There are a plethora of deck building games on the market. They followed hot on the heals of the success of Ascension. I love Ascension and was pleased to see that comics took a leap in to this genre and produced several games worth giving a look.
the game that I have had a chance to play on several occasions is DC Deck Building Game: Heroes Unite. This is a standalone game for 2 to 5 players. The suggested age range is fifteen and up and it lists a game as taking forty minutes. the objective of the game is to have the most victory points. These points are acquired through purchasing cards from the central area and defeating super-villains.
The game mechanics are simple. Each player either chooses or is assigned a Hero. Each hero does something different which provides a direct path to victory. Each player has a starter deck which the shuffle and draw five cards. the starter deck is composed of punches and vulnerabilities. punches provide power which is used to purchase other cards and vulnerabilities just take up space. The cards available for purchase are of several different types reflecting the DC comics universe. There are powers, heroes, villains, locations, and equipment.
Timing is handled through the use of super-villains. A pile of super-villains is created at the beginning of the game based on the number of players. once the last one is defeated points are tallied and a winner declared.
After playing several games, I have to say that I rather enjoy it. The mechanics are simple to understand and easy to pick up. The use of heroes to provide a rules exception is nice and a pleasant twist on the deck building idea. In particular, I enjoy the attack rule. Villains and super-villains can have an attack listed. This is a rule that goes into effect each time they come into play. They range from the innocuous which gives a player a weakness to debilitating in the form of discarding one of your high-value cards from play. One of the things that I found annoying was that there would be powers that came up in the middle that matched your super-hero but you would never get them. I now that it makes strategic sense to prevent the other player from getting things that make them efficient but I want Booster Gold to have Skeets not some Red Tornado power.
they could have come up with a better name as well. Sure, DC Deck Building game is descriptive but it certainly lacks a certain flair one would expect from a comic book property.
Other than that, I would highly recommend picking up a copy of DC Deck Building Game: Heroes Unite. It promises hours of fun with a large replay shelf-life.