Introduction to Star Realms Dodgeball

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There are numerous tournament formats to be found in Star Realms. We’ll start covering these a bit more as their popularity has increased quite a bit in recent years. If you ever get bored with “basic” Star Realms, just know that there are a myriad of options available and today we’ll introduce Dodgeball.

Dodgeball was originally the brainchild of MarauderMo inspired by AceGeiger’s Zombie Tournament (Mo was also the author of the Endurance Challenge). After several pickup games and rules refinement, CrankyDay, with the support of SilentAl and several others, had built a framework which has led to seven seasons and counting of league play as well as numerous smaller events.

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Command Deck Strategies Part 5: The Union Command and Hive Admiral McCready

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By Eric Navarro aka erictht

Editor’s Note: This is Part 5 of our Command Deck Strategies Series.  We also recommend:

Who Should Play McCready? 

If you’re a player who loves going aggro and overwhelming your opponent before they can even get their strategy started, the McCready is the Commander for you. Skill-wise, a player who knows how to sneak in every point of damage possible and loves streamlining their deck is going to thrive with this command build. Plus, if you’re someone like me who loves drawing cards as much as they hate the math involved with scrapping strategies, then good news: The Union is the deck for you. 

You need to be a player who can stick to a focused strategy without any distraction, modifying it slightly based on gamestate and match up. If you are a dedicated aggro player, this is your chance to zoom the microscope in on this linear strategy and refine your play until it is as efficient and effective as possible. In summation: burn baby burn. 

You start with 60 authority and draw 6 cards per turn (3 if you’re going first). The Union’s starting deck is blisteringly fast, boasting an impressive 16-25 starting damage and few enough deadweight cards that scrapping is not needed. More importantly, the clunkiness of adding a single card that does not fit your strategy will greatly outweigh any scrap benefits later in the game as most games end shockingly quickly. Speaking of which, be prepared to wait a long time between rounds in the in-app tournaments.

With all that said, are you Mc’Ready to play McCready? 

…sorry.

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Command Deck Strategies Part 4: The Lost Fleet and High Admiral Jochum

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By Rick DeMille aka Darklighter

Editor’s Note: This is Part 4 of our Command Deck Strategies Series.  We also recommend:

Introduction

High Admiral Jochum introduces a new card type/game mechanic: Shards. Because of this, Jochum probably has the steepest learning curve – though not the longest – among all Commanders. Hopefully the summaries and insights provided in this article will help shorten your Jochum learning curve, and ultimately assist in your mastery of this great Commander of the Lost Fleet.

  1. Why Jochum?
  2. Jochum’s Starting Deck
  3. General Strategy
  4. Shard Scrapping: Order of Operations
  5. Tools for Defeating Jochum
  6. Matchups
  7. Conclusion
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Command Deck Strategies Part 3: The Pact and Overlord Newburg 

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Editor’s note: This is Part three of our Command Deck Strategies Series.  We also recommend Part 1 on Fleet Director Nandi and Part 2 on BioLord Walsh.

Star Realms recently released the Command Decks feature into the digital app. This has lots of players asking, “How do we play them?” This guide is to help players understand the cards that come with the deck, including a broad overview of how to use them and some quick strategy tips to employ against each possible opposing commander. 

Who should play overlord Newburg?  Someone who can recognize a winning game state can preserve it with trade row control. 

The Pact’s starting deck and gambits offer an advanced opening state. Blobs ships engage already hitting. Funded by the Trade Federation, we are also able to regenerate authority. We are predisposed into a head start in this race. Further Overlord Newburg comes with ready, built-in row scrap; we can meddle in the opening row and throughout the contest. 

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Podcast Episode 102: Two Dusto Draws Equals One SilentAl

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This week, Dustin and Rick explore new Community terms that have become popular (Mirror Match, Row Punch) as well as answering some detailed strategy questions. Check out the Megahaulin Glossary at: https://megahaulin.com/glossary/

A good amount of discussion focuses on the recently released Commander Deck Strategy Article for Biolord Walsh as Star Realms Commanders continue to take the community by storm!

Lastly, a fair amount of focus on the Online Competitive Star Realm Scene including the start of Dodgeball Season 07, where both Rick and Dustin are on the same team! (Go Team Megahaulin!)

Podcast Episode 101: Who Runs The Gauntlet?

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This podcast episode was originally broadcast live on our Twitch channel! Dustin and Rick talk about Star Realms: Commanders with an emphasis on the new Strategy Series. Lots of Origins talk and fun times!

The title comes from a new format that Dustin invented on the cast called “The Gauntlet”!

A note that this episode was not recorded in our typical manner, hence the bit of echo/reverb. Effort was made to reduce this, so you shoulda heard it before.

Command Deck Strategies Part 2: The Unity and Biolord Walsh

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Editor’s note: This is Part two of our Command Deck Strategies Series. We also recommend last week’s article discussing The Alliance and Fleet Director Nandi.

Star Realms recently released the Command Decks feature into the digital app. This has lots of players asking, “How do we play them?” This guide is to help players understand the cards that come with the deck, including a broad overview of how to use them and some quick strategy tips to employ against each possible opposing commander.

Who should play BioLord Walsh of the Unity? Someone who balances the value of cards at certain points in the game makes a great candidate. The Unity deck leverages several higher level concepts of Star Realms, such as control of the trade row, choosing between damage and trade on several cards, and placing discarded cards on top of the deck. 

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