Leader Tier List (Closed Beta)

Introduction

This list is very preliminary and is based on Beta Weekend experiences. This is subject to change based on deck builds or changes after the Closed Beta. The tier list is based on a few key factors including:

• Value from the Charges
• How much the deck needs to support the Leader
• Ease of Use
• Value within their faction

When placing the Leaders into the Tiers the following is was the rough guideline considered. Read more about the justifications below the table!

• S-Tier - Potentially worth putting into any deck.
• A-Tier - Flexible and can be played in many decks and in different ways.
• B-Tier - Enable specific strategies which are strong.
• C-Tier - Enable specific strategies which can be successful or are the Leader is not as good as the alternatives.
• D-Tier - Lacking in their current state and with the support available.

S Tier

Batman

Batman is the early front runner and if your entering the Beta weekend this is a great starting point Leader to include in your decks. Batman does everything with his ability which only costs 2 charges. This means you can activate this as early as turn 2 if you are acting second (as early as turn 1 if you draw Alfred Pennyworth. The ability gives the Batman leader 3 attack, which on turn 2 or 3 usually equate to a clear on a Bronze recruit. The ability doesn't stop their though as it also gives you access to one of the 4 gadgets. All the gadgets are free to use. Of the gadgets, two of these reduce power from the board. You can consistently get these on the first activation as you always see two of these when you use the ability. The other two either provide free healing or allow you to return a recruit to your hand to replay.

The ability provides you value and ability to clear early game recruits which in the beta was incredibly valuable. This is before even considering the make up of your deck where cards like Lucious Fox, Batwing and the Batmobile all synergise with the ability. Powerful effect which also provides powerful payoffs you don't need to dedicate your full deck too. Batman is a great pairing and if your unsure where to start, start here. To be clear on how good this card is, without any support in the deck it would probably still be ranked on top.

A Tier

Aquaman

Aquaman creates Sea Creatures which scale over time whilst also providing 3 attack on the Leader to help clear opposing boards. This only 3 charge ability, not only provides board presence without any synergy in the deck, it gives you 3 attack that can go into any of the opposing Recruits or Leaders. When we consider the support that can be provided in the faction with Throne of Atlantis providing you two more Sea Creatures on turn 3 and the amount of buff cards in the faction which need targets, Aquaman does everything you want to do in this game efficiently. The only reason this card doesn't make it into S-Tier alongside Batman is their is another direction you can use the Might faction which can compete with this Leader.

Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman has an ability which provides you 4 attack for 2 charges, allowing for efficient clearing, but also one of the best board buff abilities in the game. Her ability adds +1 health to all recruits on your side of the board. Recruits can snowball in DC Duel Force very quickly and if you can land this ability on the strong early game recruits in the Might Faction you can set up to continue scaling and run away with the game. Their are other factions like Anarchy which also have Recruits you would like to keep on the board at all costs, Wonder Woman can help you achieve this efficiently whilst clearing the opposing recruits.

The Flash

The Flash provides 2 damage which can be used twice on any target for 2 Charge. This ability alone can potentially clear two Recruits or clear a Recruit then go into the Leaders. This makes The Flash an Energy Leader which allows access to the damage cards in the Faction which doesn't need a heavy build around. This is not only efficient, but can be paired with buffs and other abilities to also become a threat to the opponent which can end the game. On top of all this the card Iris West gives The Flash and additional attack EVERY turn and INVINCIBLE. Their are also Recruits like Red Tornado which can come down as early as Turn 3 which are game ending threats when paired with the multiple attacks of The Flash. The package this card can support pairs well with many other strategies in the game making The Flash one of the best Leaders in the game.

Cyborg

Cyborg as the ability provides the final win condition as the charge can go straight into the Leader and cannot be blocked by enemy recruits. It continues scaling and the ability cannot be outlasted in anyway other than taking down Cyborg.

This makes Cyborg the Leader that must be focused on in most decks. This makes him flexible as you can play him as a way to have burst damage alongside an early game strategy that is aggressive OR as the finisher to strategies that are aiming to control the board and outlast the opponent.

Harley Quinn

Harley Quinn has a built in way to re-fill your hand as you empty your hand. It does this passively when you run out of resources and you will always have two cards per turn. With the way resources work you can empty your hand often and this can make a big difference in aggressive board strategies. She also gets 3 attack for 2 charge which as we have discussed with other Leaders can provide an excellent reactive tool as well as just extra damage.

B Tier

The Joker

The Joker has an excellent ability which does 4 damage across the board and gives the leader 2 attack that can be directed everywhere. The ability costs 3 charges and the faction can has a lot of support via Firepower effects which increase the damage of the ability. The reason for the lower ranking for Joker is the higher cost of the ability over some of the other Leaders which incentivizes building the deck to take advantage of the ability. The ability is strong enough to deserve the attention and can pair well with aggressive strategies and could be consideration for decks looking to control the board.

Batgirl

Batgirl has an effect which allows you to re-trigger the abilities on your deploy cards whilst providing you 3 attack you can use for your Leader to clear an enemy recruit. Deploy effects were powerful during the beta and this synergises across several factions such as Tyranny and the reduction deploy cards as well as having some strong early game synergy within the faction such as playing Commissioner Gordon on turn 3 and re-activating with her effect. The 3 attack however is less valuable than on some other Leaders as her starting health is lower so we really need to be getting solid value out of the re-triggered Deploys.

She is a Leader we can only see getting stronger as synergies and use cases for the effect are explored though and definitely worth experimenting with.

