Disclaimer: I love the new Wonder Woman movie, at the same time, I won't be biased towards her for this review, all characters review here are purely based on strategy of the game and no personal likes or dislike are involved.
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. Also, I am trying something new here, also known as the rating system, each card will be rated according to their ability, cost, stats and affiliation.
1/10- This card is useless, it helps your opponent more than you do.
2/10- This card is almost useless, try not to use it.
3/10- This card is too expensive and the ability is not as great.
4/10- This card is cheap, but the ability could be better, use other cards that have the same cost but better ability instead.
5/10- Mediocre card
6/10- With some set up, you can make this card work, but it really takes a lot of effort to make this card work.
7/10- This card is above average
8/10- This card is great, with the right combo you can destroy your opponent with this card
9/10- This card is amazing, you can use this card in almost any environment
10/10- The perfect card, if you play with this card you have an extremely high chance of winning the game.
(Note: The rating are based on my opinion, your point of view will definitely be different)
Basic Action Card
Similar to the DND version. Make a character unblockable, it's that simple.
8/10
Is this action die a little broken? It's only 2 cost and you can use it to swap a sidekick with a powerhouse in your used pile, and if you get burst sides, you get to ramp a die as well. This is a very good way to make your powerful characters get into the field as soon as you can.
10/10
If you can use your opponent's character against them, it would literally be a taste of their own medicine. However, it takes a lot of luck to pull this off, you would need your opponent character dice to be inside his/her back, then you need to draw 2 of them, then you need to roll to their character face, and then you need to hope that the ones you fielded, if any, is going to help you to do some work against your opponent. I can calculate the odds of you failing by using this action, but you see my point.
3/10
Similar to the BAC in DND set. The global is a good ramp for your team if you don't have any.
7/10
Similar to the BAC in JLA set. You would need to consistently field a sidekick to make use of the effect of the card.
6/10
This is a double edge sword, you weaken your opponent's field by leveling them down to level 1, but you weakened your character's too. Unless you have something in mind, other than that, there are always better action cards to use.
5/10
Similar to the BAC in AVX set. The global is a good pump for defense but with Agent Venom Global to replace it, this global might be a little weak.
4/10
Usually when you want to play a good team, your characters tend to have different affiliation simply because the game doesn't want to make an affiliation too powerful. This action does help if your active characters all have different affiliation, this can be a game changer if use correctly, you can have a swarm of low cost character, let say 8, each with different affiliation and an army of sidekicks, use this action and attack with all of them, each one should have additional 7A 7D and could finish the game for you. It might take a while to set up but once your team is set up, it can be quite deadly.
8/10
Similar to the Trinity War OP BAC, since I didn't post that I shall elaborate this more. To use this action die you will need to a villain team. You can field your villains very fast with the help of this action, if you can keep your sidekicks out of your bag as much as possible, you are guaranteed to field a villain at level 2, even if you draw a sidekick dice, you can prep this die to have a chance to use it again next turn. The global can come in handy as it give a +2A instead of the usual +1A.
8/10
This action benefits if you have characters that needs to leave the field and you knock them out with this action, your opponent would have to do the same, but they might not necessary have characters that benefits from exiting the field. Who knows, your opponent might only have 1 character in the field and he/she has no choice but to knock it out when you use this action.
6/10
Character Card
I am surprised they actually place Artemis inside the starter instead of a more iconic superhero or villain. Anyways, Artemis stats are pretty good, however, for a character that is so beefy to have a fielding ability isn't very ideal. She is very beefy, so preventing damage to her for the turn she is fielded wouldn't really make much different since she is already hard to get knocked out.
3/10
Artemis protects your sidekicks instead of herself. Sidekicks are valuable especially if you need them for your final blow and they are weak in defenses. However, protecting them only the turn Artemis is fielded might not be as helpful since your opponent can always ping your sidekicks the next turn or other turns you did not field Artemis, also, abilities that directly knocked out your sidekicks cannot be prevented by fielding Artemis. If you wish to protect your sidekicks, you can use characters that pump them instead.
3/10
An active ability from Artemis is more usable. Forcing all sidekicks to attack make sure that your opponent doesn't keep his/her sidekicks in the field, and this would benefit you if you are using sidekicks that benefits from attacking.
6/10
Let's welcome Cheetah back into the game. Cheetah can get very powerful if your opponent is not playing a villain team. Her basis stats are good, with additional pump, she can be really deadly.
7/10
Cheetah may have some difficulty exit the field. She does help in ramping dice if you can consistently field her and knock out opposing sidekicks, but your opponent can always stop you if they don't have a sidekick in field. Not exactly the best way to ramp dice though.
