Pal·pa·ble /ˈpalpəb(ə)l/ adjective

1. (of a feeling or atmosphere) so intense as to seem almost tangible. “a palpable sense of loss”

While I wasn’t super excited about Palpatine’s newest version when it was originally spoiled, I admitted it was interesting and fun. With the incredible damage supports are able to put out right now I’m a little down on 18 point characters, especially ones that only have ten health. Of course, Palpatine’s health is variable, and can hit 15+ rather easily. And, nothing quite changes your mind like cracking the new set and opening two each of Palpatine, Force Storm, and Palpatine’s Lightsaber. Combined with Bacta Tank , Palpatine can live quite a long time, but I’m still concerned with how fast we can scale him. Snoke/Watto/Fost supports and other decks similar in strategy can scale their damage quite quickly with all of the resources they can make.

The basis of Palpatine’s increased health, and the strength of his lightsaber, all revolve around Abilities. Ability is an upgrade subtype in Star Wars Destiny that has been relevant a few times, but rarely. As such, a deep dive into the keyword doesn’t really exist, so let’s make one!

Today I’m trying to figure out which of these Abilities are Palpable.

The main barometer of these cards’ usefulness will be how blue they are since Forbidden Lore and It Binds All Things only modify the cost of blue abilities, but Palpatine is not limited to blue, so finding choice Yellow and Red abilities is something we have to consider. The above list covers all of the abilities Palpatine can wield in Convergence standard (at least according to SWDestinyDB. If it’s missing any let me know and I’ll add them [and don’t tell me about one’s Palp can’t use, I already edited those out]).

Let’s take it by color

Red

Praetorian Guard is actually not that bad on Palpatine, but the card is just bad for its cost. If this cost 1 we would absolutely run it with a red pairing, and I think it’s still a consideration. While putting damage on Palpatine isn’t necessarily what we’re looking to do, he would be the character we are targeting with Bacta Therapy, and guardian is still a useful keyword for breaking up damage chains. Further, if our opponent is going for our second character we may be able to get one more activation out of them because of a well-timed Guardian play.

Originally I thought Weapon Master was a non-starter, but 0 cost for +1 health and a not-awful Action ability isn’t terrible. For one, getting Palpatine’s health increased as quickly as possible is important. Second, this card combines really well with some of the weaker, cheap upgrades we might run to turn Palpatine’s Lightsaber to a +2X side. It’s not ideal, but it’s not as bad as I originally thought.

Yellow

Bartering is pretty fantastic here; its die sides are pretty perfect for what Palpatine wants. A focus, a discard, and three resource sides, one of which also draws you a card. We’re not unhappy with any of these save the modified resource side if we can’t link it up (but would work fine with Weapon Master?!). Bartering has been a major role player in three-wide mill, and I could definitely see running at least one in a Palp/yellow deck (probably Watto).

In the right meta I don’t actually hate Formidable on Palp. The 2X side is solid, and the 2 Shield side is just the kind of die side Palp needs, but in a support meta moving an equipment or weapon is pretty underwhelming, and people can play around it more easily. I can’t see this ever making the cut.

Hunter Instinct is another pretty underwhelming card. Its special side is pretty good, but it costs 2 and we can’t reduce that cost through Binds or Formidable Lore so it’s pretty expendable. This is another card that would likely be a slam dunk at 1, but doesn’t quite hit that hard when you have to pay 2. Underhanded Tactics is a straight no. Not only do we not have ranged sides, but we don’t care about the one indirect special very much either, at least not enough to ignore the two blanks that the +1R sides give us.

Blue

Finally, the good stuff. Let’s rank these 1-4

1: No chance we ever play this

2: Probably never, but in the right meta

3: Solid card, definitely run 1, maybe 2.

4: Two in the deck, obviously. Duh.

Force Fear isn’t the worst card ever printed, but when we resolve dice we don’t want to give our opponents agency. If we need a kill shot, this die isn’t getting it done, and if we need the protection our opponent won’t give it to us. When we allow our opponents to make choices this easy we cannot win. Let’s give it a 1.

