Welcome back to some more spoiler review & first impressions! We’ve been utterly failing at keeping pace with the crazy speed of spoiler season this go-around, but here’s another 20 or so cards in hopes to eventually catch up!

Justin – Important to note we’ve had it clarified that if a card already has Smuggle, Tech effectively gives you a 2nd Smuggle option for that card and you are free to use either Smuggle.

It will be interesting to see if we can break Smuggle through the use of Tech. 2 resources is a decent cost, but we’ve already seen cards like Palpatine’s return that can get units for cheaper to discount that effect. Obviously Palp’s return doesn’t work with a Tech deck, but it doesn’t seem far-fetched that we will see some similar effects on the hero side. 5 health is enough to stick for a bit at several points in the game, so I think there will be some Tech combo at some point in the meta.

Tyler – I’m not sold on Tech. Smuggling a card is effectively a draw, so I understand raising smuggling costs by 1, but 2 still seems steep to me. Maybe Lando will make him worth it?

Jayson – It’s fun to be a Tech believer, but I’m not sure it’s gonna pay very well.

Justin – Hero needed a big boy leader and Hunter definitely fits the bill. While many were low on him at reveal, I think we’ll see enough synergy in the remaining card pool to find something spicy with him.

Tyler – I like that Hero Green now has a top-end control leader. It might make some of the more niche ramp cards like Command worth it. The effect seems in line cost-wise with other leaders like Luke and Vader so don’t see why this wouldn’t also be good!

Jayson – I’ve been diving into the Bad Batch recently and so I’m really pumped to see such a cool character get a good design. Not totally sure where Hunter’s power level will end up, but I’m pretty intrigued by what he offers. There’s a lot of text on this card, but it boils down to conditional draw effect centered around unique units. Draw is almost always good. We’ve also already seen in this set with Moff Gideon that Overwhelm is a really slick ability to have on a Leader. Hunter is a very, very tough guy to remove, and I’m optimistic someone will find something cool with him.

Justin – A 4/4/4 is a fairly standard curve unit, so adding the Restore 2 is probably enough to find him some play. If you can find a way to consistently hit the When Played ability, you’re pretty happy getting 6/6 of stats for 4 resources!

Tyler – Here’s a good way to put those Hunter cards to use! Two experience for a throw-away duplicate is awfully good. I’m also liking how much Restore is on the Hero Green cards this set. I’m looking forward to unsleeving those below-curve Consortium StarVipers from set 1.

Jayson – Echo, obviously, is best buddies with his squad leader Hunter, and his stats are pretty good. I really think he might see play, but discarding a card as a cost is always a tall order.

Justin – If Bounty decks end up being a popular thing, the Rivals here could find some contructed play. As is, I’m pretty happy drafting these guys in set 2 assuming we’re able to draft past the first couple of weeks!

Tyler – A 5/5 for 6 is def under curve, but the damage on play helps mitigate that somewhat. I still think the math here only really works though if you manage to give this Ambush. In those circumstances, you’d get a double play/attack bonus and immediately turn on the grit.

Jayson – The ECL/TI combo for a free Open Fire on a bounty’d unit is cute, but man, Ambush tech is not hurting for good targets. I think this is solid in a Limited deck where you’re grabbing Bounties already.

Justin – We’re finally starting to see some more aggro tools for Villain. Will this be the set IG-88 gets more competitive? I’m interested to find out. Midrange decks will likely love this tool as +2 power when attacking units with a bonus 2 damage to base.

Tyler – This is a really solid play for 1, and a good tool for aggro that simultaneously wants to make board trades. Only concern is that 1-cost upgrades we’re really worth it in set 1… there just not enough to make the draw worth it. Not sure that’s going to change for set 2.

Jayson – Villain Aggression has gotten so much cool stuff this set, and this is no exception. It’s everything you wanna be doing. Here’s hoping it proves worth the slot, because it’s gonna have a lot of competition.

Justin – 4 cost 4/5’s haven’t seen much constructed play unless they have a strong ability and traits (Kanan). With Mandalorians already being fairly focused on upgrades, it seems like it won’t be too hard to proc her ability. Outside of Mandalorian decks, I’m not sure we’ll see many of these Mandalorian cards.

