8A. I might be exaggerating a little but this is how you can make her powerful.
Catwoman is strong in the early game, you get to ramp a die each time you flip a character card when she is active, however, only if it's a sidekick die. The down side of it is that in the late game, it would be rather hard for you to ramp die when her ability since your bag is now flooded with non-sidekick dice, but for only 3 cost, it's quite worthy for an early game ramp.
I don't think I remember seeing a 4 cost ally but well, there's a first for everything. Gordon's ability is very supportive and can help you save some energy in the long run, especially if you are fielding high cost character with expensive fielding cost.
This version of Gordon is heavily relied on Batman, it allows you to ramp an additional die each time you draw a Batman die, but if you need to ramp die for any reason, there are other more effective way to do so.
This version again relies heavily on Batman, not even Bat family. Sure, moving Batman die from the used pile to prep area is great but for 4 cost and you need to field this character to do so. You could easily replace that with much cheaper effects like Rip Hunter's chalkboard global.
Team Superman's representative is here, Conner Kent is low cost and his stats is amazing. So a great addition to Superman's team.
To make Conner Kent work, you must really have a lot of villain converter global because a mere sidekick can block him, and for his stats I would rather use the common version and an unblockable effect on him which is cheaper. Unless of course your opponent is playing a villain team, then this version is more useful.
Similarly to the uncommon version, to make him worth you'll need plenty of villain converters unless your opponent already has villains in their field. Regardless, this version of Conner Kent can be powerful if you can make your opponent's character into villains and then give him overcrush. It's a costly move but that's the only way to make him usable.
For those non-comic book fans. Parademon is Darkseid's minion, so it would be thematic that Darkseid's ability has something to do with Parademon. Capturing ability is great, and at the expense of Parademon is not very hurtful as they are rather cheap. So this is a decent ability.
Another version of Darkseid that relies on Parademon. Darkseid can be a great ramp, sacrificing a parademon for 2 additional dice during your next clear and draw step is a great deal, and you can stack up the effect, so don't be surprised if you have 8 additional dice to roll next turn. The global ability is unique and helpful as well, you can use it to move a weaker dice into the used pile from the prep area and hope that you can replace it with a better die, not a bad global.
This super rare is crazily powerful! By giving your sidekick swarm ability, you can ramp a lot of dice per turn. You don't even need ally, just plain sidekick will do the job, imagine you have an active sidekick and Darkseid, and you draw 4 sidekick dice, then because of swarm you draw another 4, out of it you got 3 sidekick dice, then you draw another 3 dice, now you have a total of 11 dice to roll! And again, this is the best situation, but you get my point. This is one of the super rare to look out for in this set.
Dove's stats is crazily good even at level 2, her level 3 is just ridiculously good. She plays well with Hawk, plus she's got the titan affiliation. At level 2 or 3, you can use Kal-L global to switch her stats and give her overcrush, she would deal massive damage and not forgetting that she is a great blocker as well. The global ability is useful as well, you can use it to reduce a characters attack so instead of blocking it, you can simply leave it unblock and use the global to take reduced damage.
Dove for this version does not rely on Hawk, she just makes it easier for you to use her, taking damage is not a hard task so your Dove will most likely end up in your prep area. You can use this version of her to either spend her as energy and then take damage to cycle the dice over and over, or attack with her aggressively and get her to your prep area, don't forget to flip her stats when you attack with her.
This version of Dove make sure that she is always at level 3, so if you need her to be at level 3 at all times, this is the card to use.
This version of Firefly helps if you are playing a bolt team, he can deal up to 8 damage to your opponent if all your 8 characters are bolt and active in the field. For only 3 cost I think he offers a lot.
This version of Firefly does not need you to have a lot of bolt characters in your team, you simply need to knock him out and keep a bolt energy in your reserve pool, not question mark, and you get to deal 2 damage to your opponent, so be it aggressive or defensive, his ability helps.
Well, if you like to keep bolt energy, this surely helps, you can deal as many damage as you want as long as you can pay them when you field Firefly. The global is great as well, if you know that a character will attack, you can use the villain converter global on it and use the global, then deal 1 damage to your opponent, it's not a lot but it's something.
If you play a villain team, Harley can be your ramp. Decent ability.
Harley Quin's attack is not that high but that could change with some global abilities, just pump her and she'll deal some heavy damage. It's not hard to trigger her ability, just play a villain team with no sidekicks in your field and you can make Harley unblockable when you attack with her and at least one other villain.
This version of Harley is also meant for villain team and if you don't like ramping dice, you can use this version, all you need is to have 2 active villain and you can make your opponent lose 1 life and you gain 1 life every turn, not forgetting she's only 3 cost.
Similarly to Dove, this version of Hawk works best with Dove around. His stats is really powerful, so don't forget to give him overcrush. His global is good as well, it pumps attack but only once, thus preventing player from spamming this global ability. I mean, sometimes, 1 additional pump is enough.
This version of Hawk is powerful as well especially at level 3. Dove's defense is rather strong so you might think that the ability is hard to trigger, but you can always flipped her stats and make her more vulnerable so Hawk's ability can trigger.
This version of Hawk guarantees you that he will always be at level 3. So similarly to Dove rare version, if you feel that you really need Hawk to be at level 3, use this version.
A 2 cost JLA character can never go wrong. Her ability enable you to spin him to level 3 as soon as possible, so for only 2 cost and 4A 4D stats, it's really good.
This version of Hawkgirl also helps her to reach level 3 as quickly as possible, but instead of her attacking, you just need to have a sidekick to attack, either your's or your opponent's, so it's just as great.
This version of Hawkgirl is very supportive, spinning up a non-villain when they attack would make them deal more damage or become more durable, she is very useful and can be used in almost every team.
Huntress is a low cost villain and can deal up to 4 damage to a character, so it's pretty decent.
This version of Huntress prevent's character with 1D to enter the field, and that could potentially screw your opponent's game. A character with 1D is the worst when you have a beefy character that attacks only to get blocked by a 1D sidekick, Huntress simply prevents this kind of situation for you, so your characters have a easier chance to get unblocked as your characters overwhelm your opponent's.
Wow, a flip card that is available only on the rare version, that's cool. Huntress her have 2 different affiliation, and her ability is decent in the early game, since your opponent is going to have only sidekicks in their field.
