Of all of the Masters of the Force found in our favorite galaxy from a long time ago, far, far away, my favorite will always be Obi-Wan Kenobi. And, despite my overall underwhelmed perception of Episodes I-III, my favorite version of Obi-Wan is Prequel Obi-Wan. Suffice to say, I’m quite excited to see the newly announced Legacies set bringing Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master (LG32) to the table! Interestingly, our new version of Obi-Wan is merely one point cheaper than Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mysterious Hermit (SR37). So what do you lose (and what do you gain) from that one point difference? And is Obi-Wan worth fielding or will he be relegated to the pile of overpriced Heroes that sits gathering dust in your collection? Let’s take a look and see!
Artwork
The artwork features a stunning depiction of Ewan McGregor’s likeness as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Episode III Obi-Wan is absolutely my favorite version of the character. I think by this point in the trilogy, Ewan McGregor had absolutely nailed his ability to channel his inner young Sir Alec Guinness, and he had started to resemble him physically in an uncanny way also. To see my favorite version of my favorite Jedi given FFG’s standard excellent art treatment is certainly exciting! And I love the gentle blue hue cast over the image from his lightsaber. Needless to say, I want a full art promo for this one!
Health
Twelve health is incredibly good! As many of you have learned, the difficulty of killing a character seems to increase exponentially as its health increases beyond 9. Eight health characters tend to drop early, but any character with 11 or more health tends to prove to be fairly resilient. The fact that Obi-Wan is going to have an easy time staying shielded (along with an incentive to do so) means that he’ll be that much harder to kill as well.
Die
Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master’s die is interesting. Obviously any die with two 3-Melee damage sides (one with a resource cost) is going to be strong. However, Obi-Wan trades in the Focus sides that we tend to find on Hero Jedi for two 1-Shield sides. These sides are clearly meant to synergize with Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Lightsaber (LG37). (Fun fact: the set number for Obi Wan Kenobi’s Lightsaber in Legacies is the same as Obi-Wan’s set number in Spirit of Rebellion.) While Obi-Wan is obviously intended to utilize shields to his advantage, I can’t help but feel like I would be disappointed to resolve a 1-Shield side on his dice. Also, the loss of the Focus side means that you can’t even use My Ally is the Force (SR105) as an overly expensive Force Strike (AW83). It seems to be a decent die, but I think it will obviously depend on exactly how effectively Obi-Wan can leverage shields in the new meta.
Ability
Obi-Wan’s ability reads, “After you activate this character, you may give a character 1 shield.” This is neither an overly good nor an overly disappointing ability. One shield for free is hardly anything to scoff at, but it’s also not the most exciting ability that will be on the table. Much like his die, the utility of this ability is going to depend much on the new card pool and what options he has with shields.
Possible Combinations
Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Lightsaber
Obviously, any discussion of how to play Obi-Wan Kenobi has to involve his shiny new lightsaber, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Lightsaber that will be debuting in Legacies as well. This weapon has the standard 2-Melee and +3-Melee sides that we’re used to seeing on 3 cost weapons. However it also sports two 2-Shield sides and an interesting Special. The Shields seem to again strongly imply that Obi-Wan is going to have multiple ways of leverage shields in the new set, and the Special ability on this die is our first taste of that. It reads, “Give attached character 1 shield. Deal unblockable damage to a character equal to the number of shields on attached character.” This results in a minimum of 1 unblockable damage, but I would suspect that it will usually be much more than that when it’s attached to Obi-Wan. Overall, not a bad die at all. I certainly don’t miss the resource cost Melee side that we see so often on lightsabers, and while I would want to resolve it for damage, I’m not sure that I would be disappointed with the 2-Shield side if I had to resolve it.
Maz Kanata, Pirate Queen
With an elite cost of 19, everyone’s gut reaction pairing for Obi-Wan has to be Maz Kanata, Pirate Queen (SR 45). And honestly, that might be for good reason. In addition to being one of the few (if not only) ways to bring 4 dice to the team with elite Obi-Wan, Maz also brings 2 Focus sides and a killer ability that will help Obi-Wan consistently churn out those 3-Melee damage sides. What you lose in synergy with My Ally is the Force, you gain back in consistency by being able to include elite Maz. This is certainly an advantage over other notably strong Jedi like Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight (AW35), Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mysterious Hermit (SR37), and Mace Windu, Jedi Champion, (EW34) who can each only be paired with a single die Maz. This will likely be the first pairing that I try with elite Obi-Wan, and I expect to get reasonably good results out of it.
Riposte
While we don’t yet know what shields will offer in Legacies, we do already have some cards that take advantage of them in the current card pool, and considering how many shields I expect to be able to keep on Obi-Wan, Riposte (AW121) becomes an obvious include in any decks with him. For 0 cost, you should reliably be able to use this for 2-3 damage.
Other Shield Synergy Cards
While we don’t yet know what these will be, I strongly suspect that his lightsaber and Riposte won’t be the only ways that Obi-Wan can turn shields into damage or other advantageous effects. I’ve always wanted to see new lightsaber form upgrades like Makashi Training (SR 56), and I’m crossing my fingers (or perhaps extending them forward in an Obi-Wan stance?) that we’ll be getting a Soresu Training upgrade in this set. (Here’s my random guess for it’s card text – “Action – Remove one of your dice showing Shields and exhaust this upgrade to remove a die showing ranged damage.”)
Qui-Gon Jinn, Ataru Master
Finally, we come to the best pairing! My favorite two Jedi are finally able to be paired up! Wait. What’s that? You can’t pair up Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon (AW37)?! Sigh. I guess I’m still stuck waiting for Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padawan.
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With every set we are going to continue to add more dice altering cards to the pool of possible deck builds. I have to say, 3 damage sides are becoming a little too common IMO. The meta will suffer for this, no doubt about it. Power creep hits every game, but it seems like the power creep of SWD is very accelerated. Feels, dare I say, intentional by FF as a cheap tactic to sell product. OWK’s LS should cost 4 for sure. His character card though will be very hard to pair up with unless some super under costed 7/11 hero comes out or you pair with Maz and her stupid goggles to focus Obi’s dice to double 3s.
The best marketing strategy is always “Make Your Own Products Obsolete – Before Someone Else Does” This has been MTG’s method for years, and it seems FF is following in their footprints.