Decks – Power Level

The idea of Geektopia Epic Duels is, we’ve created a universe in which every character can do something, and every character has a deck representative of their level of power.  A character like Bo-Katan Kryze shows up in The Mandalorian, does some things, and now she has a deck in Epic Duels where she can interact with everyone else.  Like you would expect, Bo-Katan can do some things in Epic Duels, in line with what you would expect from such a character.  She brings her game, in her case it’s direct damage recycling plus the unique ability to defend-and-move.  Also like you’d expect, she’s not exactly going to go toe to toe with Darth Sidious, or Yoda with a pair of Wookiees, but she can take them on, especially with a teammate.

This page lists decks in rough order of power level to give you the idea, and broken into 3 Tiers, matching the widely-agreed upon 3-tier power level system of the original Star Wars Epic Duels game.  Geektopia Epic Duels decks are developed for relative balance, meaning that any deck can beat any deck, but some decks (Darth Sidious) are intentionally stronger than others (Greedo), by our interpretation of the characters from the films.  The total range of power level of Geektopia decks is about the same as the original Hasbro Epic Duels set, with the boundaries being set by Darth Sidious, who is about in line with original Obi-Wan; and Greedo, who is about in line with the original Jango, meaning Sidious would probably go 14-2 vs. Greedo, the way Obi-Wan has against Jango in online matches — but note that Greedo can win against Sidious if the draws go his way (in theory anyways but maybe Greedo is too weak).

As mentioned, the Epic Duels Online Community generally agrees upon a 3-Tier system for SWED, and it’s based on the original 12 decks:  Tier 2 is your middle tier of decks that win about as often as they lose, like original, unmodified Dooku and Mace.  Tier 1 decks are stronger, like original Obi-Wan and Palpatine, and Tier 3 decks are weaker, like Vader and Jango.  For Geektopia, it is somewhat arbitrary where the Tiers start and end, as the top deck in each Tier is clearly better than the bottom deck of its respective Tier, so I broke them into sub-Tiers, which are also grounded in the original decks.  Within each sub-Tier, I think any of the decks could potentially be swapped around, and within Tiers 2 and 3, I could see some decks moving a subgroup up or down, so all this stuff shouldn’t be taken too seriously and is just for fun.

This doesn’t include some of decks that are less developed.  To see the full list of decks, go here.

Original, unmodified decks are listed in italics.  Original decks not italicized use our tweaks.

Luke Skywalker, Grand Master – Tier 1B
Rey & BB-8 – Tier 2A
Finn & Poe
 – Tier 2B, probably closer to Tier 2A than Tier 2C
Supreme Leader Snoke – Tier 2B or maybe 2C
General Hux – Tier 3B most likely
Kylo Ren – Tier 2C or maybe 2B

Rogue One and Solo

Jyn Erso – Tier 3A at least, maybe better
Director Orson Krennic – Tier 3A probably
Chirrut & Baze – Tier 3B, as weak as they come
Cassian & K-2SO – Tier 3B, ditto
Tobias Beckett & Val – Probably Tier 3A/3B
Enfys Nest – Tier 2C is my guess, but she might be better than that

The Mandalorian & Other Disney+ Series

The Mandalorian – Tier 2C, probably not quite as good as Boba
Moff Gideon – Tier 3A/2C in my opinion
Dark Troopers – Tier 3A is where I think they are
Fennec Shand – Solid Tier 3A deck
Inquisitor Reva – Haven’t seen her much but I think she’s at least 2C and maybe 2B
Luthen Rael – He’s probably 3A with his Yellow deck
Bo-Katan Kryze – Tier 2C is what I’m trying for but she might be more like 2B, let met know
The Armorer & Paz Vizsla – Tier 2B is probably where they are, and should be
Praetorian Guard – Tier 2C is probably where they are, and should be but a little stronger is ok
.
.

Where each ORIGINAL Epic Duels deck in a 2v2 game would fit into these tiers.

Tier 1A: Untweaked Obi-Wan. Original Obi-Wan is hands down the best, most consistent 2v2 player in the game, especially with his ridiculous FORCE CONTROL card.  He was in a class by himself.  If he was still around in his unaltered form, he’d be in a class with Darth Sidious, Yoda Kashyyk and Master Windu.

Tier 1B:  Emperor Palpatine. There’s a gap between Obi and Emperor.  The original Emperor is included in this tier.

Tier 2A:  Darth Maul.  There’s another gap between original Emperor and original Maul, who is included in this tier.  I know some groups think Maul is nearly as good as Obi-Wan but in our play experience, he was always a tad weaker than Obi and is not as solid a teammate as Emperor Palpatine, who has strong minors and damage from anywhere.  Still, Maul is better than Anakin/Dooku/Mace.

Tier 2B:  Untweaked Anakin/Dooku/Mace and to many, including our group, Yoda.  This tier includes original Anakin.

Tier 2C:  Untweaked Boba Fett.  I know I’ve seen players who value original Boba Fett almost as high as Anakin/Dooku/Mace, but others who would put him at Han’s level.  Let’s call him somewhere in between that.  Our group would probably include unaltered Luke & Leia here too, though we’ve always valued Luke a little more highly than others.

Tier 3A:  Han Solo.  Boba and Han are both clearly better than Jango, that much isn’t really debatable.  Han is probably not quite as good as Boba, though.  Vader might fit into this tier as well.

Tier 3B:  Untweaked Jango.  Jango really belongs here by himself among the original decks, though Vader might join him.

