DC Deck-Building Game: Teen Titans Go! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Anatomy of a Card
• Setup for Your First Game
  • 1. Super Heroes and Starting Decks
  • 2. The Main Deck and Event Cards
  • 3. The Line-Up
  • 4. The Nemesis Stack
  • 5. The Stacks
  • 6. Start Player
• Gameplay
  • Resolving Card Abilities
  • Sample Turn Sequence
• Turn Sequence
• Ending Your Turn
• End of Game
• Additional Rules
  • Oversized Super Hero Cards
  • Attack Cards and Defense Cards
  • Nemesis Cards
  • Destroying Cards
  • Weakness
  • Shuffling Your Deck
  • Locations
  • Events (Advanced Play Only)
  • Discarding Cards
  • Gaining Cards
  • Control
• Sidekicks
• Specific Card Clarifications
• Oversized Super Hero Card Clarifications
• FAQ
• Challenge Variants
  • Combining Cerberus Deck-Building Games
• Multiverse Box
• Credits

Contents

• 115 Game Cards
  • 14 Punch Starter Cards
  • 4 Vulnerability Starter Cards
  • 2 Snack Time Starter Cards
  • 64 Main Deck Cards
  • 6 Titans Go! Cards
  • 9 Nemesis Cards
  • 10 Weakness Cards
  • 6 Event Cards
• 5 Oversized Super Heroes / Sidekicks
• 1 Rulebook
• 1 Randomizer Card
• 2 Multiverse Dividers

Anatomy of a Card

1. Card Name: Two cards are "different" if they have different card names. Card names are bolded when written in game text.
2. Card Type: Some abilities will trigger when you gain or play cards with a specific type. The card types that you will find on cards are Starter, Equipment, Hero, Location, Nemesis, Super Power, Villain, and Weakness.
3. Game Text: Resolve all this text from top to bottom when you play the card.
4. VP Value: How many points this card is worth.
5. Cost: How much Power you must spend to buy the card.
6. Set Tag: This tells you what set a card was printed in.

Setup for Your First Game

1. Super Heroes and Starting Decks

Each player is dealt 2 random oversized Super Heroes and chooses which of those they want to play. Alternately, each player may choose to play as their favorite Super Hero. Place the unused Super Heroes nearby, then flip them over to their Sidekick sides. More on Sidekicks later ...

Each player begins with a Starter deck of 7 Punch cards, 2 Vulnerability cards, and 1 Snack Time card. You will use your Punch cards to buy more powerful cards to add to your deck, improving it as the game goes on. Snack Time cards let you take a food break and get rid of Weakness cards, but they don't help you get new cards for your deck since they have no Power. Likewise, your Vulnerability cards represent your Character's traits that can make you falter.

2. The Main Deck and Event Cards

Take all of the Hero, Villain, Super Power, Equipment, and Location cards and shuffle them together. There should be no Starter, Weakness, or Nemesis cards in the main deck at the start of the game.

If you are playing the Advanced Game, also shuffle the Event cards into the main deck. Place the main deck near the middle of the play area within reach of all players. If you are new to deck-building games, it is recommended that you play at least a few times without the Event cards. They can really mix things up! You will find other yellow boxes in this rulebook that cover additional advanced mode rules.

3. The Line-Up

Place the top five cards from the main deck into a row next to it. This is known as the Line-Up of cards that players will buy cards from during their turn. There is no board necessary to play this game; just reserve space for each card.

Advanced Mode: If any Event cards appear in the starting Line-Up, replace them with cards from the top of the main deck, then shuffle the Events back into the main deck.

4. The Nemesis Stack

Set aside Control Freak, then shuffle the remaining Nemesis cards face down. Put four of them into a facedown stack on the end of the Line-Up opposite the main deck. Return the rest of the Nemesis cards to the box without looking at them. Then, place Control Freak face up on top of that stack.

5. The Stacks

Shuffle the Weakness cards and put the stack face up next to the Nemesis stack. Place the stack of Titans Go! cards face up next to the Nemesis stack. Rotate the three stacks to help differentiate them from the Line-Up. The Weakness stack is always face up, so you'll have advanced warning of the kind of trouble the next Weakness card will cause. The main deck and the three stacks are not part of the Line-Up.

