Written by Roland Christy
Is that armor too strong for blasters? Your shields can’t repel firepower of that magnitude? Then welcome to an AT-TA that will try to give you a leg up on a popular deck. In this Go For the Legs issue, we’re going to look at what makes the Boba Fett and Seventh Sister deck good and what you can do to tech your deck against its weaknesses. This deck has caused me some frustration, let me tell you. Let’s Force-jump in.
Ah, Boba Fett. So many love him. My dad is one of his staunchest fans. And he does indeed look cool. In the Expanded Universe, he survives the Sarlacc Pit and goes on to pilot (by himself) a Super Star Destroyer. In SW: Destiny, he has three very solid attack dice, no pay sides, and very few apparent weaknesses. And yet, I’m just not that impressed by him. This may be because my favorite line from him in Return of the Jedi is “Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh!”
To which the Sarlacc responds: “Belch.”
Seventh Sister, on the other hand, is a legitimately cool character in my opinion. I’m a big fan of the Rebels TV show, so when she was first spoiled for Empire At War, I was on the hype train long before the Hyperloops cooked up OTK (or BroTK, whichever version the cool kids are running nowadays). Yes, the helicopter lightsaber is a bit much, but she’s voiced by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who is one of the coolest superheroes ever. Seventh Sister and Fifth Brother are more intimidating together than the Grand Inquisitor ever was in season one, especially with all her little ID9 Seeker Droids sniffing out the Rebels.
But no matter where you stand on your like/dislike of these two characters, it is hard to deny that their character combination in Destiny has been rather potent. For a mere 14 squad points, Seventh Sister brings 3 dice to the table and access to Maul’s Lightsaber, which is Boba Fett’s second favorite weapon. And Boba hits like an AT-AT when the right dice are available. And with all of Yellow villain’s dirty tricks, creating that perfect scenario is not difficult at all. Couple that with the fact that both characters are more than capable than finishing out a game when the other goes down and you have an aggressive deck that can stomp the unwary Destiny player.
Let’s take a look at some of the tricks this deck has that make it too strong for blasters. Its weapon suite includes Ancient Lightsaber, Heirloom Lightsaber, and Maul’s Lightsaber as the Blue weapons and Vibrocutlass and Vibroknife are additional melee options. Fast Hands allows Boba to immediately resolve his dice, making him harder to control, and Force Illusion armors up both characters very efficiently. All of the weapons have sides that Boba’s special loves to take advantage of, so he doesn’t need to rely on your dice to be effective. That’s not to say he wouldn’t love for you to roll out big sides on your Rocket Launcher or LR1K Sonic Canon, let alone many of the high cost vehicles that enjoy buzzing around the top tables.
As for the event and support suite, these are going to depend on your opponent’s playstyle, but villain Blue and Yellow has some of the most powerful mitigation cards in the game. Heroes have been given some great toys lately in Easy Pickings, Into the Garbage Chute, and Unbreakable, but even these don’t have the power of Feel Your Anger, He Doesn’t Like You, and Doubt. Hidden Motive is open to both hero and villain, and eBoba/eSeventh loves 0 cost mitigation as much as the next deck. Alter is a good card for fixing Boba dice as well as messing with yours, and even though it costs 2, it is a great card for blowout turns.
As for tech cards, Bait and Switch is going to make the deck faster and give Boba his special at the times he needs it, so beware those plays. With the lightsabers in this deck, it’s a no brainer that Lightsaber Pull will be included. Truce will help get the resources for a turn one Maul’s Lightsaber. And finally, Friends In Low Places and Close Quarters Assault can target your hand and prevent you from messing with the amount of dice you will be struggling against.
As we go through the cards that eBoba/eSeventh likes to play, a common theme I’m noticing is the reliance on cards from hand, whether they’re upgrades, removal cards, or tech cards. And there is the weakness of this deck. When you look at Boba Fett and Seventh Sister, their actual dice are not very impressive. Yes, Boba has two 2 damage (a melee and a ranged) sides, and Sister has a 1 and a 2 melee side. But these aren’t going to go far on their own. Boba likes the Vibrocutlass and the lightsabers to reach a maximum damage ceiling, and Sister uses her base sides mostly for pairing with the plus sides of the Ancient Lightsaber and Maul’s Lightsaber. And that brings us to my first strategy for dealing with this deck: attack the hand.
Yes, in this case, going for the legs means going for the cards in your opponent’s hand. villain characters have the best characters for attacking the hand with 2 Discard sides, and these include Jabba the Hutt – The Great and Mighty, Count Dooku – Devious Strategist, and Tarkin – Grand Moff. In fact, you can fight fire with fire by playing Jabba the Hutt and Count Dooku, allowing you access to many of the cards that eBoba/eSeventh enjoy. Friends In Low Places and Close Quarters Assault hurts Boba/Seventh more than it hurts you in many cases, given their desire to do trick plays and big damage.
Hero also has some great cards that can attack eBoba/eSeventh’s hand. Scruffy Looking Nerf Herder is an incredible card that can help you deal with Maul’s Lightsaber especially, since your opponent has to reveal it after using Lightsaber Pull to grab it from the deck. That has to be a terrible feeling for your opponent… Scout and Maz’s Goggles are also great cards for sneaking a peak at your opponent’s hand and discarding removal cards that will prevent your damage from sticking.
Once you’ve removed the cards from your opponent’s hand, Boba will be hungry for big dice sides if he is denied his Vibrocutlass and Maul’s Lightsaber. To prevent him from borrowing your own dice, try not to play characters with big damage sides. Rey – Finding the Ways is a great character for facing Boba Fett. Her damage comes from shields, and Blue hero has so many cards that give shields and prevent damage from sticking. But more importantly, Rey is able to use shields offensively like Qui-Gon Jinn – Ataru Master. And oh does Rey love Shoto Lightsabers. They have 1 and 2 sides, but allow Rey to tank up like an AT-AT herself.
Just like the AT-ATs at the Battle of Hoth, no deck is completely impenetrable. By understanding how eBoba/eSeventh works and figuring out what card combos help exploit its weaknesses, you can go for the legs and take down the competition.
That’s all for now! Now make like a Destroyer Droid and roll out.
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