First in-person multiplayer gaming since February 2020, aside from a few rounds of Sushi Go Party during a family weekend.  First in-person Epic Duels in quite a bit longer than February 2020, plus we got in some Spirit Island and Imhotep, which I will cover in future posts.  This session was with the 1670 group, not the old Geektopia Epic Duels group.  They are not as versed in the game and it impacted the results a little.

Here I am prepping for the session by cutting out some cards:

Kit Fisto (Persistence) and Saesee & Agen defeated San Hill & Wat Tambor and Nute Gunray on the Geonosis Arena in a historical recreation.

I really focus on how each deck performs so I’m unfortunately not great at relating what happened in a timeline or narrative-driven format.  What sticks with me was who did what.

The Droidekas and Super Battle Droids started dishing out damage to Fisto and his Clones, but Fisto had both his RICOCHETS and didn’t really mind.  Saesee started out with all 3 CUNNING ATTACKS and a CONVICTION, so he quickly destroyed one Droideka with a devastating A8-A5 combo.  Nute was able to revive him with WHERE ARE THOSE DROIDEKAS? but otherwise didn’t draw much or do much other than a single TUCK AND ROLL and SHOOT HER OR SOMETHING, never once getting a badly needed NO MATCH FOR DROIDEKAS or THIS IS TOO CLOSE.  Agen got a FORCE WAVE +A6 combo, then another FORCE WAVE later on and Saesee got a 2nd CUNNING ATTACK off.  Fisto got off a 2nd PERSISTENCE and then used CLONE CHARGE to make a big escape, forcing the enemies to switch targets.  Once you do that in 2v2, it’s tough to overcome.

Nute was killed off and it created a 2v1.  It was all very one-sided, but San hung in there, which was good to see.  Wat got killed off before he could do much, but he did play an effective TECHNO UNION ARMY and when it was just San and his SBDs, it was still a dangerous group that hung around for a while and played a CONSPIRACY card.  I think he even killed Fisto finally, but he was the wrong target all long, the Jedi duo of Saesee and Agen were more fragile and more dangerous.

Design thoughts:

I liked San & Wat a lot.  I was worried about them from a Hit Point perspective, but they seemed sturdy enough and while I could tinker with how to allocate HP between San and Wat, a set of 4 characters can’t exceed 28 HP total without being really, really tough to bring down with so many targets across so many HP.  As is, the SBDs are tough distractions, and Wat is worth killing, giving San a chance to do his thing.  He offset Fisto overall pretty well this match.

After nearly 20 years I think we might have a working Fisto, what I call the Persistence version, but he still needs some tweaks to get to the finish line.  I’ve already gotten a conversation started on a new page and at the Discord.

Nute had a lousy game.  I’ve seen him be good.

Saesee & Agen had a great game.  I’ve seen them be bad.  Between their goodness and Nute’s badness, the game was lopsided.

Moff Gideon and Dark Troopers defeated Mandolorian & Child and Ackbar & Wedge on Megatron’s Throne Room

So the story here is that Moff Gideon is really tough, and I’ll need to make at least some adjustments.  Neither Mando nor the Dark Troopers did a whole lot.  Ackbar & Wedge had a great game, but Moff Gideon still triumphed.

Wedge opened with ATTACK RUN, badly damaging 2 Dark Troopers, then followed with I’M ON THE LEADER to badly damage a third.  Two of the 4 Dark Troopers were killed off in short order.  The problem was, Baby Yoda and Mando marched up together, and Baby Yoda got himself killed pretty quickly without doing anything.  Mando never really got any defense either, certainly no BESKAR ARMOR, missed on the card draw for his one I CAN BRING YOU IN WARM and basically got squashed without showing up.  Dark Troopers fired off some direct damage and maybe an A5 or 2 before going down.

It came down to Ackbar versus Moff Gideon, and I thought Ackbar had it for sure by forcing a huge discard with MAY THE FORCE BE WITH US.  But Gideon has 2x A7 and when his Death Troopers are healthy, 3x A6, plus tough minors with their own big attacks, plus 2x D4, and all of that before he even gets his terrifying A11 E-WEB.  You can weaken him by taking his troopers out, but not when you’re busy killing off 4 Dark Troopers.  In hindsight they probably should have gone after Moff Gideon first and taken their chances with the Dark Troopers, but Gideon is a really well rounded tough guy, evidenced by him killing off Ackbar before bringing in the E-WEB to finish off Wedge, though Wedge was a turn from probably killing him too.

Design Thoughts:

I was mostly worried about the Dark Trooper’s hit points, but I think they’re at the right spot.  We’ve seen other decks with 28 HP total so this isn’t too much, but the fact that you have to finish off 4 separate targets sort of makes those 28 HP go even further — you definitely can’t go higher than 7 HP each (and hence, San & Wat and their 2 SBDs can’t have more than 28 total HP either).  On the other hand, at 6 HP each, I think 2 would have died on the very first turn of the game and then a third on the next turn.  6 HP is just too squishy.  7 HP is right, but it’s a lot, so their offense can’t really be all that good, and it’s not.  It actually probably won’t be the most fun deck to play but it’s unique and I thought it was fun.

I can see my argument for giving Moff Gideon an Orange deck originally, but I’m going to take it down to Yellow immediately, which actually makes a big difference.  I like E-WEB but feel as though I should probably slide it down because he already has a pretty strong arsenal of attacks with some added direct damage.

The disappointment of the group was actually The Mandalorian, but I’m not seeing a lot of options to make him any better because all of his cards are pretty good.  Could we give Baby Yoda one more HP maybe?  Or, maybe Mando is the one who needs an Orange deck, which I suppose I could justify with his Beskar spear (since it’s supposed to be for Lightsaber-wielders) but he would really benefit from the added offense and defense.

Ackbar was actually pretty great.  Now that I’ve added ATTACK RUN, I don’t think I’d change a thing.