6. Start Player

The player who most recently watched an episode of Teen Titans Go! goes first. Alternatively, you can randomly determine a player to go first. Each player begins by shuffling their deck and drawing 5 cards.

Once you have arranged the main deck, the Line-Up, and the other stacks, it will look something like a row of five face-up cards next to the Nemesis, Weakness, and Titans Go! stacks. Your opening 5 cards in the Line-Up and available Sidekicks will vary.

Gameplay

Players alternate taking turns. You take your turn by playing cards from your hand face up in front of you. Any game text on the card resolves immediately from top to bottom. This generates Power (the "currency" of the game) and other effects. Note that if you have any Weakness cards in your hand, you must play them before playing cards with other card types. Unless otherwise specified, cards that you play stay in front of you until the end of your turn. Do not immediately put cards you play into your discard pile.

You may buy cards from the Line-Up, Titans Go! stack, and/or from the top card of the Nemesis stack to improve your deck. Cards you buy are immediately placed into your discard pile unless you are instructed otherwise. Discard piles are always face up. You do not have to play all of the cards in your hand before you start to buy cards and may play additional cards after you have started to purchase cards.

You can buy any number of available cards with combined cost less than or equal to the amount of Power you have generated this turn. For example, your Punch cards each give you +1 Power. If you draw four of them and no other cards with any Power bonuses, your total Power for the turn is 4. You can buy a single card with cost 2, 3, or 4, or even two cards each with cost 2, assuming these options are available. Titans Go! cards are (usually) available if the cards in the Line-Up are too expensive, and you may buy more than one during your turn if you wish.

You may choose to end your turn when you are done playing and buying cards. You do not have to play all the cards in your hand or spend all of your Power before ending your turn. However, you cannot carry over cards you do not play to your next turn and any Power you do not spend is lost. So, it's normally a good idea to play all your cards and spend as much of your Power as you can.

Once you have finished your turn, you will refresh the game area and draw 5 cards from your deck. The player to your left will then begin their turn.

Resolving Card Abilities

When an ability tells you to draw a card, that card is always drawn from your own deck. If you cannot fully resolve the text on a card, resolve as much of it as possible. When you play a card that triggers another ability, like on a Location, fully resolve the card you are playing before resolving any secondary abilities triggered by your card play. If you have multiple triggered abilities, you resolve them in any order you choose. If an ability allows you to do something up to a certain number of times, such as "Destroy up to 2 cards," you may choose to do that action 0 times.

Sample Turn Sequence

After shuffling up your starting cards, you draw a hand of three Punch and two Vulnerability cards for your first turn. You may play the three Punch cards for a total of 3 Power, which is enough to buy Birdarangs from the Line-Up. The Vulnerability cards provide you with no additional Power. After you buy Birdarangs, put it directly into your discard pile.

Turn Sequence

1. Play all Weakness cards in your hand.
2. Play cards from your hand.
3. Total up your Power and purchase cards with combined cost less than or equal to that total.
4. As soon as you buy a card, place it into your discard pile. Do not immediately replace the cards you gain.
5. You may play additional cards even after making purchases.

Ending Your Turn

1. Announce that you are ending your turn. Your turn is now over.
2. Put any cards remaining in your hand into your discard pile.
3. Resolve all "at the end of your turn" effects.
4. Put all non-Ongoing cards you played into your discard pile. Any unspent Power is lost.
5. Draw 5 cards from the top of your deck.
6. If there are less than 5 cards in the Line-Up, add cards from the top of the main deck to the Line-Up until there are 5 cards. (Advanced: Move Events next to the Nemesis.)
7. If the top card of the Nemesis stack is face down, flip it face up and read aloud its First Appearance — Attack.
8. The next player in the turn sequence starts their turn.

Do not immediately shuffle your discard pile to make it your new deck when your deck is empty. Wait until you must draw, discard, look at, or reveal a card from your deck. Then shuffle your discard pile, and it becomes your new deck.

End of Game

The game ends immediately when either of the following two conditions is met:

• You are unable to flip up a new Nemesis on the stack.
• You are unable to refill all five slots of the Line-Up.

Return all Location cards you have in play, all cards in your hand, and all cards in your discard pile to your deck. Then, players total up the Victory Points on cards in their deck. The player with the highest VP total is crowned the winner! In case of a tie, the tied player with more Nemesis cards wins. If there is still a tie, the tied player with the greater number of cards in their deck wins.