Hush can help you to KO a character, you can always make a character into Bat family with some global ability, however, Hush ability is limited to the level that you field him, so if you want to KO any character, use other effects instead.
Don't think of this ability as a penalty just because you have to KO Hush when there is a Bat family character, you can use this ability to help you to ramp dice. For only 2 cost to ramp a die, it is actually very powerful.
If you need a low cost character with good stats, Hush is here, it's not hard for him to gain that additional pump since there's plenty of Bat family characters for you to choose now.
For convenience, I am going to call Jervis Mad Hatter. Mad Hatter is low cost and can be quite aggressive in the early game. Imagine your opponent only has a sidekick active, and you have Mad Hatter attacking, you can use that sidekick to attack your opponent as well, and after that, you send your opponent's sidekick to the prep area. If you need to chip it some damage in the early game, look no further.
Mad Hatter likes to control people, this time round you use your opponent's character to block instead, that would actually make your opponent declare attackers wisely, because if he/she doesn't, he/she might end up losing both the control characters and the attacker.
Well, if controlling sidekick to attack isn't good enough, how about any character that is 4 cost or under. Controlling is a very powerful and it's like slapping your opponent with his/her own hand. I am just glad more characters with controlling abilities are released.
Killer Croc has great stats but so does Bane, so if I would recommend you to use another 5 cost character with good stats and a decent ability.
Killer Croc is used to get rid of characters with low attack value, you can always use Dove global to reduce opposing character's attack before fielding him. A lot of characters that has control effect like Oracle, Dwarf wizard all have low attack value so fielding Killer Croc will help you to wipe them out. But be careful, you characters are affected as well. Since Killer Croc has high stats that makes him hard to exit the field, you need to use his ability at the right moment.
This is another version that has similar effects with the uncommon version, This version is more use to wipe out your opponent's field. To make sure that you can wipe out his/her entire field, you can use effect that spin down opposing character's level before fielding Killer Croc. Killer croc's attack are very high so most character have lower attack than him, if not, just use Dove global on them. And again since he is hard to exit the field, you need to use his ability at the right time.
Mr Miracle is the cheapest New Gods so even if he has a vanilla card, his stats is decent enough, but the fact he has an ability that is immune to action, character and global abilities makes his value even worthy.
When Mister Miracle is KO, you can trade his place with another character and return him to the field at level 3. This is a great ability, he is easier to get knocked out compared to some character with fielding abilities that has high defense, so you can knock him out and place another character into the prep area from your field zone and return him to the field zone. For only 2 cost, he is a great supporter, and he is versatile enough for you to use him as attacker since his attack value is high enough for a 2 cost.
An action combo team would benefit the most with this version as you have a higher chance to use your actions over and again with the boomerang effect. Still, you can add him to any team and he helps you to have a chance to reuse your action dice next turn, this effect would benefit any player that would use at least 1 action die in their team.
Mr Freeze is not easy to exit the field, so you might want to give him overcrush to make him exit the field so you can use his ability over and again. His ability is quite decent, you just have to field him to put a stun token on an opposing character, no complaints about that.
In a constructed format, villains is not very common so you can go aggressive or defensive with Mr Freeze and annoy the hell out of your opponent by constantly placing stun tokens on his/her characters. If he attacks too aggressively, that character might get stunned by Mr Freeze, if he blocks Mr Freeze with a character, same tragedy will strike as well.
This version is similar to the uncommon version but it does not only apply to villain so if you think your opponent is going to play villain, use this version and also, you can place stun token on any character, not only the ones that he engaged with, which makes it even more lethal. Stun is very annoying and can drain your energy really really fast. If you don't remove than stun token, that character is practically useless.
This version of Nightwing either helps you with buying action die, which can be helpful if you rely on them a lot in your game. He can also make your opponent's life difficult by making it more expensive to buy if he is relying it a lot, very versatile card, thumbs up.
This version of Nightwing is decent by dealing 2 damage to characters. He is not hard to exit the field so you can trigger his abilty over and again.
For 2 cost, Nightwing is really powerful given his stats, but the catch is that you need either a fellow Bat family or villain to be active. No worries, that's not a hard thing to accomplish.
Talking about how powerful New Gods are, Orion just won't get knocked out which is crazily powerful, and his stats is ridiculously powerful, your 6 cost is going to be well spent on him.
This version of Orion needs to be unblockable for his ability to work, it's a costly move but if you can set up well, it's going to be deadly towards your opponent.
An attacking and fielding ability that deals damage to your opponent is great. You can give him overcrush to make use of his stats and even if he is KO, you can trigger his fielding ability again. 7 cost is expensive but you can deal a lot of damage with him if you set him up well.
The 5th Crime Syndicate member is here! Owlman has decent stats, however, for this version, you need to keep fielding him to reuse his ability, and it's best you have a field of villains ready to attack when you field him. Nothing very special, but can be quite powerful if combo it well.
Owlman is easy to get KO if you attack with him aggressive, so it's not too difficult to trigger his ability. The purpose of his ability is for you to force your opponent to KO his highest cost character, which usually is their trump card.
Similar to the common version, but instead of fielding ability, you get an active and attacking ability. Both versions require you to play with villains for the best effect, you could give your characters villain affiliation through global but that would be a little costly if you want to pump all your characters. And again, it's nothing really very powerful so I am a little disappointed because it's a super rare card but it's decent.
If you are using Darkseid, Parademon would be useful since you only need them to help your Darkseid, so if they have swarm it could at least ramp dice for you.
Similar to the common version but it gives you an additional ability to punish your opponent for each die you swarm using Parademon dice, you can choose to pay for a higher cost Parademon with some offense or simply go for the cheaper version.
This version of Parademon probably won't be used to combo with Darkseid. It can be useful on it's own, they help deal damage to player that draws more than 1 die, which can be painful to all players, especially those using Swarm effect, but if you can use cards to gain life, you can ramp as many dice with them being active and not be afraid of taking too much damage from their ability. A little controlling factor here for these pests.
Ra's is used to punish all non-villains by reducing their attack, which is very helpful as that 1 attack may be the reason why you lost the game. The key thing about the card is the global ability, it makes a character loses the villain affiliation, which is super powerful! If a card targets only non-villain, usually villains are immune to the effect, but with this global, they no longer are.
