We’ve talked about this previously in one of our first articles, the SWU starters feature a solid lineup of competitive cards! The Hero side of the starter has Luke Skywalker as its leader and the Administrator’s Tower as its base, which we wrote about a few months ago. But what about other color combinations for Luke? We walked through what Green had to offer last month with Tyler, so with only 2 color combinations remaining, let’s talk about my current favorite to play!

With the current SWUDB changes to published decks, we aren’t publishing the deck so you can continue to follow the changes to the list at this link. We’re currently testing 2 copies of Redemption in place of the 3rd copy of Red Three and Mace Windu.

If you’ve read our previous Luke articles, you know our Luke decks slot are probably best classified as the “midrange” archetype, playing efficient and high value cards. The end goal is to eventually take control of the board with these cards before closing out the game.

Play Style

Your ideal opening hand has a 2-drop unit or R2-D2 that you can combo with a shield. In many match-ups, you won’t be sad to have R2-D2 and a shield for Round 1 and Sabine or an A-Wing to shield for your Round 2 play. You’re happy to hold on to an Obi-Wan Kenobi or Luke Skywalker for later in the game if you see it as well. Entrenched or Jedi Lightsaber can combo well in Rounds 2-4, so don’t be scared to hold on to one. 

Using Luke’s shield ability well is key. Unless you’re facing Vader and his damage ping, smart players will typically play under the current curve (i.e. play a 2-cost unit with 3 resources) and then supplement with a shield. A shielded 2-cost unit will give you a lot more opportunities to outplay your opponent, so don’t feel pressured to play on curve all the time.

In the midgame, you’ve got great options for controlling either lane. A-wing, Red Three, Wing Leader, and Restored ARC should be able to hold down the space lane in the early game, and then Entrenched can lock down a troublesome big unit later on. Yoda or Kanan with an upgrade can go a long way clearing out your opponent’s ground units while also restoring some damage from your base- an upgraded cheap force unit is almost a win condition for this deck, as it’s just so powerful at controlling the early game. When playing against Villain Yellow, you’ll typically want to save Tarkintown for the inevitable Bossk play, otherwise don’t be scared to use it early and help swing control of the battlefield in your favor.

One of the keys to this deck winning or losing is whether your opponent can instantly kill Luke the turn he comes out. Ideally, the play to is protect him behind an Obi-Wan to prevent opponents from attacking him immediately. Backup options include having Luke’s Lightsaber or Jedi Lightsaber to drop on him quickly to get him out of reach from your opponent. Luke’s Lightsaber can also be an absolute blowout if Luke is damaged. Bottom line is that Luke needs to attack and produce a shield to control the board going forward. Once Luke is up and running, the game often swings in your favor. If the game does happen to go long, Luke Skywalker and Mace Windu are there to help you close out the game! Redemption is currently slotted in to test, but I’m not confident it will make the cut. Generally you are needing to stabalize and turn the game around in the 6-7 resource rounds, thus the Redemption is often too late to be played as a game-extender. Game-swinger like Luke or Mace are usually what we need.

What cards are we looking to add?

• Another solid 4 or 5 cost unit – Currently K-2S0 is filling this spot, as its hard to keep Dodonna alive these days long enough to get any value out of him. 
• Cards that leverage the Force trait – The designers have teased repeatedly that the Force trait is the most powerful one in the set. Currently, we only have Jedi Lightsaber and Obi-Wan to take advantage of it. I’d welcome a new event or upgrade that leveraged our six Force-users.
• Shield augmentation – Luke provides the shields, but we don’t have any units or events that key off of having said shields. Ideally, we get a card that lets us synergize off being shielded.
• Better removal cards – We like Takedown, but something at better value than Open Fire would be nice to work with. Vanquish will also likely be a meta call, as its virtually useless in an aggro meta.
• Cheap Units with the Force Trait or Restore – Right now our only cheap unit that leverages this is Restored ARC. More opportunities for early heals or good targets for our upgrades would be helpful for drawing the game out past Luke’s deploy round.

What cards are on the chopping block?

• Open Fire – Open Fire fits a niche, but I’d prefer to see a cheaper removal card here to help against aggro decks.A 1-2 cost dealing 2-3 damage would be ideal.
• K-2S0 – We’d love to see another good 4 cost unit. Right now K-2S0 is the best of the bunch giving us some hand disruption at the cost of a health stat when compared to Wampa. Dodonna just doesn’t live consistently enough to take the slot as well.
• Redemption – As discussed above, an 8 cost game-extender likely isnt what you want to see. If something fitting the same niche comes out at 4-6 cost, it’s likely an instant slot-in.
• Vanquish – I list this here, as the card is likely always going to be a meta call.

Additional Flavor you can add

• General Dodonna – He’s a sideboard card at best for me due to his lack of staying power at 4 health, but you may choose to build and play around keeping him alive more than I do!
• It Binds All Things – The blowout potential is real, but there are also a lot of times you can draw this with no force units in play.
• C-3P0 – Some people can’t resist pairing the 2 droid buddies together in all decks. Personally I don’t like him here, as a non-shield play for round 1 that won’t trade in to anything well Round 2 without an upgrade.
• Rugged Survivors – I personally don’t see them as super playable, but Luke is a leader we typically want to keep on the battlefield, so maybe this is one of the decks that could find good value? Not being heroic likely nixes that plan, since Luke can’t shield them.

Sideboard Options?

We personally haven’t started playing with sideboards yet without the full rules, but I know a lot of people are. Here’s where I’d currently look to fill my sideboard.

• SpecForce Soldier – A lot of people like to main deck him, but realistically I don’t like him as much with Luke outside of mirror matches. At 2/2, he doesn’t trade into a lot of Round 1 drops. He will definitely find plenty of value against other Shield heavy decks.
• It Binds All Things – As stated above, the card is a bit too situational without running mostly force units. You better believe the day we can, this is an easy main-deck!
• Disabling Fang Fighter – It’s hard not to include the Fang Fighter in the sideboard of any red deck. The flexibility of removing shields, XP tokens, or big upgrades is too much to pass up when facing those decks. 
• General Dodonna – While there are a lot of instances he can’t be kept alive, there are matchups you have an easier time. A great candidate for the sideboard.
• System Patrol Craft – A 4 health sentinel unit in space doesn’t get traded in to super easily. The downside is it isn’t heroic and can’t be shielded by Luke, or we’d be cramming these in to Luke decks.

That’s all for today! Have you gotten any games in with Red Luke? What’s your favorite deck to play so far? 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!