Star Wars Destiny Dice Control- Part 1- Dice Removal

“Control! You must learn control!”

-Jedi Master Yoda

There are a few main strategies to any Destiny game. Do you want to throw on a ton of damage as fast as possible? Do you want to burn through your opponent’s deck and mill them? In either case, you’ll want to try and control the flow of the game by manipulating your opponents dice. Today we’re going to start looking at all the various ways you can do that in Awakenings and Spirit of Rebellion. We are only going to look at characters and cards that can affect your opponents dice as manipulating your own dice is a different kind of thing. In part one we’ll look at dice removal and part two will focus on dice manipulation.

Dice Removal

Villain (Name – Type – Cost)

Commanding Presence- Upgrade – 3
- Red Character Only
- Special: Choose a Red die. If it is your die, resolve it, increasing its value by 2. If it is an opponent’s die, remove it.
- An all around good card as it is an upgrade with no blanks. For a special, it is pretty reliable thanks to the two special sides though you do have to roll it in order to be able to use it.
DT-29 Heavy Blaster Pistol – Upgrade – 2
- Special: Remove an opponent’s die showing a resource cost.
- The upgrade itself isn’t too bad for two points but the special isn’t that great for dice removal. Not many sides have resource costs and it’s generally a better strategy to control resources to stop those.
The Best Defense – Event – 1
- Deal one of your Red characters 3 damage to remove up to 2 of an opponent’s dice.
- This has a pretty stiff cost. If you’re trying to purely mitigate damage there aren’t many two dice combos that would deal significantly more damage than this. But if the dice are both Palpatine’s damage sides or you’re trying to protect a particular character the damage could be worth it.
Closing the Net – Event – 1
- Force an opponent to choose and remove one of their dice. You may place this event on the bottom of your deck instead of discarding it.
- You don’t get to choose what dice is removed but you do get to reuse the card. Can also be great for countering a mil deck.
Traitor – Event – 1
- Discard the top card of your deck. Then remove a die not showing a special that has a value equal to or less than the cost of the card you just discarded.
- This isn’t the best dice removal card. Unless you know what’s at the top of your deck you might not be able to remove anything at all. If it were zero cost might be worth it.
Cannon Fodder – Event – 0
- Deal 1 of your non-unique characters damage equal to the value of an opponent’s die showing damage (Ranged Damage or Melee Damage), then remove that die.
- This works essentially like Guard except you don’t have to have the character ready to activate.
Force Lightning – Upgrade – 4
- Blue character only.
- Special: Deal 1 damage to a character. You may remove a die showing a blank (-) to reroll this die instead of removing it from your pool.
- Dice removal is not really the main purpose of this card. But it is a nice side benefit.
Feel Your Anger – Event – 1
- Count the number of blanks showing on an opponent’s dice. Remove that many of their dice.
- Not only did your opponent roll a bunch of blanks but now you’re removing the good dice. You usually can really feel your opponent’s anger when you play it.
Isolation – Event – 1
- Spot a Blue character to remove a character die.
- Useless on upgrades or support dice but pretty low requirements to remove a character die. Great Palpatine counter.
Dark Presence – Support – 0
- After one of your dice rolls a discard, you may exhaust this support to force an opponent to choose and remove one of their dice.
- If you are playing a mill deck with a lot of discard sides this is a great support. Just make sure you don’t roll your dice until your opponent has dice in the pool. Bonus, it’s not unique so you can get two of them out at once.
Anger- Event – 0
- Play only if you have 2 or more dice showing blanks. Resolve an opponent’s die showing damage (ranged or melee) as if it were your dice.
- This is a great one for making an opponent’s bad roll worse. For zero points and the frequency that blanks come up you can almost always get use out of it.
Prized Possession – Upgrade- 4
- After you play this upgrade, you may remove an opponent’s character die and place it here. It is not rolled by any character and does not return to its character unless this upgrade leaves play.
- Very expensive to use but it can really neuter a character. Taking away a Palpatine dice or a Poe dice can really help ease the pressure on yourself. If your opponent isn’t elite and has no upgrades it really gets shut down.
On the Hunt – Upgrade – 1
- Special: Remove all shields from a character. Then you may spend 1 resource to also remove 1 die from that character, or from an attached upgrade.
- Another one whose main purpose isn’t dice removal but it is a nice side benefit.
One Quarter Portion – Event – 1
- Remove an opponent’s die. Then that opponent gains 1 resource.
- This one can backfire if you’re not careful and you let them trigger a resource side with a resource cost or play a card they wouldn’t normally be able to play.
He Doesn’t Like You – Event – 0
- Remove one of your dice to remove an opponent’s die.
- Great card. Doesn’t cost you anything except a dice. But since you get to choose you probably have a blank you don’t need.
Speeder Bike Scout – Support – 3
- Special: Remove a die. You may take one additional action.
- Not the best support overall but if you roll the special you get dice removal and a free action.

