There is just so much hype around everything Star Wars right now. Celebration is the best time of the year because for 5 straight days we all get flooded with amazing news around movies, TV shows, video games, and yes, even Star Wars Destiny. Set 8, Spark of Hope, is on its way and FFG dropped some very very tasty spoilers. The one and only Eldis decides to join me as we write down some of our first thoughts when reading through these cards. Buckle up!!

Shane – I really love me some Thrawn, and this is one beefy blue boy. Coming in at 15/19 does not leave a ton of options for pairings, but there is a few out now I could see working just fine and I am sure more to come. His die sides are strong, like very strong and 13 health is legit. The spice comes from his ability. Of course Thrawn is an amazing tactician so continuing the same theme from Thrawn1, we get some future hand knowledge with his ability. Getting to look at the top 4 cards of a deck can be helpful since you’ll know what to expect next turn, but you also get to peak and see what options you have for his power action. Playing mitigation from your opponent’s deck seems extremely strong, and even playing it from your own deck instead of your hand has been proven good in the Sentinel Messenger. But Thrawn takes this to the next level, by actually hindering your opponents next hand while removing their dice. That’s absurd and I fricken love it. What an exciting Legendary.

Eldis – I feel like the design team has really come into its own when designing high-cost elite legendaries. Across the Galaxy gave us a format-defining Vader, Convergence gave us a new Palp, Enfys Nest, and Phasma that are all exciting to use, and now we have another big elite in a new Thrawn. Solid damage sides, 2 Focus (always useful), 2 Discard (always scary), and a resource side to boot, Thrawn delivers the whole package with 13 HP and a powerful PA that can blowout your opponent while stripping them of their own cards! There’s nothing not to love here. I will say that thematically I enjoyed Thrawn more when he had no damage sides (he’s a thinker not a fighter, baby) but now he’s truly able to hold things down on his own. I’m very interested to see what new characters we might get to pair with him!

Shane – I love 1 cost dice cards, pretty much always, but especially when they have a resource side and are this good. The two focus sides are great to have and the special is super interesting. Even outside of playing Thrawn and having hand knowledge, you normally know what cards you do not want your opponent to play. Everyone knows the popular mitigation options and this adds a way to get them out of your way, as well as picking upgrades and supports from your opponent’s hand. Obviously this Upgrade – Ability should excite Palp3 fans.

Eldis – 1 cost? Check. Focus sides? Check. Resource side? Check. Gives hand knowledge? Check. Eats problematic cards right out of hand? BIG Check. Ability for Palp3? Hell, why not! This is an awesome upgrade for 1 and I think it could see play even outside of Thrawn and Palp3 lists.

Shane – This is essentially the support variation of Mastermind and offers a pretty unique ability. If you can get this thing on a special, you can rip a card out of your opponent’s hand as long as they have cards in it. It also offers some solid focus sides as well, but the main part of the card I actually find relatively annoying. Once your opponent plays a card that was set aside BY THIS support, you can gain a dollar or remove a die. Now that ability seems ok, but by the time you actually set a few cards aside gaining a dollar might not do much, and removing a die would just be a nice bonus but your opponent can play around when they play the card. The annoying part to me is now you have to track what cards specifically were set aside by this support. So your opponent will have a normal set aside zone, and then a set aside by Cultural Records zone, and that is just a little sloppy. Regardless I am not too excited about the card outside of maybe some villain mill options.

Eldis -This is a powerful support with a unique ability to give it passive swag once you’ve popped the special a few times. I do find myself wishing it was an upgrade, however, as it might feel a bit clunky as a non-typed Support. That being said the fact that it’s special eats a card and gives you a free action seems crazy good to me, especially if you can build a villain-based special-chaining deck. This in a deck with Inferno Droids could get really nasty really fast as you can decimate your opponent’s hand without having to rely on the randomness of Discard sides. All in all I’m a fan but I wonder if it will struggle to make it into final lists.

Shane – I will probably talk less about these next 3 cards, because most of the time Blue just is not my thing. But here we have another Rey coming in at 11/15 with 11 health, a decent die, and an interesting ability. Her PA can be used offensively, defensively, and even as a focus to a Kylo Special (more on that in a second). That is a lot of versatility. Her special could be really good as well, if you can get some shields and still be able to resolve this die for something else. Overall I feel like she is really solid.

Eldis – Rey1 was a powerhouse in action-cheating decks, Rey2 surprised everyone with her consistent power in the Legacies meta, and now Rey 3 looks really solid. Good HP, decent die sides, a powerful special that I imagine will be rerolling itself more often than not, and a PA that can be used defensively and even offensively if you’ve got party boy Kylo with you; there’s nothing I don’t like about this new Rey.

Shane – Here we have pretty much a mirror to the previous Rey. His PA is way more limited than Rey’s but still has some interesting uses. Even if you are playing these two and Rey dies, you can PA to move a shield to an opponent’s hero character that you aren’t targeting to deal 1 damage to a character you are targeting. Yes that is a lot less ideal than moving between Kylo and Rey, but still a valid option to watch out for. I believe his PA has to be less effective because his special has a lot more damage upside and follows the theme from Kylo’s lightsaber. Overall, not as solid as Rey but still viable, especially when paired together.

