I’ve been in a Star Wars Destiny rut as of late. No local events that work with my schedule are pretty killer to my desire to play and my social group either doesn’t want to play Destiny or its up to me to make decks. I find making physical decks such a labor because of how vast the card pool is. My organization system is pretty good but a lot of the time I can’t find the dice or card, get frustrated and just want to light it all on fire – I’m sure some of you can relate to that. The scale at which my collection has grown is a bit overwhelming and I welcome a standard rotation so I can have a smaller area to search. I could play more TTS but the player base is small and I find it hard to coordinate matches. Going into worlds I made it a point to play everyday. I can only do that so much since I’ve been a person who’s enjoyed lots of activities. I play basketball 2 to 3 times a week, I like watching TV and enjoy playing real video games that give me way bigger serotonin boosts than playing Destiny on TTS. To be honest I still play frequently because of the amazing community we’ve built and I want to do right by you all but I also need to be true to myself since being a singularly minded person has never been my jam.

I’ve always been a person of many interest and go through phases. New things excite me and my ADHD thrives on that. Did I ever tell you about the time I started collecting Hot Wheels Mustangs which subsequently led to me customizing Mustangs? NO? How about the time I got really into yardsale hunting and flipping? Still NO? How about the time I tried to teach myself to lucid dream so I could unlock and control a limitless world while I slept. I got kind of close but then I read about how you can end up in this scary waking nightmare state where your mind is awake but you can’t control your body. I know myself and keeping a gig like this going has been challenging and I certainly couldn’t do it without the help of my two partners, other content creators and the discord which I consider to be one of the most helpful parts of the community. Sorry if this is over sharing but I’ve always been an open book flapping in the wind. Don’t worry there will be actual Destiny content in this article.

Know Thy Self: A Character a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

I found I was most prolific in my content creation when I had a goal and was structured. I looked long and hard at what makes me the most happy at Destiny and what doesn’t. I’ve pretty much figured out that the exploration of things is what brings me the most joy and where I produce my best work. HonestlySarcastc deals more in the realm of what he thinks is the best and tries to break things. I like brewing and exploring new characters and strategies, its the discovery that drives my motivation. Here is an old Meme for reference.

BobbySaphire I feel is in the middle of us, he likes to explore and sometimes goes off the deep end but he’s better about coming back to shore while I’m still looking for Mermaids “I swear they are out there, I can feel it!”

With the new set coming up there is plenty of space to explore. I’m hoping that my pessimism about a world where many support based ideas are bad because of Desperate Measures are wrong but I have a feeling I’ll be right. Regardless, I’m going to write about a new character every week until the next set is released. We don’t have the full spoiler as of this post but I’m going to try and focus on Characters that seemingly won’t get too much better from unspoiled cards.

Darth Bane, Ancient Master

Now this is a splashy card! The competitive player in me thinks that this card is probably unplayable BUT he is unique enough that he’s intriguing. I’ve always liked the SWAT analyses formula for pretty much anything I am trying to evaluate.

Strengths

The most unique thing that DB has going for him is his ability to make an ability cheaper by two. This is a very splashy effect that we haven’t seen on any card and could be the main reason I could be misevaluating him. Some of the upgrades he can play before rolling in on the first round are downright disgusting. His special also has a massive upside with the potential of dealing 4 or maybe even 5 indirect damage!

Weaknesses

His cost is his main weakness. My gut tells me that he compares unfavorably to Darth Vader, TTB and Palpatine, Unlimited Power. Vader can protect his own dice while Palpatine is way cheaper and has a built in 3rd die via his ability. Maul is a card that is arguably playable but I’ve never been a fan. He could be just as a good as Maul and have a similar cult following.

Opportunities

DB could slide in the competitive meta between Vader and Palpatine because of his ability to get a cheap Death Field, Way of the Force, Niman Shien Mastery(more on those below). Palpatine has been paired with Watto in order to do a similar things but the guarantee of having one those being minus 2 in round one before DB rolls in is appealing. Palp also has to play many upgrades in order to pump his health while DB already starts at a robust 14 – if the meta is fast Palpatine can sometimes stumble and get murdered in round 2.

It is important to note that all these aforementioned big blue characters will have access to Pyke Sentinel. This is most important for Vader, TTB because it gives him access to a pairing that has both Retribution and yellow cards. DB can also play that AND a 2 cost plot but it remains to be seen how that will all shake out and which of those will be better. Pyke is appealing since he has guardian but Greedo is just a better character that does damage and DB can play him and Retribution.

Threats

I’m pretty sure that we know most of the powerful blue abilities that we would want for DB. I think Vader having access to yellow with Retribution is a big threat to DB’s playability because he fits in that Big/Little slot. On top of that there might be other great blue non-ability upgrades that could make Vader and Maul better. If I had to guess the cards that haven’t been spoil will most likely have a negative effect on his playability but it could also go the other way and we could get some dank DB specific cards that we haven’t seen.

Blue Abilities

I wanted to quickly discuss some possible Blue abilities that would be a great for DB.

This card has never been playable but it costing one could allow some interesting 3 die line ups. If a one cost upgrade was printed with DB’s die we would all be rioting in the streets. This comes at a huge price of having to play a 17 cost character with one die. There will also be games where we don’t draw Way of the Force. From a raw stats perspective Captain Phasma, RT would be the best 13 point character to pair DB with. I have no idea what this deck would look like but don’t pretend like the raw damage of this upgrade in that line up isn’t a little scary.

This is the wide boy. It was pretty much made for DB as most other decks will stay away. Delve could possibly help play this after DB has used up his cheating power. It isn’t a form which will help him carry multiple big upgrades. The hardest thing about this card is finding the 3rd die before DB rolls out but I’m sure we can figure that out!

Shein Mastery is another card that was made just for DB. The upgrades that produce multiple dice are going to be the ones we want to be using to make up for the fact that DB doesn’t have any extra dice of his own. It works really well with Forsaken as well but it also works well against it. This card is probably better than Death Field because of its speed – it can come down 1st action and protect DB on the next. If you didn’t hit any of the ones that are defensive you get 3 damage or 2 resources, that’s just sick. This cards super resistant to Hidden Motive where Death Field is a lightning rod for that card. It is a form which makes it play poorly with Niman and Soresu Mastery but I think I can live with that.

There are other Blue ability upgrades that work with his ability but they aren’t nearly as sexy as the previous 2. Way of the Force is just a card that could be good in a 1 die DB deck. we’ll have to play more than just Shien and Field but the drop off in power is pretty significant. I look forward having a DB with both of these abilities. You might have mitigation but how are you going to deal with all of that POWA!

I hope you enjoyed this article. Let me know what you think of Darth Bane and this article format in the comments or on social media. And as always….

May the Rolls be with you!

-NJCuenca

PS. I feel like it would be disingenuous of me to not address the layoffs that occurred at FFG yesterday. With the delay to CM and no announcement about set 10 many in the Destiny community are worried about the future. I’m trying to remain positive but I would be lying if I didn’t say that I wasn’t a little worried. Hopefully by the time you read this FFG will have an announcement that will restore some confidence in the player base. Even if FFG stops supporting Destiny I can guarantee that people will continue playing and online events will be run. This would stink for players who enjoy the IRL tournament experience but maybe the community can run its own IRL worlds? Re-balancing old cards would be an easy way to keep the game fresh for a while and printing new non dice cards as paper slips would be easy. The problem comes when money is being made off of an IP that is owned by Disney. I think there might be a legal way to get around that by not actually charging for anything but I think I am getting ahead of myself. I think one of us here at The Hyperloops will be writing something regarding all of that so stay tuned!