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[RoyalAegis]

Rebel Affiliation

 

x2 Haunting the Empire

x2 Planning the Attack*

x2 Pushing Back the Empire

x2 May the Force Be With You

x2 Danger in the Wastes

 

*Full disclaimer, I'm using K2 as a replacement card because this pod is only validated as a two-of if you can cut the number of Rebel Tacticians in half.

 

I like playing with Rebel characters a lot and I'm glad we got the tools in the final stages of the game for them to really shine. I'm just going to list everything in bullet points.

 

-Hot take: Haunting the Empire is the Rebel equivalent to MTFBWY. There's literally no downsides to the pod. The worst card is still 2-pips in edge. The whole 3 uniques argument doesn't hold weight either since two of them are great in edge and the one with 1-pip is something worth doubling up on. Solid pods with resources end up becoming part of the meta and this is no exception.

 

-Cassian and Dodonna pair excellently together. Four Yavin 4 objectives means Dodonna becomes a consistent source of pre-edge card draw (huge deal). Cassian's also an excellent two-of, not a single bad card in the pod. The Tacticians are the best source of shielding in the game.

 

-Four 2-resource objectives means I'll start 90% of my games with 5 resources and that's really important to me. I want to be able to play the War Room into a 4-drop or Obi on T1. 

 

-Danger in the Wastes is pretty underrated. Obi gets edge-1 easily in this deck and the Robes are nuts. The Steadfast Settler should be counted as a resource but I have plenty of 3-unit Rebel pods to offset it.

 

-Why am I not running Jedi affiliation? I don't want to be in a position where I need to play MTF (a given) and Danger in the Wastes (to get my 5 resources, especially when Haunting isn't available on the flop) with a Jedi affiliation. This deck needs at least 2 Rebel resources at any given time as well. The good news is I'll consistently flop into at least 1 Jedi objective on the flop and the only time I'll ever play 2 Jedi cards in one turn is a main + Obi's Robes which is a rare occurrence.

 

-Overall this is just a solid fundamentals deck that checks off all of the boxes that I'm looking for. But, it's not without it's faults. The big fault I see in this deck is that I only have 4 units with 2 bombs so waging big offensive strikes can be difficult. But, the deck is crammed with solid units (a lot of which have tactics) and the deck also has 4 Allies of Necessity to augment my strikes. But, Allies require a developed board state and if I get them T1 they just become edge fodder.

 

I like Heats a lot more; they're good at any time and work pre-edge. 

[Thaliak]

This deck looks solid to me. With 88 pips, two Twists, two five-pip cards, two four-pip cards, Teamwork, and the extra cards from Dodonna or his objective, it should be able to win edge battles consistently. Yoda, Cassian, and K-2S0 pair at least two guns with tactics, so the deck should be able to capitalize on winning edge by picking apart chuds and focusing mains. Obi's two tactics aren't as impressive for long-term control, but they can buy you time, bypass shields, and make attacks especially risky for an opponent with a three-unit board.

 

With several two-resource objectives, Pushing Back the Empire, and an elite resource, the deck should be able to play a four or five-cost unit during the early turns and eventually play both a main and a chud. Between the Ghost, the Phantom and K-2SO, it has a fair chance of keeping key characters around.

 

But if the Dark Side manages to gain an overwhelming lead, the deck will struggle. Unlike Light Side decks with the Millennium Falcon, General Airen Cracken, Spark of Rebellion, Well Paid, Unfinished Business or even the Luke from A Hero's Trial, the deck has limited burst. It can destroy an objective from an empty board if it draws Cassian, a Rebel Saboteur or Yoda, You Seek Yoda, and an Allies of Necessity, but as long as the Dark Side player has a decent edge hand and a few defenders, it should be able to stop that combo.

 

Most of the deck's tricks come with a warning. Allies of Necessity requires one of the many Rebel units to work alongside one of the few Jedi or neutral units. Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi are powerful, but Obi is expensive, and playing either unit means giving up an edge bomb. The Steadfast Settler and the Nudj, the only other targets for Allies of Necessity outside the Rebel Saboteurs, have such lackluster icons that an opponent will suspect an Allies as soon as they're sent into the conflict.

The deck's only other tricks are Seeds of Decay, Yoda, You Seek Yoda, Teamwork, and Krayt Dragon Howl. The first two come in a pod so common most players should be able to anticipate them. Teamwork is strong in a deck with Twist but requires an open resource. So does Krayt Dragon Howl, which has the added downside of being worthless against many decks but at least the upside of potentially having a big impact.

Of course, being able to understand what the Light Side is trying to accomplish and anticipate its tricks doesn't mean the Dark Side will have answers. In fact, I'd wager that you'll win a fair amount of games with this deck against decent players. However, because the deck depends so heavily on a developed board and winning edge, it'll struggle against decks that can outbuild it, render edge irrelevant, or control the board. For example, I can see it falling behind a Capital Ship deck that is running Technological Terror, Deploy the Fleet, or abundant Shielding. Like many decks, it will also have trouble recovering from having its first-turn unit focused by Telekinetic Strike or Dark Lord of the Sith if the Dark Side follows up with Targeted Strike, Force Lightning, or several tactics icons.

Personally, I'd be tempted to replace one copy of Danger in the Wastes with a A Journey to Dagabah. This would mean trading 3 edge pips and an objective health for a unit with three bombs, a one-cost chud that can play defense, a free resource that can claim unopposed, a Target of Opportunity, and an event that will allow you to double strike with almost every unit in the deck. In other words, you'd be trading a few edge pips for greater burst potential.

Alternately, consider Twilight of the Apprentice in place of a Danger in the Wastes. That would reduce the number of two-resource objectives to three, but that will only matter in one out of ten games, which should be insignificant unless you're playing constantly. In return, you'd gain a three-health chud with black icons, a four-cost unit who can use Allies with anyone and frequently has Targeted Strike, and an Echoes of the Force, which could be paired with Seeds of Decay to focus a nasty enemy or with May the Force Be With You to refresh someone for a third conflict or defense. Echoes also would provide protection against Bane, Power of the Dark Side, and Knives in the Night.