As soon as fan favorite Han Solo was posted on the IGN article a week and a half ago, we knew he was going to be a special leader in the game. What we weren’t too sure of was how good he would be in the current card pool. Turns out he’s pretty hot! Take a look at our list so far through about 5 games.

We’ll try and keep this deck updated as it evolves on our SWUDB account.

This deck has a bit of flexibility with its attack pattern. Generally the ideal game plan involves using Han’s leader ability in Round 4, followed by deploying Leader Han and attacking with him to get to 7 resources and dropping a big hitter like other Han Solo or Mace Windu to take control of the battlefield.

Play Style

The unique ability Han has is at any point of the game to temporarily jump ahead a round on resources for that round. Where is this generally most impactful? Apart from the Round 4 combo outlined above, the strongest consistent point you’ll see if Round 1. If we have the Millenium Falcon, Ezra Bridger, or Rogue Operative in our opening hand we are generally happy to go that route by using Han’s leader ability and playing 1 of those 3 cards. Falcon and Operative get us out to a hot and heavy aggro strategy, whereas Ezra helps pay for himself and provide some early ground control or base damage. You are also fine to hold off on the above play and drop Sabine Wren instead Round 1 if you see her as one of the strongest 2-drops in the game.

If facing green, you want to play for more board control leading up to Round 4 to avoid an overwhelming barrage ruining your game. Against other decks, you’re mostly okay to just pump in base damage and look to close the game out early.

When facing a big leader like Darth Vader, you want to sit on any Surprise Strikes you find to help your Round 4 drop of Mace or Han finish them off in one action to avoid them building up a Voltron and turning the tide of the game. Other than that, you have Asteroid Sanctuary and Leia Organa for exhausts if you need to play it a little slower, and Shoot First might also get you the extra damage needed to take out a leader like Luke Skywalker.

The rest of the deck is filled out with rebel units for the most part to take advantage of General Dodonna and give you a fairly aggressive suite. This is definitely the more aggressive game plan for Han compared to Green, and we want to lean into that as much as possible.

The first question when several people look at this deck list will be “Where are the droids?” R2-D2 and C-3P0 do provide natural synergy to Han Solo’s leader ability by providing potential card draw, but without shenanigans like Entrenched, Luke shields, and Wing Leader, they play pretty poorly into our board control and aggressive strategy. The card pool has also expanded enough at this point that I don’t think they are as auto-include in every hero deck as other people do. I think they can still find a home in the green version of Han though, as it ramps even further ahead and stalls out the game a little with bombs like Home One.

What cards are we looking to add?

• One or two more 6-7 cost Units – The Wambo Combo is definitely the Round 4 player, so we would like to see more options than just Mace and Han for this role. We also would love to have a 6 drop or two as a safety net for the games where Han is nuked on deployment or we can’t deploy him due to that threat.
• Any more awesome 3 cost units we see – The Falcon is the dream for the Round 1 player, so we would love to see more cards with this power level that Han’s ability can take advantage of.
• A big removal – About the only thing that can stop this deck in its tracks is a unit too big to be dealt with or getting hit by a big Overwhelming Barrage as we launch the combo. A card like Vigilance or Overwhelming Barrage to help us clear the way wouldn’t be turned down.

What cards are on the chopping block?

• Alliance X-Wing – This is just here as an extra 2 drop and space chump blocker for the most part. A better 2 cost space unit will likely take its place when revealed.
• General Dodonna – Tyler thinks I’m crazy for this one, but in my games so far I rarely find myself with multiple rebels out unless its a win-more situation. Usually I’m fighting from behind with minimal units on the board, or I have some combination of Han Solo’s and Mace Windu who are all not rebels. Unless the 6/7 cost units we look to add turn out to be rebels, I expect to eventually cut Dodonna like Wing Leader before it.
• A few of the 3 drops in the deck – Currently we’re running a little heavy here, partly to see if more cards are worth the Round 1 Han play, partly because we have next to no 4 and 5 cost units revealed.

Additional Flavor you could slot in

Everyone has a bit spice they add to their builds. Here are a few options you might consider swapping into the list above.

• R2-D2 and C-3P0 – As I said above, I don’t think they personally fit in the game plan, but the Han synergy will definitely drive some people to include the droids still.
• Smuggling Compartment – This card obviously sings with the Falcon, and you don’t really ever hate seeing +1/+1 on a space unit. The way the deck is built, I don’t see a ton of opportunity to take advantage of the extra resource and don’t want to draw this as a dud with no space units. Needs more testing though.
• Rebel Pathfinder – If you’re not a huge fan of the Round 1 3 drop, trading out one of the 3 drops in the deck to help out your Round 1 playable cards will be necessary. Only 9 1-2 cost units gives you a playable unit Round 1 after mulligan 91.5% of the time, whereas 12 gets you to 97%.
• Open Fire – This is your only other option currently if you need more damage removal from hand. I had it in the deck previously, but ended up cutting it.
• Wing Leader – With 24 Rebel units in the deck, you realistically have enough options to run Wing Leader, but in the situations I was drawing it, I didn’t feel like I did. This got cut for Disabling Fang Fighter for a slightly more flexible ability and bigger unit.
• Aggression – As I mentioned above, I’m wanting to see some 6 drops to fit into the games where Han can’t get the 2nd resource as a deployed unit. At 6 cost with the aspect tax, there’s an argument that this card could fit, but ultimately I’m not sure its doing enough in that spot. I am curious to test it though!

That’s all for today! Have you gotten any games in with Han? What’s your favorite aspect pairing with him? Check out some gameplay below from last week and keep an eye on our YouTube in the coming weeks if you want to more Luke in action!