On Sunday, ARH hosted a live stream on twitch, and they threw a ton of exciting announcements at us. We thought we’d go over the highlights for those who missed it.

Unlikely Heroes

ARH’s fourth set is coming on 19 November, and it has a name: Unlikely Heroes. Not only that, but we have our very first spoiler from the set, Pre Vizsla:

14/17 with 13 health, so we’re looking at an ARH big. He can wield a Mandalorian Executioner Vibro-Ax and he can feel Fury (when elite). However, his sides are decidedly mixed, and reminiscent of the underplayed Legacies Palpatine.

Crucially, though he comes in with a Darksaber, giving you effectively a 3 die character, which is very good value for 17 points, especially as none of the sides are modifiers or pay sides. Note that the RRG will be clarified to make sure you can’t bring in the original Way of the Force Darksaber with his ability in infinite. The Darksaber is a wonderful thematic choice for this character. Vizsla introduced us to this weapon, and spent a lot of the Clone Wars wielding it. It is also a double edged sword: Vizsla dies and the opponent gets to take control of the Darksaber.

His Power Action provides a nice way to protect him, allowing you to convert any die into a free shield. In the stream it was teased that this may relate to a wider mechanic in Unlikely Heroes, though exactly how remains to be seen.

And finally, he comes with two important subtypes: leader and trooper. The rotation of Convergence removes a lot of key spot cards like Riot Shield, Military Camp, Megablaster Troopers and Measure for Measure, but we do have some that are sticking around to give these subtypes value, such as Command and Conquer, Relentless Advance, Military Prowess, Medal of Bravery, Counterintelligence and Intel Breach. Worth noting that all of the above are Red, so if you want to use his subtypes with the current card pool, you’ll need a red partner.

This is a great start from this new set, and we look forward to reviewing the new cards as they are spoiled.

Mean Streets

This card has been pretty divisive for players. It was always very powerful, but a lack of solid scoundrels or consistently effective high cost events had kept it at bay.

Lately however, characters like Dash, Han, Hondo, Pirate Loyalist and Chewbacca, in combination with this battlefield, has created a negative play experience. This is especially true when combined with perfectly well-costed cards like Reversal, Jump to Hyperspace or Power of the Tribe. As such, ARH have made the sensible decision to ban this card henceforth.

You can always view the most up to date holocron on our holocrons and rules page here.

2-player game

We don’t know much about this so far. It’s coming in December, and is designed to be a self-contained product much like the original two player Phasma/Kylo vs Rey/Poe. I can’t wait to try it out, and it will also bolster the card pool 1 month after Unlikely Heroes lands.

Unlikely Heroes of ARH

Another announcement made in the stream was a restructuring of the admin team at ARH. The team has become bigger and has been split into more clearly defined roles or teams. The new admins are:

Sarah Evans – she and Martin built the ARH template, and together they and Solis have driven the production process and produced the look of the beautiful cards we all enjoy. We talked about this process more in our production article, but suffice it to say her role as an admin, leading the production team, is well deserved.
Rockntroll – he has been leading the design process for Unlikely Heroes, and is coming in as co-head of the design team, along with elrathion. He’s been part of the design team since Faltering Allegiances, and is an experienced player as well as designer.
The86 – he’s joining the admin team and is heading up Organised Play, and is working with a number of content creators who already run events, including ourselves, to coordinate events under the ARH umbrella.

Upcoming Events

Talking of events, ARH are looking to host regular Sunday events and a monthly league. The first Sunday event will be 10 October, the weekend after the Tatooine Open, and these events will be Swiss only events, over TTS, and have a $5 buy in with all entry fees being fed back in to cash payouts. These will be at 2pm US Central Time, which is 8pm UK time/9pm Paris/10pm Athens (not 7pm UK, despite what the ARH website may lead you to believe).

There will also be a special online event this Sunday, 26 September at 2pm US CDT, or 8pm UK BST. This is free, and you can enter here.

And don’t forget the Tatooine Open on the first weekend of October:
Heat One – Participants get a Greef Karga spot gloss.
Heat Two – Participants get a Kuill spot gloss card.
Heat Three – Participants get a Cara Dune spot gloss card.

Because time zones are confusing, here’s the times for the next few events:

Free event:
26 September, 2pm US CDT/8pm UK BST
Tatooine Open:
GO1: 2 October, 6am US CDT/12 noon UK time BST/9pm Sydney
GO2: 2 October, 2pm US CDT/8pm UK time BST/6am 3 October Sydney
GO3: 3 October 11am US CDT/5pm UK time BST/3am 4 October Sydney
Weeklies:
10 October, 2pm US CDT/8pm UK time
17 October, 2pm US CDT/8pm UK time
24 October, 2pm US CDT/8pm UK time
31 October, 2pm US CDT/7pm UK time (Europe have changed clocks)
7 November, 2pm US CST/8pm UK time (USA have changed clocks)
14 November, 2pm US CST/8pm UK time

There will also be monthly leagues, starting 1 October. The link to sign up is here.

And finally, there’s plans for many IRL events, including at the Las Vegas Open (January 2022), Adepticon (Illionois, March 2022), Momocon (Georgia, May 2022), and World’s. We don’t know much, except that it is happening in 2022, and is probably going to be at Gencon, which is 4-7 August 2022 in Indiana. Obviously these IRL events so far are very USA-centric, but rest assured there will be some IRL events in the UK and beyond.

That’s all for now. Next stop, spoiler season.

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