[{"text":"Hey everyone, we have a great surprise for you today: Crisis 4 Spoilers!&nbsp; This article is by no means exhaustive, but today we're going to preview some of the new Main Characters, main deck cards and give you an overview of the set as a whole. First up, a rundown of the new sets mechanic: Unity."},{"header":"unity"},{"image":[{"src":"cap399414capture.png"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"Unity cards work better when other Unity cards are in play, causing them to grow more powerful over the course of the game.&nbsp; Unity cards have the word &#34;Unity&#34; written on the right-hand side in the Type line, but the distinctive trait that most players notice right away is the large orange &#34;U&#34; on the left side of the text box. Let's take a look at some:"},{"double":[{"src":"1-p658321.png"},{"src":"2-p3874582.png"}]},{"text":"As you can see, with the exception of Blank, we expect each Unity card will provide a benefit, that grows linearly with each other Unity card in play.&nbsp; I can see this working to good effect when Crisis 4 is combined with the Teen Titans base set, which revolves around Ongoing abilities. "},{"header":"personal Crisis"},{"text":"Crisis 4 contains a new type of Crisis for the cooperative play.&nbsp; These &#34;personal&#34; crisis cards prevent a player from playing certain cards, or might punish you for taking certain actions in the game.&nbsp; Personal Crisis cards also make the main deck run out faster, because at the start of each player's turn, the top card of the main deck is destroyed for each Personal Crisis that player has. Each player starts the game with a Personal Crisis, signifying the stresses of battling the forces of evil!&nbsp; A player will receive another Personal Crisis when they defeat a Super-Villain, so don't let them accumulate for long or the burden will be to great to bare. Best of luck saving the world!"},{"image":[{"src":"cap370277capture.png"},{"caption":""}]},{"header":"impossible mode super villains"},{"image":[{"src":"cap242214capture.png"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"Some of our favorite Super Villains hail from Crisis sets, and we fully expect to that many of these will be joining us in the Cube as well.&nbsp; Each Impossible Mode SV pushes out their non-Impossible Mode counterparts, so prepare to say farewell to some old friends (or enemies!) as well.&nbsp; Unfortunately Slade won't be joining us in the cube, as all Stack Ongoing Super Villains are banned, but we have no doubt the majority of them will be added."},{"header":"main characters"},{"header":"arsenal"},{"image":[{"src":"ars746410arsenal-.png"},{"caption":""}]},{"header":"THE FIRST TIME YOU BUY OR GAIN A CARD FROM THE LINE-UP WITH THE LOWEST COST AMONG CARDS IN THE LINE-UP DURING EACH OF YOUR TURNS, YOU MAY DESTROY A CARD IN YOUR DISCARD PILE."},{"text":"First up, Arsenal looks great!&nbsp; Arsenal allows for repetitive destruction, and in a game where you want to get rid of your Starters as fast as possible, this guy brings the heat.&nbsp; The cube allows for the usage of more than one Main Character at a time, and Arsenal has friends lined up and ready to help him out.&nbsp; Let's review his abilities and see who might pair best with him. He triggers on buying or gaining the cheapest card in the Line-Up; well no Main Characters really help there... let's see what else.&nbsp; When his trigger resolves, he destroys any card in our discard pile -&gt; wow, what an ability.&nbsp; Main Characters with destruction built in are few and far between, often with difficult to trigger scenarios, such as Cheetah and Starfire."},{"double":[{"src":"che315773cheetah-.jpg"},{"src":"sta658100starfire.jpg"}]},{"text":"With Arsenal, all we have to do is get the cheapest card from the Line-Up and then we get to destroy something.&nbsp; Arsenal is way out ahead of Cheetah and friends in the destruction department! One thing to note is that Arsenal destroys right away, so we need a reliable way to get a Starter into our discard pile.&nbsp; Fortunately with ~100 other Main Characters, we have a few options."},{"double":[{"src":"bat642458batgirl-.jpg"},{"src":"bla613488black-li.jpg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"mis887120mister-t.jpg"},{"src":"tri774162trickste.jpg"}]},{"text":"Depending on your play style, any of these Main Characters fit the bill because they all allow you to discard Starters early, and often.&nbsp; Even if there are no Equipment in your deck yet, Mister Terrific will happily allow you to discard a Punch.&nbsp; Once its discarded, Arsenal will happily destroy it for you, often as early as turn 1 if you can afford to buy a cheap card in the Line-Up. His best pairing might end up being Trickster.&nbsp; With him, you are all but guaranteed to have a Starter in your discard pile patiently waiting to be destroyed every turn.&nbsp; His Teamwork ability is just icing on the cake at this point, allowing you to hit some of your opponents powerful cards as the game goes on."},{"header":"donna troy"},{"image":[{"src":"don595452donna-tr.png"},{"caption":""}]},{"header":"YOU PAY 1 LESS TO BUY DEFENSE CARDS. EACH TIME YOU AVOID AN ATTACK, YOU MAY DESTROY A CARD IN YOUR HAND OR DISCARD PILE."},{"text":"There was a lot of speculation about Donna being a Main Character after seeing her artwork on the rulebook cover, and here she is, complete with not one, but two top notch abilities.&nbsp; She feels extremely powerful, and along with her great card artwork, she'll be a welcome site at any game table. Everyone loves buying cards, and players near and far will agree that you can only go so wrong by buying Defense cards, no matter which Main Characters you are using.