https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/7/28/prepare-for-battle-4/

T-47 Landspeeder and A-280 Blaster are the biggest spoilers here! Also Recycle as kind of a way to use Hera's ability to generate money.

Not exactly the article I was hoping for. But I am excited about the T-47 Landspeeder. It is a pretty solid 2 cost support.

poor Finn. The A280 just about removed Finn on it's own cus no more need for villain for redeploy, that said though I had this kind of thought with this same thing, my difference is instead of ackbar I used mothma and instead of Rebel Trooper I would use Test pilot. The other thought was elite Maz for 5 dice. Still that said that T-47 is what Hero vehicles has REALLY needed and I just have never understood why some say hero vehicle is some how worse then Villain vehicle when cards like Strategic planning exist.

40 minutes ago, tunewalker said:

I just have never understood why some say hero vehicle is some how worse then Villain vehicle when cards like Strategic planning exist.

I think it's because Unkar is a villain, and right now, he's the only viable way to generate enough resources to play vehicles in an expedient manner. Maybe Hera will change all of that?

The T-47 isn't bad but these support decks are going to be slow. If FFG really wanted them to be thing, why did they ever make Planetary Uprising. All I am seeing is Poe getting better.

26 minutes ago, Mep said:

The T-47 isn't bad but these support decks are going to be slow. If FFG really wanted them to be thing, why did they ever make Planetary Uprising. All I am seeing is Poe getting better.

I just wish this had been the 2nd set not Spirit, I'd of loved these adding to the Meta from Awakenings but Spirit made the game too fast that it may be too late for supports in this block, maybe next block. I'm still going to play a Hera/Maz/Pilot deck tho. Already proxy tested one and its super fun, Good vs Mill if you can bounce with Hera fast enough, still losing to fast decks like Rey, maybe Recycle and T47 can give it the help it needs.

2 hours ago, Mep said:

All I am seeing is Poe getting better.

The more I think about it, the more I become convinced there's a heavy Poe nerf on the horizon.

I don't know when it'll be - Before Empire comes out, early in Empires cycle (after they've had a final look at exactly where on him the axe should fall) or late in Empires cycle (when they realise they're bleeding players at a rapid rate because everyone is sick of Poe).

Alternatively, there will be cards in Empire which deal with him directly, who knows?

I doubt there will be cards that deal directly with Poe, but there could be cards that disrupt specials as they come up.

I agree that Supports are not going to do well unless you have a way to action them in very fast, but the potential to be able to run enough "decoy" actions to force an opponent to claim first and then you roll unopposed might be an interesting strategy.
Either that or ESnap is going to be huge for Vehicle decks.

Good. I am happy Poe is getting better and I hope he destroys Destiny. Should he be that good? Should any card be that good? Should Villain decks be the decks that are known to win major tournaments and what most high end players play because they will tell you themselves (and have on different podcast) that while they like Heros and will play them, they go Villain decks when it comes to major events.

How is it that Poe/Maz is the best deck to use if you play a Hero deck? No other Hero deck even comes close. So one Hero deck when Villains have how many decks? Sorry, Villain players will get no sympathy from me on how huge Poe becomes because Hero players have seen enough of Villain decks running away with most of the major tournaments.

But worry not, Destiny is about balance and the back and forth between players. You take a action, I take a action...just sayin'.

I bet there are some cards that let you play, activate, and supports more rapidly that we haven't seen. Otherwise I agree, we've seen a lot of things that alleviate the cost issue with vehicles, but nothing that fixes the number of actions it takes to activate and resolve them. That would still be an issue if SoR had not seen so many free action cards, but now it's doubly a problem. A lot of people freaked over C-3PO when they showed him because he's 1 cost with a crazy ability, but he takes an action to play PLUS two actions every turn to trigger him. Supports need speed boosts or not much is going to change, IMO. Especially because we've seen a battlefield that Vehicle Decks will want to claim, but if they can't activate, resolve, and claim first, then Weapons Factory and any other battlefield that helps vehicles won't see play. Now they have a handful of better choices. They just need to be faster because the game is so fast.

