Even though there has been some turbulence I am bullish on the future of Star Wars Destiny. The game is great – its simple to learn, deep in strategy and has some high level tournaments which is appeals to Timmy, Johnny and Spike. I have done these types of articles before but I wanted to clarify some upcoming rotation details and respond to this comment:

“My wife and I are brand new to the game ( core set, Luke pre made deck, and boba pre made deck ). I am looking for more reads to learn cards and decks to know what sets i want to buy to expand.”

My short answer is that you should first focus on the trilogy format products. This is specifically known as the legacies cycle. What is that exactly? This is directly ripped from FFG post about rotations:

“A cycle consists of a pair of Starter Sets, the accompanying set of Booster Packs, two expansion sets of Booster Packs, and all other products associated with the cycle by the format’s Holocron document.”

Below is a diagram and all of the items marked in red are in the Legacies cycle. FFG uses this specifically to clarify the Standard format and how it will rotate:

The biggest mistake that was made with this diagram is the use of that one question mark. That’s just one question mark! When remembering this article I specifically remembered this diagram and thought “Oh, there’s only one question mark so only one set left before standard rotation, derp.” And that is definitely wrong. There are indeed two more sets left before rotation – Ways of the Force and “Lukas doesn’t work at FFG anymore” set. Standard rotation will happen when the base set of cycle 3 drops. We have plenty of time with Awakenings cycle cards and you shouldn’t be too worried about investing in the current Standard format. Cards like Ancient Lightsaber are still going to be valuable for a solid 8 months. From my experience in other CCGs, generally speaking, the old format staples start getting cheaper once the last set of the current cycle is released. If you were trying to time the market the best time to dump rotating expensive cards would be during a high play season after Ways of the Force is released. If you wait any longer spoilers for the last set of the cycle will be released and people will be super aware of the upcoming rotation. But if you don’t want to spend too much and really don’t want to worry about flipping your cards in that time you should invest in the Legacies cycle.

I did a pretty in depth article on budget trilogy decks a while back and that’s worth checking out if you are brand new. That focused primarily on the Trilogy format/Legacies cycle cards (It’s important to note that those terms are currently analogous but in about a year the trilogies format will be cycle 3 cards.) This article will expand on that but will incorporate cards from the Awakenings cycle.

You can be competitive in Standard with MOSTLY legacy cycle cards. I say mostly because you will have to purchase some rares, uncommons and commons from the old cycle. This shouldn’t break the bank too much. First I want to talk about one of my favorite decks ever that is certainly worth having in your gauntlet if you are on a budget.

Hero Vehicles

This deck is still very solid and if you are on a budget you could certainly do worse. The only Non-Trilogy cards you will need are:

Rares

1x Ezra Bridger

2x C-3PO

2x T-47 Airspeeder

2x Y-Wing

Uncommons

2x Rally Aid

2x Caution

1x Weapons Factory Alpha

Commons

2x Friends in Low Places

2x Pinned Down

1x Tech Team

That’s it. If you go to your local SWDestiny night or just post this list of cards on your local facebook group you should have plenty of people who are willing to sell, trade or even give you some of these cards. If you bought these cards from the good people at Game Haven (link in card names) it would roughly be around 20 dollars before shipping. The Euro Top 32 did include a different take on Hero Vehicles in the form of eRose/Wedge/Hired Gun but that’s pretty much the same deck although you would be skipping Cautions which would save yourself a few bucks. Nick Obee made top 16 of worlds playing a 4 character variant that is also worth considering. There are a bunch of different character combos which can use the Hero Vehicle shell but they play out similarly. I prefer the first one but that’s just because I’ve played it a ton.

The following deck archetype also made top 32 of the European Championship. This is JMag’s list who came in 17th at Worlds

5 Die Villain

This deck has a bunch of Awakenings cycle cards but they are all dirt cheap except for the ubiquitous Force Illusion. That card is about 9 dollars but it’s that much for a reason. You could skip it but they are a format staple and usable in any blue deck.

Rare

2x Dh-17 Blaster Pistol

2x On The Hunt

2x Bala-Tik

1x First Order Stormtrooper

Uncommon

2x The Best Defense

2x Force Illusion

1x Fort Anaxes

Common

2x Friends in Low Places

2x Backup Muscle

2x Feel Your Anger

1x Overconfidence

These cards end up being very cheap and if you don’t count the Force Illusions you can get these for around 10 dollars.

Unfortunately after these two decks there aren’t really any budget decks you can build that I would consider tier one. Boba/Phasma is close to tier one and if you cut the X-8 Night Sniper you’d have a very affordable 3rd deck that hits hard and is respectable. The X-8s are ideal and I wouldn’t play that deck in a serious tournament without them. You can certainly play tier one character combos like Rey2/Aayla and Kylo2/Anakin but those contain Ancient Lightsaber which cost about the same as each of these decks. If you are starting out you are better off buying two decks and seeing if you like Destiny instead of buying one 200 dollar deck.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think in the comments and as always…

May the rolls be with you…

@NJCuenca

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