Draft Primer

I’ve only done 3 drafts of Star Wars Destiny so far, so some of this is subject to change as I get more experience, but here is a guide to up your Destiny draft game.

Rivals Deck Characters

Ketsu Onyo is by far the best character in the Rivals deck and it’s not even close.  You’re hard pressed to even find a character in the packs that is better than what you already have in Ketsu.

Lobot is only a step behind Ketsu and is still more than playable.

Jawa is obviously a “filler” character BUT Jawa combos well with Ketsu.  You drop a weapon on the Jawa tempting your opponent to kill it and if they do, Ketsu’s ability moves the weapon to her.  If you can net an extra use out of the weapon die that is a good advantage.

Anakin Skywalker is actually quite bad and difficult to play unless you draft really hard towards a deck that he can do good in.  The special is a problem, since most of the time ½ to 2/3 of your deck is going to be neutral cards, which means the special could be blank.  And even then, the hero/villain cards you do have are probably on a slightly higher power level than the neutral cards meaning you don’t want to discard them to Anakin’s special either.  So frequently Anakin as 2 blanks AND a pay side which basically makes him a more expensive Jawa with more health.  Not a place you want to be.

So, with those evaluations in mind, at the start of a draft you must assume that you are on 2 decks:

Ketsu/Lobot/Jawa or Ketsu/Anakin/Jawa

Never be on Anakin/Lobot/Jawa – there’s very little reason to be on the two worst characters in the draft pack.

So of those two decks, Ketsu/Lobot/Jawa is the much safer draft strategy and is the most maneuverable into other character builds should you get some other characters.  Primarily you are looking at replacing Jawa with a 9 cost or less blue character, which gets you into rainbow meaning you can draft the best pick available. OR a 9 cost or less red/yellow character that is just better than Jawa.  OR you find a 10-13 point red or blue character that is better than Lobot and replace him with it – like Qui-Gon or Grievous are amazing in this spot.

You can easily swap into those other builds either early pack one or early pack 2 with next to no repercussions.  Or if you don’t see any characters that are good or fit, you just stay in the Yellow/Red faction and you will have a decent character team.

Now Ketsu/Anakin/Jawa can be good, BUT it’s riskier since you basically have to be aware of going for all the Hero/Villain cards you can right from pick 1, prioritizing them before neutral picks.  If you don’t get a good amount of Hero/Villain cards, you are left with a subpar team.  The maneuverability is a little worse since if you’re going for Hero/Villain you probably end up with a good number of blue cards and as such can’t swap out Anakin easily for Lobot or a red/yellow character.  You can still swap out the Jawa for a 9 cost or less character of any color though and still be good though.  This deck can have a good payoff though if you do manage to get a lot of Hero/Villain cards turning Anakin into one of the best characters you can have.

Picking cards

Pick priority seems quite simple in Destiny as opposed to other games I’ve drafted.  You can pretty comfortably prioritize all your picks in this order:

Characters > Upgrades/Support die cards > Dice Removal/Manipulation cards > Resource Generating cards > everything else >Battlefields

Characters are obviously the highest picks you can take if they fit into your deck in the ways I’ve described above.  Yellow characters have very low desirability because of how good Ketsu already is. 9 cost or less blue characters probably have the highest desirability since they put you into rainbow with Ketsu/Lobot/Blue Guy.  13 cost or less Red/Blue characters that can take that Lobot spot with something more powerful would be second.  9 cost yellow/red characters that can replace Jawa would be third.

Then for your other dice cards, obviously prioritize the colors you’re in over colors you’re not in, but they come next.  You might have to do some evaluating on which dice card is better than the other dice cards – damage is better than no damage (unless you’re going into mill), 2 cost is better than 3 cost is better than 4 cost (but they’re all still playable).  Even utility stuff like Jedi Robes, Holocron, Obi-Wan’s Journals are still more useful than non-die cards because dice give you options.

For removal, obviously anything you’ve seen played in constructed is top notch here, but you have to not be picky.  I’ll take a Scramble or Disturbance in the Force over the lower priority stuff just because having ANYTHING that can save you is still better than nothing.  Beggars can’t be choosers.

Resource generating cards (Truce, Enrage, Smuggling, Logistics) get a slight nod over the rest of the utility/damage type events because in draft you’ll often need to play multiple 3 cost or maybe even a 4 cost upgrade or support.  These help you get there before your opponent can, but I still don’t pick them over removal cards.

