Written by Sarah Evans & DarkAngelAz
It is that time of the year again, it is spoiler season. We are back with this season’s series of articles focused on the second set of the SWD Continuing Committee run, Redemption. We would like to thank A Renewed Hope for sending us 3 exclusive spoilers. Without wasting any time, lets dive right in.
Spoilers from I Rebel
Sarah – It’s really exciting to see a Force/Blue version of Leia, and she looks fantastic. Two 2 melee sides will make her a damage threat, and options to generate shields will certainly help keep her (or her partner) alive. For pairings, her shield generation ability (and dice) will be good for setting up Rey3‘s special. Cal Kestis is also an interesting option, as Leia having Guardian will allow Cal to build up.
I don’t think her ability is as much as a build around as Greez or Mother Talzin’s was. It may make me think twice about how many 0 costs I have in the deck, but that’s likely it. A great addition to the middle-middle blue hero family.
Az – A Force User version of Leia Organa is something that the game has needed for a while. Lets start with her cost which is exactly midrange at 12/15 for 11 Health. There is nothing outstanding about that, but it is not bad either. Her dice however are very solid for a 15 cost character and her abilities work very well in concert. Since Guardian became an after activation ability, it can go in the queue after her ability to reveal the top card of her deck and give a character shields equal to the cost. This level of repeatable removal for minimal cost combined with good action efficiency could propel her and blue hero up the tiers. Thematically making her an “Apprentice” makes sense because she never had full training as a Jedi. I would look at partnering her with Cal Kestis or Rey – Bound by the Force.
Sarah – A Blue Hero at 14 elite has been rare, making Luminara feel like such a treat!
Her two special sides remind me of Yoda‘s versatility. The last option of her special is the more fun option, and interesting in that it doesn’t specify it being a character dice. Her other dice sides seem solid for her cost, especially the 2 shield side on a 10/14 is great. I like how she will be playing the supporting (mentoring) role, but has a good damage side – she is a Jedi afterall.
Her +1 health ability means you will want to play her with apprentice character(s). Currently our options are Ashoka Tano2, Rey3, Leia Organa4 and the Youngling. Ashoka’s modifier sides won’t work well with her special. Rey and Leia seem ok, but might be overall too defensive as a team. The Younglings not having dice make them a no go for the special. I really do think she belongs in a 3-wide to make the most of the extra health, and more targets for her special. I feel we’ll have to see what else the set gives us, or wait on future sets to see her full potential.
Az – The previous version of Luminara was so unplayable as to literally be coaster material, hence the design bar for making a new, better, version was incredibly low. Her cost is just on the low side of middle/middle, but 11 health for 10/14 is alright. She looks very much like she will pair nicely with Leia from this set and The Jedi Code. She could be very good with a pair of Apprentices, because every Apprentice she is paired with increases her value with the health boost. Her dice are fine if paired with the right Apprentice (Ahsoka), due to the one in three chance of rolling her special. This is a very good special, but she isn’t going to bring about the resurgent of mill in any format, although it is a nice control element. Only one damage side is pretty poor however, and means she likely still won’t be played as her chance of finishing off a match is minimal on her own without a lot of upgrades which feels like an oversight the could be terminal.
Sarah – The plot which puts these two spoiler characters above at a perfect 30 points. Built in mitigation, but you’re going to need to get your dice in the pool showing shields. Not particularly hard with Blue Hero, but still situational removal. Giving up one of Leia4’s or Luminaria2’s dice is ok if you are in a pinch, but sacrificing a cheaper/worse dice like BD-1 or Jedi Lightsaber (which both have two 1 shield sides) is the more ideal scenario. If we get more apprentice options that could work very well with Luminara2 being able to roll the dice back in off her special.
A very solid plot at a cost of 1, which will at the very least open up and inspire more pairing options for team Blue Hero.
