I’m not saying Support character based decks aren’t loved. I’m talking about the old characters (standard legal) that we used to build around that have seemingly ceased to exist. Was it due to power creep or did they never get a fair shake at hitting the table?? With the change to Snoke is it now time for a triumphant return?? I’m not one to mince words so let’s jump right in to the swing of things and talk shop on some notable ones.

Snoke

WAIT!!! Don’t leave yet, this is not a troll!! Snoke is pretty much dead to rights in most decks now that he can only pump up damage. Due to Wat Tambor being a close replacement for the old behemoth I just don’t expect him to see much usage. There are definitely some cases like the return of Snoke Aphra Battle Droid to consider, but outside of that, he really leaves you wanting more which he can no longer give. Could we see Snoke Kylo… sure, but why aren’t we just using Dooku?? I thought about some sweet eLuce + Battle Droid, but then why the hell do I not just want Aphra?? The death knell tolls for Snoke… may he rest in peace. Niche Usage

Arihnda Pryce

So alright, she is Red and 13 points, she won’t beat out Wat Tambor, but I do want to look at her anyways. If we don’t have the battlefield she is pretty similar to Sentinel Messenger in die sides which is something to keep in consideration if a deck pops up where her skill set is useful. Paying 2/5 for 2 more health and the slight difference in ability isn’t so good and she has fallen off rightfully so. Sentinel Messenger being Blue is probably his best trait also. Useless

Mother Talzin

She still see play in Odd based decks, but that is just about all she has going for her. With Villain currently having a mega dump of premium 0-Cost mitigation, it makes running her all that much worse. Being able to hit Entourage and then getting a “free” focus to 2 Resources or Special is pretty sweet, but it doesn’t change the fact that your opponent can still remove it and running 26+ Odds means that you need to generate additional resources just to cover the extra cost. Niche but powerful

Doctor Aphra

Aphra is one of the most interesting support characters in that her “elite” form pretty much doesn’t exist and the 11 cost 1 die form is what we treat as elite due to her droid discount counting as “1 Resource” per round which is essentially another die. I think i’m in love with her 2 shield side, but often treat her 2r1 Ranged as a blank because I don’t want to pay for that. She’ll see a rather large uptick in usage with the changes as we see a slightly slower resource gen availability. Whether she continues to be favored is unknown but we see her pop up for at least a short time during every new meta as she offers consistency and a draw / resource engine. General Grievous and Wat seem to be her best friends right now and I expect her to cement herself into Tier 1 to Tier 1.5 at worst. Much Droid, Such Damage!!

Hero

If I hadn’t known any better, i’d have thought that every Hero character rotated out of standard, but what actually happened is that they lost most of the 0-Cost mitigation and therefore life is much harder on them to contend in the big Resource game, not to mention not having access to Megablaster Troopers or Vader’s Fist. I think it’s time for Hero to make a return and to look at the old 3 Wide partner options.

Rose

She was quite a monster in hero based Trilogy decks during Legacy block, so why did she die off when it came to standard?? Aayla got hit which shut down most of her solid 3-Wide Rainbow pairings and then she really didn’t seem to do enough. She lacked Focus sides which most of the other premium support characters seemed to have which gave them consistency once they had the supports online. I think Disrupt sides aren’t loved enough and not many Hero characters have them, so I feel she should start seeing usage again. We all love some Entourage, but did we all forget the terror that was Modified HWK and Resistance Crait Speeder??? How about some bubble shield damage removal??? She’s a great start to a new hero deck so I’d expect to see her make a splash at least early on. Zero to Hero

Aayla

She was 13 points… Yoda is 13 points… enough said. She’s not really for resource gen, but she is cheap and has “focus” and damage and 10 HP and gives you access to Hidden Motive and Pacify which are the only real 0-Cost mitigation Hero has access to. We’ve talked about her a lot so I won’t go deep, but if you can find some red and blue cards to turn, she makes feasible sense. She misses Y-Wing a lot though unfortunately and she can’t turn Entourage or Fickle Mercenaries. 5 Die Hero is Back … maybe

Biggs

Biggs is more aggressive than anything else and is widely known for Armored Reinforcement into 4-cost Falcon, but he’s 12 points and brings consistency to the table via rerolling but then loses it again with his damnable modified side. I’m not sure what partner setup I’d want when it comes to those sides or If we could even get to 3-wide supports, but you can’t shut the door on 12 point elites too easily. Can Han Biggs AR run some Mean Streets and rise to the cream of the crop?? Maybe…just maybe… Inconsistent

Clone Commander Cody

So many bad red elite characters that just don’t get the time of day. I only mentioned this because of some eCody + Clone + eSatine 5 die life being an option. That’s all i got… I’m trying…

Alright, most of the old stuff was pretty trash. Lor San Tekka and Satine are pretty new and are the bees knees, and then we have some outside consideration of L3-37 and Anakin for seeing usage again, but Ani doesn’t ever go elite. I didn’t feel right talking about Yoda because that man has never left the hero game. DHaus was here!

Man, if Maz had cost 12 i feel like i’d have definitely built a deck with it already. Lor and Satine are the truth!!!

You’ve made it this far and I feel like i had a good subject piece and it went down the shitter quick. As an apology, here is a vlog I recorded earlier that was intended to be patreon premium content. I hope you can forgive me! I really thought we had way more support options of old to bring back, but it was like 2-3 of them. Damnable power creep!!!

~HonestlySarcastc