It’s spoiler season again, as we get ready for Set 6 of Destiny from A Renewed Hope: Display of Power. The set is due to drop on 25 November, and more details can be found on the ARH website here.

We are very happy to be spoiling 4(!) new spoilers for this set today, so let’s get started. First up, we have the broken horned Devaronian from Rebels, Cikatro Vizago:

LandoWonka:
Ever since I first watched this character I’ve always wondered if it is inspired by Dr Zhivago in any way, shape or form and the name just got slighty changed. I know nothing of this story though except the name. Let’s google shall we. “Dr Zhivago’s story illustrates the struggle to find stability and love in this bloody conflict and the years following the takeover of the Communist regime. He can never find peace and acceptance, as he represents the aristocracy by birth while sympathizing with the oppressed who long for change.”

Hmmm, maybe, there is a conflict going on, we don’t see Vizago finding peace and he does work with the rebellion and joins it in the end.

Anyway, what an interesting character for the upcoming set. I absolutely love the idea of this character. Let’s look at his basic stats. 13 health is very good, it seems a little boosted but then he does have self indirect on some of his sides so that is compensation for that. He is a leader which always feels like a good sub-type to have especially for pairing into villain red. I can see a Vizago/Tarkin doing quite well and bringing a decent amount of removal options online.

Looking at his die, it’s a very unique die. Four 2-value sides makes it look pretty good but then we have mixed damage sides which can be annoying in-game sometimes. To take a resource with him you have to damage yourself which is fitting for his smuggling ways. Risking everything for some money. Again, in-game though that doesn’t feel great, just about acceptable but not great.

However, it’s his passive and Power Action that make me like this character so much. We have the passive which means we can re-roll a blank when he activates. Okay, you can re-roll other stuff too but I appreciate a free re-roll of a blank like with Han’s Dice from olden times and I’m sure our good friend Norm will be glad to be able to re-roll a blank. It’s the Power Action that really excites me about this character the most. We have indirect cost sides and resource cost sides. The indirect ones are nice but I think this Power Action shines when used on the resource pay side. It could really mess with your opponents plans and makes it quite awkward for them. Just check out the recent videos from NooBrainer/Gameslayer on You Tube using the Nar Shaada Thief for a similar effect. That resource side they’ve rolled they now can’t take as you’ll just use it up. If they try and play around it then there is always Truce if it remains on the reprint list. So many pairings that could work well with Vizago. Can’t wait. I do think he may be slightly over-costed but we’ll have to wait and see if I’m proven correct on that one.

echo7:
First up, a silly aside: some years ago I met Eddie Fowlie, the man responsible for the snow scenes at the end of Dr Zhivago. Given the film was shot in hot and sunny Spain, this was little short of a special effects miracle in the 1960’s. Seriously, Google pictures of the snow scenes.

Anyway, I too love this character. As LandoWonka says, those sides on their own for 14/16 don’t look great, but that Power Action turns them into a mighty weapon. That 3 indirect for 1 resource side is especially scary: it’s essentially a 1 disrupt and a 3 indirect damage rolled into one (though you can’t resolve the 3 indirect damage as a Power Action unless that opponent actually has the 1 resource). The discard and resource sides are also pretty potent, hitting the opponent for 1 indirect damage and getting something else out of them too, and these have the benefit that they will always be resolvable.

I can’t see that 3 indirect side being resolved terribly often: your opponent is likely to spend their way out of their situation. However, assuming Truce remains on the reprint list, you can always spring that on them right before you Power Action that resource pay side, much like pirate decks like to do.

Being neutral, he’s got a lot of options for partners. You could stay neutral and get 2 extra health with No Allegiance and Fennec Shand, however you’d be losing a lot of great cards as a result. I’m thinking Den of Thieves and Vicious Tactics in villain (turning that resource side into a 2 resource side, and the discard into a triple) and Swift for hero. I can hear Echo3ofclubs in my head telling me that no-one plays Swift, but I think with Vizago, you’re going to want to, as he can activate and immediately Power Action to resolve one of his dice. I think LandoWonka is right in thinking that Tarkin is going to be a scary partner for him, not least of all because you get to play At All Costs.

