Sixteen point elite characters have always been in a rough spot in Star Wars Destiny. At more than half the cost of your entire team, they should be carrying more than half of their weight. But, a real lack of overpoweredness and an even more severe lack of suitable partners at 14 who can hold their own means that 14 point characters have rarely round themselves at the top of the meta for very long.

Kragan Gorr breaks quite a few molds, and as one of the characters in the final set of Star Wars Destiny it makes sense for him to push the envelope since nothing will ever be able to power creep over him or any of his Covert Missions comrades. What I’d like to do is break the current 16 point elite characters into tiers and see where Kragan Gorr fits in. We’ll be leaving the awakenings block 16 point characters on the bench because… well.. actually they can probably speak for themselves.

Welcome to the Trash Tier

While a couple of these characters saw fringe play, Jango was the only one who did anything in the meta, and Jango’s strength lay not in his dice or HP, but his ability to present unmitigateable dice – something that has always found ways to be good in Destiny. Chirrut and Chewbacca are especially trash tier, and while Lando saw some mill play he was largely a bust, as was Leia.

By comparison Kragan Gorr is a ridiculous monster. While his 11 HP is the average for this crew of Awakenings Block Never-Beens his dice and abilities are off the charts strong. There are no one damage sides on those rocks.

Dice-wise he’s actually most comparable to Sabine Wren who costs an absurd 21 points (though she was printed at 20). Sabine costs an entire five points more than Kragan and doesn’t even get to boast 50% damage sides on her dice, has the same health as Kragan, and while her ability is super broken, it’s only that way because of her interaction with ambush weapons. And, if we compare her ability to bring back cards with “Thermal” in the title for 1 resource less than their cost, she’s much worse in simple resource value! To get any resource advantage from her you had to put subpar cards in your deck, Kragan gets two resources of value just by durdling long enough to steal an opponent’s resource.

Looking at his comparison to one of the most oppressive characters in competitive Destiny’s history it’s hard to imagine he won’t surpass all of the previous 16-pointers, but let’s see how he stacks up.

F Tier

Just no.

These poor guys deserve each other. Neither ever made a mark on the meta, and I’d be shocked if either had ever even top 8’d a regional or prime. Maul‘s ability is so ridiculously easy to play around that he never had a chance — if they wanted you to get an advantage from removing his dice FFG probably should have made his dice worth removing. Should I remove your die or resolve a disrupt side for that 3/1? Fifth Bro had some hope as his special ability was kind of cool, but they made his die too anemic on its own, you only wanted to resolve it if you could resolve the special, but if our opponent removed the upgrade die you were going to copy you weren’t doing very much..

Kragan makes both of these guys look like a complete joke, which they are, so nice job Kragan!

D Tier

D Tier is filled with characters who fail even when an entire deck is built around them, which is required.

I’m probably being way too kind to Asajj here, but she is a personal favorite of mine, especially in her Bounty Hunter days, so it makes sense that I’ve upgraded her here. To be honest her ability is still pretty decent, and while she does suffer from having a pay side she can at least rock the 50% damage sides like a pro, and her 12 health puts her at the high end of the health pool for 16 points. Downgrades are certainly a thing, so she may have hope yet.

The other three jabronis have only ever seen limited play when an entire deck is built around them, and that strategy is suspect at best. So many people have tried to make Saw work, but it’s been as successful as Fetch. Kes had some hope when he had a broken combo with LAAT Gunship, but since that nerf he’s only showed up in random mono-red aggro trooper decks, which have never done well. He’d be a fair candidate for C-Tier if he’d ever been in a winning deck because his die is actually pretty dece (though like we’ve discussed, is hampered by a pay side). His action is basically a blank, and for one point less we can get Poe2 who is pretty similar but a bit better for just a point less.

Jabba has actually found himself in some broken decks when the shell comes together perfectly, but he was a rube goldberg machine that maybe worked once a year. I’ve certainly been beaten by Special Jabba decks that draw and roll the nuts, but if you kill him the deck just falls apart completely. If he was 13 or 14 health he probably would’ve been a major player, but even 12 health isn’t enough to put him higher than the D-Tier.

C Tier

Why are these cards jank?!

