Yondo

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Yondo 0 0 0 1.0

rusty 164

Credit to Mr. Hayden on TTS for sharing this list with me.

Intro

I loaded up TTS to do a bit of practice for regionals. I was on a sweet Tarkin/Seventh Sister list that I was convinced was the deck to be on. Enter Mr. Hayden and this delightful jank that follows.

Mr. Hayden pulls Yoda out of his deck bag:

"That's fair"

Then he pulls out Hondo Ohnaka:

"LOL, this will be a massacre."

Numerous streamers have listed Hondo as one of the worst characters in the set. I immediately dismissed him and moved on as well.

Mr. Hayden proceeded to dismantle my deck. Three times in a row. I never killed a character.

"Maybe this is just a bad match-up. Let's try Obi Maz."

Three more losses in a row. I was beside myself.

"Yo Dameron has to be able to handle this."

Three more losses. It was time to lick my wounds and figure out exactly what happened.

Overview

Yondo is a control deck at heart. It's heavy on mitigation events. It's upgrade suite focuses more on enabling and staying alive then dealing loads of damage. It has a very high average resource cost per card due to Yoda and Hondo's specials.

This deck focuses on maximizing the efficiency of Yoda's dice. Your goal is to take shields and resources with Yoda while also stealing resources with Hondo's special. You will generate loads of resources, which allow you to play expensive upgrades and events.

Your win condition is primarily damage, but I've found that I win on mill roughly 20% of the time.

Deck Deconstruction

Removal

As mentioned before, Hero yellow has access to the best removal suite in the game. Easy Pickings and Entangle provide excellent efficiency. Removing two dice at a time is an incredibly powerful effect that you can compound with Rebel. Overconfidence and Electroshock are staples that help round out the removal suite. Defend and Dive are likely replaced by Hidden Motive once Rivals is legal.

Willpower isn't removal but it's a sleeper hit in this deck. Many times your opponent will eat Hondo specials until they have a single hit point left. Willpower is a surprise that can help close out the game while also healing your characters.

Beat Sticks

This deck is very light on the beat down. You don't have many beat sticks but they hit hard. They also rely on dealing damage through special chaining:

  • Handcrafted Light Bow - Hits like a truck, especially with the loads of shields generated by cards like Yoda.
  • Force Wave - Mr. Hayden had Master of the Council in this slot. I played Master exactly one time. I wasn't crazy about it because this deck is already all enablers and I wanted more damage output. Speaking of damage output:
  • Obi-Wan Kenobi's Lightsaber - This card does everything for us. This card generates shields while also turning those shields into unblockable damage.

Enablers

This deck builds slowly over the course of many turns. These upgrades help you get there, and stay alive.

  • Cunning - This card is a given in a deck built around specials. It's whatever you need it to be: damage, healing, or even action cheating.

  • Force Illusion and Second Chance - They keep you alive when you just don't have enough removal to deal with your opponents god rolls.

  • Force Speed - I don't think I've built a blue deck without this upgrade. It's especially good in a deck that focuses on special chaining.

  • Lone Operative - This card is super spicy in this list. This card turns a single Yoda special into two shields and 2-3 points of healing. It's special is incredible late game and it's discard side is very valuable when you shift gears into the mill game plan. Killing Yoda when he's equipped with an Obi saber and Lone Operative is nearly impossible.

Mulligans

By priority:

  1. Force Speed
  2. Cunning
  3. Entangle
  4. Easy Pickings
  5. Exactly one beat stick

Game Plan

Focus on generating your economy and staying alive over putting out beat sticks. If you start the turn with 3 resources you should consider rolling out one character and generating more economy over playing a beat stick. The opportunity cost of playing a blow out Entangle or Easy Pickings is more valuable than the 3 damage from a Handcrafted Light Bow or Obi-Wan's Saber.

Know when to shift from resource/shield generation on Yoda to mill. Games you don't draw Force Speed will be hard to resolve damage. You'll need to shift to mill early on those games. Don't disregard Hondo's disrupt side, controlling your opponents economy will help you get it into the late game.

Conclusion

This is easily the most fun deck I've played in Destiny. You have so many options due to the sheer amount of resources you generate. You don't lose many games to bad rolls due to the insane consistency Yoda provides. You get to run the best removal cards in the game. All of this comes together to an incredibly consistent deck that rewards a prepared pilot.

17 comments

P11grim 15

Hey this deck is sweet! Any recommend weapons if you don’t have an Obi’s saber.

FezDaBrute 8

Been running this deck and tried Master of the Council and played it a couple of times. It’s a fun card but I don’t think it’s worth the cost. You end up special chaining Yoda - Wizened Master and generating a resource with each die to pay for MotC. If you have 2 major beat sticks to go with it then it might be worth it but in general I like Force Throw or Force Wave more.

Force Speed is amazing on Yoda - Wizened Master to roll out Hondo Ohnaka - Respected Businessman and resolve all dice at once, especially if Hondo has Cunning.

Super fun deck that should also be Tier 1.

rusty 164

@FezDaBrute: Obi's Saber is integral to the deck. You have limited ways to deal damage and Obi's Saber hits incredibly hard. I'd consider Heirloom lightsaber as the most suitable replacement. This deck really needs a third weapon that can deal three damage with a special side.