Hero (Name – Type – Cost)

Emergency Evacuation – Event – 4
- Remove all dice.
- Simple, straightforward, expensive. Great if you have the resources and your opponent has rolled out all their dice and you haven’t.
Friendly Fire – Event – 2
- Spot a Red character and remove an opponent’s die showing ranged damage to deal that damage to a character.
- At first glance it looks like Guardian but then you notice you have to deal damage to “a” character, not “your” character.
Sensor Emplacement – Event – 2
- Spot a Red character to resolve an opponent’s die not showing damage (Ranged Damage or Melee Damage) as if it were your die.
- You can’t remove direct damage but this is a great way to gain use of your opponents specials.
Defensive Position – Event – 1
- Play only if you control the battlefield. Remove all of an opponent’s dice showing a value of 2 or higher.
- This can be great to save yourself from an uber-hit. I had this card, had the battlefield and my opponent had four dice with 2+ ranged damage…and a TIE Pilot.
Rebel Assault – Event – 0
- Play only if you have one or more dice showing ranged damage. Remove an opponent’s die not showing damage (Ranged Damage or Melee Damage).
- There is a prerequisite condition to using this and you can’t remove damage dice but it costs 0 and can still remove pesky specials.
Anticipate – Event – 2
- Force an opponent to choose and resolve any number of their dice in the order of their choice. Then remove all of their dice they did not resolve.
- If your opponent gets a bad roll full of blanks and modifiers that is a great time to drop this one on them.
Force Misdirection – Event – 1
- Choose a symbol showing on one of your Blue dice. Then remove all of an opponent’s dice showing that symbol.
- This one can be hit or miss. If your blue dice don’t have the symbol you need (either because you don’t roll it or don’t even have it on any of their sides) it’s useless. But if it does, its really powerful.
Heroism – Event – 0
- Deal one of your unique characters damage equal to the value of an opponent’s die showing damage (Ranged Damage or Melee Damage). Then remove that die.
- Essentially Guardian for named characters.
Krayt Dragon Howl -Event – 0
- Spot a Blue character to choose an opponent’s die. That opponent chooses to either remove that die or discard the top 2 cards of their deck.
- It’s not guaranteed to remove a dice but it goes great with a mill deck.
Guard – Event – 0
- Remove one of your Blue dice showing melee damage to remove a number of opponent’s dice equal to the value of the die you just removed.
- This one is especially good with a mill strategy as you don’t care about doing damage.
DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol – Upgrade – 3
- Ambush. (You may take one additional action after you play this card.) After you play this upgrade, force an opponent to choose and remove one of their dice.
- The dice removal aspects of this card are so-so but as an added effect to an Ambush upgrade it’s pretty nice.
Shoot First- Event – 1
- Ambush. Resolve one of your Yellow dice showing Ranged Damage, then remove an opponent’s die showing Ranged Damage as well.
- Great action stacking. You get to remove a dice, resolve one of your dice and get another action thanks to ambush.
Let the Wookiee Win- Event – 1
- Force an opponent to choose to either deal one of their exhausted characters 2 damage or choose and remove 2 of their dice.
- Another one that doesn’t guarantee you’ll remove a dice but does force a hard decision on your opponent.
Negotiate – Event – 1
- Remove one of your character dice to force an opponent to choose and remove 2 of their dice.
- Two for one deal.
Loth-Cat and Mouse – 0
- Force an opponent to choose and remove one of your dice. Then remove one of their dice.
- Not great in all situations, such as if you have dice you want to keep or if you have no dice to remove, but worth the zero cost.
Rey’s Staff – Upgrade – 2
- Special: Remove a die showing damage (Melee Damage or Ranged Damage.)
- A decent weapon that can be either offensive or defensive with this special. Won’t save you from specials but it’s nice it can be used on either damage type.

