It feels like just yesterday I was sleeving up my 5 die Rainbow deck built around Bala-tik, Ciena Ree, and Nightsister. Over time, the Villain Faction has lost most of it’s useful 11 point characters when the Awakenings block rotated out of standard. They were old and chock full of issues, but they taught me the value of a dollar (resource) and the beauty of 2 cost weapon upgrades. Fast Forward to the release of Covert Missions and we’re now seeing things that were unheard of in yesteryear. Elite versions of Non-Unique Characters let the designers go back to having some cheap 2 die character options without upsetting the people who would complain about the Star Wars Lore and whatever character not really having the power that they showed in the films. Hero got those pesky little droids in Spark of Hope and any one who hasn’t seen the films could probably conjecture that they were the most powerful characters in the entire SW Universe if they base it on the power levels from the card game. Today we’ll be taking a look at the Non-Unique Elites and about their good and bad sides.

Trandoshan hunter has been talked about at length so I figure that we’ll just get it out of the way. Ignoring the ability, the die sides are merely “so-so” and it really boils down to whether or not you can afford the 3r1 Ranged side, natural hit the 2 ranged, or are willing to sacrifice and resolve any of the leftovers. Not having a resource side is usually a recipe for a very sad soup riddled with tears of sitting in a binder, but it’s made up by the fact that if you have downgrades, then you have a built in focus which makes the whole situation bananas. The downside is obviously the 8 health, which most good decks should be able to do by the middle of Round 2, and that the threat level is so high from it that it’s wearing a Pick Me shirt for who to kill first. I’m not advocating for running cards that can remove downgrades, but if it ever happens, the little lizard people will be pretty sad. Trandoshan is likely the Champion of Non-Unique Elites

Trandoshan’s little buddy is a very interesting figure. Outside of the obvious pairing, Imperial Death Trooper is a bit odd in that it has some pretty terrible sides to work with. If we assume that you have 8 points to fit a Red Character into your team and don’t have access to consistent focusing, IDT seems pretty terrible. The Power Action to match a symbol and value of another one of your dice can be pretty disgusting, but 2r1 Ranged is an awful side, and the modified 2 Range is equally disturbing in the face of removal on the base side or the great terror that is Easy Pickings. I will say that I absolutely adore the fact that as an elite, it’s 55% to show a resource side when rolling out so that you could easily PA to have double resource showing. Assuming that you have enough base ranged sides available, if we include the +2 Range, then you are 75% to roll out something that you’ll be super happy with if you can get it to resolve (either resource side and +2 ranged and you just PA the other die to match up for +4 ranged or 2 resources). I may have very well talked myself into trying it out a bit more as most of you know by now that I LOVE gaining resources. I’d be interested to see if there is a variation (there should be) that can be rainbow and run the strongest available die cards and just decide to push for damage or a board state based on the match. If the characters you pair it with don’t have enough ranged sides or resource sides, then IDT is unfortunately not going to bode well for your overall plan due to the expectation that your opponent will have at least one removal card and won’t just let you do whatever you want.

With Covert Missions still being relatively fresh, it’s hard to really gauge how scary the last 4 cards are. Snoke’s Praetorian Guard is a pretty interesting card in and of itself. No modified sides, but has the pesky 2r1 Melee, but still maintained his Resource side. It’s reminiscent of a First Order Stormtrooper die, but with the 1 Shield side. As a non-elite, I’d find it hard to run over Sentinel Messenger, but he should have some chops as an Elite due to his ability to help protect the BIG a bit in the Big + Small pairings. Thrawn 2 stands out as the main guy that he would pair with which is a surprise to no one, and each of his dice being 50% to show damage, means that he’s a whopping 75% to be able to remove his die to eat an opposing damage die. Realistically I’m not sure if I’d want to throw away my Base 2 Melee side, so that is up for discussion pending what’s happening but I’d happily throw away my 2r1 probably always, and usually willing to ditch my 1 Melee to stop 2 damage. There is the downside that you kind of have to wait around until the ability can actually be used or you’re wasting him, so it messes up your sequencing a smidgen, but he does have a pretty awesome benefit in that it can actually hold Blue abilities. The horror of a Niman Mastery on this jerk is scary and due to his already awkward sequencing, it means you’re more inclined to have your Big roll out first and then play the Niman to fix whatever die “missed”, which is sweet. Outside of Thrawn, I haven’t really even looked at what other pairings I might want to consider with it though, but maybe there is some sweet 3 wide melee deck looming in the near future.

