I’m really enjoying the Trilogy format. It’s a great way to introduce players to the game. I’ve tried showing new players cheating action decks and they are all complicated and non interactive. If you missed my budget trilogies article check it out! It is a great way to introduce new players to the game.

Aside from that some people have started local Trilogy events, some need to play in Galactic Qualifiers while others might be tired of the Infinite/Standard format. Whatever your reason for your interest you should know that we are in the infancy of the format as a whole. In the future I’ll write about specific archetypes but I feel I haven’t looked at all the sides of the format. In the past I’ve gotten a long string of false positive results that led me to prematurely think that something was very good (my 20-0 win streak with Dooku/Voss comes to mind, best deck in format I thought…not really.) Instead of talking about decks I want to talk about cards that have impressed me that aren’t really a part of the Infinite format but will be a huge part of the Trilogies format. I’m not going to tell you that Mother Talzin, Kylo Ren, Aayla Secura, Yoda and Poe Dameron are good cards, it stands to reason that those cards will still be relevant in a smaller card pool. I’m here to give you the deeper cuts!

BLUE

Rey, Finding the Ways

Rey2 dominated the previous infinite format so there’s a good chance she will be an important part of this one. I suspect that her best partner will be Poe2 because of the Kylo2 effect but she has a bunch of exciting mono blue options. Aayla Secura/Profitable Connections gives you a great partner and an extra resource to do dirty things with, playing a turn 1 Rey’s or Obi-Wan’s Lighsaber reliably seems like something I want my life to be a part of. Playing Anakin or Yoda plus Fortify will guarantee a Rey trigger on the first turn. Rey and a 1 die Obi-One will give you access to a large health character that essentially has 2 dice albeit one of those dice always hits a shield. The biggest threat to her dominance will actually be Aayla/Profitable Connections. It’s going to be a tough sell to get people off of that combo in favor of Rey. Rey essentially has 3 dice if you include her ability, that’s pretty powerful and I’ll be exploring her pairings further.

Mislead

This card will always have a target and while the upside isn’t huge being able to play your cards so they do something all the time is very important. Some cards have high upside but have smaller applications while others show up and do something mediocre but they at least do it all the time. Sometimes that’s enough. Aayla and Poe specials will prevent you from advancing your game plan and this will handle that problem beautifully. If we are talking Hondo specials this will prevent 3 damage early without having to pay him off, that’s what I like to call value.

The Force is With Me

If you are playing a Blue deck you’ll seriously have to consider this. Aside from Kylo/Anakin and maybe mono melee Rey decks, It’s very difficult to build an all melee deck and even those decks might play things like Force Wave or Aayla Secura that have indirect sides. Mill decks are possible and reasonable but I’m not sure they will be a huge part of the format. The prevalence of special damage will make this card cry a little but given the other options this card should make your deck most of the time.

Obi-Wan’s Hut

It’s pretty unfair that blue’s the only color that gets a battlefield that is specifically beneficial to their color. From a design perspective that just feels bad although I get that blue has been the color that gets the most payoff from going mono. Anyway, this is a big payoff card for going mono blue or being able to claim quickly with at least one blue character. This and other synergy shield cards are part of the reason why I’m bullish on Rey2 or an aggressive blue deck that can use this a lot.

YELLOW

Entangle

Some people play cards like Mend that heal 3 damage for the cost of two resource while others play Entangle which sometimes counts for 6 damage!(a special and 3 base) Not only does it count damage but if you play vs mill taking away two Yoda dice is going to make you feel real good about your life choices. It’s spot yellow but it being neutral is going to have you slot it in a lot of places.

Well-Connected

This is one of the big reasons to play yellow. Of all of the “free” resource producing cards this is the least restrictive. This little card offers the possibility of one resource for the low price of spotting and letting your opponent draw a card. Both of those are obvious downsides but the upside of having an extra resource early is huge. Sometimes acquiring an extra resource will be the last thing you do right after your opponent claims making the downside non existent. Later on the extra resources isn’t as good and might not be worth the action loss or you might not even have a yellow character. That’s all fine with me since the card lets you get ahead on resources early and the format is more about that kind of value since your opponents can’t play dumb free cards.

