Category Archives: Strategy

Command Deck Strategies Part 7: The Coalition and High Director Valken

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Written by Jay Lansdaal

Editor’s Note: This is Part 6 of our Command Deck Strategies Series.  We also recommend:

Introduction
Finally, the long-awaited Valken article is here!

Why did it take so long? To answer that, let’s check in with the notes from the other Commanders’ articles on their Valken matchup:

From Nandi: “…, this matchup should go your way”
From Walsh: “Walsh naturally preys on…”
From Newburg: “We open hitting harder, although we may be outgained in authority…”
From Jochum: “This is a good matchup for Jochum.”
From McCready: “This matchup is really good for you.”
From Le: “Another good matchup for you, …”

Ah. I see.

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Command Deck Strategies Part 6: The Alignment and Divine Admiral Le

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By Connor AKA Connor

Editor’s Note: This is Part 6 of our Command Deck Strategies Series.  We also recommend:

Introduction

One year has passed since the release of Command Decks in the Star Realms digital app. In that time, Jochum established himself as the #1 commander with win rates over 60% against other commanders, a dominating presence in tournaments, and a newbie-punishing late game. As a response, McCready rose in popularity as a prominent and easy-to-use aggressive alternative, while Walsh and Newburg stayed relevant using row scrap to deny Jochum bombs, along with their other tools.

About 6 months ago, after a lot of time and effort studying Divine Admiral Le, who was thought to be less powerful than the other commanders, a few dedicated players finally started getting some impressive results. In this article, I’ll be sharing my experience, which has been heavily influenced by these other successful players. By the end of your reading, you’ll hopefully understand not only how to approach piloting Le, but also that he is NOT a gimmick, but a force to be reckoned with. 

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Podcast Episode 104: Fodder for Pulverizer

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Bit of a delay here in posting this episode – BUT ITS WORTH THE WAIT! We’ve got newly minted Star Realm Legend EAN TEAGUE aka AgentSeto. Yes, that AgentSeto from Ep 103. This is a great conversation that is not to be missed!

If you’re curious about the Dodgeball format mentioned, take a look here.

Congrats to Ean on the well earned win!

Ean is indeed wearing that Wizard Hat.

Let’s Hunt Unicorns

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Everything you need to know about the Unicorn Format

By Cory Thomas (IGN corybear88 and known on the Facebook as Daisy Tom)

Why is it called unicorn?

A unicorn is a rare and mythical creature.  Winning a star realms game by completing missions on your first 3 turns is a rare event (possibly also mythical, but that’s debatable).  So winning on your first 3 turns via missions was called a unicorn, and the name has stuck. 

Feel free to #blamePolites for this interlude in the lesson to see what it looks like when a unicorn is bagged.

#blamePolites

What is the format?

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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!)