28 minutes ago, johnwiser said:

snip

You realise that having one or two overpowered heroes will restrict their ability to create well-balanced but strong heroes in the future right? Poe getting stronger makes Heroes worse, not better, in the long run.

I'm kind of glad they haven't shown us anything that actually makes supports work in the current meta. If they made too many cards to speed up supports, then they would just be power creeping and making the game even faster.

It won't make Empire at War or the next few sets very popular for hardcore players, but if they want to fix the tempo of the game and allow for more diverse strategies, they need to resist making cards that speed up any facet of the game. Just balance all the cards from EaW on and wait for Awakenings and SoR to rotate out. That's our best shot at restoring the game to the back and forth style most seem to want.

5 hours ago, KovuTalli said:

I just wish this had been the 2nd set not Spirit, I'd of loved these adding to the Meta from Awakenings but Spirit made the game too fast that it may be too late for supports in this block, maybe next block. I'm still going to play a Hera/Maz/Pilot deck tho. Already proxy tested one and its super fun, Good vs Mill if you can bounce with Hera fast enough, still losing to fast decks like Rey, maybe Recycle and T47 can give it the help it needs.

I like Hera; she looks to be a lot of fun. If I am going to a tournament with a deck with a bunch of vehicles in it, I am taking Poe. I don't see her being tier 1 in the current meta.

I do see Poe being addressed. I am not sure if that is in the form of a resource cost on his specials or his special rolling in the die into the pool. Either one would slow that deck down enough to make some room for other things, like Hera.

Hera's ability is nifty, but what are you going to do? Sit with a hand full of vehicles until she hits her specials? A big part of Destiny is cycling your cards, and any low-probability event that makes you hold cards until it hits is going to be rough.

Her ability itself is also very slow - you're looking at a minimum 4 actions (roll Hera, resolve special to play the vehicle, activate vehicle, resolve vehicle) which is for-eeeever in the current environment. And that's assuming you don't have to work any other rerolls into the mix.

What is everyone fixation with speed? The best deck in Awakenings was a super slow Phasma deck, and the best decks right now are Phasma and FN based decks and both of them are VERY slow. Speed matters little. Let your opponent go fast while you play for value or crap out a bunch of vehicles and overwhelm them.

20 minutes ago, Bigulf said:

What is everyone fixation with speed? The best deck in Awakenings was a super slow Phasma deck, and the best decks right now are Phasma and FN based decks and both of them are VERY slow. Speed matters little. Let your opponent go fast while you play for value or crap out a bunch of vehicles and overwhelm them.

FN is slow? Just because it takes a lot of actions doesn't mean it's slow. In this game, it's about action efficiency, not how fast you claim. Also, don't see Phasma win near as much since SoR.

People really need to distinguish between speed of resolving action, and how fast decks can do damage. They aren't the same.

Speed of resolving actions during a turn is not an overwhelming advantage. Yes, sometimes you need to get to a particular point and speed is relevant (e.g. activating and defeating a character before your opponent can roll in and resolve the character's dice). And yes, you potentially give up the battlefield, which is why slow decks take benign battlefields and hope to win the roll. But outside of that, if you finish your turn in three actions and the opponent finishes in 20 actions....you actually haven't really gained that much. You can respond to your opponent which you could have done anyway, and you claim a battlefield that may or may not actually be useful for you. In this sense, decks built around supports are perfectly viable. Yes, they operate differently because they are more about long term value/power, but they are not inherently worse.

Now, the speed that decks can deal damage (and their ability to deal it uninterrupted) is the issue for support decks, in that they need ways to survive long enough to gain the advantage over time. Right now, the game is too 'fast' for them, but it's NOT how fast decks are finishing turns, it's how fast they are dealing damage. Something like Poe/Maz would be fine if it's damage cap was much lower; the problem is it can randomly drop 6-12 damage on 3/4 character decks or 4 damage spikes against other decks from one or two dice. Vehicle decks would need to be sped up to work in the current meta, but not by letting you resolve them faster, they would need to be doing more damage quicker. Personally though, I'd far prefer to see a focus on slowing down aggressive decks a bit so that mid range decks including vehicles have a bit more room to breathe.

