[{"text":"Hello everyone, my name is Robert Green and this is my first article about DC Deckbuilding.&nbsp; I began playing DC Deckbuilding (hereafter referred to as DCDB) several years ago, and it has become one of my favorite games to play when I get together with friends.&nbsp; Having recently participated in (and won!) the inaugural DCDB Invitational, I would like to share my thoughts on the game and provide some tips that will hopefully improve your &#34;deckbuilding&#34; skills."},{"text":"Having played Magic: The Gathering and VS System in the past, DCDB provided me with a welcome alternative to playing \u2018constructed\u2019 decks which tend to play out the same each way, round after round.&nbsp; In Magic or VS, when you enter a constructed tournament (and to a lesser extent a sealed or draft tournament) you are constricted to playing the same set of cards round after round.&nbsp; After enough players bring enough constructed decks to enough tournaments you end up with a \u2018metagame\u2019 whereby you can reasonably predict what a large group of people would play, and have a good idea of what type of cards will be in a majority of your opponent\u2019s decks.&nbsp; This can lead to some pretty boring games, especially if control style decks are the best decks in the format.&nbsp; In Magic it is not uncommon to spend 12+ hours a day in control mirror matches hoping your opponent gives up out of pure boredom before you do."},{"double":[{"src":"cap109547capture.png"},{"src":"asd899834asdf.png"}]},{"text":"DCDB does not have this problem, because instead of showing up with a \u2018constructed\u2019 deck, you get to build an entirely new deck each round.&nbsp; Without reaching for a calculator, I\u2019d estimate the percent chance that you can build the exact same deck twice in any two games is approximately 1 in 100,000,000,000.&nbsp; DCDB has done away with \u2018mirror matches\u2019 and \u2018metagames\u2019 by having you build a new deck each round.&nbsp; After years of constructed play, I gladly welcome DCDB as a breath of fresh air into the comic gaming genre."},{"image":[{"src":"2-p505402.png"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"Playing DCDB at a competitive level requires a different mindset then playing a constructed tournament deck in other games.&nbsp; To prepare for a Magic tournament, you might make a \u2018gauntlet\u2019 of all the metagame decks and play them against one another to determine which deck you feel is the best.&nbsp; After you decide on a deck to play, you can then test that deck over and over until you know every card inside and out, and you know your percent chance to draw a creature\/spell\/land\/etc on any given turn.&nbsp; You can test and test until you can play your deck pretty much perfectly.&nbsp; You\u2019ll know all of the combos in your deck and generally know what cards you need to draw in order to beat certain decks."},{"text":"In DCDB you don\u2019t have this luxury.&nbsp; There are hundreds of different cards in the game, with the majority of cards being one-ofs.&nbsp; This means there is a good chance that you will not see any particular card during a single game.&nbsp; This also means you have no means of optimizing or practicing your deck before the tournament (although I recommend you practice the main characters so you at least understand how they all work, and which work together better than others).&nbsp; In DCDB you start each game with (more or less) nothing and build your deck from there, ensuring that each game is unique and vastly different than the game before or after it."},{"text":"One of the biggest reasons that playing DCDB is so much harder than playing similar games (where you show up with a constructed deck) is that you don\u2019t get the luxury of knowing your deck inside and out.&nbsp; Often times playtesting constructed decks against one another is when you have a chance to figure out what does and doesn\u2019t work.&nbsp; In DCDB you do this \u2018playtesting\u2019 during the game, where errors have a far greater impact than they do during playtesting.&nbsp; You need to be able to determine right away whether card A or card B is better in your deck.&nbsp; You don\u2019t get the chance to \u2018test it and see how well it works\u2019 as you do when practicing a constructed deck for an event.&nbsp; This is a larger difference then many people realize, and cannot be understated."},{"text":"Moving on to the game itself, I want to talk about the initial part of playing the game: the main character draft portion.&nbsp; There are a slew of main characters to choose from during the drafting portion of each round, and spending your six points wisely will have a large impact on the outcome of the game; this is also the first chance you have of getting a head start during the round.&nbsp; After evaluating all the main characters based on their draft cost, I have deemed many of them \u2018unplayable\u2019, because of their reliance on one particular card type ability (note: this is just my opinion).&nbsp; In DCDB the main card types are heroes, villains, equipment, super powers and locations, with the main abilities being attack, defense and destroy (there are some others, but these are the most common).&nbsp; The randomness of the shuffling process, coupled with the low chance of any given card having a certain type or ability, makes the likelihood of seeing a certain type of card in any particular game low."},{"image":[{"src":"3-p9367813.png"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"Take the main character Booster Gold as an example (I have deemed him as unplayable).&nbsp; Booster Gold entices you to play Defense cards in order to make optimum use of him as a main character. "},{"image":[{"src":"4-p9324804.png"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"The reason I classify Booster Gold as unplayable is because a number of things can occur in a game, making him difficult to utilize adequately: A.)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A lower-than-average quantity of Defense cards might appear in the line-up during the course of a game.&nbsp; Although statistically, over a large number of games, there will be a nominal distribution of Defense cards each game, in any particular game there can be a large variation in the number of Defense cards that come from the deck. B.)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Defense cards just so happen to be useful and (somewhat highly) sought-after cards, whether you are playing as Booster Gold or not.&nbsp; This tends to make it more difficult to fill your deck with them, because your opponents may be taking them as well. Depending on some combination of A and B occurring, you may be in for a rough game when using Booster Gold.&nbsp;&nbsp; The opposite is also true: an above average amount of defense cards could come from the deck, and your opponents may not decide to take any.&nbsp; In this case you should be the favorite to win the game."},{"image":[{"src":"5-p174255.png"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"Because of the nature of the game, there is nothing you can do as an individual player to raise or lower the probability of A or B from occurring in any game.&nbsp; This can leave you feeling frustrated (when no defense cards are available) or overjoyed (when defense cards are abundant) from game to game.&nbsp; You have become a prisoner of the main deck, and are riding a roller coaster of wins and losses, many of which have nothing to do with your ability to play the game."},{"text":"Booster Gold, and other main characters that offer rewards based on certain cards, are the types of characters which you want to avoid.&nbsp; You only get six points to spend on characters, and these (high priced characters) leave you placing most of your points (and faith) in hopes of the deck being favorable to you.&nbsp; You want to avoid situations where random chance has a large effect on the outcome of your games."},{"image":[{"src":"6-p9315716.png"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"That\u2019s it for today, I\u2019ll be back next week to discuss more DC Deckbuilding.&nbsp; If anyone wants me to discuss a particular topic, evaluate a combination of main characters, or has another idea for an article let me know in the comments and I will do my best to address your thoughts in an upcoming article."},{"image":[{"src":"7-p1005437.png"},{"caption":""}]}]