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Destiny Musings and a Store Championship Winning Report!

Hello readers!  I apologize for not being around since the release of Spirit of the Rebellion, but I traveled overseas for a family visit and haven't been able to play or keep up with the game very much. During the early release of Spirit of the Rebellion, I was playtesting a Palpatine deck.  The original build started with the build I had posted a while back, but after seeing a version with Rise Again floating around, I decided to give it a shot.  Rise Again seems like an extremely powerful swing, but I was very skeptical of the 5 resource cost, which on paper, seemed pretty steep for a deck that only started with 2 dice and only had a maximum of 5, but it tested quite well, and I was pleasantly surprised with how impactful Rise Again was in this deck and wanted to try it in other decks. I settled on the following Palpatine list before leaving the country: http://swdestinydb.com/deck/view/275489 The event lineup consisted of multiple low cost events, and Holocro...

Spirit of the Rebellion Deck List Dump: Hero Edition

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Continuing the Spirit of the Rebellion deck list dump, we now review a few hero decks featuring new characters! To start off, we have a character combination that's been receiving a lot of discussion as of late!  Poe/Maz plays a bit similarly to Poe/Rey, but instead of throwing mind probes, force throws, and one with the force, you're throwing Launch Bay, Thermal Detonators, Rocket Launchers, Falcons, and U-Wing.  This deck has the potential for really strong action economy just off of Maz's ability, and the potential to also play the supports through Poe's special.  An extremely explosive deck that tries to just abuse action economy and a powerful special to deal a lot of damage at once. Another extremely explosive deck, Luke/Maz also features explosive starts using a combination of Force Speed and Maz's ability, which give this deck a lot of potential damage as long as Luke's die are still in the pool.  Your economy becomes fueled through the use of...

Spirit of the Rebellion Deck List Dump: Villain Edition

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With Spirit of the Rebellion hitting stores soon, I've been writing much less recently, opting to wait until the new set to write more content.  Like many others, however, I'm excited about what the new set brings to the table and how the new characters will shake up the meta!  In this post, I'm going to do a big deck list "dump" so to speak, and show a few decks I have started working on recently.  While some of the old decks from Awakenings can be modified to perform really well in the Spirit of the Rebellion meta, this first deck list dump will feature at least one new character in every list!  Please keep in mind these lists are not meant to be optimal, and are just mere ideas. And so it begins, starting with the villains! Replacing Kylo in Kylo/Dooku of the Awakenings meta, Asajj pairs up perfectly with Dooku for an even 30 points.  The increased card pool makes running mono color decks a real possibility and even amongst mono color decks there ar...

Top Awakening Cards to Pick Up!

Hello readers!  I apologize for not updating as much recently, a combination of other things happening, along with the upcoming release of Spirit of the Rebellion, made it hard to put out a post that would stay relevant through the set release!  Now, with new cards to play around, a new set of characters, and many other factors, a lot of the ways we think about this game, and a lot of the cards that we are used to seeing, will change. That being said, since starter decks have been restocked at many locations, and spirit of the rebellion booster packs coming out, with an awakenings reprint happening afterwards, I hope that this game sees many new players, and while I think newer players will be able to manage a competitively viable deck using the starter decks and cards from only spirit of the rebellion, I want to make note of some cards from awakenings that are, in my opinion, very important and something that every new player consider picking up on the singles market....

Making reads on your opponent: An Introduction

Generally, in Destiny, we want to play efficiently to get the most out of our rounds and quickly claim the battlefield.  Due to this, it's generally best to: 1. activate all characters before ditching cards to reroll or resolve dice, to help action  efficiency and get the most out of  every action. 2. Match up die faces of the symbol and resolve all dice of one symbol in one action, whenever possible, for action efficiency. 3.  Know when to cut your losses when your opponent is close to claiming if you need to  claim faster.  Things like not taking resources when you don't need them, and choosing not to resolve other dice such as disrupt, discard, and sometimes resolving shields when they aren't needed.    By following these three rules, you will generally stay one step ahead of an opponent who isn't following these rules, just due to how much more efficient it is to play like this. However, there are times that playing effici...

Han/Rey Deck Analysis

Dice manipulation is not the only form of defensive play in Destiny, aside from manipulating dice, various cards can heal, add additional shields, or otherwise delay a character death long enough for a single character to last more turns in an effort to do more damage or generate value.  Dice manipulation is a proactive form of defense, while healing is generally reactive.  Adding shields is technically proactive, since shields do not remove damage, and have a hard cap of 3 shields. When it comes to adding shields and general healing, heroes tend to be better than villains.  Villains tend to feature a lot of dice removal, with heroes having a playstyle centered around adding shields and healing for defense.  This week, I'm going to feature a particular deck that I believe stacks shields most efficiently, and is, in my opinion, one of the top contenders for the best hero deck right now. The decklist can be found at the following link: http://swdestinydb.com/d...

Playing around card-based damage sources

In a game of Destiny, our actions are limited by the cards in our hand and the dice in play on the board.  Some of this information is public knowledge, known to both players, while another is known to only one player.  Although the majority of damage done in a game will be through character and upgrade dice, both of which is public information once played, one should never forget the information that isn't known to both players, which, in this case, are cards in the players' hands and decks. While dice on board may be dangerous, damage from hand can be unexpected, dangerous, and often can be a game-winning tempo swing.  As the game progresses and characters on both sides start to accumulate more damage, taking note of the possible damage sources from your opponent's hand and making plays with those cards in mind can win you the game.  On the other hand, catching your opponent off guard with a damage card that he wasn't expecting can also create a game-winning...