Lex Luthor

This card has a mediocre ability which becomes more valuable as the game goes on though. 4 charges removes a recruit, however as we have discussed with many other Leaders their are ways to remove most recruits which matter whilst advancing strong early game strategies. As the game goes on though and resources become tighter the ability has more value as it is more likely to remove key targets. This incentivises you not to use the ability until absolutely required but does support more control strategies. The Tyranny faction has a unique set of control tools which pair well with other Leaders to reduce power on board and this is enough to be considering Lex Luthor if your wanting access to the Tyranny cards to support your deck.

C Tier

Green Arrow

Green Arrow provides value per charge via the ability to seek a trick arrow which costs either Bronze, Silver or Gold resource. The Trick Arrows themselves are very strong cards which provide removal and often additional benefits. However, unlike Batman, the charge does not provide you the arrow for free. You have to then use up the resource to play the arrow also. This leans Green Arrow more towards a controlling playstyle and potentially requiring you to build your deck to specifically take advantage of the Trick Arrow generation heavily including cards with Firepower or which scale on actions like John Diggle. It is also important to note the pool of Trick Arrows is significant, leading to the chance of not rolling what you need for a given situation higher. One big negative for Green Arrow is it is doing the same as Batman but less efficiently at times. Unless your building mono-Tactics style deck with heavy payoffs it is hard to recommend Green Arrow over Batman.

Poison Ivy

The ability gives you board presence for 2 charges however their is no immediate board control when compared with the other abilities. The board presence is valuable. The Savage Vines themselves do lean into some potential control and combo strategies which does 1 damage to the Leaders after every draw. In the faction their is limited support for the combinations though, but the card does allow access to the other Tyranny cards. This can pair with other Leaders to give access to the reduction cards in the faction, whilst giving you the ability to add board presence. This can be enough for some decks and over time the ability of the Savage Vines could grow in value.

Superman

Superman gains 7 attack on each use and is Invincible. This clears most recruits, which is powerful and can go into the enemy Leader if theirs a clear route unlike Lex Luthor which instantly KO's a recruit. This can lead to strategies aiming at buffing Superman, either in health or attack which make him an ongoing threat the opponent has to hit into. However it does not provide Recruit pressure or other value. The ability costs 3 cost though which is a lot and provides very linear application. The synergies with cards like Lois Lane can help you snowball but given the comparison with other Might Leaders it is hard to recommend Superman.

Doomsday

The effect triggers on 4 charges and provides a massive 10 power attack. If we can line this up knocking out an enemy Leader we can then use this ability twice in quick succession. The problem with this ability is it still has to make it through to the opposing Leaders as using this much attack on an enemy recruit would not be optimal. The number is high but the ability is straightforward and only having one real optimal way you will want to use the ability Doomsday's application is likely to be limited.

Zatanna

Zatanna gives you the ability to seek Magical spells for 2 charges. This in theory is great resource generation, but similar to Green Arrow you do need to spend the resources on the Action after the ability. Their is a big pool of Magical Spells and they also don't always impact the board, they can be very situational and you might miss on the resource you want to spend or the card you need for the situation. Their is a clear set of build around cards for the Magical spells including cards like Giovanni Zatara. In practice these strategies can struggle into what the other Leaders are doing but she can pair with other Leaders to provide access to the Magical Spells and this may have value.

D Tier

Hal Jordan

Hal Jordan on the surface generates value and provides you an ability which does damage efficiently at 3 charges and gives you an extra resource. However their a lot of Green Lanterns and they require a lot of deck support to increase their power. The Green Lanterns all interact with each other, so the generated Green Lantern needs more Green Lanterns in deck. In order to hit your draws often, your then adding even more Green Lanterns and severely limiting your deck flexibility. Often the Green Lanterns effects are not worth the amount of work you need to activate them consistently as well. So although on the surface it appears valuable, this Leader requires significant build around. The extra bronze resource may eventually enable some combinations however and can be valuable when paired with Leaders and for the Lantern synergies, it just doesn't seem to be enough on launch.

Shazam

It is a 3 cost ability which puts 5 additional Lighting Bolts into your deck. This is 5 additional cards on top of the 40 card deck which you then are trying to draw into. It also gives you 5 attacks which is an effective clear. The entire strategy requires you to have built your entire deck to do this though. Cards exist which allow you to draw the Lightning Bolts and cards exist which allow you to buff the Lightning Bolts with Firepower. The Lightning Bolts are free and do draw a card also. So in theory you can create an infinite number of lightning bolts which always do 2 damage to Leaders minimum and chain. In practice it takes a long time to get online and their is not enough support to stay alive consistently whilst setting this up. The highlight level tier for this one S, but otherwise building into this needs heavy commitment for not enough pay off. It just doesn't do enough quick enough for the game in it's current state.

Black Adam

In order to take advantage of this Leader you must be playing 5 attack cards early and often. This means you have to allocate a lot of your resources into playing 5 attack cards. In order to do this you have to build the deck to play these, often the cheaper 5 attack cards have lower health values, allowing for efficient removal to clear them. This results in a situation where although your building to play high attack cards, you end up behind on board. On top of this, the in faction support is limited and this means you are almost forced to pair this Leader with the Might faction. Yes the attack is permanent so if we can make it work it is a strong effect in theory.

It is very limited though and the deck building requirements are potentially the least flexible of all the Leaders and the ability is useful later into games. The deck required may struggle to get to this stage of the game at all.

Final Thoughts

This is the start of our tier list based on the current state heading into the Beta. This could change significantly as decks are explored but hopefully this gives you some ideas of starting points for entering into the world of DC Dual Force. What do you think? Any Leaders we are being too harsh on? Any Leaders we are rating too highly? Let us know in the comments below.

Good Luck, Have Fun and Stay Safe!