The Padawan is one of those characters that’s been lurking around the fringe of the Destiny meta ever since the beginning. They have an amazing ability (essentially an extra resource), but their low health has kept them from really shining. But with every new set, and new weapons to added to the toolbox, we have to re-examine the Padawans, to see if they have crossed the threshold into Tier 1. Many have already speculated on the power of Padawans with Plo Koon, and I agree that this has the potential to be amazing (4 extra resources!!). But in the effort of avoiding redundancy, I’m going to go a different route: yellow (golden, if you will) Padawan decks.
New Toys
Blue Hero again got a powerful set of upgrades in Way of the Force. Luke’s Lightning Rod is an equipment, unfortunately, meaning it does not work with Padawan’s ability. But we did get 2 new redepoloy weapons, which goes a long way towards mitigating the downside of Padawan’s low health. Ezra’s Lightsaber and Dagger of Mortis.
Both of these weapons are great in their own regard, but Ezra’s Lightsaber is the one that really shines with Padawans. When running 2 Padawans, you typically want to play multiple 2 cost weapons on round one. Before this set, there were no 2 cost sabers with redeploy, leaving you vulnerable to losing your early upgrades. That’s where Ezra’s Saber comes in, fitting this slot perfectly. But enough about Blue, since we’re talking about yellow Padawans here. What other tools did they get?
The V-1 Thermal Detonator. This weapon is a powerful tool with Padawans, and let me explain why. If you play this turn 1, and manage to resolve a special, you leave the Padawan empty again, allowing you to use it’s ability on the next weapon you play. So essentially, you’re doing 4-6 damage for free! That is amazingly efficient early in the game. With this in mind, let’s see what sort of Yellow Padawan decks we can build.
Deck Ideas
Plo Koon is an obvious choice with Padawan, since he gets to copy the ability. Here we try to take advantage of this, while also adding another non-unique that Plo can copy: Outer Rim Smuggler. This allows you to play multiple 2 cost weapons on round 1, while also potentially starting round 2 with 4 resources. In addition, you get to add in some powerful Yellow cards like FILP and Easy Pickings. Will this be good? It’s hard to say, but I’m going to give it a shot.
Double Padawans has been a crowd favorite ever since the get go, but usually it’s been with a Blue partner to add some melee synergy. Here, we go a different route by adding Cassian. In this case, it’s just a matter of Cassian being an amazingly good character, and at 14 cost for elite, he makes a natural pairing for the Padawans. We again take use of the Padawan ability with a suite of almost entirely redeploy upgrades, while also being able to Second Chance our main character. Again, I’m not certain that this will be amazing, but I’m excited to try it out.
Conclusion
Padawans get a lot of cool new toys and new partners in this set, and I’m excited to see how we might use them in new ways. These are just a couple of the decks I plan on trying with the onset of Way of the Force. I hope you’re as excited to start testing new decks as I am!
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