Additional Rules

Remember that cards can change or go beyond the basic rules found in this rulebook. The card is always right. That means you should always do what the card says—even if the rules say something different.

Oversized Super Hero Cards

Your Super Hero gives you an ability that you may choose to use during your turn. Note that these abilities require you to play certain types or cost of cards to utilize them. You should keep your ability in mind when deciding what cards to add to your deck.

For example, if you play at least 1 Equipment card and at least 1 Hero card in the same turn, Robin gives you the option to generate an extra +1 Power and draw another card to play this turn. If you generate the Power, you must also draw the card.

Attack Cards and Defense Cards

Attack cards have the bold keyword "Attack:" in their game text and allow you to do mean stuff to your opponent. When you play a card with an Attack ability, your foe has an opportunity to avoid the Attack with a card that has a Defense ability. If a player doesn't avoid the Attack, they are immediately affected by the Attack card's ability.

Defense cards have the bold keyword "Defense:" in their game text and allow you to defend yourself from an Attack made by your opponent or a Nemesis card. In order to use a Defense card to avoid an Attack, it must be in your hand. A player may only use one Defense card per Attack. Avoiding an Attack does not negate any abilities printed above the Attack keyword (like +2 Power).

If an Attack looks for a particular card or card type and you do not have one in the place where the Attack looks, you suffer no effects of the Attack, but you may still use a Defense against it if you wish. If an Attack causes you to discard a card from your hand, you do not draw a replacement card. You will have 1 less card to play during your next turn.

Most Defense cards give you a reward when you discard them to avoid an Attack. The reward is listed after "If you do" on your Defense card. When you play a Defense card during your turn, ignore any text after the Defense keyword.

Nemesis Cards

When you have accumulated enough Power in a turn, you can spend that Power to defeat the current Nemesis. If you do, pay the Power cost of the top face-up Nemesis, gain it from the stack, and place it into your discard pile. The next card in the Nemesis stack remains face down until your turn is over, so a player cannot defeat more than one Nemesis each turn. Control Freak costs 8 to defeat. The rest of the Nemesis cards cost 10 to defeat.

Advanced Mode: When you defeat a Nemesis, you also get to remove one Event card from the game. More on Events on page 10.

After your turn, but before the next player's turn starts, the next Nemesis on the stack is revealed. While Control Freak doesn't have an Attack, the rest of the Nemesis cards you face will come out swinging with a First Appearance — Attack against all players!

When revealed on the Nemesis stack, this Attack resolves immediately against each player in the game. Each player with a Defense card may defend against the Attack. The First Appearance — Attack will resolve against all players who do not defend themselves. These Attacks do not happen during any player's turn.

Like any other card you gain, a defeated Nemesis will aid you in your future turns. When you play a Nemesis card, only resolve the text above the First Appearance — Attack. The First Appearance — Attack is only active when the Nemesis is first revealed from the Nemesis stack.

Nemesis is a unique card type. Nemesis cards are not Villains, Heroes, etc. Nemesis cards are also Super-Villains. Super-Villain is a subtype, not a card type. Playing a Nemesis counts as playing one card type and one sub-type, not two different card types.

Destroying Cards

Some cards give you the ability to destroy a card from your hand, your deck, your discard pile, or the Line-Up. When you destroy a card, place it into a face-up pile of destroyed cards anywhere away from the play area, removing it from your deck and the game. Destroying a card in your hand means you cannot play that card this turn, so you won't get any of the destroyed card's abilities. Destroying your 0-cost cards will improve your deck greatly! Any destroyed Weakness or Titans Go! cards are not returned to their respective stacks.

Weakness

Weakness cards cannot be purchased and are only gained from certain card effects. When you gain a Weakness, take the top card of the Weakness stack and put it into your discard pile. When you later draw Weakness cards into your hand, they must be played during your turn before you can play other non-Weakness cards.

You may not play any other cards while there are Weakness cards in your hand. You may choose to end your turn with Weakness cards in your hand.

Snack Time cards allow you to return a Weakness from your discard pile to the Weakness stack, removing it from your deck. If you destroy a Weakness any other way, do not return it to the Weakness stack. It is possible for the Weakness stack to run out.

