Combo Calculations
History
Card combinations have existed since the very beginning of collectible card games. They simply are two (or more) cards that interact extremely well with each other to create an impact on the game state greater than the sum of their parts.
An extremely early example of this from Magic is the Royal Assassin and Icy Manipulator combo that existed in the very first Alpha printing of the base set. The Icy Manipulator could tap a creature which would be the equivalent in Star Wars Unlimited of exhausting a unit. Then the Royal Assassin’s ability could be used to destroy the creature, the SWU equivalent being to defeat that unit.
SWU Combos
There are various combos in Star Wars Unlimited as well. For example playing a Battlefield Marine in round one and then leveraging a Fleet Lieutenant in round two to attack with that marine with a boosted stat value to do five points of damage instead of the normal three.
DJ and Tech is another great two card combo that Han Yellow decks are currently putting to great use. Playing DJ as a resource, and then playing Tech during round two with three resources. Using Han’s ability to ramp during round three to get to five resources allows you to play DJ from smuggle for five to come into play and steal a resource from the opponent.
4Lom and Zuckuss, or Rey and Kylo of course are basically no brainers since they even reference each other on their game text. Many other examples exist as well and these really only scratch the surface.
Feasibility and Math
Ok, so two card combos are good. How easy is it to pull them off?
We’ve talked about the mathematics and probability in SWU before. You can use our hypergeometric calculator to know the odds of drawing a specific card from your deck either in the opening hand, after a mulligan, including some number of cards drawn due to additional rounds played, etc.
Luckily our mad scientist Porgs have been busy behind the scenes and have created the Combo button. They have also suggested that the tool be renamed to “hyperPORGeometric” but we haven’t listened to that part just yet.
The Combo button will allow you to specify a second card into the calculator. Second number of possible pulls, second number of hopeful pulls, and a second card cost. Then just recalculate to get the odds of having both of your combo pieces in hand before you would want to put them into play.
Now you can know for sure that there is a 39.40% chance of playing Rey and then Kylo on their respective resource turns if you have three of each in your fifty card deck.
Happy combo-ing.
