We are nearing the end of the Closed Beta for DC Dual Force. Initial impressions of the gameplay have been positive and as it is going through the Beta processes it is likely to evolve as a game. Today I want to provide some further impressions on the game, what you can do to understand the game better, and provide you the information you need to determine if this is a game for you. Kicking it off today with some impressions on each Faction from the Closed Beta to help as you enter the full Open Beta!
Remember, everything is subject to change with the Open Beta patch. Seeking out budget decks or just playing games with the pre-built decks is the way to engage with the game at this stage as we get limited packs and only have the unranked mode and AI mode to engage with. We have ranked the five Factions today based on what to try to get the most of your time with the Beta. The focus is ranking them based on the play experience for beginners and how they help you become a better DC Dual Force player! So let's jump right in and of course throughout their will be decks!
1. Might
Might is the clear front runner early into your Beta experience with DC Dual Force. The Faction has strong synergy across the card packages. For this list, it reaches number 1 due to the quality of the budget cards players are more likely to have access too early on. Most Might decks can be modified for your collection with simple changes and they are a relatively straightforward Faction to play. wonder-woman-leader , superman-leader and aquaman-leader all have easy to understand abilities which activate on early turns. They also require minimal build around to make them effective, making Might strong pairing with other factions as you explore possibilities in the game.
See this deck as an example. This deck is made up entirely of Common and Rare cards in one faction. It is also one of the decks most likely to seize the board and not let go of the board the entire game, the key to winning with a limited collection. Both Leaders can help clear the board or just go straight to the Face also, so you never waste a charge. Easily one of the easiest directions to go early on and also a deck which can snowball out of control from turn 1. steve-trevor on Turn 1 plus the potential to buff the card immediately or the following turn is one of the best openers you can have as you set up a Leader ability and take over the board.
2. Tactics
Tactics has access to arguably the strongest Leader in the game, Batman. Although the Batman strategies can be beaten, the full Gadget packages are flexible and they help you maintain both board and card advantage. The issue as your going through the Beta is the strongest payoffs for the package in batman , batmobile and lucius-fox are all on the more expensive side and you need to get lucky and open these cards. This puts Tactics down a spot in the Beta player rankings. Even without these supports though the basic Gadget package with Batman as your Leader will support a lot of decks and let you try out a lot of combinations.
Additionally, the other Leaders in this faction are significantly harder to play than Batman. Green Arrow is the second option to consider early on as all Beta players can access to the full kit for this card including the green-arrow Recruit through purchases. This package provides flexibility and can support decks across the other factions. Bat-Girl and Cyborg require more deck building consideration and you may be frustrated by limitations in your collection.
This is a basic aquaman-leader and batman-leader deck without the expensive cards. This deck is confirmed to be getting balance changes but the basic shell is a strong starting point to be considering for all new players. The deck creates threats from turn 1 which can survive and has an amazing amount of flexibility due to the Tactics faction side and the gadgets.
3. Tyranny
Although not as flashy as Energy and Anarchy, Tyranny earns the number 3 spot as it can support more pairings and the budget cards in this faction are great for learning fundamentals in the game. Cards like hugo-strange , which removes a charge from an opposing Leader, are sneakily very powerful. As you play more of the game the impact of Leader effects and early board control become apparent. Tyranny as some of the best come back tools outside of the Gadgets in Tactics. deimos and traumatize are another two cards which are excellent early game tools which reduce power on board allowing favorable trades. One deck building direction which can be explored is simply pairing these efficient removal parts of the Tyranny gameplan with your other faction taking the role of damage.
The mark against Tyranny is the Leaders. poison-ivy-leader is only an OK Leader. Her ability puts bodies onto the board and can find value, but at times can feel redundant. lex-luthor-leader is better as 4 charges for removal on ANY recruit without Aura active can be very strong, allowing you to swing back a game or just being used as removal to open up an route to the Enemy Leader. black-adam-leader requires very specific build around and some of the best cards for this package are harder to get a hold of.
Tyranny has some of the best Arkham Inmates and Anarchy has plenty of cheap Arkham Inmates. So here we combine this synergy with one cheap Tyranny control tools to get the board early and maintain it throughout the rest of the game. As we start to run out of cards in hand we can then rely on Harley Quinn's ability to draw for us and keep the pressure on.
4. Anarchy
Anarchy is the most aggressive Faction. It can snowball out of control very quickly, especially if you have a critical mass of Arkham Inmates across this faction and Tyranny to combine together. However, the Faction is outclassed in most of it's strengths outside of the Arkham Inmate snowballing (which pairs very well with Tyranny as discussed above). Both the-joker-leader and harley-quinn-leader have passable Leader abilities but both fall short compared to Leaders like Batman and Wonder Woman. If your aiming to build a snowballing board, Might can be better, if you want to use from hand actions and abilities to control the game, Tactics and Energy can both be better.
This isn't to say Anarchy is bad. The Leaders are good and the class synergizes really well with Tyranny. Anarchy can be excellent as your second leader and paired alongside your primary gameplan in another faction. As demonstrated with The Flash aggressive deck paired with Harley Quinn below.
Here your cheap Anarchy recruits help you get the board early. We also benefit when we empty our hand in the mid game from the Harley Quinn adrenaline effect. Note however we are not building specifically to activate this effect but we benefit from it naturally. We want to get good scaling units down early, send everything to the Leaders when we can, then use The Flash to try and secure some early Leader KO's.
5. Energy
Energy takes the last spot for beginners although their is lots to explore in this class. It can take effective deck building to maximize the impact and some of the best cards in the class are higher rarity. This leads to decks which feel a little incomplete when your first starting with the game. Outside of the-flash-leader the Leaders can be more complicated to play. The Flash can be very effective in an aggressive strategy, but the big finishers your looking for are higher rarity.
All Beta Players can however get Shazam! and the package for this card and will likely want to try this out at some stage. shazam-leader is one of the more disappointing Leaders as the ability puts more cards into your deck which you need to draw, leading to consistency concerns. As fun as it is when you do get the lightning-bolt-created rolling, their are plenty of games where you just don't draw any of the Lightning Bolts in time due to how large the deck size is in this game. Some of the cards in the Shazam! mini-set however are worth trying in your decks as shown in the deck below and it may still be a potential purchase.
zatanna and the Magical Spell cards are very powerful but as mentioned above some of the best payoffs are expensive cards. Also as you do get the Shazam! cards included during Open Beta you can include the powerhouse Recruit card shazam . The amount of seeking that is required though and game knowledge can be on the higher end, so although powerful, its something to try as you improve. The synergies between playing multiple cards and spells and cards like naomi and giovanni-zatara are significant. Also without the higher rarity cards in this deck it feels like a significant drop in power.
Last Page
This list considers both the strength of the Factions as a whole, but also some of the considerations for early collections. No doubt these ranking will change significiantly in coming weeks (or months) of the Open Beta as options are explored. Also as you collect more cards more synergies between factions become available which can raise the value of different archetypes. For now hopefully this guide as given you more ideas of where to focus your decks and time to get the most out of the Open Beta and I will see you in the pages!
Good Luck, Have Fun and Stay Safe!
