Now that Drafting is fully supported by Fantasy Flight Games, and as the wide-scale release of Rivals approaches, we wanted to take a minute and compile some tips for those going into drafting for the first time. Thanks to Ruben and Kyle for their thoughts on Drafting.
CHARACTER TEAM
Per the draft rules, you draft six packs, in lots of three packs at a time. This is a total of 15 cards, three of which are dice cards. Within the first three packs you put your eyes on, you should start determining what character team you will play. Rivals only allows for two colors within the characters it provides, so our best advice is to determine that color combo early, and if you get a better character in one of those colors, then take it and move on, but switching colors halfway through could lead to less card choices available to you when you go to build decks.
Remember, you can only get a rainbow if you draft a yellow character 10 points or less, or a red/blue character 9 points or less. Also, three characters means three dice, so be careful about choosing two more powerful characters with no room for a third. This could result in lower damage output overall and less health for your opponent to fight through.
Be sure to keep in mind damage synergy, knowing that the Rivals pack is well balanced with its upgrades.
MITIGATION AND CONTROL
Rivals contains some control cards, but not in the quantities that we are used to utilizing in our constructed decks. Drafting cards that can remove and/or manipulate dice are critical. What is “meh” in constructed is powerful in draft due to the limited card pool.
CARDS WITH A LONG LIFE
When you draft, start evaluating cards based on their ability to stay in play longer, or keep other cards in play longer. For example, Magnaguard (EW8), stays in play through the entire turn after receiving its final damage. Draft games are generally slower, so this could be a huge benefit for you. Events that heal, give shields, characters with higher health values, redeployable weapons, are all much more valuable in a draft setting.
DICE CARDS ARE FEW
Outside of your characters, Rivals only has 5 dice, and with the color restrictions, you will likely only have 3-4 of those to chose from. When you draft a die, make sure you can use it. You will likely only draft 5-7 dice, so make each one count! This ties back in to when selecting your character team, the more characters you draft, the less upgrades and support with dice you will have access to when deck building.
DON’T FORGET…
- Mill is still a viable strategy for winning, and could be a secondary win condition if you find a couple of good mill cards while drafting.
- Consider your resource cost.
- Anakin Skywalker’s (RV1) special only works if you have a hero or villain card in hand, so be careful when selecting him as your character in draft. If you have a hand full of neutral cards, his special is no better than a blank.
- Battlefields can turn the tide of battle, but don’t expect to always be able to claim.
- You can change your deck between rounds, so feel free to experiment as the event progresses.
Hopefully you will have the chance to get out a draft! If you have additional tips or comments about drafting Star Wars: Destiny, let us know in the comment below!
Support The Chance Cube
Do you enjoy the content provided by The Chance Cube? Would you like to connect even further with The Chance Cube Family? Consider supporting this content by joining our Patreon. We are a team dedicated to media coverage and community building, committed to bringing you the best of this game, sharing the joy and community that comes with it. Our Patreons enjoy membership in The Chance Cube Hangout, our Facebook group for supporters of the channel, and we have additional tiers that include gifts from us to you as a thanks for the generous support. Find out more at patreon.com/thechancecube.
Drafted an FN last night in my local game, and I’ll say that he’s definitely not the best in this format at all. Still a decent support character, but you may get better mileage from other similar cost characters with better dice. Big characters like Sabine and Palpatine hit the table, and both did very poorly in draft.
My advice? Pick one draft kit character, build your deck around that character in your choices. What’s good in constructed is a far cry in draft.
Totally! What we find good in Constructed tends to rely on the other cards in the deck and how they synergize with it. In Draft, it feels each card is only as good as itself, and only in very rare occasions can you get several cards to work well together.
Thank you for the helpful hints!