Another Ra's that's very controlling. This one instead makes your opponent's non-villain unable to attack, unless they pay 1 energy, which can drain his/her energy very quickly so it will slow down their aggressive. The global is there as well so it's another bonus.
This is another controlling Ra's, he makes your opponent's non-villain goes to the used pile if they are knocked out by combat damage, which will make your opponent declare attackers or blockers extremely careful. It's a great ability but unfortunately the global is not on the card, I guess it would be too sick if they add the global as well.
Remeber Guy Garden from War of Light Set that can crush opponent is 3 turns, well, Red Hood has that similar ability as well, he is 3 cost instead but his stats are higher, if you like being aggressive and would like to end the game fast, this card is for you.
Instead of getting pumped, Red Hood simply help you to deal damage to a target character, if you have 9 attackers, that's 9 damage to a target character, which can KO almost anyone. You can use overcrush along with those attackers to destroy your opponent.
If you give each attacking Red Hood overcrush, every character that blocks, not necessary to his dice, they would take 4 damage from Red Hood simply for being declared as blocker, your opponent probably can't declare a character without losing them after combat damage. Just elaborating the full potential of this card.
Luck plays a big part in the game, sometimes you need to draw a die to win the game, but you failed to draw it because of luck, Rip Hunter will solve that for you, just keep him fielded and you can choose to mulligate your dice drawn, which is very powerful. Being able to control what you draw makes a big difference in the game.
Let's talk more about luck, drawing a die you need is one step to your victory, but if you can't roll on that face you want, it's pretty annoying and demoralizing. Rip Hunter can solve that for you, all you need is named a die, then when you draw it, you can choose which side you want instead of rolling it, this changes the complexity of the game, you are in full control of what you want from a character, no more reliance from lady luck!
This version of Rip Hunter simply protects you from damage on the first instance, pretty defensive and can save you from losing the game.
Finally, they made Robin a sidekick as he should be since the beginning of the game. Anyway, as always, Robin's ability relies on Batman, and having regenerate is never a bad thing, so for 3 cost and Regenerate, I think we should be contented.
Instead of using Batman to help Robin, why not the other way around? Having a higher defense is no harm especially if you need your characters to survive, and your sidekicks, including himself gets additional defense, so they are more endurable in the field.
If you want Robin to go solo without Batman, this is the card you are looking for. You can easily gain life since attacking with him and a villain is not a hard thing to set up.
Talia has great stats for 3 cost, so it does come with some penalty, and that is that non-villain or villain cannot attack, well, you can choose which side the card faces, so don't play those that can't attack in your team and that penalty won't affect you.
The villain side of Talia helps if you are playing a villain team or you just want to attack with a single attacker and make it a villain, there's a lot of way to trigger it, all to gain 1 life. A decent support, so no complaints. If you don't like the face, then use the Bat Family side, but you need to use Talia to attack, either way, you can gain life without much set up.
Okay, now things are going out of hand. Talia with fast is good but at 5 cost, it's a little too costly. Don't bother relying on her second ability as not every game you will face character with flip keyword.
The villain side of Joker helps Bat family, strange, but it's a great support, I don't think I have to emphasize how much of a difference that pump can make. The Bat family side is more to drain your opponent's energy, use the Bat family converter global on characters that you think will attack and see your opponent's energy drained.
This version of Joker either helps him to reach level 3 faster or help spin opposing character down. Nothing much but can be useful at times and can fit into team as a good defensive character.
Unblockable Joker seems useless but if you flipped his stats, he cause some pain for your opponent. Not an excellent super rare, but still better than average ones, at least you don't feel that bad if you pull him inside your feed.
If you need to cycle your continuous action fast, you can use Penguin to help you. He is not very expensive to buy so you can definitely consider cycling your action dice with his gadgeteer keyword.
As much as I like when a character can make another character loses all text, Penguin is a little too costly to help you to blank your opponent's card text. There are cheaper methods like Slander basic action from Amazing Spider Man set.
This version of Penguin is only useful against flipped cards that flipped from a Bat family face to a villain face, in a draft he would definitely come in handy but in constructed, he might just waste the space in your team.
This is the best way to cycle your continuous action. Bane has high stats but higher cost, Penguin has decent stats and decent cost, Question has decent stats and low cost, so your pick.
If having Gadgeteer keyword is not enough, then you might want to consider this version where he gets pumped for each action you use. Since his defense are higher, you can use continuous action during your opponent's turn to pump him for defensive purpose.
If pumping isn't your thing, you can consider regenerating.
Riddler's defense is high, so being able to swap his stats for free when he attacks is definitely a good thing, the bad thing about flipping stats global is your opponent can always flip back your stats.
Imagine a 10A and 1D character with overcrush attacks, it really stinks if you let that character spill damage to you or KO your characters, Riddler has great defense so naturally you would use him as a blocker. Swapping character stats will change the outcome of the combat, using the given situation, if that character is blocked by Riddler, flipping the stats will render the character useless.
This version instead helps you to switch the cost of 2 of your non-basic action die. Riddler's stats makes him hard to exit the field but that's really okay, because of you have the energy to buy those action dice that has their cost swapped by Riddler, you will gain the upper hand. There are action cost between 1 to 6, so swapping a 6 cost action to only 1 cost will be super powerful given that high cost action have better effect that low cost action.
A forth option for Gadgeteer. Thomas Wayne has good stats, so it's another criteria you can look into to choose your Gadgeteer.
Additional 1A and fast is helpful and given overcrush, it's even more lethal. Decent effect for a decent character.
Not to be mean to Bruce's father, but i don't see a situation where I would KO a Batman die that is high cost for a Thomas Wayne that have no ability to offer. Just being realistic here.
For 5 cost with Fast and Regenerate is okay, but I would still prefer the World's Finest version. His Bat family side helps you to remove Fast and Regenerate in case those keywords are bothering you.
Spinning down characters can be done with a cheaper method, like using action dice, so I wouldn't spend so much on a character for that.
If you plan to form a team based on flipped characters, that you need to use this version of Two Face, dealing 1 damage to your opponent for each active character that flipped that card can be quite painful for your opponent. If any chance he/she uses flip characters, you can use him to gain life for every character your opponent flips.
