Creep or Nap? – Dryden Vos

The next Legendary card to be revealed is Dryden Vos.  How does he stack up to other cards we already know?

Let’s start with his cost.  Aggression Villainy does not have a lot of depth at the 4-cost ground unit slot.  It is mostly full of situational cards like, Hevy, Cham Syndulla and Darth Tyranus.  All good cards, but not universally good.  The best option is Quinlan from LoF, who is an excellent card and probably Dryden Vos’s biggest competition even though he’s just aggression and not technically villain aspect.

Dryden Vos continues the theme of being a situational card that needs some support around him to maximize his power.  Everyone, stop complaining, it’s not necessarily a bad thing.  We do need to be aware of his strengths and weaknesses though.

So where does Dryden Vos fit into the SWU landscape?  His ability to double his power is clearly going to be best (which we’ll show below) as a one turn kill (OTK) type of card.  Something where you’re going to get one large hit and effectively end the game before his downside can take effect.  The best deck that comes to mind is Kylo (SHD) Yellow.  Kylo himself can give Dryden +2 attack.  If Dryden survives the turn you play him, you can follow him up with Maul’s Lightsaber, +2 from Kylo and then a Surprise Strike.  That will attack for a whopping 22 points of damage!  That may be the biggest one turn attack that can be made on round 4 and can nearly defeat an ECL or Tarkintown all by himself.

In this regard, Dryden Vos does bring something new and unique to the game and that attack feels very legendary. 

Where does he fall short?  

There are a lot of things that have to work out to get that attack off, so it’s not going to happen often.  You’re more likely to get either the Lightsaber OR the Surprise Strike.  Kylo’s ability also gives your opponent another action to respond, so you are never catching them by surprise with this.  It is more telegraphed than Chewie reaching for a roasted porg.  Everyone knows what’s about to happen.

If you are not getting the large OTK hit off, then how good does he really match up to Quinlan?  Just as a base, Dryden attacks for 4 every 2 turns where Quinlan attacks for 8 in the same span.  I can hear you all now.  “That’s not how you would ever attack with him!  Don’t be stupid!”

Let’s compare some common lines as a 2 turn series.

	Dryden Vos	Quinlan
Surprise Strike	10	13
Maul’s Lightsaber	12	20
Surprise Strike and Lightsaber	18	23

You can work out some other cards and combos on your own.  The main point is, Quinlan will generally always do more in 2 attacks than Dryden in the same span.  In turn, Dryden’s 1 turn will be higher most of the time.  You can of course attack with Dryden the first time and not double his power, and then use it on the second, in which Dryden will generally be more combined.  It’s asking a lot of him and unlikely to happen, but it is a line you can attempt.

Is Dryden worth building around and playing over Quinlan?  Probably not.  You can still certainly have fun with Dryden, and you will 100% lose to it once in your life, but consistency will be his issue.

Power Creep or Power Nap?  In the end, we give him a Power Nap, but so close to being interesting.  Is there any reason he couldn’t be a 2/6 to make it slightly harder to deal with him?  Not to the point where he’s a problem, but remove Takedown from his answers and require multiple 3-power units.  He still feels like FFG was a little afraid of him and in the context of cards we already have, he’s not a clear improvement.  He’s a card you can definitely have fun with though!