If you have not yet spent any money on OverPower then I just want you to know a few things before you do.  As a game, OverPower is for two players.  You can still simply collect the cards, as many other people already do.  But if you want to have fun playing the game then you will need an opponent.  I would not advise buying the cards to play if you do not have anyone to play against.  It may be possible to find an opponent at your local card shops, but you may mostly find Magic and Star Wars players.  You would either need to find people who already play the game or get your friends interested in the game along with you.

    Personal History:  I myself bought OverPower when it first came out because I was just getting interested in Marvel comics,  but I did not know of anyone near me who played.  It was not until Frank Yue held his first OverPower block party did I actually have someone to play against, and that was at least five months after the game was released.  Not only did I have to wait that long to play against someone but I had to drive three hours just to get there.  On top of all that I lost every single game that day.  But it did not matter because we all had fun and I learned a lot about how to play.  Another couple of months later and I was heading back up to Philadelphia for the next block party and some pretty memorable games for me.  Here we are a few years later and some of us are pretty good friends.

    As OverPower is a Collectible Card Game it will be very difficult to get a complete set, especially since you have not been collecting since the first day.  Do not worry about that though.  There are not that many people who have every single card that exists, including myself.  If you have a friend who is an avid player/collector then that may be your greatest asset.  If not, then the internet may be able to give you the help you need.  See my links page to help find some of the better places for all things OverPower.
    There have been ten different expansion sets for OverPower through May 1st, 1999.  All of them are essentially out of print.  You may be able to find some of the earlier sets at stores, especially ones that have few OverPower players/collectors.  In time, you will probably need access to every card available.  This is where trading can be priceless.  I would recommend trading or even buying cards that you want to use to build a deck and concentrate on completing sets much later.
    If you are not sure about OverPower then I would not recommend spending that much money on it.  Always remember that it is just a game.  It is not worth sleepless nights, cold sweats, or self butt kicks for mistakes made while playing.  Sample it at first and see how much fun it is.  If money is a concern then some of the older sets can be found at much less than retail, especially on the internet.  But at the same time the newer sets should not be ignored as their prices may go up before they go down, if they go down at all.  I have dealt with one distributor a couple of times and the prices are very reasonable.  If you can meet the minimum order then I recommend them for pre-orders as well as picking up boxes of older sets.  As far as trading goes, you should focus your attention on cards you think you could use.  Never give up a card you need for one you need less.  Above all else, remember that this is a game that is meant to be played for fun regardless of how many complete sets you have, what your win-loss record is, or how well you trash-talk.

    There is one common thing that I have noticed in life that also applies to OverPower, practice makes perfect.  In other words, you will lose games, period.  But for every lost game there is also a victory.  One thing to consider is that you can learn more from a loss than from a victory.  What worked, what did not, and why.  When you win, it is easy to think you did everything possible right.  But in losing, many people will want to question what happened and move forward from there.  This is where your own personal understanding of the game can grow and improve.  No guide can make you a grand master champion just from reading it.  This web site can only show you where the light is at the end of the tunnel, but you must travel the distance to get there.  You must make the effort to try what does not often win the game to know why it does not work most of the time.  It is then and only then can you know that you have learned something, when you have applied it.
    Above all else though, OverPower is just a game.  I will not bore you with the names of other games I can assume you have heard of, but OverPower is just like most of them, it is just a game.  To this extent, OverPower is meant for you to have fun, and nothing else.  I believe that there are three types of people in OverPower.  People who play to have fun (the good), people who play only to win (the bad), and people who play thinking winning is the only way to have fun (the ugly).  This is just a general attitude people take into any game they may play, it is not meant to predict how anyone would respond to winning and losing.  Players who play to have fun are people you would want to play against.  These players will typically bring something to the game which makes it more fun to play, even for the eventual loser.  People who play to win are people you will feel obligated to beat, even if it is just to shut them up somewhat.  These people usually have something to take away from the game, like the other player's dignity, ability to have fun, and general care for the game.  Lastly, people who play thinking winning is the only way to have fun you will just want to plain never have anything to do with.  Usually, the bad and the ugly never know they belong to that group and I don't recommend telling them that they do, no matter how many other players believe it.  Do not play the game constantly thinking about what the "best" deck is.  Do not think about which characters are the most powerful.  Do try to break the mold that everyone uses the same characters.  Above all else, have fun with the game.