Neutral (Name – Type – Cost)

Suppression – Event – 0
- Remove one of your Red dice showing ranged damage. Then remove an opponent’s die.
- If you’re running a red only deck this is pretty good. They mostly have ranged damage sides, if they have a damage side, and it allows you to remove any die.
F0rce Throw – Upgrade – 3
- Blue character only. Special: Remove a die to deal a character damage equal to the value showing on that die (specials and blanks are zeroes.)
- A strong dice removal option thanks to the two special sides on this upgrade.
Decisive Blow – Event – 3
- Resolve one of your dice showing Melee Damage. Then remove all character and upgrade dice of the character you just dealt damage to.
- Expensive but great thing to drop on a character that just rolled out with multiple upgrade cards.
Makashi – Upgrade – 2
- To play spot a Blue character. Action – Remove one of your dice showing melee damage and exhaust this upgrade to remove a die showing melee damage.
- This action isn’t the most effective dice removal ability as it only affects melee dice and costs you a dice yourself.
Mind Trick – Event – 2
- Spot a Blue character to force your opponent to split their dice pool into 2 groups of any size. Choose 1 group and remove all dice in it.
- This is another good one to put your opponent in a tough spot.
Deflect – Event – 1
- Spot a Blue character to remove a die showing ranged damage and deal half of that damage, rounded up, to a character.
- This one is cheap for being able to remove a dice and deal damage with it. Limited to only ranged damage though.
Overconfidence – Event – 1
- Spot a Blue character t0 reroll 2 dice. Then remove one of those dice with the lowest value (you choose in the case of a tie).
- This one could be risky if you reroll a dice into something better. But if you’re forcing a reroll the result was already probably something pretty bad for you.
High Ground – Event – 1
- Play only if you control the battlefield. Remove an opponent’s die showing damage (melee or ranged). Then, if it was a character die, deal 1 damage to that character.
- Great double effect card. Dice removal and you deal damage to them.
Jetpack – Upgrade – 2
- Special: Remove a die showing melee damage and give attached character 1 shield.
- Remove a damage dice and gain a shield. Also cheaper than most of the other dice removal upgrades.
Reversal – Event – 3
- Spot a Yellow character to remove a die showing damage (Ranged Damage or Melee Damage) and deal that damage to a character.
- More expensive than Deflect but works on both kinds of damage and deals the full amount.
Electroshock – Event – 1
- Spot a Yellow character to remove a die showing a value of 2 or lower.
- There are not many dice results over two so this can affect most of them. For only one point it can be used on any result.
Block – Event – 2
- Remove all of an opponent’s dice showing Melee Damage.
- Very effective against a melee damage monster.
Dodge – Event – 2
- Remove all of an opponent’s dice showing Ranged Damage.
- The ranged version of Block.
Flank – Event – 1
- Play only if you have more ready characters than an opponent. Remove one of that opponent’s dice.
- One dice for one resource. Hard to use against a generic swarm but most people only play two characters so if you plan for it you can have enough characters ready.
Parry – Event – 1
- Remove a die showing melee damage.
- One cost for one dice removed. Simple and can go in any deck.
Evade – Event – 1
- Remove a die showing ranged damage.
- One cost for one dice removed. Simple and can go in any deck.

Battlefields

Carbon Freezing Chamber
- Choose a character die. That die cannot be rolled during the next round.
- This one is dangerous if you can’t regularly claim the battlefield but it’s great for neutering your biggest threat. The main downside is if you limit the actions your opponent can take by removing her dice, they are more likely to claim the battlefield next round turning it back on you.
Secluded Beach
- Remove an opponent’s die showing ranged damage.
- Great way to end a round when your opponent still showing damage.
Frozen Wastes
- Remove a character die.
- Not as potent as Carbon Freezing but also less risky. It’s a straight up dice removal.