If You Build It… (Deck Building Tips for New Players)

So you have decided to play Star Wars: Destiny. You have acquired some cards from friends and your FLGS. Now you ask yourself “What do I do next?” In this article we will go over some basic tips on building that first deck. Sit back and let your imagination go wild, because it is a lot of fun to build.

A deck is made up of Upgrades/Downgrades, Supports and Events. Your deck must consist of 30 cards that follow the colors of your characters and any Grey, or non-colored cards, and the total cost of your characters and plot card must not exceed 30 points. Your Characters, Battlefield, and Plot do not count towards the 30 card deck.

Teamwork makes the dream work

In this game your team is your life. Each character that you choose has a life total. When the life total is depleted that character is defeated. Once all of a team is expired, the game is over. Let’s take a look at how to choose your characters.

As you can see from the point values listed in the very bottom-left corner of this picture, this character can be played at 9 points for a single die or 12 points to be played elite (2 dice). Also, you will see that this character is based in the Yellow affiliation-this is the Rogue grouping. The color of the characters is important because that tells you what color cards can go into your deck.

So when trying to build a good team you get 30 points, without the use of plots (we will talk about those in a later article ). Many people will try to start the match by having a 4-dice start, so some kind of team that adds as close to 30 points as possible.

You would also like to go with multiple colors to make the pool of cards you can pull from greater as well. Once you have the idea of the colors you want to play, look for characters that pair well together. Ones that have a synergy and can help accomplish the task of outlasting your opponent.

Let’s choose a match for Watto (CV38) and see how this works:

So with this pairing we can play both at elite level and be at 30 points. This gives us the 4-dice start that we look for, and a starting health total of 19.

Upgrades

An upgrade is a weapon, equipment or ability that you play on a character. There are some that have dice that correspond with it like:

In a deck you want to have anywhere from 8-10 dice cards. This is above and beyond those of your characters. You gain a lot of these with the upgrades you play.

Other types of upgrades may not have a die, but can still add a lot to a character.

A quick reminder: unless your character has a special ability or a card effect changes it, all characters have 3 spots for upgrades. When choosing what to put in your deck be aware of this stipulation.

Supports

Another way to get your dice level up in your deck is through supports. Again, there are supports with and without dice. Go through your cards and choose supports that will help your deck take advantage of your opponents vulnerabilities.

Finding cards that are thematic is also a way to go. Putting Palpatine with his ship, the Imperialis (CV13) is a great way to build a thematic deck. Remember though, the supports you put in your deck must get you closer to your goal of winning. Just because it is cool to play a combo does not mean that it will work.

Now that we have our dice set up, how do we round out our deck?

Events

In a good deck you want a good split of events. In this grouping you will get your mitigation and any type of ramp (resource generation). When looking at the way a lot of the better players play, you will see that they have a good amount of mitigation cards.

Mitigation is the main way to deal with your opponents dice. When you look across the table and they have 6 damage showing across 4 dice, you must have ways to get rid of that damage. Getting rid of the damage keeps your characters alive.

Sometimes the events you play will give you access to resources. This is the currency of the game and allows you to do more with your turn. Still another use of events is to get rid of your opponent’s pesky supports or upgrades.

When looking for best way to get rid of damage, it maybe to just send the support or upgrade to the discard pile. This accomplishes two things. First it gets rid of the die now, and then it doesn’t allow your opponent to roll it out next turn. Be aware that these cards exist and use them to protect your precious cargo.

Some final tips

Before I sign off there is one more card you need in your deck. That card is your battlefield. This should be a card that gives you benefits while keeping the benefits for your opponent at a minimum.

Don’t fret if your first build doesn’t perform well. The fact that you took the time to build it and get your hands on the cardboard means your in the game. Allow yourself the ability to make mistakes and then go back to the cards you have and tweak it. As a player just starting out, you have to learn the cards-the best way to learn them is to play them. This means that you may not win, but it does mean you will get better.

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