Notes:

  • Tier 1A:  Darth Sidious is intended to be the strongest deck, about as good as original Obi-Wan. Yoda of Kashyyk and Mace are intended to be up there with him. Mace Windu is the best pure melee fighter, and might be the best deck overall, but Sidious is a better teammate than he or Yoda due to his direct damage from anywhere. Yoda’s Wookies make him a better teammate than Mace.
  • Tier 1B exists because every time we game, we like to do a “Battle for the Universe” with Darth Sidious vs. Yoda of Kashyyk and each with a teammate, but it never works out if Mace is Yoda’s teammate because there’s no fourth deck strong enough to go with those 3. Meanwhile, decks like Darth Vader Jedi Hunter and Dark Side Anakin can really dominate against weaker foes and certain types of decks. Obi-Wan’s offense is watered down but he hasn’t lost a lick of defense, while both original Emperor Palpatine and a powered-up Dooku are great, great teammates.
  • Tier 2A is probably the hardest to define but the best way to put it is:  These decks can potentially dominate a game, even against the toughest opponents, but they don’t do it consistently enough to be Tier 1. To us, this includes the original Darth Maul. I know Epic duelists who think he’s great and Tier 1, and there are solid statistics in how well Maul performs in 1v1, but in 2v2, our group has never found Maul to be consistently be among the best decks. It’s important to note that this was true within that first week of us playing the game, well before we started adding decks to the set, and has remained true. At the same time, we think Maul is definitely better than original Dooku, Mace and Anakin. He has a Tier 1 ceiling but can’t consistently hang with the best decks and isn’t a great teammate, in our opinion. Quinlan, Shaak Ti and Plo Koon are all Tier 2A decks, a little better than Tier 2B. As such, these 3 Jedi decks are probably higher powered than where they probably should be based on their characters, but we like the decks and aren’t inclined to change them much at this point. All 3 have been powered down already over the years but remain capable of dominance.  So are Qui-Gon and Luminara, but that’s more where we intended for them to be due to their Jedi Padawan minors.
  • Tier 2B decks are your standard Tier 2 decks, about as strong as original, unaltered Dooku or Mace and includes original Anakin (who we’ve always like a tad better than Dooku or Mace). These are otherwise your standard Jedi like Aayla Secura, Ki-Aid-Mundi and Saesee Tiin & Agen Kolar. Nute Gunray is there too, probably a tad stronger than we intended, but was tweaked for a GenCon Tournament and needed to be Tier 2B for it, and we’ve stuck with that version. With the possible exception of Nute, our Boba & Dengar deck is the strongest shooter in the set and belongs in this Tier. In 3v3, that might be the best deck overall.
  • Tier 2C is another tricky one, and some of these decks could probably go up or down a tier. As of this writing, all of our Tier 2C are melee decks that just don’t have quite as much in terms of overall staying power or offsetting killing power to hang consistently with Tier 2B decks, but it’s a coincidence and there may be some Tier 3A shooters who belong here, and Finn & Poe probably do. Of the original Hasbro decks, Boba & Greedo would fit here, likely a tad stronger than original Han, but not able to make the cut in a straight Tier 2 tournament. We’d probably put original Luke in this category too, who has dominated 2v2 games with I WILL NOT FIGHT YOU, and with Leia surviving in a 2v2 game, is probably a tad better than Han. All of these decks, of course, can do things and all are capable of winning games, but I can just tell you that when playing against Tier 2B decks, Asajj routinely gets her head kicked in, while Old Ben and Bultar Swan have their moments but more often look outmatched. All could play in a Tier 2 tournament, some of these might even turn out to be Tier 2B decks once we get more games in with them. However, none of these decks are really capable of dominating a game except maybe Jabba — who is quite fragile — and all including Jabba could also turn out to be Tier 3A decks. That’s how some people see the original Boba and Luke decks as well.
  • Tier 3A decks could probably sneak into a Tier 2 tournament and not look wholly out of place, if you believe that about good old, unaltered Han & Chewie, who reside in this Tier. Even if you’re not sure about that, Han is definitely better than Jango, and they belong in different tiers. These decks are all shooters but what they have in common is that the best game out of any of these decks is really, really good, and they’re not quite as fragile as the Bounty Hunter decks. Our tweaked Jango & Zam remain fragile, but at least have added offense to go with their trademark superior movement, enough to be more competitive with Han & Chewie at least.
  • Tier 3B decks like IG-88 and Lando typically get blown to smithereens early but when they don’t, they’ve dominated games. We don’t want to get into having any characters incapable of playing any others, so as all these decks have low HP and Yellow decks, they have to be very, very dangerous, or risk being completely worthless in a game of Epic Duels. The idea is that original Jango & Zam — in the opinion of our group, clearly the weakest original deck — would fit into this Tier but I’m not even sure that original deck could hang here (though they do have great movement).
  • Greedo is intended to be the weakest deck, but even his deck has 1x A10, 2x A8, 2x A6 if not blocked, and 2x cards that don’t let you block the next attack, so it is quite possible for him to defeat Darth Sidious in a straight 1v1 match, if he gets the right draw and Sidious gets a bad one. The quick description probably makes the deck sound stronger than it is, but with cards spread across 3 characters, and 2 of the big attacks having severe penalties, it’s hard for Greedo to get much going with any consistency. The point is it CAN be done, and that’s how it needs to be.

3 comments

  1. Jojo says:

    I was thinking a mother talzin savage opress deck could be interesting dont know if you guys have any thoughts on this

Leave a Reply to roman Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *