Star Wars LCG

So this guy could be an absolute beast, but if he dies he gives your opponent a huge boost, so is it worth it? Can this guy wreck face?

Nah this set is garbage and has been superceded by the Ancient Rivals Dengar. Much better set although in both cases Dengar is a unit that's only situationally good unlike his LS analog in Captain Rex who's ready to go when he hits the board.

So is this set best used as a ramp for big ships or for actual Death Star strategy? If so, what other tricks go well with this set if any?

Definitely the ramp ability. In my experience I got the Death Star out in less than half of the games I played with it. It's definitely got merit as an edge-killer though.

For what it's worth though I've never play aggro Navy Capital Ship decks (I just ran the Death Star like everyone else did until it got restricted with Endor Entrapment). I can definitely say though that Navy Fortress without this pod is a very viable deck archetype for competitive play. Give me a holler if you want a more in-depth explanation.

Way back in the day (when this set first came out) it was a very useful cog in a LS shielding deck.  Deck ran Core Luke, Core Han, Core Obi-Wan, Secret of Yavin 4, and this set.  Getting Luke or Han shielded (with Prep for Battle out) early in the game did work.

So this guy could be an absolute beast, but if he dies he gives your opponent a huge boost, so is it worth it? Can this guy wreck face?

No, but not because of Dengar himself.  The rest of the set just drags him down so much that it never saw any play.

This guy see much competitive play? He seems good for an aggronDS deck but I have no clue if that’s even viable.

Much?  I don't think so.   But definitely some.  Has a niche place in Mission Palpatine decks.

So is this set best used as a ramp for big ships or for actual Death Star strategy? If so, what other tricks go well with this set if any?

The set's main strength is in the ramp ability.  If you actually get the Death Star on table, it's great and possibly wins the game by itself.  But more consistently you're using it to ramp out capital ships, use the Engineers to attack and defend with your big Star Destroyers, and using the Death Star as an edge card.

Shelter from the Storm can be situational. It allows you to protect a unit from damage but provides no protection from tactics beyond the shield itself, so if your opponent has a unit with two tactics icons, they can still keep the sheltered character from striking. Even if the opponent can't do that, there's a fair chance they'll have other targets for their tactics icons, guns and events.

Remember too that the event can only be used if there's a Hoth objective in play. It's rare for the Dark Side to use Hoth sets, so to enable the event, the Light Side needs to play them. Unfortunately, most of the Hoth sets have frail, uninspiring units and few characters. The characters they do have generally favor defensive guns and tactics rather than bombs, which is thematically appropriately but hamstrings their ability to close games. The characters' icons also tend to be edge-enabled.

The other cards in Preparation for Battle are a case in point. None have bombs, and every icon in the set except the Tauntaun is edge-enabled. While the objective works with the abundant Shielding, the only valid target for the event in the set itself is a one-health unit whose sole purpose is to die to provide a shield to someone else.

So did the game ever give any support to this pod to make it combo well? I’m thinking an aggressive navy deck with super cheap units to try to hang bang objectives in one go. Viable?

Broken with spark of the rebellion?

Yep, basically.  That's why the sets are restricted (ie can't be played in the same deck).

This card saw tons of competitive play, resulting in the first restriction in the game (this set with Dash (eg Against All Odds)).  Was seeing play alongside the Falcon throughout the life of the game.

Is this pod bad? I’m trying to find synergies and it just seems like this one is weak in droid decks and in sith decks.

It's kind of "eh" to me. 

I think Aphra is kind of a dud herself. My issue with her is that she wants to be in both decks with a refresh affiliation (due to her text and her not being Elite) AND a 2-resource affiliation (because she's a 4-cost unit with a 2/1 resource).

I think the objective, chud and fate card are nice. But I've never truly tried to play with pod. Droid decks are tricky.