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Doctor Aphra

Page history last edited by CRFR787 3 years, 7 months ago

Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra, from Marvel's Star Wars comics.

 

Doctor Aphra, 0-0-0, and BT-1 (used in the 20YA Fan Expansion): 20YA8 Aphra 000 BT1 CRFR787.pdf

 

Alternate Krrsantan version: (TBA)

 

I think the best custom Epic Duels decks are the ones that encourage the player to act like the character, and create tension through strategic choices that mirror a character's inner struggles or personality.  This deck is my attempt to do that for a trio of great characters created for Marvel's Darth Vader comic run, who eventually spun off into their own series:  Doctor Aphra, rogue archeologist, and her two murderous droids, 0-0-0 and BT-1 (a sort of evil C-3P0 and R2D2).  (If you prefer teaming Aphra up with an evil Chewbacca, there will be an alternate version with Black Krrsantan, murderous Wookie bounty hunter.)

 

Aphra's now-extensive comics history and unique personality are not easy to compartmentalize in an Epic Duels deck, and I've done several revisions of the original concept to make it simpler, less derivative, and more akin to the original Hasbro shooter decks.

 

Aphra, much like the original Han/Chewie deck and the 10YA Nute deck, relies heavily on her minors.  But she has even less straight damage dealing power than those decks, and relies more on hand size manipulation and double-edged cards to slip through damage at the right moment.  Her most unique (and my favorite) card is ROGUE ARCHEOLOGIST, which lets her draw lots of cards by "digging up" an opponent's used attack card. As a midwestern Euchre player, the idea for this card came from Euchre's "pick it up" mechanic.  It is a ton of fun and is what really makes this deck shine.  There is nothing better than telling an opponent to pick up their best attack, get lucky and draw into one of your own good attacks, and blast them away before they have a chance to use it.

 

Aphra's other cards expand on this theme.  Her bread-and-butter A4, INTREPID HEROINE, echoes Han's GAMBLER'S LUCK and HEROIC RETREAT, allowing her to move and gain an action if the card deals damage (which can be very powerful once she has a large hand of cards).  And like Han, in 1v1 battles she creates many tough decisions for opponents, who must sometimes choose between dropping an D4 or higher to potentially prevent the effect of this card, or saving their best defense cards to fend off one of Aphra's minors' powerful attacks.  Her sole power defense, LEAVE EVERYTHING ON FIRE, lets her escape with one or more of her better cards and then draw back up (with ROGUE ARCHEOLOGIST or repeated uses of INTREPID HEROINE) faster than an opponent.

 

Besides slipping through a few no-action attacks with INTREPID HEROINE, Aphra can use her other attack, I'M SELFISH, repeatedly - but at a high cost.  Nonetheless, this card provides a restraint against opponents who attempt to simply ignore her minors and attack her directly, as she can still take advantage of her minors' health to repeatedly attack with an A5.

 

BT-1 and 0-0-0 add mayhem and destruction to keep opponents from focusing on Aphra.  0-0-0 has the less powerful cards overall, but works well as a sort of shield/blocker for Aphra - any opponent who gets close to him and Aphra has to fear the deadly combination of COERCIVE AGONIES and LOVE IS MURDER, and will likely have to defend nearly every attack he makes.  0-0-0 can also use COERCIVE AGONIES to get rid of weak shooter minors who may pose problems for Aphra with repeated small attacks, or as a combo with LOVE IS MURDER to prey on a weakened opponent who was recently hit with discard effects.

 

BT-1, meanwhile, is a sort of Chewie 0.5, who can often destroy an unwary opponent in a single strike.  ENTIRELY HOMICIDAL (a tribute to Boba's KYPBER DART) can either wear down an opposing major, or be used to get rid of an annoying minor and weaken the major at the same time.  And BLEEP! BLEEP! BLEEP! severely punishes opponents who try to beat Aphra at her own card-drawing game or try to turtle while their minor's or their teammate's minors wear down Aphra.  

 

As a tribute to the great artists who have worked on the Doctor Aphra comics over the years, the art on each of the cards for the Doctor Aphra, 0-0-0, and BT-1 deck comes from a Doctor Aphra (or in one case, a Star Wars) comic cover.  I re-did Aphra's basic cards to showcase as much of the amazing comic art as possible, and the deck back is the cover from Doctor Aphra #1, which I think is fitting.

 

If you download and play the deck, please let me know on the Discord how it went!

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