Spoiler-filled Discussion of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

I first posted my spoiler-free review of the movie here: http://amazingspidertank.blogspot.com/2016/12/spoiler-free-review-of-rogue-one-star.html
I am writing this with the assumption that you have seen the movie, and at least looked at the very bottom of my spoiler-free review to look at the pros/cons list so you know my general opinion.

This is a SPOILER-RIDDEN DISCUSSION. Please do not read further if you do not wish to spoil the movie. I will be talking about major plot points, characters, and easter eggs.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

This will get very nerdy.
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Okay. So I really liked Rogue One. Before the movie came out I had this conversation with anybody that would listen. I listed 3 things I wanted from this movie:

1. I explained that what I wanted out of this movie was a self-contained story, where it ties up loose ends and deals with the characters in it in some way that explains why we never see them again. For me, it made the most sense that the main characters needed to die. I wasn't expecting all of them to die, but the main characters that did most of the work needed to die. I hate it when prequels have this awesome character, but then they aren't in the original stuff. It just irks me.

2. I also wanted it to enhance the OT in some way as I think all prequels should. I wanted it to make OT characters better, make us care more about what happens in A New Hope, or give us fresh insight into something we either didn't have an answer for, or clarification.

3. I wanted Darth Vader to do something badass. I wanted us to see why he is so feared in the OT. He already had a reputation in A New Hope and I wanted this to showcase why.

Rogue One delivered on every account. :)

1. This was definitely a self contained story. I can safely say this because they killed off everyone! Wow. It was what I wanted but I honestly didn't think they'd kill off every single character, lol. The impact of these deaths made this movie feel like the death count was higher than any other Star Wars movie, which is incorrect considering an entire planet was destroyed in A New Hope as well as a Death Star, and another Death Star gone in RotJ. But we felt for the characters and when they died, I actually felt as sorry as I did when characters like Obi-Wan died in the OT (told you there would be spoilers ;)).

2. This movie really enhanced the OT in a lot of good ways. A major one is the explanation of why the Death Star has a critical weakness. Before it was always a joke on Star Wars, that the Death Star had such a critical flaw that could so easily be exploited. It never seemed right in fans'/critics' eyes. This movie actually gives a very legitimate and more believable explanation, that it was sabotaged and purposely built with a design flaw, so that one day it could be destroyed. It's a wonderful bit of information that really changes what you are thinking during A New Hope. It makes so much more sense now.

We got to see several A New Hope characters in this film as well, and their performances helped round out their characters we would later see in episode 4. Governor Tarkin takes the cake in that department. They really nailed his voice, even though the CGI was horrendous. But his character felt correct and it was fun to see him manipulate Krennic and do his various dastardly things.

3. While watching the movie, I was getting afraid number 3 would not be fulfilled. We got to see him force choke Krennic and scare him a bit, but I wanted more. But then in the last 10 minutes, my every wish came true. My favorite part of the whole movie in fact has to be when we get to see Darth Vader in all his scary glory. That was awesome. Seeing him terrify all the soldiers and just lay waste to them was so epic. I could have watched 30 more minutes of just Darth Vader being a badass. If you haven't read the new Vader comic from Marvel, or the Vader Down sort-of cross over comic you should, as they also showcase Vader in amazing ways. I really hope someday we can see a movie where we follow Darth Vader hunting down and destroying Jedi.

I said in my initial review that the pacing felt a little off. I still can't fully explain why that is but it might just be from having a different director at the helm. We didn't have the screen wipes and gentle fades into scenes. They were much more abrupt. The 1st act of the movie was pretty slow, although it wasn't really a bad thing, and it really picked up the pace in the final act, but it still felt weird. Maybe it goes back to my feeling like this was a TV episode, rather than a movie. It had similar pacing to a TV show. There were breaks that could have easily been split up to watch once a week, or with commercials.

There are quite a number of easter eggs that I spotted on my first watch:

1. We see the Ghost (from the TV series Rebels) on two separate occasions. Once on Yavin, and again when the Rebel fleet arrives to battle the Empire.

Bottom left is Ghost, Bottom center is Hammerhead, giant right is the new capital ship

2. We hear over the loudspeaker on Yavin calling for General Syndulla, which is another Rebels reference.

3. We see a Hammerhead ship which is yet another reference to Rebels, but originally also points back to the now-Legacy ship design from the Knights of the Old Republic.

4. We see Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba on Jedha (somehow they escape)

5. We see Emperor's Royal Guards protecting Darth Vader in his castle. The Royal Guards typically only were with the Emperor, so that is new, and Darth Vader's castle is another set that was originally in the Legacy stories, but we haven't seen anything like it in the new time line.

6. Saw Gerrara is a character from the Star Wars Clone Wars TV show, which is the precursor to the newer Rebels show. He is a main character for several episodes and you can learn more about his character from watching that.

7. Not really an easter egg since it was much more obvious but we got to see a lot of original trilogy character cameos/major roles including Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, Leia Organa, Governor Tarkin, Captain Antilles, R2-D2, C-3PO, General Dodonna, Red Leader, Gold Leader. There is a Topps card for Rogue One that sure seems like it features Biggs Darklighter, but sadly I did not see him in the movie. I hope I just missed him. That would have been a great inclusion.

8. We learn/see how the gap in Red Squadron comes about that Luke fills in A New Hope.

9. Reference to the Whills, which goes back to George Lucas' original plan for Star Wars and the Force

10. There is Blue Milk in the beginning of the movie. This drink was made famous in A New Hope in Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen's house in the beginning of that movie.

11. Speaking of blue, one of the main squadrons in the battle was Blue Squadron. In the original script for A New Hope, as well as the novelization, it was Blue Squadron, and not Red Squadron, that was the main group that included Luke Skywalker.

