Thanks to our friends at Fantasy Flight Games for sending us our first spoiler to share with the community! In a similar vein to FFG’s Command card reveal stream last Wednesday, we have blocked out the ability box to play a guessing game!

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been a huge fan of these radio-squawking, elite stormtroopers since we first saw them in Rogue One! I’m sure most were expecting to see Death Troopers after Director Krennic was spoiled, and it’s safe to say the FFG dev team did them justice! Shoutout to Borja Pindado for nailing the “Come at me bro” attitude of the Death Trooper in art form- entering the battlefield, throwing damage everywhere!

What about the ability? Those 3/3 stats look very similar to Cell Block guard – a 3-cost 3/3. The Cell Block Guard also has Sentinel, so we can expect a strong effect on the Death Trooper. FFG has also given us a hint as to what kind of abilities a Blue card might have- through the Vigilance card! Which of these 4 effect types might the Death Trooper have?

• Discard from Deck
• Heal Damage
• Defeat a Unit
• Give a Shield

Of those 4 options, the “Defeat a unit” line fits killer stormtroopers the best. Thematically, we also expect the Death Trooper to play well with Director Krennic, so a suitable ability could be a board-wide “Deal 1 damage to every Ground unit” that would provide damage from hand while also enabling Krennic’s ability. Maybe? Let’s see how we did…

Here’s your last chance to guess the ability before scrolling down and reading for yourself!

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Before we share our reactions to the full card, let’s highlight an important rules interaction with the Death Trooper. The Quickstart Rules, Page 19, outline that “When Played” abilities trigger after a card is played. This is important since Death Trooper does not specify an “other friendly unit,” and is therefore eligible to receive his own 2 damage. This means that if you have no units on the battlefield and play a Death Trooper, you will have to deal the 2 damage to him.

First thoughts!

Justin – The obvious and thematic place for the Death Trooper is a Director Krennic deck. Since Krennic’s leader (and unit) ability want damage on your units, Death Trooper easily fits into that archetype. Currently, Blue has lots of sentinels, healing, and survivability cards. This protection makes it a natural pairing with the Command Center battlefield- giving you Green’s big-hitters for the late game.

With the “Deal damage on play” effect, I won’t be surprised to see the Death Trooper included in most every Villain Blue deck. My hot take: Death Trooper will be in a top competitive deck, during the Spark of Rebellion meta, that does not have Krennic as the leader.

Tyler – I like the combo potential here. Motti, Superlaser Tech, Krennic and Rugged Survivors (or any other unit with Grit) can all benefit from the Death Trooper’s damage. Thematically, I’m a huge fan of pain-pain design for villain factions and I hope we get more. Maybe this is the beginning of a cycle that will slot this fuel card into an engine?

Pete – My first thought when I saw the Death Trooper was: “I want it in my opening hand with DJ Deathstar.” That combo’s a great way to gain tempo and early ramp at the same time.  Will likely be an auto-include for any Villain/Blue decks in the current card pool.

Deckbuilding with the Death Trooper

Here’s a Krennic deck we put together after seeing the Death Trooper for the first time:

Leader/Base
1x Director Krennic
1x Command Center

Ground Units
3x Death Trooper
2x Admiral Motti
2x Blizzard Assault AT-AT
3x Cloud City Wing Guard
3x Emperor’s Royal Guard
3x General Veers
3x Grand Moff Tarkin
3x Lieutenant Childsen
3x Rugged Survivers
3x Superlaser Technician

Space Units

2x Relentless
3x System Patrol Craft
3x Tie Advanced

Events
2x Repair
3x Resupply
3x Overwhelming Barrage
3x Vanquish

Upgrades
3x Entrenched

It’s tough to build out Krennic, as Lieutenant Childsen is currently the only Villain Vigilance (Blue) card spoiled. We’ll use neutral blue cards to hopefully turn him into a 4/4 Sentinel most of the time. The Villain Aggression (Red) card pool is currently low-health units that won’t combo well with Leader Krennic’s ability, so we’ll take Command Center to get us Command (Green) to work with. Villain Green’s current forte is ramp into large, end-game units like Relentless and Blizzard Assault AT-AT, so we’ll grab Superlaser Tech and Resupply to finish out the deck.

Ultimately, we think Krennic needs more Villain Vigilance (Blue) cards before he will shine, but the Death Trooper is a good helper. Will you build Krennic/Green, or combine Death Trooper with other colors? What cards do you think we missed in this build? It’s exciting how a reveal every few days tickles our deckbuilding brains!

Thanks again to our friends at Fantasy Flight Games for sending us this sweet card reveal! What do you think of the Death Trooper? Let us know in the comments!