Tag Archives: Commander Decks

Intended to cover any mention of a Commander Deck

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

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

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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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.

Why Jochum?
Jochum’s Starting Deck
- Shards and the Splinter Ability
- Gambits
General Strategy
Shard Scrapping: Order of Operations
Tools for Defeating Jochum
Matchups
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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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.

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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Command Deck Strategies: The Alliance and Fleet Director Nandi

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By Derek Thompson aka Aldaryn

While paper Star Realms players are excited about High Alert finally arriving for Kickstarter backers, digital players have another huge reason for hype: Command Decks are upon us! Players can choose between seven different commanders (even the Kickstarter-exclusive High Admiral Jochum), and face off against other players using a commander of their own choice. My favorite commander from the beginning has been Fleet Director Nandi, and I think I am currently the person in the world with the most games of Star Realms played with this commander (maybe five hundred games or more), and that number is only going to go up. So, here are my best tips for piloting Nandi to victory.

Why Nandi?

I do not think Nandi is the best commander overall – Jochum is. After all, she only gets five cards a turn while everyone else gets six or even seven. She’s also often at the mercy of the trade row, and in that sense a bit fragile. She’s also very hard to use well; you will definitely make mistakes.

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