Shuffling Your Deck

You don't shuffle your discard pile and make it your deck as soon as your deck is empty. Instead, at any point during the game, if there are no cards in your deck and you need to draw, discard, look at, or reveal a card from your deck, immediately shuffle your discard pile, and it becomes your new deck.

Locations

Locations all have Ongoing abilities that will work for you turn after turn. Location cards go straight to your discard pile when gained, just like any other card. However, when you later draw and play a Location, that card will remain face up and in play in front of you for the rest of the game. Each Location has a unique effect that can trigger during each of your turns for the rest of the game. You can have any number of Locations in play at once. You control Locations in play in front of you. Other players cannot use the abilities of your Locations.

Events (Advanced Play Only)

Event cards are random happenings during the game that affect all of the players! As you might imagine, Events from the Teen Titans Go! universe can be random, wacky, and highly amusing!

When an Event enters the Line-Up, read its text aloud and then put it next to the Nemesis stack. Replace the Event card with another card from the top of the main deck. The Line-Up should have 5 cards before you start your turn.

Event cards next to the Nemesis are not part of the Line-Up and are never bought, but all players must do what they say. There can be any number of Events in play at once. Players should read the text on the Event cards next to the Nemesis each turn to make sure they are following the restrictions and resolving the abilities of those cards. When it is not your turn, you are an official member of the "Event Police" and should make sure the active player is resolving each Event appropriately.

To get rid of an Event, defeat a Nemesis! When you defeat a Nemesis, choose any one Event and return it to the game box. You cannot skip choosing to remove an Event even if you don't want to get rid of one.

If you would gain or play an Event from the main deck, place it next to the Nemesis stack and gain/play the next card of the deck instead.

Discarding Cards

Discarded cards are placed directly into your discard pile without resolving any of their game text. When a card tells you to "discard" a card, it means from your hand as the default. Cards that you have already played this turn are not in your hand and cannot be discarded. A card may tell you to discard a card from another place, such as the top of your deck or from in play.

Gaining Cards

Gaining a card is the process of taking ownership of that card. This most commonly occurs when you buy a card by paying its cost. When a card tells you to gain a card, take that card and put it into your discard pile at no additional cost, unless otherwise directed by the card. You also gain cards that are passed to you by other players.

Advanced Mode: If you gain an Event from the main deck, place it next to the Nemesis stack and gain the next card from the main deck instead.

Control

You control the cards in your play zone. These include the cards you played this turn and Ongoing cards still in play from a previous turn. You do not control cards in your hand, deck, or discard pile. If a card gives you a bonus if you control a certain card or card type, you must already have that card in play to gain the bonus. You do not get the bonus if you play the required card later in your turn.

Sidekicks

At the start of the game, each of the unused Teen Titans Go! Super Heroes are placed above the Line-Up and flipped to their Sidekick side. These Sidekicks are available for you to Recruit during the game. You can have multiple Sidekicks. When you have a Sidekick in front of you, that Sidekick is "on your team." That means you have full access to the abilities on that card. However, these alliances may be temporary as your foe can tempt your Sidekicks to join their team.

All Sidekicks have a Recruit condition at the top of their text box (highlighted in yellow). If you play the cards (or perform the actions) listed in a Sidekick's Recruit ability, you convince that Sidekick that you're the better leader and they join your team. Sidekicks will join your team whether they are still out of play or currently on a foe's team.

For example, if you play 2 Super Powers in the same turn, Beast Boy will join your team. It doesn't matter whether Beast Boy is above the Line-Up or on your foe's team.

When a card you play tells you to "Recruit a Sidekick," choose a Sidekick from above the Line-Up and place it next to your Super Hero. These effects cannot be used to Recruit a Sidekick already on your opponent's team. If there are no unclaimed Sidekicks, simply don't acquire a new Sidekick.

When a card tells you to "Steal a Sidekick," choose a Sidekick your foe has on their team and move it over to your side of the table to join your team. You cannot steal an unclaimed Sidekick. When you play the cards needed to Recruit a Sidekick on a foe's team, that is also stealing a Sidekick.