&nbsp; Donna happily encourages us to do so, by offering them to us at a discounted rate. Her second ability requires little introduction, since we've just discussed how great readily available destruction is... each time you use those cheap Defenses, its Starter boom boom time! Defense style teams have been around since the advent of the competitive format, and Donna joins the ranks of some well established Main Characters.&nbsp; Where she fits into this is anyone's guess, perhaps she'll push Booster Gold off the team or maybe she'll join him?&nbsp; Only time will tell!&nbsp; For reference, here's a look at some friends she will likely play nice with:"},{"double":[{"src":"boo500689booster-.jpg"},{"src":"joh567175john-dig.jpg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"mis22236mister-m.jpg"},{"src":"sta217650stargirl.jpg"}]},{"header":"nightwing"},{"image":[{"src":"nig220655nightwin.png"},{"caption":""}]},{"header":"ONCE DURING EACH OF YOUR TURNS, IF YOU CONTROL THREE OR MORE NON-STARTER CARDS THAT SHARE A CARD TYPE, +1 POWER AND DRAW A CARD."},{"text":"Nightwing had a static ability to help you draw extra cards.&nbsp; Drawing more cards than your opponent can often signify that you are winning, and Nightwing can help get you there with extra power and card dreaw.&nbsp; His ability is also very reminisce of Superboy, who has been with us for some time now:"},{"image":[{"src":"sup210708superboy.jpg"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"A few differences is that Superboy requires the cards be different (so no double Kick turns) and he requires that they be Super Powers.&nbsp; With both restrictions somewhat relaxed, Nightwing will probably find a home in a Kick-centric deck, perhaps alongside Superman or some other Kick loving friends."},{"double":[{"src":"ala225341alan-sco.jpg"},{"src":"dr-731169dr-manha.jpg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"pow944745power-gi.jpg"},{"src":"swa114715swamp-th.jpg"}]},{"header":"omen"},{"image":[{"src":"ome286144omen-cri.png"},{"caption":""}]},{"header":"EACH TIME YOU DISCARD AN ONGOING CARD YOU CONTROL FROM PLAY, YOU MAY PUT IT ON THE BOTTOM OF YOUR DECK."},{"text":"Omen is here to inspire the ranks of Ongoing players around the globe!&nbsp; When played with the Crisis cards, she'll feel right at home alongside a main deck of Teen Titans, with Ongoings galore! I expect her to have a hard time finding cohesive Main Characters to team with, because discarding an Ongoing is just not something that is regularly done.&nbsp; Perhaps we'll get a handful of useful main deck cards that bolster her ability, but again due to the size of the cube she might be stuck waiting on the side lines for her chance to play competitive DCDB."},{"header":"tempest"},{"image":[{"src":"tem747374tempest-.png"},{"caption":""}]},{"header":"EACH TIME YOU PLAY AN ONGOING CARD, YOU MAY PUT A CARD WITH COST 5 OR LESS FROM YOUR DISCARD PILE ON TOP OF YOUR DECK."},{"text":"Unlike Omen, who revolves around discarding Ongoings (something generally frowned upon), Tempest triggers when you play them.&nbsp; Like Omen, he'll fit in quite nicely with the Crisis set theme, and will also relish in the Ongoing environment that is Teen Titans. Because he triggers substantially more than Omen would, he can try out for the BatCat rotation team, where he can potentially bolster them to the long awaited victory they deserve!&nbsp; He can continually feed the BatCat team top notch cards (hopefully more Villains and\/or Ongoings) to fuel the combo to keep going turn after turn."},{"double":[{"src":"bat415365batwoman.jpg"},{"src":"cat460575catwoman.jpg"}]},{"header":"the flash"},{"image":[{"src":"the439343the-flas.png"},{"caption":""}]},{"header":"ONCE DURING EACH OF YOUR TURNS, YOU MAY ADD THE TOP CARD OF THE MAIN DECK TO THE LINE-UP. YOU PAY 1 LESS TO BUY THAT CARD THIS TURN."},{"text":"Like his Kid Flash counterparts, The Flash has a mechanic related to the main deck; in this case letting you 'Flash Out Another Main Deck Card', which you can buy for a discount.&nbsp; Main Characters that provide a cost reduction have done historically well in competitive DCDB, and we expect this version of The Flash will see play and find success as well. Because his ability is not type-specific, he can readily be paired with any number of other Main Characters.&nbsp; Due to the randomness of cards coming from the main deck, he might be best paired with other Main Characters that are also not type specific, such as Green Lantern, etc."},{"double":[{"src":"ani806875animal-m.jpg"},{"src":"gre67035green-la.jpg"}]},{"header":"main character tiers"},{"text":"So what tiers will these Main Characters be? Head to our Facebook (https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/1563115643985775\/) and Discord (https:\/\/discord.gg\/E7ZNeZP) groups to discuss! The next ban and tier list is scheduled for August 13th, so stay tuned."},{"header":"closing thoughts"},{"text":"We would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to Cryptozoic for allowing us the opportunity to preview these Main Characters from the upcoming Crisis 4 set!&nbsp; The expected release date for Crisis 4 is August 8th 2018 (next week) and it is available in limited quantities at GenCon starting tomorrow!&nbsp; You can read more about that here: https:\/\/www.cryptozoic.com\/articles\/cryptozoic-and-warner-bros-consumer-products-announce-release-dc-deck-building-game-crisis DC Deckbuilding is produced by Cryptozoic Entertainment, you can find out more about them here: https:\/\/www.cryptozoic.com\/ You can read more about Crisis 4 here: https:\/\/cryptozoic.com\/dc-deck-building-game-crisis-expansion-pack-4 "}]