While I like to play a bunch of different decks Aphra/Droid style decks have been among my favorites. The synergy of the pieces come together to be greater than their parts and I really like that in a deck or in a game for that matter. Its a pretty obvious building direction but someone needs to work on the obvious stuff that at one point wasn’t so obvious.

That’s my the latest update to Bitter SADness. The deck did win some regionals but was mostly under the radar. This would have been a good counter pick for the weeks that Tarkin/Snoke and other two wide decks were the hotness but if you are planning on going to Adeptacon I’d take a look at this since I could definitely see you winning a GQ with it. Overall the deck only has like 3 or so flex slots with the current cardpool. I’d consider cutting Hailfires completely in lieu of Handlhelds but the synergy with Podracers is too juicy to pass up even though its expensive AF. I’m always a big defender of the 1 of Ark Angel, people look at the list and want to cut it but it speeds you up in three wide mirrors which allows you to kill an action or two sooner. Heck, sometimes it lets you beat some of your two wide opponents before they kill you – Vader Jumps out as someone who has scary damage potential. One card that is missing from this list, which is possibly one of the best cards for the deck in a vacuum, is Climate Disruption Array. Because you start off with two extra damage from Bitter Rivalry its too much of a liability. You are already favored vs 2 wide so its not loss there but where you really miss it is vs Mill decks – if you expect mill decks I’d play one (which means you should probably play one) but I don’t have the stones to play 2. In reality you are already favored vs 2 wide mill but vs 3 wide things aren’t great.

If you are worried about range heavy decks play Deflects. The flank is probably the most likely card to get cut, its kind of there until you figure out something better to play. Improvised Defense is similar but with the amount of Snokes people play it has a huge upside since it can be free for your deck via Tech Team. If you expect a lot of Vader tech-ing in Coercion is always a good choice especially since its off of people’s radar.

New Standard

As we look ahead the loss of Force Illusion is devastating to Bitter Sadness and with the introduction of General Grievous and Wat Tambor its time to look at new directions. Grievous lets us be healthier and will allow us to play other cards that were deemed a bit too risky while Wat gives some crazy damage upside.

I wrote about this pairing when I reviewed General Grievous and it plays the outlast game really well. Grievous’ die is really solid and his power action will probably results in about a focus per round since he can reroll the character and support droids. Climate Disruption Array goes from being risky to being one of the best cards in your deck since your HP clocks in at an almost oppressive 31. Before nerfs SAD was at 27 and even though we don’t have Force Illusion overall this is going to be more robust. The only other cards we lose from blue are Snoke and Hidden Motive which are both big hits but I’m optimistic it will be worth it.

The Best Defense is also a card we can seriously consider as we have two disposable droids which might make the loss worth it. We might not want both of them since we already deal a bunch of damage to ourselves but its worth it to start out that way.

This card is nuts and admittedly still playable in a Bitter SADness lineup but its worth mentioning in general. its an easy replacement for Force Illusion.

This card could be a sleeper for this deck as it provides plus 3 health at its best and is reroll fodder at its worse. Sadly once it goes on Aphra it dies but its certainly a card I’ll be testing because it can essentially be a free bubble shield. When you have all that health stacked up you are looking at something like 37 health to chew through. If this card ends up being relevant it will be part of the reason to run this over Wat varients. At the end of the day this card is similar to Hunker Down which was close to being playable but the action and weakness to melee ultimately kept it in the sideline.

With Potentially 10 playable droids Reprogram starts to look like a card we want in our deck. You could do much worse than playing the 10 droids and the two CDAs and calling it a day.

Alternative?

On paper this deck has higher power upside and would be the deck that I would want to play if I was up against mill (with CDAs of course) but in direct damage creature match ups your Elite Wat or Aphra is going to get lit up. I’d probably play Aphra at elite since you’ll win the opening die roll way more often, Aphra has one more health and 2 shields are pretty good at protecting the character they are targeting and help with all the indirect you are dealing yourself. Having said that I think Wat’s die is better for the early game and works best for his ability. Assassin Droid is absolutely filthy with Wat making his ability do a potential free 3 damage. Things like that become less consistent when Aphra is at elite but when you win the roll you are free to start on Theed and going late Aphra does some threatening amount of damage. Given the strategy of the deck starting with 2 extra shields and denying your opponent shields is still really good but sometimes they have a battlefield that you want to deny which is always a nice option to have. In a lot of ways Wat feels very similar to Snoke but his ability will usually go off. I say usually because sometimes your draw is awful but even the Aphra’s draw ability can help you get to the droids to let you use Wat’s PA. Compare that to Snoke where his partners dice could be meddled with and I’m confident saying that its more consistent albeit less powerfule. With better dice and power action this combo seems like a slam dunk but minus 5 health and a different deck building configuration makes me pause.

I look forward to figuring out which of these two I want to play at elite and which of these two decks proves to be the better option. I can definitely see a scenario where it becomes match up dependent at which point it will come down to metas and personal preference.

Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think in the comments or on social media. And as always…

-NJCuenca

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