Tyler – Solid stats, solid ability. Throwing a shield or experience on her can’t be that hard, right?

Jayson – Right, you wouldn’t think so. 4/4/5 is really very solid, but I do worry that she’s not quite worth building around if you’re not already gonna be packing a bunch of upgrades. The Hero/Blue/Red Mando deck feels like it has a couple key unspoiled pieces, but should it pan out, Koska will surely play a starring role.

Justin – More hand hate! While most of it is Cunning up to this point, it seems like we’re approaching a point where a Hero Aggression/Cunning deck might exist to destroy your hand. Hopefully we don’t reach the point of negative play experience!

Tyler – I’m excited about potential opportunities to use this with Hero Red’s other hand denial tools like Force Throw, K2SO and Forced Surrender. Tie this in with Wrecker, who can cash in resources for damage, and I think we’ve got the start of an archetype.

Jayson – I love it. It’s gonna be obnoxious. Decks running 3x of this guy don’t need to matched against ramp to capitalize on it- if you draw it and want to play it, just opt out of resourcing that round! Holy card advantage, Batman! Please don’t be too good I wanna play the game 😂

Justin – This is a weird one. With Omega counting Omega as the first clone played in a round where you tried to chain clones, the ability doesn’t work. With 2 health, Omega isn’t exactly sticking around long, so unless we really want to tutor Clone cards, I don’t expect to see much Omega in constructed.

Tyler – I don’t know where Omega’s niche is yet. There are 6 Hero Clones in the cardpool right now, but they’re split between Green and Red… so not sure where that leaves a 2/2/2 Yellow unit.

Jayson – This is a cool flavor nod to a beloved character from the show, and for the moment, I don’t think it’s much else. Clone as a trait has every chance of exploding in Set 3’s prequel-focused cardpool, though. Maybe that’ll be Omega’s time.

Justin – Wrecker’s near the top of my revealed cards so far, and is definitely the type of closer aggro decks love to see. Like most cards, you’re beyond excited to ECL him in. I expect to play a whole lot of Wrecker in Hero red decks.

Tyler – Damn, Wrecker indeed! The value here is obvious, looking forward to playing with this guy.

Jayson – And here, finally, is a card I’ve seen zero people say is bad. Wrecker is clearly, obviously, opaquely a hoss, and I for one am ready to embrace our new space lucha libre daddy.

Justin – A different Han Solo, you’ll likely have no problem getting 3-4 damage out of her On Attack by the time you’re at 7 resources. Also worth noting that you can likely take out any leader in the game, so you’ll probably enjoy running Fennec in Han Leader decks.

Tyler – I think it’s safe to assume by the time we hit 7 resources we’ll be able to do 3+ damage with her ability. That more than makes up for the missing stat points on Fennec. I like the design here because the worse you’re doing in the game, the more damage you’ll get out of her- it’s the antithesis of win-more- she’s lose-less!

Jayson – Fennec is cool! She really does have so many of the same applications as Han Solo, with a little higher of a ceiling in unit combat at the expense of some base-smacking potency. I like Han a little better in most places, but villains in particular are happy to have this tool more accessible.

Justin – Bossk is one of my favorite leaders revealed thus far, and I’m definitely ready to start tinkering with him. Bounty effects have already shown plenty of great options that I would love to double up. 4/6 also feels great deploying at 5, so what’s not to love!?

Tyler – Oh man, the combo potential is huge. Imagine playing a Price on Your Head Round 1, ramping Round 2, then bringing Bossk out Round 3 to trigger the PoYH and drop Vader. Game, set, match. I think Bossk is going to be set 2’s Boba in terms of play rate.

Jayson – Whoa mama. This guy has to die immediately, and at 5/4/6 it won’t be that easy to do. The ping effect giving extra reach into a board full of bounties is also clutch. Assuming bounties are any good at all, Bossk is an appropriately great payoff for running them.

Justin – We obviously don’t want this guy anywhere near our decks that aren’t running Bounties. With Bounties, we effectively have a slightly worse Takedown that leaves a 4/2 unit on the board after playing (and collecting a bounty). It seems strong in a nutshell of value, but it will likely depend on the meta if that is a fairly consistent point in games to be taken advantage of.

