You must be wondering what happened to NJCuenca and why I’m the one the one writing to you today. I could tell you, but then I’d have to… some things are better left unsaid. I’ll be honest, I may not be able to meet the expectations that you’ll have from me after my buddy set such a high bar, but hopefully at the end of this, you’ll be able to terrorize your locals with what I’ve brought to the table for you.

I’m going to start off with my new found power by breaking one of the rules of budget club.

Wait, don’t leave yet! We’re still on a budget, and it’ll all make sense after you take a gander at the deck I have in store for you. It’s a blast from the past but it somehow always makes a comeback after every nerf, so spending a little on a legend should be perfectly fine and the rest of the deck should go a long way towards keeping you competitive since the base can be used in several different decks, some of which are budget and some which aren’t. Without further ado, I present to you a golden ticket for making aggro decks sad:

You’ll notice that I held true to the budget theme and kept the cost down by not including Holdout Blaster ($10-$12) or X-8 Sniper Rifle ($30), but with a deck that probably costs just a bit more than a single Force Speed, I think you’ll have been okay splurging on an Elite Phasma1 ($6-$10).

Why is this the budget deck for you?

Most of the cards in the deck are good by themselves and you should get a good amount of use out of them as your collection builds up. Outside of Jetpack, On the Hunt, and Captain Phasma’s Blaster, you’d probably see almost all of this in most Ranged Villain decks, so you could probably just change the characters around each week and still do well. Splitting your damage to your guardians while loading up Phasma and blasting away has become a consistent way of winning the game for 3 sets now. It isn’t a world beater for the action cheat decks, but it has a pretty good match-up against most decks because of the amount of control it brings to the table.

How Do I Play It?

Slow and steady is the objective here. I played a similar version in the Content Creator Showdown vs NooBrainer and although you couldn’t really see what it does, because the game was short, it can hit very hard and not allow the opponent to easily focus a character which will allow you to kill a guy first. The following isn’t an end all be all guide but the games pretty much go like this:

Load upgrades on to Phasma and then activate her. Guardian small damage (1) with Stormtrooper or big damage (2-3) with Guavian. Repeat step 2 when needed or cast removal. Reroll dice to get resources or damage when the coast is clear. Smash the main opposing character for solid damage / defeat the character and make them rue the day you were pointed to this article / website.

You’ll tend to save Backup Muscle and Hunker Downs until the round is almost over so that you can get sneaky damage / shields in or make them claim because they tried to race you, but they didn’t know you still have more things to do.

Money Ain’t a Problem / Meta Adjustments

If spending a bit more isn’t out of the question, then you definitely want to get 2 Holdout Blaster in the deck and maybe X-8 Sniper Rifle. I’d replace LL-30 and Jetpack for those. (Editor’s Note: I’d consider playing only one Phasma’s Blaster if you’re going to be playing everything on Phasma. Phasma is generally the last to live and drawing a second big unique gun that you can’t play on her will make you sad indeed. I’m pretty high on Relby-V10 Mortar Gun, its ability is more relevant than its ever been and in this deck you should be able to play the mortar gun early and will have the ability to threaten it for the rest of the game. This makes it a must control die for your opponent early on and even if they are playing a two character deck it is still a very serviceable weapon. Phasma’s Gun has a better die but is unique, Relby has higher upside but a slightly worse die. When building for budget I like to get my power where I can, I’d probably do a 2-1 split in favor of Relby. -NJCuenca)

Meta adjustments is where this deck can flourish. Knowing what you’ll be expecting to play against can go a long way. These are the cards to put in the deck if your local is going to be chock full of a specific archetype.

This card can single-handedly crush the hopes and dreams of Mono-Blue Hero decks because Caution and shield sides can be plentiful from the deck and On the Hunt still threatens to be die mitigation as well. Palpatine also doesn’t want to see this because of his heavy dice, his new buddy Indomitable and his 2 Shield character die weep at the sight of this. Even when you aren’t playing against a shield based deck, this can still give you some die control with the occasional shield removal

What’s a character doing on this list??? Well, sometimes there are a lot of 3+ Character decks running around and if you swap him in for the Guavian, you’ll lose a guardian but you’ll gain an entire win condition. I’d also consider taking out Salvage stand with this swap as well as Electroshock since he’ll likely be targeted first. Redeploy upgrades will be your focus so you can load him up and try to get a kill so you can get the second activation and “profit” you’re way to victory! Aftermath is a great ramp card and if you’re seeing a ton of 3+ character decks then you can accelerate into bigger upgrades and pay for removal on the back of Aftermath. (E. Note: Redeploy weapons like Holdout, LL-30 and F-11D become more important in a Bala-Tik version which makes me think you should max out on those. I’d say don’t play Bala unless you have Holdouts.)

Drop Your Weapon is more troll move than anything else, but you can catch Sabine and FN-2199 decks with their pants down. Disarm is probably the better play, but I hate the idea of giving up my damage in order to use it, but disarm can hit equipment cards which is relevant against Holocron.

More Removal

You always have the option of removing things like Salvage Stand and just putting in more removal. The Best Defense is very good against big hitting dice like Vader, Sabine, and Palpatine but worse vs 3 character decks. Sound the Alarm is for those moments where your opponent “God Rolls” and you can’t even begin to try to clean up after that mess as well as being clutch against We Have Them Now and Never Tell Me the Odds.

The Thing that Lurks Around and Haunts You

Be very afraid of mill! Mill decks are inherently safe against the guardian ability and it also makes several of your shield / mitigation useless. Salvage stand and your suite of upgrades are the key cards for winning the match because a poor mill deck can’t really mill or stop you from doing damage and the additional dice allow you to avoid pitching for rerolls and help to smash through their defenses. Very few strong players like to walk the tightrope of death called “Mill” so you should be okay for the most part.

Being “That Guy” (or Gal)

All in all, if you’re new to destiny, it’ll take some time to get used to the rules so don’t expect to waltz in and just abuse the people who’ve played since the beginning but you should be able to easily put up a good fight if not squeeze a win in. Ranged Villain decks are some of the easier decks to pilot because the card quality is so amazing in comparison, but also hard in that there are a lot of decisions for you to make at any given moment. Aggressive decks get put off of their game plan of focusing down the key character which can cause them to play sub optimally. That alone can be worth it’s weight in gold as you pile on the damage, so stick with it and you should see the wins pile up as you get more reps with the deck. May the rolls be with you!

~ HonestlySarcastc

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