This is my first SWD article, check it out and let me know what you think.

https://www.topdecktcg.com/destiny-articles

Nice read. The Hyperloop anecdote sounds very similar to people that play a MTG deck called "Manaless Ichorid". Basically a deck that includes no lands (resources) to play its spells, but rather cheats them all into play via graveyard incursion tricks. Now there's nothing wrong with this, it's totally legal, but when it's being piloted by someone with ALL foreign language cards and you're basically trusting that what they're doing is what the cards say, and what they can legally do, all the while with a smirk on their face, it can get tiresome.

I'm also a new player. I just stared last week. Many hours of research and $500 later and I just found out no one plays it here! At this point I'll take the Hyperloop scenario.

Hyperloop has been FAQ'd. How long ago did you write this?

9 hours ago, K-2SO said:

Nice read. The Hyperloop anecdote sounds very similar to people that play a MTG deck called "Manaless Ichorid". Basically a deck that includes no lands (resources) to play its spells, but rather cheats them all into play via graveyard incursion tricks. Now there's nothing wrong with this, it's totally legal, but when it's being piloted by someone with ALL foreign language cards and you're basically trusting that what they're doing is what the cards say, and what they can legally do, all the while with a smirk on their face, it can get tiresome.

I'm also a new player. I just stared last week. Many hours of research and $500 later and I just found out no one plays it here! At this point I'll take the Hyperloop scenario.

LOL! Thank you for the kind words, I am glad you enjoyed it

that magic scenario sounds painful lol xD

im sorry no one plays around there :/ maybe you can get people into it and grow a community!

5 hours ago, ramy said:

Hyperloop has been FAQ'd. How long ago did you write this?

Ummm less than a week.. did you actually read it or just read the comment?

3 hours ago, Double Blanks Gaming said:

LOL! Thank you for the kind words, I am glad you enjoyed it

that magic scenario sounds painful lol xD

im sorry no one plays around there :/ maybe you can get people into it and grow a community!

Ummm less than a week.. did you actually read it or just read the comment?

I read the whole article you wrote. So it was about something that happened a while ago but you just wrote it recently? Correct?

Good article! As a new player as well, this was informative and interesting to see the nuances of tournament play, as I have yet to try one. I'm still trying to figure out if they are a fun time? Sounds like they are very intense.

3 hours ago, ramy said:

I read the whole article you wrote. So it was about something that happened a while ago but you just wrote it recently? Correct?

Yessir lol it happened the first month of games release and I wrote it about a week ago I hope you enjoyed it, and thank you for reading!!

2 hours ago, Strom said:

Good article! As a new player as well, this was informative and interesting to see the nuances of tournament play, as I have yet to try one. I'm still trying to figure out if they are a fun time? Sounds like they are very intense.

They are very very good! Just have to be careful glad you enjoyed it though man! thank you for reading!

" . So for newer players, be mindful of people abusing the game. For vets… don’t be that guy."

What guy? Using powerful combo in a deck just cause a newbie came? Come on, if someone ask "hey how on earth you are making that that and that" sure im gonna politely explain that but im not gonna restrain myself from punching 7+ dmg turn one with PoeMaz ex. just cause its someones first tournament. On my first i went with some crazy Bala/Trooper/Kylo deck, never readied Bala from his ability, i kept forgetting whole lot of rules got stomped by more experienced playeds and i hold no grudge against them for stomping and not reminding me- its just the learning curve of any game.

The last card game I was "into" was Decipher's SW CCG. I had read about Destiny when it first came out and had decided not to get into it (I was playing X-Wing at that time). Due to several things I stopped playing and collecting the X-Wing game pieces and wasn't really playing any physical game (just Destiny (not SW:Destiny) on XBox). A friend, one of my gaming friends, got me to try SW:Destiny using a couple decks he and his son had put together. I won about 4 out of 5 games and was hooked. I bought the Rey starter and about 8 packs of Awakenings (the last packs in our town apparently). The following day I ordered a box of Spirit of Rebellion online and also visited a store on an out of town trip where I picked up 10 more packs of SoR. And then ended up getting a box of Awakenings too. Top it off with several packs of card sleaves. I spent lots of time sorting and inventorying my new collection, even creating a spreadsheet of my own that has every stat for every card, my haves/wants/trades, and even the current TCGPlayer card values (I even have every Empire at War spoiler released thus far).

