If you’ve trekked across the galaxy, following the force from your secret base on Atollon, I have good news for you. Luminara Unduli is alive and well!

I don’t love a lot of the art on Destiny cards, but I’m happy to see some Arena on Geonosis action going on. Instead of a random Jedi in the background it’d be nice if that was someone cool that we haven’t seen, like Kit Fisto or Barriss Offee looking like she’s about to stab Luminara in the back… but I digress.

You didn’t come here for a lesson in Star Wars lore, you came for the goods- and Luminara has them. Pretty standard 1X & 2X damage sides, what really draws your attention is that special. Her special essentially translates into “Modify any character die at +2 (+3 if non-unique) and resolve that die” giving us both action economy and die-side flexibility. The big drawback here is that it is character dice only, which really limits her strength. The other red flag is that this doesn’t work well with modified sides. However, there are a lot of upgrades spoiled in Spirit of the Rebellion that feature three base damage sides, leading us to believe that a deck centered around Luminara could potentially work.

Her focus side is a little annoying, but it does go along with the theme of her being a team player. Even if you aren’t resolving her special, you can use her focus to set up some damage on another teammate. 10 Health isn’t too bad, but for 17 points it would be nice if the Heroes could have someone with a little meat on their bones for a change.

Let’s dig into some of the opening set ups you can have with Luminara, first with two of her dice (unfortunately there are no three character combos with eLuminara):

eLuminara (17) / eSnap Wexley (12): She turns Snap’s Disrupt into 3 and 4 (take that Crime Lord!), and gives him a discard 3 side (I see Luminara really shining when modifying Discard sides).

eLuminara (17) / eMaz Kanata (11): This is a really mopey combo. With only one damage side on Maz these two are just going to focus their dice back and forth.

eLuminara (17) / eRey Kenobi (12): Definitely the strongest 4-dice team with Luminara. You can take advantage of Rey’s discard side, as well as just provide base melee dice for Rey’s +2X side.

Now for some three character combos, with non-uniques to really take advantage of her special:

Luminara (13) / Rebel Trooper (8) / Hired Gun (8): Giving Hired gun damage sides of 5/6 makes paying that resource a little more palatable, no? Throw in Troopers’ Guardian ability and the fact that this is a rainbow deck and I think we have Luminara’s best combo.

Luminara (13) / Hired Gun (8) / Padawan (8): In addition to huge damage from the Hired Gun, this setup also gives you three free damage sides from the Padawan, all while saving you a resource with Padawans ability. Or just cash in a Hired Gun resource side for 4 on turn 1 and never go hungry!

Luminara (13) / Rey (9) / Padawan (8): Using the full 30 points here, you get a lot of synergy with the force users and can use things like Force Speed and Vibroblade on Rey to get to claim faster (say if you wanted to use Emperor’s Throne Room to resolve Luminara’s special).

Luminara (13) / eQui-Gon Jinn (17): This thing’s got shields for DAYS, if only you could split them up when you resolve Qui-Gon’s 2S for 4!

Luminara (13) / eLeia Organa (16): Mixed damage sides probably not making this deck amazing, but action economy and focus can help spit out some serious ranged damage.

Luminara (13) / eFinn (16): Finn’s three base damage sides get a boost, but being able to play Red weapons and vehicles doesn’t synergize with Luminara very well.

Luminara (13) / ePadme (14): It’s depressing that this isn’t better. Padme really relies on her special, which doesn’t synergize with Luminara at all, but making Padme’s discard side into 3Dc is pretty sick.

There will likely (definitely) be a few more non-unique characters to mix with Luminara, but I think if she’s really going to thrive in Luminara/Trooper/Hired Gun, Luminara/Hired Gun/Padawan, or Luminara/Rey/Padawan – but she’s also a card whose special is so strong and unique, she should always be taken out of cryo-freeze whenever a set gets released to see if she’s worth the starting points.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out our video review on our YouTube Channel