Written by DarkAngelAz
Welcome back to another issue of Redemption Spoilers. Without further ado, let’s get started.
Spoilers from The Hyperloops
Dash is one of the fan-favorite darlings of the EU (now called Legends), which was retconned (rightly in this writer’s opinion) 2 years after Disney took control of the franchise. He was however, quietly sneaked back into the fold in Solo: A Star Wars Story: Tales from Vandor (much as Revan was in other material).
Dash is a smuggler and a scoundrel in the Han Solo mold and somewhat ironically, given the choice of flavor text, will pair very nicely with Han Solo – Cool and Confident in the ARH-Standard format.
Dash himself is a big, being 14/17 for 12 which is a good stat line. Being a scoundrel and a pilot, he will fill niches Lando, Han and Chewie can’t quite manage to. His dice are very good with two 2 damage sides, four 2 value sides, and two resource sides. He has no modifiers which means you aren’t going to be struggling to resolve his dice.
Dash’s real power however comes from his Power Action. Being able to play any Yellow card and give it ambush is a very strong advantage in tempo. I will just note here that cards cannot gain multiple copies of Ambush for ridiculous action cheating though. Playing one of the tempo events with his action such as We’re Home or Instigate ,especially as he has Piloting, can really put a player in a tremendous position of rolling in and resolving dice.
The Outrider, in Legends, is Dash Rendar’s ship, his personal YT-2400 Corvellian Light Freighter. I will confess a little surprise that it doesn’t have a specific Dash Render effect, but it is already incredibly strong. The 4 cost is necessary for a card with no blanks, two 3 damage sides without modifiers, and a 1 in 3 chance of hitting an insane special. Being able to play any card for free is strong, being able to play a card for free when you have manipulated what that card already to maximum advantage might just be too good.
The after activation ability is a may, so if you know the bottom card is the one you want to play, then this card has almost limitless potential, especially when coupled with a pilot that gives Yellow cards Ambush. In a three-wide big support deck I anticipate this card being off the charts good.
I like this card a lot because it starts to fill a hole, one of many, that Fantasy Flight Games may eventually have got around to doing, as they have with other games, by adding cards to make older archetypes viable in new and different ways.
The restriction of having to have an Ewok on your team is not really much of a drawback, and at zero points, it does not affect your team construction either. It does require you to play Traps to get the massive influx of near-dead Ewoks after you have played three of them though. There are currently three different Trap downgrades available to pick from Ensnare, Net Trap, and Rolling Logs. Adding a fourth to this mix would be lovely and hit that sweet spot of 8 in a deck for consistency, especially when you need to see three of them.
The plot almost certainly requires you to play Wicket as one of your Ewoks to be effective, but I am intrigued to see how it turns out and whether a list featuring him can rise up the tiers. Somehow I doubt it will make the competitive grade, but this game is as much about making fun, thematic decks that delight and entertain, as it is about the competitive scene.
Spoilers from Tiny Grimes Games
Well, where do we start with this hotness. If anyone hasn’t seen the Savage-Maul storyline through the Clone Wars then firstly you are missing a treat and secondly, this pairing won’t make as much thematic sense as it might otherwise do.
He has the Apprentice subtype! At last. This card is a first for ARH, as it is the first revealed to use the parallel die mechanic (and I love the way it is presented on the card, saving text space) introduced in Transformations. It is also the first card revealed that has a flip mechanic for ARH. On the A side he is a potential damage beast for his 8/11 cost, especially as he has Team Up: 1 with Maul. He has Guardian, which is always underrated, but with only 9 health it is not something you can use too often. His Power Action to flip is very easy to do turn two and possibly turn one if you want to focus on doing it (it potentially combos very well with Maul’s as well).
When flipped (or started on the B side) he gains three more health and the damage output becomes much more consistent. The special is another 1/3 chance of rolling and when Savage has taken a hit or two for someone else the combination of damage and mitigation/dice fixing is something that an opponent has to deal with, and quickly.
Maul was for a long time underused and neglected in the Star Wars universe, but no longer. Rebels, Solo and The Clone Wars have seen that he is properly represented as the badass he is. First off, I want to say I love the art choice of the A side. Smoking. His parallel die is the one from Legacies, which is the right power level for his cost. His ability is one however that will challenge deck builders to see how efficiently it can be triggered without making the deck clunky. I am not sure whether you flood the deck with zero cost events to try and resolve it but with rotation that is harder than it was. On the A side he only has two damage sides which does limit his effectiveness somewhat.
The B side is very much more interesting however. Once again only two damage sides but a fantastic Power Action, which has the potential for being one free resource each round with careful hand and resource management. It almost certainly pushes the deck build to be a mixture of zero and two cost events. His special is one that rewards flipping the character, rather than starting with the B side. The designers are to be commended for this innovative concept. It feels weak without being able to do both, but gaining two resources and resolving a die (this can be any die in the pool too) for one cost is big. Very big.
This card continues the pattern we have seen from Faltering Allegiances of making sure mitigation, even soft mitigation such as this, has a cost; and a fair cost at that. Two resources for at worst blanking up to three opponents dice is very good, depending on the call it might even remove three. I suspect the math works out just slightly better than Beguile, but that is fair as it requires a Sith or an Inquisitor, which limits the overall level of play it will see. I think that is good for deck variety.
Overall I am very impressed so far with the quality of cards released and look forward to remainder of the spoilers.
The question remains then of who else you could pair these tow brothers of the night with as if you played both on the A side it would only be 23 points. A Jawa Junk Dealer and Order 66 could provide a nice level of spice. Adding a First Order Stormtrooper to bring in some Red events would widen the choices, but an ISB Agent would also add an extra seven health, meaning the team would start with twenty-seven and go up possibly to thirty-two.
As I was writing this article I was talking to a friend of mine, Gareth, who suggested Nar Shaddaa Thief as a Yellow option, as that brings in For a Price to maximize damage output early and Desperate Measures, among other good situational cards. The Thief also offers a measure of control of the opponent’s board too.
Lets see what comes next with another round of spoilers.
Conclusion
Thank you for joining us for this issue of Redemption Spoilers. We hope you enjoyed our thoughts on this round of exciting spoilers from Redemption, to be officially released on January 29th. We hope to see you next issue.
May the Force be with you.
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