Finally! The first installment of my promised game theory article series. If this is the first time you’ve heard of game theory, it’s basically a collection of mental and theoretical concepts that are used mainly in Trading Card Games (TCGs). These concepts apply another aspect to these games and also help players improve at their game of choice. I’ve talked about a couple in my league articles, Mindset and Skill Plateaus, to be specific. Today, we’re going to discuss Tempo.
Metronome Optional
Tempo is not just a part of music, it’s also a good way to measure how well a player is doing while the game is going. How? Well, in most games, you would measure each action a player takes, in beats. So, when applied to Magic, something like playing a creature or spell would, in a vacuum, give them a beat. Whenever their opponent would do something, they would gain a beat, or the first player would just lose a beat. Imagine a metronome set between both players, and the needle tilts towards a player whenever they do something that’s beneficial for themselves. After a few turns of back and forth, you’d effectively just have an arrow that points to whoever is winning!
While there aren’t any TCG metronomes for sale, you can still measure how well you’re doing by keeping track of the beats in your head. It’s hard at first, but gets easier the more you do it. Just being aware of the concept of Tempo will make you more aware of how you are doing. It will keep you actively aware of the board state and your place in the game. You’ll just know when you’re ahead or behind, without actively counting beats.
All of this is when Tempo is applied to a traditional TCG, where both players get a full turn to do what they want, with some or no interaction from their opponent. Let’s now apply this to Star Wars: Destiny.
Measuring Your Destiny
Star Wars: Destiny has such a unique turn process, that I’ve had a bit of trouble applying Tempo to it. I sat and thought about it for a while before I realized that there isn’t anything different that needs to be done. That’s right, it’s exactly the same, it’s just a lot faster. If traditional TCGs had an arrow pointing to whoever was winning, Star Wars: Destiny would have an erratic ticking mess. The first few rounds can be so swingy in either direction since actions move so fast back and forth, and the players are playing upgrades to get their damage going early. The biggest factor though, is your dice. If you roll well, you obviously gain a lot more tempo, but if you roll poorly, you lose a ton. That’s where things are different, luck is a much bigger factor here. In most TCGs, you can still gain beats with bad draws, if you play smart, but in Star Wars: Destiny, one bad roll can set you too far back to recover. Losing a character is also a huge Tempo swing, so big in fact that it can change how you build your deck entirely.
Off The Beat
You’ve probably already noticed that losing a character first usually means you’ll lose the game. Losing the first character, or a character at any time, is such a huge Tempo swing. The first loss is the biggest, though; it puts you way behind on board presence, and it usually means you have fewer upgrades and dice out. Take this into consideration when deck building. Playing more characters usually means losing one isn’t as big a hit, but it also means you have fewer dice per character, and more activations, as well as spreading you thin with upgrades and resources. Having fewer characters makes them each a bigger target and a much larger loss of Tempo when they’re defeated, though they can power-up a lot faster. What I’ve noticed is that running two elite characters is really good, when those characters are both able to carry the deck, even without losing the other. You see people asking all the time, “Who do I target first, Han (AW46) or Rey (AW38)?” That’s exactly what that deck wants you to think. Indecision makes it tough to steal Tempo. I did the same with my Kylo/Jango deck, utilizing the inherent fear most people have on Jango Fett (AW21) to give Kylo Ren (AW11) everything he needed to carry me into the late game.
Keep On Ticking
Even though the luck-based aspects of this game mess with Tempo, it’s still a valuable concept to know. Being able to know how far ahead or behind you are is always useful, and helps you evaluate each roll you make, and whether or not you should bother to re-roll. Either way, you just need to keep going through the game, since that metronome can swing back towards you. Keep on ticking, and I’ll see you next week, when we discuss Control vs Aggro.
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