Written by Sarah Evans & DarkAngelAz
Welcome back everyone, to another round of Faltering Allegiances spoilers. Without father ado, let’s dive back in. Starting with 3 new spoilers from us.
Spoilers from I Rebel
Sarah – One of the mission goals set out by the continuation committee with Faltering Allegiances, was to “give incentives to play mono-colored decks.” This card is the clearest hint we’ve seen so far for fulfilling this goal. I’ve made it no secret that I’m in my element playing mono decks, so this is exciting to see. The card itself isn’t too far away from the other hand control cards that Red Villains have access to. However, this is more meta dependent. You’ll have matchups where the odds of hitting are pretty great, and others where you’ll need luck on your side; it’s sort of the reverse of Kylo2. Worst case scenario, it just gives you hand knowledge. The upside of this card looks high, unlike Probe and Counterintelligence, it’s not limited to events. What you reveal and choose to discard from your opponent’s hand could be quite devastating.
Az – I really like the design of this card for three reasons. Firstly it is Red Villain, and this sort of card, even the title, should be a Red Villain card. Secondly, it is another card that can be helped by the Detect mechanic and hand knowledge cards that are around. Lastly, anything that hurts multi-colour decks has to be a good thing, in order to try and edge the balance to mono colour even a little bit. There are a number of cards such as Probe, Counterintelligence and Face the Enemy, which will all work well in concert with this card. I see this card going in many of Red Villain decks if not all of them.
Sarah – The action to cheat this into play is pretty nice, but situational, and could be harsh if it results in milling some good cards from your deck. Being very matchup dependent, you should only be putting this in your deck if you think there’s value in hardcasting it at its cost of 3. It’s 4 damage sides will give you consistency, and the 2 disrupt is nothing to sniff at. When comparing it to the current crop of Villain supports, it doesn’t look to be anything special. But with Faltering Alligencies triggering rotation, it may prove to be worth a look. It also has the benefit of working with Wat Tambor‘s Power Action, if you hard cast it.
Az – An interesting variation on the Cloud Car “cheating into play concept”, but whilst I like the card because it has four damage sides, it just feels a little too unrefined to slot into many decks. By that I don’t mean that the design isn’t refined, its more that the damage is mixed, has modifiers, a pay side, AND the action to put it into play is just too dependent on what your opponent is playing (given it costs two cards effectively, as you have to discard another card from your hand as a cost in order to play it for free). If the cost of having to discard is going forward and this is to be the level of supports designed, I would be okay with that reduction in power level. Overall a nice enough card, but not for me.
Sarah – What I love the most about FN-2199, is how he’s a balanced nod to his previous SOR version. The Power Action for the potential of multiple resolves from the same weapon die is very strong, and his 9 health reflects that. His setup ability is really nice, it gives you good odds of seeing a particular weapon you’d really like to start with. It also changes how hard you need to mulligan your initial hand. 4 damage sides is decent, the 0 ranged side really intrigues me. The reasoning for this could be to help pair with a ranged modifier on a weapon, or to work with anything that can increase a die value, such as Pulverize.
Az – This FN is significantly less busted that the version from Spirit of Rebellion, which has to be a good thing. Four damage sides is interesting, but two of them do have drawbacks of either being mixed or a pay side. Nine health feels right for the character, especially at his cost and I think I will be more likely to play FN single die to fill curve or to add a colour, given the dice. However the after set up ability and the Power Action are both very good. For any deck looking for a specific weapon card, you can now see effectively 14 cards worth of options, I am sure someone smarter than I can work out the hypergeometric distribution math, but it gives you a very good chance to see it for sure. Just starting with a sixth card in hand too means you can keep mitigation, knowing you have a chance for the weapon upgrade and still have cards to re-roll with. The Power Action, with the right weapon, could be extremely powerful. I think for this reason alone, its good that FN only has nine health. In summary, a nice card who I can definitely see me taking a look at playing, if the right mixes are there.
Spoilers from Dice Commando
Sarah – There’s no denying he has bad dice sides. Modifiers are especially painful early game. What he lacks in the dice department, he makes up for in abilities. Detect provides control, and pairing with Jyn, will make her ability even stronger. Including 4 different Intel cards, ignoring affiliation and colour, is certainly intriguing. Any character that can break the norms of deck building has led to creative builds. The Power Action is potentially where he can really do work. Initial thoughts go to resetting Admiral or a vehicle, however it is conditional on playing a Yellow card and spotting a Leader. It may be harder to pull off than we initially imagine, and don’t forget you are giving up having decent dice for these abilities.
Az – An interesting card to be sure. Without question one of the worst dice I have ever seen on a character, but despite that I don’t believe he is a bad character. The Power Action will have a litany of uses around resetting very powerful cards, such as Admiral or an expensive vehicle. I expect this will get a lot of experimentation from players. I am more intrigued about his deck building ability given there are already four cards with the Intel subtype not counting any more new ones released in Faltering Allegiances. Being able to play Secrets Laid Bare, for example, with the detect cards, and the direction they are pointing at, seems very intriguing. Shadowed seems likely to a very decent card for him to include, as it can be used in concert with his Power Action. Overall, he feels bad as an elite character because his dice are so so bad, but for a single die, he is 10 for 10 with some good options. Options I will be exploring when the set is out.
Thank you for joining us for another look into Faltering Allegiances. We should be back with Issue 3 soon, depending on The Player Committee’s plans for Faltering Allegiances.
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