Just picked up my two starters and around 20 packs. I am so hyped for this game. Something much easier to get people playing over my Imperial Assault OP. Especially playing tournament play.

But

I remember Dicemaster's launch and the first round of tournaments in my haunts that sent groups tumbiling from 25 players to 5 in one shop and 15 to 2 at the other. Im reading the forums and can't tell if the same problem is looming. Those groups fell out because if you weren't running a pair of cards that were both from the highest rarity tier(and commanded large secondary market $), you weren't going to win. Many players got fed up with always losing due to not having access to two cards, and left the game all together.

Now Im an MTG player since the 90s, so I know there are always going to be top tier cards, but theres a big difference between having a fair number of cards at an equal power level vs a few cards that must be in every deck to be viable. This game tickles me in all the right places and I havent enjoyed one as much since the WoW TCG, but that game also had similar issues(Tuskar Kite, Adam Eternia) that need future releases to rectify and caused player shedding

What Im trying to see if you guys who've played a bit more than me have seen anything. I don't want to get my players super excited and then have the same thing happen.

What have you guys seen? Can I get my groups on board or should I wait to get them all excited until the first results start coming in?

I gave not played much, but I do respect ffg and feel like they understand this and would try not to have it happen. Ffg likes to have as much playable as possible and at least for me that's how it feels.

The best evidence I have to support this is the starter set heros are quite good, and many of the starter set cards are as well.

I don't see anything as blatantly powerful as Czarina or Gobbie, but FFG does have a habit of dropping the ball with release products - I'm looking at you, 4x Imperial Officer / 4x Royal Guard. It's really just a consequence of small card pools, which are especially vulnerable to balance issues.

That's kind of hard to answer. I played DM's in the early days. I won my first six tournaments with a list of all common and uncommon cards. I beat lists using the so called power cards in all of those tournaments. The Black Widow and Green Goblin were anything but unbeatable and the Human Torch card was uncommon and ubiquitous so there was no barrier there. If people are going to give up as easily as they did in DM you are going to have a problem.

On the other hand, I don't see there being any must have cards to win in Destiny either. It is Star Wars so maybe people will stick with it longer. FFG has a better reputation than Wizkids so folks might give Destiny more of a chance.

A final thought. It is a collectible game and players who are more invested will usually do better than those that have less invested. When I say invested I mean time and money. Investing more time leads to a higher skill level and being better prepared. Spending more money means having more options even if the cards and dice are relatively well balanced. Some people who don't spend as much time and money has others can find these disadvantages very discouraging.

So it sounds like one of the best options are for me to rope in some of my other like minded players with some of the deeper pockets and make sure theres a good depth of trading stock and people willing to help new players out.

Without having played a lot so far, I've been worried that all the tier 1 decks are going to be mostly legendary/rare, which is to be expected with any CCG, but I'm hoping that there will still be viable competitive decks for entry. If there is a good enough mix of Tier 1 and Tier 2 and with enough people playing we can get a diverse meta going long term.

For anyone else in the TO roles, how are you envisioning supporting or running events to keep your communities engaged aside from FFG OP?

One thing you need to know then is that all of the cards with dice are either rare or legendary except for Kylo, Rey, and Finn who are only found in starters. All the cards without dice are common and uncommon. Early indications are that 10 - 16 of your 30 card deck will need to come with dice so you can build your dice pool fast enough.

One thing that I can say is that the power level of the highest rarity cards in Destiny is not stronger than rares. It's true that they offer more deck options, but among my top decks after extensive play, several don't feature a single legendary card, making these decks very affordable.

legendarys are 6 per box with a max 2 of each, very easy to obtain compared to any other games where you need 3 or 4 and 1 rarity per box

One thing that I can say is that the power level of the highest rarity cards in Destiny is not stronger than rares. It's true that they offer more deck options, but among my top decks after extensive play, several don't feature a single legendary card, making these decks very affordable.

I want to second this. The CCG model will have its inevitable problems for some folks, and you will need Rare cards to compete. But there will be plenty of competitive decks which won't utilize any legendary cards, and thus you won't have that same paywall to break through. Rare characters are only around $5 on the secondary market right now, so if you don't want to shell out a ton of money for Darth Vader or Han Solo you can spring for characters like Jango Fett or Qui-gon Jinn instead. It's hard to say with the metagame still in flux; we don't really know what the competitive scene will look like in the next few months. But there certainly seem to be a number of viable decks and options right now.

I think it will end up being a million legendaries in the top decks. I mean, Poe for instance runs a lot of legendaries, same with Vader. I belive that those decks will dominate, whoever puts most money into the game will win, just like any other ccg ever made in the world. I hope it's going to be different, but I am already so underwhelmed with the booster format that I am expecting the worst.

This game is really good, and I would recommend it to anyone, but I feel like it should definatly have been an LCG.

I think it will end up being a million legendaries in the top decks. I mean, Poe for instance runs a lot of legendaries, same with Vader. I belive that those decks will dominate, whoever puts most money into the game will win, just like any other ccg ever made in the world. I hope it's going to be different, but I am already so underwhelmed with the booster format that I am expecting the worst.

This game is really good, and I would recommend it to anyone, but I feel like it should definatly have been an LCG.

Poe is not as strong as he seems. One quick example would be a Poe deck with high cost Vehicles like Black One, Millennium Falcon, AT-ST, etc. Is going to be highly vulnerable to Kylo Ren, and basically everyone that has the game will have access to Kylo Ren.

