Written by Matthew Williams
Characters:
For Hero mill, there are two logical character lineups. ePadme/eYoda does tick a lot of boxes for consistency and has one more character die, but it only has two characters, less health, and it leaves off Red, which has some crucial longevity cards. The preferred lineup in mill at the moment goes to General Rieekan, Yoda, and a Yellow character. I’ve seen three Yellow characters tried, Jar Jar, Maz, and Jedha Partisan, but only Jedha contributes directly to the mill strategy so I believe that is the best choice.
I already reviewed the character choices in the previous article so lets look at possible inclusions into the deck.
Battlefield:
There are only really two logical choices for battlefield here. Command Center gives you the opportunity to mill two off the top, so it plays right into your mill strategy. So that’s the best one, right?
Not to me, at least. I prefer War-Torn Streets as it allows me to remove a card from there hand. I don’t think I’ve played a game with this deck where I didn’t mill the opponent’s deck extremely quickly. The problem is always getting those last few cards from hand, so War-Torn Streets is helpful in that regard. Additionally, you are usually not going to claim in the first few rounds, so your opponent is milling you down, as opposed to taking just one card from hand (which may be empty at that point anyway).
Upgrades:
No brainers:
Chance Cube x2 – You really need these for a variety of reasons. You need money for your removal cards and in the Hondo matchup. However, the main reason is to use the 3 resource side as a 3 discard side with C-3PO. Focusing this with Yoda is easy and if the attached character is about to die, just activate and don’t pay the resource to pick the card up and move it somewhere else
Protective Mentor – This card should at least be a 1-of in a mill deck. Of the three characters, Jedha is the least intimidating for a number of reasons. Mentor allows you to put shields on Jedha and decide whether or not to remove them when they hit another character.
Considerations:
Maz’s Goggles – This one cost upgrade does allow you to remove a card from their hand situationally and it provides some focus.
Hunker Down – Some believe this fits in the no brainers category but it’s slow and vulnerable to mill. Still, extra shields are nice in this matchup
Scout – Scout lets you look at your opponents hand, has removal, and can be chained into with Yoda. However, it’s two resource cost can slow you down, and your opponent can choose to focus in on that character sooner than you may have wished.
Supports:
No brainers:
Air Superiority – Paying 1 resource to get three shields is great. With Rieekan needing shields on both side characters to be most effective, this allows you to manage that rather easily. It is action intensive but it will often pay for itself in the first few rounds. After the deck is basically gone, Rieekan doesn’t really matter at that point anyway, so this has done its job.
C-3PO – Put him in. Put two in. Just do it. This with Chance Cube and all of the two sides that are on the character dice allows you a lot of flexibility.
Considerations:
Scrap Heap – This is probably a 1-of auto-include and a 2-of consideration. Getting this early is great. Getting this late is pointless.
Yoda’s Hut – Also a situational card that is huge when it’s working. Yoda’s Hut pairs well with Air Superiority but it costs 2 resources and is also another action you have to take care of.
Events:
As a drastically different category, I’m going to break this down into functional groups to help make better decisions.
Removal/Dice Control:
Unbreakable – I love this new card. I usually have more than four shields spread around, so it’s basically a 1 cost remove any die. Plus, it’s always able to remove a blank or special.
Overconfidence – This card scares me and I usually don’t play it unless I have to. It’s great that 1 die gets removed but it’s scary that some other die may get better. Still, there are situations where it’s worth it.
Easy Pickings – This is one of my favorite cards in Legacies. There are very few decks that don’t leave nice targets for Easy Pickings. Tarkin is trying to double up dice (usually blanks) specials are everywhere and there are a lot of elite characters running around.
Defensive Position – This can be a huge swing but it’s useless against Yoda/Hondo and decks like that. I usually include one.
Into the Garbage Chute – The cost of exhausting a character is rough, but so is taking a bunch of damage to the face. This doesn’t work against specials so I usually only include one as a meta call.
Sound the Alarm – This card has lost its sheen to me. Until all of this special tomfoolery goes away, this card is dead in too many matchups.
Hyperspace Jump – Some don’t count this as removal but removing your opponent’s entire board for a one resource swing (it costs three but you immediately get two back) is very helpful. This also helps get War-Torn Streets in play at the end.
Mislead/Electroshock – These are very similar and I will usually split these as 1 each when I need extra removal.
Flank – 3 character decks usually have no problem running Flank. Flank can always work if you need it to.
Shielding/Healing:
Caution – I prefer shield heavy variants of this deck and Caution is great. Heightened Awareness has the same effect without the cost of a character die, but it does cost two resources, so I lean towards Caution.
Entrenched – Put five shields wherever? Don’t mind if I do! I love chaining this with All Quiet on the Front for a really nice finishing blow to their deck.
Field Medic – This card can help put your opponent in awkward positions to overkill a character.
Spirit of Rebellion – Free shields are great, but there’s no point running one copy without the second. I tend to use two copies, however, because it’s a free card.
Mill:
All Quiet on the Front – This is a great card. It allows you flexibility in how many cards to mill and it is not extremely difficult to get a mill of 6-9 cards. With all of the shielding options, this card is usually my goto to finish off a deck, so I can move to straight discard. I feel one is enough, however, because it’s usually a dead card after turn 2-3, either due to the fact that their deck is gone or that they are so set up that shields are too important to sacrifice. I often can put my shields right back with Caution etc.
Strength through Weakness – This card seems good in principle but I can never justify the three resources to mill four cards. By the time I draw it, the deck is usually gone anyway. I disregard this card at this point.
Conclusion:
This deck is finally ready for primetime, as is evident by the multiple regional Top 4s/Wins. It’s about time that we had a viable secondary win condition in this game and I think mill is a lot of fun. The next part of this series will focus on our villains. With the Balance of the Force to Unkar, we have some issues, and I think Villain mill needs one more set worth of cards to really get going. Still, Villain mill can be very sneaky so check that out when the article drops.
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