[{"text":"Hello everyone, Darkhelmet back again to talk more DCDB! I must reminisce, to the simple times. I was introduced to DC Deck Building about a year and a half ago. Back then, we only played with the Base Set. Batman seemed OP. Green Lantern was to slow, and Aquaman made no sense to us. We played with a single Main Character, and we would roll to see who picked theirs first. Times were simpler back then.&nbsp; One game, we decided to spice things up, so we shuffled the MCs and dealt one randomly to each player. I got Aquaman, and everyone gave me their condolences. Then a funny thing happened; I began to feel like I had a substantial advantage: I was out pacing everyone else, hitting higher power cards sooner, etc. I snowballed through the whole game and crushed everyone. After that, I began playing him more and more. We eventually began to consider Aquaman as one of the best MCs from the base set. Eventually, we discovered competitive DCDB, played with the cube rules and format. I decided to apply what I\u2019d learned about playing Aquaman by himself, and apply it to the cube format. To that end, today, is all about Aquaman. We will look at:"},{"list":[{"listType":"bullet"},{"caption":"How he is producing extra power for you in the early game"}]},{"text":"And how to play him in the&nbsp;"},{"list":[{"listType":"bullet"},{"caption":"Early Game"},{"caption":"Mid Game"},{"caption":"Late Game"}]},{"header":"Aqua MATH!!"},{"text":"I believe that most MC abilities can be defined as, &#34;Do something special, gain some Power.&#34; Several MCs are pretty simple: Batman: Play an Equipment = &#34;do something special&#34;, &#34;gain some Power&#34; = +1 power per equipment. Easy. Some MCs are a little more convoluted, such The Flash and Golden Glider, although they don\u2019t specifically give you extra power, their abilities often result in you gaining more power. Aquaman's text is just a complicated way to say: Do something special and gain some Power."},{"image":[{"src":"aqu284912aquaman-.jpg"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"What's the big Aqua-Deal? How does this make more Power for you? There are only four possible combinations of hands you get at the start of the game:"},{"list":[{"listType":"bullet"},{"caption":"3 punches & 2 vulns \/ 4 punches & 1 vuln. Vise versa"},{"caption":"5 punches @ 0 vulns \/ 2 punches & 3 vulns. Vise versa"}]},{"text":"Without assistance, the most that you can produce with your first deck cycle of 10 cards is 7 Power. Let\u2019s see what Aquaman can do for us here. Let's say you get 3 Punches in your first hand. Buy a Kick and put it on top. Draw 5. How much power do you have? Well, we were supposed to have: 4 Punches, 1 Vulnerability, but with that Kick, we now have 1 card left in our deck. This card has been replaced by the Kick we bought on turn 1. If the last card in our deck is Punch, we now have 5 power: 1 Vuln, 1 Kick and 3 Punches. If it was a Vulnerability that our Kick took the place of, we now have 6 powe: 4 Punches and a Kick. Our first deck cycle is now producing 8-9 power instead of 7. Thus we can conclude: When the cards we put on top are taking the place of starter cards, Aquaman's ability results in either +1 or +2 power. That\u2019s Aqua-Power!"},{"image":[{"src":"wer914700wert.jpg"},{"caption":""}]},{"header":"Early Game"},{"text":"No matter who you pair this MC with, all you need to do is buy cards that produce more power than a Vulnerability or a Punch. That\u2019s Aqua-Easy."},{"header":"Mid Game"},{"text":"We begin to run into an Aqua-Problem as the game goes on. We produce power when we replace starters in our hand with cards we put on top. But as our deck becomes saturated with cards, the chance we are replacing Starters becomes less and less. As we begin replacing Kicks with Kicks, for no power gain; our average power begins to flatline. Cards that you can confidently get +3 Power from become more valuable since you are replacing Kicks with something better, but cards that fit that criteria and that cost 5 or less are quite scarce."},{"double":[{"src":"gor505209gorilla-.jpg"},{"src":"pow413411power-gi.jpg"}]},{"text":"Knowledge is power, and knowing what card is on the top of your deck can lead to powerful interactions. For instance!&nbsp;"},{"image":[{"src":"fir289978firestor.jpg"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"You play the top card of your deck, and if it costs 5 or less, you may turn it into an Ongoing card.&nbsp; You have 5 cards In Hand, and 1 of them is Firestorm matrix: With your 4 other cards, produce some power and buy something amazing, then put it on top with Aquaman. Now you play Firestorm\u2026behold the power! Cards that interact with the top card of your deck offer powerful effects, but usually suffer from inconsistency, because it can be hard to guess what's on top.&nbsp; But with Aquaman, cards like these two benefit perfectly from Aquaman's ability:"},{"double":[{"src":"ani476939animal-m.jpg"},{"src":"rag730463ragman-c.jpg"}]},{"text":"That's Aqua-Utility!&nbsp;"},{"header":"Late game"},{"text":"As the late game begins, we must start to use our Aqua-Utility. Besides the few cards we can put on top that give us +3 Power, we begin doing something strange\u2026we stop putting cards on top. Why? "},{"image":[{"src":"qwe984754qweraadf.jpg"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"By the time the late game rolls around, hopefully you\u2019ve accumulated some powerful cards. Putting average cards on top of your deck will slow down how often you get to see and play those game changing powerful cards you\u2019ve accumulated. Therefore, towards the end of the game you should be putting the majority of the cards you buy into your discard pile, in the hopes of playing your power cards a couple more times before the game runs out."},{"header":"Final thoughts"},{"text":"Aquaman produces early game power, and can provide situational utility. Unlike other MCs, that start weak and grow stronger, Aquaman starts strong and becomes weaker. With Aquaman, you need to get ahead in the early game and use that momentum to carry you through the late game. Ebb and flow, Aquaman is not dependent on the line-Up; you can pair him with almost anyone else and take full advantage of his benefits early in the game. We begin to see the benefits of our MC as early as turn #2! Many other MCs must wait until at least turn 3 to reshuffle and draw cards that will trigger their abilities (Batman, Martian Manhunter, etc). Aquaman circumvents this problem and allows you to reliably trigger your other MCs abilities sooner, and often right out the gate."},{"image":[{"src":"oiu174771oiuyt.jpg"},{"caption":""}]},{"header":"Long live the king!&nbsp;"}]