The following is a Guest post by John Lolli. John started playing CCGs in 1994 (Magic the Gathering) and progressed into many other CCGs over the last 24 years. Most notably qualifying for and playing in the 1999 World Championships of the original Decipher Star Wars CCG. John also won the first pro tour event for Decipher’s Lord of the Rings TCG in July of 2002. After his win, John became the content editor for Decipher’s Lord of the Rings TCG website. Nowadays, John has focused his efforts on Star Wars Destiny and creating a “yet to be licensed” CCG of his own. If you ever want to write for us send your submissions thehyperloops@gmail.com



After watching the semis and finals of the Gen Con North American Championships, I saw the true power of the three wide Mill deck (Yoda/Anakin/Cassian). I had a store championship the next day, and had most of the cards to play it, so I figured what the heck! The coverage stream allowed me to determine 95% of the deck which allowed me to build it for the tournament. However, that meant the first game I played with it was Round 1. Would this be a problem?

After four rounds of swiss, I finished 3-1, top 4. I played badly, not even realizing why some cards were in the deck, not knowing how to mulligan properly, unsure of what modes to use on Yoda among other issues. Despite all that, the three games I won, not a single character died. The one game I lost was to Kylo/Price that killed Anakin first turn. Fast forward to the top 4, I play the same Kylo/Price player in a best of three, and won 2-0. I was never really threatened. I faced the mirror in the finals, and just didn’t feel like playing 90 minutes of mill vs mill, and called it a day.

Just what I learned in those six games, made me realize how strong the deck was, and how difficult it was going to be to defeat. Since then, I have run tons of games of it versus other meta decks, and it is very difficult to defeat as it plays on a whole different axis. I didn’t really enjoy playing mill and decided to task myself with the goal of defeating it.

I knew at first, I would have to build something that was solely focused on beating Mill and nothing else, and then tweak it back to make sure it was strong against the rest of the field as well. To do this, I had to reevaluate some cards if mill truly was going to be the new bogeyman.

Tenet 1) – Mitigation cards need to work on non-damage dice – Yoda’s Dice.

Crash Landing, Into the Garbage Chute, Hasty Exit, Honor Guard and their ilk don’t cut it against mill. Yoda’s dice are by far the lynch pin holding the deck together. The more you remove Yoda’s dice, the better chances you have. You have to remember that every card you use to mitigate their dice plays into the Mill deck’s strategy. The reason you want to remove Yoda’s dice, is because the special is worth more than one card of mitigation. When Cassian’s die is on discard, it is worth two of your cards as well, so you only want to remove his die if it is showing discard. And only mitigation that removes it, not mitigation that allows the opponent to resolve it (Sorry, Doubt but you are out).

Tenet 2) You must have ways to deal unblockable damage.

The Mill deck thrives on Force Illusion, Second Chance and shields. Now, unblockable damage doesn’t beat Second Chance, but it does beat the other two. Guess which character can’t use second chance? Yep, Yoda. Guess whose dice are most important. Yep, Yoda. Killing Yoda first is the way to increase your chances of winning. Yoda gives mill access to both cards off the top of your deck, shields and most importantly, resources. Denying access to these things will severely hinder its gameplan.

Tenet 3) You must have alternate ways to deal damage, other than resolving dice. (Side note, every die you can resolve, needs to hit hard)

The Mill deck’s strategy relies on heavy mitigation of its opponent’s dice. I know this isn’t surprising, but what it means is that you must have alternate forms of doing damage. The base health on the Mill deck is 27, and Force Illusion and Second Chance can cause it to be even higher. This is the sudden reason for its success. Having ways to deal damage, without having to resolve or re-roll your dice can be crucial.

Tenet 4) Have enough action cheat to keep some of your dice safe from mitigation.

This is a no-brainer, and isn’t exclusive to defeating mill decks. Every destiny deck should consider this as a tenet. It’s especially important when you are trying to finish off a character, especially Yoda, who you need to defeat before the end of Round 2. Removing their mitigation cards from their hands, helps with this category as well, cards like Scruffy, FILP, and Probe.

With these things in mind, here is what I built. I will admit that seeing the finals of Gen Con influenced many of these ideas because the Mother/Mando/Mando deck was very successful against the mill deck.

After looking through the available card pool based on the above tenets, I decided to use a shell of Snoke/Mandalorian Commando/Executioner. The reasons for this are as follows:

Snoke’s ability is the equivalent of an extra die that can’t be mitigated. It makes the two other character’s dice hit harder if you can resolve them. I chose the other two characters for two reasons. 1) They have a 50% chance of hitting damage naturally on their opening roll, and 2) they give me access to all three colors. This shell seemed to be the most versatile combination that I could find. Against mill, we need to reduce the number of rerolls that we have to perform, so characters that can hit damage at a rate of 50% was crucial. However, Snoke’s ability will obviously put a huge target on these two dice. Putting force speed on Snoke, and rolling him out first, can help you avoid those dice getting mitigated. Snoke’s 2 focus side is amazing if you can resolve a force speed special.

Once the shell was chosen, I started with each tenet, and choose the appropriate set of cards for each.

Tenet 1 – Mitigation – Beguile, Entangle, and Best Defense all hit at least two dice. They also are not limited in the types of symbols they can remove. These are the best two-for-one’s the deck has available to it. Zero cost mitigation is necessary as well, as we want to get a 2-cost upgrade out first turn if possible. Hidden Motive and He Doesn’t Like You fit this criteria. Electroshock and Isolation finish out the mitigation suite, as they are the best one cost, versatile events that remove dice. Mill has few dice outside the character dice, so Isolation squeaks by. Overconfidence could be considered here as well, but “hard” removal is my preference over “soft” removal.

Tenet 2 – “Unblockable damage” – the choices here are limited. Vibroknife is miles ahead of every other option. Verpine Sniper Rifle is a very d istant second. Four of the six damage sides on our non-Snoke characters are melee sides, so the vibroknife can reach a decent amount of unblockable damage in one shot. Adding Backup Muscle as quasi-unblockable (slips under shields) and the location Petranaki Arena can be very helpful in this tenet. (Although given the choice against mill, I will choose their location to avoid giving them shields).

Tenet 3 – Alternate damage methods – Mandalorian Super Commando’s ability, backup muscle, Arena and Snoke’s ability gives the deck access to alternate forms of damage. Climate Disruption Array is a card I am looking to find room for because it can be powerful against two-wide decks and mill, but it is hard to justify in the deck at this time. Removing the sniper rifle and adding one Array could be a worthwhile endeavor. The Chance Cubes and Vambraces are “stolen” from the Gen Con runner up deck to be used on the Mando Commander.

Tenet 4 – Action cheat – Force Speed and Tactical Mastery are really the only viable options for this deck. Finding room for the second Tactical Mastery could prove to be fruitful, but again the 30th card is the sniper rifle so you are trading unblockable damage for action cheat which can be viewed as similar in nature. You want to use the cheating cards to resolve one of your other character dice as you only have two dice to use Snoke’s ability on.

Rounding out the deck are the two zero-cost hand manipulation cards Probe and Friends in Low Places. These cards can be crucial in getting those two Snoke-able character dice resolved, or the vibroknife die. Taking out their mitigation at the right time, will make Snoke’s ability painful.

Compared to the Runner-Up deck, this deck trades Snoke’s ability for Mothers, and losses the second Mando damage per turn. It gains access to command cards, and two additional health points. It should be mentioned that both decks having access to Chance Cubes and Vambraces giving it a second or third life at the very end of the game against Mill with the ability to return them to the hand.

Good luck if you face mill as much as I expect you to in the coming weeks!

John Lolli

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