Seems that fate squad is all the rage noqadays but in all the playing I've done (with it and against it) it just seems weaker than regualr old school squad.

I see how it works and very often I can wind up with a fated out shape and an empty hand on 2 but in doing so I feel like it limits my damage potential for the rest of the game as the deck foregos the usual equips and comabt pumps for the artifacts.

Am I missing somethingor has anyone else felt the same thing? Just curious.

I'm pretty sure you never, ever want to go empty on turn 2 with any kind of Squadron deck. You often only want to go empty on turn three if you have Archer and either Nuke or an Answer/Enemy in the row already.

The big problem I see looking at, at least, the 10K Hamilton build is that you're almost completely helpless against Slaughter Swamp mid-combat, you basically -have- to have an Enemy in the row that you can afford to burn on a power-up or failing to find anything, or Swamp just mauls you.

I think the benefit to Fate Squad is the big characters on turn 2 that not only do a lot of damage, but basically can't be stunned, either. a 10/7 on turn 2 Melissa is going to be tough to deal with for a couple of turns. Shape can get even bigger once the hand is emptied. At that point I think other decks just get so far behind and can't deal with the equipped character to come back.

What does it matter if you go empty on turn 2, 3, or 4. Either you are going to draw Nuke/Archer early and put them in the row, or you're going to be hoping to top-deck them later. Obviously you don't want to be blowing an early EomyE just to dump your hand, but there's no drawback in playing all your eqiups/powerups earlier rather than later in a traditional squad deck.

That helps you, but still, the opponent can just make sure he Swamps back a card that shares the printed team with the person he is in combat with, so you can't go get that power-up.

You can always choose not to find a character card with Enemy of My Enemy. The point is more that there are, if that list is typical, only two outs to Slaughter Swamp in the entire deck, and you are reasonably likely to have needed to Enemy for your 5-drop already.

Although the Fate Artifacts are obviously extremely powerful, Squad is not strictly improved by playing them. The deck becomes more explosive, but it also picks up a drawback that it hasn't had to worry about, that of being vulnerable to 1-ofs. Without Fate Artifacts, Squad is the benchmark for consistent, reliable aggression, with no particularly glaring weaknesses. Including the Fate Artifacts makes your good draws more explosive and hard to manage, but it also makes your less good draws worse, and leaves you open to a greater variety of hate.