Right now we have 10 different battlefields to choose from in Star Wars Destiny. I’m going to ignore the battlefields spoiled from Spirit of Rebellion due to lack of practice with them and because they won’t be affecting worlds. Before I get into them I need to discuss some things just so we can all get on the same page.

Action Economy

This is a term that gets thrown around quite often, but what does it really mean? It means getting to perform more actions outside of the normal, one-for-one, “I go, you go” sequencing of a round. Holdout Blaster (and any Ambush card) is, in essence, a free action. You play it and then get to activate your character before your opponent can respond. You were able to get two actions for the price of one – that’s value. Another good example of action economy is the boogeyman of the format, Jango Fett. You get a free activation when your opponent activates. Anything that nets us an action is Action Economy.

Resolving dice also plays into action economy. Resolving one die is an action, but you can also resolve any number of dice of the same type as one action. A deck like e/Akbar e/Leia has mostly the same damage type allowing it to resolve many of its dice as one action. There are events that increase your Action Economy. Cards like All In and Tactical Mastery give you multiple actions for the price of a resource. Action Economy allows many advantages, one of which is faster battlefield claims.

Claim Incentive

When you can reliably claim and your battlefield is powerful you are getting a free effect at the cost of building your deck a certain way. However, when you have a powerful battlefield you are giving your opponent more incentive to use it against you. In many situations claiming will provide an equally powerful effect to the remaining dice in the pool. If your opponent is astute and realizes that you have some number of claim incentivizing cards in your deck it will nudge your opponent to claim more aggressively. It’s important to understand where your deck lies in the totem pole of claim speeds. Having the wrong understanding regarding your position will put you at a great disadvantage.

Dummy Battlefield

This is a battlefield with low upside for you and your opponent. I call this a dummy because it’s a substitute for a “build-around” battlefield. Sometimes these battlefields can have positive effects but are mostly used for low claim incentive.

Troll Battlefield

This is a battlefield that you use to put fear into your opponent. These can usually be a build-around battlefields that opponents might not have much experience against. As a player you are playing this battlefield because you are hoping your opponent will fear it, but all along you just wanted the shields.

Claiming

In terms of battlefields, decks can be split up into 3 different categories: decks that always want to claim(high-claim), decks that like to claim, but don’t need to(mid-claim), and decks that don’t care, are built with that idea in mind(low-claim). An example of a high-claim deck is e/Akbar e/Leia. With full sets of Dug In and Defensive Position in addition to Frozen Wastes as the battlefield of choice, claim incentive is huge. With such a powerful battlefield you need to be sure you can claim consistently.

Mid-claim decks have less action economy than the high-claim decks. Some usually have a small amount of claim cards, like two copies of Dug In but no Defensive Position. Generally these decks don’t have a battlefield with a high claim incentive, but can dabble in a troll battlefield since they could be trying to give the impression that they are faster than they truly are.

Low-claim are generally four character decks and/or decks with little action economy. They should always use a dummy battlefield. These decks will occasionally claim out of convenience but will only go out of their way to claim in rare situations.

On to the fun part: the battlefields!

Mos Eisley Spaceport

This has become widely known as the default dummy battlefield for low-claim decks. It seemingly has a positive effect for the claimer, but many times it’s not worth it. Upgrades generally cost resources and the replacement rule still allows for a discount on future upgrades. On the plus side there are decks with a few 0 cost upgrades turning the claim action into a pseudo Logistics. If you were interested in playing the upgrade on a future turn you’d have to spend an action to do so at the benefit of gaining 1 resource. This is obviously not free, and thus not good Action Economy. There are, of course, some corner cases like saving your upgrade from a character who’s about to die, or a Hunker Down that’s about to get meleed off the table, but those are few and far between.

Starship Graveyard

When I started playing Star Wars Destiny I saw this as a dummy battlefield, but I was the dummy. In certain decks this battlefield can have an enormous effect on its strategy and abusiveness. Examples: Having reusable expensive upgrades with a powerful effect like Mind Probe for a character like Poe Dameron can be crippling. For a character like Rey, having reusable ambush upgrades like Holdout Blaster can create huge tempo swings. Generally speaking, a better dummy battlefield is Mos Eisley Spaceport. I have designed certain decks that wanted to go long by taking lots of actions each round, and had cards like Second Chance in them. Even though the deck couldn’t claim aggressively I thought once we got to the late game I would be in a position to do so and continuously loop the upgrade, creating a soft lock that requires your opponent to do massive amounts of damage in one turn. Doing so isn’t impossible, but certainly isn’t easy.