The game is strong with some strong combos but nothing that I see that will break the game entirely just yet, it is always a fear but I'm not concerned yet.

I don't normally play card games and picked it up easily. I played people with high level cards (luke) and have to say that getting dice to the table fast is what it's all about. The dice with their random results will set this game apart. Early my opponent lies down 2 of "it binds all things" reducing the cost by 2 to lay cards down. I'm playing kylo Ren with a few upgrades and roll 7 damage. He had spent a lot more money on this game that me but it didn't help. This isn't Magic, so let the force be with you.

I agree Vader decks will likely be on the expensive side, as Vader will likely want to force choke people in the street, and these two cards are among the most expensive. But it's not the 'deck to beat', just one among many platforms.

Big vehicles are quite niche on the other side. These are not cards you sneak in any deck of their color, you need to have a plan and reason for these. Same for crime lord, detonator ...

There are things that I consider unfortunate in the rarity distribution, mainly the 'starter rares', that also pollute boosters. But I think they managed well their legendaries : they are all playable, but usually in specific decks. Making 'comlink' legendary would have been much more annoying, as it could be sneaked in every deck. I for once acknowledge that they did a good job giving the legendary rarity to cards that are indeed more 'specialized', when almost all other games have an incremental power level for their highest rarity cards. Even the most popular games like Magic acknowledge only printing the majority of their common cards knowing they'll never be in any competitive deck : commons for drafts, super rare for constructed play : a deplorable business system that Destiny brilliantly avoided in their Awakenings set.

Another way to see things is : there are 6 legendaries per display, and I think decks will very rarely want to feature more than that, and many times much less, which means you should be able to trade for the legendaries you need for your favorite deck with a single display. But again, there are top tier decks don't use any.

I like the game enough that I got into it DESPITE its collectible distribution model. Non-mandatory legendary cards played a big part of it.

Okay, so after 3 tournaments Ive attended:

eVader/Tusken, eVader/Tusken, and eJango/eVeers has won.

Ive beaten eVader/Tusken with eVader/Nightsis deck, but lost to eJabba/eDooku mill deck. Ive beat eJabba/eJango and eJango/eVeers deck with eHan/Leia deck, but lost to eGrievz/Dooku deck.

This game is well balanced. Its strategy but also based off luck of rolls. Ive taken out Vader with my Vader bc I rolled 12 dmg (he had 2 dmg/1 shield on him) during Turn #4. And that was after Turn #2 I rolled 8 dmg and killed his Tusken in 1 hit. Ive rolled with Holdout Blaster and Jetpack that Ive taken Jabba out in Turn #2 bc I rolled 6 dmg and 7 dmg.

But Ive lost bc I couldnt roll dmg dice even after discardinf multiple times. Its all based off the luck of dice and whether you can control them if theyre bad for you or good for your opponent.

~D

I think it will end up being a million legendaries in the top decks. I mean, Poe for instance runs a lot of legendaries, same with Vader. I belive that those decks will dominate, whoever puts most money into the game will win, just like any other ccg ever made in the world. I hope it's going to be different, but I am already so underwhelmed with the booster format that I am expecting the worst.

This game is really good, and I would recommend it to anyone, but I feel like it should definatly have been an LCG.

No it won't. We are already seeing quite a few top decks that don't have any legendary cards at all, or just one or two. Poe is the exception but he's not dominating either.

I think it will end up being a million legendaries in the top decks. I mean, Poe for instance runs a lot of legendaries, same with Vader. I belive that those decks will dominate, whoever puts most money into the game will win, just like any other ccg ever made in the world. I hope it's going to be different, but I am already so underwhelmed with the booster format that I am expecting the worst.

This game is really good, and I would recommend it to anyone, but I feel like it should definatly have been an LCG.

No it won't. We are already seeing quite a few top decks that don't have any legendary cards at all, or just one or two. Poe is the exception but he's not dominating either.

Name 1

So wait you want him to name other good decks but you get by with just saying Poe and Vader run a lot of legendary cards and will dominate with absolute no argument to back up that statement. Beyond your misguided the most expensive decks alway's are best in a CCG argument.

Um Rey/Han usually only runs 2 legendary cards....two Han's.

I would add eJango with eVeers can be devastating without any legendary.

I would add eJango with eVeers can be devastating without any legendary.

Though I'd say Veers Jango would probably run at least 1 ATST and/or Thermal Detonator. I don't think you need to, but if you had it you would.

Ok, yes, some Character combos are very powerful (Han/Rey, Jabba/Jango, Vader/whatever). But, even a Leia/Padme is still a good list. Remember, dice rolling and luck forces a lot of the game to the "chance" side.....

Name 1

I've seen ePadme 2x Rebel Trooper perform well in a legendary free deck.

I sold all but one of my legendaries, 16 rares plays fine with most characters.

I think the game is balanced and if you make a deck that plays well with itself and plays to your style of gaming, you'll do better than buying up net-lists of legendary cards.

The one card I can see biting the developers in the ass down the line is Sith Holocron. Anything that cheats cards into play has a tendency to get broken outside the limited bubble. (Just look at MTG)

I sold all but one of my legendaries, 16 rares plays fine with most characters.

To be fair that's not the boldest line in the sand to draw considering the going rate for Legendary cards means everyone 1 you sell now will probably buy you two if that card in a months time.