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Game Theory Applied to Destiny: Aggro or Control?

Welcome back! I hope you’re ready for some more game theory, I’ve been sick all week and can’t wait to get back to some Star Wars: Destiny. Let’s dive right into one of my favorite game theory subjects, aggro or control.

It’s not what you think

You must be thinking, “Joe, I already know what archetype my deck is. It’s not that complicated,” and you’d be right. That’s not what we’re talking about here today. This is a question you ask during the game, not when building your deck. It’s actually one of the most important questions you’ll ask yourself, and one you need to answer quickly. That question is “Am I the aggro or control player in this match?”.

The answer isn’t so simple

Now you may be thinking “I play an aggro deck, so duh, I’ll always be the aggro player.”, which isn’t always correct. What if you play against another aggro deck? Can you actually play the aggro game better? Let’s take my current deck as an example. I’m playing eJango/Trooper x2. It’s a fairly aggressive deck most of the time; I play a decent amount of guns and some action economy cards to prevent my opponent from removing damage dice. It doesn’t always work, but it’s what I like. Now, what happens if I end up playing eJango/eVeers? That deck is much faster than mine, I can’t outrace it. If I try to outrace their damage, I’ll just fall short most of the time. Instead, I fall back on my control cards and try and play the long game. With the characters I play, I have more health and can bounce back better when I lose Jango Fett (AW21). I switch from playing aggro to control, and in doing so I increase my win rate.

Knowledge is the key

Being able to answer this question really requires knowledge of your local meta, or the national meta if you end up at World’s. Unlike most TCGs, Star Wars: Destiny gives you a ton of info before the game starts. Just seeing what characters your opponent is playing gives you a big look at what kind of deck they have. Just by seeing that, you should be able to figure out which deck they’re playing and how to adjust your playstyle. Do you see Jango/Veers? You’ll have to slow things down. Han/Rey? Speed it up!

What do you do if you’re opponent is playing a rogue deck though? What if you see something like Dooku/Jabba and Leia/Padme? This is where you need to pay attention to every card they play. You should have an idea after the first round, most of the time. So you’ll really need to be able to change your playstyle on the fly. Just like with Tempo, a little practice will make this second nature, so no need to worry. Just stay sharp, and you should have a grasp of what to expect. With such a small card pool, it shouldn’t be too hard.

Spoiler season and what’s to come

With so many spoilers out already, I’ll probably be doing quite a few Card Dissections for the next few weeks, so this series, as short as it is, will be on hold for a few weeks. I haven’t decided which cards I want to review, but I do know which ones I’m most excited for. Hopefully I’ll get to dissect one of them next week. See you then!


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