What is DC Dual Force?
A new digital card game from CCG Labs, DC Dual Force imagines the “What If” of various DC super heroes and villains teaming up, mixing and matching their respective strengths and weaknesses to overcome their enemies. With Open Beta starting fresh this weekend, there is no time like the present to give this game a try! I got a chance to get my hands on it earlier this week during the closed beta, and here I will give an overview of the game and share my thoughts on it.
Game Modes
Right off the bat, DC Dual Force has 2 main game modes, Standard matches and Comics. Standard matches are what you would expect from most online CCGs. You can play either against an AI or human opponent via matchmaking and put your deck to the test. This is the core experience, and while there is not a ranked ladder or incentive to play beyond some modest reward of in-game currency, the game is so enjoyable that I did not find myself missing post game screens with experience, quest progression, and the like. While I am sure the experience will be more in-line with other games in the near future, for a beta it was more than adequate.
The other staple mode, Comics, are the main single player experience, letting you play in a series of scripted battles against AI with pre-built decks. The rules for these fights may vary from those of standard matches, and they often can include puzzles or other minigames that can break up the experience. While not very challenging, the comic that I had the chance to play was quite fun, and the medium was effective for telling the Justice League’s story and giving an origin for the game. The comic also gave significant rewards for completion, and as it stands now this mode will be a key driver for obtaining in-game currency and new cards. Even if you are not a competitive player or interested in playing against others, the comic system still gives you a great chance to enjoy Dual Force, and as more issues roll out it should provide a good amount of content for DC and card game fans alike.
In the future, Ranked Ladder and a Draft mode will be coming after the beta, so stay tuned for more info on these as we learn more.
Economy
Currently, it is difficult to make assumptions about Dual Force’s economy, but it does seem to support both free-to-play and paying players. The devs put out a great blog post here, but I will go over the big points here. Dual coins are the free currency, which can be earned by winning matches now and by completing quests in future updates. There is a free reward track, which is available to all players, and it comes with a weekly comic that will give card rewards and Dual Coins on completion. Players can use their Dual Coins to purchase packs, which come with up to 5 cards. Unique to this game, some packs will contain a Leader pack within them, granting players a new Leader, some cards that synergize with that leader, and 2 more packs! These are rare, but are about the most exciting thing to open in this game, and you can see a video of it here:
For paying players, there are a lot more options. There are expansion packs for individual heroes, like Shazam! And Green Arrow available for 500 gems, the premium currency. These packs contain the Leader card for the hero and 10 related cards, making them a great way to get started with a character you like. There also are some bundles in the shop available for gems, but the major draw is the monthly pass. This pass will be available in August, and for $9.99 will grant access to several features. A premium reward track, premium Comics and access to the full backlog of comics, a monthly subscriber set, and 10 packs of the most recent set each month are the highlights, and while I cannot speculate on the value of this yet, it does seem like the intended entry point for players that intend to pay for the game.
At the moment, there is not a crafting system, but, once again, this feature has been confirmed by the devs and will be available in the future following the beta.
Mechanics
While there are some similarities to other card games, Dual Force is unique in its mechanics, and it will take a bit of an adjustment even for veterans of the genre to familiarize themselves with the game. The resource system and board both innovate, but on first look seemed to be watered down to make the game suitable for a mobile app. That being said, most of these novel mechanics have been enjoyable, and after staying up a few hours too late more than once, I am willing to admit that I was wrong. CCG Labs nailed simple but deep mechanics, and the gameplay and deckbuilding felt compelling and decision-heavy even with mechanics streamlined somewhere in between Marvel Snap and Hearthstone’s. Now, let’s take a deeper dive into what exactly these mechanics are and why they work so well.
Game Objective
As I alluded to at the start of the article, DC Dual Force is all teams of two heroes, and the objective is simple: defeat both enemy heroes. You do so by dealing damage to them to deplete their health, and with no alternate win conditions in the first set, games are straightforward.
The Board
At a first glance, each player’s board is very simple. There are 6 spots for characters, and 2 spots for resources. The 2 leaders for each player will start in the bottom, corner spaces, and recruits can be placed in any of the other 4 open slots. Like in Hearthstone, you direct your own attacks, but you must attack the frontmost character in each column, so placing recruits in front of leaders is a good way to protect them. Vulnerable recruits can also be placed in the central back slot to protect them while they use powerful effects to swing the game your way. Unlike in other games, the leaders are often treated like recruits. Some effects that move units or give them increased power and health also affect leaders, giving them some freedom on the board and letting them do more heavy lifting over the course of the game than acting as a health tracker. The 2 resource slots are pretty self-explanatory, but note that a third slot will appear on your board if you generate an additional resource on your turn. As you can see in the video, there also is a wealth of comic art that you can scroll through as you play; the negative space is well used!
