Welcome to our first article on Tabletop Timesinks!  Empire at War has now been released (at least in the U.S.; we’ve got to wait one more week for it in the U.K.!), so we thought we’d share with you our top five most wanted cards from the set.

These lists are not necessarily what we think are going to be the best or most sought-after cards in the set (Ancient Lightsaber is most likely going to be the Force Speed of EaW), but the cards that we personally want to get our hands on and put into decks straight away.

Tim’s Most Wanted #5

Tim: This card will make villain mill decks viable. Decks using characters such as Unkar Plutt often generate lots of resources, so will likely be able to mill a significant portion of someone’s deck in one go.  Expect to see this in Thrawn/Unkar decks going forward (which is where I will be testing it out first).

Jaydee: Terrifying concept giving Plutt something this scary to spend his huge amount of resources…at least it’ll keep him away from using Prized Possession on my Poe die first turn.

Tim: I’ll probably still be using Prized Possession…

Jaydee’s Most Wanted #5

Jaydee: Electrostaff is definitely on my watchlist, following on Spirit Of Rebellion’s set, I loved Overkill and this is the melee version with an added bonus!

Tim: I really like this card.  It’s quite tempting to try and use it with General Grievous, but I can definitely see it being used in Mace Windu decks. It also has a disrupt side, so works well with Imperial Inspection.

Jaydee: The Grievous idea for this card sounds fantastic, I’ll be glad to see him in play once again after been absent from decks for so long.

Tim’s Most Wanted #4

Tim: Along with numerous other cards in Empire at War, this one is going to help make supports more action-efficient.  The stats on this upgrade are probably not worth two resources, but the support activation more than makes up for it.

Jaydee: Personally I’m not a huge fan of the vehicles decks, but this set is looking to change my mind about that. Looking forwards to seen more vehicles been used for more than Poe specials.

Jaydee’s Most Wanted #4

Jaydee: Lightsaber Training is a must for me as I’m aiming at a nice blue weapons deck.

Tim: I’m not as big a fan of this card as you are, but if you’re going heavily into blue weapons it is definitely good value for one resource.  For me, it’d be tough to choose between this and Concentrate.  I probably wouldn’t put both of them in the same deck, as that’d be too many cards that only affect your dice and not your opponent’s.

Tim’s Most Wanted #3

Tim: I’ve been quite eager to find a replacement for Rey, Force Prodigy.  Rey does have a good ability, but her dice are awful.  Kanan’s dice have the same damage potential, but have no modified sides.  While you can chain a lot of actions with Rey, I think that Kanan will be useful without having to constantly put upgrades on him.  I’m looking forward to testing him out in my Maz/Snap deck (along with Planetary Uprising, etc).

Jaydee: Kanan was on my top five too, but I was sure you would cover it better. Anything to get rid of Rey’s (Force Prodigy) awful, cheap dice.

Jaydee’s Most Wanted #3

Jaydee: Finally SLJ is here, awesome artwork and a ton of damage with a horrific action ability. Will be fun to see what concoctions people come up with for him…I know I’ve got a few in mind.

Tim: Party’s over, indeed!  With three good melee damage sides (including a four damage side for one resource) Mace Windu is going to be a wrecking ball.  His ability also adds a certain finality to proceedings, preventing things like shields, Force Illusion, and Armor Plating from staving off death.  However, at 22 points for the elite version it’s going to be difficult to find a good partner for him.  Perhaps Rebel Trooper for guardian and access to red (and Electrostaff)?

Tim’s Most Wanted #2

Tim: This character is pure control and is going to be fun to use, but probably not fun to play against.  Players that know the meta should be able to make educated guesses about the cards that their opponent is likely to have, but there’s always cards like Friends In Low Places or As I Have Foreseen to make certain.  The obvious partner for Thrawn is Unkar Plutt, but Kylo Ren, Vader’s Disciple, could be an interesting choice.

Jaydee: You have no soul! Thrawn opponents be prepared to flip the tables and whine about selling your collections.

Tim: He definitely has the potential to be a negative play experience (NPE).

Jaydee: AKA painful.

Jaydee’s Most Wanted #2

Jaydee: The Ronseal effect (does exactly what it says on the tin) for a blue weapons deck. For freeeeeeee! No more waiting on that big-hitting lightsaber to pop out of your deck. Rey’s Lightsaber I’m looking at you.

Tim: This card has caused some minor controversy, mostly because of its shuffle effect (the first one in Destiny so far, if I remember rightly?).  This is going to be a staple in pretty much any deck that can run it (FN-2199 decks will probably love it).

Tim’s Most Wanted #1

Tim: Woo, vehicles!  Hera is going to help you make use of all the juicy vehicles that will be available once Empire at War hits. Her special ability could be seen as a worse version of Poe’s ability, but it does open up options that Poe can’t use, such as Recycle or Reckless Reentry. Personally, I’m going to try Hera in a mono-red team with Poe, but the most popular team with her in will probably be eHera/eMaz/Rookie Pilot.  Either way, she’s going to be a lot of fun!

Jaydee: Good to see Hera been added, her character is pretty cool in Rebels. Her ability is fantastic to the levels that I’m going to go out of my depth and try out a vehicle deck for sure…Tim, any chance you wanna trade back the Falcons?

Tim: Zero chance.

Jaydee’s Most Wanted #1

Jaydee: I’ve been waiting on this gal since I started playing the game, Ashoka shares the position of my favourite character in Star Wars alongside Darth Maul. Her ability makes her useful as either elite or a simple single dice, and to top it off she is the first character I’ll be making a deck with.

Tim: There’s been a lot of debate about whether it’s best to run her with one or two character dice. Without testing, I’m not sure, but the first build I’d be tempted to go with would include her at one dice alongside two Padawans.  You’re going to want to devote a fair amount of resources to readying Ahsoka every turn, so anything that saves you money will be useful, hence the Padawans and probably cards like It Binds All Things.  Blue heroes got another boost in this set with Funeral Pyre, which basically gives redeploy to an upgrade that doesn’t have it.  Ahsoka is definitely one to keep an eye on.

Summary

That concludes our first article on Tabletop Timesinks, we hoped you enjoyed it. Expect to see regular Star Wars Destiny content from us here, including tournament reports, deck ideas, card discussion, and more!

Cheers!

Tim & Jaydee