We are deep in the holiday season, and I have to admit that I get a bit…enthusiastic…about Christmas. To that end, I thought it might be fun to take a shot at a “12 Days of Destiny” series of articles that highlight twelve wonderful (or at least impactful) things that Destiny has brought to us. The Eighth Day of Destiny relives the eight waves of excitement that have carried us through the past few years.
On the Eighth Day of Destiny, FFG Gave to Me…Eight Sets a-Selling
We are eight sets in with the ninth set on the horizon, and folks, that’s a lot of Star Wars: Destiny. A quick sum of the number of cards in each set from SWDestinyDB shows that there are approximately 1,420 cards that have been released between those sets. Granted, some of those are reprints, but the majority are not. But they’re also not all gold. In fact, many of them get immediately relegated to binder fodder. I thought about listing what I think are the most trash cards for each set, but that seemed a little too negative for this list. So instead, here’s a list of the cards that I think made the most impact for each set.
Awakenings – Sith Holocron
Remember when someone thought this card was a good idea? There’s no end to the number of ways this card was broken. It had no play restriction so you could use it to cheat Blue Character Only upgrades onto anyone. It was free and allowed you to swap it out with a Blue Ability Upgrade at no cost. It went back to your hand after resolving the special rather than being discarded so you could play it again on another character before rolling them in that round. It allowed you to pay a resource to roll the new die into your pool. AND if all that wasn’t enough, assuming you rolled a special when you rolled the new upgrade die in, it would let you resolve it immediately (as you were already resolving specials).
Spirit of Rebellion – FN-2199 – Loyal Trooper
Remember FN-2199? Fifty percent base damage sides. A killer ability that let you resolve some of your best dice multiple times a round. And a point cost that would let you pair him with almost anyone. To say that FN-2199 held a place in the meta would be a substantial understatement. FN-2199 was the meta for a while.
Empire at War – Rally Aid
The card that helped make Hero Vehicles a thing. Early in the life of Destiny, there just weren’t that many support decks that saw play. A lot of the problem was that many of the vehicles were too expensive. But Rally Aid helped alleviate that. If you only had vehicles left in your hand, you could play any of them for two fewer resources and that was huge. Today, Support decks consistently maintain a space in the meta, but it feels like they really started here.
Legacies – Yoda – Wizened Master
Everyone was excited for Yoda. Not only was he a fan favorite character that didn’t make an appearance during the first cycle of the game, he also brought with him some exciting novelty. His die boasted no damage sides, but was also the first character die to not have any blanks. His point cost was inexplicably low allowing you to pair him with nearly whomever you wanted. He fit into different deck archetypes as a universally good support character. And perhaps most significantly, he ushered in the era of “special chaining” by allowing you to resolve his special to turn another die to a special and resolve it immediately.
Way of the Force – Snoke – Supreme Leader
Similar to Yoda – Wizened Master, Snoke boasted an impossibly low point cost, substantial versatility for the types of decks that he could be slotted into, and an undervalued ability. Whether he was helping Cad Bane – Vicious Mercenary rip 4 cards out of your hand, taking 4 resources from Thrawn – Master Strategist, allowing Tarkin – Grand Moff to focus 4 dice, or simply putting a ton of damage into your characters with Kylo Ren – Tormented One, it didn’t feel good. I think the only thing surprising about his inevitable nerf was how long it took to happen.
Across the Galaxy – Shadow Caster
Vehicle decks were consistently present in the meta throughout the Legacies cycle, but they definitely seemed to reach a peak when Across the Galaxy introduced Vehicle Mods and started letting you go all Xzibit on your Star Wars whips. I probably could have chosen a mod for this set, but really it was “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts” kind of situation with the Shadow Caster. Being able to load it up with mods, resolve its dice for cheap, and then reset it to do all over again felt oppressive.
Convergence – Forsaken
Though it has some significant restrictions (requiring a player to have only one die in the pool and limiting its use to a side showing a value of two or less), there is no limit to the usefulness of free dice removal. It’s kind of hard to spot a competitive blue deck without Forsaken these days. It’s so easy to set up and even though your opponent probably sees it coming, they’re often forced to either walk right into it or play suboptimally to try and avoid it.
Spark of Hope – Temporary Truce
While there were several ways of mixing hero and villain cards in your deck before Temporary Truce, this was the first time that you could freely include as many hero and villain cards in the same deck as you liked. Even though there are other cards in this set that might be more powerful (even other plots that might be more powerful), none of them seem to introduce anything as new as playing a hero and a villain side by side.
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