For 2 cost action to deal 1 damage to character or player is ideal, and if you can flip to the other side, you can use it to prevent damage to your character. Very versatile card at a very cheap cost.
A more combat and villain supportive action, and again, that 1 attack pump can sometimes be the key to victory. The only bad thing about this card is that it's not continuous.
This version allows you to gain life at the cost of 1 character, it's not necessary a bad thing as that character might be better off exiting the field. Similar on the flipped side, you can KO a character to KO an opponent's character, and that's a good trade because you get to choose who to leave the field.
The action is used to pump a Bat Family character, and you can use it whenever you prefer as it is a continuous action. The flipped side gives that character defense pump as well but generally, you would use this card to pump an unblockable Bat family character.
Even if you are playing a Bat family team, this ramp is not as fast, and there's a slight chance you don't get to ramp anything if you draw a sidekick or action die for this effect, so I would recommend to use other more powerful ramp.
If you think your opponent is playing Gadgeteer or continuous action, this action will punish them, or you could use the flipped effect and get action die for free, quite a weird combination but has it's own usage.
White Lanterns are more difficult to purchase without any support, so it's best for them to have a better ability. Aquaman is not too bad, your opponent will definitely fields sidekick somewhere in the game, so he can help to chip in some damage whenever your opponent fields sidekick, no complaints.
First of all, i need to say that that 10D that Dove has is crazy. Dove ability is more of a retaliation, it's not really your main card that helps you win the game nor is it the defensive or supportive card, but she can help you to reduce your opponent's health each time they use their character to damage you. It definitely will slow down your opponent's aggression but make sure that your health is always higher than your opponent, if not, this card is pretty pointless.
For 4 cost, Hal's stats are awesome, but his ability only helps if you play flipped characters, otherwise, there is no point. Nevertheless, you can definitely use the flipping combo with him to damage your opponent over time.
This is by far the cheapest Superman character and his stats is as strong as their other versions from other sets. Anyway, this card helps if your opponent plays villain, or if you use villain converter to convert an opposing character before it's knocked out to support Superman's ability. It's actually very usable.
Conclusion
I am very happy that there are more JLA, Teen Titans, Bat family, Crime Syndicate, it makes the affiliation very powerful. The new keywords are very unique and they will change the complexity of the game, seriously, who would have thought about flipping cards.
This set does focus a lot on villains and non-villains, but the great part about it is that villains can come from the Marvel sets. Each character has their playable version so it's a great set overall, and it makes drafting super fun.
I am always impressed with Dice Masters, like how they evolved over the years and most importantly, how they improved.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope my post helps.
New Keywords
Boomerang - When you use an action with boomerang keyword, you may roll it, if you land on an action face, place that action die in your prep area.
Common Ground - When you attack with a character with this keyword and a villain, you may trigger the ability.
Flip - Cards with flipped keyword have 2 sides, you begin the game on either side, then at the beginning of your turn, you can flip that card to another side. When dice on that card is active, the character's ability is on the card that is facing up.
Gadgeteer - When a character with this keyword triggers this ability, you may roll an action die with continuous keyword, if you roll on an action face, you may field that action die.
Stun - Characters with stun token in them cannot attack or block unless the owner pays 2 energy any time they could use global ability.
Character/Action cards
We begin this set with Ace. There's nothing much about him except that he is a low cost Bat family character and possess the ally keyword, so a decent cheap cost character.
This version of Ace does not have the Ally keyword, but depending on how you look at things, Ally might not necessary be a good thing. His ability is great even that he is only 2 cost and that 2A additional pump will definitely come in handy. Villain is not hard to find, and even if your opponent doesn't have one, just use some global ability to make them one. Another cheap cost Bat family character, quite decent card.
This version of Ace plays more of a controller, at 3 cost, you definitely can't purchase him or cycle his dice as fast as the other 2 versions, which are both 2 cost, but instead, you force your opponent to attack or block cautiously. Getting your opponent to KO one of your character is not a hard thing to do, just engage it with a sidekick. Giving a character the villain affiliation is also not a hard task. Dealing 3 damage to that character from Ace's ability could knock out that character, and could help get rid of his/her characters.
Gadgeteer helps you to use a continuous action. Bane's gadgeteer triggers when he attacks, And if you successfully roll that action on an action face, you get to field it. In a way, if your luck is good, you can cycle your continuous action very easily using Bane. Don't underestimate this ability, you can change the outcome of the game if you field the correct action using this ability, plus, Bane's attack is high, so what's the loss of attacking with him.
Before you say anything bad, let me remind you that Bat family affiliation could be given to a character using global abilities, so Bane's ability could actually work in a constructed format. You can give a target opposing character the Bat family affiliation, attack with Bane, KO it, and deal it damage to your opponent. It helps you to get rid of an opposing character, deals damage to your opponent and what's great is you haven't even resolve combat damage, so what's so bad about this version of Bane?
Sometimes I really hate it when a rare card is bad because it just makes a person feels bad for pulling this rare from their booster packs. Before anything, I need to emphasize that you can't use global to make a character outside the field gain Bat family affiliation, so the trick that works for the uncommon version can't be use for this one. Bane is great if you are using him in a format where your opponent heavily relies on Bat family characters, but apart from that, you won't get the chance to spin him up and pump him using his ability. All I can say is that if you are playing a draft, you can consider picking him and putting him into your team, and then hope your opponents plays Bat family characters.
What is Batman without a Bat signal? If you are using Batman in your team, you can consider using this Bat signal as your support, it's a continuous action, so you can use it when you have a Batman die in your bag. Plus, the burst effect allows you to flip a card, and it doesn't need to be Batman, and that's great because you don't get to flip characters as and when you want so this action could help.
Instead of searching for Batman die, you deal damage to villain instead. As said earlier on, villains are not hard to find because you can always use global to make someone a villain. The burst effect is still there so no complaints about this card.
This might be shocking to you but this is the first 1 cost action for the DC Dice Masters universe. For 1 cost, this effect is very powerful, you get to spin a character up a level and give it +1A. And if you just want a bat signal for card flipping, you just need to use this version because it is cheaper.
Batarang is back! This version allows you to deal damage to villain and what's even better is you have a chance to use it again next turn because of the boomerang effect. You can combo this with your action combo team.