12. We get to see Darth Vader's Star Destroyer Devastator live up to its name at the end, as well as the frantic escape of Tantive IV.

13. Darksaber is mentioned when Jyn and Cassian are looking through Imperial files. This is a Legends super weapon. Read more about it here: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darksaber_(superweapon)

I did have several gripes with the movie

The CGI people were terrible. We had several A New Hope cameos that were completely CGI and I think they looked awful. Very uncanny valley/Polar Express-ey. Governor Tarkin was the most well done, but it still just looks off, and I'm sure it will look worse as time goes on. Leia was the worst, but thankfully she wasn't in it long. Red Leader and Gold leader were fine because they were more in the dark, but my issue with them is that it felt like the simply reused their lines from A New Hope. It felt pasted on. The lines worked in the context of the movie, but it was weird. But going back to the bad CGI, it's not like we didn't have other characters that they found younger people to play. I don't see why they could have gotten regular actors to portray some of them. I understand that the movie is set immediately before A New Hope, so there is no age advancement, but General Dodonna was not CGI, and we see him in A New Hope.

Some of the technology seems better than what the OT had. All prequels fail at this, and this movie wasn't the worst, but some of those weapons the ground troops used were so much better than anything we have ever seen. Baze Malbus' gun was particularly ridiculous. He mowed down Stormtroopers left and right. If anyone else had his gun in the OT, a lot of those gun fights would be over a long time ago. Granted, he was an independent character, and not strictly from the Alliance, but still, the technology was there.

K2SO also needs to be mentioned. I absolutely loved his character, however I don't believe that the Empire wouldn't have mass produced these droids because of their ridiculous offensive capabilities. Perhaps it was due to his new programming, but he is so much better than any other fighter in the movie. He can take on several squads of Stormtroopers by himself, all while withstanding tremendous punishment. The Rebels should have made copies of his programming and give it to a lot more droids.

There was also some new ships in Rogue One that force us to ask why we never see them again. We get the U-Wing, which I think makes the most sense why we never see it again as it is a troop transport/fighter and the OT didn't really have a need for it. We get a new capital ship which maybe is one of a kind, but it's still new. We get the Hammerhead ship which we see in the TV shows, but never in the OT. We get a new Empire transport too. There is a new Empire shuttle and Death Troopers but maybe it's explained that they are custom for Director Krennic. The Tie Striker is a new TIE model that we never see again, but maybe it's more for atmospheric combat and we didn't see a lot of that in the OT other than Bespin. Maybe it was unique to the Death Star construction as well.

Also, where were all the astromechs? This movie did not have very many of them, and considering how much we see them in all the other movies, it felt odd.

I think there were too many things that were done differently that didn't make it feel like a Star Wars movie. I touched upon this in my spoiler free review, but the soundtrack felt much different. Losing the opening crawl was different. The overall plot and self contained story is different. The deaths of characters all in one movie is pretty different. The text showing you which location you are at is different. No Star Wars fades/wipes to break up the scenes either. Also, this is shot like a war movie instead of a space opera. Each one of these are little, but when you add up all the differences, it can take you out of feeling like you are in a Star Wars movie.

That's not to say I didn't love the movie. I really liked several of the characters

Saw Gerrera is a very interesting character. He really helps gray the lines between good and evil when it comes to Star Wars. In the OT the Empire was clearly evil, and the Rebels were clearly good. Then the prequels came and showed the precursor to the Empire as being good, and the Separatists bad. When the Republic turned into the Empire, a lot of the Separatists became the Rebels. It was an interesting switch. Rogue One showcased that Separatist-like aspect of the Rebellion. They were fighting a guerrilla style type of war with the Empire, and that is not always pretty. As much as I love my country, I have to admit that we broke the "rules of combat" during the Revolutionary War all the time. War is hell. If you read up on anything about the lives' of soldiers in any war, you will quickly learn that both sides do horrible things. Rogue One showed the more real side of war. The Rebels could only fight the Empire on their own terms, and so sometimes had to resort to less-than-ideal tactics. I will say that the mainstream Rebels did speak out against Saw Gerrera and his tactics, which was nice to see, but action was necessary and when the Rogues went out on their mission, the Rebellion backed them up.

I really appreciated Gerrera's parallels to Darth Vader with his broken body and breathing mask. It helped reinforce his character as someone who wants to do good, but might have lost his way and therefore lost himself in the process.

Chirrut was an odd character. We'll have to wait and see what other tidbits of background story we get, but there is something more to him than just a blind warrior monk. He has to be attuned to the force in some way because I don't buy for a second he could have traversed all those areas without a little help. Hearing only goes so far. But it was a cool take on someone who is living in an era where the entire Jedi Order has basically been wiped out, and even wiped from memories. Propaganda was used by the Empire to constantly bring doubt to supporters of the Jedi, and they worked very hard to get rid of all traces. Jedha was an interesting planet that showed us worshipers of the Jedi way as more of a religion and belief system rather than people that actually could use the force. This lines up better with Han Solo's doubt in A New Hope.

It is hard for a Star Wars fan to justify how the galaxy could think that Jedi weren't real when they were the generals of the biggest war the galaxy had seen in a very long time. They dominated the scene in the prequels, and how people could forget them kind of boggles the mind. I suppose in a galaxy full of beings, a couple thousand Jedi is a small number. And then add on top almost all of them being killed or forced into hiding, alongside the Empire propaganda, and the time passage, one might believe that people don't believe in the force and the Jedi.

The other characters were also interesting, but they didn't spark my interest as much as these two. I will look forward to getting a little more backstory to Captain Andor and Bohdi Rook though.