FezDaBrute 8

I think that was meant for @P11grim. I think Luke Skywalker's Lightsaber or Lightsaber might be better than Heirloom. The special side for damage is really important, and those both being unblockable could be helpful if you don’t have a Handcrafted Light Bow out yet.

rusty 164

Excellent points, and yes, I did mean @P11grim. Lightsabers would be best because of the two unblockabke damage from the special. The redeploy is also handy.

jd80scott 1

I have yet to beat this deck. Soooooooooooooooo good.

Skins1924 1

The name should be Honda

Mr hayden 13

@jd80scott The deck is very weak to action cheating, try using Sabine and you'll have no problem. currently id say this deck beats all the fair decks but loses to most of the unfair decks, I think room is need for a hyperspace jump.

adran06 254

Okay, so maybe I just don't get it, but why is Force Speed so good here?

adran06 254

I mainly ask cause I'd probably swap it out for Inner Strength, which while costing more, does damage, heals, or generates shields, resources, or a symbol that will guarantee more resources/shields. That just sounds better than 2 actions that I'll get from Special Chaining anyway.

rusty 164

@adran06: I run Force Speed because of the excellent removal in the current standard format. You put a beat stick on Hondo and a Force Speed on Yoda. If you see 2 specials after rolling in Yoda you can roll in and instantly resolve at least one of your beat sticks with the specials you already have showing. Games can get really grindy with this deck and Force Speed helps you get guaranteed damage in.

Inner Strength was a consideration but it was too situational for me.

  • It doesn't do much damage.
  • You have to put it on a character your opponent has already started to focus.
  • Your opponent can just stop hitting that character and then it does zero damage.

I found that the other three cost specials were more better for this list as we aren't hurting for money. If you did want a 2 cost upgrade I think that Force Training is a stronger choice. It does a lot of things this list wants to do.

adran06 254

@rustyI've always felt Force Training to be too situational. You can't reliably get it's special since its 1 in 6, and the non-special results are mostly meh. I can agree with Force Speed being a good way to guarantee a hit in, since you can activate Hondo and then use his abilities, but I'd take Inner Strength over Force Training not just for the heal/damage, but for it's other dice results as well. 1 in 3 means I can get it off more reliably than Force Training, and if it doesn't, it STILL either gets me resources, shields, or control (assuming it doesn't Blank, but then everything is useless when that happens XD).

If possible, I'll probably try to squeeze both Inner Strength and Force Speed into the deck.

FezDaBrute 8

@adran06 When Yoda is alive this deck doesn't care how hard it is to hit a special on Force Training because it will just Yoda special into it. Force Speed is a must for me for a lot of reasons. It really lets you avoid large amount of mitigation or it forces your opponent to mitigate it, either way you get more of what you want. Even better is that it is a free card that your opponent needs to spend resources to mitigate.

bboyspiderman 93

I made a comprehensive Yoda mill deck, spent 100 hours playtesting, mastering, and fine tuning it.... only to find that this deck is almost 1000% better at what it does.

I like your list a lot, and almost every card has a lot of meaning here, no bad choices.

I was trying to find room for Canto Bight Pistol in your decklist, but couldn't without removing something integral, like a second obi saber, which is priceless in making sure you get it early game..

I will definitely be building this over Yoda/Poe tonight when I get home from work.

I'll let you know how my playtesting goes and give you any comprehensive notes or changes I would make.

rusty 164

Thanks for the comments @bboyspiderman.

I’m experimenting with -1 Force Wave and -1 Willpower to bring in 2 Canto Bight Pistols. I’m also trying out a few other odds and ends like Dangerous Maneuver.

I’d like the feedback once you’ve tested and I’m always looking for new play test partners. PM me for my SteamID if you use TTS.

bboyspiderman 93

I use TTS and I'd be happy to help play test. I'm a veteran player with a lot of local wins and a couple box tournament wins under my belt.

I like -1 willpower, and I think Force Wave can be BAD late game, so if you are going to run it, you have to run it at 2. You want to see it early, round 1 and round 2. If you see it late game, you may not have Yoda for the drop, and you may be forcing yourself to take 2 damage to do 3. While it doesn't mess with your tempo, it hurts more than it helps later.I like it at 2 for a round1/2 drop and round 5/6 discard (or depending on game state, another 3 drop and you just pray your 20 health can keep up). There's also a good point in saying that indirect damage isn't bad at all, so focusing to the 2 indirect can be just as good for your gamestate as the special (except slower, because no special chaining).

Still, -1 willpower and possibly just throw in only 1 Canto Bight Pistol. It's not bad at one. when you see it you like it, when you don't see it it doesn't hurt you. It's great at any point in the game, as you can feel safe dropping it on a 2-health-left Yoda to force your opponent not to spread damage, and then you roll out with hondo after redeploy. So many situations I can see wanting Canto over Willpower.

Again, all just opinion based on my testing with these cards. I haven't vetted this deck yet, but I'm itching more than ever now.

stoko 3

@rusty Dangerous Maneuver is an absolute must have in this deck. I've been running another version of Yondo for a week or so now, and it's one of the only cards I have never tossed for a reroll. It's basically a free 2 heal, since Yoda and Obi's saber will just immediately refill your shields.

The deck I ran at the PDX regional was very similar to the other Yoda/Hondo that Agent of Zion posted, which got me 5-3. The only reason it didn't do better was because I was super tired and my energy drink wore off during game 6. I made so many terrible plays during that game, I am ashamed of myself.