In the second installment of our High Stakes set review, today we will be taking a look at the General grey cards. We will be giving each card a score out of 5, with that score representing our opinion on their power level, rather than an opinion on how well designed they are. A few cards in our reviews we have given the ‘Legendary’ status and are highlighted in Purple.
C-3PO is a great support and a good design decision to make use of the the restricted pair of the character versions of R2 and 3PO. He can fit into any hero build thanks to being grey, and if R2-D2 is in your character starting line-up you’ll want to hard mulligan and get this guy on the table first action, to get that autofocusing on activation with R2 up and running. Two very valuable focus sides, a resource; a very solid 1 drop support even outside of R2-D2 builds. Don’t forget Aphra can bring 3PO. I’d be surprised if he didn’t crop up in a number of decks (3.5/5)
The Amban Blaster has sides which would be acceptable on a 2-cost weapon, but costs 3 resources due to its on-play ability. The convenience of combining upgrade and mitigation into one card is nice, but the 3 cost means you can’t drop this with your starting resources. In an upgrade deck with decent ramp, I think this is going to be strong, especially as it can be overwritten later essentially netting you a resource (as the mitigation becomes “free”) (4.5/5)
Vibroblade uses the parallel die sides of the Spirit of Rebellion classic Vibroknife, and has a similar ability, though restricted to a Power Action rather than a passive ability. This Power Action means you can still modify it, or use it as a modifier for a base side. Initially, not being able to resolve it along with your other melee sides looks like a step down as it slows you down. However, I believe this version is actually the better of the two, as you can use it to turn any die on your pool into unblockable damage regardless whether its die is showing damage. Just PA it, succeed or fail to resolve the Vibroblade die, it doesn’t matter, but succeed in resolving the other die as unblockable damage. A nice little play to push some unblockable damage that will be popular if shields return to the meta. It also works on a blank with Cara Dune’s Blaster (4/5)
Mandalorian Covert is a utility battlefield which works as anti-Renew tech or support for Alazmec Colonist. It’s pretty niche, though late game it becomes stronger as you can put bad cards back into the opponent’s deck. A good choice if you’re a slow deck and want a pretty innocuous battlefield (1.5/5)
We reviewed Forest Clearing in our blue article, but as a reminder, I think this is very good in a wide blue deck, representing the biggest health swing on claim in Destiny history (in the right deck) (4.5/5)
Hangar 3-5 is another interesting tech card which has some very nice synergies in High Stakes. Cards like Supply Team and Whistling Birds, plus old favourites like Merchant Freighter and LR-57 Combat Droid are decent targets. If you’re playing the ‘tokens-on-cards’ strategy with Kuiil, this seems like a sensible battlefield of choice to further push the strategy.
Note that, as with similar effects, you can target any non-character card to remove 1 resource from, regardless of whether it even has a resource on it. This gives you an out if you want to keep your resources on your cards. So if the only card with resources on it is your Whistling Birds, you don’t have to put a resource on it and take one off. Instead you can put 1 on the Birds and try and fail to take one off the battlefield itself.
The big play here could be using this in conjunction with Rescue Han, so you just have to play the 4 cost to release him, giving you the freedom to play other value cards as and when needed instead of in the correct number order. Throw in K-3PO for good measure and you could be freeing him from carbonite very early in the game, though this is reliant on getting your battlefield and moving fast enough to get the claim. This battlefield of course carries the risk that the opponent can use it to remove resources from your plot, or worse, put a fourth resource on it when it’s on three, forcing you to play a 5 cost card to free him (2/5)
Krayt Dragon Lair is a simple and highly aggressive battlefield choice. 2 damage on claim with no strings attached is very strong. Sure, the opponent can spend their way out of it, but 1 resource to prevent 2 indirect damage is expensive for most decks. While this didn’t make Vika‘s release event list, it was a popular choice for Stay Ahead decks, converting the battlefield claim into 4 damage (5/5)
That’s it for now. More High Stakes review articles are coming soon.
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