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Submitted by Rev Hellion

Like the wise Eddard Stark once said, “Winter is Coming,” and we all knew it was true… at least for Nines. But this year winter came early, and it was harsh. Luckily the Rebels hunkered down in their Echo Base and survived nearly untouched save for the change to It’s a Trap and the much-needed breakup of the sickly-sweet pop music duo formerly known as “Moe.”

Okay, I know, the analogies are all over the place, but so is the meta with the new changes. Shields are back, villains were tempered and unlimited upgrade overwrites are no more. So we’re here to help navigate through the storm that is the Erratapocalypse. Alright, that one was just bad, but I’m sticking with it.

Sometimes the last man, or in this case, woman, is the winner. That’s exactly what happened when the hyper-aggro decks like Poe/Maz, Phasma/Whoever, Kylo2, and all the iterations of Nines were addressed with the recent Rules References released by Fantasy Flight Games. As they fell to the Destiny Geostorm (I swear I’ll stop at some point, but probably not in this article), Sabine and her 40-year-old virgin, Ezra (seriously, we’ve all seen the card… can we start a petition for a good promo?), has risen in the ranks with very few scratches.

The Deck Construction

Necessities: 6x Ambush Weapons (Holdout Blaster, DL-44 Blaster Pistol, and X-8 Night Sniper), 6x Resource generating cards (Smuggling, Truce, Hidden Agenda), 6x Mitigation cards or Hyperspace Jump (Electroshock, Loth-Cat, Double-Cross, Sound the Alarm), 4x Action control supports (Infamous, Running Inteference), Never Tell Me the Odds, and Second Chance.

Flex Cards: There are 4 card slots that you can used to fit your style, I chose 2x Scavenge and having two more mitigation. You can read below for card usage and alternative card choices towards the end of the article.

Strategy

There are two things to understand about Sabine/Ezra with the new rules: 1) The ability for your opponent to reroll 0 dice when attempting a Running Interference lock, and 2) The limit of overwriting one upgrade per turn. These two changes were minimal changes to a very strong deck, and you just need to know how to work with these changes.

The Explosive Expert and the Thief

There’s a few very strong strategies, but your focus is to build up your board state with Ambush weapons in your discard, Infamous or Running Interference, and enough money to spare for Never Tell Me the Odds. To get to this state you must keep Sabine alive long enough, build up your resources and get through enough of your deck so you have access to your weapons from your discard.

Let’s break these characters down. Sabine’s strongest ability is to pull Ambush weapons back from the discard pile using her activate ability to gain an extra action and resolve her very strong dice before your opponent can control them.

Ezra is the facilitator. His dice look weak at first, but even though his dice can be essentially blanks 50% of the time (depending on if your opponent has any resources), it causes your opponent to play differently and often make suboptimal plays, putting them in a use-it-or-lose-it situation. When your opponent has 0 resources it really limits their ability to play strong events that either remove your dice or enhance theirs. Having Ezra’s dice on either the Special or Disrupt side lets them do their job by forcing your opponent to stay broke while you remove their dice with more important cards like Loth Cat and Mouse or Double Cross.

Battle it Out in the Starship Graveyard

The bonus of having Sabine’s dice for the roll off is that you have a good shot at getting the battlefield choice. More often than not you’ll want to take your battlefield in order to cycle Second Chance, keeping Sabine alive for as long as possible.

There are times you’ll want to give them their battlefield, especially for decks that have high damage output from their character dice, as your chances of getting a Second Chance and being able to play it Round 1 or Round 2 is not a lock. Having 2 Shields can buy you some time.

Starting Hand

You want to aim for the following cards: 1 upgrade, 1 resource generation card (Smuggling is preferred if you can get the upgrade as well), 1 removal. The other 2 slots usually shift depending on opponent. Assess the maximum damage output from your opponent, if they can do 10+ damage, you’ll want to prioritize removal. If their maximum output is 8 or less (and typically has more health), you want to focus on building up your board state quick and resource generation, upgrades & damage output are important.

If you get Scavenge and no upgrades, do not mulligan Scavenge, as this will help get your much-needed upgrades into the discard pile. As Sabine always says, “One in the discard pile is worth two in the hand.”