    To help you learn how to play OverPower I need to talk about the different types of cards - good, bad, and otherwise.  Some cards are essential to OverPower and will be found in every deck.  Another group of cards may be beneficial to most players, but probably not for the typical beginner.  A third group either does not impact the game enough to worry about or you should just completely avoid altogether.
    The four most important types of cards in OverPower are Character, Special, Power, and to a slightly lesser extent, Teamwork.  You will find these in every deck and we will focus on these in building a beginner's deck.  The Character cards represent your team of four characters.  There will be a more thorough explanation of how to effectively use these cards later.  There are two types of Special cards you will use, those specifically for each of your Characters and those that may be used by anyone on your team, named Any Hero/Character cards.  Power cards are your most basic form of attack and defense.  The final card type in this group is the Universe: Teamwork card.  Teamwork cards allow two or three of your characters to make an attack on your turn which can deal a good amount of damage to your opponent.  These are the card types I think you, as a beginner, should use first.
    Some card types may be useful to the game but do not need to be in a beginner's deck.  Events, Universe: Ally, Tactic: Artifacts, and Aspects are four card types I think you can experiment with once you know more about the basics of OverPower.  Events affect both players so you need to carefully choose any you will use. Ally cards are low level attacks and require an additional card to be played so a limited number of these are ever found in any single deck.  Artifact cards can enhance your characters but are not that helpful to beginners. Aspect cards have only recently been introduced to OverPower and there are not that many of them just yet.  As you become more familiar with the rules I encourage you to experiment with these types of cards, but they may not help a beginner get started.
    There are several types of cards in OverPower that are either not recommended for beginners or are so useless that virtually no one uses them.  Mission cards rarely, if ever, affect the game and are for the more "advanced" game of OverPower, so you should ignore those for now.  The two remaining types of Universe cards, Basic and Training, are currently so useless that I will tell you to ignore those cards completely, end of story.  There is one other type of Tactic card, the Doubleshot, that barely sees more play than Basic and Training Universe cards.  I do not know of anyone who wants to use Doubleshots, but a few people have tried.  The only thing I can say about these three types of cards is that you should feel free to try them out so you will see why they do not work.  OverPower has hundreds of Characters and just about every one has between five and nine Special cards each.  Unfortunately not every character is playable and even the ones that are have some Specials that are of little use.  Of course, if you have fun using some cards that other players would not touch with a ten foot pole, I do not want to stop you.  On the other hand, you may hear about Battlesites. Battlesites give you the ability to use Character cards and their respective Special cards other than the ones that make up your team.  As a beginner I suggest that you forget about Battlesites for now and use Any Heroes/Characters, if any are available to you.  A Battlesite is one use of a Location card, the last type of card I want to talk about here.  A Location card may be used as either a Homebase or as a Battlesite.  When used as a Homebase your team must be made of four of the six characters listed on the card.  I recommend that beginners use an Any Team Location [such as Marvel Universe, Marvel Manhattan, and Omniverse] as they give you more freedom with selecting your characters.  Often, these types of cards will be tried by a beginner but I have seen them prevent a new player from learning how to play the game effectively.  Hopefully, with this advance knowledge you can skip this phase and have more fun with the game.

    Choosing the four characters for your team is the very first thing you must do.  I always encourage people to use characters they like, even if just one of those four.  OverPower is meant for you to have fun, so make sure whatever you do is for fun and not just to win.  Do not worry about which characters are the most powerful.  Different players will do different things with the exact same deck.  You should do something that you enjoy, so use characters you like.  Picking just one is best, then we can progress from there.  After you have picked the first character it is best to choose three more who compliment that first character's stats.  At the very least you should choose four with the same primary stat of either a 7 or an 8.  Let's say you picked Wolverine.  His primary stat is Fighting and he is rated an 8.  Your other three characters should have a Fighting rating of at least a 6, but a 7 is usually preferred.  This will be explained in the detail on Power cards.  As far as the other three stats are concerned they could be anything.  It will not help a beginner very much to go into detail as to what you could do with those stats as it primarily depends on an individual player's style.  Most likely you will learn it on your own in time.  For now I will say try not to have too many 1's or 2's in more than one stat.

    One of the major factors that makes or breaks a character's playability is that character's Specials.  As it is very difficult to explain which specials work, which do not, and why, I will save that for you to discover on your own.  Some are a little obvious, like high level attacks.  But since the main focus of this website is to teach a beginner, then the best thing for you to do is to try them out.  Go ahead and put most or even all of a character's Specials into the deck and see how useful they are.  When you notice some that do not work well, remove them.  Some cards you may find useful and I do not want to preach to you to not use them.  Plus, if you do not try them out then you will not know why they do or do not work well.  For the character you put in Reserve, I will tell you to only put in one Special for that character, as any others may only be discards.