Resource
Moving away from the traditional mana or energy system, Dual Force instead takes a different approach to limiting card plays. Each card can have one of four costs: none, bronze, silver, and gold. You can play any card with a resource cost using a resource of equal or greater value, but you only can play one card with each resource. On your turn, you either gain the most expensive resource you do not have, or your secondary resource becomes the same as your first, up until you have one gold and one silver available at turn start. While that may sound confusing at first, in practice it plays out simply, with your available resource being:
Turn 1 | Bronze |
Turn 2 | Bronze-Bronze |
Turn 3 | Silver-Bronze |
Turn 4 | Silver-Silver |
Turn 5 | Gold-Silver |
Turn 6...N | Gold-Silver |
As you can see from the table above, you have the maximum resources at turn 5, meaning that powerful cards will be coming down quickly and be playable even in faster matchups. You still can only play one a turn at most though, so be careful building your deck! While you can play as many cards with no cost as you would like during your turn, you are very limited in how many costed cards you can play each turn, making cards like Mercy Graves more powerful than they might appear.
Card Types
So far, Dual Force has only 3 card types: Leader, Recruit, and Action. Leaders define the type of cards you can put in your deck, and each is differentiated by a leader ability. These abilities cost points of charge, which are gained at the start of your turn and when certain conditions are met for some leaders. You can use these abilities once per turn if you have enough charge, but they are powerful and often game deciding, so choose your leaders with this in mind. Recruits are the meat and potatoes of your deck, analogous to minions or creatures in other games. Coming with a variety of keywords and abilities, they will fill your board, protect your leader, attack enemy recruits and leaders, and provide value with their effects. Finally, Action cards are like spells, providing one-time effects to turn the tide of the match in your favor. While some decks will run several actions, they also are often created by followers, so be careful to check out your followers in the collection or on the board to see which actions they might produce.
Keywords
Adrenaline: This effect triggers when your hand is empty
Ambush: If this character attacks and destroys a follower, it does not take damage
Aura: The first time this character is affected by an enemy ability, ignore it
Deploy: When this character is played, trigger this effect
End: This effect triggers at the end of your turn
Evade: The first time this character is attacked, it does not take damage
Firepower: Your non-attack damage is increased by the modifier
Flurry: This character can attack twice this turn
Guard: Characters must attack this follower before attacking characters in the back row
Hidden: This follower cannot be attacked by other followers the turn it is played
Hunter: This character can attack any character, even those behind others and with Hidden
Invincible: This character cannot be damaged or destroyed
Lethal: When this characters damages a follower, destroy that follower
Parting Shot: This effect triggers when this character is destroyed
Shield: The first time this character takes damage, ignore it
Speed: This character is not exhausted the turn it is played
Start: This effect triggers at the start of your turn
Turn Structure
Like Hearthstone, Dual Force does not have defined phases through the turn. Players will draw a card at the start of their turn, then can play cards and make attacks in any order they wish. Your opponent cannot act on your turn, so feel free to make your plays without fear of a pesky counterspell. On the first turn, this is a bit more complicated, and changes depending on whether you are going first or second. If you are going first, your starting hand is three cards, of which you can mulligan back any that you choose. Most importantly, your leaders will not gain a charge counter on the first turn. If you are going second, your starting hand is four cards with the same mulligan rules, but your leaders will gain a charge right away when your turn starts. While it is not clear whether going first or second is more advantageous yet, it is good to know this so that you can plan your turns properly in your first few games.
Deckbuilding Rules
When building a deck, you choose the two leaders you would like to play, then add 20 cards from each leader’s symbol into the deck. If your two leaders share the same symbol, then all 40 cards in the deck will as well. You can only play 2 copies of any individual card in your deck, so in a forty card deck you will have lower consistency than in similar games, like Yu-gi-oh or Legends of Runeterra. When building your deck, you will want a high density of bronze cost cards, with fewer silver, even fewer gold, and a few costless cards to round out the deck. Each of the 5 symbols focuses on a different part of the game, and the next section will cover which playstyles, strengths, and weaknesses define each one.
