Holy cow did we get the motherload of drops this past week! Between some CC reveals and the mega draft stream, we have a lot to go through!

These first two cards were spoiled by the tabletop misfits on Youtube!

Justin – It’s hard to get excited about combo potential with a 1 drop giving an experience token, but there could be something there one day. Lacking the Imperial tag means this Trooper is likely draft filler like most of the cards we will outline this week!

Tyler – Vanguard Infantry has interesting synergy with Chewie, where you could make your opponent waste an action attacking him. Outside of that, he looks like an incomplete combo piece. Someday, I expect there to be a unit that says, “To play, defeat a unit.” When that unit arrives, our little mushroom head will look like a tasty sacrifice.

Jayson – I think very highly of the design team when I see cards like this that clearly won’t see constructed play but are interesting nonetheless. You’re not mad to take it as a late flyer in a Command trooper deck in draft, but that’s probably the ceiling here. I love this art though.

Justin – I like the potential of using this to trade up with a cheap body in a Luke/Red deck and getting a card draw on top of it. I have no doubt the place we’ll see this played most is aggro though.

Tyler – HS has solid application both as a straight aggro 2-for-1 or as a tempo card to help your units trade up. Since it replaces itself after use, there’s really nothing to dislike here.

Jayson – The people saying this is worse than Surprise Strike in aggro, or that this is a “control card”, are 100% missing the forest for the trees. What this card represents is value, and value so compelling that archetype isn’t even really relevant. If you’re in color, you windmill slam 3x until further notice. One of the best events in the game.

The next 16 cards were spoiled by the FFG Draft stream!

Justin – Since this guy exhausts all ground units, it will be a clunky play at times. It’s a bummer he can’t combo with Ozzel to come in ready (Ozzel would ready the AT-AT before it then exhausts everything including itself), but I’m sure there’s some control deck that will eventually make use of this in the constructed space.

Tyler – I actually have said deck in the works. It’s a wacky space-rush Boba/Blue deck that uses this and Outmaneuver to lock down the ground lane. Is it competitive? TBD. At the least, we can say there’s interesting constructed plays here.

Jayson – I’m actually gonna go out on a limb and call this slightly underrated. If you’ve lost ground and your opponent has no Sentinel this could win the game for 8 with a play and immediate claim. That’s not crazy far fetched, but it’s also not a given, so I’ll default to my usual skepticism about big units. But this genuinely checks more boxes for me than a lot of stuff that drops at 8+

Justin – The obvious initial comparison is looking at Obi-Wan Kenobi and feeling Cargo Juggernaut was just on the verge of greatness. Healing 4 to your base is fine, but on the villain side you don’t have a whole lot to curve in front of it that is blue. If we ever get an upgrade that can give Sentinel to a unit, this may be a prime candidate to combo with!

Tyler – There’s lots of hooks to combo with here: ECL, Admiral Piett or Wedge could all give this big boy ambush. Taking damage and then throwing the shield on top preserves Juggernaut’s value for later trades. I don’t have this vehicle slotted into a competitive deck yet, but the potential is there.

Jayson – A super cool vehicle, actually- I grabbed two of these for a Chewie deck in my draft with some friends on Friday night and they were BEASTS. This card is my son.

Justin – One of my favorite arts in the game so far, I want to love Devotion. The problem is Entrenched exists along with a few lightsabers that are already battling for deck slots. The Restore 2 is nice and playing it on a space unit feels pretty good. It’s likely that outside of some heal focused decks, Devotion will find sideboards at best.

Tyler – While Restore 2 doesn’t directly translate as base damage, think of it this way: the +1 damage on their base and -2 damage on your own base equals a 3-point swing in your direction when the game is a race. That’s where this will shine- mid-game where each player has won one lane and the game becomes a damage race.

Jayson – He can be your backpack while you run! AHHHHHHHHHH SO CUTE. The math here is good, but this calls back to one of the classic card game bugaboos- that healing often doesn’t do enough to win you the game. I do think sideboard feels like a GREAT call for this guy, but it really just comes down to the intersection of heal’s utility and a growing problem for Blue- the question of how many upgrades you can actually justify playing.

