Well it happened. The Meta is changing as of December the 20th. What type of impact will the recent changes make? Who knows, but it is only a matter of time before the next “broken” deck is born.
Unfateful Companions
One of the biggest changes is that of Fateful Companions (SH111) being put on the Restricted list. There are differing thoughts on this – some think it is great. Others, like me, believe it is too far. The text, as seen above, says you can spot R2 and 3PO. How is it possible to have a card that you can’t fulfill part of the text?
The idea of Droids needing a bump is a valid one. I believe that something needed to be done; however, to purposely “ban” a card seems a bit much. FFG could have made this a 3 point plot-there are many of these and some see significant play. That would have hit Droids and made the Meta even out.
They could have eliminated the “and” and make it “pay 1 resource to do another trigger.” Which would have made Droid players have to decide on playing a support or upgrade or resolving dice. That could have been a good deterrent for Droid players.
Although both the above ideas are more intricate and actually changes the card, I believe it keeps the integrity of Fateful on point. Fateful was built to run with R2 and 3PO. We love those two little Droids and wanted to see them in this game together-now, unfortunately, I believe you will see less of them together.
Delve Sadness
The other major hit, I will be talking about, was the infamous Delve Fist play. This was played in almost all Yellow/Blue lists. The reason is the power it gave you. If players could get a Delve (LG092) into a Vader’s Fist (AG013) it could easily mean game over.
The scariest card to see your opponent play first round is Vader’s Fist. With this clean move, FFG has made it more fair. There is a difference between getting a 5 cost support for 3 and getting a game changing support for 3. Fist is capable of doing 9-12 damage the first round it is played. Very few decks have the health to come back from that type of onslaught.
The question is could they have done this differently? When looking at Delve, I believe you could have made it Vehicle Supports only and fixed this issue just as easy. It also takes care of the MegaBlaster Trooper (CV031) play. But the people I spoke with felt that was to big a hit to Delve. With Planetary Bombardment (WF033) not being a ship, I can see the point. There are not a lot of good ship supports that you would want to Delve in to play.
The other idea would be to change Vader’s Fist. What could have been done to temper this behemoth of a card? Well I have a couple ideas on this one. Making things thematic is always interesting to me – and I believe to others as well. Let’s say that you play Fist – instead of an automatic roll out what if the card said, “Spot Vader to roll this dice out after you play it.” Would that simple phrase change the power of this card? I believe so – then you could have left Delve off the Restricted list.
Another possible change could be the “Maul’s Saber effect”. Simply put a 1 resource cost to rolling out the die for the Power Action. Again, you would still get at least 2 activations of the card but it might cost you to do it. That means less mitigation and control or less supports or upgrades. Both of which are fair trade offs when it comes to the possible damage that can be brought forth.
The Palace Falls
An interesting change is putting Theed onto the Restricted list. This makes it impossible to play with Delve, C-3PO, Plo-wocks, etc. It is interesting in the fact that I’m not sure how necessary this change is. The penalty of losing a die to get the resource was strong enough, however if you take away this Battlefield, I think Respite will be played; and was in most Aphra (LG020) decks. Theed (AG159) has been the most used Battlefield since its inrtoduction to the game. With this being Restricted, it will be interesting to see what will take its place.
Final Thoughts
With Covert Mission spoilers coming out more regularly this rules change will be important only a short time. I believe that FFG is addressing issues that the community has brought forth. I may agree with the tactics that are used, but I don’t have to. The Chance Cube Universe, we are in for an interesting rest of Prime season because of the changes. We started to show that we were not happy with some of the plays and FFG said “I hear you clucking, big chicken.” And they fixed it as they saw fit. Anytime we have leaders and designers of a game listen to us like this is a great thing. I appreciate what their team is trying to accomplish for our game. Thank you for reading—-and as always:
May you always roll what you need and need what you roll.
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