Getting burnt out from testing for Worlds? Not going to Worlds? Want to talk about Destiny, and not just about how it is a dead game? Come and join me as I talk about what I want to see from Way of the Force.

In this article I am going to focus on just the types of characters I want to see when Way of the Force drops in Q2, Q3, or Q∞. So if you are looking for my thoughts on upgrades, supports, events, and battlefields you will have to wait until the next article that I feel like writing (or literally just write in and ask me, I always like to chat). So what have we seen so far? Enter Grievous, Bo-Katan, and Luke.

By now these cards have been broken down by everyone and their kids, so I will give you the cliff notes version of my opinion.

Mr. 4 Arms – 15/20 heavy hitter. Tons of health. 4 weapons, one for each arm. Interesting power action, kind of a pipe dream. Probably not super competitive.

Ginger Female Boba Fett – Another 15/20 heavy hitter. Mixed damage with guns, melee, and a special. Awesome ability that changes how you can deck build with Yellow. Again, as the game is right now most likely not super competitive.

Santa Claus – 12/15 insanely powerful Mid-Range (I will be using this terminology for characters who can be elite at anywhere between 12-18 points) blue power house. 12 health?? Hides his damage behind shield sides that can’t be as easily removed. Power action that can let you roll in big force powers twice a turn, or simply give 1 redeploy. My opinion, super good.

So let’s talk about the heavy hitters, and what we need to see to make these guys a little more competitive. Grievous and Bo-Katan are good additions to the 15/20 character slot. If you look at other characters in this slot, you will quickly find IG-88 and Jyn Erso, so not much had to be done to surpass those forgotten characters. Right now the only characters truly running around the competitive scene around this point cost are Sabine and maybe Obi-Wan. Why is this? I think it is just about the number of dice you can get on the board. Your pairing options with characters at 19 or 20 points for elite versions are either 1 generic character, a 1 die version of small character, or the very few elite 10 or 11 point character options. First of all, the generic characters are not holding up their end of the deal. There are not many out there that can find a spot in a “Big Little” deck like this and that’s because they either are not offering up enough support, or not offering up enough hitting power of their own. Secondly, a 1 die version of a unique character can be a slightly better option. Taking 1 die Yoda can add a good level of consistency. Putting in a 1 die red unique character allows you to tech in Leadership. These characters are seeing a little more play. Both of these start you with 3 total dice, which just seems bad in world that has Seventh Sister starting at 3 dice for 14 points. So if you want 4 dice and are playing a 20 point elite character what are you options? If you are on light side, you can run Ezra or Jar Jar. If you are not running ranged sides, then Ezra essentially has 2 blanks if you count his modified side. And Jar Jar… well I don’t know if he can even fit into a non-mill list like this. If you are running 20 points of Villain, your only 10 point elite option right now is Bazine. I kind of like her in some spots, but still having only 1 option at this slot seems like a let down.

Hope 1) So what do I want to see get changed in WoF? I want some more “Big Little” options! And I know adding characters at this low of a point cost has to be hard to balance, because you open up the gates to some possible strong 5-wide decks that used to run around the meta. But right now they are no where to be seen so I think it is safe to at least add a few more options at these slots. I do not want to see new, interesting, thought provoking, 20 point heavy hitters come out in WoF while we get nothing to pair these characters with except the same options we have already.

Moving on from this “Big Little” theme, I want to talk about the Mid-Range decks. These are the decks that run a character at about 12-18 points and then pair that with another character that even outs the list. Both of these characters normally can hit pretty hard, examples being Boba/7th, Rey2/Aayla, Kylo2/Talzin, etc. These decks are thriving in the meta because they offer a lot of consistency between two characters who can push out damage. But when you look at the best of the these characters, the ones that come to my mind are instantly Seventh Sister, Talzin, Yoda, and Aayla. Do you see the problem here? Those are all BLUE! Now if you have listened to our podcast, you have probably heard me complain about blue at least a little. I understand Star Wars is nothing without the force, but still I want to see some other colors get some competitive options at this point cost, at least more than they currently have!

Hope 2) I want to see more characters in WoF like Cassian Andor. He was recently spoiled in a magazine ad FFG was running and I will quickly go over his stats. He is a Yellow Hero with 10 HP, his dice sides are 1 Gun, 2 Gun, 1 Discard, 1 Discard, 1 Resource, and blank. He is 10/14 points (Mid-Range alert!). His ability is “After you resolve this die, you may deal 1 indirect damage to an opponent or discard the top card of a deck” and his rarity is unknown. His ability to me is what makes him very solid and allows him to fit into a damage deck or a mill deck. In a damage based deck, you are always dealing an extra damage per die you resolve of his, and in a mill deck you are getting 2 extra cards off the top per turn. This especially hits hard when you are resolving a discard side as 1 from the hand and 1 from the top of the deck, but also in a damage deck discarding a card and also getting 1 damage out of it is strong. This is what I want to see more of in WoF. I want to see more solid Mid-Range options from Red, Yellow, hell even grey if they want to. This will open up deck building options and add some more variety to the Mid-Range decks that are out and about now.

Something that has bothered me for a little while now is the distribution of damage types throughout the three colors. Blue has all of the good melee options, along with a few solid range options, examples being Talzin, Nightsister, and Luke2. But when you look at yellow and red we see really good ranged options but very few melee options and even less melee options anyone would ever run. Some of the only villain options are Magnaguard, Gamorrean Guard, Tusken Raider, and both Grievous. On the hero side of things, the options are Wookiee Warrior, Zeb, and K-2SO. Even though the characters may be lacking, there are some really great melee upgrades out there for red and yellow that may not be seeing the play they deserve because of the melee options for each color.

Hope 3) I hope to see some more melee options come to red and yellow for both villain and heroes. I know it is easier to make blue melee characters because, ya know, lightsabers. But I know there are more options in terms of canon characters out there that would fit into the red or yellow category. I hope to see a yellow Assaj Ventress from her bounty hunter times, a weequay, Embo, Tarfful, Praetorian Guards, and even Leia as an undercover bounty hunter (Boushh) or Lando as a guard. All of these open up some melee options for red and yellow and introduce some characters I am sure so many people would love to see.

So what characters do you want to see from WoF? What does the game need more of? Do you completely disagree with all of the points I made? That’s ok! Tommy and Jack disagree with me every week on the podcast so you probably should too!

Thank you guys for taking the time to read this, and make sure to tune into the Golden Dice Podcast on any and all social media, we are constantly putting out content. And also speaking of Mid-Range studs, check out this alt art card we have being printed as you read this! For more details head over to our Patreon page.

-Shane from GDP. Twinsunz77 on our discord.