3. Force Jump is a straight baller, but it definitely lacks some play without good special chaining. It really shines in a Yoda deck where dice-turning is very easy to come by. In a Palpatine deck we’re going to be starving for focus sides, and have very few 2 Focus. Each of its four sides are very fine, but the special obviously shines the brightest. I can’t see leaving this one at home, but two might be a liability. I think it’s something that needs testing, esepcially as we figure out just how many underwhelming one-cost upgrades we need to run to make Palp’s health sustainable. I’ll give it a

3.5 for me; we are definitely running one and most likely running two, I think the 2F swings it that much. At three cost Force Lift gives us a little pause, but it is undeniably strong. Three two damage sides, and also the ability to bounce a support, most likely removing its die is also huge. Throw in a 2 Focus and we’re cooking with gas. I’d even settle for two blanks, but we get another 1Focus side for our troubles. Balancing the costs in a Palp deck will be tough, as it really depends on how much money we’re making, but This is probablty afor me; we are definitely running one and most likely running two, I think the 2F swings it that much.

2 because it could be very swingy late in games. With the amount of dice Palpatine will wield, rolling in that speical with a bunch of other dice will effectively threaten the opponent – if we show lethal they have to deal with that damage, and if they do we can activate their character and resolve their dice. I’m not a big fan of Force Pull. While strong, the special is very situational, and a Palpatine deck is looking to build out its board state every round really ramping up the upgrades, probably following the activation and resolution of its support character. That means we are rarely getting out ahead of our opponents in a way that will make this ability matter. The only time it would shine is late in the game when we don’t have time to do anything but activate (or if we don’t draw any upgrades). It’s possible that it shines so brightly in those situations that you could warrant an include, but it does almost nothing until then, so it likely will never even get tested in a Palpatine deck. I’m going to give it abecause it could be very swingy late in games. With the amount of dice Palpatine will wield, rolling in that speical with a bunch of other dice will effectively threaten the opponent – if we show lethal they have to deal with that damage, and if they do we can activate their character and resolve their dice.

Setting aside the range damage sides for just a moment, are we ever going to have the resources to make this special really matter? We’re actively trying to dump lots of abilities on Palpatine, so we’ll be strapped for enough resources to make this happen very often. The best supports cost 3+, and with this ability costing 3+ itself, that’s a major investment. Now if we take into account we have a modified range side and I don’t think we can ever really run this, especially when we’re already including Force Lift which has a very similar effect without the narrow restrictions. Force Lift is just better than this card in every way. 1.

1. While Ranged damage is making a comeback in Convergence, Force Stasis is not worth two resources. It’s die is really weak, it’s extremely narrow, and is costed like an upgrade die that costs 1. Even at 1 cost I’m not sure we’d run this, so this is a coaster at best:

4. Force Storm is the new big baller of the format. Its die is straight up insane right down to the special that keeps rerolling itself, which is why Focus is so paramount in this deck. This card has the power to completely blow people out, as I’m sure many of us have already witnessed. Easy two-of, so we’ll give it a

Force Wave has been a solid meta player since its release, and as three-wide support decks have risen to the top of that meta we’ve seen this card increase play. Now we are in the full throes of three-wide so this becomes a 2x staple in a Palpatine deck. Even proposing a two-wide deck in a three-wide meta is scary, but Force Wave can even the playing field and might be the best reason to play Palpatine right now. 4.

3-3.5. If this card ends up being as bad as I think it is I would run two Force Jumps over it. However, if we have some cards in the deck that blank our opponent’s dice it increases in value. It’s funny how far Redeploy can take you. Malice is very medium if not just outright bad. We have to get it into the pool for its special to matter even if we so happen to hit the 33% to show speical. Then our opponent’s character dice have to roll blank. Othewise the one resource investment just gets two discard sides and a disrupt side while netting us one health. I quietly think this card is really, really bad, but we do need SOME 1-cost abilities in the deck if we’re going to push that health fast, and get those Palpatine’s Lightsabers down for virtually free (though we have to have the two resources to play them first). The issue is that we have very few 1-cost abilities at the moment, which pushes this card to a. If this card ends up being as bad as I think it is I would run two Force Jumps over it. However, if we have some cards in the deck that blank our opponent’s dice it increases in value.