Echo Base

This is certainly a build- around battlefield. You either want to able to abuse the effect or have cards that will negate the effect for an opponent ( On the Hunt comes to mind). With a build around deck in mind, Qui-Gon Jinn is an obvious choice. Another interaction I’ve played around with is using this battlefield when your deck is utilizes the Guardian keyword somehow. A card like Rebel Trooper can make shields more valuable by turning shields into mitigation, heavily increasing your claim incentive. And, since Red decks have a lot of action economy built into their cards they are able to more easily take advantage of Echo Base regardless.

Rebel War Room

You can design a deck that has a lot of die-sides that cost a resource, but your opponents will still have a great deal of incentive to claim since Rebel War Room can resolve any die and get the battlefield. If you have several dice with “pay sides” and feel like you are going to be claiming often, but still think you will occasionally be beaten to the claim, this is a good choice since the upside is only worth a resource to your opponent and generally speaking you’ll be able to get that value more than your opponent.

Imperial Armory

Everyone and their mother plays upgrades, and most decks have some number of upgrades that are expensive. Still, this battlefield is great for replacing upgrades with ones that are more expensive. It also has a small ‘synergy’ with your deck if you happen to be running several legendary upgrades since you can replace your legendary upgrades with ones that aren’t and play another copy later on in the game. The incentive for claiming is very high since it generates a resource and plays an upgrade. If you are running this you better be sure you are a high-claim deck that can make good use of the effect. I was running this in e/Rey, two Padawan, but found I couldn’t claim fast enough vs the Jango decks.

Separatist Base

An incredibly powerful effect that can come back and bite you in the butt if you get into a match up where your opponent claims faster than you. Conceptually, the perfect deck for Separatist Base is a high-claim deck with a large health pool. Currently those two things are at odds with each other but I predict that the perfect deck is coming along with the release of Spirit of Rebellion. Three Death Troopers has a large health pool and matching sides which will increase your Action Economy. If you are feeling particularly courageous it might be worth trying with Emperor Palpatine since his ability stacks so well with this effect, and being a one character deck you can theoretically claim the battlefield every round. On the flip side if you happen to lose the battlefield your single character/small health pool deck might not be long for the galaxy. This could be an excellent troll battlefield if you are playing a deck like Palpatine. Your opponent will probably have “the fear” and give you the shields. For such a small health pool those shields are certainly welcome.

Frozen Waste

This is a battlefield with an insanely high claim incentive. I previously mentioned three Death Trooper as a deck that might be interested in Separatist Base, but if you can reliably claim then why wouldn’t you want Starkiller Base? This card could prove to be disastrous for Death Troopers since stopping 2 damage can equate to the difference between a character living for another turn or dying a horrible death. Still, this card is insanely powerful against decks with several high-damage character dice like e/Darth Vader. Testing will show which battlefields correspond best with each deck. What’s true is that you’ll need to be on top of the totem pole of high-claim decks to use this battlefield reliably.

Jedi Temple

One of the few battlefields who hasn’t found a home might be getting one in the next set. I hate to keep bringing up Palpatine, but he’s certainly going to have an enormous effect on the meta and the way people build decks. With only one character he will be able to reliably claim. Since dice mitigation is absolutely insane against Palpatine this kind of effect is something the deck might want. The timing on this battlefield is awkward since you’d want this kind of effect before you roll out your character but allowing you to get rid of dice mitigation or a card like It’s a Trap at any point still has value. If the next set brings more build-around events the meta-game might push this into the limelight.

Command Center

This is a true build-around battlefield. Command Center hasn’t experienced too much success. One of the issues it suffers from is that the mill decks tend to be on the mid-claim side. I’ve played many games where the mill deck was milled out due to this battlefield. You can build a deck that is all in on milling, but then you won’t reliably be able to kill any of your opponents characters and you’ll have to do things like claim in spots you usually wouldn’t want to.

However, this is the number one Troll Battlefield. Giving your opponent the ability to claim and mill is scary. If you are unfamiliar with the deck they are playing it might be difficult to know which battlefield you should choose. Your opponent could be ‘trolling’, piloting a mid-range deck that wants the shields. It’s an interesting gambit that has payed off in our testing, but at a tournament like worlds where your opponents can view your decklist before the match, it will be far less effective.

Emperor’s Throne Room

One of the most powerful battlefields to date. The ability to have control over your dice is great for consistency, and who doesn’t want consistency in a dice game? Everyone does! You’ll be fighting tooth and nail to claim first since the incentive on the Death Star II is so high. Due to the high power level of this battlefield outrageously early claims aren’t uncommon. If you bring this battlefield you better have consistently powerful specials at your disposal. I think this is best for decks with powerful character specials. Make sure to test any deck you bring with this battlefield against Poe Dameron or Sith Holocron decks. You better be sure you are using it just as well as they are.

I hope you enjoyed this little write-up. Feedback is always welcome.

And as always may the rolls be with you.

-Nick Cuenca

Twitter: njcuenca

Instagram: njcuenca