Welcome back. I hope you’ve learned a lot from our first two installments in this series, The Slang Dictionary and Opening Hand/Mulligan Strategy. Tyler and Justin have done a great job setting us up, but we’re still not ready to play! You know your vocabulary, and you’ve decided whether to keep your opening hand, but now we have one last decision before we start our battle- we have to choose two of the six cards in our hand to bury as resources.

THE HARDEST BUTTON TO BUTTON

Make no mistake- resourcing is frequently a very tough decision in SWU. One thing I see a lot of folks say is that situational cards are still worth including in a deck because they can always be resourced. This line of thinking can be a trap- situational pieces aren’t always bad, but you should 100% be looking to field a deck that’s 50/50 great cards. And if that’s what you’ve got sleeved up, the decision of what to resource will frequently be kind of excruciating. That’s good. That’s how you know your deck is on the right track.

So how exactly does one make this decision? Well, first and foremost, you make it contextually. A given board state in SWU has a lot of moving parts, and I can’t possibly cover all the given criteria that might come into play when deciding what to resource in a given round. What I can do instead is give you a starting point for how I think of it, so that you know what to watch out for as you learn. At the end of the day, like most strategic considerations in SWU, there’s just no substitute for playing games with a deck and learning it firsthand.

With that in mind, here’s a primer on how to start thinking through this massive topic.

PROCESS OF ELIMINATION

Rather than thinking about this through the lens of what cards I want (because I likely want them all!), let’s make a checklist of obvious reasons I might choose to resource a card.

1. It’s a duplicate.
   I’ve found that only rarely do I want to hold multiple of the same card in my hand, because games of SWU usually require a variety of tools to win. There’s exceptions for sure- potent and efficient removal cards like Overwhelming Barrage, Leia, and Asteroid Sanctuary can often justify holding multiples if your opponent is spinning up. But generally speaking, if I’ve got two copies of a card (especially unique characters), I give strong consideration to burying one of them.
2. I’m unlikely to play it this round.
   SWU is a game about tempo and maximizing resources. Good trades made early tend to snowball, so it’s almost never correct to give up your best plays in the current round in favor of later rounds. Too much can change between now and then. The upcoming round is the one that you have the most up to date information for, and therefore can make the most educated decisions about. We shouldn’t take this idea too far- for example, you may be able to use Force Choke this round, but it could definitely be better to hold it for a pricier unit later. But that said, holding on to a combo piece for multiple rounds while burying cards you can play on curve is going to give you losses, and holding out for perfect plays can often be the enemy of making good ones. Forecast what cards you’ll play this round, and whatever you’re most unlikely to play is often a good candidate for burying.
3. It doesn’t make sense in this matchup.
   You’ll learn as you go that certain cards get less play against certain archetypes. A couple examples- the fragile Star Wing Scout is an awful card against Darth Vader, who can trade up 2 whole resources on it without even spending a card. Star Wing Scout might be great in your deck, but you should almost never play it against Vader, so you can safely bury it. Another good example is Waylay against Sabine. A Sabine deck is less likely to play big huge units where Waylay gets to make big trades. This doesn’t mean Waylay is useless against her, but it’s just a lot less mission critical against a deck that’s more likely to play cheap stuff. That’s a factor as you consider what to resource.
4. There’s an issue in that lane.
   If your opponent has a fresh Bright Hope in the space lane and you just drew Imperial Interceptor, you’ve got a math problem on your hands. Without support such as Veers or Shoot First, Interceptor’s 3/2 statline and 3 damage play effect can’t kill Bright Hope without getting killed itself, and in the meantime that 2/6 Sentinal can attack base with near-impunity. A great card has suddenly become a much, much worse one. Similarly, a Death Star Stormtrooper is normally an efficient card, but may not be the best play if your opponent has a C-3P0 and R2-D2 already in the lane. You might be able to wait them out, but those cards have a tempo advantage on you for the moment, and might well make your resource investment ineffective. Be on the lookout for board states that give your opponent those favorable trades. Resource cards that are apt to trade down, and keep cards that will ask questions your opponent has a harder time answering right now.

That list is a good overview of where my head goes first on resourcing. These theories will likely continue developing- for example, I imagine as the best decks become more widely known and played, you’ll basically be able to come up with a fixed list of cards you want to resource in a given matchup. The sky is the limit! There’s a lot of game left to discover, and at least for now you’re unlikely to resource the same way twice. SWU is, top to bottom, a tactically rich game, and this is a complex topic.

FORECAST: CLEAR SKIES, LOTS OF A-WINGS

There’s definitely a lot to consider with resourcing, and it’s important for a student of the game to start making those decisions in a more informed way. One of the first things I do with my play partners is look back at the game round by round and discuss what cards we resourced and how that panned out. That exercise can be very helpful as you learn the ins and outs of a deck.

One thing’s for sure- you’re less likely to regret your decisions about what to bury if you’re using the right cards for deck build to begin with. In the next installment of this series, we’ll talk about how to evaluate cards and make sure you’re only letting the finest into your deck. 50/50 great cards, y’all! That’s the goal. And while resourcing awesome cards can be painful, it’s a necessary part of victory in SWU.

May the force be with you!