Masks Are Cool 3.0

• Versions
• 3.0
• 2.0
• 1.0

A Classic Returns - Vader/Raider for SoR

Changes from v2.0

• -2 Kylo Ren's Lightsaber
• -2 Electroshock
• -2 Enrage
• -2 Lightsaber Throw
• +2 Boundless Ambition
• +2 Mind Probe
• +2 One-Quarter Portion
• +2 Sith Holocron

Watch List

• Doubt / He Doesn't Like You - These are potential minus 1 or cut. They're useful, but sometimes not the thing you want right now.
• Enrage A potential addition, I talk more about this later. Questionable value due to how low-cost the curve is here.
• Lightsaber Throw - I played some with it and cut it for this version. It's more difficult to use than you would think; often you're rolling characters out and taking the damage right off the table as an after effect. Could be worth it, but so far I feel like the timing doesn't work out most of the time.

Summary

Designed to feature many of the most cost-efficient cards currently available, this deck is packing 14 0-cost cards and 10 1-costs. You'll have a ton of options even when low on resources. That makes the deck much more difficult to pilot since it presents constant choices, but on the other hand once you're comfortable with it, you have a huge variety of high-quality tools to work with.

The Curve

Another key aspect here is the very low average card cost. A hand of 5 averages just above 2 cost, which means you can play nearly your full hand every single turn. Sometimes you won't be able to due to limited opportunity, but any extra resources hanging around can always be used to pay for Makashi, Mind Probe, or pay sides.

The Cards

Secluded Beach - Scarif Not so much for what it does, but what it doesn't do. This build has two faces hurt by this card, Tusken Raider's 1 and Mind Probe 3. Given the relative lack of action cheating, this is a safe choice that can't really hurt us if the opponent gets it, but has upside for us in many matches.

Fast Hands One of the best reasons to update this deck for SoR. Fast Hands isn't just about getting your damage down fast, though it can do that. One of the best plays is , snatching away your opponent's resources before he can react. That threat will probably make your opponent play the game entirely differently, which is great - if he holds less back, he won't be able to remove Vader's dice as often.

Force Speed Combos great with Fast Hands, and helps get Vader's dice resolved. If you doubt this card, play with it for a while - you'll quickly see just how useful the back-to-back actions can be. Best play is probably Fast Hands resolve Force Speed , then you have 2 more actions to reroll, play cards, and/or resolve Vader's dice.

Force Illusion It's top-notch damage mitigation. We don't really count on any specific cards, so the deck is expendable. It's especially good against Fast Hands and various action cheating since it can mitigate when you don't get an action.

Other Upgrades Primarily for doing damage. Vibroknife adds sides. Makashi Training because it's efficient damage and the power is awesome against melee decks. Sith Holocron plays Mind Probe for free, and don't forget you can play both Makashi Training and Force Illusion from it as well.

Bait and Switch, Force Strike These cards create damage by turning to it. Makashi and Vibroknife have that work with Bait, but you nearly always use it on Vader or sometimes Raider because they have 3 sides.

Boundless Ambition This is here to help draw into all the great 0 things we play. Fast Hands, Force Speed, and Holocron are far more consistent in this build because you can hunt through an entire new hand of cards for them with Boundless. The 0-cost events here are not too useful when it's late in a round after you play Boundless, so the most common use for them at that point is to take numerous re-rolls and try to make a monster turn out of it. If holding Boundless I'll often try to play out my hand as reactions to my opponent, hoping he eventually claims, leaving me to roll in Vader, play Boundless, and re-roll into huge damage.

Friends in Low Places This is a toolbox card that troubleshoots all sorts of things. You can yank their removal so you get to do more damage. Strip that All In or It's a Trap! that was about to crush you. Nearly every deck has one or more all-star events, and this lines up against most of them.

The Rest The removal. It should be enough to consistently remove a die each turn if you need to, and against some decks like Poe that's exactly what you'll want to do.

The Things I Didn't Include

Backup Muscle In this meta, this card is quite slow. Sure it eventually does 3 damage for 1, but it costs 4 actions and takes several turns to do it. Given the power of some current battlefields (and thus the importance of claim racing) I feel this card is currently too slow to be viable.

Electroshock Some will disagree, but with more and more dice being played that have 3-value sides, I gave this slot to One-Quarter Portion. OQP also doesn't spot yellow so it's playable against any die, any time, which is a claim Electroshock can't match.

Enrage Possibly the most questionable omission. It's a good card, but it just doesn't seem to be needed here. This deck isn't very greedy for resources, so it ends up not being as good as usual.

Force Lightning It seems powerful, but it has downsides. It costs resources on several sides which is a concern. Worse, it has numerous ranged sides which turn on Deflect which is otherwise useless against us. It is also a likely target of Secluded Beach - Scarif which removes ranged sides. Mind Probe pulls its weight just fine, and with far less drawbacks.

Rise Again Why do you want this? This deck has enough things to spend on. If you find yourself with 5 to play Rise Again, you should have spent them on something else by now. There are so many good cards to play that if you hold 5 it means you're not making your other card plays, and that's bad business.

Conclusion

Feel free to test this or share your ideas on my build; comments are good for everyone.