blue abilities’ dice in our pool, which should be plenty. But, even that is mitigatable because of the open information. Supposing our opponent can count, they could get rid of enough dice to render the Shatterpoint special useless. Again, these cards that give our opponents lots of room to play around them are very underwhelming. I think we leave this card on the bench or run it as a one-of; I don’t think you could justify running two without a dramatic shift to the meta. 2. Like Formidable before it, Shatterpoint loses a lot of value in the support meta. Further, if Palpatine is huge it doesn’t help in the mirror. The 2Range, 1Focus, and 1Resource is very solid, but not if we’re carrying three blanks because our opponents don’t play weapons. Its special has natural synergies with our deck, allowing us to discard an equipment or weapon that costs equal to or less than the number ofabilities’ dice in our pool, which should be plenty. But, even that is mitigatable because of the open information. Supposing our opponent can count, they could get rid of enough dice to render the Shatterpoint special useless. Again, these cards that give our opponents lots of room to play around them are very underwhelming. I think we leave this card on the bench or run it as a one-of; I don’t think you could justify running two without a dramatic shift to the meta.

2. I kind of like Sith Teachings . I like that it only costs two because I feel like similar abilities are priced higher, but its die is a little meh. The +2X side is probably fine to pair with Palpatine, and it’s special is solid considering we should be able to remove a die most rounds, and it can remove a die itself if one is showing blank. I like the way this card plays into our sequencing as we will rarely be in a rush to roll Palpatine, so sitting back and waiting for our opponents to roll a blank will benefit us here. That said, this card is by no means OP, but warrants consideration as a 1-of. I might even run two at the start to really force myself to test it out.

Mastery is a 3.5-4 while Training is a 3; probably running one, but the jury is out on 2. I talked about this during my case-opening stream the other day, but I think these cards go hand in hand, I’m just not entirely sure. I think you can make a good case to run both in a Palpatine deck at least. It’s possible that we only need one Training , but having those 2Shield sides are very clutch for Palp. We might not ever ditch it for Mastery , but Mastery is so good we may. I love Mastery, and since we can only run 1 form per character we might only run one, but it is pretty key in keeping Palpatine alive so it’s probably a 2-of. Some of our cards will have to be rerolls, and having a double like this is fine. There’s also a world where we can’t afford to play it so we use Training to get it out. I thinkwhile; probably running one, but the jury is out on 2.

While we are only running this in single-die Palpatine I have to admit that some people will try it. And on a casual level single-die Palp is probably fine. He’s 14 points which lets us fit some very interesting characters in the deck; Asajj, Boba, Dooku, Tarkin, and Qi’ra, to name a few that pique my interest. Essentially we trade Four Squad points for the ability to run this three-cost upgrade that gives us a second Palp die. Palps die is solid, but I’m not sure it’s better than some of the upgrades we can play on him, though having as many 2Focus sides as we can is very important. Obviously the main question is whether or not our secondary character can pull the weight of a second Palpatine die. With the right health and damage output, I think maybe since the target priority will be tough. Do you kill the elite secondary character or the single die Palpatine with 7 upgrades on him? The big issue, as with any three dice deck, is that it is very easily mitigated so if we stumble in anyway we might be scooping up our cards with enough time to run across the street for lunch, which is a rarity of Legendary proportions in a Star Wars Destiny Tournament. I’m going to give this card a 1 with the caveat that in a single die Palpatine deck it’s probably a 3 or a 4.

After breaking it down we’d be looking at an upgrade package like so:

Force Storm x2 Force Wave x2 Force Lift x1 Sith Teachings x1 Soresu Mastery x2 Soresu Training x1 Malice x2 Force Jump x1 Bartering x1

Thirteen upgrades might be too many, but I think the plan is to start with a lot and cut as needed. As stated above I’m not sold on Sith Teachings but I’d like to try it.

Let me know what you think about these upgrades and whether or not they’re Palpable, and hit me in the comments below, on Facebook, Reddit, or Twitter with your Palpatine upgrade suites!

EDITOR’s Addition: Force Focus was forgotten, thanks for letting us know Hoss Drone.

I believe Force Focus to be an interesting option if we want to play a 2 drop ability, Power Action the die into the pool to use it and get more resources / focus our helpers die (to resources probably) and then overwrite it for a bigger ability upgrade or then afford an additional upgrade so that when we roll out Palp we get “maximum power”!!! No idea if it makes it’s way into his deck based on that, but maybe. ~HonestlySarcastc (Today’s Editor)

Thanks for reading,

BobbySapphire

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