This deck is third in a row, which I publish on this blog and also it is the last one written with only first set (Awakenings) in mind. New set – Spirit of Rebellion, will be officially released in less than a month and therefor construction of current decks wil be changed. I am going to try to reflect these changes in already published decks here (including this one) and update them to version 2.0 with implemented new cards.
But lets get back to our topic. Mustafar is the planet where Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker fought their fatal battle and afterwards with a transformation of Anakin into Darth Vader, he chose this planet as his homeworld. Which means, that Lord of Mustafar is Darth Vader himself and this deck is also based on this character. You can again find the full decklist externally on SW Destiny Database, see the link below:
CHARACTERS:
First character is very clear, we are talking about elite version of Darth Vader from Awakenings set. With his 2 melee and 3 melee sides, he is really very dangerous and properly equiped he is able to kill a weaker character per round. Unfortunately, these are all of his damage sides. Than he has 2 disrupt, which would be dangerous should not be there an issue with disrupt itself. When you roll it, your opponent always spend his resources before you can remove them. Than he has a side with one shield and one resouce, both of them are pretty much not effective for his expensive die and finally there is the obligatory blank side. So if we have a look on his die as a whole, it is pretty clear, that you want both of them to roll his melee damage, anything else will be most of the time rerolled. As you have only 33% chance to roll damage on his die, it looks like that it is maybe not worth the effort. Advantage of Darth Vader is his passive ability – you may discard a card from opponent’s hand after each activation, which I highly recommend to not forget about. Also Darth Vader has 13 hit points, which is the highest value of the first set. Of course, there is also downside for such an impactful character – the cost of elite version is 21 points, which leaves you with very limited options for his sidekick.
As anywhere else, you should play monocolor deck only if the team would be really stronger than any other option. Otherwise it is better to play second color to get access to wider spread of cards. Because Nighsister is really not good option for Vader, you should look on the command or rogue factions. Meanwhile command is accessible only through Stromtrooper, which is unfortunately ranged plus there are not really so many viable cards to play in deck with Vader, the choice than goes to rogue.
Here you can choose between two characters. Please leave Bala-Tik out, as his +2 ranged is really useless with Vader and pick up the Tusken Raider. He has several advantages, so lets have a look on them. First one is clear, he has two melee damage die sides, one of them is with value of 3, eventhough paid. Second advantage is hidden in his ability, which lets you resolve one of his character or upgrade dice right after rolling for paying one card from your hand. This is perfect synergy to some of the force abilities, i.e. Mind Probe. The fact, he is not force character, can be bypassed by using of holocrons, about which I will write later on. Only downside is the thematic inconveniency of the deck, this is possibly the worst due you can choose lore wise.
UPGRADES AND SUPPORTS:
Despite Vader beeing able to play by himslf if his rolls go right, he is easily controlable by dice removal. To make opponent’s life little bit harder, you have to equip properly both of your guys. The single best option for Vader is easily Kylo Ren’s Lightsaber or the regular one. First is good not only against the shields but it is most probably best destructive card in game. Second one is redeployable, which means, that it is always good option to overwrite into if your Vader is going to die. Aside of this, force fraction possesses quite a lot of abilities, which have usually one thing in common – only blue character play requirement. Fortunately there is a card version of that “databank” of all secrets and knowledge of Sith, which appeared in Star Wars Rebels serie – Sith Holocron. This card really lightens your life, not only it allows you to ignore blue only restriction, but you do not have to pay for it too. Following you have a traditional pack of blue abilities consisting of a pair of Force Choke, Force Throw and third one is usually chosen between Force Training and Immobilise. I prefer the first one, as it helps you to increase damage output and has some flexibility built in it. Last ability – Mind Probe, has huge impact on game tempo when you play this on Tusken Raider. However because of its cost it is playable only through the Holocron and therefor there is too much variables for me to play more than one copy of it. Last upgrade is Hunker Down, which helps you either to prolong life of Vader or to prepare Tusken for his finish. Last card to think about is On the Hunt. It helps with shields which you can handle anyway and can serve as a die removal, but I am usually not finding myself with one resource free to spend, so I skip this card in this deck.
It would be big mistake to rely only on the Holocron. It has to show early in first turns, otherwise its impact on your resource efficiency is minimal and there is too high chance, you will not see it in your opening hand. The game with eVader is usually decided in first two rounds, when you have to keep Vader alive and on the other hand deal at least 10-12 damage, preferably kill an opponent’s character. There is currently not too many ways to flatten your resource curve, one of it is It Binds All Things. Yes it is slow, but you do not have too many other options. Second support is backup Muscle, which is currently best support in the game.
EVENTS:
And now regarding the most important part of the deck, as every card mentioned before is very easy to select. You need dice manipulation, therefor pair of He Does Not Like You and Electroshock. Than you have blue Isolation and Feel Your Anger and this should be enough. Your blue abilities already has some die manipulation built in them. In some situations, you can use Scramble, as a free to play mass manipulation of dice. You really can be stuck in a situation, when your opponent rolls a lot of dice with small damage on each and you can not get worse result than this usually.
Aside of die manipulation, you need to stabilise your damage output. Meanwhile Force Strike is the best suited card for this deck, I am not so convinced about No mercy. It is expensive, it will cost you your whole turn and even though it can lead to kill of a character, I find its cost too prohibitive. Against shields you can further use Intimidate, which is for free. Depending on the amount of ranged decks in your meta, you can play Deflect, which is awesome against all shooters except Jango, mediocre against him and useless against anyone else. And this is all you have for indirect damage options.
Last type of your events are the ones which improves your action economy. You have two of them to your disposal. Enrage can replace It Binds All Things mentioned earlier, as it is much quicker and than you have Boundless Ambition. Thanks to this card you can get extreme card advantage in right moment and it also helps you to get to cards stuck somewhere in middle of your library.
BATTLEFIELD:
Regarding the battlefield, there are two ways to proceed. Either you can play aggressively, using the Emperor’s Throne Room to improve your usage of Holocrons or Force Throw. However, sometimes, it is just better to play defensively, wait for your opponent to use all of his possibilities and mitigate his dice, and just when he is out of his options start to play your own game, preferably starting with Boundless Ambition to refill your hand. In that case, you should prefer something which does not hurt you much. If you play pair of Kylo Ren’s Sabres, it can be Echo Base, otherwise Mos Eisley Spaceport.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I have played quite a lot of games with this deck as I really like Darth Vader and currently it is somewhere just below Tier 1. It has a few large advantages and disadvantages, both of it influences its reliability to win and it can be as good as 4:0 or bad as 2:2.
Big advantage of the deck is its really powerful gamechanging cards. The threat of high effectivity cards and big dice is present since the beginning of the game and pushes your opponent to stress and defensive. To top of that, it really takes some time to chew through 13 HP. You also have a vast amount of single die removals.
On the other hand, this deck is fragile to mass dice control and excessive rolls from your opponent. It is really an issue if your Vader receives 5+ damage per turn and some of the decks just can rolls those huge amounts of 1-2 damage dice which you can not mitigate all at once. If Vader dies earlier than he changes the game status quo, than you lose.
However, there is bright future of this deck according to new spoilers and even in more colours than now, so we can happily wait for the new set to arrive.
The Guild 