The battle scenes were amazing. The space battles were epic with X-Wings and TIE Fighters weaving and around capital ships, bombing and blasting each other out of the sky. We got to see various heroics of individual pilots before they met their end. There were even atmospheric battles where we got to see ships take out the new AT-ACTS, saving the Rebel ground forces. I enjoyed the flowing switches from aerial combat to ground combat by showing a fighter duel and then having a fighter crash into the ground in front of some ground troops, and then to have us follow them for a while.

The shootouts were intense, with explosions and laser blasts flying everywhere. Troops from both sides getting mowed down. I especially liked it when the AT-ACTS burst through the trees and forced all the Rebels to run. The emotional roller coaster of running in panic, to whooping for joy when the X-Wings came to the rescue, almost had the frozen chosen Presbyterian in me leap for joy in a very Baptist and charismatic way.

The sound effects were good, they felt Star Wars-ey. The new technology also looked like Star Wars. The locations and new planets were all a single terrain like they should be, lol. We got a rainy and mountainous planet, a paradise planet, another desert planet, and perhaps a new lava planet although I honestly can't remember if they said it was Mustafar or not.

So what now?

Well the story wrapped up nicely. All the principal characters are dead, so there's not likely to be a sequel (other than ANH). I wouldn't mind having a similar story done to explain how the plans are gotten for the 2nd Death Star. We would have to have Bothans, or at the very least a character named Manny Bothans. It would be somewhat similar except that the Empire would be purposefully allowing them to steal it, so it would have a slightly different twist. I would have maybe some characters figure out that it is a trap, but that they die before being able to tell anyone, something like that. Could be fun. They'd really have to make it different from this one though.

We have Episode 8 to look forward to next year, followed by the Han Solo movie, which I am more concerned about, but seeing how good this one was makes me more hopeful. I really want a hunting down Jedi movie maybe starring bounty hunters working with Darth Vader to kill the last of them. We could see Darth Vader dominating several Jedi, and have bounty hunters with cool weapons. The bounty hunters would be interesting characters that maybe start to change their minds about what they originally set out to do.

In Conclusion

I really liked Rogue One. It was a story of hope, despair, war, redemption, reconciliation, sacrifice, all the themes I enjoy in a movie. This is a must have for my Star Wars collection and a glad addition. I can't wait to see what the EU gives us to expand on this. I can't wait to see what new stuff I spot in my second viewing less than 24 hours apart, lol. I hope you enjoyed this rant on the new movie. I'm sure my excitement will die down soon and I'll start thinking about and noticing various plot holes and issues, but for now I am still excited. Thanks for reading!

Spoiler-free Review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Well, it is here: Another Star Wars movie. We fans shall be treated to approximately one every year until the apocalypse. I am sure there will be good ones and bad ones. This is not one of them. I promised a spoiler-free review and so this shall be. I will be posting a spoiler-filled review soon as well, but don't worry, you will be fine just reading this one. Just so you know, I will be assuming people have seen the trailers. If you have not and want to go in blind, then this is not for you. For those of you that are really worried, simply stop reading and go see the movie, nothing I say here should detract anyone from doing so, nor will it necessarily make it any more enjoyable. The movie was great.

This is our first look at an anthology film in the Star Wars universe, ie not really part of the saga. There is an overarching storyline for Star Wars that we have seen so far, but this is the first movie that breaks from that mold...kind of. Although this is said to be a stand alone movie, the title alone tells you that it connects with the original trilogy. What we have is a prequel to A New Hope, which is the 4th overall episode of the Star Wars saga. I believe the director has publicly said that this movie's plot is included in the opening crawl for A New Hope, and I believe he succeeded, and a lot more.

Gareth Edwards (director) decided that he would be making a gritty war film similar to Saving Private Ryan and others, all centered around the budding Rebel Alliance's attempt to steal the Death Star Plans. I think this was expertly done. Gareth does a good enough job creating a new story that sticks out of the saga, and yet always points to and enhances the originals, which is a very fine line and difficult thing to do. The bane of most prequels is that they are too referential to the original movies. Instead of giving mainly filled in backstory and a solid story on their own, they simply nudge and wink at the audience saying "remember this from the originals? Yay nostalgia!". The worst example of this that I can think of is Dumb and Dumberer. For those of you unlucky enough to have seen it, that entire movie was joke after joke references to the original. It didn't really add anything new, it didn't give us good insight into the characters, the plot was horrendous, and you were left just wishing you had watched the original which did the same jokes but better.

Rogue One treads the line very well. There is plenty of fan service and references of course, but on the whole it succeeds in telling its own story, AND pointing "back" to the original movies, making even those movies better. THATS'S what a good prequel can do. If you can watch the originals and they have more meaning and umph because of a prequel, then I think it did it's job.

Comparing Rogue One to the originals and trying to make claims that it is better than any of the other movies doesn't feel right to me after watching the movie. Maybe you will see what I mean, but this movie feels like a short TV episode or a bonus feature that gives background to the movie (A New Hope) or something. I mean that in the most positive way though. The movie's pacing feels a little bit bizarre but I can't quite put my finger on it. It ends pretty abruptly as well, almost feeling forced, although it succeeds in everything the story was attempting so...I dunno, lol.

The soundtrack actually threw me off. There were elements of the original soundtrack which were the best parts in the movie, but everything else didn't quite sound right. I can see where the music director (Michael Giacchino) was coming from, but it didn't feel like John Williams. Perhaps it was not meant to. And this could just be me as well. I've seen people rave about the soundtrack and like most music it depends on the listener.

