Welcome back everyone to another Card Dissection by yours truly. Just when I thought I would be able to complete the circle, we come right back around again. Two articles ago I did Darth Vader (AW10) and then last article I did his son, Luke Skywalker (AW35). As soon as I completed that last article, what gets spoiled? Another Darth Vader card, and boy was it an exciting reveal. Without farther to do, let’s dive into that reveal card: Darth Vader (SR10)
The Art
OMG! This art is so amazingly detailed. I love it. The first thing that stands out to me is that this is a prequel version of the iconic Darth Vader character, which right away makes it sweet. This fact is made even sweeter by the detailed art of the card itself. Darth Vader is in his ready pose, ready to fight with aggression on his face. In the background of the card, we can see that he is standing on the shore of the lava that he will soon fall into.
Going into to more detail of the card’s art, it is a very bright and colorful picture. This is helped by the glow of the lightsaber and of the lava. The lava itself looks photo realistic, almost like the real thing. The lightsaber is also very radiant and while I can not call it photo realistic, I can say that it is pretty well done. I love the outfit Darth Vader is wearing. I loved it in the film and I love how well done it was done by the artist. Though I do have to say, I thought it was an all-black costume in the film. I may be wrong on that one again, but either way it takes nothing away from the artwork. Moving down we get to Vader’s hand. As we know at this point he has a mechanical hand covered by a glove, however in the art it looks like a gauntlet. I am sure this was done on purpose to bring attention to the fact that his arm was replaced. As I mentioned before, his facial expression of aggression is dead on.You can see the hate in his eyes. No Sith eyes or facial scar, though. This may be an oversight or may have been too much detail to put in the card. Ether way, it is still wonderful in its capture of Vader.
I can not see the artist’s name, but whoever it is deserve some credit. This has to be my favorite art work so far; if not, it’s up there.
Health
Darth Vader’s health is a middle average number of 11, given his other factor this seems to be perfect for him. Like General Grievous (AW3) before him, he is an aggro card. Unlike Grievous, he has more damage sides, cheaper cost, and access to Blue. Him having the health he has is pretty good for what he does.
Point Cost
This card’s point value is 13 for standard and 17 for Elite. Perfect for giving him access to partners for deck building. Unlike his previous version, you can access a couple of double-Elite character decks with his Elite version. This will be scary to be sitting across given this card’s die sides. Although you would like to run him Elite, his point cost at his single die version allows for him to be paired with a wide number of partners. His point cost is very exciting for deck building options to come.
Die
Holy damage, Padawan! This character’s die sides are, 1 ranged damage, 2 melee damage, 3 melee damage for a resource, 1 discard, 1 special, and, as always, a blank. Right away we see three damage sides which is really strong, but when we again compare it to Grievous, it doesn’t seem as strong. That is an oversight as Vader does have a special which does 3 damage at the expense of one damage to himself, but that one damage can be blocked with shields. That alone is strong, but wait, there is more. Since it is a special side, it can not be targeted by cards, such as Block (AW153), which target damage sides. It can also be switched to its special side with Datapad (AW62), which only makes it stronger with more options. I imagine we will have tons of tricks to be seen with his die’s special side. Not to be outdone, the ability to roll non-special damage is still there and still puts the hurt on your opponent. Even though the one ranged damage cannot be paired with other melee damage sides, it is still damage done. This die has a damage average of 1.5, which I believe is the highest of a character die. Not bad at all Vader, not bad at all.
Although it isn’t damage, he does have a discard side which shouldn’t be forgotten. It is still an aggressive die side to be showing. Even though it doesn’t hurt your opponent’s character, it still puts pressure on your opponent. Never overlook the discard side of a die, even if it’s just one card.
Deck Options
Now we get into the good stuff, what to pair this card with. Truth be told, since we don’t know the contents of Spirit of Rebellion, we are limited with our options. Just like with Luke, I have two for you this time. The first one is to pair his Elite version with Elite Kylo Ren (AW11). Just by going off the characters, this deck has a very thematic feel to it. You use Vader to ping at your opponent, hopefully getting your opponent down to one character before Vader dies. It is at that time that you use Kylo to “finish what Vader started” by knocking out the last character or cleaning up the board with Kylo. It is a mono-color Blue deck so you would be restricted to one color card pool, but it is a very strong color pool. That is without knowing fully what we are getting in Spirit of Rebellion. I suspect this is the first deck people will try.
Another deck option that I think will be strong will be to pair Elite Vader with Elite Bala-Tik (AW19). I fell this deck will be very strong. It is not only a dual-color deck, but has some very strong synchronicity between Vader’s aggressive die sides and Bala’s ability. With how strong that ability is, this is going to be one deck to keep your eye on. It should be noted that even though it does have its strengths, it does have low health and could be rush down pretty easily. Nonetheless, I recommend trying this deck out.
Final Thoughts
Another card that I love. This is my favorite character card revealed so far from the next set. It has so much potential and Vader does what he does well in this version. I predict he will see play and have an effect on the meta right away. I would highly recommend you seek this card out when Spirit of Rebellion gets released.
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