Hello fellow Star Wars Destiny players – It’s been a hot minute since we have written an article analysing cards or decks. We’ve each individually been focused on different aspects of the game; LandoWonka streams Thursday night echobase weeklies, Echo3 is on the ARH admin design and production team and Echo7 has been working on design and has started a young family.

Let’s get back to business as usual..

Today on echobase we will be taking a look at 3 fresh and exclusive spoilers from ARH’s 5th full set expansion, Seeking Answers.

Starting with “The Mutilator of Milvane“, Doctor Cornelius Evazan. This scoundrel is a wanted man. Cornelius has the death sentence on twelve systems and an unlimited number of known bounties on his head. To include this guy on your team come’s with a downside; once defeated, your opponent will gain 2 resources and draw 2 cards. That is quite the downside, and should be enough of a temptation for an opponent to target this infamous scoundrel first in every game.

Looking at his health to points ratio, he’s coming in at 1 health above average for what is expected for an elite 14 point character. A comparative character here would be Transformations Han Solo, who matches Evazan in 3 ways: points cost, health, and gives a bonus to the opponent once defeated.

The die is one I’d describe as annoying. It’s a pestering control-esque die that can force you into spending your money if he rolls the double disrupt, or could ruin your round by discarding cards from your hand. Look out for Vicious Tactics plays off of the discard side too to take 3 cards from hand. His damage output is not the most threatening, but that’s not where his value lies.

Evazan’s value is in his power action. A built in, once per round, He Doesn’t Like You (full flavour theme here). We’ve seen over the last few metas just how powerful characters with built-in mitigating effects can be with the likes of Taron Malicos and Benthic. The Power Action feeds into the recent faction identity for Yellow villain with a ‘Remove your dice to do X’ mechanic; perhaps there is a build around Black Stall Station with that pestering 1 indirect for each time you remove your own die.

LandoWonka
Well he’s certainly not a looker. There are a lot of interesting elements going on with this character. Cornelius with his built in bounty is just enticing your opponent to target him, and at 14pts you are hoping that is enough of a distraction away from the potentially bigger, better, 16 point character that he can pair with. I think the power action being any of your dice and not simply his dice makes him even more of an annoyance that your opponent would want to get rid of.

So who are we going to pair him with. I have two that instantly come to mind and that’s Count Dooku and Moff Gideon. Gideon has always been good with yellow and removal each round should give you more time to put your game plan in place with a maximum amount of potential disruption. Dooku seems to be a perfect fit as if you can PA a character die then you get a free damage out of the Power Action as well. Add in the above mentioned Black Stall Station and you’ve just turned what will be your worst dice in the pool into 2 damage. That sounds nifty and very annoying. If they go for your “big” character then they won’t get Cornelius’s in-built bounty. There is probably scope for a double bluff here where you plan everything around them going for your “big” and Cornelius is the lynchpin of your whole strategy after all. Definitely one to try.

echo7:
Great points to health and die ratio, but as the others have said already, the strength here really lies in that PA. He Doesn’t Like You was a very good card that made it into pretty much every yellow villain deck. Having it on tap is extremely strong, and makes this 14-pointer a worthy support character despite the bounties on his head:

I’ve been trying to build a competitive Black Stall Station deck for a while, and am already plotting and scheming how I can work this character in. For me, the scariest thing about this character is that he has four 2-sides. Sure, they’re mixed, but if my opponent has the battlefield and rolls this guy out early, no matter which he hits, it’s going to be limiting my options for the round.

Next up, Nikto Sand Raiders:

Nikto Sand Riders or as the flavour text suggests, The Kintan Striders Gang, comes fresh out of Disney’s latest offering – The Book of Boba Fett. A destructive and obnoxious gang of thugs, ARH’s interpretation of these guys is quite niche, but captures their disruptive nature quite well within the card design. In the right match-up, against a support heavy deck, this card could be quite annoying to face.

After activating, you may choose a support and exhaust it unless that opponent gives you one resource. Depending on which option your opponent chooses, you have disrupted the opponent’s board state to some extent. If they pay you off, you’ve caused a two resource swing. The other way to look at this is the support you choose to exhaust has actually cost an additional resource for that opponent to play. Perhaps you activate this support when the opponent is out of cash, that way they have no choice other than to exhaust the support. This support will force the opponent to always have one resource in the bank to pay you off if the support you choose to exhaust is crucial to their win condition.

The die’s pretty good too. Let’s see if this has an impact on the meta.

LandoWonka
I think this will see a lot of play. It’s essentially a 2 die support with the die it comes with and this ability could be a 1 resource and 1 disrupt essentially. That’s if you get paid off and they want to keep the support to use. If you don’t, they lose out on that support and it’s still kind of like having a 1 resource side as it’s the equivalent of removing the support die which on average is going to cost 1 resource.

Most decks will have some form of support, generally to help them ramp and if nothing else this will shut down that ramp. I think you need to have a fast deck that can get to the claim to take full advantage of this ability, but it’s not a vehicle so we can’t pilot it for speed, so it’s likely we just throw these into our deck as our only supports as I think we’ll see these in most decks. An interesting interaction comes when coupled with some pirates and the Ultimate Heist as it would trigger the plot if they gave you the resource making their decision even more difficult.

echo7:
What I like about this card is that while it’s a meta call card, it’s actually still a decent card against any deck. Sure, the die is a little weak for the cost, but I’ll still happily drop this on the table against an upgrade deck if I find myself flush for cash. And it’s that latter point which is crucial here: 3-costs have to pull their weight to be worth it as you’re spending more than a round’s worth of resources.

I like the idea of using this to shut down an opponent’s It Binds All Things or Merchant Freighter, but agree that to achieve that you’re going to need some speed, which is a tricky ask for a support deck. Against a Bad Batch or similar, this is going to be huge thorn in the side of my opponent.

Finally, we have some villainous mitigation:

Continuing the Scoundrel theme to our spoiler package: Swindle, a two cost Yellow villain event that allows for the resolution of any die (yours or an opponent’s) showing a cost, reducing the die’s cost to zero. It is relatively niche, but there are enough pay side dice running around that this may be worth including in your deck if you are running a scoundrel package. Unlike Reversal, this card can target any die side showing a cost.

LandoWonka
Swindle, I’m less enamoured with this one especially with that creepy picture. It’s an interesting card and possibly more dependant on meta as to whether you include this or not. Even then it might only be a one of in your deck as you can’t be sure you’ll have a chance to use it. If you do find a spot to use it, then it is likely you are hitting one of your opponent’s higher dice sides which are the sides you usually associate with a cost and if you ever manage to use this on that Blizzard I 7 ranged for 1 side then you probably deserve a prize and likely to have won the game. It’s certainly got potential.

I don’t see when this would be used to resolve one of your own dice but then again maybe if it is an indirect cost side and you have limited health left. This would allow you to resolve it without taking the indirect cost. It’s a very niche use but does make it a little more useful.

echo7:
I really like the elegant simplicity of this card, and especially the fact it can be used on indirect and resource pay sides. Most decks have at least one pay side, but some don’t, and those that do, often don’t have many. As such, I think this card is a bit niche unless we see the most popular characters in the Seeking Answers meta sporting pay sides. I think I’d include this as a one-of in a scoundrel deck.

This would be a nice play against Tarkin‘s 3 indirect side, Evazan‘s double discard side, Mace‘s 4 melee (unblockable), Droideka‘s 3 ranged (for 4), or Bossk‘s 4 indirect side, as well as the big bad Blizzard of course. Someone please do that one day…

That’s all for now, keep your eyes open for more spoilers in the coming days and weeks before May the fourth and the Seeking Answers release.