Its hump day, so that means we need to talk about cards!! And this is probably my favorite Hero card revealed at the moment, Luke Skywalker.

1) Luke comes with 12 HP (above average) with a point cost of 15/20. His die faces are incredible for damage with 2 and 3 damage without the need to spend a resource! The rest of his die faces are standard utility with nothing to write home about.

EDITED: 2) Luke is a damage beast. He has 33% chance to roll damage just with a single die. Bringing 2 die he pushes into potential of 4-6 damage. But with all the equipment available from neutral and blue cards, he is moving into damage levels of 7+. This is a scary number because so many cards range between 7-10 HP. So Luke is almost able to 1 shot character with a really lucky roll. Currently the only other potential damage dealer we have seen would be Vader

2) Luke is a damage beast. He has 33% chance to roll damage and 1 die face is a focus, wh ich could be accounted for damage. So Luke has a 50% chance to roll a damage face (using the focus) and a 33% chance of dealing 3 damage (also using the focus). This is strong consistency for high damage. Not many characters have the ability to bring high damage without spending resources, and this makes Luke shine through the storm. But whats more is that ability he had [/size]

Focus: Turn that many other dice in your pool to the side(s) of your choice.

Ya, you can't use focus on itself. So your numbers are back down to 33% and 16%.

So if you use 2 Luke die, can you not use the focus on Luke die A to change Luke die B to a new face? I thought you could. But you're right, I wrote that section incorrectly, I will edit it.

So if you use 2 Luke die, can you no use the focus on Luke die A to change Luke die B to a new face? I thought you could. But you're right, I wrote that section incorrectly, I will edit it.

Yes, you can use die B to effect die A, but that makes the numbers a bit different. I think I calculate it out at 44% chance to get a hit, 18% to get 3 damage, 11% to get 4 damage, and 3% to get either 5 or 6 damage.

Luke is a good character that I would run Elite. But what to pair him with, for only 10 points.

Luke is a good character that I would run Elite. But what to pair him with, for only 10 points.

I like him with Leia for 9 points. You can remove her die to reroll his two. Since you are drawing so many cards with Luke, it's good to have an alternative way to reroll dice (instead of discarding cards) because you don't want to deck yourself. I'd also make sure to have some resource accelerators like BB-8 in the deck.

Rey is 9/12 Leia 12/16. There will be also a Padawan.

Rey is 9/12 Leia 12/16. There will be also a Padawan.

I swear I clicked on the link and looked up her cost. How did I see "12" and read "9"?!

Ah, you probably so wanted brother and sister to be a good team

So: List of Potential partners for Luke that have three dice (because a two dice list sounds awful).

Luke+Ackbar: We obviously don't know how good Ackbar really is without seeing the text on his card but we know that he provides plentiful resources (which is synergistic with having more cards in hand) and has a double focus (which alone gives a two dice Luke 6 damage if you want it). This could be one of the best combos for Luke regardless of who the second dice goes to.

Luke+ Rebel Trooper: We don't know much about the rebel trooper yet. I'd imagine it's similar to the FO Stormtrooper which would give it a good amount of damage along with 2 blank faces. Probably worse than Ackbar.

Luke+Rey: The big downside of this combo is that you only have access to blue cards which, in the absence of incentives to monocolour, seems bad. On The other hand Luke draws more cards to give Rey more upgrades and actually has two faces of melee damage to allow her to use her +2 damage. Definitely better with Luke as the two dice character.

Luke+Padawan: This will likely just be worse than Luke+Rey.

Luke+Padme: I feel like it's a reasonable assumption that this will be within point values looking at Ackbar. Padme also has the double focus and doesn't have a blank face but unless her special generates resources I don't feel like she'll have the same synergy as Ackbar.

Luke+Hired Gun: Probably like Luke + Rebel Trooper except you have access to yellow rather than Red. (And probably have less damage and more disruptive stuff).

Luke+Rebel Trooper+Hired Gun: If this is possible (big if) then it could be pretty **** good, you have access to all three colours, lots of health and your opponent can't pour damage into one target to take out two dice.

I'm sorry if this has been addressed elsewhere, but thinking of Luke combinations with other characters has me wondering: If your starting character value totals less than 30 points, do you get a bonus somewhere else (like an extra resource), or are those points essentially lost?

I'm sorry if this has been addressed elsewhere, but thinking of Luke combinations with other characters has me wondering: If your starting character value totals less than 30 points, do you get a bonus somewhere else (like an extra resource), or are those points essentially lost?

There's no sign in the rules of any such compensation.

I'm sorry if this has been addressed elsewhere, but thinking of Luke combinations with other characters has me wondering: If your starting character value totals less than 30 points, do you get a bonus somewhere else (like an extra resource), or are those points essentially lost?

There's no sign in the rules of any such compensation.

While what you said is true (I agree), I would not at all be surprised if once the OP Tourney rules come out that it is factored in somehow. But we'll have to see =)

It would be interesting if your point deficit was added to your initiative roll. That way it doesn't totally dominate it, but can assist it.

That's another thing to think about when choosing character dice. The average value they roll for inititaive.

Luke and Rey might be mono blue, but his draw and her ability get really sick in damage dealing. It seems to be a very viable deck at the moment. Only because Luke feeds the options Rey needs. And Rey and Luke deal damage so well together. Yes they are open to block cards eating all their melee damage. However a good player will deal damage in small chunks instead of rolling a bunch of dice and being vulnerable to big counters.

Yeah, I like the concept of Luke + Rey. An advantage to his ability is that you'll find those extra weapons a little faster---on average---by getting through the deck a little faster. Could pop up that damage potential fast.

You just need to exercise some caution against opponents that are geared towards bleeding your deck to try to hit that win condition.

I feel that burst damage decks will be countered by control decks. Control decks countered by aggro decks. And aggro decks countered by choke/midrange decks. Its really a beautiful thing to see such great design in this base game as well as incredible themes among the characters. Vader steals cards, Luke draws cards. Jan go strikes when you least expect it. Han shoots first. FFG really did a great job with the thematic and mechanical designs.

The only real compensation they could offer is making more characters of varying sizes. The base set is going to have holes in your team and expansions will likely add more varied costs to smooth this all out. I don't expect anything to cost less than 5 but it will be interesting to see what comes out and if the point system evolves in some way.

I really enjoy that Luke has a strong mechanic that isn't at all complicated which makes him extremely approachable by fans. Also as you said with his Draw power being less good but still strong is great and keeps him from being the go to blue hero. It's certainly strong but doesn't eclipse the rest of the cast.