Anything I was planning on writing about Star Wars Destiny went out the window when I saw the following two Covert Mission spoilers yesterday. Our friends over at Golden Dice Podcast received two cards that are sure to be experimented with. Here at The Hyperloops we are hoping we will be selected for spoilers but for now we will be having our fun looking at the ones other content creators receive. But I’d really like to get some, I’m begging!

I present this meme as an olive branch but with a twist…

Enough meme’ing for now onto the the spoilers!

At first glance this card seemed absolutely incredible but then I quickly realized it has no dice. That doesn’t make it bad by any means. Its cost of 6 as a yellow character is a very welcomed price point for deck builders. Previously 7 was the smallest yellow character for either hero or villain but now we will be able to slot this little guy to get all of the wonderful yellow villain cards. Sorry heroes, you still don’t have a 6. Pyke being a scoundrel is a plus as it’s one of the best character types for payoff cards like Entourage or Mean Streets.

Right off the bat this card is going to serviceable for big blue character decks for a few reasons. As of right now Delve/Vader’s Fist is still a great combo that will remain popular until the next holocron update comes out. This was always an option for any deck that really wanted to use it but now there will be options for other pairings: eVader3/Greedo could now be Pyke Sentinel/Retribution which is attractive. The next set could bring a big 24 cost character to pair this with Pyke and any new big character that you want to build with will have to consider these guys since they will provide a great deal of defense for your main character.

In addition to Vader’s Fist, Respite becomes an attractive card when you a dice-less character. You’ll give up the chance to guardian on the Respite turn but you will gain a resource and usually that’s worth it.

The problem with Pyke is the obvious one – he provides no offense to your strategy. Generally speaking strategies with characters like these won’t be the most powerful but might find their way as a reaction to the metagame. There are some cards like Inflict Pain that can get you some offensive value from this character but you’ll have to get creative.

Next up is a much more exciting card since its really weird and hard to evaluate. Its one of the ‘Mission’ cards that this set has a cycle of. Not sure how many we will receive but we currently have these ones:

From a flavor perspective these cards are great and encapsulates what most players truly want from a Star Wars game. As far as their viability for competitive play…I’m not sure. If for some reason the Moving Rocks/Destroy the Death Star interaction isn’t nerfed you will see players exiting this game faster than an X-Wing undocking on its way to fight the Death Star. This is just a friendly reminder in case you forgot how broken that will be. If things are healthy I forsee myself working on these mission decks quite a bit. My biggest issue with the Death Star ones are that they will be masturbatory in nature which is a play style that most players hate playing against. It’s one of the big reason that people dislike playing against mill decks. Thankfully the Death Star decks won’t be discarding your cards so at least you’ll be able to deploy your strategy which will make players much happier.

Jedi Trials seems like a lot of work for not a big payoff. It does slot nicely into Rey3/Yoda1 which was deck that Serdapi was a annoying everyone with. Not sure if its better than Lightsaber Mastery but an extra damage dice for Rey seems worth a look albeit the route a bit slow.

The Mission plot that was spoiled yesterday is not a win condition plot but one with a payoff that will gain you some serious cash.

For Coaxium Heist to be successful you’ll have to do 7 direct damage to the Pyke Sentinel you gave your opponent AND remove 4 dice with different symbols in order to get 10 resources. I salivate at the prospect of getting 10 resources in round 1 from this plot. I think it might be too slow by round 2 and round 3 it will be too late since your opponent will pretty much have 3 rounds of using their whole starting team.

By round 1 you can certainly do 7 damage to a character but then having 4 other dice to remove (let alone different symbols) will be almost impossible. In round 2 you should be able to cash in but not just any deck can play this since it requires 4 different symbols. While you want to be able to focus fire with damage you’ll want to do it with a variety of damage types like range, melee and special damage. I can imagine an awkward situation where you have killed Pyke but then roll a bunch of matching damage. At that point are you really going to be rerolling? You probably are but that’s just the kind of awkward situation I want to avoid when building around this card.

This card is a pretty neat exercise in Destiny math. It costs no deckbuilding points to include, it only costs your plot slot and a the use of a yellow character. Generally a die is worth a resource. On a good day a die is worth 2 damage. For the sake of simplicity lets say you can get 7 damage from 4 dice and then need 4 dice for the rest of the condition. In that situation you are exchanging 8 dice for 10 resources, on its face this is pure value! Unfortunately 4 dice for 7 damage is optimistic and will probably be 5 some of the time. In that case its 9 for 10 which is still ahead of normal output but this doesn’t take into account the opportunity cost of your opponent having their starting characters all alive. Their characters will be able to get more dice resolutions, this will result in the REAL cost of the plot being more damage to you and resources/shields for your opponent. Your opponent being able to shield up Pyke could also be a serious issue as it will delay your ability to get resources. Overall the opportunity cost of giving your opponent extra time with their starting character won’t generally be worth it.

Where could it worth it?

First off you want to be able to have different types of damage. I don’t think you need to obsess over this point but it should be kept in mind during deck building. One neat synergy that could potentially be exploitable is with 4Lom’s ability to return bounties to hand. Guaranteeing that your opponent will have a 7 health character makes the idea of going all in on Bounties a bit more appealing.

Of the four missions that have been spoiled I like the two Death Star ones. Their opportunity cost reward is straight up winning the game while the other two just give you a benefit that may or may not win the game. Pyke Sentinel is a solid addition to the roster of characters but will only be as good as the characters he is paired with.

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or comments please leave them here or on social media. Take care and as always…

-NJCuenca