C Tier is filled with characters who should, for all intents and purposes, be good, but they’re not. They never have been and I doubt they ever will be. Finn is Steadfast on a Stick, Kit Fisto is nearly unkillable and has massive die sides of damage and focus. Mace‘s die is very outstanding despite the 1 and his ability to dig for upgrades AND give shields when you play them is broken, right? So why have these three literally never been good?

To start with they all have one absolute donkey-breath side on their dice. Finn has a blue side, and Kit and Mace each have a 1x side. Sides like this really killed otherwise good 16-point characters. Again, these guys need to carry more than half the weight of your team, you can’t be settling for 1 damage, or getting your modified die stranded because the rest of your damage sides aren’t even all ranged to match.

With slight adjustments these guys may have been too good for 16 points, but that’s a lot better than never making it out of the binder.

Don’t forget about me

I forgot to add him to the C-Tier picture but I think Elrik Vonreg fits into this tier, mainly on the back of his and his ship’s ability as well as his above average health. It’s very possible this guy falls firmly into D Tier, but I think he’s got at least some potential (which means he fits nicely into this tier of once lauded failures with a 1 damage side on their die).

B Tier

Pretty dece pretty dece

Each of these five characters have played a major part of at least one meta (though none of them have really transcended more than one Standard). Boushh and Qi’Ra are certainly the most limited, each has really only been decent in one standard deck (though Leia got some love in Trilogy along with Rose back in the day). And while Boushh and Qi’ra notched some wins, once the meta figured them out or their cards rotated out they fell by the wayside never to be played again. Qi’ra’s disappearance is perhaps the most troublesome because her die is pretty dank and, much like Leia, allows you to break the deckbuilding process in a profound way.

Boba and Jyn have been mainstays across multiple metas, but neither has really dominated in any way. Boba got some time in the sun as a partner for Seventh Sister, and his die is really quite good despite the mixed damage sides, mainly due to his potential to spike you hard with his special side. I always thought would be better, but her modified side and lack of a resource side held her back. Even though she’s a great mill character she never quite made it in mill (and I tried).

I almost feel bad putting DJ on this tier because he has been in some pretty decent decks and even caught some decent finishes from time to time, and a lot of people like him; he’s a cool design on an interesting character from the Star Wars film that was new for most of Destiny’s run. I’d certainly put him at the top of the B Tier, but he just doesn’t crack that A Tier.

A Tier

The Cheese Stands Alone

Grand Moff Tarkin (I wanna be him) has been a boss in multiple metas, and is the character that first made indirect damage really pop. His dice are insane, he’s a tremendous support character, and while you can build around him in a way that feeds his ability, you don’t necessarily need to because his ability is so good it turns trash into treasure.

Grand Moff Tarkin has always been one of my favorite baddies, and like Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace was killed far too soon – I really enjoyed seeing him in Revenge of the Sith, Clone Wars, and Rogue One, but those appearances weren’t quite as heavy as his performance in A New Hope. It’s fitting that he’s been the best 16 point character ever in the history of Star Wars Destiny, but is he still?

It’s too soon to put Kragan Gorr in the A Tier. Covert Missions isn’t even legal yet, and the power creep is so strong in this set he may never contend with Darth Bane, the blue abilities, or even the lowly Trandoshan Hunter. If you got to go to a build-a-box event last weekend you probably noticed that he was an immediate inductee to the Limited Destiny Hall of Fame, but he’s got a long way to go before he can prove himself in the annals of standard.

Right now I’d put him solidly in the B Tier even without having proven himself yet. His die is better than anything else the B Tier has to offer, as is his ability. While there aren’t a lot of pirates for him to play with in terms of his ability, his keywords of Leader and Scoundrel (in addition to being a Pirate himself) lend for some serious deckbuilding synergies, especially with Entourage and Fickle Mercenaries (and any other scoundrels you want to fit into your deck).

Right now I’d be keeping an eye out for Kragan in the upcoming meta. I think he’s a bit of a sleeper being overshadowed by some of the more broken cards in the set. I’d put him right alongside the new Luke, who I also think is really good but hasn’t found his deck yet. We shall see!

Thanks for reading!!

BobbySapphire