Justin – -2/-2 can be pretty decent early for knocking out a cheap body, but you generally would rather be building out a board at that point. Whether or not a mini Jedha City will feel good in the mid rounds will dictate the playability of this card. I don’t really have strong feelings yet, but I am very interested to test!

Tyler – The circumstantial evidence that a Chirrut leader is on the way increases… Maybe this will combo with him? In a vacuum, I can’t say this a strong card. -2/-2 and heal 2 should probably only cost 2. If they’d added another point of base healing or stat reduction, I’d be more interested.

Jayson – Probably a really compelling event at 2, as Tyler pointed out. This is pretty decent anti-Sentinel tech with a heal kicker, but it’s just gonna be hard to squeeze a 3 cost event that’s this low wattage into a tight turn.

Justin – Looking at Grand Moff Tarkin as the comparison, we’re looking at 2 resources cheaper for 1 less power and 1 less card. Since that leaves Mon playable as a Round 1 drop, I suspect she will see a whole lot of play in Green as long as Rebel continues to be a strong trait in hero green.

Tyler – Good stats and a card draw make Mon Mothma a solid round 1 play. I’m especially inclined to play her since the difference between having Home One and not having Home One in Hero/Green decks is so big. She’ll also make any Rebel/Rebel unit combo in the future stronger, which I’m all about.

Jayson – Real solid, and the kind of card-neutral semi-sticky body that General Leia could not be happier to see. I’m especially pumped for the prospect of Rebel trained events for her to fish for. As usual, this color combo is my jam.

Justin – Worth noting Steadfast Battalion can give itself the +2/+2 before it swings, so this can be a 7/7 if you control a leader unit. Since the Battalion is green, that means if you were to deploy Leia Organa the action before your opponent deploys Boba Fett, you could then use Energy Conversion Lab to ambush the Battalion one-shotting Boba Fett! Pretty cool play, though I’m not sure that one combo makes it playable.

Tyler – Experience with the game so far has taught me that leaders rarely remain on the board longer than a single round. As such, any unit ability that counts on having a leader out is a win-more effect. Seriously, if your opponent hasn’t dealt with your biggest threat, you’re doing fine! I won’t play these kinds of units unless they fill an obvious cost/trait hole in an existing deck.

Jayson – I have no idea how Justin found the brain bandwidth to engineer the above mentioned combo. My main take is the same as Tyler’s- counting on your leader being available and this being the most relevant card in your hand feels like too fragile a gameplan to make a 50 card constructed list. That analysis applies to every version of that conditional we’ve seen so far, though in fairness, this is easily the best one of that cycle.

Justin – Ambush and Overwhelm are 2 keywords that do work together, however they aren’t really working together towards the same goal. I’m using ambush to help gain more control of the board, while Overwhelm solely helps me towards my win condition. While that’s not a bad thing, I’d much rather have something here that combo’d better with the Ambush.

Tyler – There is some synergy between the Overwhelm keyword and Entrenched that gets me excited. It would allow your Entrenched unit to keep damaging the base as it controls the board. That combo, combined with the Trooper trait, is enough to keep me interested even as this unit is slightly understatted.

Jayson – This is one of several cards I have my eye on if the Underworld trait gets a ton of love in Set 2. Definitely solid enough if it had trait synergy, but it doesn’t make Trooper decks right now.

Justin – One of the better cards revealed on the draft stream, this card directly punishes some of the hero decks that like to Wing Leader a cheap guy or throw a Jedi lightsaber on Yoda. If those are the meta, you’re pretty happy with Traitorous, otherwise you’re typically removing an opponent’s 2 or 3 unit and playing that same unit on your side of the board in the same action. I suspect this will make a whole lot of sideboards, but it definitely has potential for a lot of maindecks as well.

Tyler – The utility of this card depends on what the meta around Upgrades is. If people are running lots of upgrades (and upgrade hate) the floor/ceiling of this card increases. If we assume a relatively upgrade free environment, though, I’m less certain of its usefulness. Do you want to be stealing a 3-cost unit round 4 over playing a power unit of your own? Honestly not sure.

