6 replies to this topic

[Kaloo]

If you're playing an Ackbar deck and are paired against a Dooku deck, whom will you generally target first: Dooku or his companions? The general accepted logic is that Dooku should be targeted second due to his ability keeping him alive, however I don't think that's strictly the case when playing as Ackbar since if the Dooku player empties his/her hand they'll take extra damage.

 

For example, if they have 2 cards left and you have 2 1-ranged sides, choosing to hit Dooku twice would result in one of 3 possible outcomes:
- Dooku takes 2 damage

- Dooku takes 1 damage and discards 1 card

- Dooku takes 0 damage and discards 2 cards, triggering Ackbar (which they'd presumably drop the damage onto the non-Dooku character)

 

I'd like to assume that a clever opponent wouldn't pick the third option, however should those 2 dice have been 2 3-ranged dice they may well do so just to keep Dooku alive (on whom they've probably put most of their upgrades), in which case you effectively gain free discards without losing out on damage output. If you happen to have a discard side out as well, the Dooku player may feel hesitant to discard even moreso, which additionally limits their ability to re-roll or use card based dice control.

 

Obviously for certain character combinations it may make more sense to target the other character(s) (Dooku / eGrevious comes to mind, since Grevious is the larger threat), however for, say, eDooku/eKylo or eDooku/eJabba targetting Dooku first may not be a bad idea.

 

 

In one particular example, I rolled into 3 ranged sides (2x 3, 1x 2) and a +2 ranged side whilst against eKylo/eDooku, both of whom had 1 damage on them and 3 cards in hand and nothing threatening on their dice (all of which had been rolled). Given that Dooku had 2 attachments and Kylo had 1, as well as Dooku having better dice, I decided to go for Dooku with the roll forcing them to discard 2 of their cards to keep him alive, but preventing the third being discarded without being forced to take damage on Kylo. As such, Dooku was left on 1 hp and easily died in the next round, leaving Kylo isolated.

 

 

What are your thoughts?

[ikeebear]

My go-to deck currently is Kylo Dooku. It's very rare that someone priority targets Dooku, but whenever they do I get nervous.

 

Frequently the threat of Dooku's damage mitigation steers opponents away from attacking him ... so I don't have to actually discards the cards! Later in the game, when I'm loaded up with upgrades, discarding is a lot easier to do.

 

I think decks that have a good number of mod-damage sides (gun decks, melee decks with Rey) and Ackbar decks should probably strongly consider going after him first.

[Asklepios]

Usually Dooku is the target for me.

 

Dooku/Jabba, that's an easy one, as once you take out Dooku there's no incoming damage to worry about. Jabba is a nasty character, but once Dooku is gone I can stop bothering with shields, dice removal and so on, and just go pure aggro.

 

Dooku/Ren, for sure, Dooku is more resilient, but Dooku has significantly better dice. Personally, I see Ren's dice as some of the weakest of the game, as that special ability is so often 0 or 1 damage that takes a whole action to have a punt with.

[Kaloo]

Usually Dooku is the target for me.

 

Dooku/Jabba, that's an easy one, as once you take out Dooku there's no incoming damage to worry about. Jabba is a nasty character, but once Dooku is gone I can stop bothering with shields, dice removal and so on, and just go pure aggro.

 

Dooku/Ren, for sure, Dooku is more resilient, but Dooku has significantly better dice. Personally, I see Ren's dice as some of the weakest of the game, as that special ability is so often 0 or 1 damage that takes a whole action to have a punt with.

 

The thing is with Kylo is that his special is situationally good depending on the deck you're playing, rather than that of the Kylo player. Within the context of an Ackbar deck specifically you're likely to have more expensive cards due to his decent resource generation, which actually increases the threat of Kylo that little bit more. In such a scenario, assuming they have the resources spare to spend on the 2 damage sides, Kylo's dice are more aggressive than that of Dooku's, which may encourage a player to target him first instead.

 

I suppose it's down to a case-by-case basis. As we always ended up saying on the Conquest forums, "it depends..."

[Asklepios]

Very good point - I'm so used to building lowball curves that I forget that not every deck looks like that. Rey/Poe would tend to average higher than most decks as well, being full of mid-high cost upgrades.

[ikeebear]

I think it's also worth being guiding by the Kylo Dooku player's early choices - if you're playing on your battlefield where did they put the two shields, did they play a Holochron first round and on whom did they attach it. Leaving Kylo to his own devices if he's the one getting loaded up could be a mistake if it takes you an extra round or two to kill Dooku. 

 

Interestingly, I'd tend to kill Jabba first if playing against Dooku Jabba, as I assume it's more control-focused. No Jabba means no Electroshock, Cunning, potential Armed to the Teeth, less fear of Fight Dirty and it's a lot harder to Crime Lord. Granted, a lot of those things might not even be genuine risks, but Jabba' s discard is also a lot more efficient and effective than Dooku's. I think Jabba is the glue in that deck (at least the way I have built it).

[palpster]

Jabba first, always.