The visuals were also very well done in the movie. Space and ground battles never looked better. The lasers and dogfights were epic and exhilarating, and felt a lot like the original movies, which is a good thing. The ground battles remind me of the best parts of the Battle of Hoth, mixed with Star Wars scenarios that have up until now been only available to see in a video game. There were definitely some major visual/technical issues I have with the movie, and that will be more covered in the spoiler review, but most of it was good enough that it didn't ruin anything. Mainly it was some CGI that I don't think will stand the test of time (like a lot of CGI). The set pieces, costumes, and all of the new additions in regards to ships and technology were all expertly done. There is a bit of the same issue that the prequel trilogy had in that the technology in some cases seemed more advanced than the OT, but it wasn't nearly as bad.

I loved the aliens that were included, and the diversity in general has to be commended. They managed to have a more diverse cast than most movies in general, but I never felt like it was political or forced (sorry, racists). Instead, it was beautifully natural and it looked and felt like a galaxy that was populated by real people. That is the only thing that makes this movie take away from the original trilogy. If you go back and watch them, you will be wondering where all the non-white and non-male people in the galaxy went. I want to see a special edition that at least adds some *ahem* color to the background at the very least, or else the change will be quite jarring.

Some of the changes made to set this apart from the saga also ended up being a little distracting for me. Not including the classic Star Wars crawl for example threw me off. I was expecting it, as the director made it public a while ago, but I did miss it. There was little text that popped up at the bottom of the screen that told you where you were, which felt out of place. It's something that's used in most movies, just not Star Wars. And as I said the soundtrack felt a little off at times. These were little things, but they were enough to make me forget that I was watching Star Wars at times.

The story is compelling, and you enjoy the thrills as it goes on, learning more about the characters and their own personal struggles. You see the overarching plot advance on, and the characters have to adapt to it. It is simple storytelling really, but so many movies miss that mark. The movie also does a great job of giving you many characters, all of whom you care about. I think the screen time is spread out well enough that you end up knowing all the characters, which is another difficult thing to do. The movie also has its funny moments, despite being a gritty war film, which helps relax watchers and lets them enjoy a little more I think. Alan Tudyk's K2SO will go down in history as one of the best droids in the series. I foresee many comics that will shed more light on his character. Donnie Yen as the blind Chirrut Imwe was also very good. That's not to say that the main characters were not so, I just personally really enjoyed these other two.

There is not much more I can say without spoiling stuff, and there is stuff to be spoiled. There are easter eggs like in all the movies and I look forward to discovering them with you.

To make a long review short: Rogue One is a great movie. Go see it.

Pros

-Story
-Costumes/sets/technology design
-Characters
-Battles
-Makes the OT better

Cons

-CGI issues
-Soundtrack (personal preference)
-Odd pacing
-Changes made to set it apart from the saga sets it apart a little too much

Epic Dark Draft Decisions (10)

Here is the 10th Epic Dark Draft Decisions. For the new readers, here is what I'm doing:

I use a random card generator to generate a hand of 5 cards from a complete singleton set of Epic, which includes the Core, the Tyrants, and new Uprising sets. I will then analyze the hand and decide what I would tend to pick if I were to draw that hand in the Dark Draft format of play. I will decide which card to pick if I got that pack, as well as which 2 cards I'd pick if I got the remaining 4. For the sake of consistency, I will assume this is the first pack I open.

For your information and as a reminder, here are the Dark Draft rules from the official website:

Dark Draft (2 players)

• Shuffle a stack of at least 120 cards. Deal 5 to each player.
• Each player takes 1 card out of their hand of five cards and drafts it, then passes the other 4 to the other (at the same time).
• Each player takes 2 cards out of their new hand of four cards and drafts them, then discards the remaining two cards into a shared face-down discard pile.

Both players now have drafted three cards. Repeat nine times to get to a 30-card deck, shuffle and play.

This is a fun, fast, and skill-testing draft format for two players. Many of our competitive events use this format in the playoff rounds. This format is used in our World Championship. Source: http://www.epiccardgame.com/formats-draft/

This is our 10th pack, which normally would be our last pack.

 

 

Consume is a great addition from Uprising. It is a more consistent Unquenchable Thirst, and even though it can't reach the ceiling like UT can, I find it much more solid. I don't like losing cards in my discard pile, and I frequently used UT to hit 0-3 life off something anyway, like a Muse or Thought Plucker.

Elara, The Lycomancer is an amazing card. Putting in a chump blocker and then being able to banish almost any of your opponent's characters can lock up entire decks. However, that loyalty trigger is mandatory, so without more Sage cards she is a risk.

Gladius, The Defender I have not had a lot of experience with. My impressions of him aren't great. Unbanishable is one of the worst keywords one can have. He has decent life, but his attack is lackluster, and he has no Blitz or Ambush or Airborne or any of the other good keywords. He does give a passive boost to all your good champions though which is pretty cool if you have a lot of token generators. You can easily tap him to create 3 human tokens that have 4 attack and that's what you should do. If you can grab something that creates tokens and gives them Blitz he becomes much, much better (like Insurgency). I am intrigued to see how he could do but my gut tells me he is best in constructed.

Rescue Griffin I originally didn't think very highly of, but that is changing. I recognized the defensive capabilities, but was figuring I would rather have other 0-cost cards in my various decks. With the advent of Kark decks, this card could get better and better. A 0-cost champion that can survive most attacks from small and medium hitting champions? A 0-cost champion that can also block fliers and maybe even survive, unlike Guilt Demon? That's pretty sweet. In Kark mirror matches this card will be very helpful as it can block and survive all Angel attacks. In Limited I think it could serve a similar purpose as it will be able to block a lot of stuff, and if you can get your opponent to have to spend gold on it then you are much better off.

