Thanks to Superchica for the page art!
This deck came a little later than most of our Episode II-III Jedi decks but at this point, it has been around a long time and gotten a ton of play. The BLINK card brings a fun, unique mechanic.
What does this deck do: BLINKS off the board, then returns to deal out damage, hopefully a lot of it.
Updated June 2021 (back art)
Bultar Swan
by Ian & Geektopia
back art by MD Villarreal
Bultar Swan
15 Hit Points
Melee
22 cards
Red Deck
2 Clone Troopers
4 HP Each
Ranged
9 cards
Weak Ranged Minor Deck
Bultar – 12 Talent Cards
3x BLINDING LIGHT
Move Bultar up to 4 spaces. All characters adjacent to Bultar at the end of her move take 3 damage.
2x BLAZE OF MOTION
A6 Draw a card.
2x BLINK
Remove Bultar’s figure. Place 3 battle markers in vacant spots on the board. At the beginning of her next turn, place her figure in any of the marked spots.
2x TRAP SPRUNG
A8*. *Reduce the attach value by 1 for every space Bultar has moved this turn.
2x STILLNESS
D4. Draw a card.
1x MYSTIC
Draw up to 5 cards. Draw 1 card less for every space Bultar has moved this turn.
Theme: The less she moves, the more powerful she is; now you see her, now you don’t
Path to Victory: Attack + BLINK + TRAP SPRUNG + Attack (especially another TRAP SPRUNG)
Strengths: Unique and powerful movement, solid all-around game
Weaknesses: Fragile, very limited hit-and-run.
Strategy: Hit-and-Blink and/or Blink-and-Hit
Test Level: Medium
Tier: 2
Inspiration: Things are different now, but several years ago, any googling of “Bultar Swan” would seem to yield the same intriguing, oddly beautiful sentence: “Swan excelled at drawing opponents toward her by minimizing her own physical movements, and then striking forward in a flawless attack of blinding celerity.” (It was lifted, it turns out, from the Star Wars databank.) I thought it was cool enough to build a deck around.
Playing Bultar: Bultar has a decent amount of offense, defense and movement but the key to succeeding with her is making strategic use of BLINK. BLINK introduces a unique new mechanic that pushes the laws of the ED universe. She can use it as a dynamic hit-and-run move to pair with MYSTIC but is most dangerous when she uses it to maximize the power of TRAP SPRUNG or combine it with BLINDING LIGHT to make it impossible for her enemies to escape.
Playing against Bultar: Note that affect-you-anywhere cards like FORCE LIGHTNING that state “choose any character†can target Bultar even when she’s BLINK-ing. With a Red deck and only 2x D4, Bultar makes an easy target. If she doesn’t draw BLINK, she goes down quickly. Beyond that, you want to spread out your characters and force her to move to get to you, as she loses power the more she moves. Attack her and force her to use BLINK defensively instead of aggressively.
Played Bultar in a couple games recently (a 1v1 and an 3-way FFA), and she’s actually quite fun to play! Fragile, but being able to teleport around the board helps out with that.
Quick question that just occurred to me: let’s say you end your turn by playing BLINK. However, at the start of your next turn, all 3 spaces you marked have ended up occupied by other characters. What happens? This might not be terribly likely to happen, but all the same I would like to know how you would handle this situation.
Cool! It is a fun and unique deck. She’s had some great games.
Interesting question, can’t say I’ve seen that happen. The Bultar player almost always puts one token on a relatively safe spot away from the action. I’d almost have to write two more sentences into the card to cover such a case: Maybe once 2 spots get occupied, nobody may occupy the third spot? I think that would be best. If you allow “adjacent to,” one of the tokens, she could teleport to some 27 different spaces on the board.
What about maybe forbid anybody to walk on the markers?
If you were to do that, then you could potentially use BLINK to shield a wounded ally from any approaching attackers. So you can try it but I don’t think it will work.