What about drafting for mill?  It’s high risk for high reward, but I don’t think I would try to force my way in there unless I got a “bomb” mill early on in pack 1.  I’m talking about that early Nute Gunray, Force Meditation, Jedha Partisan, Unkar, Padme, Blackmail, Con Artist, etc.  If you get something like that early – go HARD into it and hopefully another player doesn’t try to do the same so that you have to split stuff.

Battlefields should be picks in like the last 3 or so cards.  I don’t know if there are any of them that are worth drafting any earlier and you have a couple choices from the Rivals pack.  Super low priority.

Deck Construction

You have the option of playing 20-30 cards, but you want to play 30 cards or as close to it as you can get.  Don’t cut yourself short to try to make your deck more “powerful”, it doesn’t work.  You just get milled out by people with full decks a lot of the time.  It’s not even a surprise either, your opponent can count your deck right off the bat and if you have 17 cards left after you draw your hand, they’ll just go mill from the start even if they’re not mill and beat you that way.  Even “garbage” cards just equal rerolls and you’ll probably need a couple of those most turns anyways.

The needing 30 cards part makes deck construction relatively easy too, since you probably aren’t going to have much more than that in playable cards anyways.  Just cut the junkiest stuff down to 30 and you’re good to go.

Conclusion

That's all I got for now - this is a very surface level primer.  You could obviously have pages and pages of card vs card evaluations.  But if you sit down for a draft an you are basically totally lost as to what you should be doing - this primer should give you a huge leg up into having a competent draft.

Rules Reference 1.3 UPDATE and YOU!

For anyone that follows my reddit history or knows me at my game store, I'm what you could lovingly refer to as a "rules lawyer". As such, I was probably more excited for this Spirit of Rebellion rules update than I was for the actual Spirit of Rebellion set to come out. In this post, I'm going to run through the rules reference updates and cover the new good, bad and confusing rulings and try to give contest to each update and how it will effect the game.

Errata

FFG has introduced errata to the game with this new rules update and it is a particularly bold action for them to take.  Most game companies use errata to address an issue that has already reared it's ugly head and affected the game, but FFG took a more proactive approach changing things before they've become an issue.  I won't go into much detail on this since FFG covered them fairly thoroughly in their Rules Update Announcement Article

Hyperspace Jump - Text now reads "End the action phase. You may switch the battlefield with the battlefield that is not being used.  Set this card aside instead of discarding it."

This basically is to neuter the Hyperloop combo where you could use the Emperor's Throne Room and Millennium Falcon to repeatedly end the round at will.  Planetary Uprising in Spirit of Rebellion created a lot of fear that this would just become too powerful.  While it never proved to be particularly good or consistent in Awakenings, it was always a negative play experience for anybody sitting across from it, so in that respect this errata is good.

If it was me though, I think I would have changed Millennium Falcon's text to put the card it plays from the discard pile in the set aside zone.  They said they were apprehensive to change a legendary vs. an uncommon in the article, but I don't like that logic here.  Millennium Falcon's text is the real problem here and it's most likely only a matter of time until there is another abusive event you can use with it.

Outer Rim Smuggler - Text now reads "The first time each round you play the last card from your hand, gain 1 resource"

ite resources with a loop with two Outer Rim Smugglers and two copies of Return of the Jedi"

This errata I'm less of a fan of - I get that the particular loop was a problem, but the poor Outer Rim Smuggler lost a lot of power from more standard interactions before it was even determined if the loop would be an issue.  Here is a case where I would have rather they did what they did to Hyperspace Loop and have Return of the Jedi put itself in the set aside zone after resolving.

In a non-infinite loop world, Outer Rim Smuggler seemed to have fun interactions with card draw cards and Cheat, now he's probably relegated to the junk character pile.

Rules Updates

"Set-Aside Zone"

Formerly just the "Set-Aside Dice" area, now becomes a fully-fledged zone anything can go in - basically it's a "removed from game" zone, if you're familiar with other games' verbiage.  This is a solid rule addition - games generally need some kind of zone like this to balance certain cards.

"Blanks and Specials Value"

Blanks and Specials are now defined to have a value of 0 that cannot be increased or decreased.  This rule primarily has to do with C-3PO in Spirit of Rebellion.  C-3PO's text reads: 

"Action - Remove this die to resolve one of your dice as if it were showing a different symbol (it keeps its original value)."

