Animal Man

Animal Man is a DC Comics Super Hero included in the Crisis 1 expansion. He has the power to metamorph different parts of his body into animal parts, as well as employ animal superpowers. This is reflected in his game ability by requiring multiple card types. Nothing in the game reflects his tendency to break the fourth wall, however.

Ability
Animal Man is a Super Hero in Crisis 1. His ability text reads: "If you play three or more card types during your turn, +2 Power."

This means that if AM plays cards of any 3 distinct types (Starter, Hero, Villain, Super Power, Equipment, Location, and/or version-specific types), regardless of cost, effect, or ownership, AM gets +2 Power. This may sound like a watered-down version of Green Lantern, whose ability gives him + 3 Power, but AM has the advantage in that Starter cards (and duplicate cards, as long as they have multiple types) count towards his ability. In fact, a single card could activate AM's ability if it boasts 3+ types!

Examples

 * AM plays Kick (a Super Power), Zatanna Zatara (Hero), and Harley Quinn (Villain) in one turn. His ability activates for an extra +2 Power.
 * AM plays Deathstroke (Villain), Clayface (also Villain), The Riddler (still a Villain), and two Punches (Starter). His ability does not activate. Although GL could have worked with this hand, there are only 2 distinct types played.
 * AM plays Punch (Starter, +1 Power) and X-Ray Vision (Super Power, no Power), which reveals Zatanna Zatara (Hero, +1 Power) and Kick (Super Power, +2 Power). If he chooses to play Kick, he'll have 3 Power total; if he chooses the weaker ZZ, however, he'll get 4 Power total since the third type, Hero, would activate his ability.
 * AM has Indigo Tribe (Hero, +4 Power, turns all Villains into Heroes), Clayface (Villain, plays a card a second time), and Punch (Starter, +1 Power) in his hand. If he plays Punch then Clayface then IT, his ability will activate, and yield 8 Power; but, if he plays IT before Clayface, he'll wind up with two types and his ability won't activate, but Clayface will replicate IT's +4 instead of Punch's +1, yielding 9 Power.
 * AM plays one Element Woman or Shapeshift and that's it. His ability activates since those cards are each 4 types at once.
 * AM uses Garfield Logan to make his next card also be an Equipment, then plays Gollum/Smeagol while The One Ring is in play, making it a combination Hero and Villain, and that's it. His ability activates since Gollum/Smeagol was 3 types in that moment.

Strategy
(See also: Green Lantern's / Red Tornado's strategy.) To get his Power boost, AM needs any three card types. Starter cards and Super-Villains (Villain type) naturally contribute to this, so early on try to alternate between buying Heroes, SP's, and Equipment, but don't be afraid to get multiple of the same type. In a 2-player game, AM is fairly powerful since he'll have a much higher concentration of main deck cards than in a bigger game, guaranteeing his ability almost every turn without any thought or effort beyond usual destruction and Defense. Unlike GL, AM suffers less in a bigger game, since Starter compatibility takes the edge off of empowering AM; however, one problem AM can have that GL never does is that because Starters work for AM, getting rid of all of them will leave AM only with what he got from the main deck and stacks--it's not usually an issue, but it is still possible for AM to slip up using his ability later on with a hand of, say, 3 Heroes and 2 SP's or 4 Villains and 1 Location. So, like GL, if trying to use his ability more quickly or reliably, AM should get card-drawing cards and "borrowing" cards--especially multiple draw-and-discard cards like Helmet of Fate or AM's own SP, Power of the Red.

When fighting AM, preventing him from getting compatible cards is pretty much futile, but in the off chance the main deck is spouting out nothing but Villains and SP's, try to snatch up anything that's not, limiting AM to one or two types available, which has a slight chance to manifest in trouble for him later on. Other than that, make sure you steal Element Woman/Shapeshift before he does early on if possible, but for the most part, you're on your own.

Hero card
AM's Hero card is Animal Man which reads: "+2 Power and choose a card type. Reveal the top card of your deck. If it has that card type, draw it."

That means on top of 2 Power, you get to draw a card if you can correctly guess its type. Even if you don't, you still reveal it, giving you the knowledge you may need to play a second Animal Man, beat a Crisis, or prepare the Firestorm Matrix. Naturally, to guarantee success you can precede Animal Man with a top card look/reveal like Nth Metal or Quiver of Arrows or a card put on top like with Aquaman's Trident.

Related cards

 * Power of the Red

Related characters

 * Balanced characters
 * Green Lantern (similar ability)
 * Red Tornado (requires multiple card types including Starter)