In the past month or so, different proposals have been floating around to help improve the game of Star Wars Destiny. Bobby Sapphire of the Hyperloops suggested a 40-card deck, which we discussed at length in our Destiny Discussion. Last week we brought up our thoughts on the idea of a Forbidden/Limited list for Star Wars Destiny and we wanted to expand on that a bit here.

Forbidden/Limited Lists have been around in other competitive card games for a long time. If you’re not familiar with the concept, every so often FFG would release a list of cards that were forbidden or limited. Forbidden cards would no longer be legal for tournament play and limited cards would only be allowed as a single copy in your deck. If this were to be implemented, the Infinite format that already exists would have no Forbidden/Limited list.

ForeverFett and I come from a background of competitive Yu-Gi-Oh, where they update the Forbidden/Limited list twice a year. This adds an exciting element to the game and is waited on with a lot of anticipation. The release of a new Forbidden/Limited list means top decks can be brought down a notch and allow some of the “Tier 2” decks to shine. It also provides a good spark to meta as players try to innovate and create the best deck with what’s left.

One other reason I think a Forbidden/Limited list is needed in Destiny, is the prevalence of errata’d cards. Errata causes many issues from my perspective, but mainly it causes issues where new players, and even some more veteran ones, don’t know what the effect of a card is from reading it during play. They would have to look up the official errata’d text. A Forbidden/Limited list could help fix this by instead banning or limiting the offending cards. There have been instances where errata has worked well, and others where I don’t think it has. Vibroknife is one that I think FFG got right, leaving the card playable while toning down its ability. On the other hand, something like Heat of Battle was essentially banned when it was errata’d, though only in function. This is just one other reason that a Forbidden/Limited list might help the game.

So, what would a Forbidden/Limited list look like for Star Wars Destiny? Here’s what we came up with:

Forbidden:

Force Illusion – A card that has been played in every format since its release. It has the ability to directly change a game to the point where if you draw it and your opponent doesn’t you will most likely be losing the game. Drew and Cody commented on this during their final round at US Nationals, that whoever drew it would win.

Force Illusion – A card that has been played in every format since its release. It has the ability to directly change a game to the point where if you draw it and your opponent doesn’t you will most likely be losing the game. Drew and Cody commented on this during their final round at US Nationals, that whoever drew it would win. Hyperspace Jump – This is one of the least fun cards to see played against you. Even with the errata that sets it aside after use, which only prevents real abusive plays, its still too powerful.

Probe – While it has the ability to miss discarding anything, any good player is using this at an opportune moment and thus stripping their opponent of most if not all of their mitigation. Any red villain deck is playing this card now and its become too powerful.

Close Quarters Assault – Any deck with “sticks” is running this to the great annoyance of their opponents. It turns a very good roll of the dice into one that can single-handedly end a turn.

Emperor’s Throne Room – The only battlefield that made our list, Emperor’s Throne Room can be abused too easily by decks like Kylo-Pryce. The main issue is that it lends so much consistency to certain decks, guaranteeing that special no matter what is rolled.

Snoke – Supreme Leader – A card that has dominated the meta recently as much as Snoke deserves to be on this list. While he could be handled through a balance of the force, any “Tier 0” card like Snoke would quickly be added to any Forbidden/Limited list in another game.

Limited:

Hidden Motive – This card, like Force Illusion, has found its way into every deck that has a blue character. While it’s not as powerful as Force Illusion, a 0-cost mitigation card that can remove a die with no real restriction on play is too good.

All In – While most of us here at ABG think that action cheating in general is good for Destiny, All In can be quite disheartening to see played against you.

Easy Pickings – How annoying is it to roll out your character and directly into this card. Most players at this point know how to play around it, but when you activate, there isn’t much you can do.

Easy Pickings – How annoying is it to roll out your character and directly into this card. Most players at this point know how to play around it, but when you activate, there isn’t much you can do. Shoto Lightsaber – A pair of Shoto Lightsabers on Rey or Obi-Wan can be any players nightmare. Generating two shields every turn can be incredibly hard to deal with.

Anakin Skywalker’s Podracer – Limiting a unique support to 1 seems a little strange, but we talked about this a little on the Destiny Discussion and think it makes sense. It forces players to add a weaker card, like Start Your Engines, to their deck and risk it being dead later in the game. It also means that if you destroy one pod, you won’t have to deal with a second.

Force Speed – This card made our limited list along the same lines as All In. The action cheating potential of Force Speed shouldn’t be able to be doubled up on. Two actions with no mitigation is enough, but by limiting this it prevents the dreaded four action force speed when your opponent has two in play.

X-8 Night Sniper – This is easily the best of the ambush blasters that fueled Sabine and other aggro decks. Limiting it to 1 forces decks to rely on some of the weaker weapons.

Second Chance – This is a card that you hate to see played against you. When you have a character down to 1-health remaining and your opponent overwrites a blaster for this and paying only 1 resource is extremely frustrating. By putting this to one it takes the Yoda-Cassian-Anakin mill deck down a peg and in line with some of the other decks after this list is in place.

Retreat – Similar to Hyperspace Jump, Retreat creates negative play experiences by stripping your opponents of their turn. While Retreat is somewhat more balanced in that you can take one action, I still think it is too frustrating to play against to be allowed as a 2 of.

Retreat – Similar to Hyperspace Jump, Retreat creates negative play experiences by stripping your opponents of their turn. While Retreat is somewhat more balanced in that you can take one action, I still think it is too frustrating to play against to be allowed as a 2 of. Hailfire Droid Tank – This card has been dominant in the meta of the past few months. Cody and Drew used it extensively in their 1, 2 finish at US Nationals. This feels like the card that sparks vehicle decks, and so we think it should go to 1 in this list.

Kylo Ren – Tormented One – One of the most consistent characters ever released, Kylo Ren has been in the meta since he was first released. Many of his pairings were nerfed to make it so that he wouldn’t dominate the meta. We think it’s time for him to be the one getting nerfed. Similar to Snoke, Kylo could be handled through a balance of the force. However, limiting him to 1 dice would be a good way to handle him if a Forbidden/Limited list were introduced.

Ancient Lightsaber – Being able to loop or reuse two of these at the end of a game can be very frustrating. Limiting that to looping 1 of these feels much more in line with other cards in the game.

The Forbidden/Limited list could provide a spark to the meta and ignite the fires of competition (Why was that line used so many times in The Last Jedi?). We like the idea of a Forbidden/Limited list, but it may not be necessary once set rotation comes into play, though playing for another four months with Hyperspace Jump doesn’t sound too appealing. What cards do you think belong on a Forbidden/Limited list?

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