If you’ve scoured the web there’s a good chance you’ve already spotted a preview of another Dick Grayson ◊ Nightwing in the Gotham Knights team for the DC ComicsOrigins set. This Teen Titans version continues a roster that should be sure to please any Nightwing (or Robin) fan, both in quality and quantity.

Before delving into a discussion about this card's boost ability, the first line of rules text empowering your attackers is an exceptional ability. Assuming you have the initiative on the odd turns of the game, the Titans' Leader is truly devastating. When all of your attackers get +2 ATK, your smaller characters should be able to take down larger adversaries without too many problems, and Dick Grayson can finish off any survivors. If you play Nightwing on turn 5 and you don’t have the initiative, now is the time to use your defensive tricks to help keep your characters alive for the next turn. The Teen Titans are quite the durable crew in this set. They have no shortage of defensive tricks to keep the whole gang around. And they have at least one character that can bring along a friend when he or she is recruited. Hopefully, all this will lead to plenty of characters receiving that +2 ATK in your games.

Since Dick Grayson’s ability is contingent on his being ready, it means you usually want to send him in as your last attacker. Sadly, he doesn’t gain the benefits of his own leadership. However, his requirement makes any surprise tricks related to his “ready” status very powerful. For instance, there is at least one common plot twist in the set that can ready all of your Teen Titans who meet certain criteria.


When +2 ATK for everybody else just isn’t enough? Boost!

From the DCOrigins rulebook: “Boost: Some characters have the word “Boost” in their text boxes. The number after the word Boost is the character’s “Boost cost” in resource points. If a character has Boost, you may pay its Boost cost as you recruit the character. If you paid its Boost cost, follow the instructions after the word Boost.” Thus, Boost is an additional cost at the time of recruitment that usually creates an effect that last until the end of the turn. Each character with Boost has his or her own distinct effect.

In this case, you get a guaranteed bonus to all of your attackers including Nightwing himself. Since it triggers when he comes into play and locks in the +2 ATK to all your Titans, even if Dick gets stunned later in the turn, your Titans won’t lose the Boost bonus.

Boost creates a decision point both in deck construction and gameplay. Since the Titan Leader makes a very good play both on turn 5 and 7, you gain some options on how many other characters to include in your deck at those cost points. The best part comes in Limited games, where you might not have been able to run as many characters at a given cost as you would otherwise have liked to. A number of characters Boost up to the costs you may have found hard to come by in the Marvel set. In the course of a draft, characters with Boost are generally fairly high picks since they can serve a dual role of being a strong play on either of two different turns in a game.

If a character’s recruit cost and Boost add up to the current turn, you are getting a character that is usually at least nearly on par with a character with a recruit cost having a printed cost equal to that turn. The next turn, however, once the boost’s effect has worn off, that character is back to his or her plain ole’ self. So make the most of it the turn he or she enters the fray.

Let’s say you are in a position where you have Dick Grayson in hand, but no other 5 or 7 cost character. You have to ask yourself whether it is worth it to wait until turn 7 to play him. If you have a 3 or 4 cost character to play on turn 5, there is a very good chance you want to play that character and save Dick Grayson for turn 7 to maximize his bonus. Then again, that assumes you will still be alive on turn 7, and that you aren’t giving up too much by not having him out in the meantime. Either way, it makes for interesting choice that you will learn to make with experience.

In Constructed Vs., let’s say you ordinarily like to run five characters at a cost of 5 and three characters at a cost of 7. Being able to include a character that is powerful at both of those costs may allow you to include less than eight total characters at those costs and instead maybe only seven, six, or even fewer. Don’t get too carried away, though, since you still want to include enough characters at both of those costs to make sure you have plays on both turns. Boost also provides a nice insurance policy if you survive to turns you don’t normally expect to. For example, if you don’t normally play with any characters at a cost of 8, you can now play with characters that Boost to a total cost of 8, and you will sure be happy in those games that actually last that long.