Card Analysis: Breaking Bonds (CV007)

While Sith based cards are on the rise with Convergence, Breaking Bonds will not be one of them.

Introduction

Breaking Bonds is a blue villain event. It costs 1 resource to play and reads: Choose a character and discard a downgrade from it. If that character is a Sith, you may turn a die to a side showing a blank. While you could target your opponent’s character’s or your own, it seems the intention would be to target your own, acting as a kind of antidote and provides an extra bonus if you are removing a downgrade from a Sith.

Design Notes

This is a design direction we have seen since the Two Player Box, the idea that a card can have an ability or effect that does a certain thing for everyone, but get a bonus when a certain condition is met. Phasma and Poe Dameron’s Blasters from that set both incorporated enhancements when attached to that particular character.

This card, however, is an event that is similarly designed. The challenge with this card is the opening condition. It is played first and foremost to remove a downgrade from a character. Downgrades are placed on your character’s by the opponent to put you at a disadvantage, and currently, downgrades are not a very pervasive card type. But, if the downgrade is attached to a Sith and this card is played to remove that downgrade, then you get the option to turn any die in the pool to a blank.

Artwork/Lore

This is another card featuring artwork from inspired by Episode III: Revenge of the SIth. Vader, as he is coming off the operating table after being rescued from almost certain death by Palpatine, breaks free of his bonds and cries out. In this action, he cripples the medical equipment nearby. You can clearly see a connection between this action and the action on the card.

Things to Consider

This card is purely a meta call. It may have better use in a trilogy event with Palpatine, where a downgrade like Mind Extraction can be a hindrance to all of your plans.

When playing blue villain with a Sith as one of your character’s, if you are worried about downgrades, this may be a better option than Unshackle. While the cards are the same price, Unshackle provides an ambush while Breaking Bonds allows for dice control.
Since this card does rely strictly on your opponent playing downgrades, it can be highly effective, or a dead card in hand. You have to be comfortable with that possibility when including this card in your deck. While during the course of a game this card may be able to be played strategically, it is unlikely that anyone will be able to predict the proper time to play this card, and weather to hold onto it or pitch it to reroll. This is a card that you will have to use your gut, and your knowledge of the local meta and deck building to determine its proper place in your deck and in your game.

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