Welcome back, TCI fans. Here at echobase we are lucky enough to get a second set of spoilers after already getting the honour of spoiling Darth Nihilus, Claim your life and Wound in the Force. If you missed it then it’s right here in all it’s glory. Today, however, we move away from the Force. Well actually that’s not entirely true as you can tell from the article picture, a saber is involved and you don’t find them lying around your local outer rim establishments very often. This saber is the famous Darksaber crafted by the only Mandalorian to ever become part of the Jedi Order, Tarre Vizsla. The saber has had many owners since then, but which one has the The Coruscant Initiative brought to our gaming tables in their next set.
It is the Darksaber creator’s descendant, namely Pre Vizsla.
Pre Vizsla is the next known owner of the Darksaber after it was stolen/recovered (from certain points of view) from the Jedi Temple by Clan Vizsla and then passed down from generation to generation until we see it wielding by Pre in The Clone Wars series. We see this as the first line of Pre’s ability. He allows you to include two copies of the Way of the Force Darksaber bringing this great but expensive weapon back to standard play. It is very fitting and I believe deliberate that Pre Vizsla is unable to wield it at it’s full power. He or anyone he partners with will only be able to get the plus one resolution increase. It’s a very nice and themic way to bring back a FFG Legendary back to current play.
Vizsla also comes with very valuable subtypes of Trooper and Leader which makes a lot of very good cards become available. The first that come to mind are Measure for Measure and Riot Shield from a Trooper perspective. Prepare to Fight, Conscript Squad and Admiral from a Leader perspective. However, these are all red so you’ll need to find a red partner for him to take advantage of these. I think Commander Pyre is the most obvious option here.
The die is that of Boba Fett from Legacies, which I have fond memories of but always feels underwhelming. This does give mixed damage sides and six differing symbols overall so Pre Vizsla is going to lose tempo resolving all the varied sides. His special side needs to spot equipment to deal as much indirect as equipment you can spot. I’m struggling to think of any equipment yet realised in the TCI sets so it means we have Mandalorian Jetpack (Thematic), Armor Plating (Also Thematic), Gauntlet Rockets (More Theme), Bounty Hunter Mask, Boba Fett’s Wrist Laser, Magna Glove and Z-6 Jetpack always available as the yellow options. There isn’t much else if we branch out of yellow, most notably the aforementioned Riot Shield in red. It’s interesting to note that the equipment doesn’t have to be attached to Vizsla himself so maybe we simply stay in yellow and pair with Jango Fett for the equipment refund he brings. It’s possible we’ll be able to afford our Darksaber then although if it ever ends up on Jango then he doesn’t get any resolution bonus at all. I just realised that I didn’t think about any grey equipment and it is actually relevant as the downgrade Shock Collar could qualify as an equipment you can spot. Probably a little expensive though so you’d want to be on Nightsister Lair to get the refund.
I think Pre Vizsla‘s best element is his Power Action that allows you to pull equipment and weapons from your discard pile. There aren’t many things in Star Wars Destiny that give you access to cards in the discard pile. Being able to take a re-roll with that high cost upgrade to pull it back later from the discard is great. All you need is a few weapons or equipment that have an on-play ability and this Power Action will start to shine. It already allows you to cycle Armor Plating once every round which could make Pre Vizsla and his partner difficult to kill. As long as you have the one resource it could be free mitigation of 2 damage on Jango every round as his ability triggers for a refund.
Pre Vizsla is definitely an interesting character but I think his pairings are very limited at the moment to get the best out of him. We will have to see what Altered Paths might bring us and I’m sure someone out there will be able to prove me wrong.
Our next spoiler is Disc-Shaped Buzzsaws.