Some Attacks and card abilities can cause/ask you to "lose a Sidekick." Losing a Sidekick means choosing one of your Sidekicks and placing it above the Line-Up with the other unclaimed Sidekicks. You can Recruit a Sidekick the same turn you lose them as long as you meet their Recruit condition. You keep any Power generated by a Sidekick before you lose them. Sidekick abilities can only be used once per turn, even if you lose them and Recruit them again in the same turn. Your main Super Hero is not a Sidekick and cannot be lost.

Specific Card Clarifications

Note: Cards often refer to "each foe" even though you have only one foe in this game. This is so your cards can be used in other Cerberus Engine games with more players.

• Billy Numerous: You can draw a maximum of 4 cards from this effect.
• Bo Staff: Being considered to have all Sidekicks on your team means you will trigger any abilities on cards looking for those specific Characters on your team. This does not give you access to the abilities of Sidekicks not on your team.
• Crystal Prism: Super Heroes and Sidekicks don't count.
• Laundry Day: You may choose a color you do not control and put no cards on the bottom of your deck.
• Más y Menos: Your foe cannot deny the High Five.
• Mutation: Cards in your hand still have their card type. So, you will still have to play Weakness cards in your hand before playing other cards. The cards you play lose their card type as you play them and will not trigger abilities for playing a card of their previous card type.
• T-Car: Super Heroes don't count.
• Turned into Babies: When this Event is removed, the Super Heroes who were flipped over by this effect are flipped back to their Super Hero sides. If you don't have your original Super Hero anymore, it returns to your team.

Oversized Super Hero Card Clarifications

• Beast Boy: Using a Defense to avoid an Attack is not "playing" a card. If you do not have a card in hand to discard, you do not draw a card.
• Starfire - Sidekick: The two cards you play to Recruit her do not need to have the same cost, so you can play a 1 and a 2 to Recruit her.

FAQ

Q: What does the term "defeat" or "defeated" mean? A: That term is only used in reference to a Nemesis. You "defeat" a Nemesis when you buy it from the top of the Nemesis stack.

Q: Who is "on my team?" A: Your Super Hero and each Sidekick in front of you are all "on your team."

Challenge Variants

Once you're more familiar with the game, try out these game variants.

Additional Weaknesses: Each time you would gain 1 or more Weakness cards, increase that value by 1.

Marathon: When setting up the Nemesis stack, add 2 more random Nemesis cards to the face down pile.

Combining Cerberus Deck-Building Games

This game can be combined with other games in the Cerberus family of deck-building games.

When mixing with other sets, we recommend each player uses a Character from that set and that you put a number of the Teen Titans Go! Sidekicks equal to the number of players +1 above the Line-Up.

Alternatively, you can deal out a number of random unused Characters equal to the number of players + 1 from the set you are mixing with and randomly assign each an unused Teen Titans Go! Sidekick card. The Recruit text of that Sidekick becomes the Recruit ability of that Character. Once Recruited, you only get to use the ability of that Character, not the Sidekick.

Multiverse Box

In this box, you will find special components not used during standard games of Teen Titans Go! The two plastic Multiverse dividers are used to separate your Teen Titans Go! cards from the rest of your collection when storing the game in the Multiverse Box, a large sturdy storage box. The randomizer card is used to play the special Multiverse game mode included in the Multiverse Box or to help you decide which of your DC Deck-Building Games to play.

Credits

• Game Design: Matt Hyra and Nathaniel Yamaguchi
• Game Development: Matt Dunn
• Original Art: Robb Mommaerts
• Graphic Design: John Vineyard, Larry Renac
• Editing: Shahriar Fouladi
• Playtesters: Richelle Brady, Dan Clark, Robert Gasio III, Julien Guerand, Jackie Harvey, Shannah Linker, Kyle McGinty, Katie Raccuglia, Jared Saramago, Nicholas Scamman, Michael Shaneman, Ryan Skinner, Ryan Sutherland, Kimberly Walker, Shanka De Silva, Jose Mendoza, and many others.

Cryptozoic Entertainment:

• CEO & Founder: John Nee
• CCO & Founder: Cory Jones
• Founder: John Sepenuk
• VP of Product Development & Marketing: Shahriar Fouladi
• VP of Operations & International: Ming Wan
• Director of Sale: Colin Robinson
• Special Thanks: Rumi Asai, Carl Braun, Dani Cabrera, Javier Casillas, Katie Pelaez, Harrison Roberts, Marycarmen Wilber