Star Wars: Destiny is a collectable card and dice game where two or more players battle each other with 30 card decks and 30 points worth of Characters. The only true limit on deck construction is the 30 card limit and that players cannot have more than 2 copies of any one card. As far as your Characters are concerned, you are limited by the fact that you cannot have more than 1 of the same unique Character (but can include 2 dice for that character), and a maximum of 30 points of Characters.
That is a lot of information to absorb, even for a game that was just recently released and has only 174 cards in the first set, Awakenings. But, it is very relevant and players need to understand what they are facing every time they play this game. Why? Because each player needs to know what the deck and character limitations are when they build their deck, as well as when deciding what strategies they want when designing their deck.
There are two ways to win a game of Star Wars: Destiny. Taken from page 14 in the Reference Guide: The first is to defeat all of your opponent’s Characters. The game ends immediately when that happens. The second is if your opponent has no cards in their hand and deck at the end of a round (after the upkeep phase). So, you could have no cards in your hand and deck and still be able to win if you deal enough damage to defeat your opponents Characters that round.
So, with that in mind, what Strategy should you use? Truthfully? The first thing you need to look at is your collection of cards, specifically your Characters and dice cards. You need to be able to field the cards that can allow you to accomplish your Strategy. There is no need of making a list with Han Solo (AW46) if you don’t own him, for example, or want to try a villain mill deck and not have any cards that support that strategy. I will go into much greater detail about choosing your Characters in part II of this series.
Some card combinations go hand in hand with your Strategy. For example, if you wish to work on a discard strategy, commonly called a mill deck, there is a good Character/Battleground combination that can be very deadly. Playing with Padme Amidala (AW48) who has a special dice ability that reads “Discard the top card of an opponent’s deck or spend 1 resource to discard the top 2 cards of an opponent’s deck.” This pairs well with the Command Center (AW165) battleground that has the claim of “Each opponent discards the top 2 cards of their deck.”
And, of course, the more damage sides on a die a character or upgrade has, the better they are in a damage dealing deck. For example, I would rather take Leia Organa (AW28) than Qui-Gon Jinn (AW37) in a straight up comparison of damage ability. And, while a Hired Gun (AW47) is nice and cheap at 8 points, having to spend 1 resource each time you wish to deal damage with that character die really puts a damper on your resources each turn.
In the end, there is no correct or incorrect Strategy. It is in the creation of a deck to execute that Strategy that player’s fall victim. Trying to run a damage deck with Jabba the Hutt (AW20) who has no native damage faces on his die forces you to play upgrades on him that allows the Character to deal damage, if that is your strategy.
