Friday is usually a non-Destiny day which is why I used the word emergency but we felt like we needed to review the newer Across the Galaxy spoilers before the weekend. Lets jump right in!

Darth Vader, Terror to Behold

NJCuenca: This is Vader as he was meant to be played. He does everything a big character needs to do in order to compete with decks that flood the board with more dice – these dice have big value and they hit hard. 4 of the 6 sides are huge hits with 2 shield being an ok consolation prize when you completely wiff on rerolls. The 2 resource side is the equivalent of resolving two normal resource sides and when paired with a First Order Stormtrooper or Greedo its like the line up starts with 5 dice. The 2 resource side is sneakily his best side early on and later in the game he will be 75 percent to hit one of his melee sides. Vader’s cards are very expensive so its nice to have a way to pay for them. I have no idea what the Vader decks will look like, my early assumption is that they will look like the one punch Vader decks or they will try to ramp and play the expensive cards below.

HS: Hey look, a fat guy who can finally protect his dice built in and actually has a 2 resource side (not counting Thrawn). The funniest thing here for me is that his most valued side isn’t even a damage side, it’s his 2 resource side which can power out some unsavory things like Rise Again. Vader being at 23 gives him just enough room to sneak in a Red or Yellow competent partner but nothing overwhelming. I’m normally very against 3 dice starts but his die values at the very least are worth 3 of the cheap ones and when we include his Power Action and Health it looks like it has the potential for success. The 4 for 1 could be a detriment to start the game, but I think I’d be okay bashing in for 8 and having no resources if push comes to shove, but I’d rather just do 6 and be able to play something. Once you have upgrades going the 2 shield side gives him some built in tankiness so we’ll see where it goes.

Darth Vader’s Lightsaber

NJCuenca: Another in the long line of unique powerful three cost upgrades. This one will certainly make its way into Darth Vader decks as a high payoff card. New Vader is certainly the juiciest Vader to roll back in but the two others that exist are certainly worth remembering just in case something else gets released that makes those worth running. The card will be less worth running in decks without a big character die to roll in like Kylo but with a 4 side its certainly worth considering. In the end, the non- Vader decks will probably prefer Maul’s Lightsaber unless their character die is somehow better than the Maul Saber’s die.

HS: This thing is lacking the “Blue Only” text which helps your flexibility immensely when you are running 2 or 3 colors and your only blue guy is activated. 3 modified sides are always tough, but the ability to roll in your attached character die again can be great when you have the resources available and a good character die. This is a bit reminiscent of Maul’s Saber. Unfortunately it is missing the Resource side, but 2 shields can go a long way to staying alive.

Vader’s Fist

NJCuenca: Just read HS’ whole article on this card. If Snoke decks can still easily produce 5 resources in round 1 then this card will be in all of those decks. At least its unique.

HS: I wrote an article on it. This thing is absolutely banana’s if you can get it down and keep resolving the die.

Fear and Dead Men

NJCuenca: This card is totally nuts with Vader’s 4 side and solid on his 3 side, its like they designed it with him in mind! This is an auto in a Vader, TTB deck since those big decks have always struggled against wide decks with lots of health. Against 3 wide decks using this on a 2 side is still fine although not as exciting as using it on a 3 or 4. This can be any melee side so you can use this on a card like Vibrocutlass for big damage as well.

HS: This thing isn’t very amazing if you don’t have any LARGE base melee sides available but new Vader makes this scary as all hell, especially for 3+ Wide decks. This is very reminiscent of Thermal Detonator and likely to have similar levels of opponent’s tears being shed when used on a 3 or 4 side. Resolving the die for free (not paying the resource) on Vader’s 4r1 is pretty huge too because then it was the equivalent to a single resource for the 4-16 damage spread. We’ll have to pour one out for any unfortunate Gungan, Jawa, or Battle Droid teams that get cut down.

Deadly Advance

NJCuenca: This is the kind of card that Plo Padawans wants but it might end up being too expensive for its timing. It gets worse the longer the game goes but against three character decks it can be a knock out on the 2nd turn. If Obi, Jedi Master is loaded up and they have two characters this is just as good as other cards like Alter but you’ll have to wait for them to exhaust their characters. When they only have one character this is just bad. I think that makes this card unlikely to see much play but it does have a high upside. I know this was spoiled with Vader, TTB but he has better cards to mess around with.

HS: This thing isn’t so good in comparison to the other hero options and is just a bad Alter unless you get to change 3+ dice. I think I’d completely pass on this since even though it has some relevance off of Force Speed, there are just better options available… for now.

Darth Vader’s Meditation Chamber

NJCuenca: Meh, I think we can do better things with our resources when we are playing Vader. Could have a place in some kind of blue villain mill deck but you’d have to get at least 4 life to get value out it. Seems like a long shot.

HS: Do you remember Fearless?? Yeah, that thing sucks too. To me, this is only breakeven at the 4th effect. If we get some card that combo’s with bottom of deck cards, then it’ll have a place or if Mill ends up being very strong, but outside of that… POOP!

Endow

NJCuenca: This card is unplayable, its very restrictive which is a shame since it could have been playable if some of those restrictions were lifted. This could be alright in a Snoke deck that can Snoke a resource and use Snoke focus to get the best out of them. The biggest issue is that you’ll have to play at least two 2 cost cards from hand to make this worth it. At that point you’ll have two cards left in hand for interaction/rerolls. All that set up is about as good as just playing Vader’s Fist. If you are using Vader, TTB you’ll want to play upgrades before you roll him in and if you are waiting to get resources from him to set this up it will kind of be the same result or you can just use Vader’s Fist. The extra resources in Vader decks will be a luxury because both him, his fist and his lightsaber are super resource intensive.

HS: In most situations, this is really only going to get you 1 free die roll out, but maybe there is some value to be had with Force Speed + Dark Counsel / Crystal Ball + A Damage upgrade. It seems too situational to me, but it’s a pseudo FN-2199 effect and we all know how good that was. If we include an overwrite, then you can get something going. It’s very likely to end up being a bad card, but there might be some deck that can try to use it I guess, I just don’t see the value being immense enough.

Have a great weekend everyone!

-The Hyperloops

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