Roger, roger!
Sitting across from my playtest partner, I ask, “Which deck do you want to play? I have Kylo/Anakin, Boba/7th Sister, Yoda/Hondo, Aayla/Rose/Ezra, Thrawn/Talzin or Rieekan/Yoda/Partisan.”
“Hmm,” says my playtest partner… “I think Kylo/Anakin for lots of lightsabers!”
“Right-o then!” I say, “Which deck should I be playing? Remember, this is for the regionals – the biggest event I’ll be playing until the Nationals later in the year!”
“Duh, play your usual deck!” he says. So I do. We both know I won’t be taking home any prizes, but we also know that the rest of the game will be a whole ton of fun! My playtest partner is my (now 7) year old son and he quite enjoys slashing battle droids with lightsabers. It turns out, almost everyone I know does! It’s a very popular deck… to play against!
Building the Army
I was one of those lucky guys who just happened to open up lots of Battle Droids (LG9). Not just from the packs I bought. My LFGS (shout out to Milsims Games) runs weekly games and Greg, the organiser, makes sure that new players get plenty of cards, and that everybody gets something for playing – even if they lose every game. It was from these loser packs that I kept getting Battle Droids!
I am well known for playing hideously awful decks that are, nevertheless, a hoot to play with and against! My Tom, Dick, Harry, and Kate troopers deck was shelved to make way for a five-wide Battle Droid deck!
I’ve played redeploy, all event and lots of support versions (with all things in between) and here’s the list I’ve been playing most recently.
There are three key things that I have found that are the secrets to this deck being good.
- Say “Roger, roger!” whenever you get the free activation from rolling indirect damage.
- Say “Uh-oh!” in a battle droid voice when your opponent rolls well.
- Given the lack of space on the mat for all the support cards, when your droids die, make a point of saying that you’re adding the scrap metal to a pile on the side and dump them over there.
Within each game, I will often play to try and win, but mainly this deck is just plain fun and often I’ll play sub-optimally just to do something crazy! I go for Imperial Backing (EW64) and LR1K Sonic Cannon (EW46), or Ground Battalion (LG60) and grind out lots of indirect damage. Armored Support (TP10) often pings away just enough to add up over the course of the game, getting a reroll into damage to do 1 and then do the damage afterwards makes it really great in this deck. Getting Strength in Numbers (LG141) in your opening hand often freaks out your opponent. The synergy between Ground Battalion and Scorched Earth (LG87) is also highly amusing. In the recent Victorian Regionals (you can see video and picture footage at General Games – they run a great tournament) I took my battle droid army to a 3-3 (though actually, I had a bye, so I didn’t really win three games)! This was more games won than I expected!
First Contact
Round 1 was against a Thrawn (EW4)/Bib Fortuna (LG18) deck. This was a crazy fun, really long game that almost went to time! He got out a Crime Lord (AW23), and made insane amounts of money! My droids died one at a time to Crime Lord, which we both found amusing – imagine putting out a hit on a battle droid! He could generate 6 shields a turn and I rolled my customary lots of blanks. The game ended with a 15 card buyout! 0-1.
Round 2 I was up against Yoda (LG33) and Qui-Gon (AW37). Another super fun game, very thematic with Qui-Gon chopping up my droids! My Ground Battalion got a sneaky kill on Yoda using Target Intel (LG144) to make the 4 Indirect damage into Ranged damage, but in the end Qui-Gon with two Shoto Lightsabers (EW51) sliced and diced his way to victory among heaps of broken droid parts. 0-2.
Round 3 I had a bye, a great opportunity to eat some food and wander around watching all the games. Some super top notch Destiny going on, with all the decks you’d imagine at the top tables! So technically I was now 1-2.
Round 4 was up against Palpatine (SR11). He electrocuted my droids like crazy! Had Force Lightning (SR14), Force Push (SR54) and kept rolling damage! I got him to 9 health and had the LR1K out, but rolled blanks three times in a row and a Rise Again (SR76) later put him way out of my league. 1-3 This game was over so quickly that we had time for a second, which I won super fast. Strength in Numbers round 1, Strength in Numbers round 2 and enough random Battle Droid Damage for the win.
Game 5, vehicle city with Rose (LG40), Aayla (LG29), and Ezra (EW38). We were both popping out supports and it was a long-fought game. A few people by this stage were coming over to watch the Battle Droids deck just to see it in all of the glorious “Roger, roger!” action. As time was nearing, I had one health left on my last droid and he had three health and a shield left on Ezra. I had Scorched Earth in my hand. He rolled one die, a blank. Rolled another die, a disrupt. Rolled a third die, another blank. Rolled a fourth die – it was damage, but I played Scorched Earth for the win. So close!!! If he’d rolled any damage I’d have been scrap metal! So fun! Lots of pinging back and forth the way I like it! 2-3.
Finally it was game 6 against Yoda/Hondo (LG65). A tricky match up for me! 99% of my mitigation is metallic droid metal (30 health to chew through), the rest of it tends to be free (or cheap) removal that often targets damage, so the Specials can make short work of my droids. However, thanks to Aftermath (SR123) and Drudge Work (AW76), I just kept on making money to pay Hondo and luck got me a Sonic Cannon on turn 1 with Imperial Backing. I won with three droids still standing. Roger, roger! 3-3.
Roger, Roger!
After that I played some casual games against people who just wanted to go up against the droid deck. I managed to win all of them, but the main fun was just how enjoyable it was to play such a range of decks who were all just enjoying the back-and-forth droid-smashing fun!
If you’re looking to smash face, this is probably not the deck for you, but if you’re looking for a really good, thematic time, this is a really fun deck. You could make it better by dropping cards like Droid Commando (TP3) (but how could you not include more droids, given the chance?!?) and there are a few other switches that improve it a bit, but really it’s just plain enjoyable. As long as you don’t mind having your droids blown up, chopped up, shot, dismembered, electrocuted, smashed and destroyed.
So that’s that, I really enjoy playing casual, fun games with Destiny, and look forward to putting together another themed deck now. I’m thinking Jar Jar Binks (LG47) with lots of Boomas (LG51). Yeah. That sounds fun!
-Simon Turner
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