Today we bring you our 100th ever echobase article (woohoo!). Also, the 101 cards on the ARH Reprint List, known henceforth as Echoes of Destiny, became tournament legal today (this would have lined up much more neatly if they’d stuck to the 100 they promised us).
Rest assured, we will be publishing an analysis of the voting patterns after ARH kindly shared the full results of the vote, but today we thought we would just go through the cards on the list and our thoughts on the choices. If you want to read the original ARH article, you can check it out here.
Characters
16 old characters hit the tables, and they re-enter the game at their balanced points and errata’d text, so Rex is 10/13, Zeb is 11/14, Phasma is a Leader/Trooper, and Snoke can only pump damage sides. I think it’s fair to say that most of the characters on the list are old favourites, with a couple of wild cards like Dryden Vos (who was an ARH include) and Legacies Obi-Wan (who, honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a competitive deck, and looks even less attractive now at 15/19).
Note: after writing the above I was reminded by Sarah Evans that Obi/Maz was a very successful deck back in the day, and that Obi/R2 has seen some play. Sorry Obi-Wan. Though I think we’re agreed that he needs to be cheaper than 15/19 these days to remain competitive.
Of all the characters on the list, I think I’m most interested in bringing Talzin back to the table. She defined a deck archetype, and it’ll be fun to try it out again with ARH cards.
However, the thing that strikes me most about this list of characters is that not one of them is from the Awakenings block. So many Awakenings characters got balanced in infinite after they rotated, but as most players play Standard, their new costs haven’t really seen much play. Finn for instance is now 11/13 and could bring Outland TIEs and Blizzard I to heroes. Plus, he’s a scoundrel now (for some reason). Even Mon Mothma and Ackbar from the block are close to playable now.
EchoFives – Personally, I’m super happy with some of my favourites coming back. My Discord and Tabletop Simulator namesake Lando. There are some great new yellow vehicles to play for cheap with his Power Action, Outrider for 3 resources. Yes, please. Second is Iden Versio, Such a solid character with a very neat passive ability to slow down those decks that try and get the jump on you with ambush. I expect to see her and Commander Pyre Relentlessly Advancing everywhere. Finally, and I can’t explain why, I love the character Zeb and am so glad he can fit back into the Spectre deck. Thanks Destiny Community for voting these in.
Events
That’s a lot of events. Out of them though there’s some standouts worth mentioning:
Bait and Switch has always been a bit of a divisive card. However, I think in the current meta it’s not going to feel broken (EchoFives – Reap into a Bait and Switch is a nice new combo).
Fear and Dead Men comes in with Vader TTB, making him feel much more playable (EchoFives – Along with a lot of the blue villain characters we have from ARH). Similarly, Witch Magick joins Talzin on the list. This is good.
Ataru Strike is a long favourite of some Blue players. It’s a shame it hasn’t been granted the move subtype, as it feels less broken than Fatal Blow for the same Lightsaber Mastery/Apt Lesson combos. Nevertheless, it, plus Pacify and Loth-Wolf Bond, are nice additions for Blue hero. As is Lightsaber Pull, which is a fantastic card for Ki-Adi-Mundi. Riposte is the big card here for Blue hero though. The ability to weaponise shields is just what the faction needs to be competitive.
Easy Pickings is a divisive card, which, combined with Entangle, makes Din Djarin players pretty happy. However, I think there are fewer popular characters in Destiny at the moment who are particularly Easy Pickings-able, except maybe Dak and Wedge. This card is strongest in an upgrade-heavy meta, when players are rolling in many dice at once, and I don’t think that’s where we are right now.
Friends in Low Places I feel is now an auto-include for semi-aggressive/aggressive Yellow decks, and combo decks like Gideon/Garindan. It’s such an easy way to strip mitigation and gain hand knowledge, and can create NPE’s for the opponent. This is a potential problem for me.
And finally, All In. I think the inclusion of this card in the list is the one that’s left most players scratching their heads. No events were “Sanity checked” in this list, but maybe this one should have been? There’s more double focus sides around than ever. Time will tell if this is an issue. For me, the biggest problem with this card is it makes the wonderfully balanced and well designed Plan Ahead feel much less playable.
Plots
Three very popular plots (one competitive, two interesting). For me, the most powerful here is Armored Reinforcement. I absolutely love Outland TIE Fighters for red support decks, and now I’ll be able to drop two of them in my first turn of the game. This could also be used to drop Blizzard I in a ramp deck. One problem with that card has always been the timing required: you can’t risk discarding it if you draw it early, but it clogs your hand and is vulnerable to discards if you hang on to it. This takes the risk out of the plan, even if you have to pass on the 1 resource discount.
Double Down is also an interesting include if you’re floating a couple of points now that Stay Ahead is 3 points, and Solidarity is just about playable with the right lineup, especially with so many good 15 and 16 point characters around.