Lead With the Thief

Under most circumstances, you’ll want to start the turn out activating Ezra first. This allows you to put pressure on your opponent’s resources, get some damage in the pool, prepare resource generation, act as removal bait, and most importantly have dice in the pool for Loth-Cat or Double-Cross.

After Ezra is out his dice will often persuade your opponent to move in certain directions. If his dice show either disrupt or special, then more than likely they will take an action to spend their money. If Ezra is showing damage, then they will either remove it, or proceed on their turn as normal and possibly activate a character. It’s important to not reroll Ezra’s dice when showing disrupt or a special when your opponent has 0 resources, as you want to keep them that way. Most removal or dice manipulating events require either their dice or a resource, so by keeping them broke you are limiting their options. In many cases, if you can use Ezra’s dice to bring their resources to 0, it’s worth taking the action to do so.

Get Your Engines Running

The next thing you want to do is get resources or get your Ambush upgrades into the discard pile. You only have six of these, so use them wisely and cycle. Pre-overwrite rules, you could play an upgrade, overwrite it with another upgrade, activate Sabine, and then use her ability to overwrite the second upgrade with the original upgrade you played. However, this now isn’t possible because you can only do one overwrite per turn. Instead, you can either use Smuggling, Scavenge or the new rule that allows you to discard to reroll 0 or more dice.

Once your Ambush upgrade is in the discard pile, activate Sabine and use her ability to bring back an Ambush weapon, which allows her to resolve her dice with the Ambush action after she activates. This, along with Infamous or Running Interference is what opens up Sabine’s big plays. Once you’ve rolled her out, if you have any damage that can be resolved, do so immediately. Usually you’ll want to go after their strongest character with two dice, but sometimes if you can burst down a smaller character in one shot, it can give you an edge, especially early on. If you have Running Interference and/or Infamous, this is the window where you can combo cards. Read below for each card and how to use it to its greatest effect.

Card Strategies

Double-Cross – This is a great card to use with Ezra’s dice, but sometimes you’ll need to use Sabine’s if you’re in a crunch. This allows you to create a damage swing by removing their damage that would have hit your characters and instead use it on your opponent.

Dice to target: Focus, Damage (preferably 2 or more, unless Sabine is within a 1 damage kill shot), or occasionally Discard if you can hit their remaining hand.

When to use it: Any time you see an opportunity to swing damage in your favor, when Ezra is showing a blank, when you have enough resources and don’t have Never Tell Me the Odds.

Combo Bonus: After Sabine activates with an extra ambush, if you roll bad on her dice, you can play Double-Cross, use Infamous to give it Ambush, use Running Interference to prevent them from playing a card, then reroll your bad dice.

Running Interference – This is by far one of the trickiest parts to Sabine/Ezra, as Running Interference can either slow down your opponent or prevent them from taking actions that would remove your dice. You aren’t locking anyone out of a turn with this anymore, as your opponent can now discard to reroll 0 dice (bonus discard!). This combos with many cards and can fill in for Infamous, if you don’t have it out. Sometimes you’ll want to prevent activation, other times you’ll want to stop them from rerolling. Play around with how to use this card, as it is a key card to this deck.

When to use it: Any time you’ve played an ambush weapon from your hand on Sabine (prevent play card action) to buy yourself an extra action to reroll. When playing Never Tell Me the Odds or Double Cross with Sabine’s extra action. When you need to keep your opponent from rolling out a character to get ahead or prevent. Sometimes, when preventing your opponent from rerolling gives you a chance to reroll and kill them before they can get damage.

Turn Killing Bonus: If you ever have a chance to force them into passing after you’ve done damage, then pass and end the turn. You just got yourself a free Hyperspace Jump.

Infamous – This is much more straight-forward than Running Interference. You can use Infamous to play events without wasting a turn. Most importantly, you can use this to instantly resolve Never Tell Me the Odds, which is what gives this deck an edge.

When to Play: Don’t rush on getting this on the board unless you need it for Never Tell Me the Odds. Most of the time this isn’t a necessity, so playing Infamous is prioritized below upgrades & mitigation.

