The introduction of Legacies has added a few new characters that help mill decks. I want to thank some commenters and Patrons for helping to inspire some of these decks. The card pool is so huge and with the addition of plots the possibilities are mind boggling.

Before I start off I’d like to say that I think mill decks probably won’t be the best thing you can do. The designers pretty much have said that they have designed these sets with mill decks in mind but the lead designer doesn’t want it to be the best thing you can do.

This is either good news or bad news. The good news is that mill will still win you some games but it more than likely won’t win you an event. We still need to playtest because they certainly could be wrong. They want mill to be out there so all it takes is for them to have calibrated the mill cards incorrectly for it to be the best. Mill might end up being a check for slow decks which means that if the metagame gets to a certain place mill might be a solid deck for some time. This, however, means that it probably won’t be unbeatable.

Enough about development speculations and on to the characters!

Jedha Partisan

If you’re a dedicated mill deck you can think of the indirect damage sides as a one mill side unless you happen to have multiple of these in play- in that scenario resolving indirect damage once is good for 2 or even 3 (three partisans and one Jawa anyone?) Hero has a hard time discarding cards from your opponent’s hand which makes his one discard side a welcomed addition. Add in the resource side of his die and that makes 67% of his sides relevant to a mill deck. The indirect damage can also be a nice tool in an aggressive deck that has a backdoor win condition of mill. Aside from Jabba/Dooku those kinds of decks haven’t been successful or popular though.

Jar Jar Binks, Darth Jar Jar

For one more point you can have access to an elite Jar Jar over a Partisan or for one less a single die Jar Jar. Jar Jar doesn’t exactly mill anyone but he has a wimpy discard side which is helpful to pluck a card from their hand. The resource sides are great, his shield side will protect whoever is of most importance and the indirect damage side does something if you pair him with a Partisan.

His ability can be used as a weird Sound the Alarm but I found not liking it sometimes since it would also reroll dice that had missed. Rolling out Yoda before Jar Jar is a concern as well since you’ll have to reroll his best sides since Jar Jar doesn’t have them. Your opponent can use an action to use Jar Jar which will get you closer to the claim but occasionally that will be helpful to them because they rolled very badly or you rolled in very well before activating Jar Jar.

My results have been mixed and there a bunch of cards that need to be considered in both character and card selection. We could choose to play another Partisan over Jar Jar and include Espionage as a starting plot. Comparing the set up of elite Jar Jar vs Partisan/Espionage isn’t cut and dry. Both set up with another Partisan can max out to 3 cards gone per turn. In the case of elite Jar Jar and Partisan you can hit both discards on Jar Jar and the indirect damage from Partisan compared to 2x Partisans which will let you hit an indirect damage and a discard. Espionage adds an extra mill at the beginning of the game which gives the edge to double Partisan right? Not so fast! Elite Jar Jar/Partisan gives you a total of 3 discard sides compared to two Partisans giving you 2 making it easier to discard the very last cards at the end of the game. Will you have those characters when that matters though..? So many questions!

This is why play patterns and anticipating how the game will go are so important when designing a deck like this. How the resources are converting into mill damage and sustainability are harder to gauge then say an aggressive deck.

The cards and plan are linear for aggro but the timing for the mill cards is a lot harder to figure out in theory and thus playtesting is more important. As an example I have experimented with keeping Scruffy Looking Nerf-Herder in my opening draw and naming upgrade. Theory being that you can completely wreck someones turn one plans and then the game will start to flow in your direction. I’ve definitely lost games where I’ve done this. Does that mean this is a poor strategy? I don’t know since it might just be that the other part of my plan is wrong and that I need to look harder at the way I’m constructing. Patience is a card that I initially disliked in theory since all the dice you are removing can already mill or discard for 1, however, the timing matters here since occasionally discard sides will be showing when opponents have already gotten rid of all of their cards. Context is key and being able to see all of the angles is impossible without some heavy testing.

Rose, Awkward Kisser

Aside from the one discard side she’s not a mill a card but she gets you access to red cards at the 8 cost and has nice synergy with Suppression Field which is a card I think has some promise. Her having a special works well to chain specials with Yoda.

This deck wants to use the battlefield as much as possible which is why it includes Maz over something like Partisan. C-3PO is an insane card for mill decks almost guaranteeing that you will be able to discard all of the cards from your opponent’s hand given enough time. Fall Back is another card that I wanted to fit in here but since I’m using Patience and a few 1 cost upgrades those cards seem like a non combo or a nonbo if you will. That card is certainly a reason to be in Red and it might be right to build around it a bit more than I currently am or just play it even though I have a few upgrades.

Important to note that I haven’t included any General Rieeken decks. That’s certainly a direction that is worth investigating but I would avoid any 3 die decks like the plague. That’s personal preference and I’ll admit I’m wrong when I’ve seen enough data.

Nute Gunray, Possible Racist Undertones

Milling or denying your opponent resources are both great things for a mill deck. Nute is a welcome addition to the villain arsenal of millains. I generally dislike abilities that let your opponent choose but Nute is the exception that proves the rule. In a lot of ways Nute gives you an extra die one which either mills for two or disrupts for 1. Both are bad options for your opponent if you’re milling and you should only play him if milling is a real way you will be able to win the game.

I want to thank my patron Andi for putting me onto this deck. We’re still working out some of the specifics since you have access to all colors during deck building but there is something there that is interesting. The addition of Nute adds an extra annoying element to your deck which might cause people to go after him instead of Jabba. All of our spots are Nightsister based since she’s the least scary but as we all know by now her ability is very effective in this kind of deck.

Bonus Decklist!

I ended up working on mill more than I thought since its super interesting but that’s not what I teased last week. I had teased a deck that was quick to claim, used a great battlefield and was aggressive. I don’t think its that revolutionary but its something you should throw all your decks against since its very solid.

This is just straight heat and speed. Resources are fine to resolve early but here we mostly want to resolve range, melee and specials. Doubt is a laughable card vs our character dice and we have some anti shield stuff with Hidden Blaster, On the Hunt and big daddy BD-1 Cutter. Jetpack is in there because melee is so prevalent, we are also playing with Emperor’s Throne Room and the +3 modifier makes Boba’s special scary. Collateral Damage might seem weird but disrupts are at their best when people don’t see them coming and that card can be a blowout from a tempo perspective. Edit: I initially thought it could resolve different damage types in one action but that is not the case. This list probably has too many upgrades but I see Hidden Blaster as a free 1 damage or a 2 cost upgrade that also does 1 damage which can later be replaced by something better. If you don’t count that then 13 seems like a more reasonable number but you could trim 1 or 2 more things but which ones I don’t know.

Thanks for reading and always remember,

Not so fast…

-NJCuenca

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