    Power cards will be your most basic form of attack and defense for your characters.  This is where I will explain in more detail why it is best to match up the power grids for your four characters.  It is pretty simple after you have heard it, but most beginners do not know why this should be done until after they have built a few decks.  If your four characters have the exact same stats, then every power card you can put in will be playable by every character.  If each character has a different primary stat, then some power cards will only be playable by one character.  Most of the time this is bad.  For beginners this will be a difficult way to learn how to play.  It is especially important that your higher level power cards, level 6 through 8, be playable by each character .  Most likely you will need to use these cards for defense, as defensive Specials only go so far.  It is also beneficial if each low level power card, level 1 through 5, is playable by each character.  These cards are usually used as follow ups to a Teamwork card and also for defending against low level attacks that could easily lead to a Knockout.  I have not yet talked about how many of any card you should put into a deck, but here is a tip for Power cards.  A good distribution of Power cards is essential.  As high level Power cards are more important for good defense and high attacks, I always have a greater number of 7's or 8's than 1's.  Generally, I use 2 or 3 of each of the lower values and 3 to 5 of the higher values.  Of course, it all depends on the player and the deck.  The final point about Power cards is which power type to use.  The higher values should be the same power type as the primary stat and playable by each character.  For the lower values I look at two of the remaining power types and pick the ones that make Teamwork follow ups easy to make.  I will demonstrate how I do this in a sample deck later.

    The final card type I want to talk about in detail for beginners is the Universe: Teamwork card.  I want to keep this part simple as you will see fairly easily how these cards work.  First, all Teamwork cards have a requirement to use.  This requirement will either be a 6, 7, or an 8 in a specific skill type which is listed on the card.  Because they have this requirement to use your choices of Teamworks are rather limited.  In building a deck just look at your characters' stats and see which Teamworks may be played by those characters.  If only one character on your team meets the requirement to play a certain Teamwork, then I do not recommend putting in more than one of that Teamwork, if any at all.  For the rest of the Teamworks, if 3 or 4 characters meet the to use requirement, then I suggest a maximum of 2 or 3 be used.  When it comes to the follow up attacks, make sure you are using power cards that can be played by each character on your team as this will make this part of the game easier and more fun to play.

    Now let's put this past section to the test.  I want to show you a sample deck that is similar to my all time favorite deck, my Strength / Intellect team.  If you have the cards then feel free to build this team and try it out.  I have only removed some cards that are of little importance to most beginners.  This deck also has some other basic fundamentals that I have not mentioned yet.

    Step 1: Start to pick your team.
    "I like Hulk.  Let's put Hulk on a team."
    If this is how you want to choose your characters then that is fine.  It does not matter what your motivations are for your characters, as long as you have fun with it.

    Step 2: Pick the rest of the team.
    The Hulk's stats are Energy: 1, Fighting: 3, Strength: 8, Intellect: 6.  We should absolutely use characters with a Strength of at least 7, but 8 would be even better.  One fundamental I did not mention before is to choose characters that have a good secondary stat as well.  This would be Intellect for Hulk.  If we find other characters that are high in Strength and decent in Intellect then we might be able to capitalize on that.
    "Darkseid is high in Strength and Intellect.  Let's use him also."
    Darkseid's stats are Energy: 6, Fighting: 3, Strength: 8, Intellect: 6.  Darkseid fits very well with Hulk right now.  He is a little expensive when we start to think about the Deck Sum Rule though, so let's see if we can find some other characters to go with these two that are a low point value.
    "Thing is high in Strength and fairly 'cheap'."
    The Thing's stats are Energy: 1, Fighting: 5, Strength: 8, Intellect: 3.  We do not get the decent Intellect as we do with Hulk and Darkseid, but we can still live with it.
    "Doc Samson is about the only one left who is high in Strength and Intellect and low in points."
    Doc Samson's stats are Energy: 2, Fighting: 2, Strength: 7, Intellect: 6.  I still get a lot of heat for using Doc Samson on my team but I do not care.  I set out to build a Strength / Intellect team and this deck works for me.  Doc Samson gives me the Intellect 6 to go with Hulk and Darkseid and that is all I cared about.  Plus, this deck works so well with him in Reserve that sometimes he never even makes it to the front line.  Besides, it is a little fun to see how people react when they see him on my team.

    Step 3: Pick their Special cards.
    These four characters do not have that many good specials to use, and only a few great ones.  Hulk has two high level attacks; Enraged, a level 8 Strength attack, and Power Leap, a level 9 Fighting attack.  Thing has Clobberin' Time, a level 10 Strength attack.  Darkseid has Omega Effect, a level 7 Intellect attack with an extra effect.  Doc Samson has Head Shrinker, a level 7 Intellect attack.  Personally, I do not like the other Special cards they have and I only use the ones listed here.  Using so few Special cards can be an advantage though, which I will talk about later.