When to Use: Its main purpose is to enable Never Tell Me the Odds, but you can also use this to play Hidden Agenda into Double Cross or Never Tell Me the Odds. This can also be effective to combo two removals together, such as Electroshock & Loth-Cat back-to-back.

Smuggling – This is a great card for your opening hand when paired with an Ambush weapon, preferably DL-44. You typically want to discard upgrades with this, but if you are in a bind other events can be used.

When to play: Any time you need resources more than you need rerolls. You must discard 2 cards for 1 resource, so usually you want to use this to get upgrades into your discard pile or to build up resources for a powerful action.

Truce – This is a great card to have any time, especially when you need a resource before playing a card or resolving your dice.

When to Play: Any time you need a resource to resolve a die, short on resources to play a removal card or Never Tell Me the Odds, or need resources for playing an upgrade.

Theft Bonus: Truce also pairs with Ezra well. When you have his Special in your pool, you can use Truce to get a resource, then steal their resource, giving you two resources from one turn.

Hidden Agenda – Another way to generate resources. Specifically used for Never Tell Me the Odds and Double Cross (and Hyperspace Jump, if you decide to use it). The best part about it is that your opponent cannot control these resources as easily once it has been played.

When to Play: During a window of opportunity either at beginning of a round or towards the end. If your opponent has more than one action left towards the end of the round you can play this to free up a slot in your hand and prepare yourself for next round.

Who to Upgrade: Unless they are targeting Ezra, always play it on him, as you need to keep your upgrade slots open on Sabine for ambush weapons and Second Chance.

Scavenge – This is not a necessity, but this card helps create consistency and can be used to bring back Second Chance when you don’t have your battlefield. With only six Ambush weapons in your deck this gives you another 57% chance to get an ambush weapon into the discard pile.

When to Play: Anytime you have no Ambush weapons in your discard pile, anytime you can retrieve Second Chance from the discard pile. Leave these ambush weapons in the discard pile and save its ability to grab a discarded Second Chance, Running Interference, or Infamous.

DL-44 Blaster Pistol – This is the most powerful hero upgrade for this deck. This gives you a chance to remove a die and gives Sabine an Ambush action when playing from the discard. Back in the Wild West days you could play down two DL-44s from your hand, overwriting the first, then activate Sabine to overwrite the DL-44 for a second time, removing three dice in one turn. Unfortunately, with the new overwrite one upgrade per turn rule, this has become trickier and limited.

When to Play: Ideally when your opponent has dice to remove and you can play it or another Ambush weapon from the discard pile. Sometimes your opponent will try to force you to activate Sabine before they roll out, which is fine, too. The dice removal is not essential, and sometimes it’s better to just get ahead of your opponent. The best mitigation is to defeat their characters.

Bonus Removal: Try playing down a DL-44 from your hand (then use Running Interference for “play card” if you can) and then overwrite it with a DL-44 from your discard pile to remove two dice.

X-8 Night Sniper – This weapon’s ability can come in real handy when you have an extra resource or two around.

When to Play: Prioritize X-8 over the Holdout Blaster, except when Sabine’s health is low. Try not to use the ability unless you are forcing them to remove this die, can put a character into kill shot range, or know this die won’t be removed, as you want to make sure to use your resources wisely.

Holdout Blaster – The standard issue blaster that goes in every deck. Its Redeploy is useful if Sabine is within kill shot range.

When to Play: X-8 and Holdout are interchangeable, and will often be cycled between the two weapons, but aim for getting Holdout Blasters on Sabine when her health is low (3 or less) and you don’t have a Second Chance, so that if she does die, Ezra will get the redeploy.

Second Chance – The auto-include for every yellow hero deck. It will extend Sabine’s health by another five points. You should almost never use this on Ezra. The exception is if they’ve been targeting Ezra and you need him alive to defeat your opponent this round and Sabine’s health is safe.

When to Play: When you have 3 resources and a slot to spare, when Sabine’s health is at 5, when you need to kick a weapon to your discard pile for Sabine’s Ambush activation.

Mitigation Suite – Loth-Cat and Mouse, Electroshock, Sound the Alarm. These are straightforward. For Loth-Cat, try to use this by rolling out Ezra and forcing your opponent to remove his dice instead of Sabine’s.

