“Maz is a bit of an acquired taste, so let me do the talking.” -Han Solo
What’s So Special About Specials?
Synonyms of “moxie” are: vigor, vitality, pep, courage, and nerve. When resolving the special on this upgrade, you will be serving up some serious vigor. The basic idea behind the upgrade is to double or potentially triple your chances of landing a Special or Power Action from attached character. Theoretically, one round could serve up four Specials or Power Actions if everything falls the right way.
What’s Good About It
Mitigation always runs out eventually. Whether it’s late in the match and the opponent’s deck is thin or the end of a round approaches and there are no cards in hand, a timely special or power action can be the decisive play in a game. In cases of elite characters with two dice and a special or two on each die, adding the Moxie (CV104) upgrade to their roll might just be too much for your opponent to handle.
What’s Meh About It
Two cost seems right for the card and often forces us to choose to play the upgrade at the beginning of the round instead of saving resources for mitigation or a bigger upgrade later. Decks that let Moxie (CV104) shine are ones that want magnify specials or power actions, so this card really is deck-specific. Limiting it to Hero decks also reduces its usage, although that is a wise choice to keep the game balanced. However, with characters like Enfys Nest (CV141), Enfys Nest’s Marauders (CV142) and Qi’Ra (AG135), villains can get Moxie into their decks for some sneaky plays.
What’s Poor About It
Moxie really only packs a punch in decks that emphasize hard hitting specials, especially special chaining. This is why it sees average usage across the meta. It seems like Moxie decks are all in on a special or power action, making it a one-trick-pony. It can feel like you need to overwhelm your opponent with specials to win, giving it little versatility.
Spicy Moxie Pairings
Padmé/Leia-Boushh
The ideal opening hand has Moxie for the the first play of the game on Leia Organa – Boushh (AG90) to potentially hit the Special up to three times. If it’s possible to get a villain card on Boushh as well, then your opponent’s chances of paying you off to prevent the damage is much lower. However, you’ll have to find a way to get at least one resource since you’ll be paying two for Moxie. Likely, your opponent will spend money to ramp their characters so they may only be able to prevent one special from landing, which also slows their ramp down simultaneously.
Yoda/Hondo/Double Down
AKA “Special Chains”. The emphasis of this deck is to use the Double Down (AG143) plot to put three copies of Moxie in your deck. The versatility of this combo is that either character would benefit from Moxie but we suggest adding it to Hondo Ohnaka (LG65) to begin so that you deal damage to all opponent’s characters or force them to pay you one resource and slow them down. With no resources to use, your opponent may just fall victim to four Hondo Specials, dealing a whopping 12 damage to each character! Yoda – Wizened Master (LG33) can also use Moxie to generate resources quickly or keep your characters protected with shields.
Chief Chirpa
There are a few iterations of Ewok decks circling around, which all have at least four Ewoks in them. The Ewoks bring strength in numbers (and engineering ingenuity using natural elements). Chief Chirpa (SH93) regularly poses the threat of dealing 3 Indirect damage when he spots four Ewoks. Laying down a Moxie round one and hitting that two or three times brings the damage total up to nine, followed by another four indirect from activating the army of Ewok Warriors (SH95). I’ve seen a few matches where 15+ indirect damage is dealt in the first round from Ewok decks. Using Glider Attack (SH105) also makes for a scary threat at any time from these cuddly bears of destruction.
There are plenty more options to get great usage from Moxie in the game as it stands. What pairings have you found to be successful?
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