If you are playing Bat family team, the Batarang can help you to deal up to 8 damage, with that 1 sidekick gaining the Bat family affiliation. That high damage can help you knocked out almost any character. The boomerang effect is still here so you have a chance to keep using it.
This version helps you to spin your Bat family character up a level, quite useful for Bat family team and boomerang effect is still around.
Here's another option for a low cost Bat family character. Her ability is not hard to trigger as there are other Bat family character that you could use to help get her pump and her stats is decent.
Intimidate is a great ability and you can always give a character villain using global so you can intimidate them with Batgirl.
This version of batgirl helps you to pump your Bat family, so you can go aggressive with her and a few cheap cost Bat family characters, or just cheap cost characters that is given Bat family affiliation using global. She is not hard to exit the field so you can keep triggering her ability.
This our very first flipped card in this set. The good thing about this version is you can choose which side of Batman you want to begin the game with. Both versions have their own usage, depending on your opponent's character. Batman's stats are awesome and his ability prevents your opponent's character from attacking alone, so they can't just swing with 1 character, it's not really a big deal but it's to tell your opponent to go aggressive or to play safe and no option for fine line in between.
Both versions look great yet again. The Bat family face allows him to gain that additional pump which will be very powerful if even overcrush. The villain face helps him to be more durable when blocking a non-villain and have a higher chance of knocking the character he blocks. That 5 cost is a bit costly but if you see the value in his ability, it is not hard to purchase a 5 cost character.
Batman stats really doesn't suit him having a fielding ability, but, his abilities are awesome, forcing your opponent to reroll their active character can be a pain because some of them might turn into energy and your opponent has to place those energy into their used pile when your turn ends so it can really change the outcome of the game when you field Batman. And this is one of the fielding abilities worthy of a 5 cost character.
The Bat family face of Batwoman is not very powerful, it relies a lot on luck and if you don't draw a villain die, you basically waste her ability for the turn. The villain face however, is really powerful, your opponent will definitely draw 2 or more non-villain dice in the late game if he/she isn't playing a villain team, so you will have plenty of chance to ping them 2 damage. My suggestion is keep her on the villain face, the ability is more useful.
This version of Batwoman has both face being very useful. Her Bat family face allows her to be unblockable as long as she attacks with 1 villain, and that's not hard to trigger, and her attack value is rather decent so she can be your source of attack. Her villain face however is more for draining your opponent's energy, your opponent has to pay 1 energy for each character to block her, give her overcrush and your opponent would have to spend a few energy in order to block her and take no damage, regardless both situation benefits you. Good card.
This is crazy, give her overcrush and you can see the damage she can potentially deals. Both faces can be used for different situation depending on what your opponent has, but the ability works the same way. Imagine you attack with her and give her overcrush and your opponent blocks her with 2 sidekick, she deals additional 8 damage, and that would be disastrous for your opponent.
If you intend to build a team of New Gods, you might want to use Big Barda to increase their stats.
This version of Big Barda helps your New Gods to be immune to villains' damage and action dice damage, which can be very powerful since making a character villain is not a hard task. New Gods are already very powerful and making them immune to damage makes your opponent's life even harder.
This version of Big Barda has no support for New Gods, but she alone is very powerful. When a character cannot be KO by combat damage, it basically neutralize opponent's overcrush and she can go very aggressive without worry that she'll get knocked out.
Catwoman is an alternate cheap Bat Family and Villain character, but her fielding cost at level 3 is ridiculous, so you need to be wary of that if you are going to use her.
If you intend to keep flipping your cards every turn, Catwoman can get ridiculously powerful. One easy way to do so is to have all 8 characters having the flip keyword and flip all 8 of them at the beginning of your turn, then Catwoman gets +8A. I might be exaggerating a little but this is how you can make her powerful.
Catwoman is strong in the early game, you get to ramp a die each time you flip a character card when she is active, however, only if it's a sidekick die. The down side of it is that in the late game, it would be rather hard for you to ramp die when her ability since your bag is now flooded with non-sidekick dice, but for only 3 cost, it's quite worthy for an early game ramp.
I don't think I remember seeing a 4 cost ally but well, there's a first for everything. Gordon's ability is very supportive and can help you save some energy in the long run, especially if you are fielding high cost character with expensive fielding cost.
This version of Gordon is heavily relied on Batman, it allows you to ramp an additional die each time you draw a Batman die, but if you need to ramp die for any reason, there are other more effective way to do so.
This version again relies heavily on Batman, not even Bat family. Sure, moving Batman die from the used pile to prep area is great but for 4 cost and you need to field this character to do so. You could easily replace that with much cheaper effects like Rip Hunter's chalkboard global.
Team Superman's representative is here, Conner Kent is low cost and his stats is amazing. So a great addition to Superman's team.
To make Conner Kent work, you must really have a lot of villain converter global because a mere sidekick can block him, and for his stats I would rather use the common version and an unblockable effect on him which is cheaper. Unless of course your opponent is playing a villain team, then this version is more useful.
Similarly to the uncommon version, to make him worth you'll need plenty of villain converters unless your opponent already has villains in their field. Regardless, this version of Conner Kent can be powerful if you can make your opponent's character into villains and then give him overcrush. It's a costly move but that's the only way to make him usable.
For those non-comic book fans. Parademon is Darkseid's minion, so it would be thematic that Darkseid's ability has something to do with Parademon. Capturing ability is great, and at the expense of Parademon is not very hurtful as they are rather cheap. So this is a decent ability.
Another version of Darkseid that relies on Parademon. Darkseid can be a great ramp, sacrificing a parademon for 2 additional dice during your next clear and draw step is a great deal, and you can stack up the effect, so don't be surprised if you have 8 additional dice to roll next turn. The global ability is unique and helpful as well, you can use it to move a weaker dice into the used pile from the prep area and hope that you can replace it with a better die, not a bad global.
This super rare is crazily powerful! By giving your sidekick swarm ability, you can ramp a lot of dice per turn. You don't even need ally, just plain sidekick will do the job, imagine you have an active sidekick and Darkseid, and you draw 4 sidekick dice, then because of swarm you draw another 4, out of it you got 3 sidekick dice, then you draw another 3 dice, now you have a total of 11 dice to roll! And again, this is the best situation, but you get my point. This is one of the super rare to look out for in this set.
