The next Legacy deck was one of the first I conceptualized back in January 2017. With the excitement of new Star Wars, I couldn’t help but wonder how these characters would translate into Epic Duels. While I wasn’t the biggest Rogue One fan, I can’t deny the deck-building opportunity in its architect of terror, Director Krennic!
Krennic is the sadistic mind behind the planet-killing Death Star. Flanked by his personal Death Troopers, the calculating commander can devastate the battlefield with a single order.
“You’re confusing peace with terror.”
“Well… you have to start somewhere.”
Director Krennic – HP 13 – Yellow Deck – Ranged
Death Troopers – HP 5 – Strong+ Deck – Ranged
Single Reactor Ignition
Special
Place a TARGETING TOKEN on a space without one. Before you roll the movement die at the beginning of your turn, you may remove 1 TARGETING TOKEN and choose a row, column, or diagonal it occupied. All characters adjacent to the removed token or in the chosen line receive 4 damage.
Deploy the Garrison
Special
Until the end of your next turn, Death Troopers may move through enemy characters. Move all Death Troopers and friendly minor characters up to 4 spaces each.
Peace and Security
Special
Until the end of your next turn, enemy characters not adjacent to a Death Trooper may not move into any space adjacent to a Death Trooper and increase the attack and defense values of all your and your teammates' minor character combat cards by 1.
Death Squad
Special
Place a new Death Trooper in any empty space. Before you roll the movement die at the beginning of your next turn, if more than 2 Death Troopers are in play, destroy 1 Death Trooper or friendly minor character.
A Statement Not A Manifesto
Special
Move all enemy minor characters up to 3 spaces each. Search your draw pile for any card and put it in your hand. Then shuffle your draw pile.
4x Single Reactor Ignition
3x Deploy the Garrison
2x Peace and Security
2x Death Squad
1x A Statement Not A Manifesto
Let’s first cover the obvious. For this deck, you have to accept the conceit that the Death Star’s superlaser can be abstracted into a Special card. My Epic Duels is very much a tactical game first, and a Star Wars battle simulation second. Probably a distant second. That’s why I strive to balance the characters and why Artoo can exist in the same game as the Emperor.
With that caveat out of the way, the question becomes how best to represent an incredibly destructive beam from above. It should do a lot of damage, but we also know that it takes time to charge and the heroes can see it coming. I’ve tried to capture this in the Single Reactor Ignition card.
When you play Single Reactor Ignition, you place a token on the board that marks a space for you to fire at on a subsequent turn. You don’t have to fire your shot on the very next turn. If you set up a laser and the enemies get out of its way, you continue to threaten its squares and limit opponents’ options. That said, you can’t fire more than one shot on the same turn, so having several tokens on the board doesn’t guarantee death.
It should be obvious, but hitting multiple enemies with shots from the Death Star is Krennic’s path to victory. The rest of his deck serves to support this goal by penning the opponents in using Death Troopers. This makes Krennic a combo deck that fittingly plays like a more patient Tarkin.
The value and usage of Deploy the Garrison and A Statement Not a Manifesto should be fairly clear, but I wanted to point out a few things about Death Squad and Peace and Security.
Death Squad is a potent tool for minor recursion like Tarkin’s Imperial Recruiting or Kazdan Paratus’ various Junk cards. But it can also be used to overextend for a turn when you really need an extra body in the right spot to land a superlaser blast. If you do this and end up with three Death Troopers on the board, there are two tricks available. First, as the player of both cards, you can choose the order to resolve Single Reactor Ignition and Death Squad. That means if you have an injured Death Trooper in the blast zone, you can blow him away before you check the number of Death Troopers. Alternatively, if you have a teammate with expendable minors kicking around, you can trade in one of them to keep your third Death Trooper around long-term.
As for Peace and Security, it provides a bog-standard attack and defense buff, but more importantly, it prevents opposing characters from entering the spaces around the Death Troopers. That lets you cast a much wider net as they severely limit opposing movement options. It also makes them nearly invulnerable if you’re primarily facing melee enemies.
Unlike in the film, Krennic works very well with Grand Moff Tarkin. The two have a lot of board control, can help each other set up their area damage, and Peace and Security even buffs Overwhelming Firepower. Krennic can also benefit from any partner with movement-impairing effects such as Plo Koon, Cad Bane, Luminara, or a dark side path Jedi Exile. As a combo deck, Krennic can also do a lot with an extra action, so supports like Yarael Poof, Yoda, or light side Exile can also make for compelling teammates.
Unfortunately for Krennic, the reverse is also true. Any character that has exceptional movement abilities can avoid his telegraphed attacks. Characters that can move anywhere like Maris, Aayla, IG-88, and Jango are particularly troublesome for Krennic as they can easily slip out of his net.
I hope fans of combo decks and commander decks can enjoy playing Director Krennic when Legacy launches later this spring! I’ll be back next week with a new preview. Let me know in the comments who you’re hoping to see!