So everybody was wondering what happens if I resolve a 3 Melee damage side as a 3 Special side with C-3PO's text?  Well, don't worry about it, special sides are always 0. Boom.  Good rule here

"Extra Actions"

This one is kind of a doozy and will definitely be something you need to know for the upcoming Rey meta.

"Each action, and any abilities its resolution triggers, must fully resolve before an additional action is taken. Actions wait to be resolved in the order they were created in. They do not enter the queue (see page 17) like other game effects"

Before you would resolve the additional action as part of the ability that granted it's resolution.  So
for example, if you triggered Rey's After ability with an upgrade on her you would resolve the extra action when her ability resolved from the queue.  This is no longer the case.

Think of extra actions you earn now as being part of their own tally - and that you can only resolve additional actions when the queue is empty.

So per the example in the rules reference - you play a Holdout Blaster on Rey.

The Holdout Blaster resolves and you get an extra action, but Rey's After ability gets triggered and added to the queue.  You have to resolve any abilities an action triggers before you can take an additional turn so you have to resolve Rey's after ability which gives you another additional action.

Now you have two additional actions and an empty queue, you can use one of them.  Per the example you use it to activate Rey and your opponent has Jango.

Jango triggers off the action used to activate Rey, so his ability is in the queue - you can't take your second Rey action until the queue is empty.  So Jango's ability will resolve and the opponent will choose to activate him or not.

Then you now have 1 additional action left - you can now use that.

This is a departure from the previous rule set where the Rey player would have gotten to take both of their additional actions before the Jango player would get their option.  It seems like a simple change, but there are a lot of implications:

• The Jango player has to make the decision to activate with less information since it happens between additional Rey actions
• The Rey player could get affected by any triggers from Jango activating before Rey gets to take her second additional action. (looking at you new 0 cost supports)

I think this change is ok, but everybody has to relearn new interactions that they thought they had down.  Another concern I get is FFG's tendency to lean away from wanting to use their queue to help regulate timing actions.  Maybe it's my experience with other games that had set timing chains that every game action used, but I like having something concrete.  I don't like having all kinds of different timing chains to keep track of.

"Passing" 

FFG backed off their super confusing "game state" rule from their previous update, which is definitely for the better.  The new rule for an action to be considered passing is:

"If a player takes an action that does nothing, then they are considered to have passed their turn instead."

It's a lot more black and white than the vague game state definition previously.  It seems an action truly has to do nothing at all to be considered a pass, such as the example they provided of using Veers ability with no Veers die in the pool.

As a consequence of this, activating an empty Backup Muscle is now a perfectly valid action and does not count as a pass.  So confusing that they are walking back from the highlight example from the last update, but at least things are clearer now.

"No more damage types from damage dealt by cards"

This is a weird rule update that came out of nowhere.  There weren't a lot of implications, but generally it was believed that damage from Reversal and Deflect for example, matched the damage type of the die that was removed.  New rule:

• Unless specified, damage is neither ranged or melee. “That damage” is short for “that amount of damage.” 

This basically means unless an event very specifically says "deal 2 melee damage to a character" it's damage is not typed.  And I think right now that means that no events that exist in the game deal typed damage.  Deflect not being ranged damage was specifically used by them as an example.

"Damage distribution"

"When a player distributes damage “as they wish,” players cannot deal excess damage (damage above their health) to their characters. "

Fairly straight forward and ok rule clarification - helps things like F-11D rifle.

"Rolling and reroll"

When a card refers to rolling a die, this applies to both rolling it into your pool and rerolling it (if it was already in your pool)

Also straight forward and a good clarification - there were a lot of questions on this in regards to the new 0 cost supports

"Replacement Effects aka the Second Chance rule"

Last but certainly not least - this rule is the one I feel is in crazy pants territory.

So last update they made the distinction that effects that use "instead" are replacement effects - "instead" is a little bit of a weird word to key off of, but it was ok to roll with.

Now they've added a subset of words to look out for - "would be" - read this rule entry:

"Some replacement effects that are part of before abilities use the word “would be” in their text. These effects are faster than other before abilities, and no abilities can be triggered off of the original effect."