Dove's stats is crazily good even at level 2, her level 3 is just ridiculously good. She plays well with Hawk, plus she's got the titan affiliation. At level 2 or 3, you can use Kal-L global to switch her stats and give her overcrush, she would deal massive damage and not forgetting that she is a great blocker as well. The global ability is useful as well, you can use it to reduce a characters attack so instead of blocking it, you can simply leave it unblock and use the global to take reduced damage.
Dove for this version does not rely on Hawk, she just makes it easier for you to use her, taking damage is not a hard task so your Dove will most likely end up in your prep area. You can use this version of her to either spend her as energy and then take damage to cycle the dice over and over, or attack with her aggressively and get her to your prep area, don't forget to flip her stats when you attack with her.
This version of Dove make sure that she is always at level 3, so if you need her to be at level 3 at all times, this is the card to use.
This version of Firefly helps if you are playing a bolt team, he can deal up to 8 damage to your opponent if all your 8 characters are bolt and active in the field. For only 3 cost I think he offers a lot.
This version of Firefly does not need you to have a lot of bolt characters in your team, you simply need to knock him out and keep a bolt energy in your reserve pool, not question mark, and you get to deal 2 damage to your opponent, so be it aggressive or defensive, his ability helps.
Well, if you like to keep bolt energy, this surely helps, you can deal as many damage as you want as long as you can pay them when you field Firefly. The global is great as well, if you know that a character will attack, you can use the villain converter global on it and use the global, then deal 1 damage to your opponent, it's not a lot but it's something.
If you play a villain team, Harley can be your ramp. Decent ability.
Harley Quin's attack is not that high but that could change with some global abilities, just pump her and she'll deal some heavy damage. It's not hard to trigger her ability, just play a villain team with no sidekicks in your field and you can make Harley unblockable when you attack with her and at least one other villain.
This version of Harley is also meant for villain team and if you don't like ramping dice, you can use this version, all you need is to have 2 active villain and you can make your opponent lose 1 life and you gain 1 life every turn, not forgetting she's only 3 cost.
Similarly to Dove, this version of Hawk works best with Dove around. His stats is really powerful, so don't forget to give him overcrush. His global is good as well, it pumps attack but only once, thus preventing player from spamming this global ability. I mean, sometimes, 1 additional pump is enough.
This version of Hawk is powerful as well especially at level 3. Dove's defense is rather strong so you might think that the ability is hard to trigger, but you can always flipped her stats and make her more vulnerable so Hawk's ability can trigger.
This version of Hawk guarantees you that he will always be at level 3. So similarly to Dove rare version, if you feel that you really need Hawk to be at level 3, use this version.
A 2 cost JLA character can never go wrong. Her ability enable you to spin him to level 3 as soon as possible, so for only 2 cost and 4A 4D stats, it's really good.
This version of Hawkgirl also helps her to reach level 3 as quickly as possible, but instead of her attacking, you just need to have a sidekick to attack, either your's or your opponent's, so it's just as great.
This version of Hawkgirl is very supportive, spinning up a non-villain when they attack would make them deal more damage or become more durable, she is very useful and can be used in almost every team.
Huntress is a low cost villain and can deal up to 4 damage to a character, so it's pretty decent.
This version of Huntress prevent's character with 1D to enter the field, and that could potentially screw your opponent's game. A character with 1D is the worst when you have a beefy character that attacks only to get blocked by a 1D sidekick, Huntress simply prevents this kind of situation for you, so your characters have a easier chance to get unblocked as your characters overwhelm your opponent's.
Wow, a flip card that is available only on the rare version, that's cool. Huntress her have 2 different affiliation, and her ability is decent in the early game, since your opponent is going to have only sidekicks in their field.
Hush can help you to KO a character, you can always make a character into Bat family with some global ability, however, Hush ability is limited to the level that you field him, so if you want to KO any character, use other effects instead.
Don't think of this ability as a penalty just because you have to KO Hush when there is a Bat family character, you can use this ability to help you to ramp dice. For only 2 cost to ramp a die, it is actually very powerful.
If you need a low cost character with good stats, Hush is here, it's not hard for him to gain that additional pump since there's plenty of Bat family characters for you to choose now.
For convenience, I am going to call Jervis Mad Hatter. Mad Hatter is low cost and can be quite aggressive in the early game. Imagine your opponent only has a sidekick active, and you have Mad Hatter attacking, you can use that sidekick to attack your opponent as well, and after that, you send your opponent's sidekick to the prep area. If you need to chip it some damage in the early game, look no further.
Mad Hatter likes to control people, this time round you use your opponent's character to block instead, that would actually make your opponent declare attackers wisely, because if he/she doesn't, he/she might end up losing both the control characters and the attacker.
Well, if controlling sidekick to attack isn't good enough, how about any character that is 4 cost or under. Controlling is a very powerful and it's like slapping your opponent with his/her own hand. I am just glad more characters with controlling abilities are released.
Killer Croc has great stats but so does Bane, so if I would recommend you to use another 5 cost character with good stats and a decent ability.
Killer Croc is used to get rid of characters with low attack value, you can always use Dove global to reduce opposing character's attack before fielding him. A lot of characters that has control effect like Oracle, Dwarf wizard all have low attack value so fielding Killer Croc will help you to wipe them out. But be careful, you characters are affected as well. Since Killer Croc has high stats that makes him hard to exit the field, you need to use his ability at the right moment.
This is another version that has similar effects with the uncommon version, This version is more use to wipe out your opponent's field. To make sure that you can wipe out his/her entire field, you can use effect that spin down opposing character's level before fielding Killer Croc. Killer croc's attack are very high so most character have lower attack than him, if not, just use Dove global on them. And again since he is hard to exit the field, you need to use his ability at the right time.
Mr Miracle is the cheapest New Gods so even if he has a vanilla card, his stats is decent enough, but the fact he has an ability that is immune to action, character and global abilities makes his value even worthy.
When Mister Miracle is KO, you can trade his place with another character and return him to the field at level 3. This is a great ability, he is easier to get knocked out compared to some character with fielding abilities that has high defense, so you can knock him out and place another character into the prep area from your field zone and return him to the field zone. For only 2 cost, he is a great supporter, and he is versatile enough for you to use him as attacker since his attack value is high enough for a 2 cost.