Well, with all of that at my hands, I set fourth to build a few decks of my own. I think I've built about 3 that I've played and have 2 more that I'm going to try this week. Here's the kick in the pants...in the 20-25 games that I've played using my own decks I haven't won a single game! Not one! I've had a couple close ones, but for the most part I've gotten creamed. I've asked other players to evaluate my decks and tried improving them based on their comments, but still didn't work.

Last week we had a tournament (every Thursday, about 8+ players) where there were some guys from another city. Each of them had essentially the same deck...eVader + Royal Guard. As you might guess, they took 1st through 3rd place. Slaughtered everyone. I had the...ummm...pleasure of playing the "kid" that won 1st. Heh...I might as well not have even tried with my Palp + TIE Pilot (Trained). It seemed like he had every single card he needed at just the right time at his beckon call. Throw in my rolling crap just about every turn and...well....you get it.

I'm not a noob to tabletop gaming by any means, but even to me it's getting pretty disheartening to lose every single game after dropping so much money into this game.

Is this like those cell phone games where it's pay to win? Do I have to look on boards like this and see what decks are basically unstoppable and go out and spend the $$$ to get all of those cards, multiples of high dollar cards just to win a few games? I'm not asking to always win 1st place in tourneys, but I'd at least like to win as much as I lose. You know, to make it worth the $$$ that I've already spent (and will be spending on EoW...already preordered a box and a half).

You are caught in that quasi spot of not having all the cards but wanting to play and have fun. I suggest when you are sitting down to play let your opponent know you are not playing an optimized deck. So of those guys will have more experimental decks they may bust out to try. You'll probably stand a better chance then. Other wise spend a little more time in learning the synergy of your deck to get better results. Otherwise you are in that rut of having to get a full set of cards to open all options. You might want to try and put a list together of what you want to palya nd might be able to borrow some cards from people at the store. I know I will loan a few cards to the regulars at the store I play at. Of course that revolves around trust so it might not be as useful. Don't forget tabletop simulator has a mod as well. Not the same as playing in person but lets you see all the cards and work on being a better player.

@Skywalker 2B

I feel your pain when coming from Decipher's SWCCG. That game rewards theme and synergy and is a slower game where combos can more easily manifest. Destiny is just quicker and more consistent. In my opinion, there's kind of a formula for Destiny, especially when it comes to upgrades and utilizing your two resources each turn. In Awakenings, we had a local player that would change characters and nothing else in his deck and still win more often than not. He had figured out the best card ratio to capitalize on two resources and five cards per turn.

Most new players focus on combinations. I'd first try to focus on the formula of dice vs control vs cards that fix and instant resolve dice. I think eVader whatever is a great example of a deck that is just built in a way with all that in balance. Not really any devastating combos, just well balanced dice fixing and control plus strong starting dice.

I think you'll find that once you get that figured out, your good decks start winning more and your experimental decks take less time to figure out if they can be good or should be scrapped.

Skill and knowledge of the cards/mechanics are obviously most important, but it can be frustrating when you know you're losing due to not having an optimized deck. Coming from a very long span in MTG, I've found I can't even begin to play a CCG without one. I couldnt bring a MTG deck to a tournament with 2X Force of Will, subbing the others with 2x Force Spikes and cant bring DL-44s instead of Holdout Blasters in Destiny. I think Destiny is even more essential to optimize due to the smaller deck size.

It's unfortunate, as it can be fun buying a few starters of a new game and building up to something you like. No matter how many times I say I'm going to do this, however, I just can't, so I spend the money to make the deck the best it can be...then I lose.

At least I know it was due to misplays, lack of skill, or just bad luck this way, but it certainly does take some of the fun out of it.

I don't think people understand your question here:

You want to win, then know how to roll:

-If you don't want to roll blank, roll longer than 3 sec., but no more than 10 sec., you will NEVER get blanks again.

-If you need the perfect combination, let's say 3melee, +4 melee, just say before you release the dice that you are never lucky, life is hard on you etc... then you'll get what you want.

