Empire of War Speculation: Hero decks!

The dust from the Spirit of the Rebellion meta is settling and we are in a transition period between what's left of the meta from Gencon and NOVA and the release of Empire at War.  Overall, the two best decks in the meta are Poe/Maz and Rainbow variants featuring FN, with mostly blue villain variants featuring Darth Vader (both versions) and Palpatine slightly behind those decks. Villains see significantly more play than heroes and most Rogue decks that have the potential to compete with the current meta decks are villain-centric.

Overall, the game looks very grim for our heroes.  Fortunately, Empire At War is just around the corner, and could potentially bring more hero decks into the spotlight! However, before we jump in and assume that all the new cards will bring heroes into the competitive spotlight, it's important to recap some of the strengths and weaknesses of the hero card pool in general:

Strengths:
- Lots of shield generation and a respectable amount of healing

- Action cheating and efficiency

- Impactful removal (Defensive Position, Guard, Force Misdirection)

Weaknesses
- Removal is situational and often unreliable
- Limited and situational damage tools out of hand
- Lots of common counterplay against shields (Vibroknife)

While Empire at War may not directly address all of the weaknesses,  the set has provided many new cards that can perhaps fill weaker slots in older hero decks and provide the basis for some newer builds as well.  Here are a few ideas that I have been considering:

Ahsoka/Padawan/Rey

SWDestinyDB Link

This list should be somewhat familiar, as this character combination was prominently featured in an FFG article. The idea behind this deck is to play discounted weapons on the Padawan, and use bestow to move the upgrades to other characters and get multiple uses out of them, and freeing up the Padawan's effect for future cheap upgrades. While this sounded poor on paper, I believe the idea may have potential after some testing and tweaking. This deck features a 1-die Ahsoka, which many have predicted will be the best way to utilize her effect.  Ahsoka's effect is powerful with Fearless, which doesn't give her an extra die, keeping her effect at 1 resource cost.  Ahsoka's effect insures that you have a target for bestow for big, high damage turns and provides an outlet to spend extra resources.  I've omitted Guard from the list because in testing, it was very situational and was generally not useful when your opponents had the first action, and since this deck is slow with no real method of action cheating outside of Vibroknife on Rey, I replaced it with Confidence to help isolate modifiers and remove Vibroknifes for shields to retain their value.  A card that is also notably missing is funeral pyre, and it's mainly due to the fact that overriding with redeploy weapons sounds more reliable than hoping to draw a support card before a particular character dies.

Mace/Rebel Trooper

SWDestinyDB Link

Mace hits hard, outside of Palpatine, Mace has the potential to do 8 damage just off of his character die. Unfortunately he's expensive, and he's not blessed with the 13 health value that Awakenings Vader has over every other character at such a high point cost. Mace does, however, pair up with the Rebel Trooper for a deck reminiscent of Darth Vader/Royal Guard, utilizing Guardian to direct damage away from Mace, and using cards like Honor Guard, Field Medic, and Electrostaff to justify the inclusion of red as a solid support color for Mace to deal damage. Unfortunately, since the Rebel Trooper isn't unique, the options for a leadership play aren't there, and this deck lacks a way to really explode and extend it's damage cap, which will likely be what holds Mace back from competitive play.

Jyn/Ezra

(SWDestinyDB link coming soon)

Jyn has never made much of a splash in the SOTR meta, but her effect is very powerful and only improves as the card pool for yellow events increases. EAW gives Jyn an elite pairing, which sounds awesome, but unfortunately only leaves the deck at a paltry 18 total character health and in mono yellow. Fortunately, both Jyn and Ezra can make use of second chance. This deck is unique in that it can both develop a character with upgrades and still be able to play removal off of Jyn's effect, and ultimately this deck is looking to find a time to set up a character, claim, activate a character with a few upgrades and play Never Tell me the Odds for 2 resources and ambush courtesy of Jyn's effect and the battlefield location to resolve as much unmitigated damage as possible. Overall, while Jyn may not be the strongest character, her effect is powerful and the options increase with every set, which is something to think about as every new set comes around.

Hera/Maz/Rookie Pilot

SWDestinyDB Link

There's been a lot of hype over Hera, and while I was initially skeptical at the concept of a vehicle deck being playable gaining wins in a fast meta, I believe now that it has the potential to be a very real deck. Hera and Ahsoka are the standout hero characters in this set, and if we are to see any of the new characters make a splash, I would put my bets on either of those. Hera is a cheap character with an extremely powerful effect, and fits in various 5 die suites!  It remains to be seen whether a lineup with the rebel trooper to protect Hera will be the way to go with these variants, but Maz is unquestionably a very strong character and provides access to yellow, consistency, and some action cheating.

Hopefully, these hero decks breed some new ideas that take off and make a splash in the growing competitive scene! Heroes have a tendency to have mostly overcosted characters with a less powerful card suite compared to villains, which keep them out of the spotlight outside of big action cheat decks with high damage curves like Poe/Maz, but hopefully the tools they get in the upcoming sets will increase their overall playability.