    Step 4: Build the 'Power Pack.'
    This part will be pretty easy.  Doc Samson is usually the Reserve character so that means the entire front line has an 8 Strength.  I use five level 8 Strength power cards as well as five level 7's.  Because this deck has no defense from specials, other than Any Character defense, these high level power cards will usually be saved for defensive actions.  Since I need these high level cards I want to increase my chance of drawing one in any given hand, but not have too many.  I use four level 6 Strength power cards because I need every character to be able to play it, mainly to be used to block a Teamwork card, as they all act as a level 6 attack.  This pretty much covers the higher level power cards.  When I look at the lower valued power cards, I see that at best each character can play a level 2 Fighting power card and a level 3 Intellect power card.  I will ignore Energy because there are too many 1's to make it worthwhile.  With the lower valued Power cards I want to make sure I have the opportunity to use them as follow up attacks to a Teamwork with as little difficulty as possible.  Since the 2's are Fighting and the 3's are Intellect, I make the 1's and 4's Multi Power cards, since they could be used as any power type I need.  I use three of each level 1's, 2's, and 3's and four of the level 4's.  This leaves only the level 5 power card to decide.  Since Thing only has a 3 in Intellect I could use level 5 Strength power cards to make sure every character can play them.  Or I could make the 5's Intellect to try to get slightly higher follow up attacks to a teamwork and live with the fact that Thing would not be able to play it.  For right now, I will use four Strength 5's because Thing can play them.  In a deck like this I make each valued power card the same power type to help keep it simple.  When it comes to Teamworks and the follow up attacks this ensures that I have the right cards to use.

    Step 5: Select your Teamworks.
    There are a couple of things to think about when it is time to decide which Teamwork cards to use.  The first thing would be which range of Teamworks your characters can play.  In this deck I can use Strength, Intellect, and Energy Teamworks.  I have three characters that can play the level 8 Strength to use Teamworks so I can easily put in two or three of those.  Each character can play the level 7 Strength to use Teamworks so I also use two of those.  I only use one of the 6 Strength to use Teamworks because this deck will have plenty of Teamworks as it is.  Again, three characters can play the 6 Intellect to use Teamworks so I have two of those.  Since Darkseid is the only character that can play a level 6 Energy to use Teamwork I will put in one of those.  This makes eight Teamwork cards, which is about the maximum you should put in as a beginner.  Your own personal play style may mean less or more, you just have to decide for yourself.  The second thing to decide is which types of follow up attacks will you need for these Teamworks.  Since this team has very little Energy I did not put in any Energy power cards and I do not want any Energy follow ups for these Teamworks.  This helps to make sure that I have a greater chance of my Teamworks being usable each time I draw them.

    That is about all there really is to it.  I think this deck design could help a beginner to learn some of the basics of OverPower and begin to move on to some of the more complex cards, concepts, and strategies.  If you do not have the cards to build this exact deck, then you may have some other options.  You could build your own deck with cards for characters you do have.  Or, if you know of someone who does have the right cards then maybe you could convince him/her to loan you the cards you need to build the deck you want.

    The game of OverPower is broken down into different phases of game play.  Some things are only allowed during certain game phases and not during others.  I have tried to make things a little easier with a phase by phase breakdown.

    O.  Decide who will start the game - This should be pretty self explanatory.

    1.  Draw 8 cards - There are only a few cards in OverPower that can modify this, otherwise, this does not change.

    2.  Resolve Events - For each player, if an Event card is drawn, then it must be played.  If more than one Event is drawn by the same player, then one is chosen to be played and all others are discards.  When an Event is played, the player draws one card from the top of the draw pile to replace the Event card.  Any other Event cards that are discards are not replaced.  If both players have an Event, then the player that will go first this battle resolves his Event first, then the second player resolves his Event.  It is usually best to tell your opponent each battle whether you have an Event or not, before trying to move on to the next game phase.
    When I have an Event, I will usually place it face down on the table and draw my replacement card.  I do not like to reveal my Event card until my opponent plays his, because it may influence any decision he has to make.
    There is one thing to remember with Events.  If both players play the exact same Event [meaning, they are the exact same card], then the effect only happens once.  If both players play an Event that has the same effect but are different cards [meaning they are from different Mission sets], then both Events happen.