Slave 1

This card is just amazing in this format. The action cheating is much less prevalent, the decks are much slower making its ability relevant from the moment you play it. It has a built reroll which can also remove one of your opponents dice, crazy! The die is also pretty strong albeit nothing earth shattering. This might be a bold proclamation since its a villain card for a very specific deck but there is a good chance that deck will be very good.

Doctor Aphra, Artifact Hunter

This is one of my deeper cuts but I think the good doctor will be a big player in the Trilogy format. The biggest reason is that there is a small card pool and playing Aphra will give you access to 0 cost BB-9 and 1 cost BT-1. Zero cost BB-9s might not sound that great but there are literally no 0 cost dice in the format so you’ll need to adjust how think about things. A turn 1 free BB-9 can do 5 damage by the 5th turn. I’m no mathematician but that sounds pretty good to me. Aphra has 3 solid hits early on and when resources are plentiful or someone is close to death her 2 for 1 will be solid.

RED

Bubble Shield

The prevalence of indirect damage and cards like Crash Landing that deal indirect damage to yourself will make this card great. It’s neutral which will let you the chance to include it in any of your red decks. This format looks to be more of a combat grind fest and this card gets you plus 3 health.

Tarkin, Grand Moff

While Tarkin has seen some love in Infinite he will be one the best characters in Trilogy. The simple reason is that he makes 1 cost dice into offensive splash guns. His discard is annoying and if your opponent rolled poorly he can prevent your opponent from rerolling causing complete turns to be ruined. The prevalence of 3 character decks may make playing Tarkin hard but early testing has shown that he can hit hard enough to best 3 characters.

Captain Phasma, Ruthless Tactician

Wait a minute, she’s already played in infinite! That’s true but few people play eBoba/ePhasma even though it’s feared. Her effect on this format will be even bigger since the two teams of eBoba/ePhasma and ePhasma/Talzin/Greedo will be played. She will also randomly pop up with other characters like Tarkin, Maul, etc. She has the most efficient damage sides for her cost so if you are going for pure damage she’s a good place to be.

Launch Deck

After thinking about it and playing with it this and Arid Wasteland are probably the least impactful battlefield out of all the ones in the format. That’s very important because many of the slow decks are good at extracting value but terrible at claiming.

In the case of Launch Deck very rarely will fast decks want to exchange a die for indirect damage. Maybe a Maul player would be fine exchanging the 3 for 1 early? You wouldn’t exchange a direct damage for indirect, early resources are certainly more valuable, shields might be worth throwing but a shield will block a direct attack which sometimes is more valuable and perhaps modifiers get stranded but on the whole the character dice people use won’t punish you too much. You can use it somewhat effectively with Lookout Post if you don’t hit your base indirect but now we are getting into specific deck cards and not characters. With that in mind this will be the go to dummy battlefield for most decks, especially ones that want to do indirect damage. However, even if you are an indirect damage damage deck that can claim you might want to look at something more powerful. Fast decks are in a pretty good place because all of the battlefields do something. Arid Wasteland is an option since you can generally resolve your resource last giving them the choice of “You want to claim and let me get the resource or pass and have me claim so I don’t get the resource.” Its played out so far that your opponent chooses to claim over having you claim but I haven’t played with it enough to confirm that it usually does nothing. I suspect you’ll get into awkward spots where you’d want to get a resource to resolve a pay side or if you wanted to resolve multiple resources which is why I feel its more likely going to come back to bite you in the butt. If your deck has few pay sides then it might be a better dummy.

Thanks for reading! Take care and as always…

Don’t play Sabine/Ezra against someone who is learning to play.

-NJCuenca