Hello I am fairly new to the game and my biggest issue is making command decks. I am wondering what are the staple cards that really should be in every deck. I figure that if i know those and have a base list i can use that to base off of and should be able to get over my weakness.

The staple cards would basically be the zero cost cards that came in the Core, and among them, you'd look at Take Initiative, Element of Surprise, Urgency, and if you're using mostly/all Ranged attacks, Deadeye.

Beyond that, it's really just matching up traits to your units.

Trooper heavy lists should probably run Grenadier, Reinforcements

Spies want Intelligence Leak, Comm Disruption

And so on.

If you're running uniques, consider their unique command cards.

Beyond that, depending on your collection, there are a few nice versatile cards with (someone will correct me if I'm wrong) 1 cost; Jump Jets for some nice reposition which is helpful in 2 of the 3 current Skirmish maps, Negation to stop those timely Initiative takings, as well as some other zero cost cards, and Tough Luck, especially if you're running HK's, but it's great in general for opponents that use effects to reroll dice, which often comes up.

So maybe let us know what units you've been running and we can get more specific.

Absolutely anything to do with movement is great too, especially with unique characters who have a particularly useful ability/attack.

Namely:

Fleet footed

Hit and run

Urgency

Force rush

What types of lists do you play? Trooper heavy? droid or Creature centric? Heroic? Which faction? What style of attack do you prefer > long range, or beat-down melee or a combination? Which are your favorite deployment cards

As you can see, a lot of it depends on your list.

I don't think I've ever run a list without Element of Suprise, or at least one of the movement cards (I'd add Opportunistic to the list for Mercs)

If I take a certain deployment card, then usually there are 2-3 command cards that I naturally gravitate towards or try to fit in, depending on the other deployment cards in my list.

Negation

take initiative

urgency

element of surprise

beyond that it all depends

Negation

Take Initiative

Urgency (though I have played some lists without it.... gets better with melee characters)

Element of Surprise

Disorient

If you have a leader:
Planning

If you have troopers:

Grenadier

2x Reinforcements

If you have a hunter:

Primary Target

If you have spies:

Comm Disruption

Intelligence Leak

If you have a Bantha:

Jungland Terror

Almost all of the command cards specific to a named character are pretty good with a few minor exceptions

Movement ones are pretty strong too

Everything else depends on the list and how many points you have left to spend.

Just a note on Urgency: you must spend all of the movement points before doing any other actions. That is, you can't play Urgency, move X spaces, attack, move speed-X spaces.

I hate Take Initiative and want it banned or increased to 2 or 3 points.

Yea command decks are one of those that seem complicated but once you've built a few lists and played some games with them it becomes clear you build around the keywords in your deck in the most part plus normally 4-5 0 cost command cards that are mostly down to personal preference but of course there are some staples, or others that only work in certain types of lists.

Hoping to have a new YouTube video up over the next week or so discussing 0pt command cards but basically what everyone has said here is good advice

Just a note on Urgency: you must spend all of the movement points before doing any other actions. That is, you can't play Urgency, move X spaces, attack, move speed-X spaces.

I hate Take Initiative and want it banned or increased to 2 or 3 points.

Also, note to the OP, by tropoFarmer hating Take Initiative he means it's really powerful. Always have that card in your list.

-ryanjamal

Yes, it is certain. Urgency is a special action, and movement points received as part of a special action must be spent during that special action or be lost.

You also cannot spend movement points from the movement point pool during actions, including Urgency. (During Urgency you can only spend the movement points received from Urgency, although it would rarely make a difference.)

(It is more or less the only card that triggers this specific movement rule. Most other special actions use Move X spaces instead.)

Awesome, thanks. I never knew that.

-ryanjamal

Has Urgency been FAQ'd to work that way or is it simply application of a rule from the main rulebook?

EDIT:

Nevermind, I found it in the rules reference guide:

"Movement points can be spent before or after performing

an action. If movement points are gained as part of a special

action, they must be spent immediately during that action."

Potentially been playing that wrong, though I imagine that urgency is most often used to reach a distance target, not to hit and run away.

Thanks for the clarification.

Fleet Footed > Urgency. It's good to run both, but if you're going to run just one, run Fleet footed. Doesn't force you to spend all your movement points at once and allows you to use both your actions for something like attack and a special action while getting that free 1 space move.

I hate Take Initiative and want it banned or increased to 2 or 3 points.

I like that Take Initiative can shake things up a bit. It adds a little bit of risk to planning around a double activation which would otherwise be stupidly strong. It's also a little bit of a counter to Devious Scheme and things like the Bantha/Jungland combo.

I think it's a super important part of the game.

What I don't like is that Negation is 1 point and that both of those cards are basically mandatory.

As for Fleet Footed. I simply don't think 1 movement point is worth a whole command card. It is 0 points but I feel urgency or hit and run are much better.

As for Fleet Footed. I simply don't think 1 movement point is worth a whole command card. It is 0 points but I feel urgency or hit and run are much better.

