Minor(s): BB-8

Updated 5/12/21

This is probably one of the trickiest decks to get right. Rey’s cards are potentially very, very powerful, with up to 13 cards drawn, but it’s also very hard for her to have a good game in 2v2 because both she and BB-8 have to get into melee combat range and get involved and because BB-8 is intentionally very weak. It makes her a challenge to play, but once she gets rolling, she’s hard to stop.

What does this deck do:  Gets big boosts from BB-8.  Grows in strength as the game goes on.

Rey & BB-8
by Roman F, uses some ideas by Darth Wolverine

Rey
18 HP
Brown Deck
Melee

BB-8
8 HP
Weak Melee Minor Deck
Melee

Rey – 9 Talent Cards

3x FORCE AWAKENING
A4. Rey may retrieve any card besides FORCE AWAKENING from the discard pile and put it in her hand.

3x STRONG IN THE FORCE
A4*/D4*. Add 2 to the attack and defense values for each FORCE AWAKENING in your discard pile.

3x PREMONITION
Move Rey and BB-8 up to 5 spaces each. Draw a card. If BB-8 is still alive, draw another card.

BB-8 – 3 Talent Cards

2x NOT FOR SALE
A4. Draw 2 cards.

1x HIDDEN MAP
Draw 3 cards. Then look at the top 2 cards of every draw pile.

Theme: Grows in power as she learns to use her abilities
Path to Victory: STRONG IN THE FORCE + STRONG IN THE FORCE late in the game
Strengths: Solid defense, good all around game
Weaknesses: Mediocre offense until later in the game, fragile minor, has to get cards in the right order
Strategy: Play BB-8’s NOT FOR SALE and HIDDEN MAP early along with Rey’s FORCE AWAKENING and defense, finish with STRONG IN THE FORCE at A6, A8, even A10.
Test Level: High
Tier: 2

Figures: I somehow got a to-scale Poe and BB-8 from some Japanese company but I can’t find those anymore. They also had a Rey, but Leia Bounty Hunter works just as well. For BB-8, you can use the R5 Astromech Droid or a Lego BB-8.

Notes: The core concept with Rey is that she grows in power as she learns to use the force, currently an A4 that lets her retrieve cards from the discard pile, kind of hearkening to her scavenger persona and leveraging the old JEDI MIND TRICK ability from the original Obi-Wan deck. That’s actually a really strong ability to have 3 copies of, but Rey needs the strength because A) She has to get into melee range to get involved, and she has to get involved to make her deck work and B) BB-8 is intentionally the weakest personality minor in the game from a combat perspective, making Rey much weaker overall.

The challenge here is how to work in BB-8.  On the one hand, you don’t want to see him laying any big damage on anyone, on the other hand, how else do you make him a worthwhile target or a real contributor? Considering his basic combat deck doesn’t even include more than a pair of A3s, BB-8 needs a pair of A4s just to make him respectable enough to defend, but opponents will still likely focus on Rey in any 2v2 game. If they leave BB-8 alone, he’s actually quite powerful, driving 7 card draws in his 3 talent cards plus a peek at everyone’s decks.

Meanwhile, Rey’s ceiling is actually pretty ridiculous, with potential 3x A10D10 cards but she is always the early target, with a weak minor who can’t keep any heat off her. She has to draw several FORCE AWAKENING and STRONG IN THE FORCE cards early just to have a chance, and probably get something out of BB-8 to win. With 8 HP and a weak ranged minor deck for a melee character, BB-8 is worth much less in combat than a pair of Clone Troopers. Maxing out with 2 defense, BB-8 is never more than 4 good hits away from dead. Therefore, the deck is loaded with draw power, and Rey can use her PREMONITION card to do some hit-and-run early, then use FORCE AWAKENING later to retrieve it, run after an attack, and draw 2 cards, which is a pretty great turn. We’ve also seen her win through using BB-8’sBB- A4s and then retrieving them with FORCE AWAKENING and using them again, having him dispense some damage while she builds up a strong hand to follow through with.

BB-8 is fragile, and a weak attacker, yet somehow powerful.  In his R2-D2 and C-3P0 deck, Mike Maloney does a nice job of making C-3P0 kill-worthy without being dispensing much damage, by having him negate attacking and play an important defensive role that meshes with R2-D2’s game. We think we have that here with BB-8.  An alternative would be that instead of having BB-8 attack, have BB-8 make Rey un-attackable in some way, like Mike’s C-3P0 does or like our Ki-Adi-Mundi does with his ARCs.  This current version is probably more fun for our group.

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