Written by DarkAngelAz
Welcome back to the penultimate issue, of our look at Redemption Spoilers. Without farther ado, lets dive in.
Spoilers from Dice Commando
So what does an incompetent Admiral, who was summarily dispatched to the next life by Lord Vader, bring to the Star Wars: Destiny party. He’s a Leader of sorts (who only costs seven non-elite), and he has more health that a First Order Stormtrooper, so he does offer a potential alternative at 7 or 9 to the standard choices. His die is very much mill and money focused, but with no sides above 1, it is hardly setting the world on fire. That’s not necessarily all bad though, because not every character can be top of the curve.
His ability is interesting and one that, until the FAQ comes out, will cause discussion with how it interacts with Extremist Campaign and another Kendal Ozzel in the mirror. Having your opponent choose to lose the roll to gain some shields feels thematic for the man who led the assault on Hoth. The choice that presents itself to anyone building a deck with him is, in exchange for going first, you do likely give your opponent four shields to chop through or, going second and they have their battlefield and two shields, while you have two shields. Of course, if you are playing mill, what matter if they have their shields still up….
There is the possibility of making a pseudo six dice start if he is paired with Gideon Hask and any of the three 11 cost elite characters available in ARH standard at the moment, Imperial Death Trooper, Snoke’s Praetorian Guard, or Trandoshan Hunter. There is another pseudo six dice start if he is paired with Captain Phasma – Stormtrooper Commander, which could kick out a lot of damage very quickly.
Now this is my kind of weapon. Commonly used by Purge Troopers after the issuing of Order 66 and the Empire’s search for Jedi in Fallen Order. A huge beat stick that hits 50 percent of the time for one to three damage and removing a character or upgrade die from the targeted character. The three cost is high for a weapon without any keywords and two blank sides, this might limit its use at this point in the meta. I like the lack of reliance on other dice in your pool though, but I do not feel this will be the case for many other players.
My that’s a big one isn’t it! General Veers own personal AT-AT that destroyed the shield generator on Hoth is now in Star Wars: Destiny. Four damage sides and a 4 discard side. The eight cost that can’t be decreased or cheated into play for free, so none of those cards that do that will work, such as Barter with Blood, Take Control, Dryden Vos, and the like. (to clarify they will allow you to play it – just not for free). Desperate Measures will deal with it, but it is a heavy cost in indirect. The card very much feels like an alternate win condition of sorts, because unless you can deal with the die ,it is going to hit hard…..very hard. Having four damage sides with a minimum value of four, even if three are indirect, is still very difficult to take. I see this being played in the kind of support decks that run Wat Tambor and Director Krennic – Death Star Mastermind, to generate the resources to play these big vehicles.
Spoilers from Coaxium Gaming
Ziro was Jabba’s uncle and conspired with Count Dooku to kidnap Jabba’s son to foment conflict between Jabba and the Republic to allow Ziro to move in on Jabba’s criminal interests. The plan failed, but he is a interesting character for gameplay purposes nonetheless. He looks to have been designed to help the downgrade archetype by having tutoring for them and dealing damage when played. The fact that it is not limited to the Bounty subtype is good, because those are already played. He is also a Yellow Leader for only 9 points if your deck goes that way. He has to form part of the support for more aggressive characters, if not in a mill deck (he has two discard sides). I don’t like the resource cost on the 2 focus side, as at first look it feels too restrictive, but it may be that tutoring and dice fixing for 9 was deemed too powerful. Likewise, I don’t like the 2 resources for a pay, but I am likely quibbling a bit here. I certainly think he could form part of a three wide support deck of 2/3 colors with the usual suspects of Watto, Wat Tambor, and Director Krennic – Death Star Mastermind, in varying combinations.