Eldis – Kylo1 was usually boom or bust with his special, Kylo2 curb-stomped mono-colored metas, and now Kylo3…really wants a hug. That is, I think he really needs to be paired with this new Rey to shine. Like Rey, he has solid HP and decent die sides, but his PA is a bit more narrow, and without a built-in shield side, I feel like you’re unlikely to use it without running Blue Hero cards and Rey. That being said, with Rey, his PA is SWEET as you can use Rey to give him 2 Shields, he can hand one right back and then smack someone for it. You can also use his PA to set up some decent chaining with his special as you’ve got decent odds to net damage even though you’re giving away shields. Not ideal, but it has potential. I also appreciate how it calls back to his OG Saber from Awakenings.

Shane – I love this plot for a lot of reasons. The first is that it costs 0 and allows for an interesting deck building situation for a particular deck. But the main reason I love it is because it specifically focuses on one scene from one movie, and allows you to literally play the game in that exact scene, which was probably one of my favorite scenes from The Last Jedi. This is very creative and could open up some other unique plots to allow similar situations.

Eldis – I for one love this narrow, crazy, thematic plot to pieces. Early on in the game the metas were dominated by Blue Heroes. Legacies and beyond has shown us the prominence of Blue Villains. Now, we get BOTH! No Gray cards seems like a minor downside when you consider how strong blue is. Across the Galaxy and Convergence let us toy around with mixing Villain and Hero cards; now we can go whole hog and see what jank we can put together…within the confines of running Kylo and Rey, of course.

Shane – WTF. Diceless character huh? It is definitely an interesting change, and it’s kind of cool to see a character be a common instead of them having to be a rare. Honestly no idea what to think of this as a stand alone character, and we have to see more to tell if this will be even viable, but it has sparked my interest. Scott also a made an interesting point that cheap characters like this with no dice can give Plo Koon some very interesting choices.

Eldis – Arandee: yubnub, yupyup! Allayloo ta nuv!

http://www.completewermosguide.com/ewokese.html

Shane – This adorable fuzzy monster is the stuff of nightmares. 10/12 with 7 health but he brings a 4 health little friend with him. What even is Destiny anymore? The die sides are very underwhelming but technically you’re getting 11 health so that is good? The special is the best side and still just seems ok because 4 ewoks is a lot and you won’t have 4 all game… right? I can’t tell if I am in love or just completely confused and ready to fall into a trap.

Eldis – Here’s the head honcho, Chief Chirpa, bringing the bois around to throw rocks and go to battle. With a built-in 4 HP Ewok buddy, Chirpa is an interesting counterpoint to the Krennics and Phasmas that bring extra dice. Chirpa brings in a whole character, and while it doesn’t have a die, it is very interesting to see that design space used. Common character cards? I never thought we’d see that. That means it shouldn’t be too hard to get all of your Ewok friends, especially compared to Battle Droids, TIE Fighters, X-Wings, etc. of sets past. With a potential 1 die start (take THAT, 5 die starts) but 7 characters on the table, Chirpa and the Ewoks look fun as Hell, even though Vader could potentially wipe your team with one Fear and Dead Men. That’s the price you have to pay to join the #teddybeararmy.

Shane – So this seems solid. Activating a character and having ambush is always an amazing ability, especially when it costs 0 resources. Activating 3 characters and having ambush is very legit! Even outside of ewoks, getting to activate a non-elite character and have ambush for free could be legit. Normally you want to Tactical Mastery and roll in your biggest buffest hugest character and smack face, so having this being restricted to a non-elite is a big deal. Still, very solid card.

Eldis – A fun and, in my opinion, necessary Ewok support card. Getting 3 of your bear boys in there helps speed up your action economy, especially if you can start loading them up with upgrades. This could also definitely see use outside of Ewoks, being a Yellow hero Hit and Run for non-elite characters. Note: when I first read this I thought it said “non-unique” characters and thought “Meh”, but it being non-elite opens up many more avenues for spicy plays. It could be game winning in late-game situations where your single-die character has been loaded up with redeployed upgrades. I’m a fan.

Shane – So above I mentioned how much I love 1 cost upgrades and I still like this. With a bunch of small characters you are going to need redeploy, and this is a really cheap option. Sure the die sides aren’t out of this world, but since you’re a slow deck anyway you might as well resolve everything you can as the bow changes hands. Everything so far seems to be supporting the ewoks pretty nicely.

Eldis – Decent sides, and has Redeploy for your #teddybearyarmy. Could it see play in a list with Chirpa and non-Ewok friends? Maybe, but it’s gotta be a must-have for Ewok lists.

Shane – Hero’s Separatist Landing craft has arrived, but this brings in a diceless character. I still kind of like this, but I kind of wish it’s other sides were a little better. I mean, 2 shield is great and resources are ok but just 1 focus side and a blank besides the special don’t feel great. It is however awesome to be able to keep this support in play and possibly squeeze another little guy out of it, but man 3 resources and the 1 to resolve the die is a steep price. Overall, I am excited to try out all of these shenanigans but I think we need to see more on the ewok front, because I can’t really think of a good decklist just yet.

Eldis – Normally when I think of The Hut I think of stuffed-crust pizza. Now I’ll think of Ewok-stuffed Hero teams. Adding a 4 HP character to your team for 1 resource is really interesting, and if you’re really ballin and you have 4 resources you can keep the Hut around to do it again. It also has a 2 Shield side to ensure that Shane loves it.

That is all we have so far from Set 8! Thanks for reading and let us know what you think of these spoilers in the comments below!

-Shane