Now that we’ve had a few weeks to breath since the release of the game, it seemed like a good time to go back and reflect on some of the cards throughout spoiler season that we absolutely nailed in our initial assessment. For those readers that love it when we’re wrong, we’ll be hitting the 5 Cards we missed hardest on tomorrow!

I was pretty happy to see for the most part that the cards we hit on, we all agreed were going to be great. There is one card that will be found on both lists today and tomorrow though.. keep reading and you might be able to figure it out before tomorrow’s article!

Battlefield Marine

Justin – Arguably the most consistent 2-cost unit in the game, this is an auto-include in every Hero Command deck! While some people scoff at cards with no card text, a 3/3 Rebel for 2 is pretty insane value. I will happily jam this card to value town all day.

Tyler – A normal 2-cost will have 5 stat points and a low-value keyword (say Overwhelm). BM trades the keyword for an extra stat point which is a big step up in power level. Combine that with his useful Rebel and Trooper keywords and you’ve got the makings of a Hero/Green staple. Dope art to boot!

Jayson – I expected some cards like this one from the minute we saw Leia Leader. I love him so much. Me and Squids McKenzie are gonna be all over prerelease weekend making absolute fools of ourselves with Medal Ceremony. What’s for dinner, Mom? It’s MATH.

While this may be a safe pick to start with, I did see plenty of facebook/reddit posts that were not high on this card when initially revealed. While its easy to be down on blank text boxes, a 3/3 for 2 is just flat out strong. You’ll be hard pressed to find any hero Command deckliststs that aren’t running 3 of this card and rightfully so. Good job boys!

For a Cause I Believe In

Justin – Holy burn Batman, now we’re talking! This is the closer Sabine was looking for, and you should be able to deckbuild in a way to consistently see 3-4 damage here. Even crazier when you realize if you have Fighters for Freedom on the board, this can deal 5 damage in one action! Every day, we inch closer to a deckbuild where Sabine doesn’t even want to go past 4 resources! I expect this to be an aggro staple for heroes.

Tyler – I like that this pushes decks to specialize their build, but not in an oppressive way. It’s effects like this that will push players to reach deeper into their collections for a card that fits the criteria. As a hero aggro closer, this and K2 make a powerful team. The world in which 25-health bases are not a safe play is upon us!

Jayson – A good shot at being the best card we’ve seen in the game so far. It’s pretty much perfect.

We were all high on this card right off the rip, and I’m also amazed that we each dropped a spicy take of varying levels on top of that!

While we are inching closer to Sabine not resourcing past 4, we’re definitely not there yet in the 1 set meta. I am curious to see what we’ll reach that point, but there’s too many good options at 3+ cost and not enough at 1-2 cost to allow us to live there yet.

Tyler was probably most correct, in that burn reached a place where you must carefully consider using a 25 hp base if your meta is full of aggro! All 4 rare base abilities can help against aggro somewhat, but a lot of the time you’d rather have that extra 5 health for time to stabalize (outside of Energy Conversion Lab that is!)

Lastly Jayson teased that this could be the best card in the game! While it didn’t go #1 overall in our fantasy draft with KTOD Bobbysapphire, it was in the top considerations for all of us. Not only is 4 damage to base from hand powerful, but being able to stack your next couple of draws or dig deeper into your deck is quite powerful as well!

Steadfast Batallion

Justin – Worth noting Steadfast Battalion can give itself the +2/+2 before it swings, so this can be a 7/7 if you control a leader unit. Since the Battalion is green, that means if you were to deploy Leia Organa the action before your opponent deploys Boba Fett, you could then use Energy Conversion Lab to ambush the Battalion one-shotting Boba Fett! Pretty cool play, though I’m not sure that one combo makes it playable.

Unfortunately, I was the only one that was intrigued by the combo ability of ECL and Steadfast Battalion initially. Ultimately Astrotech was the Champion to bring it in full force to the world and he answered the question that the combo is indeed playable and downright punishing in some decks! Now we see this combo run with Boba, Krennic, and Sabine decks all throughout the meta! Who knew a Common card would have so much impact on the constructed meta?

Chimaera

Justin – I recently wrote an article a few weeks ago about what I look for in expensive units. Chimaera does not fit that bill. Shielded is cool, and the “On Attack” is interesting, but ultimately, I’m not going to get excited about a high-cost unit that does not immediately impact the game. There’s an argument that Thrawn stalls the game out enough that this will feel like a 6-cost unit in other decks, but I don’t love dropping an AT-ST (or bigger) without having Ambush for that immediate impact.

Tyler – If the ability triggered “On Play” there’d be more excitement around the Chimaera. The chances of this being a brick are very high. As-is, it will see play simply because there are no other top-end closer options for Blue/Yellow villain decks.

Jayson – Coaster. Decks might win with this around, but it’ll be in spite of it, not because of it. I think Justin’s above linked article has some super great insights into what to look for in tempo from a high-curve unit. Nothing this big can possibly justify zero board impact on play.

It’s no secret the Chimaera is poop, and we nailed it at the start. The article I referenced in my initial recap is all about how I need my expensive units to do something on play, or they run a huge risk of tanking my game. Chimaera comes into play with a shield, and that is just not enough! I’m not even sure adding When Played to the On attack ability like Tyler suggested would change that either. It’s a real bummer that Boba gets the bomb that is Fett’s Firespray, while Thrawn has this coaster for his flagship.

Death Trooper

Justin – The obvious and thematic place for the Death Trooper is a Director Krennic deck. Since Krennic’s leader (and unit) ability want damage on your units, Death Trooper easily fits into that archetype. Currently, Blue has lots of sentinels, healing, and survivability cards. This protection makes it a natural pairing with the Command Center battlefield- giving you Green’s big-hitters for the late game.

With the “Deal damage on play” effect, I won’t be surprised to see the Death Trooper included in most every Villain Blue deck. My hot take: Death Trooper will be in a top competitive deck, during the Spark of Rebellion meta, that does not have Krennic as the leader.

Tyler – I like the combo potential here. Motti, Superlaser Tech, Krennic and Rugged Survivors (or any other unit with Grit) can all benefit from the Death Trooper’s damage. Thematically, I’m a huge fan of pain-pain design for villain factions and I hope we get more. Maybe this is the beginning of a cycle that will slot this fuel card into an engine?

One of our initial spoiler reviews was actually a card we spoiled, Death Trooper! We can already check the box on my prediction, as Iden Command is widely considered one of the Tier 1 decks and she runs Death Trooper. While there’s not a ton of engine potential realized yet with this card, Tyler nailed some of the fun combos that existed in the 80 or so card pool at the time. I was surprised many were low on Death Trooper when he was revealed, but I think most have come around to DT being a blue villain staple, in constructed and limited as well.

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That’s it for today! Be sure to come back tomorrow for 5 cards we really missed the mark on.. What cards have you changed your mind on since initially revealed? What cards were you preaching about day 1 and have never wavered? Let us know in the comments, on twitter, or discord!