Ok so now we have a before effect hierarchy where some before effects are "faster than other before abilities".  That's silly, but OK

Then it goes on to say "no abilities can be triggered off of the original effect." then they go on to give this specific example:

 "Example: Second Chance (r137) resolves before the before ability on General Grievous (r3). Since the character affected by Second Chance is no longer defeated, General Grievous’ ability cannot be triggered."

They don't really flesh out what "faster than other before abilities" means, but the problem with the example is that they say "General Grievous' ability cannot be triggered", but the problem is at this point General Grievous' ability was already triggered.

It's obvious their intent is they don't want Grievous' ability to work on a Second Chanced character, but their own rules are still working against them and this is murky as crap.

Second Chance and Grievous are both simultaneous triggers - they meet their trigger condition at the same time.  Here is the section from the current rules reference on Simultaneous abilities:

"When two or more triggered abilities meet their trigger conditions at the same time, the player who is resolving those abilities chooses the order they resolve in (in the case of before abilities) or enter the queue in (in the case of after abilities). If more than one player has abilities that are simultaneous, the player who controls the battlefield chooses the order they resolve/enter the queue in"

Notice it doesn't say the player picks the order the abilities are triggered in, it says the player picks resolve in.
the order they

Clearly the intent of the "would be" rule is that these types of replacement modifiers trigger and resolve before any other effects are allowed to trigger, but they word that so poorly.

And with all of the specific tinkering just for this, they might as well just call it the "Second Chance" rule.

Things They Missed

"Moving an upgrade"

I wish they would have fleshed out the moving section to include what happens when you move upgrades around.  We already have the fairly confusing scenario in Awakenings with Grievous and what happens to a dice in the pool when you move an upgrade from one player's character to another.  Now we have all kinds of moving shenanigans with Cargo Hold and they still didn't add a update, clarification, FAQ anything about what happens to dice in a pool when something moves.

As far as we know, dice stay in the pool when something is moved, since it doesn't tell us to remove it.  Redeploy specifically says to put the die back on the card so that is different.

Now we also have a scenario where moving training of a character causes them to become non-elite again.  We know they lose the die and we assume the owner gets to decide which die gets set-aside, but again no clarifaction, FAQ, etc.

"Can Obi-wan be repeatedly defeated?"

Obi-wan's text from SoR reads:

Before this character is defeated, you may play a Blue card from your hand or discard pile for free.

So what happens if I use his ability to play Noble Sacrifice targeting Obi-wan.  Do I get to use his
ability again and play Noble Sacrifice repeatedly?  It needs a clarification, but at this point I'm ruling you're allowed to do this and exhaust your whole opponent's team THEN play a free One With The Force if you want.  It might not be intended, but they didn't clarify that a character can't be defeated more than once.

Also as a side note - the Second Chance rule kills the Obi-wan with Second Chance getting to play a free card and living play.

"Jango the puppet master"

The current Simultaneous Ability rule reads:

When two or more triggered abilities meet their trigger conditions at the same time, the player who is resolving those abilities chooses the order they resolve in (in the case of before abilities) or enter the queue in (in the case of after abilities). If more than one player has abilities that are simultaneous, the player who controls the battlefield chooses the order they resolve/enter the queue in.
 

What's the problem, right?  Let's put it this way, you got Fast Hands and Blackmail on Jabba and your opponent has Jango and controls the battlefield.  It doesn't matter if that Jango is already exhausted,
just the simple fact that your opponent has him on the field means he gets free reign to always determine the order you have to resolve Jabba's ability, Fast Hand's ability and Blackmail's ability.

So usually that means he's going make you resolve Fast Hands first if your dice suck.  Blackmail first so he can remove it.  Jabba's reroll will always be last.

And that's just one situation - is it fair that a Jango player with the battlefield should ALWAYS get to dictate the order of every action that triggers off of an opponent activating a character?

It seems a bit over powered when you think about it and will probably only get worse with more options in later sets.

The "fix" could be to change it so that the battlefield controller gets to choose which PLAYER gets to resolve their abilities first when they are simultaneous.  That way players can still chain their own abilities ideally for them, the battlefield player just gets the advantage of choosing who goes first.

 

 

Spirit of Rebellion Deck Brainstorming

Spirit of Rebellion Deck Brainstorming

I haven't posted an update in awhile, but I've been brewing some Spirit of Rebellion decks in anticipation of the new set coming out next week.  I thought I'd just share these lists with you guys.

