Happy Monday! Time to go through the cards spoiled in the prior week and share our first impressions. It was definitely a big week!

FFG posted the first spoiler on Facebok/Twitter/Instagram as a part of the Aggression Month poll.

Justin – At first glance a 2/3 on attack for 1 sounds very, very nice. Then you realize this guy defends as a 0/3. Cantina Braggart will definitely have a place in some aggro decks as a nice aggro 1 drop, but I don’t think he will ever see play outside of that archetype.

Tyler – He’s useful to super-aggro archetypes, and specifically to Grand Inquisitor, but for the average red deck he (she?) is too vulnerable on defense. Now, where we could see value is with upgrades. An Entrenched or Fallen Lightsaber would produce a hardy unit with staying power.

Our friends at Unplayable spoiled the next 2 cards in this sweet reveal video!

Justin – I’m initially kind of low on Lando. I think he’ll currently slot into some Han decks looking for another big drop (or 6 drop if their big Round 4 gets halted with Han being defeated before he can attack), but other than that he doesn’t fit the mold of what I’m looking for in a big drop. With the limited card pool, we already have several effects that can exhaust a big card effectively giving it no value. I really prefer when my 5+ cost cards have Ambush, When Played, or some other kind of effect that instantly gets value (like a few of the cards later in this article..).

Tyler – 6-5 stats with a keyword puts Lando firmly on-curve. Problem is, good ground units are typically pushed above curve in SWU. So, unless we see a card that combos with his ability to return cards to hand, or a solid keyword hook, Lando’s going to remain on the fringe (ha!) of constructed deckbuilding.

Justin – Just like the recent Ahsoka series, we see all our favorite Spectres except a minor showing of Zeb. I hope we still see the big fella in-game as a unit and leader before too long! As far as the card, I’m not quite sure where they drew the inspiration for it, but there will be a lot of interesting Round 5+ plays with this in the pool. Since it doesn’t ready the unit you steal, you have to make sure you have initiative heading into the pivotal round you plan on playing this, otherwise you run the risk of your opponent attacking first action with their big unit and CoH being worthless. Excited to get some games in with this card, because it slots into several competitive decks.

Tyler – We’ve talked for a while about the monster that is Overwhelming Barrage in the current cardpool. As it stands, if your opponent drops a big unit, chances are they’ll use it to wipe your board next turn. Change of Heart provides an out to those plays by stealing the big unit. I like the design of this card and how it makes the initiative more valuable. Many of our competitive games already hinged on who takes initiative in the late rounds. The conundrum of how far to push into your late-game action sequencing is only going to get juicier!

The next 5 cards were all revealed by FFG on various TwitchCon streams!

Justin – Oh sweet prince, I love this card. We finally see a unit with the Shielded keyword, and a fun one at that. With a pretty strong “When played” ability (3.5 resource cost or so compared to 3r for 4 damage from Open fire and 4r for 5 damage from Takedown), you’re paying 3.5 resources for a 5/4 unit with a shield. I like seeing value when my big units are played, so I’m definitely a fan of Dooku. Our first Force unit on the villain side also enables some cards like Force Choke and Fallen Lightsaber. The real interesting games will be Dooku chicken where both decks are villain blue and both players know whoever plays the first Dooku will feel terrible if the opponent also has a Dooku to drop.

Tyler – There is a ton of value here- but his biggest strength will likely be his versatility. The keyword, traits and ability just give him a lot of uses. Personally, I’m hyped to have another villain Force user to trigger It Binds All Things. Vader/Blue decks have lurked on the fringes of Tier-1 playability for a while now- maybe Dooku is what it needed to reach the top.

Justin – LIZARD MAN!!! As a former Destiny player, boy am I glad FFG did our boy right this time! With Ambush and an on-going ability, Bossk is instantly getting you value when played. With cheap events like Shoot First, Surprise Strike, Asteroid Sanctuary, and Waylay, we already have plenty of options to trigger his ability. Boba decks will love dropping Bossk round 4 to defeat something, ready a resource, deploy Boba, attack to ready 2 more resources, and then play an event or two to stabilize the board with Bossk’s ability.

Tyler – Best unit in the game? Quite possibly. I say that for two reasons: First, as Justin outlined, there’s a ton of great Yellow events he can take advantage of. Second, the damage ability is basically free in his costing. Ambush is typically costed as a +1, since you’re readying the unit one turn earlier. So, if we pretend he’s a 4-cost 4/5 with that ability and no Ambush, he stacks up very favorably versus others in that zone like Kanan and Wampa. I’d be surprised if players who trigger his ability more than once ever lose a game.

Justin – We glimpsed this card previously on a German site taking pre-orders for SWU. It will see a lot of play in Limited- but will struggle in constructed. Any card that costs a lot and doesn’t provide instant impact is tough to find a spot for in a deck. The card grows 1 power and 1 health each round if you continue resourcing, but it’s not quite enough to make it playable.

Tyler – There may be in a place for this in mono-Green ramp decks. If I’m Tarkin and playing this round 4, it will hit differently than a normal deck playing it round 6. Additionally, it has the lucrative Imperial trait and I have to believe there will also be Trooper trait hooks down the line. It’s one I’ll test on my quest to find a playable mono-deck. Finally, I’m confused as to why this card is neutral- both for thematic reasons and because Hero just doesn’t have the tools to leverage it.

Justin – Well, after changing our Leia deck for the 8th time or so, its about to get another major change. Not only does Wedge give vehicles +1/+1, he gives them all ambush, helping them get immediate sway on the game when played. Wedge is an absolute animal for the way he will enable the rest of your deck, and I’m stoked to see he isn’t legendary!

Tyler – Wedge is exactly what I was hoping for to solve some of Hero Green’s inconsistencies. As I alluded to a couple weeks ago in my “homeless” cards article, Snowspeeder needed a trait hook to make it playable and this fits the bill! Wedge also solves a primary issue with Home One, allowing our big ship to swing the turn it comes out- greatly increasing its impact. Maybe I’m thinking too Johnny here, but Wedge could also push You’re My Only Hope into playability by adding quality 5-cost cards to our pool. TBD. One last thing: Is there really no “Pilot” trait? That seems like a weird miss on the designers’ part. Maybe there’s a full-blown mechanic coming for that, so they didn’t need a trait?

Justin – This card is wild on so many levels. Sentinel is always interesting in how it constrains your opponent, but the 2/6 stat line combined with it will provide a lot of problems for villain aggro space. It’s not easy to efficiently defeat Bright Hope early game, and I won’t be surprised if the “when played” ability gets more interesting with more cards. Already, bringing back Leia Organa for defense, or Admiral Ackbar for some “on play” damage, is a spicy play.

Tyler – The 2/6 stat line is on-curve, but what could really take us places is the two traits. With Wedge and Dodonna, we can get this baby up to a 4/8. That’s tough for any space unit in the current meta to beat. A card with this high of health also opens up interesting plays around upgrades and healing. Say it gets Entrenched followed by a Binds for healing? $$$ Will have to try and prove that out with a Luke/Green build.

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That’s it for last week’s spoilers! What cards are you most excited about? Are there any specific archetypes you’ve been enjoying in the cards revealed?

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