On Wednesday we posted Part I of Brendan’s Introduction to Trilogies, so please check it out.

With dice-cards loaded up the next piece of the deck building puzzle is selecting common and uncommon cards. Non-dice cards can be divided into three categories, economy, defensive, and utility. Economy cards generate resources or allow cards to be played for fewer resources than they would normally cost. Defensive cards keep your characters (or deck when playing vs mill) alive longer. Utility is the catch all that the rest fall into. How many of each type of card belong in a deck varies and should be adjusted to compliment what your dice contribute. A deck with Stun Baton or Slave 1 might play fewer defensive cards, while a deck with Palpatine would play fewer economy cards.

Economy

There was a very limited pool of economy cards in the Awakenings meta with 10 total, only 3 of which are really any good (Enrage, Logistics, and It Binds All Things). Most top decks included what they could between these three cards, but Villain Blue had a real advantage in access to Enrage in addition to Sith Holocron. The Trilogies format increases the number of economy cards to 15 options. The quality appears to be better and far more of them are neutral (9 neutral to Awakenings 2). Most competitive decks in the Standard meta will include 4-6 economy cards and Trilogies offers enough options that this may be possible to mirror. This would be a huge difference from the Awakenings meta. Here are the economy cards I would recommend considering as well as my thoughts on two of my favorites

Logistics

No Good To Me Dead – This is the economy card I am most excited to test. Healing your opponent to gain resources feels a little counter intuitive at first but its one of the only economy cards in the game that can net you 2 resources. 2 resources can easily translate to 2 damage or more in that very turn.

This is the economy card I am most excited to test. Healing your opponent to gain resources feels a little counter intuitive at first but its one of the only economy cards in the game that can net you 2 resources. 2 resources can easily translate to 2 damage or more in that very turn. Adapt

Maz’s Vault – This 0 cost support gives not just you but also your opponent one more resource per round. This card has the potential to generate more resources than any other economy cards in the game but none the turn its played and I hate the idea of giving my opponent resources. A deck using Maz’s Vault is making the bet that it can take advantage of that extra resource a turn better than its opponent can.

Respite

Crackdown

Well-Connected

Defense

Heroes have been designed to rely on shields and healing for defensive options while Villains have had more hard removal and dice manipulation options. In the Awakenings meta this difference was very noticeable. It soon became apparent that aggressive decks ability to deal damage outstripped the ability other decks to generate shields and heal through it. It has taken 3 sets and a few errata to get to the point where midrange and tanky decks have finally come into their own. I expect the Trilogies meta to revert to previous status quo and decks that can put together a strong suite of removal options to have an advantage as decks face off and try and out damage each other. The Trilogy meta has a much better-balanced selection of removal available across colors and factions. If the meta shifts strongly towards either ranged or melee I would expect Defend and Dive to pop up as strong multi-dice removal options.

Utility

Utility is the largest pool, and could be broken down further. The problem is that it gets hard to find enough cards with similar impactful characteristics to make it worth further categorization. Every deck benefits from economy. Every deck benefits from defense. Not every deck wants to discard from top of deck. Depending what your deck aims to do different utility cards will make the cut.

The Awakenings meta provided some very strong utility events that proved to be core components of strong decks, such as Boundless Ambition and Backup Muscle. The Trilogy meta doesn’t appear to have any game breaking utility cards in but there are some strong ones that will do work in the right decks. Here are a few that I think will have impact on the Trilogies meta.

Tactical Mastery

Scorched Earth

Free-For-All

Ataru Strike

Equip

Scruffy Looking Nerf-Herder

Legacies

Reinforce

Vandalize

Battlefield and Plot

The final piece of your deck will be selecting a Battlefield and a Plot if you have the extra points.

Battlefields may be the first area where I think the Awakenings meta held an advantage over what the Trilogies meta has. Awakenings had 10 Battlefields and Trilogies will have 11. Both Battlefields from Rivals have near equivalents in the Legacies Pool. None of the Legacies Battlefiel ds are quite as unique or exciting as Awakenings ones such as Emperor’s Throne Room or Starship Graveyard. Decks have been built around the effects these Battlefields bring to the game. The trick in selecting battlefields is finding one that can help you the most when you claim it and hurt you the least if you can’t. I suspect many fast, aggressive decks to look to Outer Rim Outpost to provide additional resources. Slower decks may go with Citadel Landing Zone as it could provide them with opportunities to sneak in a claim from time to time while not being of great benefit to a faster deck.