Exciting times for Blue Hero fans 🙂
Az – I really like this plot. There are not a lot of one point plots around and it has the restriction of requiring your whole team to basically be Force Users, although the key thing is it doesn’t have to be a Jedi AND an Apprentice, just that all the characters are Jedi or Apprentice. The action is fundamentally once per turn due to the exhaust and costs you a die so it is not great removal, but it is consistently repeatable for zero resources. I do not think there are a lot of decks it will fit into (Luminara2/Ahsoka2/Youngling) feels like a decent starting point for it and I am sure Cal Kestis can make use it with the right mono Blue deck (although it doesn’t have to be if there are Apprentices or Jedi made in other colours in the future.
As a group of three cards for Blue Hero, I think these are fine if unspectacular additions to the card pool for ARH with a sensible power level and nice interactions with existing cards from FFG and ARH.
Spoilers from EchoBase
Sarah – His obvious place is with Luke4 to try and blow up the Death Star! Moving a shield from the Death Star with each activation, and his 50% damage sides should make that win condition more viable than it’s ever been. I love how A Renewed Hope has gone back to an FFG card (Destroy the Death Star), which never really worked and have given us a new reason to try it out again.
In a more traditional Hero vehicle build he still looks like he could have a place at one die, the extra health each round certainly adds to his viability.
Az – A 12/15 Piloting Red Hero with three damage sides (one modified) is alright, but not stellar. His ability is so-so and requires you to have a shield to start with to be effective at moving them around (such as from Destroy the Death Star), but gaining a free shield on one of your characters just for activating is a much underrated ability. Even three activations makes his net health really good for his cost and that will be enough for him to see play with Luke Skywalker – Red Five and the aforementioned plot. Whether this will be enough to make pilots competitive or challenge the current Vader4/Taron meta remains to be seen. This is a card to watch closely as to how he interacts with and changes the meta.
Sarah – I’ve heard this being called the Hero version of Megablaster Troopers. I still think I’d take Megablaster Troopers over this, but this is certainly going to widen some eyes when it hits the table. Resetting this with Hera2 or Cassian2 is where this could really be bonkers. I’m wondering if this could find a home in a Jyn3/Cassian2 build to help protect Jyn with the shield sides and healing from the Medical Droid special, or if the 4 resource cost is just too big of an ask. Reusing the Medical Droid dice from the Two Player Starter will certainly be welcomed by the community, a smart way to bring back old dice.
Az – This card looks like part of a concerted attempt to boost Red Hero and it’s staying power. Three dice, even if they aren’t great in the case of the Medical Droids, for 4 cost is good value. The action efficiency that can be built into a Red pilot deck has potential for flooding the board with a lot of dice very quickly. These dice will mostly only keep characters alive, but that cannot be a bad thing. The Redemption die itself feels a little underpowered with only 2 value sides and a blank for four cost and just the one damage side between all three dice. For this to see regular play I believe it will need good cards in the set to augment it and hopefully they are coming too. When played in a deck with Luke4 this die becomes potentially beastly with all sides being resolved as 3s however.
Sarah – I think this is simple, but a clever card design. This effectively turns any Red die with a value of 1 into a 2, but across 2 actions. I’ve really missed Logistics in my Red decks since rotation, this will achieve the same result but slower. With the versatility to use it across symbols, reducing the odds of it being a dead card in my hand if the rolls don’t go the right way. This is going to be a must include in Red mono decks.
Az – This card is one of my favorites yet released by ARH. Simple and yet elegantly wonderful. It costs you a card from damage to ping a point of damage or gain a shield. I think it is more likely going to be used to gain resources than anything else, but that is not to be dismissed at all. On the first round gaining an extra resource to pay for something like the Redemption could a game changing play. Definitely a card I am going to be looking at trying to work into decks. It could work incredibly well with Director Krennic2 and his mission to Construct the Death Star.
In Conclusion
Redemption is shaping up to be another great set from ARH. This time diving into The Rise of Skywalker and The Empire Strikes Back as their focus, so far. We can not wait to see what else they have in store for us. As for I Rebel, we will be back with another spoiler article going over other spoilers shared soon.
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