Urgency is only better than Fleet Footed when the spot that you need to get to is exactly your speed+2 spaces away and you don't need to stop to attack or take an action. Remember you have to spend all the movement points from urgency before you can do anything else. Fleet Footed gives you much more flexibility, it's like taking a strain move as a hero in campaign.

Urgency doesn't let you move into melee range and then use Pummel/Assault/Vanish/Hide in plain sight/Telekinetic Throw, it doesn't let you move out of cover to get LOS and then have enough MP to move back into cover, it will never allow an Officer/Snowtrooper/Kayn/Gideon/MHD to get to a friendly figure that was out of reach (maybe because you're trying not to bunch up for Blast/Grenadier), use their special action and then still be able to attack. The fact that Fleet Footed frees up your other 2 actions for something other than movement, and that it doesn't force you to spend all your movement points at once is the what makes it better than Urgency, but they are both excellent cards and I almost never build a deck without running both. But I think running Urgency without Fleet Footed is almost always a mistake.

As for Fleet Footed. I simply don't think 1 movement point is worth a whole command card. It is 0 points but I feel urgency or hit and run are much better.

Urgency is only better than Fleet Footed when the spot that you need to get to is exactly your speed+2 spaces away and you don't need to stop to attack or take an action. Remember you have to spend all the movement points from urgency before you can do anything else. Fleet Footed gives you much more flexibility, it's like taking a strain move as a hero in campaign.

Urgency doesn't let you move into melee range and then use Pummel/Assault/Vanish/Hide in plain sight/Telekinetic Throw, it doesn't let you move out of cover to get LOS and then have enough MP to move back into cover, it will never allow an Officer/Snowtrooper/Kayn/Gideon/MHD to get to a friendly figure that was out of reach (maybe because you're trying not to bunch up for Blast/Grenadier), use their special action and then still be able to attack. The fact that Fleet Footed frees up your other 2 actions for something other than movement, and that it doesn't force you to spend all your movement points at once is the what makes it better than Urgency, but they are both excellent cards and I almost never build a deck without running both. But I think running Urgency without Fleet Footed is almost always a mistake.

We can both be here all day giving examples of when 2 move is useful and when 1 move is useful. If you only need to move 1 then 2 is wasteful of course. But 2 is further than 1. It's a no win argument.

The real question is what does it pair with?

I can't think of a situation where i really wish I could just move 1 more spot. I play with lots of officers so movement is usually less of a problem.

If you're falling 1 spot short of range or objectives then I think that's a planning problem. Perhaps just like urgency it's simply better in some list than others.

Urgency gives you that extra boost to contest an objective/terminal or get that melee unit (Vader, RGC, Inquisitor, Davith, Obiwan etc) into range. It's worth it simply for the surprise factor alone when your RGC now moves 8 or your bantha moves 2 more than expected. The power of surprising your enemy who carefully positioned all this stuff out of melee range is not to be underestimated.

It also allows you to get around a blocking figure to kill something that's hiding on low health. For something like that, the more movement the better. It's certainly less flexible than Fleet Footed but I find it much more impactful. I'll rarely have a need for both, and I think there's other much better cards that compete for the same spot, so I'll go for the more impactful one.

As for the actions, well, you rarely do anything but move and shoot. Few units can attack twice and even fewer of them will significantly benefit from moving 1 space to do it. In most cases Hit and Run is far more powerful.

Each to their own of course and I'm glad people are finding more and more cards useful. I hate how a lot of cards never see the light of day.

I've come to really like Hit and Run. It's almost at "must include" status.

I'd like to mention New Orders, especially for Imperial lists, and especially for those with multiple troopers. As long as you keep ONE of your troopers positioned adjacent to a standard officer, you're primed to get a whole other activation off during this round. Played right, it's absolutely brutal. To me, it's more valuable than a second Reinforcements in Trooper lists.

I've come to really like Hit and Run. It's almost at "must include" status.

I'd like to mention New Orders, especially for Imperial lists, and especially for those with multiple troopers. As long as you keep ONE of your troopers positioned adjacent to a standard officer, you're primed to get a whole other activation off during this round. Played right, it's absolutely brutal. To me, it's more valuable than a second Reinforcements in Trooper lists.

Agreed I'm a big advocate of New Orders although my friends seem to think I'm joking when I recommend it for a command deck!

As for Fleet Footed. I simply don't think 1 movement point is worth a whole command card. It is 0 points but I feel urgency or hit and run are much better.

Urgency is only better than Fleet Footed when the spot that you need to get to is exactly your speed+2 spaces away and you don't need to stop to attack or take an action. Remember you have to spend all the movement points from urgency before you can do anything else. Fleet Footed gives you much more flexibility, it's like taking a strain move as a hero in campaign.

Urgency doesn't let you move into melee range and then use Pummel/Assault/Vanish/Hide in plain sight/Telekinetic Throw, it doesn't let you move out of cover to get LOS and then have enough MP to move back into cover, it will never allow an Officer/Snowtrooper/Kayn/Gideon/MHD to get to a friendly figure that was out of reach (maybe because you're trying not to bunch up for Blast/Grenadier), use their special action and then still be able to attack. The fact that Fleet Footed frees up your other 2 actions for something other than movement, and that it doesn't force you to spend all your movement points at once is the what makes it better than Urgency, but they are both excellent cards and I almost never build a deck without running both. But I think running Urgency without Fleet Footed is almost always a mistake.