Spike Trap is another very interesting card. If Kark decks didn't already need the 0-cost Sage card spots for stuff like Muse, I think this card could really find a home. It seems you have to mass attack Kark and this card gets much better in that light. In Limited I think it's still very solid. You stand a good chance of killing a lot of champions with this card, or at least finishing off champions that you also block. It also Recycles which is very important. I love flexible 0-cost cards like this. My favorite plays are using it against my own Soul Hunter if it gets chump blocked, and using it against Thought Plucker and Knight of Shadows. It's a shame you have to wait til something attacks so this has a hard time getting Muse, but it's still a solid card.

This pack is pretty tough, although for me it comes down to which 0-cost I want to add. The 2 1-costs are ok, but they require more work. Although I love to gain health, if this was the first pack I would value card draw more. However, that Rescue Griffon is a solid free body that can stick around to block almost all of the other 0-cost attackers and a good amount of 1-costs. That being said, I think I have to go with Spike Trap. I almost always use this card when I take it and it gets rid of a lot of troubles, and it's the only card in this pack that helps draw cards which I'm always looking for.

If I received this pack I would have no trouble going for Rescue Griffin and Consume. Yes, it would mean 2 0-costs right off the bat, but they are both solid choices that I am sure would be useful. I love Elara, but I would prefer to see her in a later pack after I grabbed a lot more Sage. And Gladius the same thing but for token generators that give Blitz.

Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

Epic Dark Draft Decisions (9)

Here is the 9th Epic Dark Draft Decisions. For the new readers, here is what I'm doing:

I use a random card generator to generate a hand of 5 cards from a complete singleton set of Epic, which includes the Core, the Tyrants, and new Uprising sets. I will then analyze the hand and decide what I would tend to pick if I were to draw that hand in the Dark Draft format of play. I will decide which card to pick if I got that pack, as well as which 2 cards I'd pick if I got the remaining 4. For the sake of consistency, I will assume this is the first pack I open.

For your information and as a reminder, here are the Dark Draft rules from the official website:

Dark Draft (2 players)

• Shuffle a stack of at least 120 cards. Deal 5 to each player.
• Each player takes 1 card out of their hand of five cards and drafts it, then passes the other 4 to the other (at the same time).
• Each player takes 2 cards out of their new hand of four cards and drafts them, then discards the remaining two cards into a shared face-down discard pile.

Both players now have drafted three cards. Repeat nine times to get to a 30-card deck, shuffle and play.

This is a fun, fast, and skill-testing draft format for two players. Many of our competitive events use this format in the playoff rounds. This format is used in our World Championship. Source: http://www.epiccardgame.com/formats-draft/

Anything good?

 

 

I'm not sure about Demonic Rising. I suppose it can be a nice combo in Constructed if you have a full board and your opponent doesn't, but that seems very situational. In Limited it seems very hard to control. It is a board wipe of sorts which is nice. If you have lots of human tokens out already this is a nice upgrade.

Ah Bitten, the little brother to Inner Demon. A very solid targeted removal card that has found its way into many of my Limited decks. It also helps with Evil loyalty triggers.

Inner Peace. This card will make everyone hate you for dragging the game along, but it can be a lifesaver. It's a Good (get it?) counter to Thought Plucker as well since if you run a lot of Good cards you can Recall it. And as a side note it has a sweet alternate art version I hope to get someday.

Saren, Nightstalker is a new vampire from Uprising. His role is to punish players who play their gold too early. He is Unbreakable on your turn so that is nice, but he is very easily chump blocked. Still though, 10 damage is pretty back breaking and if you can manage him to get through, or boost him with Rage or something that gives Breakthrough, he can be quite good.

Speaking of alternate art cards, here's another one in Thundarus. I personally think he is too easily bounced or broken, and Unbanishable hasn't really shown itself to be a solid evasive ability. But wow is he hard to deal with if you don't have the easy answers. His boost of other dragons can be a lot of fun, but it's very hard to control, especially in Limited. Airborne is always nice though, and he definitely forces your opponent to deal with him or you will most likely win.

Sorry, these were all I could find for pics

 



After writing through this, I think the debate is between Bitten and Inner Peace, and I think Bitten wins. I always need targeted removal in Epic, and Bitten is a very solid choice. I can use it off turn and the drawback is just giving my opponent a zombie which is usually not the worst thing. Inner Peace is great, but I value removal over lifegain at least in the first pack.

If I got this pack I think I would go with Inner Peace and Saren. Even though its tempting to go with 2 Good cards, I think Thunderus can be too easily countered. At least Saren has Unbreakable and Blitz so he should be able to do something. Sorry Demonic Rising, I need to see some evidence that you're worth putting in my deck.

Anyway thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this one. Let me know if you agree. And happy gaming!

Epic Dark Draft Decisions (8)

Here is the 8th Epic Dark Draft Decisions. For the new readers, here is what I'm doing:

I use a random card generator to generate a hand of 5 cards from a complete singleton set of Epic, which includes the Core, the Tyrants, and new Uprising sets. I will then analyze the hand and decide what I would tend to pick if I were to draw that hand in the Dark Draft format of play. I will decide which card to pick if I got that pack, as well as which 2 cards I'd pick if I got the remaining 4. For the sake of consistency, I will assume this is the first pack I open.

For your information and as a reminder, here are the Dark Draft rules from the official website:

Dark Draft (2 players)

• Shuffle a stack of at least 120 cards. Deal 5 to each player.
• Each player takes 1 card out of their hand of five cards and drafts it, then passes the other 4 to the other (at the same time).
• Each player takes 2 cards out of their new hand of four cards and drafts them, then discards the remaining two cards into a shared face-down discard pile.

Both players now have drafted three cards. Repeat nine times to get to a 30-card deck, shuffle and play.

This is a fun, fast, and skill-testing draft format for two players. Many of our competitive events use this format in the playoff rounds. This format is used in our World Championship. Source: http://www.epiccardgame.com/formats-draft/

So what do we have today?