An action combo team would benefit the most with this version as you have a higher chance to use your actions over and again with the boomerang effect. Still, you can add him to any team and he helps you to have a chance to reuse your action dice next turn, this effect would benefit any player that would use at least 1 action die in their team.
Mr Freeze is not easy to exit the field, so you might want to give him overcrush to make him exit the field so you can use his ability over and again. His ability is quite decent, you just have to field him to put a stun token on an opposing character, no complaints about that.
In a constructed format, villains is not very common so you can go aggressive or defensive with Mr Freeze and annoy the hell out of your opponent by constantly placing stun tokens on his/her characters. If he attacks too aggressively, that character might get stunned by Mr Freeze, if he blocks Mr Freeze with a character, same tragedy will strike as well.
This version is similar to the uncommon version but it does not only apply to villain so if you think your opponent is going to play villain, use this version and also, you can place stun token on any character, not only the ones that he engaged with, which makes it even more lethal. Stun is very annoying and can drain your energy really really fast. If you don't remove than stun token, that character is practically useless.
This version of Nightwing either helps you with buying action die, which can be helpful if you rely on them a lot in your game. He can also make your opponent's life difficult by making it more expensive to buy if he is relying it a lot, very versatile card, thumbs up.
This version of Nightwing is decent by dealing 2 damage to characters. He is not hard to exit the field so you can trigger his abilty over and again.
For 2 cost, Nightwing is really powerful given his stats, but the catch is that you need either a fellow Bat family or villain to be active. No worries, that's not a hard thing to accomplish.
Talking about how powerful New Gods are, Orion just won't get knocked out which is crazily powerful, and his stats is ridiculously powerful, your 6 cost is going to be well spent on him.
This version of Orion needs to be unblockable for his ability to work, it's a costly move but if you can set up well, it's going to be deadly towards your opponent.
An attacking and fielding ability that deals damage to your opponent is great. You can give him overcrush to make use of his stats and even if he is KO, you can trigger his fielding ability again. 7 cost is expensive but you can deal a lot of damage with him if you set him up well.
The 5th Crime Syndicate member is here! Owlman has decent stats, however, for this version, you need to keep fielding him to reuse his ability, and it's best you have a field of villains ready to attack when you field him. Nothing very special, but can be quite powerful if combo it well.
Owlman is easy to get KO if you attack with him aggressive, so it's not too difficult to trigger his ability. The purpose of his ability is for you to force your opponent to KO his highest cost character, which usually is their trump card.
Similar to the common version, but instead of fielding ability, you get an active and attacking ability. Both versions require you to play with villains for the best effect, you could give your characters villain affiliation through global but that would be a little costly if you want to pump all your characters. And again, it's nothing really very powerful so I am a little disappointed because it's a super rare card but it's decent.
If you are using Darkseid, Parademon would be useful since you only need them to help your Darkseid, so if they have swarm it could at least ramp dice for you.
Similar to the common version but it gives you an additional ability to punish your opponent for each die you swarm using Parademon dice, you can choose to pay for a higher cost Parademon with some offense or simply go for the cheaper version.
This version of Parademon probably won't be used to combo with Darkseid. It can be useful on it's own, they help deal damage to player that draws more than 1 die, which can be painful to all players, especially those using Swarm effect, but if you can use cards to gain life, you can ramp as many dice with them being active and not be afraid of taking too much damage from their ability. A little controlling factor here for these pests.
Ra's is used to punish all non-villains by reducing their attack, which is very helpful as that 1 attack may be the reason why you lost the game. The key thing about the card is the global ability, it makes a character loses the villain affiliation, which is super powerful! If a card targets only non-villain, usually villains are immune to the effect, but with this global, they no longer are.
Another Ra's that's very controlling. This one instead makes your opponent's non-villain unable to attack, unless they pay 1 energy, which can drain his/her energy very quickly so it will slow down their aggressive. The global is there as well so it's another bonus.
This is another controlling Ra's, he makes your opponent's non-villain goes to the used pile if they are knocked out by combat damage, which will make your opponent declare attackers or blockers extremely careful. It's a great ability but unfortunately the global is not on the card, I guess it would be too sick if they add the global as well.
Remeber Guy Garden from War of Light Set that can crush opponent is 3 turns, well, Red Hood has that similar ability as well, he is 3 cost instead but his stats are higher, if you like being aggressive and would like to end the game fast, this card is for you.
Instead of getting pumped, Red Hood simply help you to deal damage to a target character, if you have 9 attackers, that's 9 damage to a target character, which can KO almost anyone. You can use overcrush along with those attackers to destroy your opponent.
If you give each attacking Red Hood overcrush, every character that blocks, not necessary to his dice, they would take 4 damage from Red Hood simply for being declared as blocker, your opponent probably can't declare a character without losing them after combat damage. Just elaborating the full potential of this card.
Luck plays a big part in the game, sometimes you need to draw a die to win the game, but you failed to draw it because of luck, Rip Hunter will solve that for you, just keep him fielded and you can choose to mulligate your dice drawn, which is very powerful. Being able to control what you draw makes a big difference in the game.
Let's talk more about luck, drawing a die you need is one step to your victory, but if you can't roll on that face you want, it's pretty annoying and demoralizing. Rip Hunter can solve that for you, all you need is named a die, then when you draw it, you can choose which side you want instead of rolling it, this changes the complexity of the game, you are in full control of what you want from a character, no more reliance from lady luck!
This version of Rip Hunter simply protects you from damage on the first instance, pretty defensive and can save you from losing the game.
Finally, they made Robin a sidekick as he should be since the beginning of the game. Anyway, as always, Robin's ability relies on Batman, and having regenerate is never a bad thing, so for 3 cost and Regenerate, I think we should be contented.
Instead of using Batman to help Robin, why not the other way around? Having a higher defense is no harm especially if you need your characters to survive, and your sidekicks, including himself gets additional defense, so they are more endurable in the field.
If you want Robin to go solo without Batman, this is the card you are looking for. You can easily gain life since attacking with him and a villain is not a hard thing to set up.
Talia has great stats for 3 cost, so it does come with some penalty, and that is that non-villain or villain cannot attack, well, you can choose which side the card faces, so don't play those that can't attack in your team and that penalty won't affect you.