Alternative Cards

Thermal Paint – This is a good card if you want to increase resource generation and increase your weapons on Sabine. It only works well if you use Infamous on it when bringing it back from the discard pile, but this allows you to get a 2-cost upgrade for 1 resource and does 1 damage. Don’t discard it for the extra damage unless you can kill the character, as you net 1 resource the next turn by overwriting it with your Ambush weapon.

Thermal Detonator – These can be powerful, but at the cost of resources spent into Sabine’s upgrade slots. You typically don’t need this to win and it puts your Ambush weapons cycling behind a round because you must discard it after using the special. 1x Thermal Detonator in your deck can go a long way, you usually don’t need 2x Thermal Detonator unless this becomes central to winning. Sabine can play this from your discard for only 2 resources and Infamous to get the most bang for your buck, literally.

Maz’s Goggles – This can add some consistency to the deck, but has a lot of variability to it that other events in this deck don’t have. If you have Running Interference and can prevent them from playing a card this turn, the Focus sides are great after a Sabine Ambush activation. Put this on Ezra and roll out first. If you have a focus side in the dice pool, try to use Running Interference to prevent them from playing a card to roll out Sabine & focus her dice before they can remove any.

Hyperspace Jump – It used to be a must-include when Nines could chew through an entire hand of weapons by overwriting upgrades. Now that you can overwrite one upgrade once per turn, this is not as much of a concern, but Hyperspace Jump does wonders when you are in a bind by completely denying the turn to your opponent after you’ve shot out with Sabine real fast. I decided to replace this with 2x Electroshock because I’ve found it getting played less and less recently and if I go 3-5 games without needing a card to win or having difficulty playing it, I often cut it. It’s at the top of the list for alternative cards.

Bolt Hole – Now that shields are back, everyone is trying to get them in their deck. This is a great way to tack on some mitigation and extend your characters’ health. The downside is that you can’t shield Sabine with your expendable Ezra dice. Play this after rerolls fall flat and you have a Sabine die on an unneeded side.

Defiance – This is a great way to extend Sabine’s life (seeing a pattern yet?). With 50% 2+ sides, and 33% 3 sides, you’ve got a good shot at healing her for 2-3 health. Also lets you get in a reroll on that blank sitting there in your pool.

Endurance – This would be the last of the alternatives I would suggest, as your main strategy is to use her ambush activation to cheat around removal to deal damage. However, her dice are strong and so are many of your upgrades.

Long Con – If you want more resource generation then add this in without hesitation. You’re typically only getting 1 resource per card, but with Long Con you get 1.5 resources per card. You also get a free reroll card when the first one comes up. The trade-off is that it’s harder to pull off, as you must rely on getting both cards during the game.

Stolen Cache – More resource generation. However, you must wait one round to use this and it takes two actions, which are precious resources in Destiny. If you don’t like Long Con’s inconsistency, then this is your alternative resource generation card.

Rend – This is a great card, and essential in some decks. However, since the Imperial Inspection errata it’s not as necessary. Currently people aren’t using Imperial Inspection, which is only because they were used to a grossly overpowered card, it’s still a very good card and if it pops up in the meta again, make sure these are in your deck. Rend works well against all those other nasty 0 cost upgrades and supports, I just found I wasn’t using it often enough since the Erratapocalypse.

Quick Escape – A good and cheap removal. Its drawbacks are that you can only play this as your last action and will have to concede the battlefield to your opponent. Because of its conditions, it’s harder to play regularly.

Threaten – This is a great option if you want more removal beyond Loth-Cat & Electroshock, especially when playing against characters with 3+ values. You typically don’t want to give your opponent options, but in the right match up this can do some work.

Negotiate – A great early game removal, but falls flat when they have dice to spare. This is again letting them choose which dice to remove, and it costs you 1 resource to do so. It can be used, but this card has diminishing returns as the game goes on.

Let the Wookie Win – Another removal card that’s a combination of Threaten and Negotiate. Again, it’s giving your opponent options and great opening hand, but not so great as the game and rounds go on.

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