DaVader/Nines

Ewok Village, Endor (Spirit of Rebellion #154)


2x FN-2199, Loyal Trooper (Spirit of Rebellion #2)

2x Darth Vader, Dark Apprentice (Spirit of Rebellion #10)


2x Kylo Ren's Lightsaber (Awakenings #15)

2x Force Training (Awakenings #58)

2x Z6 Riot Control Baton (Spirit of Rebellion #8)

2x Lightsaber Pike (Spirit of Rebellion #15)

2x Force Speed (Spirit of Rebellion #55)

2x Makashi Training (Spirit of Rebellion #56)

2x Vibroknife (Spirit of Rebellion #57)


2x It Binds All Things (Awakenings #150)


2x Tactical Mastery (Awakenings #74)

2x Enrage (Awakenings #81)

2x Anger (Spirit of Rebellion #71)

2x Lightsaber Throw (Spirit of Rebellion #72)

2x Manipulate (Spirit of Rebellion #73)

2x Doubt (Spirit of Rebellion #80)

2x Intimidate (Awakenings #84)


This is on paper probably one of the most obvious "power pairings" in SoR.  Strong melee guy + strong melee guy + strong melee weapons, crush.

The deck's biggest weakness is its lack of resource production - baby vader doesn't have any resource sides.  I tried to get around this by including a lot of the zero cost events.  Manipulate and Anger have some synergy for dice removal, Doubt while not particularly powerful is free.

There's no Holocron in her since it can't do anything with all the weapons, so not a lot of targets - It Binds All Things is still good though.

Luke/Rey (Credit to Tiny Grimes)

Starship Graveyard, Jakku (Awakenings #174)


2x Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight (Awakenings #35)

1x Rey, Force Prodigy (Awakenings #38)


2x One With The Force (Awakenings #42)

1x Force Throw (Awakenings #57)

2x Holdout Blaster (Awakenings #63)

2x Handcrafted Light Bow (Spirit of Rebellion #39)

2x Force Speed (Spirit of Rebellion #55)

2x Makashi Training (Spirit of Rebellion #56)

2x Vibroknife (Spirit of Rebellion #57)

2x Force Illusion (Spirit of Rebellion #135)


1x Return of the Jedi (Awakenings #120)

2x Deflect (Awakenings #145)

2x Caution (Spirit of Rebellion #100)

2x Destiny (Spirit of Rebellion #101)

2x Guard (Spirit of Rebellion #103)

2x My Ally Is The Force (Spirit of Rebellion #105)

2x High Ground (Spirit of Rebellion #128)

2x Swiftness (Spirit of Rebellion #139)


This was sort of a back burner low Tier 2/Tier 3 build in Awakenings, but with SoR it gets quite a bit more power to possibly rocket it up to Tier 1 status.  The Handcrafted Light Bow is just a straight up upgrade over previous lightsabers.  Vibroknife most people are well aware of, but it gives another weapon along with Holdout Blaster in this deck to maximize the action cheating with Rey.

The dice removal suite is actually useful now with High Ground and Guard in addition to the previously solid Deflect.  Blue Hero here finally has the tools and speed to match something like what Vader/Raider was in Awakenings.

Jabba/Unkar

Command Center, Lothal (Awakenings #165)


2x Jabba the Hutt, The Great and Mighty (Awakenings #20)

2x Unkar Plutt, Junk Dealer (Spirit of Rebellion #21)


2x Crime Lord (Awakenings #23)

2x Cunning (Awakenings #65)

2x Jetpack (Awakenings #66) (Credit to KoR for this)

2x Blackmail (Spirit of Rebellion #23)

2x Con Artist (Spirit of Rebellion #60)

2x Fast Hands (Spirit of Rebellion #150)


2x My Kind of Scum (Awakenings #100)

2x Infamous (Awakenings #163)

2x Salvage Stand (Spirit of Rebellion #88)


2x He Doesn't Like You (Awakenings #97)

2x Electroshock (Awakenings #159)

2x Bait and Switch (Spirit of Rebellion #82)

2x One-Quarter Portion (Spirit of Rebellion #85)

1x New Orders (Spirit of Rebellion #137)

2x Bolt Hole (Spirit of Rebellion #142)

1x Cheat (Spirit of Rebellion #143)



If you like control, this is the deck for you.  It's got control in spades.  We already knew Jabba was a control stud, but now he's got a chubby buddy in Unkar.  This deck now has a whole set of upgrades dedicated to control with the addition of the powerful Con Artist and Blackmail, joining Crime Lord and Cunning.  Fast Hands is just as good in control decks as aggro decks, it's particularly brutal to roll out a character with Fast Hands first, hit disrupt, and take your opponent's resources for the turn.

