A few days ago our good friends over at I Rebel dropped their exclusive spoilers from the upcoming Star Wars Destiny expansion High Stakes, the third release from A Renewed Hope. Today we are going to be taking a look at potential partners for Din Djarin.

Din Djarin is probably the most anticipated character to enter our beloved game of Star Wars Destiny. I can only think of one other character who’s probably had a similar amount of fan fare and demand and that’s the infamous pilot, Bodhi Rook.

Din Djarin enters the game as the first character to be playable with 3 starting dice at separate point values (does Hondo count here?). This is a concept that was going to be introduced with the unreleased Wild Horizons expansion, and again, happy to see ARH take further inspiration along with the new keyword Renew from Wild Horizons.

I’ll take this opportunity to start the body of this article by saying that we think that Din looks like an absolute monster. The design is fantastic and the artwork by Pistachios is once again stunning. His Power Action encapsulates his speed and agility that we see in the TV series; we tip our hat to the design team for the final iteration of Din Djarin. My favourite aspect to Din Djarin is in the choice of partner, we have so many options to explore.

I’ve been here before – I was convinced that Qui-Gon was an absolute beast, and subsequently the best aggro character card out of Redemption, but I soon found out I was wrong about Gui-Gon. No matter how hard I tried, I just could not make Qui-Gon work, and in conclusion I actually found him underwhelming. I’ve always put this down due to the lack of decent partner.

Din Djarin is comparable to various characters at his various points costs. For 18pts we’ve included Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon & Hondo as comparisons because of the similarities in high health, points costs and aggressive die sides. It’s worth noting that neither Obi or QGJ have exactly set the meta on fire. Hondo has had time in the sun; albeit as part of a three wide line-up with the plot The Ultimate Heist. That deck is an anomaly in our comparisons here, as the Pirate Loyalists have since been nerfed and the deck has fallen heavily out of favour in the meta, plus you were really playing Hondo for 16 points…

Obi-Wan is probably the closest match to Din; yes, Obi is a point higher than Din, but given that Obi has three subtypes, Detect 2, an activation ability and a passive ability to allow blue abilities, he warrants being 1 additional point over Din. It’s subject, of course, on the value that you, the reader, put on Detect and the allowance of blue abilities onto a yellow character. For me, he’s right where he should be.

Where these character’s have failed to reach the top of the meta is in their awkward points cost of 19 squad points- and therefor a lack of a decent partner. Din Djarin has a plethora of character’s to partner with – and I believe this is where Din has the edge.

So is Din Djarin going to actually be that much better, or is he somewhat of a trap to play?

The other question we have been discussing internally here at echobase is: What is the best starting point for Din Djarin? Let’s take a look at some potential pairings across each points cost.

Starting at single die:

14 health for 14 squad points doesn’t seem so bad but perhaps not the sweet spot either for a Din deck. At single die his passive ability gives you a straight 50% chance of netting a resource on activation. As for partners at this cost; we have a host of fantastic characters that all started life at 15 points but subsequently found themselves on the balance of the force list and raised to 16 points elite. Enter Benthic, Leia & Anakin.

A mono yellow line-up with Benthic would give access to the elite mitigation suite that yellow brings to the table. Cards with spot yellow requirements such as Headstrong, Electroshock & Reversal will be online throughout the entirety of the game.

Din Djarin’s Power Action, which gives an upgrade the keyword Ambush, is guaranteed to bring speed to the table; Din decks will be extremely fast. Talking of speed, Benthic’s Piloting ability will allow for a vehicle such as Razor Crest or the Outrider to come in on his activation, thus keeping the speed that the deck will inherently bring. When you’re playing Hero yellow and you’re playing fast and including vehicles; you undoubtedly seek to include Jump to Lightspeed to end the game round.

Let’s not forget that a starting health of 25 is no small feat for your opponent to overcome. Given Benthic still has one of the best Power Actions in the game; 1 indirect into your 25 health to mitigate an opponent’s die seems like a drop in the ocean. There’s potential in this line-up, let’s wait and see how this could fare.

Leia Organa brings with her a unique deck building challenge in which you want to efficiently use her activation ability by reducing the amount of 0 cost cards included in your deck. A 3 die start is always a tricky one to help with ramp [echo7: though Din‘s ability will help here, even with only 1 die], and especially given the higher cost curve that Leia decks entail. The beauty of Leia‘s inclusion in the deck will come from the game longevity that her ability will bring. Collectively, between Rogue and Force, there are plenty of options to finely balance value and affordability to the deck.