Galactic Trivia! - A Statement Not a Manifesto is named for a Tarkin line in Rogue One, which is fitting because the card is a riff on Tarkin’s one-of, Fear Will Keep Them In Line.
Krennic is the sadistic mind behind the planet-killing Death Star. Flanked by his personal Death Troopers, the calculating commander can devastate the battlefield with a single order.
“You’re confusing peace with terror.”
“Well… you have to start somewhere.”
Director Krennic – HP 13 – Yellow Deck – Ranged
Death Troopers – HP 5 – Strong+ Deck – Ranged
Single Reactor Ignition
Special
Place a TARGETING TOKEN on a space without one. Before you roll the movement die at the beginning of your turn, you may remove 1 TARGETING TOKEN and choose a row, column, or diagonal it occupied. All characters adjacent to the removed token or in the chosen line receive 4 damage.
Deploy the Garrison
Special
Until the end of your next turn, Death Troopers may move through enemy characters. Move all Death Troopers and friendly minor characters up to 4 spaces each.
Peace and Security
Special
Until the end of your next turn, enemy characters not adjacent to a Death Trooper may not move into any space adjacent to a Death Trooper and increase the attack and defense values of all your and your teammates' minor character combat cards by 1.
Death Squad
Special
Place a new Death Trooper in any empty space. Before you roll the movement die at the beginning of your next turn, if more than 2 Death Troopers are in play, destroy 1 Death Trooper or friendly minor character.
A Statement Not A Manifesto
Special
Move all enemy minor characters up to 3 spaces each. Search your draw pile for any card and put it in your hand. Then shuffle your draw pile.
4x Single Reactor Ignition
3x Deploy the Garrison
2x Peace and Security
2x Death Squad
1x A Statement Not A Manifesto
Let’s first cover the obvious. For this deck, you have to accept the conceit that the Death Star’s superlaser can be abstracted into a Special card. My Epic Duels is very much a tactical game first, and a Star Wars battle simulation second. Probably a distant second. That’s why I strive to balance the characters and why Artoo can exist in the same game as the Emperor.
With that caveat out of the way, the question becomes how best to represent an incredibly destructive beam from above. It should do a lot of damage, but we also know that it takes time to charge and the heroes can see it coming. I’ve tried to capture this in the Single Reactor Ignition card.
When you play Single Reactor Ignition, you place a token on the board that marks a space for you to fire at on a subsequent turn. You don’t have to fire your shot on the very next turn. If you set up a laser and the enemies get out of its way, you continue to threaten its squares and limit opponents’ options. That said, you can’t fire more than one shot on the same turn, so having several tokens on the board doesn’t guarantee death.
It should be obvious, but hitting multiple enemies with shots from the Death Star is Krennic’s path to victory. The rest of his deck serves to support this goal by penning the opponents in using Death Troopers. This makes Krennic a combo deck that fittingly plays like a more patient Tarkin.
The value and usage of Deploy the Garrison and A Statement Not a Manifesto should be fairly clear, but I wanted to point out a few things about Death Squad and Peace and Security.
Death Squad is a potent tool for minor recursion like Tarkin’s Imperial Recruiting or Kazdan Paratus’ various Junk cards. But it can also be used to overextend for a turn when you really need an extra body in the right spot to land a superlaser blast. If you do this and end up with three Death Troopers on the board, there are two tricks available. First, as the player of both cards, you can choose the order to resolve Single Reactor Ignition and Death Squad. That means if you have an injured Death Trooper in the blast zone, you can blow him away before you check the number of Death Troopers. Alternatively, if you have a teammate with expendable minors kicking around, you can trade in one of them to keep your third Death Trooper around long-term.
As for Peace and Security, it provides a bog-standard attack and defense buff, but more importantly, it prevents opposing characters from entering the spaces around the Death Troopers. That lets you cast a much wider net as they severely limit opposing movement options. It also makes them nearly invulnerable if you’re primarily facing melee enemies.
Unlike in the film, Krennic works very well with Grand Moff Tarkin. The two have a lot of board control, can help each other set up their area damage, and Peace and Security even buffs Overwhelming Firepower. Krennic can also benefit from any partner with movement-impairing effects such as Plo Koon, Cad Bane, Luminara, or a dark side path Jedi Exile. As a combo deck, Krennic can also do a lot with an extra action, so supports like Yarael Poof, Yoda, or light side Exile can also make for compelling teammates.
Unfortunately for Krennic, the reverse is also true. Any character that has exceptional movement abilities can avoid his telegraphed attacks. Characters that can move anywhere like Maris, Aayla, IG-88, and Jango are particularly troublesome for Krennic as they can easily slip out of his net.
I hope fans of combo decks and commander decks can enjoy playing Director Krennic when Legacy launches later this spring! I’ll be back next week with a new preview. Let me know in the comments who you’re hoping to see!
Galactic Trivia! - A Statement Not a Manifesto is named for a Tarkin line in Rogue One, which is fitting because the card is a riff on Tarkin’s one-of, Fear Will Keep Them In Line.