The Return of the Jedi. And the Rebels.

By Joe "Palejo" Alread, Game Designer

Release day is always a fun time, when people begin cracking open packs from a new set and creating interesting new decks that they hope will win the next big tournament that they play in. Today is no different, and with the release of Squadrons Over Corellia, we have also changed cards from Champions of the Force. Whenever we see cards from previous sets that might cause problems for the game in the future, we take a second look at them and see if the situation warrants a change to the card. We don't take these decisions lightly, which is why we're to talk about why we made these seven card changes.

Too Much Acceleration
We have witnessed many games going too fast, and the reason stems from a small number of cards. Specifically, the cards Colonel Signet Ring of the Empire and Sith Lightsaber both have the ability to deal massive amounts of damage in a single turn. With enough zero cost tactics, Colonel Signet Ring of the Empire has the power to deal enough damage to an avatar to destroy it in a single turn. Similar results can occur with the Sith Lightsaber if you utilize enough cards that initiate combat with an avatar.

As a result, we have changed the text on Colonel Signet Ring of the Empire to, "While your avatar is attacking, the first time you play a tactic, he gets +1 damage bonus until the end of the combat." Sith Lightsaber has changed to, "Whenever combat begins involving your avatar, deal 1 damage to your avatar and 1 damage to an opposing combatant."Note that both of these cards can still deal a lot of damage, just not enough to end the game in a single turn.

The Annoyance of Discard
As a general rule: discard decks aren't very fun to play against. We do want cards like Mind Trick and Cloud Minds to be around, but we do not want them hacking away at a player's hand all game long. While the power cost to play these cards makes them somewhat inefficient, players have been using them together to make players lose a fair amount of cards. We don't want to see this type of strategy bubble to the top of the tournament scene, so we have made changes to these cards.

Mind Trick will now take only one card from your opponent's hand and put it on top of their deck, instead of three cards. Cloud Minds' level number has been lowered from 2 to 1.

Unbalanced Avatars
We found players gravitating toward certain created avatars in tournaments far more than others. The major ones in question were the Zabrak avatar who pays 1 power to ready an ability on defense, and the Sullustan avatar who draws two cards every time you complete a quest. The Zabrak allowed players to horde massive amounts of defense in exchange for saving a small amount of power, while the Sullustan avatar was giving you something for free every game (because you almost always complete at least one quest, and probably more).

We decided to make changes to both of these avatars: The Zabrak must now pay 2 power to ready an ability, and the Sullustan now draws only one card for completing a quest, not two.

Cost of Cho Mok
Another card that consistently sees play in tournaments is Cho Mok. Why? As I tend to say around the office a lot: "Cards that play for free are really, really good." This card was playtested a lot before release, and was believed to be OK because your opponent got to choose the lesser of two evils: discard a card at random, or take damage. However, at the end of the day you are indeed doing something bad to your opponent. And that evil didn't cost you anything except including a card in your deck. As a result, we have increased the cost of Cho Mok to 1 power.

Enough talk about old cards now, though! There are plenty of new cards to explore in Squadrons Over Corellia. Have fun on release day, and I hope everybody enjoys the new set.

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