    3.  Discard duplicate and unusable cards - Under normal circumstances, you are not allowed to keep duplicates of any card.  Because there are many different types of cards in OverPower, there are a few different things to consider when it comes to duplicates.  Here is a breakdown of each card type and what is considered a duplicate:

• Power cards - You are only allowed to keep one of each valued Power card, regardless of power type.  This means that if you draw a 6 Strength and a 6 Fighting, you must choose which one you will keep and any and all other power cards of the same number are discards.
• Universe: Basic - Basic Universe cards that have the same "To use" value AND bonus of the same power type are considered duplicates, even if the artwork is different or if they are from different sets [i.e., one from Marvel and one from DC]. You probably will not use any of these cards anyway.
• Universe: Training - Training Universe cards are considered duplicates if the "To use" values AND bonuses are the same power types.  This is pretty much the same rule as for Basic Universe cards.  You probably will not use any of these cards anyway.
• Universe: Teamwork - Teamwork cards are duplicates if the "To use" value is the same number and power type.  It does not matter what power types the follow-up bonuses are or if they are different values, only the "To use" value is considered.
• Universe: Ally - Ally cards are duplicates if the "To use" value is the same.  It does not matter if the attack value or power type are different. You probably will not use that many of these anyway.
• Special cards - Essentially, Special cards are duplicates if they are the exact same card.  If the cards are for the same character and have the same name or code but have different game effects, then they are not duplicates [this does not happen often].  Any Characters are duplicates if they have the same effect.  Most Any Characters are One Per Deck anyway, so you can not have more than one in your deck.
• Tactic: Doubleshot - Doubleshot cards are duplicates if the "To use" values are the same. You probably will not use any of these cards anyway.
• Tactic: Artifact - Artifacts are duplicate cards if they have the same name.  Two different versions of one Artifact have been printed, one a promo and the second a reprint, but they have the same name and effect and are duplicates of each other.
• Aspect cards - As you are not allowed to use that many Aspect cards in any given deck yet, Aspects are considered duplicates if they are the exact same card.  Since Aspects are new to the game, there is a possibility that things will change, but they closely resemble Special cards and probably always will.

• Universe: Teamwork - If you do not have a power card to use as a follow-up and cannot place it, then it must be discarded.  On a related note, if you draw more Teamworks than power cards and cannot place the extras, then they are also discards.  Also, if you only have one character remaining on the front line, all teamworks are discards, unless you can bring back a second character for this battle.
• Universe: Ally - If you draw an Ally card and do not have a Special card that could be used as the additional attack and cannot place it, then it is a discard.
• For all others - There is no simple rule of thumb, other than "If you can't play it, can't place it, and cannot make it usable through cards you have now, then you must discard it."

    5.  The Venture - If you are not playing the game with Mission cards, then you can skip this phase.  This is perhaps the most difficult part of the game to learn.  See my article on The Venture for more help with how to venture.
    The player who goes first this battle must venture first.  If this player ventures more than 2 cards, then the opponent is allowed the option to draw one card from the top of the draw pile for each Mission ventured over 2.  Any cards drawn now must be discarded if they are a duplicate or unusable.  The player does not have to draw these cards, if he knows that he will concede anyway, and that these new cards will probably not make a difference in this battle.  These cards are drawn before the second player ventures.
    After all of this is taken care of, then the second player must venture.  If this player ventures more than 2 Missions, then the first player is given the same option to draw one card for each Mission over 2.  After the second player ventures, he is also given the option to concede before any cards are allowed to be played.  If he chooses to stay in the battle, then the first player also has this option.  Important note:  Even cards that state that they may be played 'when the opponent concedes' or 'after the opponent concedes' may not be played at this time.  They may only be played once you are in the next game phase, the Battle Phase.
    The option to concede is only available in the Missions game.  The Battles only game, which has not really been supported by Marvel but should still be sufficient for beginners to learn the basics, does not have the option to concede.

    6.  Battle - Each player takes turns playing cards.  Most of the time only a single card is played.  With Teamworks, Allies, and certain Special cards more than one card is played during that player's turn.  But otherwise, each player only plays a single card.

    7.  Determine Venture Winner - All cards that are on your opponent's Hits to Current Battle count for your Venture total, along with any Special cards that modify the Venture total.  The player with the higher Venture total wins this Venture and advances his ventured Mission cards.  The other player loses this battle and his ventured Missions are lost.  If one player concedes, then this phase is ignored as that player automatically loses the battle.  Any cards that were in effect only for the "remainder of battle" would be removed now.  All cards remaining in each player's hand is discarded to the appropriate pile.

  8.  Return to #1 - The player who won this battle goes first the next battle.