-When playing fn-2199, always roll immediate damage, so no blanks or modifiers. That way, you'll pile up huge damage quickly, you'll save cards instead of rerolling, then use those cards to play another weapon on FN.

-if you think 1/36 is low chance, concentrate on 36, that IS a big number!

-Never waste card to reroll, always roll best results first, why roll blank anyway.

-Don't waste time on characters with recycle, why bother. Maz is still cool to active booth Poe specials at same time to prevent mitigation.

Conclusion, your deck is less importantn than your MIGHT to roll perfect score EVERYTIME.

Chak

13 hours ago, Skywalker2B said:

The last card game I was "into" was Decipher's SW CCG. I had read about Destiny when it first came out and had decided not to get into it (I was playing X-Wing at that time). Due to several things I stopped playing and collecting the X-Wing game pieces and wasn't really playing any physical game (just Destiny (not SW:Destiny) on XBox). A friend, one of my gaming friends, got me to try SW:Destiny using a couple decks he and his son had put together. I won about 4 out of 5 games and was hooked. I bought the Rey starter and about 8 packs of Awakenings (the last packs in our town apparently). The following day I ordered a box of Spirit of Rebellion online and also visited a store on an out of town trip where I picked up 10 more packs of SoR. And then ended up getting a box of Awakenings too. Top it off with several packs of card sleaves. I spent lots of time sorting and inventorying my new collection, even creating a spreadsheet of my own that has every stat for every card, my haves/wants/trades, and even the current TCGPlayer card values (I even have every Empire at War spoiler released thus far).

Well, with all of that at my hands, I set fourth to build a few decks of my own. I think I've built about 3 that I've played and have 2 more that I'm going to try this week. Here's the kick in the pants...in the 20-25 games that I've played using my own decks I haven't won a single game! Not one! I've had a couple close ones, but for the most part I've gotten creamed. I've asked other players to evaluate my decks and tried improving them based on their comments, but still didn't work.

Last week we had a tournament (every Thursday, about 8+ players) where there were some guys from another city. Each of them had essentially the same deck...eVader + Royal Guard. As you might guess, they took 1st through 3rd place. Slaughtered everyone. I had the...ummm...pleasure of playing the "kid" that won 1st. Heh...I might as well not have even tried with my Palp + TIE Pilot (Trained). It seemed like he had every single card he needed at just the right time at his beckon call. Throw in my rolling crap just about every turn and...well....you get it.

I'm not a noob to tabletop gaming by any means, but even to me it's getting pretty disheartening to lose every single game after dropping so much money into this game.

Is this like those cell phone games where it's pay to win? Do I have to look on boards like this and see what decks are basically unstoppable and go out and spend the $$$ to get all of those cards, multiples of high dollar cards just to win a few games? I'm not asking to always win 1st place in tourneys, but I'd at least like to win as much as I lose. You know, to make it worth the $$$ that I've already spent (and will be spending on EoW...already preordered a box and a half).

I will say honestly that i have been extremely lucky personally I have not bought a whole box of either spirit or awakenings but I have bought I think a combined total of around 36 packs so a box worth and focused entirely on 1 deck and gotten some extremely lucky pulls. I have my favorite character and I traded and I think bought 30 dollars worth of singles and sold as much as I could to get a working deck with said character. I think I have in total spent about 100 dollars on the game and at my local tournaments I usually place pretty well. I am currently running a Luke/Rey deck and have recently made a second deck with Mothma double hired guns that with a little luck has done alright as well against newer decks. Ultimately its a little bit of luck and ya maybe some time spent online looking at what others are doing, not to necessarily copy them but to get an idea of what others are succeeding with what they arent succeeding with and what you are likely to face at a competitive table. I guarantee my Luke/rey is not the same as the guys from double blanks, nor is it the same as rebel troopers, and as we speak I am still tweaking it to fit my local META it's not done, it works well against other blue decks right now but people in my area are moving away from those and I am back to the drawing board struggling as it seems while it did well when they were facing against other blue decks it was not well rounded enough to handle the other types of decks.