Here there be Pirates! Hondo’s crew, it looks like from the art, which is nice to see. This card very much seems to be on the lines of pushing mono-color decks, because if you have multiple colors, then they are next to useless, even for one cost. Two damage sides and a modified damage side means 50% damage potential to go with an already ranged heavy deck that the Pirate archetype is. There are another Pirate to work with Pirate Ship, Kragan Gorr, and Synara San (one of the best characters in Resistance incidentally). I don’t think I would not use it outside of a mono-Yellow build, but you will be able to increase this die’s value if you only have one Character remaining on your team (even if it was multi-colour to begin with). Personal request here too – make the Pirate Queen a Pirate!
Now this card is huge. Pay one to deal three indirect from hand!!! For a fast aggressive deck to play this after dice have been rolled and resolved, where the fact that the resource goes to your opponent ,won’t hurt as much. Even if they can pay for mitigation, there won’t be anything to mitigate. There are no play restrictions so it can easily slot into any damage deck that plays Yellow. I like the art choice too, as it feels very underhanded and shady.
Spoilers from SWDBR
Chelli Lona Aphra is without doubt one of the best characters in the Star Wars universe and absolutely the best to have never been on the screen. From her first appearance as a foil to Darth Vader in the Marvel comic books, to getting her own series, she has delighted readers with her Indiana Jones antithesis style. She is most assuredly not a hero, despite working with Luke Skywalker at times. Aphra pretty much only thinks of herself and what she can get out of any given situation, but while definitely more villainous than good, she is no more a supporter of The Empire than The Resistance. She is also one of the few openly gay characters in the Star Wars universe.
Thematically this card ties into her skills with droids and droid maintenance and programming. The power level of this card is off the charts good, not just for ARH, but overall in the history of Star Wars: Destiny. 11 health for 10/13,two damage sides, two shield sides, and an ability to deal indirect damage whenever you play a droid.
The other part of her ability, to add up to six set aside non-character droids, opens up such a huge wealth of deck building and side boarding options. You can, if you want, play six Viper Probe Droids in a Blue-Yellow Hero deck now. I am not sure diluting your deck that much is quite the help some may think it is, especially as they will not be in your starting hand because her ability happens after set-up. However adding a couple more BD-1 ones to a Cal Kestis deck, some extra Coruscant Police if your opponent is playing Scoundrels, or trying to flood the board with Stap Droids to take advantage of Babu Frik‘s Power Action seems much more useful.
This card will be a key part of the deckbuilding discussion and meta for some time to come, and is indicative of the step forward being taken by the design team at the right time to allow the right level of power creep, which encourages good deck design and play without constraining options. It should also be noted that because the wording on Aphra is different to Lightsaber Mastery, the droids added can be different each game even in an event. The perfect sideboard.
If Doctor Aphra walks the villain side of the line more than the hero side, then Hondo is the opposite. A Pirate Leader who has a crew of pirates interested in profit, but who usually winds up helping the good guys, or at least not screwing them over too badly. In a generally fun and comedic way.
As a card, it is very hard to assess his power level until we see what the 2 set-aside Pirate Loyalist dice look like. If those dice have 3 or more damage sides, then rolling in 4 dice which can do damage with one activation is strong. If paired with a Hero, then him having access to the main Yellow action cheating cards could make for a very interesting rush deck. Hondo uses the parallel die from his previous version, but this one is much stronger as a special with a minimum of two damage. His special combines well with Plunder, Kragan Gorr, and Nar Shaddaa Thief, that cause our opponent to have resources taken from them. I think Hondo will have a place as his 14 health makes him durable enough to flood the board with dice, perhaps too many to deal with, but we shall see.
On the surface this looks to be a strange choice of card, but it can increase the health pool of Pirates and Bounty Hunters to a level where they might prove very troublesome to defeat. The obvious target for this is Jango Fett – Armed to the Teeth, because its a 3 health boost for 3 resources, without taking up any upgrade slots, and increased damage output with its three damage sides and no modifiers. This card also works very well with Bounty Hunter Mask. The effect that the mask gives the attached character Bounty Hunter, and this, gain the three health boost. It also amuses me that a character could walk around with two (or in open formats), even three Black Market Arms.
Conclusion
Thank you so much for reading another issue of Redemption Spoilers. We will be back next week with our final issue, and a little surprise. We are all Star Wars: Destiny.
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