A · Fundamentals · §1Archetype Identity

A · Fundamentals · §1

Archetype Identity

A midrange deck whose resource engine is its own units dying, and whose leader turns that into a clock.

Strategy thesisFeed your own cheap units to the leader for Credits, get paid for every one of those deaths, and deploy a 4/9 Krennic while the opponent is still on curve.

Director Krennic, Amidst My Achievement reads: Action, exhaust and defeat a friendly unit, create a Credit token. That is the entire deck. A Credit is a resource, and a resource is what every other card in the game is waiting for, so a deck that can convert a one-cost body into a resource every single turn is playing a different curve from the one its opponent is on.

Why the units are built to die

Feeding a unit to a leader is normally a real cost. Here it is not, because the cheap units are chosen so that their defeat is the payment. costs one and draws a card when defeated. costs two and does the same. costs one and heals two damage from your base. costs four and, when defeated, resources itself out of your discard pile: its death is literally a land drop.

So the leader ability is not a sacrifice outlet in the usual sense. It is a second resource per turn that also draws a card, or heals your base, or refunds the unit, depending on which body you point it at.

What it is not doing

It is not an aggressive deck and it should not be played as one. Nothing here attacks well before round four, and the top end starts at seven and eight resources. Every game is a question of whether you survive to the deploy with a board still standing, which is why the guide spends as much time on when not to take the Credit as on how to take it.

Rules noteThe Credit is not free. Every resource this deck makes is a body that is no longer holding the ground arena, and against a deck that is attacking rather than building, the blocker was worth more.