by Horse85
Let me start by saying that I used to love Ascension, until Legendary came out and I discovered how good Ascension should have been. DC Comics Deckbuilding (real creative name, by the way) is, in my opinion, better than Ascension, but not nearly as good as Legendary. I won't bother comparing it to other deckbuilding games like Dominion, Quarriors, or Thunderstone, because they're really apples to oranges.DC Comics and Legendary both seem to be 'answers' to Ascension. They take that same 'center row' mechanic and run with it in different directions. Here's the main problem with Ascension: having two types of currency and no guarantee that both will always be useful. For example, sometimes you get a ton of power in your hand and there are no monsters to fight, or sometimes you get a bunch of runes and there's nothing good to buy.
DC Comics and Legendary both have different takes on how to address this problem. Legendary does it by essentially having two center rows, one with things to buy with one type of currency, and another with bad guys to fight with another type of currency. And it works, it's great. The DC Comics answer, however, is to just simplify the game and only have one type of currency.
While this addresses and solves the problem of Ascension, it also creates a new problem. The game is far too simple to be interesting. There's a fine line between making a game that's simple enough to learn easily and making a game that's so simple that it's no longer interesting once you've learned it. DC Comics crosses that line. The dominant strategy in this game is just to buy the biggest things that give you the most power to buy more things. That's the whole game, and once the players have figured that out, the game becomes all about the luck of who gets to have access to the best things on their turns.
One major difference between this and the other two center row deckbuilders is that the center line isn't refilled mid-turn. This is a huge drawback in my opinion. There were a couple turns playing this game where I found myself just buying the entire center row and then having nothing to do with the rest of my power.
This game is horrible. Go play Legendary.