 

 

Hello Wild, nice to meet you. Upon opening this pack I am very angry I have to give it to my opponent. It's pretty much guaranteed my opponent will come out on top out of this pack.

2 giant bodies and nothing for you? Thanks!

Brachiosaurus is a really hard hitting body that essentially doesn't use up your gold if you manage to have more Wild cards in hand. Playing Brach and passing to your opponent is one of the more fun mind games one can play in Epic. Does your opponent simply pass as well? Well you got a giant body on the board and they wasted their gold. Did they play something? Now you can maybe react and remove whatever they played (Kong anyone?). Not as good in Limited as Constructed, but is a very solid card anyway.

Dark Knight is one of my favorite cards in Epic. He can be played anytime but is wonderful on your turn. I can play him before spending gold to try and coax my opponent into spending first. I can punish an opponent after they spent gold and maybe get 5 damage through for free. Plus, you can combo him with Breaking board wipes (like Apocalypse) and he stays on the board. In Limited he is an easy addition because you don't have to worry about the deckbuilding rules. A very solid pick.

Great lore story here

Great Horned Lizard is another one of my favorites. He is best used when your opponent already spent their gold as you really don't want to risk getting Erased. However, there are few champions that can punish pre-spent gold as well as the GHL. Very hard hitting and with Breakthrough, he can run away in Limited games.

Markus, Watch Captain has been growing on me of late. A very solid body, if you can hit the loyalty he replaces himself, and you get to banish up to 3 tokens. With Uprising adding lots of token generators like Rift Summoner and Hunting Pack, Markus has become better. Markus also is an amazing counter to Thought Plucker as if your opponent forces you to discard a card, you get Markus out for free! And since TP is a high draft pick, Markus most likely won't be useless.

Last, and at least in this card pack, least, is Mighty Blow. Drawing cards is great, and it's possible to boost a champion and give them unbreakable and +10 (Shadow Imp comes to mind), but you always run the risk of getting bounced, even if your opponent already spent gold (Hasty Retreat). Mighty Blow can work better in Limited, but compared to the rest of the stuff in this pack, I would probably pass.

 

I think with much trepidation I would go for Great Horned Lizard. I never mind going into Wild, and if I don't GHL plays well by itself. It is just such a hard hitting champion that forces your opponent to deal with him that I can't pass it up. I also need to break up all the Wild in that pack as giving my opponent Brachiosaurus and GHL right up front is a recipe for disaster. I will miss my Dark Knight, who would be a very solid pick otherwise, but I don't think I could afford giving them so much Wild. Brachiosaurus is tempting too, but you have to have lots of Wild to make it really worth it, and that might be too much of a risk. Markus is also great, but again....that Wild.

If I got this pack I would have a pretty big debate. It's hard to pass up Brach, but I really need a lot of Wild to make it work. I could also take Mighty Blow, but i'm not a big fan. I really like Dark Knight and Markus is ok. I guess it would have to be Brach and Dark Knight and I would be looking for more Wild to make Brach better. 

I hope you enjoyed today's Dark Draft Decisions! Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

Star Wars Destiny Review

Fantasy Flight Games has just released their new game, Star Wars Destiny this week. It has been highly anticipated and very high in demand if prices on ebay are any indication. I got the chance to demo the game at Gencon earlier this year and I was very impressed. I am not a big fan of the distribution model but the game is entertaining enough to warrant a purchase/play in my opinion. Feel free to scroll down to the Pros/Cons list at the bottom of the article if you are pressed for time. :)

Starring Finn and the guy you really hope you get in a lucky pack

Star Wars Destiny is a collectible dice/card game. Sort of Dicemasters meets Epic Duels meets Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn. You can relive your favorite what-if scenarios (does anybody do that?) using characters from the Star Wars Universe spanning all the movies and at least references to other TV shows like Rebels. You use a combination of dice and cards to defeat your opponent's characters or force them to draw their last card.

Each player brings to the table their characters, which all have a point value and can't exceed 30 pts, and the accompanying character dice. You can take an elite version of a character which costs more pts, but allows you to take a second die for that character. You also bring 30 cards exactly from your collection, with no more than 2 of each card. These cards must belong to the same color as one of your characters (Red - Military, Blue - The Force, and Yellow - Rogue, Gray- Neutral and can be included anywhere), and either have to match their faction (Hero or Villain) or be neutral. For example, Admiral Ackbar is considered a Red Hero, and so if you wanted a deck using just him you could only include red hero cards or red or grey neutral cards. Cards can either be events, upgrades, or supports. Some cards come with a die that can be used on your turn so you must bring those accompanying dice as well. Lastly, you need to bring a battlefield card and we'll get back to that. There are also a number of tokens that both players need access to that include damage, resource, and shield tokens.

Insert "It's a trap!" joke here

On your turn you will take a single action, then your opponent will go.

Your actions are, using the easy-to-remember acronym PARDUC:

Play a card from your hand
Activate a character or support
Resolve your dice
Discard a card to reroll your dice
Use a card action
Claim the battlefield.

Cards in play start with their dice on them. If you play a support or upgrade that includes dice, they come in with the dice on them. When you activate a character you turn the character card sideways (exhaust) take all of their dice and any upgrade dice they have, and roll them all. That is one action. On future turns you may do something like resolve your dice, which will allow you to use any number of the same dice that share a symbol. Meaning if Captain Phasma and a First Order Stormtrooper both have ranged symbol dice in play, you may resolve all of them and deal damage to your opponent's characters.