We can both be here all day giving examples of when 2 move is useful and when 1 move is useful. If you only need to move 1 then 2 is wasteful of course. But 2 is further than 1. It's a no win argument.

The real question is what does it pair with?

I can't think of a situation where i really wish I could just move 1 more spot. I play with lots of officers so movement is usually less of a problem.

If you're falling 1 spot short of range or objectives then I think that's a planning problem. Perhaps just like urgency it's simply better in some list than others.

Urgency gives you that extra boost to contest an objective/terminal or get that melee unit (Vader, RGC, Inquisitor, Davith, Obiwan etc) into range. It's worth it simply for the surprise factor alone when your RGC now moves 8 or your bantha moves 2 more than expected. The power of surprising your enemy who carefully positioned all this stuff out of melee range is not to be underestimated.

It also allows you to get around a blocking figure to kill something that's hiding on low health. For something like that, the more movement the better. It's certainly less flexible than Fleet Footed but I find it much more impactful. I'll rarely have a need for both, and I think there's other much better cards that compete for the same spot, so I'll go for the more impactful one.

As for the actions, well, you rarely do anything but move and shoot. Few units can attack twice and even fewer of them will significantly benefit from moving 1 space to do it. In most cases Hit and Run is far more powerful.

Each to their own of course and I'm glad people are finding more and more cards useful. I hate how a lot of cards never see the light of day.

It's true that 2 extra spaces of movement are flat out better than 1 extra space of movement. However, it that's the entirety of your consideration, you are missing the point of the Fleet Footed card.

Fleet Footed isn't good because it gives you an "extra" step of movement, it's good because it allows you a step of movement in a situation in which you wouldn't be able to take a step.

Drop Stun, take a step, whack a dude in melee.

Take a step, then use both actions to Pummel.

Take a step, chuck a juicy grenade, can still attack.

Take a step, pick up a McGuffin, can still attack.

Take a step into Order range, can still fire off Planning.

Take a step, then use both actions for New Orders.

Take a step to Stampede with a Bantha, can still do both a Trample and a regular attack.

Force Lightning or Telekinetic Throw with your space wizard, can still take a step to whack a dude in melee.

Take a step to bait out a Parting Blow before you take any other decision about your actions.

Attack, then take a step to heal up more guys with a Snowtrooper.

Take a step, open door, shoot dude behind door.

And so on. There are multiple instances in every game where taking even one step of movement without having to waste an entire action is extremely beneficial towards your action economy. How many games have you lost that you could've won if you had just one more attack available?

If you don't think these kinds of situations happen often enough, I'd advise you to play more slowly and carefully and with more map and action awareness.

I always play both Urgency and Fleet Footed in every single deck. If I was forced to choose between the two, I'd take Fleet Footed any day of the week and twice on Sunday for the sheer flexibility.

Which is why I don't understand that Urgency still seems to be considered a must-include in so many lists (inlcuding in the recent strategy article).

Because on other quite common occasions what you need to win a match is a straight up burst of speed to get to an objective right there and then. Urgency is the cheapest way to get a decent movement range extension without resorting to stuff that's sensitive to your order of activation or barred by other conditions, like Gideon, Officers, Field Tactician, Opportunist and the like.

Both cards have their uses and while I like one more than the other because I'm willing to trade some straight-up power for more flexibility, I can't envision not playing both in any squad I ever build in the history of now and forever, short of someone putting a gun to my head and making me choose one.

Of course, everyone is free to disagree and pull either one from their deck. If you can play that and win consistently, more power to you. I can't be the one to judge, since I'm the one with the dirty little secret of never putting Element of Surprise in any of my decks (gasp!). Which I guess goes to show that there's no 100% universal list of you're-doing-it-wrong-if-you-don't-do-this staples.

At least we can all agree on Take Initiative, right?

Dunno, I've run lists without Take Initiative before!

Not convinced it's the right idea, but on occasion and with lists with no obvious target, I've been known to do it (e.g. 2 eStorms, 2 eISB, Blaise I've run both with or without it)

I've come to really like Hit and Run. It's almost at "must include" status.

I'd like to mention New Orders, especially for Imperial lists, and especially for those with multiple troopers. As long as you keep ONE of your troopers positioned adjacent to a standard officer, you're primed to get a whole other activation off during this round. Played right, it's absolutely brutal. To me, it's more valuable than a second Reinforcements in Trooper lists.

Agreed I'm a big advocate of New Orders although my friends seem to think I'm joking when I recommend it for a command deck!

I actually had to Google 'new orders imperial assault' in order to see what it did. Having done so, seems pretty good really!

Ha ha, I did too! I bet it sees so little play because not a lot of people picked up Weiss, I being among them. Does look like a great card for a lot of lists though.

-ryanjamal