Last week, Justin set out his expectations for leaders in the Set 1 meta. Since his takes were obviously Garbage^TM , I’ll attempt to set the record straight.

Below is where I currently expect each leader to fall through the set 1 meta (March-July). This takes into account the card pool we know, plus some guess work on which leaders might get some more love.

S-Tier

What unites these two leaders is an ability to bend the resource curve in their favor- even before combining their powers with Green ramp.

Boba Fett is the definition of value in a Leader. On his leader side, once per round when an enemy unit leaves play, we get access to an extra resource for the round. Timing it right with his deployment, we can take advantage and get 3 extra resources the round he becomes a unit. I once combined this with a DJ Deathstar to play 9 resources in a single round! Any cheap villain card or card draw engine produced from here on out is going to raise Boba’s value. His leader side also has a great statline at 4/7, so there’s not really anything to dislike. I don’t see his value dropping much if any with the remaining card reveals.

Han Solo is the one leader in the game thus far that can ramp on a whim. One of his most powerful lines is using his leader ability Round 4 to jump to 6 resources, deploying, attacking to get another resource, and then dropping a powerful 7-cost unit! His ability will fit with any color, he has a solid 4/6 statline, and will remain powerful indefinitely. He also synergizes powerfully with his signature card, the Millenium Falcon.

A-Tier

These leaders are strong, but don’t have the game-bending potential of our S-Tier leaders.

Darth Vader looks to be our ramp champion. Combined with Green, Vader can make his big self deploy early to kick in the door. His leader ability is strong, allowing him to ping off shields and prevent pesky units like Star Wing Scout from being played effectively against him. There’s really no downside to that gameplan, except that it’s predictable.

Luke Skywalker completes the starter pairing, joining Dad in A-tier. His ability is strong, giving heroism units a shield in the round they are played. This can create sequencing/trade headaches for your opponent and value for you. The abundance of Restore in hero Blue also gives Luke time to stabilize before coming out and becoming a shield-making machine.

Sabine Wren looks to be the hero aggro staple of Set 1, with plenty of cheap, efficient units to slot in. Her leader ability puts the game on a fast clock, and her unit side deploys earlier than any other leader in the game. What keeps her out of S-Tier is that her gameplan is a “fair” one without significant tricks to keep the opponent off balance.

B-Tier

These leaders have solid gameplans and reliable mechanics, but their abilities are low-key compared to their S and A tier peers.

Director Krennic has a solid ability, always giving his friendly units +1 Attack if they are damaged. His ability doesn’t need to be triggered either so it’s always on (whether Krennic is alive or not.) He combos well with cards like Lil Bro who damages himself. The unit side has an average power level, however, and the ability is often off. While I expect him to improve as more applicable Villain Blue cards are revealed, Krennic will likely remain average.

Grand Moff Tarkin is the rare leader where we’ve seen most of his associated cards and he has villain green and trooper synergy available to him. His leader and unit side are both impactful, but Tarkin seemingly keeps getting left behind by other decks as they get more cards. Some more Imperial synergy might push him back up the list.

Jyn Erso is the most recently revealed leader, and she has effectively no cards that synergize with her, like other leaders. She seems like she would slot in well to a mid-range deck with her leader ability, but it’s hard to get too excited about her when you compare her 6-resource 4/7 unit side to Boba Fett who has the same for 5 resources. My initial take is that it’s actually rather difficult to get value out of Jyn’s leader side so in B-Tier she starts.

Leia Organa suffers from the most limited cardpool thus far, hampering my ability to judge her. However, she has a solid ability and great unit side that will only increase in value as Hero Green adds go-wide synergy. I suspect there will be a deck that leverages her well, but it isn’t here yet– B-Tier for now!

C-Tier

These are leaders that seem like they need a lot of help (and likely won’t see it in Set 1).

Thrawn is a card that will need a lot of support to play competitively. Unfortunately, the Chimaera makes me think we won’t get it. When his premiere top end unit is likely to do nothing, where does a stall-heavy leader get value? Maybe there will be some hot tech for attacking exhausted units, but I suspect the designers are hinting that it’s not coming by giving Thrawn a buff statline. In the end, he’s likely to end up a stall-out mess that doesn’t accomplish enough.

IG-88 suffers from there being too many accessible removal options that clear him out in a single action. A leader that’s not in play just can’t do much for the game. There’s potential in his ability for a go-wide, swarm deck to be devastating, but since we’ve already gotten General Tagge, I’d be surprised if there’s more tech in the set for weenies.

Hera Syndulla survives relegation to D-Tier based on the fact that she may be the best mono (double aspect) deck in the Set 1 meta. We’ve seen one double aspect card for Command thus far, with more reportedly on the way. These cards, combined with her ability bring Spectres into the mono-Green pool is an interesting deckbuilding premise. However, her 6-resource deploy point, and highly situational unit ability don’t give me much faith in her down the stretch. In 6-ish games played so far, I’ve never once given a unit an experience token with her- feels like she’s just a worse Tarkin when that happens.

D-Tier

These leaders have central contradictions that make them difficult to play.

Chewbacca suffers from an incompatibility between his two keywords. As a 9-health Sentinel, I want to keep Chewie in play to lock down the ground lane. Keeping him in play means healing him. But… if I heal him, it turns off his Grit keyword and he does basically no damage- making him easily attackable by almost any unit. Combine this with the fact that you’ll need to ramp to 7 resources to even play him, and I don’t see Chewie being a great leader option.

Grand Inquisitor is our first look at an explicitly combo-focused leader. He wants to set-up for a big play in Round 3 or 4, readying a beefy unit, and then potentially readying off a Motti for a second swing. The reality is that he’s easily disrupted by upgrade-hate cards like Fang Fighter and Bamboozle, and he hates to see Tarkintown. It turns out that damaging your own units is kinda… bad for them. His combo potential will improve as the cardpool grows, but you have to think the late playtesting nerf to 6 resources will doom him in set 1.

That’s it for today! After sharing my tier list with the other guys, it’s exciting to see how different the three of us project Set 1 to look! You can expect to see Jayson’s later in the week, and we look forward to revisiting these in the future and seeing who was closest.

What does your Set 1 tier list look like? Are you expecting to see some of the above leaders get a lot more love in the remainder of the card pool?