Most disappointing character in TFA

Dice have a variety of faces, which make up the even more easy-to-remember acronym MRSRDDFSB:

Melee or Range Damage - Deals that much damage to a character. Melee and Range count as different symbols so you can only resolve one type in a resolve action

Shield - Give a character that many shield tokens (max of 3 per character), which allow you to prevent 1 damage each

Resource - Gain that many resource tokens which are used to pay for stuff

Disrupt - Cause your opponent to lose that many resources

Discard - Cause an opponent to discard cards randomly from their hand

Focus - Allow you to turn that many dice in your pool to the side(s) of your choice

Special - This triggers a special ability on the dice card

Blank - Does nothing and is the bane of your existence

So you and your opponent take turns taking actions, exhausting characters, using and manipulating dice, and generally try to kill each other's characters. During your turn, you may also claim the battlefield, which prevents you from taking any further actions during the round, but allow you to use the battlefield's ability, AND give you the first turn next round. There is a push your luck element to this and it can be a huge deal to get ahead on turns because most likely that will mean you can resolve them first as well. Either way a round ends when both players pass.

And that's basically it. You play until one player's characters are all defeated, or someone runs out of cards in their deck and hand. The gameplay is very fast and there is hardly any downtime which is awesome. Games last around 30 minutes, although it may take longer for your first couple of games. The game is advertised as being 2 player, but I think one could adapt the rules to allow for team play, which sounds like a lot of fun. You get to customize your starting characters and a 30 card deck, which seems to offer a ton of options and strategies and synergies. And obviously FFG will expand the game so it should have a nice long life.

I really hope they expand for at least a couple expansions as right now the character choices are quite odd. No C3PO, Chewbacca or R2D2 but we have Bala Tik and a padawan that's not even in the movies?

Apart from gameplay, there are a couple of things that concern players most:

The Dice

The dice are plastic injected and polished, and the symbols are heat-pressed onto the dice. Then the dice have scratch-resistant coating put on them. So the dice are fairly big yet light, with rounded corners, and seem to be high in quality. They roll very nicely, the symbols are easy to see, the artwork makes it fairly easy to see what card they go with, and most importantly it feels like they will stand the test of time. There are no stickers to worry about. That being said there have been plenty of reports of people getting the wrong dice in packs, the wrong faces on the dice, and some sloppiness when it comes to the imprinting.

I haven't examined all my dice but I know that one of my starter dice for Kylo Ren has an incorrect side, which makes it useless unless I mark it. My Darth Vader die has the art on one of the sides slightly askew, which doesn't affect gameplay it just looks off. I did not get the wrong dice with the wrong card which sounds like a nightmare to try and resolve, considering the random nature and cost of the game.

So those are pretty huge issues. Luckily for me I got a 2nd starter set which did not have any errors, but for some people they won't even really be able to play fully until they request and hopefully get a replacement from customer service. And those people who have claimed they got the wrong die will probably have to somehow show proof to FFG because I can't imagine they will just send a Legendary Darth Vader die in the mail for free, considering the die is what you need to use the elite version of that character. This brings me to my next point:

The Random Collectible nature of the game

I thought I kicked this habit...

This game has random booster packs. That alone will turn a lot of people away, and for good reason. I personally think random purchases are the bane of games. They turn what should be fun games into little gambling addictions. It preys on people and I've never appreciated it.

This game is also quite insidious in that it really seems to punish you for not having at least 2 copies of any given card. Say you got really lucky and got a Darth Vader in a pack. Yay, the iconic villain of Star Wars is now yours to command! But wait, you only get to use 1 die with him. No worries, that means he is cheaper and you can fit more characters into your squad, right? Oh wait, he's still too expensive and you cannot get more than 1 other character to go with him, so you are stuck.

I don't know the odds, but getting another Legendary Darth Vader in a pack sounds unlikely unless you are putting a lot of money down.

That's not to say you can't have fun with 1 character die, just know that your deck will not be as efficient as it can be. For those of you that just want to play to have fun, that's probably not an issue. For those of you that want to play in FFG tournaments and such, you are in for a money pit.

When it comes to deckbuilding the 2 copies of cards are going to hurt your wallet as well. Take for example the Thermal Detonator, which is a legendary upgrade that you can have up to 2 copies in your deck. Right now it is considered to be a very good card, and an almost must-have for any yellow character deck. Now the market hasn't completely stabilized yet, and early costs for individual cards were absolutely insane prior to release, but the card is still selling for around $30. You can try and pull one randomly from packs, but legendaries are said to be in 1 out of every 6 packs, and there are 17 legendaries in the game I believe. So good luck with that.

Leia's only move

I am looking forward with cryptic fascination at how this game will eventually sell, and I hope that the market will settle down once a ton of the product gets out there and the craze dies down a bit, but boy is it ridiculous right now. Oh, and for those of you interested, in my booster box that I purchased, I got exactly 6 legendaries (which is the average), and honestly a very good spread of cards. After I stacked the various colors and factions, I found that they were all pretty even in size, and I got very few duplicates, which is a good and bad thing. For casual play or trying out new stuff, it is awesome, for specific deck building, I will have to do a lot of trading, lol.

Another thing that really irks me are the contents of the starter. Now the cards in the 2 starters (Kylo Ren and Rey), are both very decent. You get some good cards in both sets, and the decks play pretty evenly, which is nice. However, there are both cards that only exist in starter packs, and cards that can also be found in random boosters. This is an awful choice by FFG and goes into the big-evil-company territory that FFG is guilty of from time to time. Say you want to use an elite version of Finn, our plucky adventurer from the Force Awakens. Well the starter only gives you 1 copy of his die, so you will have to grab 2 copies to use him fully. The starter also gives you a copy of the rare card, BB-8, which is also a beloved and decent card. So getting 2 copies means yay, now you can put the full compliment of BB-8s in a deck as well! What a bargain! How do you think you will feel if you then buy a booster pack and find another BB-8? Yeah, that same BB-8 that you can guarantee to get in a starter can show up in booster packs. There are several other "rare" cards in the starters that do this.

