I decided to publish my evolution of red hero deck gameplay as a first deck on this website. It uses focus and ranged sides of the dice and it is built around Gial Ackbar. Because I ended with double Rebel Troopers as pairing to him, I named the deck according to the flag ship Ackbar commanded during the Battle of Endor. Whole decklist is published here:
Star Wars Destiny database deck link
Now to the individual parts of the deck.
CHARACTERS:
Admiral Ackbar (Awakenings #27) is easily the best red hero and because of the strange selection of Awakenings set heroes, he is usually the first choice if you want to play red. He offers two dice with 2 Focus and 1 Discard sides for 14 points, however the rest of his sides are also not bad. Also his ability is key aspect to the game, as it prevents your opponent to thow away his whole hand for rerolls easily. You can use remaining 16 points in different ways. As we talk about mono red deck, you can buy either elite version of Leia Organa (Awakenings #28) or 2 Rebel Troopers (Awakenings #30). I would like to briefly stop with this choice, I tried both.
Leia is mainly just faster. Instead of three characters you activate just two, which look marginal, but it often decides about claiming. It also helps to bring all the necessary dice for Its a Trap and All In to the table. Her ability is rather useless, you will welcome it maybe against discard decks. eLeia/eAckbar is rather fragile deck, where if you do not decide about an outcome of the game until the end of round 3, it is usually too late. Independent on which character of the pair will your opponent kill, you are going to struggle – if Ackbar is left, you miss the damage dice, in case Leia is the survivor, than you are reliant on your random throws.
On the other hand, pair of Troopers looks ridiculously week, the fact however is, that their dice are superb and their Guardian ability is one of the most overlooked ability in the game. You just pick the unmodified dice during their activation spreading the damage through your heroes to characters your opponent does not want and they can withstand several rounds without dying. As a whole group, they can survive for much longer and in hands of experienced player I finds this option as simply better.
UPGRADES AND SUPPORTS:
You have access only to red and grey cards so choices are mainly limited by the card pool than anything else.
1 Resource: You should play almost everything that exists. DH-17 Blaster Pistol (Awakenings #54) is the best gun accessible for Heros and it is also the best card you can draw to your opening hand. Promotion (Awakenings #56) replaces itself with fresh draw and it has focus and ranged side. Scout (Awakenings #33) is arguable, it does not help with damage sides, but it has at least focus and its special is perfect and it often helps you to deal 2 damage from Ackbar. On the other hand, I do not think Datapad (Awakenings #62) is viable in this deck.
2 Resource: You just need the Holdout Blaster (Awakenings #63), which has Redeploy and almost same die as DH-17 but unfortunately it is not red. It is just forced card option as you do not have any other gun option. Comlink (Awakenings #61) is decent, the issue here is its price/power ratio. Its strength is in the ability and the option to get it into play by overwriting something else when you do not have resources but you desperately need the reroll of opponents dice. I was not able to get the spot for it personally. I do not recommend Survival Gear (Awakenings #34), it is slow and to get spots for it, you would have to remove some other, more useful cards like Launch Bay or Scout.
3+ Resource: Honestly I do not think, that the deck should run any of that expensive cards. But you do not have the option with the current card pool. You can not play Trap aggro only with Troopers equiped with DH17 only. IQA-11 Blaster Rifle (Awakenings #55) for 3 resources has very good die, if you get it safely to play, it can really help to boost your power. Issue is, that you can lose it quickly, as it does not have Redeploy. From this reason, I think that even more expensive Launch Bay (Awakenings #31) is just better. Your opponent can not get rid of it and you can overcome Jango with it. But none of these are optimal because of resource cost.
EVENTS:
The best part of the deck. Unlike the weapons, where you really miss some cards, you have almost all events you need. I will start with the core of the deck.
It´s a Trap (Awakenings #107): Yes, it depands on your opponents dice. But in fact, it just does not. You either play it for ranged or for resources to play Launch Bay. But the card itself will not help you to win the game. You need the dice in the pool and you do not have too much of them.