I also really like that passive. It can be used on most dice, as pseudo-mitigation, or as a simple blank re-roll. It’s ability to set him up for the Power Action is of course the point here, so let’s have a little bit of maths: pick one of those pay sides, any one, like the 3 indirect for 1 resource side. Without his passive ability, the chance of you hitting that exact side on at least 1 of his dice is 31%. With his ability, that increases to 40%. That’s not insignificant. Additionally, the chance of you hitting any pay side without his ability would be 75%. But that increases to 88% with his ability. Not bad.

Echo3ofclubs:
A character designed around ‘costs’ certainly makes Vizago slightly different from the other 16pt elite yellow character’s we currently have available. Vicious Tactics is his best friend, which is villain, so I feel that his best partner will be found on the dark side rather than the hero’s. An all Scoundrel pairing with Evazan seem‘s tempting, especial to make use of the upcoming upgrade coming later within the article.

Vizago seems to play an unusual tempo game – you want to bring him in first on the hope’s of hitting that 3 for 1 to disrupt the opponent. With that in mind he seems to play out more like a supporting roll than your ‘big’ for your team composition. Characters that typically have value solely in their dice don’t seem to get much competitive play, so let’s see if Vizago can break that mould. His passive isn’t to be sniffed at; pseudo mitigating an opponent on activation can turn the tides.
Right now I’m more inclined to play Boba Fett in the 16pt elite Yellow neutral spot (more out of preference of my own play style) but Vizago seems to hit just differently enough to be a build around character so let’s wait and see what build he ends up in.

Now we have Vizago, we need his ship, the Broken Horn:

LandoWonka:
More pay sides on Vizago’s ship which makes sense. If he himself wasn’t limited to his own character dice for his Power Action then I think he jumps up a notch and this ship looks a lot better. It’s not terrible but it’s going to be tricky justifying playing this if you have some of the other 3 cost supports available in your hand at the time. I can see this getting included as a 1 of in some decks and maybe a 2 of in Vizago decks as you get the Power Action for free then. It’s such a cool looking ship that I really want to play it but I think it’s play will be limited overall.

echo7:
We continue the pay side theme here. Again, those sides look a little underwhelming for 3 resources, but the Power Action, which is resolvable regardless whether you’re playing Vizago, gives this 4 indirect damage (for 1 resource), a 3 shield, and a net 2 resource side. That’s not too bad for 3 resources. Plus, if you’re pairing with red and running At All Costs anyway, you can use this as a nice target for that card.

Honestly, I think this is a nice 3 cost support, but it suffers from the problem that all yellow 3 cost supports do: it’s not quite as good as Tusken Camp. Nice theme, great pay side synergy, but probably unlikely to make the cut unless you’re going all out theme.

Right, we’ve got a scoundrel and his ship, now he just needs a gun, so here we have an E-851 Blaster Pistol, as used by Zorii Bliss:

LandoWonka:
I know that is Poe Dameron in the picture there but I can’t be the only one that thinks he looks a lot like Tyrion Lannister at this angle with a hood on and maybe if you squint your eyes a little. This is a nice, useful weapon and I think it can fit in more than just Scoundrel decks that allow you to turn this into direct damage. Bing was the first that came to mind who could like this, Saw Guerrera is another. From the same movie as the picture, Babu Frik is sporting two Indirect sides on his dice to pair up with that modifier. There is Benthic as well. What makes me giggle about this the most is that on a scoundrel with this weapon and a Bo-Rifle you will be showing melee and indirect but can resolve it all as ranged damage, full coverage of all the damage sides. It makes me think this weapon could pop up in quite a few decks. We all love a two cost weapon with Redeploy after all. The biggest question though is will we see this in a Jar’kai deck. I guess Aayla Secura has an indirect side on her die.

echo7:
For 2 resources you get a nice little Redeploy weapon. We’ve got 4 2-cost yellow weapons with Redeploy so far from ARH, so let’s compare. They are: Bo-Rifle, Darksaber, Gaderffii, and Sabine’s Westar.

