Save the Queen... of Naboo 4.0

• Versions
• 4.0
• 3.0
• 2.0
• 1.0

This is the current build of my mill deck. The goal is to defend with shields and dice manipulation while milling the opponent. Qui-Gon Jinn does allow you to switch to an all-out offensive strategy if needed but ideally we want to focus on milling.

Padme Amidala has a 1:3 chance of activating her special ability on a normal roll and causing the opponent to mill their deck. Leia Organa was considered as the second character in the deck because she would give 2 more dice for the roll off at the beginning of the game and her ability helps with dice consistency. However, Qui-Gon Jinn gives access to the cards Patience and Return of the Jedi potentially allowing for even greater milling and the shields on his die better fit the defensive strategy the deck will employ.

Additionally, our opponent is likely to realize early that we are playing a mill deck and they will adjust their strategy in response. They will likely assume that we lack the cards to kill their characters with damage and so will ignore shields and focus instead on killing us off and keeping cards in their hand. Qui-Gon's role in the deck is therefore to both protect Padme Amidala but also to harass the opponent's characters and look for an opening to kill one if possible. Even if we aren't able to kill a character, if we can convince the opposing player to use a dice for shields, we will have prevented them from using that dice for discard or damage.

It is tempting to keep 3 shields on Qui-Gon Jinn because of his ability but it is important to remember that his ability works even if he only has 1 shield and our opponent's primary target is Amidala. We want to keep her at 3 shields whenever possible and make Qui-Gon the easier looking target. If he dies, One with The Force still remains in play and we can still play Jedi Robes on Amidala. However, if Amidala dies, we lose access to Cunning, Electroshock, and a lot of our milling strategy. Qui-Gon does not have discard on his dice.

For the battlefield I have chosen to use the Emperor's Throne Room instead of the Command Center for 2 reasons. While it does not directly support the milling strategy of the deck it does allow me to activate specials on my dice, the majority of witch do further my milling strategy. Second, it does not allow my opponent access to a mill strategy unless they were already playing a mill deck. Of course, the battlefield is likely to benefit my opponent as well, but the dice they activate were already something I needed to worry about so it won't be giving them any additional tools to use against me.

Unfortunately as I will only have 3 character dice for the roll off at the beginning of the game it is likely I will not be able to choose the battlefield. For this reason I have included a Hyperspace Jump. This serves not only to completely disrupt a turn that looks likely to benefit my opponent more than me, but also to deprive them of their chosen battlefield and instead give me mine.

Because of Patience's effect I want the deck to include as many dice as reasonably possible. The deck includes 15 upgrades with 12 total dice among them. Ultimately what I roll on them is of less importance than in most decks since I can simply feed them all into Patience if they aren't what I am looking for. While I am not necessarily a huge fan of Datapad (it has 2 blank sides and 2 of the resource sides are +), in the early game it can help get our my more expensive upgrades and if I am lucky allow me more access to my specials. Use The Force and One with The Force are included to help with dice consistency. This last card also provides a ridiculously good dice that remains even if Qui-Gon Jinn should fall. The shields and damage provided by the dice can be used to help my secondary goal of bleeding my opponent to keep him or her more defensive then they otherwise would be.

Jedi Robes, Deflect, Force Protection, Hunker Down, and Second Chance all provide extra survivability to my characters.

Negotiate is included to help deal with aggressive opponents. Ideally this is played when they have few dice to choose from to remove thus ensuring they remove the ones I have in mind. Jedi Council can be used to further the milling strategy, weaken their deck, or even help me find a missing piece of my own strategy. Thanks to Return of the Jedi, I can always just discard an event to the Jedi Council knowing I can get it back when I need it. Infiltrate and Electroshock provide extra dice manipulation and hopefully increase my chances of surviving long enough to mill them.

Thermal Detonator may seem like an unusual card in this deck. It is included primarily for the discard results, not for the special ability. Mill strategies like this one still need to empty the opponent's hand at the end of the game and Thermal Detonator can help do that, however, if the opportunity should arise, we should be willing to use it to kill a character. In many cases the threat of Thermal Detonator is enough to make our opponent spend cards and resources to change or remove the dice. Every card they play that doesn't kill us brings us closer to victory.

The last card, Cunning, is included primarily to activate our own special abilities, especially Force Protection or Padme Amidala, although if it is beneficial I might choose to use an opponent's effect especially Thermal Detonator (it destroys their own), AT-ST, Millennium Falcon (to use our own Hyperspace Jump again), etc...