Welcome everyone to Issue 5 of Shaping Destiny. It’s been a busy couple of weeks, but I have finally been able to break away to bring you an issue. In this issue I would like to talk about the keyword Guardian. Before we can talk about it however, we need to know what it does.

Any character with the Guardian keyword has the following effect: Before this character activates, you may deal it damage equal to the value of a die showing damage ([MD] or [RD]) in your opponent’s pool. Then remove that die showing the damage.

The first thing we notice about this effect is, that it isn’t what one would think of when they think of a keyword named Guardian. Most people would assume that it would be an effect that protects and while it does do that in it’s own way, it does so with a bonus. Usually cards with a protective effects trigger in reaction to your opponent’s attack, this one gives you a bit more of an active role in triggering this effect. Right there that gives you more windows to activate the protective effect of a character with the Guardian keyword, instead of being limited to a reaction. That being said, you still need to keep your character with Guardian ready to keep your window open. While doing this can keep you from gaining an advantage by activating your character, timing your activation in order to use Guardian is key. Doing so at the right time can throw a wrench into your opponent’s plan. You are removing a die showing damage and dealing it to a Guardian on your terms instead of your opponent dealing it to a target you don’t want targeted and/or you are removing a die that perhaps they were trying to roll the non-damage sides. The Guardian keyword is a built-in dice mitigation effect that doesn’t require a separate card to do.

Now that we know what the effect does and why it’s good, why don’t we look at the cards with the Guardian keyword. Unfortunately right now we have no known card with the keyword on them but we do have two cards that give characters that keyword. They are [infopopup tag=aw001] and Personal Escort (AW78). Both cards are red and villain cards. I would like to point out right out of the gate that at the time of writing this, is a powerful one-sided ability for villains. Giving them access to this ability allows villains to mess with you more though a built-in keyword effect than other decks who don’t run red villains. So what do they do? I am glad you asked!

As you can see in the picture, the best card of these two is most likely Captain Phasma as she doesn’t require you to put any cards in your deck to access this effect, but she does limit the effect to non-unique characters. Right now, those non-uniques are: [infopopup tag=aw002], Tusken Raider, and Nightsister at cost 7, 9, & 8 respectively, and Captain Phasma is 12 points 1 die, 15 points for the 2 dice Elite version. The combinations you can do of the 4 are, Elite Captain Phasma and 2 Stormtroopers at 29 points, Elite Captain Phasma, Trooper, and Nightsister at 30 points, Elite Phasma and Tusken Raider at 24 points, Non-Elite Phasma and 2 Nightsisters at 28 points, Non-Elite Phasma and 2 Tusken Raiders at 30, and lastly Non-Elite Phasma, 1 Trooper or Nightsister and 1 Tusken Raider at 28/29 Points. As you can see, no matter what combination you choose, the most you can have is 2 non-uniques for Phasma’s ability. While that number seems small, it is nothing to sniff at having two cards that can disrupt your opponent’s die at anytime as long as they stay on the board.

The next card, Personal Escort, is a more flexible card then Captain Phasma. This card allows you to give anyone of your characters access to the Guardian keyword at the cost of one resource and an upgrade slot. You do need to run a red character in order to run this in your deck, but it is a great way to gain access to the Guardian keyword. It may be questionable to run this instead of other die manipulating cards, but it is important to remember that it can slow your opponent down by doing damage to one of your character of your choice instead of their choice. Another benefit to running this upgrade is the ability to discard it for a stronger upgrade later on in the game. Decreasing an upgrade cost by one may not be much, but it may be enough of a reason to include this upgrade if you choose to do so.

There we go ladies and gentlemen. That was a brief overview of the Guardian keyword and the cards that grant you that keyword that are currently known. This is a keyword that deserves your time to look at as a game mechanic and consideration in the building of your deck. Like many things in this game, there is more than meets the eye. Your Destiny is decided by your actions and knowledge.

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