That's 4 BB-8s in a row...

The camera flash makes it seem like it's real

How do you think I felt when I got a booster box which contains 36 packs, only to have 5 of those packs give me rares that can be found in the starter decks? How do you think a kid is going to feel on Christmas when the only pack they open doesn't give them a cool Darth Vader, but rather another Immobilize? I think FFG could have (read should have) put starter only cards in their starters, and probably only singletons as well (with the exception of maybe Rey and Kylo so players get a chance to see a character with 2 dice). Players that want a full set or more deck customization could buy more if they wanted to, but nobody would get screwed over. They aren't even alternate art rares which at least Magic (the biggest baddie of all), sometimes does when they put "rares" in starter sets. I know why a business would choose this model but I will never agree to it.

All of that being said I did get suckered in and haven't regretted my purchase yet, lol. So don't get me wrong, all the doom and gloom of the previous paragraphs shouldn't automatically turn people off to the game. It really is rather good. And in typical FFG fashion I am looking forward to seeing what prize support they offer for organized events, and of course what new stuff they will bring in an expansion, which is rumored to include stuff from the new Rogue One movie which looks amazing.

I will leave a short Pros/Cons list for those of you that scrolled down and didn't bother to read my novella, and thanks for reading and happy gaming!

Pros

- Quick and fun gameplay
- Dice that should never fade
- Star Wars theme!
- Deckbuilding

Cons

- Cases of severe packaging/printing errors
- Random Boosters
- Almost requirement to have multiple copies of certain cards further compounds the random thing
- Starter sets that contain rare cards that you may get in random packs

Epic Dark Draft Decisions (7)

Here is the 7th Epic Dark Draft Decisions. For the new readers, here is what I'm doing:

I use a random card generator to generate a hand of 5 cards from a complete singleton set of Epic, which includes the Core, the Tyrants, and new Uprising sets. I will then analyze the hand and decide what I would tend to pick if I were to draw that hand in the Dark Draft format of play. I will decide which card to pick if I got that pack, as well as which 2 cards I'd pick if I got the remaining 4. For the sake of consistency, I will assume this is the first pack I open.

For your information and as a reminder, here are the Dark Draft rules from the official website:

Dark Draft (2 players)

• Shuffle a stack of at least 120 cards. Deal 5 to each player.
• Each player takes 1 card out of their hand of five cards and drafts it, then passes the other 4 to the other (at the same time).
• Each player takes 2 cards out of their new hand of four cards and drafts them, then discards the remaining two cards into a shared face-down discard pile.

Both players now have drafted three cards. Repeat nine times to get to a 30-card deck, shuffle and play.

This is a fun, fast, and skill-testing draft format for two players. Many of our competitive events use this format in the playoff rounds. This format is used in our World Championship. Source: http://www.epiccardgame.com/formats-draft/

So what do we have today?

 

 

Holy Flying Sage Batman, that's a lot of blue. Almost the entire pack has airborne, which is a very nice ability to have in Limited, and almost the entire pack is Sage, which is typically considered to be the best faction.

Blue Dragon is a fun champion. Besides the amazing art, and very good alternate art if you were able to get one from Spiel 2016, it's the only direct-damage-to-face dragon we have. Not only does it replace itself with a card draw and deal 2 damage to anything, but every other 1-cost Sage card allows you to do an additional 2 damage. The 6/4 stats are rather lackluster but hey, beggars can't be choosers.

Citadel Raven is still a bit on an enigma to me. I believe it was Derek Arnold at Worlds who used this card with 2 Go Wilds, which is pretty hilarious. Still though, the Raven is an ok card. I don't value it too highly as it will almost assuredly die before using its ability again.

Guilt Demon is one of my favorite Epic cards in the game. It has so much flexibility. Need a blocker? Need an attacker to draw out gold or punish after gold has been spent? Need a flier? Need to remove a pesky card from your opponent's discard pile or maybe even your own Ancient Chant to draw a card? Guilt Demon can do it all. I usually try to make room for it in most of my decks.

Mist Guide Herald is one card that I personally don't value as high as most people it seems. There were a lot of decks at Worlds that ran 3 of this. It's a solid card that can grab you what you need at the time, and it leaves a body that can attack or defend, but most of the time I personally would rather have a different Sage card. Then again, I didn't qualify for Worlds so what do I know, lol. It's better in Limited I think since you have less control of your deck, and this gives you some control when you need to get a body on the board.

Warrior Golem is something I never thought too highly until Qualifiers for Worlds and then at Worlds. This thing is pretty decent. I'm always a fan of 0-cost Blitzers, and although it requires loyalty, its ability to recycle when it goes to the discard pile is very nice. There were many times this annoying guy dealt 4 damage to me, gave my opponent a card he needed, or practically forced me to block in an unwanted way.

If this was my first pack, I think I might have to go with Guilt Demon. A close second is actually the Mist Guide Herald, but I think Guilt Demon edges it out. It makes me sad to give my opponent so much Sage, but Guilt Demon is just too good and he fits easily into any deck since it doesn't require any loyalty. Discard pile removal is very important in Limited as well.

If I received this pack, I would one, be very happy. And two, I think I'll be looking harder at Sage stuff, lol. It's actually quite the toss up between what I'd go for. Mist Guide Herald feels obvious to me. I think I will go with Blue Dragon as well. I like direct damage and champions that also allow you to draw a card are great for pacing. The jury's still out on Citadel Raven.

What do you think? I hope you enjoyed this edition of Dark Draft Decisions and happy gaming!