Tyler – There’s a lot of combo potential here, allowing you to easily remove bountied units. But I don’t think we should underrate simply using this guy as a 4-cost removal spell. Either way, this is a card I’m looking forward to testing.

Jayson – I’m not crazy about it, but Ambush is a hell of a drug, and I’ve done worse things to get it.

Justin – Luke decks might be interested in Rose, otherwise I don’t think you can count on getting the value from her own shield. Maybe a Rey leader will combo with her?

Tyler – Shields have readily available counters in this game (namely Saboteur) that can evaporate their value before you can strike with the shielded unit. Rose allows you to trade those flimsy shields into two more permanent experience tokens. That ability, along with her slightly pushed stats should get her some play in Hero Blue.

Jayson – I think she’s pretty sick actually. Unless your opponent does something to your shielded 2/6, which isn’t often going to be an attractive proposition, Rose is probably gonna shake out to be a 4/4/8. I’ll take that all day, and there’s tons of combo considerations to look at even past that. Really cool design.

Justin – If Mandalorian units are able to stick to the board, the Armorer will feel fantastic. As more and more shield effects keep enterting the game, it will be interesting to see if we continue to see more Saboteurs and effects to counter it.

Tyler – With just the Armorer out, she’s below curve. With one other Mandolorian out, she’s slightly above. If you can manage to have three out, however, she becomes mega value. How survivable Mandalorians will be is a bit of an open question, but with top end cards like this I have hope for the archetype!

Jayson – Color me a little skeptical of the deck still, but dropping multiple shields into a thick board definitely can be a haymaker, and every good deck has a few of those. This is really interesting high end for an archetype that looks to be a ton of fun.

Justin – Gonk

Tyler – I like the farmer as a repository for upgrades. 4 health shouldn’t be underrated either, as it allows the unit to survive the ubiquitous 3 power, round 1 units of the meta.

Jayson – I’m not sure what Tyler is talking about, but I couldn’t agree with Justin more.

Justin – Yeahhhh, I’m not looking forward to control decks having even more crazy heal options. A 12 base heal when combined with Bossk also sounds quite comical.

Tyler – You know what villain Blue control decks didn’t really need? A 1-cost, heal 6 card. This card and The Client make me fear for the viability of aggro decks in the Set 2 meta.

Jayson – Man, this is a crazy accessible heal card, especially considering that it hinges on doing the thing Control decks already specialize in- namely, killing your stuff. I’m not quite ready to say the sky is falling, but does anybody else think that moon looks a little closer than it did yesterday?

Justin – 5 health isn’t easy to remove, so we’re probably fine with the Peacekeeper only swinging back for 1 with all the attack upsides.

Tyler – I’ve playtested a bit with this guy already and I’m a big fan. He’s slightly overstated and has two helpful trait hooks. Sundari should replace Consortium StarViper in most hero green decks.

Jayson – As a boring man who likes boring cards with too many stats, I’m pleased.

Justin – Hero finally got its 2nd ramp card! While this one still isn’t as strong as Superlaser Tech, it does what you need it to and has more flexibility if you need to ramp through the space lane.

Tyler – It’s now possible to build a deck with 12 ramp cards. That seems like too many, but then again, we just got The Finalizer. The aforementioned combo with Bossk seems like the juiciest use, but I could also see this slotting into Blue/Green control decks to accelerate their ramp.

Jayson – I’m a little perturbed that Tyler just insinuated that there’s a such thing as too many ramp cards. You okay up there buddy? My early tests of this have proven a little clunky. It requires several things to go right, and ramp is something you really like to be accessible since it can make or break you. But the price is right and units in SWU are born to die. It’s probably solid.

Justin – An early Sentinel stall that didn’t exist before, Pyke will likely see some play. I’m curious to see if we eventually find an Oops All Sentinel deck along the whole cost curve!

Tyler – He’s over curve for a Sentinel, at a cost point we didn’t have before. Put simply, PS should see play across all formats. One combo I’ll have my eye on is PS + Ma Klounkee. Let the sentinel absorb a damage or two, then bounce to hand to both heal it and do damage.

Jayson – It dies to a sneeze, but in these colors it’s hard to imagine something you feel cozier about putting down early. Any amount of slowdown is good versus aggro, and this little guy does it on the cheap!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for reading! What cards are you most excited about?