Symbols
Might
Superman, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman headline the Might symbol, which is all about raw power and resilience. Might deploys the most stats in the game and does so earlier than other symbols, and their leaders are about building an early advantage either with an insurmountable board of recruits or removing their opponents without sacrificing their own health. Might recruits often boast defensive keyword abilities, like Aura, Guard, Invincible, and Shield, and are a pain for their enemies to get rid of and put down. Might does struggle with handling bigger recruits, and the symbol can struggle to come back in games where it falls behind early. Might pairs well with itself to double down on its strengths, but it also can use its superb early game to work alongside late-game oriented Tyranny leaders or give Energy the lead it needs to close out games quickly.
Energy
Hal Jordan, Shazam!,The Flash, and Zatanna represent Energy, a symbol that, while less straightforward than Might, still has powerful tools at its disposal. Energy is the action card faction, giving up raw, efficient stats for power off the board. Firepower is the keyword that defines this strategy, synergizing well with characters that generate damaging actions. There also is a Magical Spell archetype that capitalizes on drawing out the game, generating Magical Spell actions, and eventually blowing your opponent away with a combo finish. The Green Lanterns and Flash represent another side of energy, with their recruits exceeding even Might’s raw power but at the cost of efficiency, often consuming multiple resources per card play to do so. With powerful boosting actions, Energy can get to opposing leaders before they are overwhelmed by more numerous, efficient recruits. Because it is so synergy dependent, the action-focused archetypes of Energy almost always need to stay in symbol, but the styles that use buffs and are more aggressive can match well with Anarchy, Might, and Tyranny.
Tactics
Composed of Batman, Batgirl, Cyborg, and Green Arrow, the Tactics heroes were some of the strongest in my beta experience, using gadgets and high tempo cards to dominate the board and dictate the flow of the match. With a focus on generating action cards and drawing cards, this symbol has the tools to swing combat in their favor early by overwhelming opponents with card plays, but can suffer because its recruits are often undersized and are the weakest of any faction in the game. Might in particular can present a challenge, but Tactics can compensate for this weakness by pairing with Might, Anarchy, or Tyranny to get more board presence and find win conditions. Of course, Tactics can always pair with itself, using its gadgets to draw out the game and enable late game payoffs. If you like high agency gameplay and enjoy making several decisions each turn, Tactics is probably the symbol for you.
Anarchy
Living up to its name, Anarchy is all about creating chaos, and The Joker, Harley Quinn, and Doomsday perfectly fit the flavor. The most aggressive symbol, Anarchy has stats that are weighted toward power instead of health. While Energy gets their extra stats by spending more resources, Anarchy gets its own by discarding cards, enabling Harley Quinn and her archetype’s Adrenaline keyword. The Joker primarily focuses on Arkham Inmates, so he pairs well with Tyranny, but Firepower also works very well with him, so Energy is a consideration. Doomsday is a generally good beater that rewards defeating a leader early, so Might seems to be the right fit for him. Once again on point with the flavor, Anarchy falters against Batman and Tactics that can mitigate its aggression, but the deck is well positioned to punish greedy Tyranny archetypes and slow Energy gameplans.
Tyranny
Lex Luthor, Black Adam, and Poison Ivy are in control on the Tyranny symbol, with the most powerful late game of any symbol. While their Recruits are small, Tyranny can remove recruits with actions, instead, and, like Tactics, Tyranny is great at drawing cards. The main issue that Tyranny runs into is a vulnerability to aggro, particularly Might. Using Might or Tactics as a stopgap can solve this problem, but mono-Tyranny is also very powerful, using Poison Ivy to stall out the early game and get early pressure with her vines. Black Adam is the most menacing late game available in Dual Force; his +10 attack buff is permanent, and with a bit of help he will make quick work of any surviving enemy. If you are a fan of making opponents suffer and grinding out their resources, you are a tyrant and will be right at home here.
Conclusion
And with that, you have what knowledge a week of early access gets you about DC Dual Force. I cannot recommend enough that you give open beta a chance, and I hope that you enjoy the game as much as I did. Feel free to let us know on Twitter what you think about the game, or join our Discord server to talk strategy and about what decks you’re having fun with. Thanks for reading, and see you next time!
-DankestDad
Twitter: @DadDankest
Discord: dankestdad