All In (Awakenings #152): in current card pool I find this card even better than IaT. You do not care about your opponents dice. It is crucial to have at least 1 focus on Scout or 2 Focus on Ackbar and you can start resolving massive damage. Both of the mentioned cards help you to speed up your turn, which leads you to fast claim of battleground.
Hit and Run (Awakenings #106): in combination with previous cards it helps you to get the necessary dice to the pool one round quicker than your opponent expects. It also can help you to trick out Jango or to assassinate wounded character on the beginning of the round before it can activate. The last option is to activate both Troopers at once as with the Squad Tactics.
Squad Tactics (Awakenings #143): double activation is good. In combination with the Guardian, it can save your neck. Your opponent throws away his hand for rerolls just to loose two of the base damage sides, left only with modified ones. Most vulnerable decks to this are Han/Rey and Jango/Veers, two decks you will meet very often.
Defensive Position (Awakenings #104) + Dug In (Awakenings #139): key concept of controling the battlefield. In a lot of cases it is just not worthy to resolve the last die or even activate the third character if he can not change the state of the board (like killing enemy character). But Defensive Position can. It is your best die removal defensive card and against some of the decks it can have a destructive resolution. Dug In is very similar, three shields can help your Troopers to soak up even more dice.
The rest of the cards are not mandatory. I recommend Rearm (Awakenings #109), your red weapons are not redeployable and it can also get any update to game 1 resource cheaper by overwriting your red upgrade and rearming it back (preferably Promotion). Also Field Medic (Awakenings #105) and Flank (Awakenings #156) looks like almost mandatory cards. You never have enough HP and the second one is the only card you have to counter some nasty special sides your opponent can throw against you.
BATTLEFIELD:
You have basicly 3 options. Rebel War Room (Awakenings #171) can fasten your game by resolving the last die (usually Scout special), but the same counts for your opponent. Frozen Wastes (Awakenings #168) can save your game and I have claimed it already in the middle of the turn several times just to remove the key die. It is also not so destructive for your deck if used against you, 2 focus / 2 ranged side by itself is not worth the removal in mid-turn and your big hits come uninterruptible. Last option is Echo Base (Awakenings #166), you can use your shield on Troopers, but if you are experienced with claiming, you can definitely use Frozen Wastes which have much higher impact on the game.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Right on the beginning, I have to say, that despite the fact, that this is the best red hero deck variation, it is still only tier 2.
The biggest value of the deck are the options you have in the gameplay. It is one of the most interesting and fun to play decks in game (definitely amongst the aggro decks), it has a lot of tactic options and you will just do a lot more things than blindly throwing your cards to reroll. The deck is much less roll depandable, high amount of focus sides provide you the option to modify the rolls to what you need. Most of the control/combo cards are not interruptible, so it everything lies in your hands to handle (claiming, guardians, all in, its a trap, defensive position). You game play is unpredictable and the deck is optimal for learning how to play the game well and how to handle key aspects of the game like die mitigation and claiming. Also your opponents will usually not be able to understand, what you are playing until you smash them with the synergic combos, as it is not common deck you will see on tournaments. You will have to plan your next turns to consistently get the best of your dice. It is the most difficult deck to play I tried so far in Destiny and it does not forgive you any mistakes.
Unfortunately it has also large disadvantages. First of all, it really miss one or two good cheap red weapons. You are dependant on drawing DH-17 and if you do not draw it, the power of All-In and Its a Trap is mediocre (is is really difference if you can trap for 10-16 damage in mid game or for 6-8). Furthermore, despite the fact that because of Guardians and Defensive Position, you have good control over your opponents damage rolls, you do not have any control about anything else, and this is true mainly about the detonators and grenades. The combination of both brings me to the conclusion, that the deck is really superior against players who make mistakes in gameplay, but it can not compete against well piloted tier 1 decks or against people with stupid amount of luck on their rolls. It loses breath as you can not push you luck on rolls – you already use the best of your dice.
Despite the all said, I highly recommend to try this deck for small tournaments and casual games. It is totally different from everything else you played so far plus it will teach you a lot about the game. You will see consequences of your mistakes immediately. I also strongly believe, that Spirit of Rebellion will bring few desperately needed cards for this deck, turning it into the beast.
The Guild 