Jetpack is probably a confusing inclusion to you, but the high value sides actually help activate Unkar's text easily and the 2 Shield and Special side are actually really great survival tools.  It just works here.

The solid He Doesn't Like You and Electroshock get joined by the powerful One-Quarter Portion to give a great removal set.  Bait and Switch is just a great card to get some surprise resolutions - there are a lot of resource sides to work with here.

I could probably write a whole article just about this deck, but just know this deck is a "thing" you should watch out for.

Luminara/Padawan/Acolyte

Otoh Gunga, Naboo (Spirit of Rebellion #157)


1x Padawan (Awakenings #36)

1x Jedi Acolyte (Spirit of Rebellion #34)

1x Luminara Unduli, Inspiring Commander (Spirit of Rebellion #36)


2x Luke Skywalker's Lightsaber (Awakenings #41)

2x Rey's Staff (Awakenings #44)

2x Force Training (Awakenings #58)

2x Lightsaber (Awakenings #59)

2x Force Heal (Spirit of Rebellion #40)

2x Force Speed (Spirit of Rebellion #55)

2x Vibroknife (Spirit of Rebellion #57)


2x It Binds All Things (Awakenings #150)


2x Willpower (Awakenings #122)

2x Deflect (Awakenings #145)

2x Use The Force (Awakenings #149)

2x Flank (Awakenings #156)

2x Caution (Spirit of Rebellion #100)

1x Destiny (Spirit of Rebellion #101)

2x Guard (Spirit of Rebellion #103)

1x Overconfidence (Spirit of Rebellion #130)



Luminara has gotten written off in most preview opinions, but after playing her, especially in this deck, I think she is stronger than people have imagined.  One of the main drawbacks a lot of people have had is that they didn't want to run her in the 3 dice deck like this one to maximize the "non-unique" part of her special.

So the deck only runs one Luminara die, which limits the amount of specials you could get, but there is a lot of focus here ensuring that unless your opponent removes the Luminara die you will get the special.  Then that special can turn into super damage, focus, discard or even resources.

There's other strong parts to this deck as well though, it's really resilient.  Force Heal will probably be under-rated out of the gate, but it is really good.  Add that to Caution, Willpower, and the abundance of ways to get shields on the dice and it becomes really hard to kill even those 7 health generic dudes.  And like Luke Rey, a blue hero deck has enough dice removal to be relevant now.

Poe/Maz

Emperor's Throne Room, Death Star II (Awakenings #167)


2x Poe Dameron, Ace Pilot (Awakenings #29)

2x Maz Kanata, Pirate Queen (Spirit of Rebellion #45)


2x DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol (Awakenings #51)

2x Holdout Blaster (Awakenings #63)

2x Rocket Launcher (Spirit of Rebellion #53)

2x Fast Hands (Spirit of Rebellion #150)


2x Millennium Falcon (Awakenings #49)

2x C-3PO (Spirit of Rebellion #30)

2x U-Wing (Spirit of Rebellion #31)

2x Planetary Uprising (Spirit of Rebellion #97)


2x Defensive Position (Awakenings #104)

2x Field Medic (Awakenings #105)

2x Hit and Run (Awakenings #106)

2x Dug in (Awakenings #139)

2x Electroshock (Awakenings #159)

2x Rebel Assault (Spirit of Rebellion #94)

1x Confidence (Spirit of Rebellion #109)

1x New Orders (Spirit of Rebellion #137)



This pairing has gotten a little hype here and there - due to Poe's high cost any new elite character pairings really jump out.

Honestly I'm not sure if this is better than Poe/Rey builds - it might be worse actually, but it's still got some stuff going for it.  Poe Maz has to rely a little heavier on vehicles instead of heavy hitting upgrades like Poe/Rey can - so Millenium Falcon and U-Wing make appearances here since their strong die work well with Poe's special.

Get used to seeing C-3PO and Planetary Uprising in every red hero deck, they are both the real deal.

And this deck gets a few better dice removal options in red with Rebel Assault joining Electroshock and Defensive Position.