Jango! Vizsla! Look what we’ve got for you. Actually, this could go in any yellow villain deck quite easily. I’m sure all of our readers will be screaming that it’s Back Up Muscle: The Upgrade and you’d all be right. It does exactly the same. I would have preferred it to read when you activate the character move a damage to give us a little bit of tempo to offset the risk of our character being killed before we get full value out of our Disc-Shaped Buzzsaws although it would then be very strong with Admiral. The Power Action is fine, it just makes it feel even more like the Back Up Muscle that we’ve all played so many times already at this point. Vizsla absolutely loves this though as there is the potential to cycle it once empty. Overwrite it with some other upgrade and then Power Action it back from the discard pile for some more damage.
It’s unusual to have damage placed on an upgrade though – usually it would be resources. With resources an unfortunate dice roll or table accident makes it a little easier to rectify the board state. Damage may get mixed with and mistaken for character damage.
And finally – Eavesdrop
A yellow villain event, you have to remove a yellow character dice which essentially becomes a 1 resource side as you get a discount to any card from a discard pile. Early game, it may not be super useful as the discard piles would be fairly empty at that point, but it still has the potential to be useful. As the game goes on this card gets more and more powerful although your character dice maybe getting low by then so this card feels very nicely balanced. It’s potential is fabulous. You could play Entangle four times in a game with two of these or boost your damage with a Focus Fire or heal with a Bacta Therapy. The possibilities are endless especially when it isn’t just your own discard pile.
Dice Commando Spoilers
Before you read our take on the next three spoilers from TCI, please check out the Dice Commando video where these are first revealed to the world. You can find it here and Andrew covers these cards nicely.
Tobias Beckett – Playing the Odds
I loved the old Tobias Beckett and it’s nice to see him back in the game. A 10 cost for 10 health character is pretty solid and (of course) a scoundrel as well which is always a relevant subtype with the Entourage package of cards still in the game. It is in tandem with the Scoundrel package that his ability has the potential to go, shall we say, nuts. His ability is designed to be a 50/50 shot on each dice so you’ll hit it 25% of the time using his own dice. But imagine once you get two Hired Muscle on the table and his Power Action becomes a guaranteed hit. Your opponent better be prepared with removal for one of those dice. I love the innovation in Tobias‘s character dice. We have already seen from TCI cards that have a cost of a shield and now they bring in self indirect and self discard. I think everyone would discard a card for two resources. I hope we see more of this mechanic. Rendezvous is definitely going to feature in every Beckett deck. I think I’ll start by pairing with Enfys Nest and go full Solo movie. Drop in the full Entourage package and we are on our way to a solid start to a deck.
DLT-19X Blaster
This is a pretty nice weapon. It re-uses the Relby Dice which feels like the grandfather to more recent 3 cost weapons like Pulse Cannon. These dice are always a prime target for your opponents removal and I think this weapon is no exception. Being able to remove a character dice, and not just from the attached character, for a 2 damage boost is really nice and makes this a solid threat. The icing on the cake is that it comes with Redeploy. Get your on play bonuses from Han’s Blaster or Chewie’s Blaster and then overwrite later to this to keep the ramp on the table. I do wonder if we’ll see a card or ability that can exhaust this without needing the Power Action. A brand new Take Aim or maybe Val comes back with something that let’s her do that. We’ll have to wait and see. I just wish I had this now for the deck I plan to play in the TCI echobase Event on the 11/11/21.
Smart Move
Our final card to look through is this neutral yellow event and I really like this one. This card works with so many characters and is very versatile. You’ve run out of damage sides but need 2 more damage to take that character out and boom, most characters have a 1 resource side and in yellow neutral we have Reap. Reap, Smart Move for 2 ranged. Gives me the feel of Bait and Switch but so much more versatile. Lando from Eternal Conflict loves this card. His dice becomes 5 damage sides with three of them being value 3. However, I would really like to play this with Enfys Nest Marauder. Resolve the resource 2 for 1 side for 3 ranged and an indirect for the Marauder’s ability for a total of 4 damage playing this. Definitely a Smart Move.
Altered Paths looks to have many fun options to try already. I for one am looking forward to playing this soon. I have no idea so far what I’d try first.
echobase 