Jayson – To my eye the potential that you’re frequently happy with the value here is actually really high- you’re trading a 3 drop for a 3 drop of your own, which is theoretically a trade value of 6, butttttttt in all likelihood the unit is ready, which is a sizable tempo swing. I also really like it in a deck that’s leaning into one lane over the other or in games where you end up playing that way situationally. This can turn a “lost” lane around really fast in the right situation.

Justin – Strike True may have been my favorite reveal. Hero green especially was lacking any sort of removal, and Strike True checks the boxes of being a fairly strong option. It doesn’t quite have the flexibility of Overwhelming Barrage, but for 3 I suspect this will make a lot of Hero green decks. Whether villain finds room for it will depend on the other color of the deck most likely.

Tyler – Definitely a staple card for Green decks. It’s on theme and on curve. I even like that it incentivizes Upgrade play. Gotta get that big unit to counter your opponent’s leader!

Jayson – This plus Entrenched is gonna make me really sad one day, I just know it. I wish they’d found a way to give Green a 2 cost removal option, but some decks will end up slotting this anyway. Sure does make your Raid units sad though.

Justin – I initially was super excited when I saw this guy, as I looked at all the stats and abilities and thought he would be a fairly playable 1 drop! Then my eyes went to the top of the card and realized he actually cost 2. While I love a good meme, this guy can hold his own beer as I won’t be playing him.

Tyler – As stated above, “leader in play” effects are all win-more, so there’s not much incentive to play this guy in constructed.

Jayson – Roman Reigns sucks.

Justin – With cards like Waylay existing, its rare you see more than 1 upgrade on a unit. It will be hard to ever justify playing this over Disabling Fang Fighter if thats the meta, so I don’t expect to see much of this.

Tyler – Yeah, the use case for this card over Fang Fighter just isn’t there. Since they’re in the same color, you’ll always choose the playable 3-drop over a situational card like this. Just a rules reminder that Experience and Shields are upgrades that you can target with this and Fang!

Jayson – I think odds are very high that Set 1 will be missing some sort of critical tech piece. It tends to happen in most card games. When that happens, I’ll definitely be angrily looking at this card wondering why so much upgrade hate got printed instead of more broadly applicable stuff. Fang Fighter wins every time.

Justin – Another potential combo piece, you need to have a really strong event worth bringing back to justify eating your resources for the round to play this weak body. The designers have been pretty wary of making broken tutor/combo pieces thus far, with Search your feelings also feeling overcosted, so it’s likely this will be a limited format card at best.

Tyler – So a normal 6-drop with Ambush we could expect to have 11 total stat points. That means the designers have costed the event return at 3 stat points. As Justin said, that seems a little steep- especially given that you’ll likely be unable to play said event the same round you returned it to hand. Maybe it’s worth it for an Overwhelming Barrage or No Good to Me Dead?

Jayson – It definitely feels tailor-made for Robert Fettuccine, who can kill someone with the Ambush and then refresh resources to pay for the event, but like…if you’re gonna pay 6 out of Boba shouldn’t it be Sla- err, Firespray? I’m not complaining about seeing a card I’m not sure about out of Villain/Cunning though, that combo has been eating like a king all spoiler season.

No commentary needed, but more pretty art and different common base options are always welcome!

Jayson – What do you mean no commentary needed? It’s obviously time for me to rant about 30 HP bases agai-*gunshot*

Justin – IG-88 may have been leaked 3 months ago by IGN, but he finally got his big reveal last Friday on FFG social media. Unfortunately, he is still very difficult to play. Best case scenario, he is effectively a 5 damage burn card you can play for free if you wait out your opponent in any round as way too many removal cards will generally find their way into your opponent’s hand to defeat him on deploy. Hopefully we’ll see some help for him in future sets that makes him more interesting!

Tyler – Nearly every removal in the game can one-shot IG, so the chances you can make use of his leader unit ability are pretty low. Compared to Sabine, who comes out a round earlier and has no conditional on her leader side, IG just doesn’t stack up. Maybe there’s more swarm support coming?

Jayson – gurgling noises

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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?