Finding Your Deck Part 1 - Defining Destiny's Archetypes

Destiny is still growing as a game, and new deck types and ideas are going to be found all the time, yet most decks fall into a similar set of archetypes as most card games. Destiny provides their own twist because your starting characters have a large impact on how each of these types of decks play out. Changing the dynamics of what it takes to fall into each deck archetype. In this series I am going to explore what types of decks are out there and hopefully help you find your favorite.

Finding your playstyle can make a big difference in how much you personally enjoy this game. Knowing each of the archetypes will help elevate your level of play and more readily prepare you for any deck. Today lets explore the three main archetypes and then in future articles I will dive deeper into each archetype and their strengths and weaknesses.

The three main archetypes:

Aggro - Currently plays out as burst aggro, lots of damage as fast as you can with as few dice and cards as possible. Spirit of Rebellion made this the strongest archetype in Destiny.

Attributes of Aggro:

Generally aggro decks are easier to play. These decks plays few cards on the board and then rolls their dice and claims as fast as they can.
The decisions made while playing an aggro deck usually follow more of a priority list. These decks have a larger margin for error because as long as you are doing damage and spending resources to do more damage it matters far less if you are doing that 100% optimally.
Very dice dependent, these decks lack the tools that midrange or control decks do to really deal with a lot of bad rolls. Using an entire turn and hand to only do 3-4 damage can leave you behind decks that build up more.
The lack of tools also creates less interaction between you and your opponent.
Relies on their characters or character abilities more than the upgrades in their deck. Will often win with fewer upgrades on the table.

Powerful Aggro Cards:

Maz: Normally Maz would be considered a control card just looking at her die, but her ability to safely resolve dice makes her a staple in many aggro games. It lets you go fast, and removes the ability for your opponent to remove your dice.
Planetary Uprising: For this card to work you need to claim fast, and then you get extra damage for doing so. It plays right into the aggro playstyle by rewarding you with more damage.
Holdout Blaster/Vibroknife: Both of these cards will go in almost every deck, but they truly shine in aggro decks where the ambush helps move the train along to an earlier claim.
Darth Vader - Dark Apprentice: The king of aggro, while he may deal a little damage to himself, his damage output in a turn is absurd right at the beginning of the game.

Midrange - Usually focused around building up a board, while mixing in some control to eventually overpower your opponent for the win. Currently underrepresented at tournaments because they have trouble against aggro. Midrange was the best deck type in the Awakenings set thanks to the smaller card pool and generally slower gameplay.

Attributes of Midrange:

This deck affords a lot of back and forth with your opponent and has more answers than aggro.
Midrange requires more thought and planning, decisions will often have a decent impact on the deck performance.
The most likely archetype for 3 character decks.
Less susceptible to bad rolls than aggro is, but more reliant on their draws.
Relies on early game value to slowly overcome the momentum of your opponent and win with a far superior board state.
Has the time and money to play more 3 and 4 cost upgrades, partly because they like to resolve dice for sides other than damage when getting set up.

Powerful Midrange Cards:

Flank: As mentioned above midrange likes to have 3 characters the most of any archetype right now. Flank provides so much value and shines as luck protection against an early amazing roll from your opponent.
Captain Phasma: Possibly the queen of midrange. She is almost a control character, but her list still takes the damage through guardian while setting up and wins through damage.
C-3P0: As a support 3P0 provides a lot of value. The ability to turn your dice into something else saves cards from rerolling, it also allows for cards with high numbers but only one or zero damage sides to become heavy hitters.

Control - Relies on winning in the long run, and likely not from dealing damage. This archetype is finally showing back up in the game, and with the latest round of errata I am really hoping this archetype shines against the burst aggro we have now.

Attributes of Control:

Very decision intensive, and requires the most skill to play. Decisions made can have a vast impact on the decks performance. That said, control in Destiny is still a little more forgiving than other games you may have played before.
Currently the most character dependent out of all of the archetypes. Requires characters with disrupt and discard sides. Control also has the most characters that do not work in any other archetypes.
Usually mills the opponent for a win, or uses a mix of damage and cards like Crime Lord to win.
Denies your opponent cards and resources. Does very well against Aggro for this reason, but can have trouble with midrange because of how much value they can get from cards like C-3P0 or once they build up a full board.
Relies heavily on playing as many dice removal cards as possible. Usually these are found in yellow, but often control runs yellow and blue if they are able.
Rarely has a chance to claim the battlefield, so while playing the game is intensive, they do ignore some mechanics other decks thrive on.

Powerful Control Cards:

Crime Lord: This card single-handedly defines control in Villain. Almost every deck in villain that is going for control is going to be running this card. This is a great example of how control changes their win condition while still destroying opposing characters.
Con Artist: This card truly changed the viability of mill, don't get me wrong mill still isn't doing great, but this card is bonkers. Your opponent has to start moving fast or get rid of it somehow, or else eventually Con Artist will eat through 25 cards like they are nothing.
Cunning: There are certainly flashier cards than Cunning I could have included here, but the ability to double some of your special abilities makes this card amazing. It provides the versatility that control will lack from time to time, and opens up options. Cards like this is partly why control requires a lot of thought and planning.

Thanks for reading. Hope that helped give everyone an idea of what types of decks are out there and start to give them an idea of what they might want to play. From here I'll be focusing on each individual archetype, talking about their strengths and weaknesses, and looking at a couple deck examples.

Check back for updated links below to the rest of this article series!
Part 2: Aggro
Part 3: Midrange
Part 4: Control