I've been thinking about doing a eVader and Royal Guard but I was wondering if you guys think Royal Guard is better than Raider. I know the Raider adds yellow cards but the Royal Guard is better over all.

Yes, it's better. Waaaayyyyyy more focused. If you know what you want to do with the deck, it's super effective.

I like how it plays, but logic tells me the yellow I left out really hurts

Also works pretty well with Palp/Royal Guard, managed to win the last tourney with it, but there were some seriously close matches

7 minutes ago, Ywingscum said:

I like how it plays, but logic tells me the yellow I left out really hurts

With the new blue and grey cards from SoR you can compensate really well.

They do different things. Vader/Raider is faster and has access to better dice control. "Royal Vader" is more durable and has the advantages of mono-Blue (while giving up the opportunity to include powerful Yellow cards as well). In my experience, both decks do high damage aggro equally well. I think Vader Raider is the better control variant at this point. Royal Vader is tankier, leveraging Guardian and blue events to keep Vader alive and kicking for longer. There are enough cards in the game now that it's not as simple as old Vader Raider where you just include all the best cards from each color and call it a day. There are hard decisions to be made about running Holocron and Ability upgrades, vs. It Binds All Things and non-Ability upgrades. Focusing dice control, or healing abilities. Speed or not.

I can't quite tell which is better at this point — both have strengths and weaknesses, and the tournament scene will take some time to parse through them all. I'm personally more interested in Royal Vader, since it seems more thematic and closes out the game with Vader himself. I've opted to leave Holocron on the bench, and run non-Ability upgrades with IBAT — I'm focusing on straightforward melee damage, and run a bunch of damage-from-hand cards. I actually suspect Vader/Raider may be still be the better deck (Fast Hands is so good), but I want to see what I can make happen from the new pairing!

Look out for Crime Lord regardless. It was the greatest feeling when I "Crime Lorded" Vader, leaving me to crush the remaining Trooper (AGAIN! Stupid Endless Ranks)

There is some serious resource generation in that game.

To me Vader Raider is more dice manipulation and setting up dual threats with holocron on raider.

Pros: Bait and switch, fast hands, he doesn't like you, electroshock, sith holocron mechanics on raider

Vader Guard is more focussed on raw melee damage. Also by going all blue it makes cards like No Mercy really shine.

Pros: No Mercy, guardian

2 hours ago, Mep said:

There is some serious resource generation in that game.

That's the funny thing tho. We were both running agro decks and had almost no resource denial, so our resources just accumulated; there was almost nothing either of us could do. He got Endless Ranks and I got Crime Lord, winning me the game. It was crazy and unusual, but a super close and fun match.

Thanks guys, I think I might try it out.

So having played both decks quite a bit at this point, my preference is Royal Vader. You guys have done well listing the pros and cons already, but it really all comes down to one reason for me: consistency.

Most people who've played it know that Vader Raiders biggest struggle is the fact that it's very do or die. The guard's additional health and control with guardian makes a huge difference in Vader's survivability, so that means that if you have a couple rounds with awful rolls and draws, you still have a chance at that crazy 9-10 damage round to pull yourself back into the game. Because I'll wait to activate RG for so long much of the time, flank has become a useful dice removal tool. Some rounds I don't even activate RG in favor of grabbing the battlefield.

Also, No Mercy has led to a couple round 2 wins already for me.

Anybody want to post some lists?

https://imgur.com/FpQZtCF

3 hours ago, shaggscoob said:

So having played both decks quite a bit at this point, my preference is Royal Vader. You guys have done well listing the pros and cons already, but it really all comes down to one reason for me: consistency.

This is my initial reaction as well. The fact that the Guard acts as extra health for Vader gives you more opportunities to land a crazy round of damage from the big guy himself. No Mercy is a great "execute" card, and works well in monoblue where you can pitch 4 cards for extra damage. If you draw it early on, you can pretty reliably land a kill on Turn 2.

I've listed the deck that I've been running recently. I'm not sold on everything... as much as I love Rise Again, I just never have the resources on hand to play it when I need it. That and Rejuvenate are on the chopping block. Now You Will Die is expensive for what it accomplishes in this deck (most of my non-damage faces typically have a value of "1", though it plays well with Vader's disrupt). I have an eye on more dice control (Feel Your Anger) or burst damage cards (Price of Failure). I feel good about ditching Holocron and using IBAT instead to focus primarily on melee upgrades.