4/10
A better ramp option for your team if you are using Cheetah, as long as you keep her active, which isn't a hard thing to do, you can start fielding villains and each time you do so, you get to ramp a die, your ramp can get pretty crazy after some time.
8/10
Giganta definitely benefits more at higher level, it's very easy to get her up to level 3 with her ability but with no other ability, it's hard to make use of her if you want to deal some colossal damage with her.
3/10
Making Giganta have a fielding ability is questionable, and spinning all your opposing character down a level is great but there are more efficient ways to use this card.
3/10
Now this is a great Giganta we are talking about. Each time a character levels up, she gets the pump and you can make good use of her pump when she is at level 2 or 3 with overcrush. Her global helps her ability too, and even if you don't wish to use her character, you can use her global which is very useful, it makes your life easier if you need your character at a higher level.
9/10 (Her global is really amazing and could change the outcome of a combat)
For all those who played any DC draft before, you would know that Superman and Supergirl dice is really expensive, so getting a discount with Jimmy Olsen's ability is going to help in the long run especially if your team relies a lot on Superman or Supergirl, if that's not enough, you can feel those 2 characters absolutely free!
8/10
If you wish to prep a dice, there are more efficient way to do so, Jimmy Olsen only specifically helps Superman and Supergirl. When he is knocked out, you might not necessary have a Superman or Supergirl die in your used pile.
4/10
I don't really see the need to protect Jimmy Olsen from global ability, because he doesn't pose as a threat, he isn't the best blocker either, but in any case, you would have to keep a Superman or Supergirl in the field first before you can make Jimmy Olsen immune to global abilities used by your opponent, and that is not an easy thing to do.
4/10
With no affiliation, Steve Trevor act as a cheap bolt character with good stats, nothing much, but can be an option for a cheap bolt character.
5/10
Steve Trevor has a really low defense so making him immune to damage will make him run wild while he attacks. Wonder Woman is as low as 4 cost so it's not hard to get her active.
7/10
Steve Trevor is not hard to get knocked out, seriously, he only has 1 defense... So if you want to buy more Wonder Woman dice at a cheaper cost, he's one way to do so. There are countless of Wonder Woman cards out there and you can choose 1 that best fits your team.
8/10
Taking no damage while active is an ability that can stop opposing overcrush effect. You can make a character villain simply by using global on them, so Supergirl ability is not hard to trigger.
5/10
By giving Supergirl overcrush or make her unblockable, you can deal combat damage easily so there's no issue using her. To be able to ramp 2 dice each of your turn and deal damage to your opponent is a nice effect worth setting up.
6/10
Supergirl should never possess fielding ability, she is quite beefy character. The point is, for a 7 cost character to help you gain 3 life only if you have lesser life that your opponent, it is pretty expensive, even with some cost reduction, it's still hard to trigger her ability over time, and you will reach a stage where you can't gain any more points because your life total is more than your opponent's.
3/10
Similar to Supergirl: All in the family, except that you get a Superman with JLA affiliation instead of Team Superman.
5/10
Superman can get up to 11A 12D and if given overcrush will be very disastrous for your opponent. The problem is you need 1 of each energy in your reserve pool, which is not an easy thing to do without some help, if you can pull that off, then your opponent will just be brutalize by Superman.
6/10
Almost similar to Supergirl: Guarding national city, but you deal damage instead of gaining life. The issue is the same, it's not easy to re-field Superman and you will reach a point where you can't deal damage to your opponent because his/her life total is lesser than or equal to yours. There are better alternatives to deal direct damage to your opponent.
3/10
A JLA Wonder Woman is back! Her stats is great and with her around, your characters are immune to global abilities activated by your opponent, so for only 4 cost, she is really worthy.
9/10
Have to thought about trolling your opponent? What happens if your opponent brings in a global ability only for him/her not being able to use it because of Wonder Woman's ability, it sure sucks. If you don't rely on your character's ability, you wouldn't worry about her. You can definitely keep her in your team in case your opponent has any character global ability in his/her team.
9/10
I like how they made all versions of Wonder Woman so powerful in this starter. Your opponent's attacking and fielding abilities are basically nerved the moment you have Wonder Woman active, I think this pretty much counters more than half of the card in the game.
9/10
Conclusion
This is the second time that Wizkids has come up with a standalone starter set and I am really impressed by it. The come up with a lot of retro BAC so we can use them again in the modern format, and a few new ones that can change the complexity of the game as well. If you are new to the game, this is a great starter kit to pick up, as it has cards that are offensive, defensive and supportive, it's not common to see a starter kit having so many valuable cards.
As always, I am still impressed by Wizkids and I hope that they keep up the good work. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope my review helps.
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