Star Wars: My puppy died, and I wasn’t ready for a new one until now.

Written by MrsSomethingStarWars

For fifteen years I’ve had a love affair with Star Wars. For context, I began reading the adult Expanded Universe (now Legends) books in the third grade. The trilogy of my childhood was the prequels. At six years old, I knew there was a relationship between my Star Wars and what I later found out was actually the original Star Wars. At six years old though, the closest word to “parody” I knew was “spoof.” I thought the original Star Wars was a spoof of the real Star Wars. Talk about a misconception! During my adolescent years and into my late teens, I felt like I grew up with Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin Solo. I was dismayed that Ben Skywalker had so much potential but was lead astray. I was heavily excessively invested in the EU emotionally. The movies were alright, and I respect them for the part they played in laying the foundation, but my heart was in those books. Then Disney happened.

I was really uneasy about the Disney acquisition to begin with. When Lucasfilm officially wiped the slate clean, I was wounded and felt betrayed. All the time, energy, and emotion I had invested for the past decade suddenly meant nothing. The best analogy I can compare it to is your dog (or any pet) dying. For most people, they take time to grieve. To lament about all the fond memories and how things will never be the same. No one could replace Fido in your heart, and you’re offended at the suggestion to just move on and get a new dog. It takes time to open your heart again. It takes strength to be able to leave the past in the past, and love your new dog for who it is. It wasn’t until I found Star Wars: Destiny that I finally felt ready to “get a new dog.”

Borrowing a deck to learn the game had me hooked. “This is great,” I thought, “I get to play and interact with my favorite team-ups in Star Wars lore and see alternate endings.” Within the next week, I had a thematically based Nightsisters deck that I was super excited about. They are probably my favorite group of Force users and I got to engage with them! Well, as you can expect from a beginner’s jank deck, I didn’t just lose. I crashed and burned. Going up against Yoda and Zeb was blasphemy to me because they don’t have any relationship with each other. It didn’t fit my idea of realistic. As realistic as you can be in a game based off of a fictional universe anyway. I tried to tough it out, but my decks that had sentimental value to me just couldn’t keep up with the meta. I realized the vast majority of players are actually really into CCGs and approached Destiny as an interesting twist to the game style while focusing on the recently revived phenomenon: Star Wars.

For me, Star Wars was the motivating factor to get me into CCGs, regardless of my clueless-ness of how they work and different deck dynamics. I really thought that most people were there for the Star Wars and were deeply invested in the lore like me. It was disheartening to discover I was wrong. I used to be one of those militant, toxic, overzealous Star Wars fan that looked down at all the fans I perceived as being “less serious.” I came to realize, the one most important thing I wanted to bond with people over was the exact thing driving them away. Competitive gameplay tends to have a similar affect on people. Don’t get me wrong, I have serious respect for competitive Destiny and how it’s expanding to a more diverse fan-base, but it just isn’t the right fit for me, and that’s okay! I could have easily walked away at this point and not even try, but I realized that my experience was not unique. There are droves of want-to-be players who feel like they don’t belong because they aren’t on the same level.

Last week, I set out to carve out space for people like me. I think creating a habitat where both communities can flourish and have a symbiotic relationship that feeds off each other would be incredibly healthy for the game’s economy. My proposal to create this environment is called “Star Wars: Destiny // Tales of War” an unofficial format that tweaks deck building rules and tournament structure to create decks and games that tell a story as the primary focus rather than synergy.

This is a lot to digest, so I’m going to stop here for tonight, but I look forward to sharing this concept with all of you and seeing what you have to think about it. Coming up, I’ll explain the fundamental parameters of the format and an explanation as to why certain rules are imposed or modified. Then I’ll start to get into deck ideas of options that represent the spirit of the format before lastly getting into how to integrate this format into your play group’s rotation for a change of pace if you’re interested. There is no shortage of ground to cover. If you are just too excited and can’t wait for these little nuggets of information, I can certainly point you in the direction of our online presence. All you have to do is ask! I’m also happy to answer any questions you may have in the meantime.

May the Force be with You.