Later this summer fans of DC’s New 52 relaunch will have the chance to play in that universe with a deck building game that is being released by Cryptozoic. In it you play as one of the seven members of the current Justice League. A deck building game isn’t like a collectible card game like Magic or Pokemon. Everything you need to play will come in the box, which includes 214 cards and 7 oversized super hero cards. 2-5 players can play and each game should take 30-45 minutes to finish.

Each player starts with his own basic 10-card deck and draws a hand of 5 cards each turn. You use Power as money to purchase new cards for your deck. The goal of a deck building game is to make your personal deck into a well-oiled machine that will score you more victory points than your opponent. The types of cards you can get are broken down into five catagories: Villains, Heroes, Equipment, Super Powers, and Locations. You build the power of your deck to defeat super villains, which gains you victory points and the player that has the most victory points at the end of the game wins.

I recently tried a similar game made based on the Uncharted video games and it was quite fun. Those of you going to San Diego Comic Con will be able to demo the game at a special con only store that Cryptozoic will have. Located at 411 Marked St people will be able to not only demo the New 52 game, but Cryptozoics various other games like the Big Bang Theory party game and the World of Warcraft trading card game.

Cryptozoic is also releasing a trading card set, also based off the New 52, which is the first DC trading card set to be released in three years. It will feature a 61 card base set and two chase sets. One chase set is called “The Lanterns” and will feature various iconic lantern characters. The other is called “Work in Progress” which will be lenticular cards showing the process from a sketch to full color art. Also included will be sketch cards where you can get a sketch of various DC characters.

I’ve noticed these in last months previews so both of these should be available at your local hobby/comic shop when they are released later this summer!