Hey, look we’ve finally arrived at Hero and likely what many of you hoped that Chewbacca would be that useless bum. Kashyyyk Warrior is a weird one to work with, because who the hell would actually go after it?? Without running something like Valorous Tribe, then you really aren’t going to be in a situation to use the character well, because the sides are quite weak in preparation for it to unleash the beast that is 2, 2, 3r1 Melee when sitting at 6+ damage. Who the heck is going to let you get to 6, but then not try to do the other 4 to finish him off before they get wrecked?? There is a lot of health which can be sweet, but you’re likely going to have to put upgrades on it to make it an actual threat that people want to target otherwise it’ll be ignored most of the game. Without the 6 damage to buff the damage sides, the actual die sides are just not good enough throughout most of the game. Oddly enough the disrupt and resource side are the best sides and what you’ll likely hope for, but you can’t guarantee anything about this. The sweet Trooper subtype does set you up for Riot Shield and Measure for Measure though which you can likely find solace in. Hero has some sweet melee toys though, so maybe I’m not giving it enough credit. In general if you toss a Chewbacca blaster on it, then an opponent may have to consider trying to end it’s life.

Jedi Knight reminds me of the old Star Wars Miniature game’s Jedi Weapon Master. That guy was super sweet, cheap, and better than all of the named Jedi. He’s not actually cheap, but he has some sneaky power due to starting with the 2 shields. Ataru Strike, Adapt, and Nullify just salivate at being able to be used from the onset of the game to get yourself situated. The only “bad” side (outside of the blank) is the 1 Shield side, and the leftover 4 sides put in a ton of work, with the Special being quite rude if you can have those 2 shields that you started with when you resolve it. There isn’t much not to love about this guy besides the fact that you’ll likely never run it as non-Elite and that it costs 15 points. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some sweet decks running around with it. Trandoshan is about to get Ataru struck out of the game like a chump by this nameless henchman. The downside is that Reylo is the epitome of sweet Mono Blue decks, so how the hell do you contend with that shit?? Sadly, you might not be able to.

The pièce de ré·sis·tance of random Smuggler decks that want to try to go insane off of Entourage. I can’t tell you just how many shit decks I’ve played against trying to use the ability to mass generate resources and do cool things, only to have a pile of resources and nothing to do with them. Look folks, this guy is bananas with Hired Muscle due to each side being 1-2 resource gain off of the Smuggler ability and potentially Entourage, but people aren’t going to easily let you do that stuff. Make sure that you have enough die cards to play and do damage with or as your characters get knocked off the table, you’ll find yourself not having the damage output necessary and just spending your Richie Rich pile of money on mitigation like a fool. I haven’t worked with it yet, due to really clamping down on understanding / working with Piloting. There is something there with this guy and likely some deck that can actually operate, but it’s going to need to be a tight deck. I’d likely start with something like involving R2 and 3PO so that I can go Rainbow and situate myself with enough time to get things jumping, but also the ability to just push raw damage when necessary and a backup ramp engine + focus. You could definitely decide to not sell out and run the droids, but I prefer to start in a place of stability and we haven’t seen a viable Support Droid deck in a while, so maybe he takes that place. The sky is the limit and the floor is 6 feet under. I don’t look forward to the day that I roll him out first and find the blank side… it’s 16% each for glory or death when he comes out to play by himself.

All in all, I liked the entire set of Non-Unique Elites, because they each had their own way to work and just weren’t absolute piles of trash heaved into a set as we got abandoned by the people who took our money. With Worlds postponed or possibly canceled, many think that there just isn’t a reason to play, but what the heck was your reason to play to begin with? Wasn’t it just for your enjoyment?? When did you stop enjoying the game and why didn’t you stop before it died then??? Until next time, may your opponent never play Face the Enemy or Easy Pickings on you Round 1!

~HonestlySarcastc