I’m going to assume this is on a scoundrel, because it just doesn’t seem worth it otherwise. So we’re looking at 1RD, 2RD, +3RD, 1Dc, 1Res, -. Those sides probably have a slight edge over all but the Darksaber, which comes with its own problems. Assuming you have a ranged base side, that +3 is pretty handy to have, though having the flexibility to use it with a base indirect side might save you sometimes. Having that flexibility also means you could also deliberately pass on the ranged damage even if you’re sitting on a base side, to improve tempo if you have other indirect sides in your pool.

In conclusion, I’m going to say this is a solid upgrade, but it’s only going to make the cut in the right deck.

Echo3ofclubs:
Quite a niche weapon but this absolutely gets played in a Scoundrel build. Just a reminder some of the scoundrels within ARH standard currently available: Hondo, Zorrii Bliss, Cornelius Evazan, Ponda Baba, Dash Rendar, Nien Nunb, Chewbacca, it’s no secret that I’m heading up this set so I know of a few more Scoundrels (LandoWonka – Is this spoiler season or something?) that will make good use of this upgrade. Even outside of Scoundrel decks this can pack a punch if your using this in a heavy indirect build and can match up the modifier with a base side (Hera / Saw / Benthic). The redeploy brings that extra value helping it stay on the table. In review: I feel this upgrade is different enough within the niche of yellow redeploys to see some play in the right builds.

Finally, we’re got a bit of space chess: Dejarik:

LandoWonka:
I really like this card. Partly as I found the image for it and partly as chess was my route into all forms of games so you might see me play this a lot just because of that. Zero cost events are always considered quite strongly when it comes to building your decks and this one is no different. There are so many uses for this card.

The key element about this card is timing as you try and give your opponent nothing from it. That can definitely be tricky. The main slot for this is when your opponent has a single die in the pool or you do. You can boost yours by one or force your opponent to remove one. Your opponent gets nothing.

The resolve a die at plus one is really nice and has use throughout the game. Grab an extra resource early, sneaky extra disrupt or discard to trouble your opponent, or late game there is a slot where you roll in, hit a damage side, but are one short of the kill. They roll in their character thinking they have a moment to get dice in the pool and then boom you resolve it for one more defeating their character, taking their dice out of the pool and minimising the choices they will have from the card.

It’s also not terrible as a zero cost removal card but especially so against those characters with big character dice like say Black Krrsantan, Rey or Yoda rolling in with no blanks, as long as there are no other dice in the pool of course.

I can’t see the re-roll option being taken much or being a reason to include the card. Although as I think about it and re-read the card, you can re-roll any die. Yours or your opponent’s, so it is a nice mini defence against a god roll. Beautifully designed zero cost card.

echo7:
This card initally had me empathising with Zeb in the image. It was a really tricky one to get my head around. As LandoWonka said, you want to play this when either you or your opponent has 1 die in their pool, and ideally there’s no other dice around. That way either you get a +1 on your die, or it’s free removal of the opponent’s die. But really, I could see myself playing this on a resource side early game if it’s going to be setting me up for something big, even if the opponent gets something out of it (though I probably wouldn’t if they also had a base resource side out).

I could see this being most effective in a Black Stall Station deck, where having to remove one of your own dice still deals 1 indirect damage to the opponent.

A beautifully designed card, that really feels like it fits the theme of a cerebral game from the Star Wars Universe.

echo3ofclubs:
The fellas have covered it, but this card probably stands out as my personal favourite event within Display of Power.

That’s all for now. Hope you enjoy the rest of the spoiler season, and let us know what you think of these cards in our discord or in the comments below.