Now that we’ve finally got a release date for Covert Missions (6 March), here are the cards and combos we’re most excited about trying out.

Echo7:

Merchant Freighter is my favourite card from Covert Missions.  It pays for itself the round you play it (at the cost of a card from hand and two actions) but nets you a free resource for two more rounds.

The combo possibilities with this card are pretty fun. I’m currently looking at using this with Armored Reinforcement so that I have 3 resources per round for the first three rounds of the game. It’s weak to Desperate Measures, but I think that’s a risk worth taking.

I’m also liking this with Eject and Think On Your Feet. The list of characters with piloting is pretty small at the moment, but healing two and gaining two shields for free as ambush means that if you are playing with pilots, this combo is probably worth jamming in your deck.

I like the introduction of non-unique elites in CM, not just because they look pretty good in their own right, but because it opens up some potentially broken combos with my favourite Admiral, Firmus Piett.

For 20 points you can have non-elite Piett with either of these elite. This means you can flip both of their dice to the 1 resource sides and cash in, giving you 4 resources to play with each turn.

I’ve been experimenting with Piett-eIDT-Jabba(convergence) on TTS. I don’t think it’s going to be Top Tier, but being able to consistently drop 4 TIEs round 1 and a Planetary Bombardment round 2 is pretty neat.

I also think that Piett with an elite non-unique is a good choice for Construct the Death Star. I think his ability is more powerful than Krennic’s for guaranteeing resource sides.

I’m pretty keen on the Pirates. I know Kragan Gorr is overcosted, but I think the combos with his ability are pretty interesting. I’ve been experimenting with an eKragan-eIDT-Armored Reinforcement Pirate Ship deck, which has been fun. Through a combination of Pirate Ship, Truce, Viper Probe Droid and other tech, you can pretty much remove a die and/or steal a resource every round before resolving any dice. 20HP sucks though.

Finally, I’m looking forward to playing Spectre. We’ve got 7 Spectres to choose from in standard (including the 2 Ezras) so lots of options. I’m liking the look of eZeb-Kanan-Hera-Spectre. I could swap eZeb for eChop and make Kanan or Hera elite, but I think I’d rather the 12HP. Plus, Kanan armed with his Lightsaber and activating with Ewok Ambush feels broken. 5 ambush damage (or 4 if you happen to roll the +3 melee side on the saber) plus control of the opponent’s dice!

echo3ofclubs:

Face The Enemy is the latest offering for hand disruption for villain red. Since Awakenings, Probe has been a staple in almost all red villain decks since the game’s inception. Spark of Hope gave us the brilliant Counterintelligence, which feels like Spirit of Rebellion‘s yellow event Friends in Low Places, albeit a weaker version, yet still has huge impact in games for picking out opponents key mitigation cards.

With the addition of Face The Enemy, disrupting your opponents sequencing mid round should put you in front and your opponent behind. Include Probe and Counterintelligence and you’ll find yourself with a card advantage and knowledge of your opponent’s hand, which will allow you to play your own game at your own pace, or at least play around your opponents sequencing and plans. Will it be viable to run all three cards? Not sure. Will Face The Enemy become staple for villain red decks? Yes.

Mark touched on Think On Your Feet in his combo list above. I’m looking forward to using this to advance a new concept of ‘timer’ supports that are being introduced in Covert Missions. The supports introduced are as follows: Improvised Explosive, Seeking Knowledge and Tactical Delay. These ‘timer’ supports all enter play with 2 resources on and at the start of the action phase require a resource to be removed. This is not an action, simply remove the token at the beginning of the action phase. When there are no resources on the support, the support’s intent initiates before you or your opponent take an action.

My favorite of these supports is Tactical Delay. Even if you did not claim the battlefield, the timing of Tactical Delay will grant you two actions BEFORE your opponent. If you did claim, you now have three consecutive actions. If we can advance each of these supports with the use of Think On Your Feet, then the removal event has cost us 0 and we are advancing our board state one round faster. I absolutely love the design space on these supports!

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