Plots are new to the game and are ways for players to gain value to their deck when their chosen character combo does not add up to 30 points. I think in most situations players are still going to aim to hit 30 points. Plots only really get good at 2 points and the difference between a 30 point list and a 28 point list is often noticeable in the quality of the starting dice. When choosing a plot I personally don’t think I would ever include Espionage at the risk of discarding a key piece of your own deck and even for a mill deck one card off the top isn’t that much of an advantage. At 2 points I think the best will be Fortify unless you feel strongly that it is best to win the roll off for your decks strategy then Adding 2 to your roll with Taking Ground could be a huge help. Finally, at 3 cost I would take Profitable Connection over Preemptive Strike. A free 2 damage is great but an extra resource, especially if efficiently spent turn one, has the potential to pay of far more than 2 indirect damage.

Trilogies Predictions

Finally, I’m just going to throw out some general predictions for how I think the Trilogies meta will shake out.

Mono decks beware

Kylo Ren’s Starfighter looks like it will be one of the most powerful cards in the Legacies set. Combined with Kylo Ren from the Two-Player game also being in the mix, I think the mono hate will just be too strong for mono-color decks to flourish in this format. Sabine/Ezra and Qui-Gon/Kanan, which are both strong decks in the current meta, were near unplayable in competitive play before the RRG change, when Kylo Ren had strong 13 point elite partners. I think it would take an incredibly powerful mono deck to overcome potential mono hate and I just don’t see the potential for that with the Trilogies characters or card pool. The irony is that the best mono-hate deck may very well be mono itself (Kylo/Anakin) which will lead to some interesting mirror matches and could be at a large disadvantage to two or three color decks that find a place for Kylo Ren’s Starfighter.

Bring at least a 4 dice start or go home

Decks that have won or placed at the competitive level with a three dice or fewer start (eAwk Vader/partner, ePalpatine, eKylo2/SOR Vader) have done so on the back of not only powerful dice but very strong character abilities. They also have another thing in common, they were all decks using Villain Blue and a Sith Holocron suite. Without Sith Holocron I don’t think any of those decks make the impact they did. Looking at what is available to Trilogies I just don’t see a character that can carry a 3 dice start or a utility card like Holocron that can help a deck overcome that disadvantage fast enough to outpace the opposing deck.

Special Train Incoming

Hero’s have 3 characters (Aayla Secura, Yoda, and Poe Dameron) and a support (R2D2) with specials that will allow you to flip another one of your dice to a side of your choice plus additional value. By flipping to a special, then resolving that special you can create chains of specials to devastating effect. I think this type of deck will be stronger in constructed with cards like Handcrafted Lightbow, Y-Wing, and Force Throw in the mix. In Trilogies there are still several good upgrades and characters to build with and get a deck that consistently resolve specials.

Blue looks very strong

First off Force benefits from having a larger card pool thanks to the Two-Player game. Second when looking through all the Legacies cards I think Blue has gotten better flexibility and options across the set. Finally, blue has strong characters that will work in either a melee or ranged focused deck. For much of Destiny going two colors with blue meant going mixed damage or being limited to the few characters of other colors that fit in a melee deck. Luke Skywalker for Heroes and Mother Talzin for Villains open up the deck building options for those who want to build ranged decks while having access to Blue’s strong pool of cards.

Indirect Damage will have its day but it’s not here yet.

Legacies introduces indirect damage to Destiny. While Legacies doesn’t skimp on providing upgrades and characters with indirect options, it’s my opinion that there just isn’t enough to build a competitive deck that is primarily focused on dealing indirect damage. As a second and third set roll into the Trilogies card pool the characters that will drive indirect decks such as Saw Gerrera, Wedge Antillies, and the Battle Droid will find partners or events and upgrades that allow indirect to be a powerful option.

-Brendan Devitt

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