Supports
Some big cards here. I wasn’t sure initially how I felt about the return of the murder-bots (0-0-0 and BT-1) given how good Aphra is already, but honestly I think they’re less broken with her than they were with Legacies Aphra. Now you get 2 extra indirect damage, once. They used to only cost 1 resource each and you got to play with 1 extra card per round; that was better. The big boost for Aphra though is Hailfires, which you can now have 8 of in your deck (if you wanted) and you get to pull one of them with Armored Reinforcement. Play them all with Aphra and you deal 44 indirect damage just from the on-play after effects. Though if you manage that, your opponent deserves to lose.
For me, the biggest concern is Déjà Vu. There’s a lot of strong events right now. Playing any of them twice is problematic. And the biggest issue with the card is it makes designing strong events in the future tricky.
Overall though, this is a fun list. I’m glad to see Legacies Falcon return, as well as Resistance Crait Speeder and Senate Chamber, plus I do love that version of BB-8.
EchoFives – So glad BB-8 sneaked in but disappointed we didn’t get Black One back for Poe Dameron. Would have been nice to give him a little push.
Upgrades
Wow, that’s some classic upgrades. Blue definitely did well here. Villains get Vader’s and Maul’s Saber, which makes both Vader and especially Spark of Hope Maul very happy. The latter has been missing worthy upgrades since the Legacies block rotated, and he and his brother are just waiting to be played.
Blue hero get a lot of good sticks (well, they’re mostly neutral, but hero I think likes them most), such as Ancient Lightsaber and Shoto Lightsaber. Especially great with Lightsaber Pull and Ki-Adi-Mundi.
Red get back the best 2 drop weapon ever (Handheld LS-1 Cannon), vehicle lovers get back Dorsal Turret, people who are confused by Tenth’s Brother‘s special get Cunning, red villain get a box of tricks thanks to Grand Moff (I’m hoping for some Krayt Dragon Lair or Perimeter Outpost shenanigans), folks who were bemoaining the loss of 2-cost ambush weapons get 3, and I get back my favourite Yellow upgrade ever: Maz’s Goggles.
Battlefields
7 strong battlefields here, and they have to be given how good some battlefields are from ARH. Bendu’s Lair is probably my favourite, and has been missed. I feel like Carbon-Freezing Chamber has the potential to be the most powerful: a fast Stay Ahead deck now gets to deal 2 damage and effectively remove a die on the claim. Emperor’s Throne Room is a great card for Tenth Brother or MaulB decks, or just any deck with a character with a strong special, like Grand Inquisitor, Second Sister or ReyLo. And finally Weapons Factory Alpha is a must-include for vehicle decks or both affiliations, as it is wonderfully asymmetric, though does feel a bit silly with Merchant Freighter.
EchoFives – Carbon Freezing Chamber is by far the most interesting battlefield here. Could be fun with Grand Moff back and the K-3PO droid. Aphra and a Legion of K-3PO droids is certainly tempting me
And that’s them all.
One last thing to note: it’s interesting that Isolation, Probe, The Best Defense…, Field Medic, Loth-Cat and Mouse, Rebel Assault, Electroshock, Flank, Truce, It Binds All Things and Tech Team made the list. All these cards were reprinted in the Convergence block (in fact, all in the Convergence/Allies set except Loth-Cat) and so are ARH legal already. I intentionally did not vote for any Convergence cards for this reason.
However, after the vote closed, ARH announced that Convergence (and Allies of Necessity) would be rotating after the next ARH set is released on 19 November. I wonder how many reprints that didn’t make the cut would have made the cut if they’d made the rotation announcement before the vote closed, such as No Mercy, First Order Stormtrooper, Fight Dirty, Squad Tactics, Overkill, Block, Dodge, Command Centre – Lothal or *cough* Crime Lord *cough*.
Overall, I’m pretty excited to be playing with these cards again. There’s a few concerns in there, and it is kind of a Destiny greatest hits, but very little looks immediately broken. It has been stated that Echoes of Destiny will be changing on the release of ARH-4 on 19 November, but until then, it’s going to be a lot of fun dusting off all these old cards and dropping them on the table again.
As always, if you want to see a data table with all cards ever made (FFG, ARH and TCI) check out our echobase.me complete Star Wars Destiny table here. These 101 cards are listed under the set code EoD, which is short for Echoes of Destiny, which I thought was a nice name for the set, and a reference to the never-released final event support package from FFG.
Ideally, these would be on the swdb, but unfortunately the person who approves db updates is current missing. If you want to view all these cards in one list on the db, just follow this link:
Enjoy.
If you like what we do, please consider becoming a Patreon supporter: https://www.patreon.com/echobasedestiny
echobase 
2 Comments Add yours