The villain side of Talia helps if you are playing a villain team or you just want to attack with a single attacker and make it a villain, there's a lot of way to trigger it, all to gain 1 life. A decent support, so no complaints. If you don't like the face, then use the Bat Family side, but you need to use Talia to attack, either way, you can gain life without much set up.
Okay, now things are going out of hand. Talia with fast is good but at 5 cost, it's a little too costly. Don't bother relying on her second ability as not every game you will face character with flip keyword.
The villain side of Joker helps Bat family, strange, but it's a great support, I don't think I have to emphasize how much of a difference that pump can make. The Bat family side is more to drain your opponent's energy, use the Bat family converter global on characters that you think will attack and see your opponent's energy drained.
This version of Joker either helps him to reach level 3 faster or help spin opposing character down. Nothing much but can be useful at times and can fit into team as a good defensive character.
Unblockable Joker seems useless but if you flipped his stats, he cause some pain for your opponent. Not an excellent super rare, but still better than average ones, at least you don't feel that bad if you pull him inside your feed.
If you need to cycle your continuous action fast, you can use Penguin to help you. He is not very expensive to buy so you can definitely consider cycling your action dice with his gadgeteer keyword.
As much as I like when a character can make another character loses all text, Penguin is a little too costly to help you to blank your opponent's card text. There are cheaper methods like Slander basic action from Amazing Spider Man set.
This version of Penguin is only useful against flipped cards that flipped from a Bat family face to a villain face, in a draft he would definitely come in handy but in constructed, he might just waste the space in your team.
This is the best way to cycle your continuous action. Bane has high stats but higher cost, Penguin has decent stats and decent cost, Question has decent stats and low cost, so your pick.
If having Gadgeteer keyword is not enough, then you might want to consider this version where he gets pumped for each action you use. Since his defense are higher, you can use continuous action during your opponent's turn to pump him for defensive purpose.
If pumping isn't your thing, you can consider regenerating.
Riddler's defense is high, so being able to swap his stats for free when he attacks is definitely a good thing, the bad thing about flipping stats global is your opponent can always flip back your stats.
Imagine a 10A and 1D character with overcrush attacks, it really stinks if you let that character spill damage to you or KO your characters, Riddler has great defense so naturally you would use him as a blocker. Swapping character stats will change the outcome of the combat, using the given situation, if that character is blocked by Riddler, flipping the stats will render the character useless.
This version instead helps you to switch the cost of 2 of your non-basic action die. Riddler's stats makes him hard to exit the field but that's really okay, because of you have the energy to buy those action dice that has their cost swapped by Riddler, you will gain the upper hand. There are action cost between 1 to 6, so swapping a 6 cost action to only 1 cost will be super powerful given that high cost action have better effect that low cost action.
A forth option for Gadgeteer. Thomas Wayne has good stats, so it's another criteria you can look into to choose your Gadgeteer.
Additional 1A and fast is helpful and given overcrush, it's even more lethal. Decent effect for a decent character.
Not to be mean to Bruce's father, but i don't see a situation where I would KO a Batman die that is high cost for a Thomas Wayne that have no ability to offer. Just being realistic here.
For 5 cost with Fast and Regenerate is okay, but I would still prefer the World's Finest version. His Bat family side helps you to remove Fast and Regenerate in case those keywords are bothering you.
Spinning down characters can be done with a cheaper method, like using action dice, so I wouldn't spend so much on a character for that.
If you plan to form a team based on flipped characters, that you need to use this version of Two Face, dealing 1 damage to your opponent for each active character that flipped that card can be quite painful for your opponent. If any chance he/she uses flip characters, you can use him to gain life for every character your opponent flips.
For 2 cost action to deal 1 damage to character or player is ideal, and if you can flip to the other side, you can use it to prevent damage to your character. Very versatile card at a very cheap cost.
A more combat and villain supportive action, and again, that 1 attack pump can sometimes be the key to victory. The only bad thing about this card is that it's not continuous.
This version allows you to gain life at the cost of 1 character, it's not necessary a bad thing as that character might be better off exiting the field. Similar on the flipped side, you can KO a character to KO an opponent's character, and that's a good trade because you get to choose who to leave the field.
The action is used to pump a Bat Family character, and you can use it whenever you prefer as it is a continuous action. The flipped side gives that character defense pump as well but generally, you would use this card to pump an unblockable Bat family character.
Even if you are playing a Bat family team, this ramp is not as fast, and there's a slight chance you don't get to ramp anything if you draw a sidekick or action die for this effect, so I would recommend to use other more powerful ramp.
If you think your opponent is playing Gadgeteer or continuous action, this action will punish them, or you could use the flipped effect and get action die for free, quite a weird combination but has it's own usage.
White Lanterns are more difficult to purchase without any support, so it's best for them to have a better ability. Aquaman is not too bad, your opponent will definitely fields sidekick somewhere in the game, so he can help to chip in some damage whenever your opponent fields sidekick, no complaints.
First of all, i need to say that that 10D that Dove has is crazy. Dove ability is more of a retaliation, it's not really your main card that helps you win the game nor is it the defensive or supportive card, but she can help you to reduce your opponent's health each time they use their character to damage you. It definitely will slow down your opponent's aggression but make sure that your health is always higher than your opponent, if not, this card is pretty pointless.
For 4 cost, Hal's stats are awesome, but his ability only helps if you play flipped characters, otherwise, there is no point. Nevertheless, you can definitely use the flipping combo with him to damage your opponent over time.
This is by far the cheapest Superman character and his stats is as strong as their other versions from other sets. Anyway, this card helps if your opponent plays villain, or if you use villain converter to convert an opposing character before it's knocked out to support Superman's ability. It's actually very usable.
Conclusion
I am very happy that there are more JLA, Teen Titans, Bat family, Crime Syndicate, it makes the affiliation very powerful. The new keywords are very unique and they will change the complexity of the game, seriously, who would have thought about flipping cards.
This set does focus a lot on villains and non-villains, but the great part about it is that villains can come from the Marvel sets. Each character has their playable version so it's a great set overall, and it makes drafting super fun.
I am always impressed with Dice Masters, like how they evolved over the years and most importantly, how they improved.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope my post helps.