Anyway.....Airspeeder is very good for it's cost and is probably the default way to turn on Pinned Down. The blaster is also pretty decent due to the Redeploy. Recycle IMO should have either been free or Ambush, right now I think it's too inefficient to be played outside of Hera. It's obviously going to be a pretty nice combo with her. As for Hera herself, I think building around her is a trap but the ability will be solid when it goes off. The issue is that the rest of her dice is pretty bad and at this stage I don't think big vehicles are viable enough not to build around them. If this changes (Say some Yellow characters that play with it) I think she could be solid, but she really should have had another damage side.

4 hours ago, Abyss said:

People really need to distinguish between speed of resolving action, and how fast decks can do damage. They aren't the same.

This.

In my store champ, I was in the final four, playing against Poe, game 3. Round 2, he has the battlefield, so uses Hit and Run, to roll out Poe, and then claims the battlefield, Emperor's Throneroom, with planetary uprising and a rocker launcher. Does 7 points of damage, in the first turn of round 2 and it was enough to end the game. That is what a fast deck is. It deals a lot of damage with no response or recourse from the opponent. Hera is sadly, slow.

15 hours ago, Mep said:

The T-47 isn't bad but these support decks are going to be slow. If FFG really wanted them to be thing, why did they ever make Planetary Uprising. All I am seeing is Poe getting better.

FN deck are already proof that you do not need to be fast to be sucessful. Phasma/Trooper/Guavian also isn't winning any landspeed records.

Those decks routinely take so many actions to resolve out that many other decks are done before they even activate their 3rd character. FN decks don't care that they play slower, they generate more value. If FFG can position support based decks in the same vein they will be sucessful despite being slower.

What in this preview article makes Poe better? Are you really worried about him throwing a T-47 for 2 damage then actually paying to put it in play. Yeah that be a terrible thing, actually using the whole ability. But then again if he puts the support into play now the deck runs slower which is a bad thing, right? So what are you worried about?

1 hour ago, Mep said:

This.

In my store champ, I was in the final four, playing against Poe, game 3. Round 2, he has the battlefield, so uses Hit and Run, to roll out Poe, and then claims the battlefield, Emperor's Throneroom, with planetary uprising and a rocker launcher. Does 7 points of damage, in the first turn of round 2 and it was enough to end the game. That is what a fast deck is. It deals a lot of damage with no response or recourse from the opponent. Hera is sadly, slow.

Your math is wrong and your story doesn't make any sense. How does a Rocket Launcher and Planetary equal 7 damage? And what are you playing that 7 damage, 2 of which you put where you want, is that crippling?

Your opponent just gave you free reign and only utilized 1 Poe dice, how is that your boogeyman?

2 hours ago, ScottieATF said:

Your math is wrong and your story doesn't make any sense. How does a Rocket Launcher and Planetary equal 7 damage?

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story, fishermen world wide bemoan the whopper that got away or the catch that just adds kilograms each time we recount our catches. Why would gamers be any different?

@ScottieATF It may have been a rocket launcher turn 1 and then a falcon turn two. Actually not relevant because either way, it happened, regardless of order. 8 damage turn 1 and 7 turn 2 is a dead palp. And no, he didn't give me free reign, he ended the game by winning. That is what a fast deck does. It does a lot of things all at once without the opponent being able to respond. Have you tried playing against some of these fast decks? When you do, you'll understand.

You really want to go with its not relevant what actually happened in the game your trying to use to prop up your point if view? You can't keep your own story straight why should anyone even consider it?

2 hours ago, ScottieATF said:

You really want to go with its not relevant what actually happened in the game your trying to use to prop up your point if view? You can't keep your own story straight why should anyone even consider it?

Is 7 or 8 damage in one turn unreasonable for Poe? Not even a little bit, in my experience. Sure, you can nitpick on whether it was 7, or 8, or the exact order it happened in, but what's your actual point? Because everyone knows this is very possible for Poe/Maz to accomplish, so it's not like you're disproving his point.

You're basically claiming the sun never came up because someone said dawn was at 6:12 when you know it was 6:15.

Anyway... time to move on.

What do people think about the deck Jeremy created around Hera?
I was wondering if Finn may be an interesting pairing (in some combination of others). Purely to slip out an AT-ST or similar... and maybe recycle it.