UPDATE: Well, I tried another deck last night. Fortunately, we didn't do a tournament, so it was just "fun playing". I got in 4 games with my Luke + eRey and went 2 for 2. Lost big to eVader + Royal Guard, won against eJyn + eMaz (that one was really close, I only had 2 cards left in my hand), lost big to eKrennic + Death Trooper, and won against eJango + Aurra Sing. I even thought of a couple changes to make my deck a little better for next week. So, I think, for me, the answer is more "fun play" where I can have fun playing different decks that I want to just try out and less tournament play.

11 hours ago, Skywalker2B said:

UPDATE: Well, I tried another deck last night. Fortunately, we didn't do a tournament, so it was just "fun playing". I got in 4 games with my Luke + eRey and went 2 for 2. Lost big to eVader + Royal Guard, won against eJyn + eMaz (that one was really close, I only had 2 cards left in my hand), lost big to eKrennic + Death Trooper, and won against eJango + Aurra Sing. I even thought of a couple changes to make my deck a little better for next week. So, I think, for me, the answer is more "fun play" where I can have fun playing different decks that I want to just try out and less tournament play.

Hey if you are going to use 1 dice Luke 2 dice Rey might I suggest the new Rey she has 11 health and her dice are much better as well as having a solid ability when played at 2 dice. The old rey works better as the 1 dice partner with Luke. You could also try out 2 dice New Poe with 1 Dice Luke for some fun Red Blue action hat has card draw damage and maybe with the right cards you can get out launch bay and or Strike team for some crazy plays with Poe or Luke. It's probably not good I am just saying if you only have 1 Luke Dice I would definately go with something that could abuse his ability more then something that abuses his dice Like Old Rey wants to do. (Next set you can look at Rookie Pilot + Rebel Trooper to keep look safe while you go for big launch bays..... or something along those lines.)

tunewalker, thanks for the tips. I just saw this post today, but yesterday, when I pre-paid for my pre-order of EaW box, I picked up 1 box of the 2-player and a second Luke. I'm just not sure if I want to drop another $30 for a second 2-player or not. I may try out my eLuke + Rey (old), but with Rey's LS. I just think the extra action with Rey is more helpful than the auto damage IF she has a shield. I haven't seen anyone else where I play use Luke and Rey, so I think I'll try another week or 2 before moving on to another deck. Again, I like the idea of just trying out fun decks vice tournaments.

4 hours ago, Skywalker2B said:

tunewalker, thanks for the tips. I just saw this post today, but yesterday, when I pre-paid for my pre-order of EaW box, I picked up 1 box of the 2-player and a second Luke. I'm just not sure if I want to drop another $30 for a second 2-player or not. I may try out my eLuke + Rey (old), but with Rey's LS. I just think the extra action with Rey is more helpful than the auto damage IF she has a shield. I haven't seen anyone else where I play use Luke and Rey, so I think I'll try another week or 2 before moving on to another deck. Again, I like the idea of just trying out fun decks vice tournaments.

If you already have 2 dice luke now just run 2 luke 1 Rey I am working on a potential ELuke Kanan deck right now in theory as well as some other ones but ya now that you have 2 Luke dice no need for the second 2 player box really.

I was thinking yesterday about getting a second Inner Strength and making the deck's focus on keeping Luke and Rey alive long enough to let their sabers get the needed damage. Luke's Protection was also a fun card to play. I played in another tourney on Saturday using eLuke + old Rey. Lost every game again, but at least I had a couple really close games. I think I have a decent mix of cards in my deck...enough, but not too many upgrades, a couple Support, some health cards, some dice manipulation, nothing costing more than 3 resources (and only a couple of those). Mostly cost is 0 or 1, and some 2's. I just don't seem to get the cards in my hand when I need them like my opponents. I lost in about 10 minutes to a new eKylo + Grievous. Every game I lost my opponent would hit Luke for a couple and then kill him with a 10+ damage turn. Those suck. And that new Kylo...pretty much had to take 2 auto damage every turn because I was playing a mostly blue deck.

On a bright note, I got my Destiny 2 Titan to level 12, Power 111 last night on XBox1.

Well, here's to Thursday to see what I can pull from 1.5 boxes of EaW!

Just an alternative idea, Skywalker2B. If you're in good with the Tournament Organiser, you could suggest mixing up the format a little - make every third tournament a 'budget' tournament (no deck may have a Legendary card) or run an event where players can only use generic characters. Mix things up, and move away from the top meta.