Happy Monday! We would like to start off by introducing the newest member of our team, Jayson (ImpossibleGerman)!

I’m Jayson! Thanks so much to the Garbage Rollers for the warm welcome. I’m quite proud to contribute to this insightful and community-minded team. When I’m not endlessly thinking about new decks, I’m usually playing music, working as a graphic designer, hanging out with my amazing wife and son, and moaning about my Dallas Cowboys.

My card game experience is, like lots of folks with the itch, broad. I started with Android: Netrunner back in 2015, and have since heavily played Star Wars: Destiny, Legend of the Five Rings LCG, KeyForge, and for the last few years, the incomparable Ashes: Reborn. In that time I’ve won a few store championships, achieved a Top 10 ELO in Ashes, and made a lot of friends.

My competitive bonafides aren’t my focus, and the truth is I’m just okay at card games. What I love is being able to express myself and engage with characters I love through deckbuilding, and my content has always been focused on removing barriers for new players to do that too. I love it when my writing makes players feel empowered to build their own monsters, and that’s what I’ll aim to do here at Garbage Rollers.

Now it’s time to go through the cards spoiled in the prior week and share our first impressions!

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

Justin – Being a single aspect card, this is a good baseline that 3 resources for 2 cards will be the average baseline number. In that aspect, we haven’t really seen any crazy combo possibilities thus far that I’d really want to lean on draw a lot. I think the 3 Resource for 2 Cards is a bit steep in most decks right now, and would definitely rather run I am Your Father on the villain side for a better effect.

Tyler – My initial take is this is the second worst card in the game (after Tactical Advantage). It should cost 2 – full stop – and it doesn’t. Maybe there’s an application here for mill decks since you can choose your opponent to draw? Or maybe card draw will turn out to be waaaay more powerful than we think? For now, I haven’t bothered printing this one and I don’t plan to.

Jayson – It took me a second to wrap my head around it because draw always has inherent appeal, but yeah, I think this is a coaster. Sometimes it’s obnoxious to evaluate card draw effects while subtracting the triggering card, but here, it’s impossible not to- Mission Briefing itself could have been something useful in itself, so you’re paying 3 for 1. I Am Your Father is better than this, and I’m prettttttty sure IAYF is not very good. Pass for me, but I love that Aggression will get chances to directly draw cards, and can’t wait to see more Red draw options.

Max Tapera revealed the next 2 cards on his YouTube Channel!

Justin – At 2 cost, if you’re hitting just 1 Trooper with Tagge you feel pretty alright with playing him. 2 is a really good value spot, and 3 is probably just winning more if you find yourself in that situation. If Villain trooper builds end up being a thing, Tagge will definitely make the cut, but I’m not sure he sees much play outside of that specific archetype.

Tyler – This guy has serious value potential. One trooper gets him above the curve, everything after that is gravy. Given that Red/Green villain can already run 18 solid trooper units, I so no reason why Tagge wouldn’t be at least a two of. Villain Green just keeps getting stronger!

Jayson – Tagge is a combo piece, but the particular hoop he wants you to jump through doesn’t seem all that obnoxious to me. A lot of the best bread and butter Villainy units are already Trooper. I love that thematically, and it also means Tagge could fit in more decks than we think. As long as he gets to dole out two Experience, I think he’s excellent, and I don’t think the opportunity cost to make that happen is super high. He seems playable and cool to me.

Justin – I like the design of cards that have decent value early game with increased value later in the game for the same cost. 2/3 with no ability for the first few rounds of the game for 2 resources is slightly below curve for a 2 aspect card, but you’re probably fine with that knowing it’s a 4/3 later in the game and can help get some decent bodies for cheap.

Tyler – Curve here is great and very on-theme for Villain Green. Tarkin should have no trouble getting to 6 with DJ Deathstar. Having both the Trooper and Imperial keyword is really what will make this beach bum shine. There’s a serious chance this guy is a 6/5 mid-game thanks to Tagge and Veers, which is crazy value.

Jayson – I adore it. Having cards to play on curve or nearly on curve is very important in SWU- it’s super hard to win while not getting value out of your early game resources. The downside is that drawing into cheap stuff late can often feel underwhelming. This means cards like Sabine that can be played early game but have tech that lets them still excel in later rounds are awesome. Shoretrooper does that too. You’re not gonna light the world on fire if you play it early at 2/2/3, but it’s not a ripoff, and your opponent is going to feel a temptation to deal with it before you get a +2 attack bonus for doing (checks notes) exactly what you were gonna be doing anyway. And if you don’t hit it until later…you just play it directly as a 2/4/3, which is incredible. Great card, and one that singlehandedly makes me feel a lot better about the viability of ramp decks.

Check out our thoughts on this card revealed during the Competitive OP stream in last week’s article!

Check out our thoughts on this card revealed during the Competitive OP stream in last week’s article!

Lastly Hera was spoiled by FFG on Social media.

Justin – As many people speculated, Hera’s ability turns out to be bringing in Spectre cards from other colors with no aspect penalty. Hera’s viability will come down to whether being able to run Spectre cards is worth giving up some leader strength, as her leader side does nothing otherwise and her unit side isn’t the strongest at 6. I think where she will end up shining in the full card pool is mono-green with the splash of Spectres.

Tyler – As Justin said, the value here looks to be her ability to expand the card pool of mono-Green decks. Having a cadre of friends to increase the viability of that deck excites me. For now, Kanan is the biggest beneficiary of having more Spectres since his ability will now reliably Restore 3. I realllly wish Hera came out at 5 resources, though. Waiting an extra round for her to join the team will hurt.

Jayson – I think the Hera Spectre deck will be fun- I’m just very skeptical whether it’ll be a consistently competitive deck. Hera is bringing kind of shockingly little to the table herself- this is a really unappealing Leader Unit and her Leader side is blank except for the deckbuilding allowance. Because there’s so little on offer here, aside from permission to lump all the Spectre cards in a single deck, you have to imagine that there’s a huge payoff for doing that. Until we see that card (or cards), It’s good to be skeptical about Hera and, until proven otherwise, I think she’s the worst Leader so far.

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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?