We'll see how the Poe/Maz vs Poe/Rey battle plays out through SoR, they are both really good though. (and maybe there will be dark horse Poe/Snap build, though I'm thinking Baze/Snap will be the stronger pairing)

Palpatine (Credit to Hyperloops for inspiration)

Moisture Farm, Tatooine (Spirit of Rebellion #156)


2x Palpatine, Galactic Emperor (Spirit of Rebellion #11)


2x Force Choke (Awakenings #13)

2x Sith Holocron (Awakenings #16)

1x Force Throw (Awakenings #57)

2x Mind Probe (Awakenings #60)

1x Force Lightning (Spirit of Rebellion #14)

2x Force Speed (Spirit of Rebellion #55)

2x Force Illusion (Spirit of Rebellion #135)


2x It Binds All Things (Awakenings #150)


2x Feel Your Anger (Awakenings #82)

2x Intimidate (Awakenings #84)

2x Isolation (Awakenings #85)

2x No Mercy (Awakenings #86)

2x Deflect (Awakenings #145)

2x Now You Will Die (Spirit of Rebellion #75)

2x Rise Again (Spirit of Rebellion #76)

2x High Ground (Spirit of Rebellion #128)



For people that though this wouldn't work, you are wrong - it does work.  Remains to be seen whether it is tier 1, but I think it will be tier 2 at least.  It can just put out sooooo much damage quickly.  No Mercy is definitely the MVP of the deck.  An early No Mercy just wrecks if Palpatine turns his 3 damage side into 7 damage + 2 more from his ability then another 2 or 3 damage + 2 MORE from his ability on the other dice.  It can be a possible 14 damage turn 1, which is just crazy.

Blue villain already had a decent removal suite and they get to add High Ground to that.  Palpatine ALWAYS controls the battlefield, so not a problem really.

Rise Again is definitely a thing here as well, also the reason the deck runs Moisture Farm which probably seems like a strange choice until you realize I really want to get to 5 resources for this card.  Palpatine will claim first pretty much every time, so Moisture Farm builds up your resources quicker, then BAM Rise Again turns this into a 20 health deck and gets you a free upgrade.  The deck will most likely be able to close out at that point.

We'll see where this deck falls in the meta, should be fun.

Snap/Commando/Trooper (aka Snap, Crackle, Pop) (Credit to Hyperloops)

Moisture Farm, Tatooine (Spirit of Rebellion #156)


1x Rebel Trooper (Awakenings #30)

1x Rebel Commando (Spirit of Rebellion #28)

2x Temmin "Snap" Wexley, Recon Specialist (Spirit of Rebellion #29)


2x DH-17 Blaster Pistol (Awakenings #54)

2x Promotion (Awakenings #56)

2x Overkill (Spirit of Rebellion #33)

2x Rocket Launcher (Spirit of Rebellion #53)

2x Training (Spirit of Rebellion #125)

2x Wingman (Spirit of Rebellion #126)


1x C-3PO (Spirit of Rebellion #30)

2x Planetary Uprising (Spirit of Rebellion #97)


2x Defensive Position (Awakenings #104)

2x Field Medic (Awakenings #105)

2x Hit and Run (Awakenings #106)

2x It's a Trap! (Awakenings #107)

1x Rearm (Awakenings #109)

1x Dug in (Awakenings #139)

2x Logistics (Awakenings #142)

1x Rebel Assault (Spirit of Rebellion #94)

2x Suppression (Spirit of Rebellion #122)



I really like this deck - it's kind of an evolution of Akbar/Leia decks in some respects, but it's way less of an all-in fragile aggro deck.  This deck actually has some options.

The set of upgrades this deck gets are so solid. Training feels great on the Trooper or Commando, Overkill, Promotion, and baby blaster are just all fantastic value.  They're all so good value wise, maybe the best value in the game.  Wingman too obviously - the red card in the cheat action cycle in SoR - it doesn't need any explanation here.

Now Snap - he's not pulling the big damage sides, but his ability helps you consistently turn on Defensive Position, Dug In and Planetary Uprising and lets you get initiative.  It works really well.

The opponent of this deck is put in a really hard decision on who they go after - you are putting upgrades on the Commando so he's a threat, but Snap is doing the battlefield garbage, oh but there is also a Rebel Trooper poking is head in and Guardian-ing dice away making it harder to get to who you want to kill.  

Like most mono-color decks, Suppression and Rebel Assault actually give the deck dice removal options too.