The Cerberus Engine line of games from Cryptozoic Entertainment has maintained and grown a loyal fanbase since its inception thanks to new licenses, a wide variety of expansions, and fresh takes on the deck-building genre.

The latest Cerberus Engine game, Cartoon Network Crossover Crisis, adds a few new wrinkles to the Cerberus line: Events and a deck of all unique cards. Since this is a whimsical title, Events consist of silly activities and entertaining shenanigans that let everyone get in on the fun. The set features so many characters that absolutely everything is unique! That’s right, no duplicate cards are found in the main deck, or even in the Weakness stack (the “bad news” card of the Cerberus Engine). Each Weakness is uniquely named and has a distinctive negative ability that will throw a monkey wrench into your plans. The game is a laugh-out-loud good time!

The Crisis Expansion Pack 3, the latest expansion to the DC Comics Deck-building Game, extends the story of Forever Evil, as the Villains of Earth must thwart the evil Crime Syndicate’s devious plans for taking over their territory, while the Justice League is nowhere to be found. In the game, players take on the roles of fan-favorite Super-Villains from the Forever Evil set, now in all their Crisis glory, with Crime Syndicate Impossible Villains as your opponents.

There are two modes of play in Crisis 3: Full Co-op Mode and Hidden Objectives Mode. Players already familiar with Crisis Expansion Pack 1 and 2 should already be familiar with Full Co-op Mode. Hidden Objectives Mode is all new to this expansion and it’s more than a little devilish. You still have the ultimate goal of defeating all of the Crisis and Impossible Super-Villains. However, you don’t share in the victory unless you also fulfill the requirement on the secret Hidden Objective card you receive at the start of the game.

You might wonder what sort of team would come together and yet be at such odds? The Suicide Squad, of course! Crisis 3 also contains six competitive Super-Villains that you can add to your games. They excel at playing Hidden Objectives Mode Crisis. There are also a host of new main deck cards to give your deck a little extra Suicide Squad and Crisis flavor.

While the DC Comics Deck-building Game is the most popular, there are several other titles in the Cerberus Engine line of products, including Naruto Shippuden, Street Fighter, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and NHL Hockey. With so many base set games and expansions in the Cerberus Engine line, our Cryptozoic forums (as well as independent forums) are constantly abuzz with ideas for combining different sets and even different game worlds together. Most games use the same standard card back, allowing for easy mixing between games. Using sleeves allows any game to combine with any other game. They all use the same basic rules. But each game has its own twists and thematic flair. Those of us who design the games also have some favorite combos.

My favorite combination is nicknamed “Street Hockey”, merging the Street Fighter and NHL Hockey games. Street Fighter is a very PvP set. Lots of “directed attacks” allow you to inflict harm on the foe of your choosing. This is a great way to slow down someone who is doing well, or get revenge on someone who has wronged you in the game. The best part of this combo is using the “Penalty” cards in place of “Weaknesses.” If a player has two or more Penalty cards in hand, that player must go to the ‘Penalty Box’. They lose their turn, but they do get to remove those two Penalties from their deck.

Cerberus Lead Developer Nathaniel Yamaguchi’s favorite combo is nicknamed “Justice Society of Evil”, teaming up the JSA Crossover Pack #1 and Forever Evil. The JSA Crossover is somewhat centered around making use of the basic Punch cards that comprise most of your starting deck, while in Forever Evil players excel at destroying cards. Normall,y Punch cards are some of the first cards players want to thin out of their decks, but with this combo of cards you have to think twice about which cards you destroy.

Richard Brady, Lead Designer of Arrow and Teen Titans, enjoys a combo he nicknamed “TitanWatch”, featuring a combo of Teen Titans and Watchmen (Crossover Pack #4). Teen Titans showcases a lot of Ongoing cards, which allow players to slowly build up Power and then unleash it all when the time is right — the perfect plan for when you discover a traitor in your midst, which, coincidently, Watchmen uses a “hidden traitor” mechanic. Players must overcome Challenges and keep cards that can inflict a lot of damage away from the traitor. The traitor is secretly trying to fulfill the requirements of the public Villainous Machinations card. Doing so will activate his or her Mastermind Plot. If this sounds a lot like the famous graphic novel…you’re right!

Of course, for some, mixing two complete sets just isn’t enough. Many players post fully customized 115-135 card main decks online for all to critique and gaze at in wonder. Players will go out of their way to include a very diverse set of cards from across all genres of games. We at Cryptozoic liked the idea so much that we used it for our Championships at Origins and Gen Con in 2015. It’s a great way to expose players to sets they have never seen before. Best of all, they already know the general concept behind any card they see, since they all use the same Cerberus rules set. But a single rules set doesn’t mean we are hamstrung into the same play patterns over and over.

Probably the design team’s favorite card design of all time — from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. A card that gives you plenty of options, it lets you peer into the future, but with an element of risk, as well.

So, curious about what new licenses and innovations are coming for the Cerberus Engine? Do the following words get your blood pumping: Attack on Titan

They certainly do for millions of anime fans! This late 2016 release will feature a brand-new addition to the Cerberus Engine: “Movement”. Your Hero is represented in play by a standee, and you must travel between Districts to buy the cards you need. You can also hop over the Wall and try to take down a Titan before it can bash through the Wall!

Another innovation: The Attack on Titan Deck-building Game is fully cooperative. Players will need to work together to kill Titans, or, at least, slow them down. Since the game is built to be cooperative from the ground up, there are many cards from the cooperative Crisis sets that will work very well mixed in with Attack on Titan. We can’t wait to see what players come up with! Our only regret is that they will have to wait a few more months to get the game into their hands. This is the first time any gameplay information has been released on this game, so the hype starts now!

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Matt Hyra has been the lead Board Game Designer at Cryptozoic since its inception. He has designed a wide variety of games including Adventure Time: Card Wars, Hot Rod Creeps, The Walking Dead: Best Defense, Food Fight, and most of the Cerberus Engine Deck-building Games. He resides in Irvine, California.