Between Vibroswords, Quillioned Lightsabers, Leia Organa’s Lightsaber & Mandolorian Vibro-Ax there are plenty of redeploy upgrades across both factions to keep your remaining character in the game once one of your characters hits the dirt, giving you a pretty decent chance of closing out the game. With Vader still running around at 19 points, a reliance on shields as a sub-strategy may not cut it [echo7: though until one of your characters goes down, they’ll have to forgo Vader‘s resolve-as-melee half of the PA if they want to use his anti-shield PA].

Moving on to running Din for 18pts:

We’re now into 4 die start territory.

Let’s start will Bail Organa. This build will inevitably look to make the most out of Bail‘s passive by getting an Admiral on Mando for the reset. Worth considering that each time you activate Din, as long as he rolls damage, he can bag you a resource. My issue with this deck idea is that I just don’t see how this variant is better than the existing Hondo/Bail deck [echo7: especially since it’s not reliant on YAICN]. Whilst looking at Command characters, Cassian Andor may be worth considering in place of Bail, so long as you can prevent those modified range sides becoming stranded.

Han Solo – Old Swinder is a fantastic support character. Unfortunately he’s been over shadowed by his younger self in the form of his more Cool and Confident variant over the past year.Han will bring the money or hit for a few ranged sides and generally assist in getting the job done. His Scoundrel subtype will allow for Mean Streets to assist with end of round mitigation. Unfortunately I doubt this line-up will be anywhere near meta.

Moving on to the wild card and the Force inclusion: Obi-Wan Kenobi – Ardent Avenger. At single die Obi hits the table for 12 points (thanks to Balance of the Force). I’m looking at Obi for his Power Action of resolving a die showing a value of 2 or more increasing its value by 1. Mando‘s die is the perfect target for Obi‘s Power Action: all of Mando’s sides have a value of 2 or greater bar the blank. Can Obi close out once Mando‘s down? As mentioned above with the Leia build, if you’ve prolonged the game enough to get decent redeploy upgrades on the table then there could be a chance. This line-up is a wild card, I doubt I’ll actually put it to practice. I’d add non-elite Anakin Skywalker (Transformations) to my list of potential pairings with double die Din.

Here we go; now were talking full on Mandalorian aggression, double elite:

At double elite we’re looking at an 87% chance to net a resource off of activation. Looking at the partners to accompany our three die Mando don’t really excite me right now, but I’m sure ARH have a few characters up their sleeves to accompany Mando that come in at 8 or less points in the upcoming High Stakes expansion.

Each of these characters can take advantage of an Ewok Ambush – Satine to get a re-roll on a miserable looking Mando die showing a blank, or R2-D2 to flip to the top 2 ranged side. The Rebel Sniper‘s best side is arguably being able to Power Action that Discard side for two cards from hand, hopefully grabbing your opponent’s mitigation for the round. Greez Dritus is also an option. But there are so many good Rogue cards, at varying costs that you will want to include in your deck, that calling the correct number with his ability just isn’t going to be consistent enough. Out of the available 8 point characters it’s really going to come down to your personal preference of colour that you prefer to combine with hero Rogue.

I’ve got one final variant…

Unfortunately neither character has a discard side to make use of Rebel which comes with running the plot, Extremist Campaign. Mono Rogue will however 100% be running Vibroswords (and Whistling Birds). If your dice rolls are anything like mine you’ll tend to hit that discard side more than the damage side, which with Rebel in hand, may or may not come in clutch. Also, with both characters packing a double disrupt, your opponent won’t be having much money to spend throughout the game. Character dice alone these guy will pack a punch.

In Summary
Right now, after a fair few test games, I’m not convinced from our current card pool that we have the right partner for Mando to take him to the top of the meta. Here’s hoping for the perfect partner in the upcoming ARH release, High Stakes.

I’ll also add that Din Djarin is not an easy character to pilot – you’ll definitely want to get the practice in to get your sequencing correct.

We’re looking forward to seeing what the rest of High Stake’s has in store for us all! Roll on, the 11th of June!

Just roll 3’s
echo3

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