It's served me well so far — about the same as Vader/Raider, but all the damage-from-hand cards give me options when my dice suck

Quote

BATTLEFIELD
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Secluded Beach, Scarif (Spirit of Rebellion #158)


CHARACTER
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2x Darth Vader, Sith Lord (Awakenings #10)
1x Royal Guard (Spirit of Rebellion #12)


UPGRADE
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1x Force Choke (Awakenings #13)
1x Kylo Ren's Lightsaber (Awakenings #15)
1x Force Throw (Awakenings #57)
2x Lightsaber (Awakenings #59)
1x Lightsaber Pike (Spirit of Rebellion #15)
2x Lure of Power (Spirit of Rebellion #16)
2x Force Push (Spirit of Rebellion #54)
1x Force Speed (Spirit of Rebellion #55)
2x Vibroknife (Spirit of Rebellion #57)


SUPPORT
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
2x It Binds All Things (Awakenings #150)


EVENT
¯¯¯¯¯
2x Force Strike (Awakenings #83)
2x Isolation (Awakenings #85)
2x No Mercy (Awakenings #86)
2x Deflect (Awakenings #145)
2x Lightsaber Throw (Spirit of Rebellion #72)
2x Now You Will Die (Spirit of Rebellion #75)
2x Rise Again (Spirit of Rebellion #76)
1x Rejuvenate (Spirit of Rebellion #132)

I built a Vader/Guard. It did so well my son took it from me. Now he has beaten me 4 straight games with it. Vader is the best beatdown character in the game. If that was not enough he forces hand removal. Royal Guard removes so many good dice in the course of 3 rounds. Plus his damage is good. By the time he dies your opponent is in a big hole. Holocron fetches you free Force Throws and MT's. Add two Kylo Ren sabers and two Vibroknives along with Force Speed and it is just unfair. Immobilize has good support sides and a built in mini Force Choke. Price of Failure wins games. Yikes!!!!

Has anybody had success with a pure melee variant? No Force powers (maybe aside from Choke), etc.

17 hours ago, WonderWAAAGH said:

Has anybody had success with a pure melee variant? No Force powers (maybe aside from Choke), etc.

Yes I have a Royal Vader deck that has been doing very well.

It has 8 upgrade cards (vibro knife, Kylo's saber, makashi training and force speed) and 20 event cards.

So far I have lost 1 tournament game out of 7 so it is standing up well.

8 hours ago, zazoo said:

8 upgrade cards (vibro knife, Kylo's saber, makashi training and force speed) and 20 event cards.

What're the other 2 cards?

I have played against Vader/Guard with 4 different decent decks and have been beaten fairly easily. This deck is much better than people know. Guard is a huge threat. Try and have a your best damage die removed 3 rounds in a row for sure and this is before the events hit you. Then get hit by Guard's melee damage followed by 6-9 damage from Vader in the second round. The only weakness is this deck is resource hungry. I think A mill deck could take Guard out of the picture and force the deck to play in a way it was not intended. I played these standard SOR Updated decks: (Qui-Gon/Rey), (Jango/ FN-2199), (Poe/Snap), (Luke/Rey). All these decks got beaten badly by round 3.

On 5/20/2017 at 11:48 AM, WonderWAAAGH said:

Has anybody had success with a pure melee variant? No Force powers (maybe aside from Choke), etc.

It seems to be even slower without the Holocrons. All blue seems to feel sluggish. When you go for. Jango, Veers to Vader, Guard or feels like someone out the breaks on

@WonderWAAAGH The decklist I posted above is mostly melee upgrades, and I think it would still largely work by dropping the few Abilities I included. Dropping the Abilities for Makashi Training and duplicate copies of Kylo's Saber and Lightsaber Pike would work. I actually think it's *faster* than Holocron variants, as you don't need to worry about rolling out Holocron with the right card in-hand. It also focuses your dice faces on melee results, rather than the hodge podge which show up on most Force Abilities.

Unlike ranged aggro decks which draw most of their damage from upgrades, I find this deck secures damage through event cards. No Mercy, Force Strike, Lightsaber Throw, and Now You Will Die are all dishing out damage from hand which I find to be more consistent. When I'm facing lots of dice removal or bad luck, these event cards let me still maintain early game aggro. When I roll well, they're gravy — or I take the opportunity to play some upgrades instead.

It's certainly resource hungry, but it's comparing more favorably to Vader/Raider than I expected. The Royal Guard is such a solid character, and I prefer his damage faces to the Tusken Raider. Guardian is great for dice removal, and ensuring that Vader survives into the late game. I feel much better closing out games with the Dark Lord himself, rather than the Raider.

10 hours ago, Stu35 said:

What're the other 2 cards?

Force illusion makes up the last 2 cards