With our debut of Meta Monday, that means week in review for cards will be on Tuesdays going forward. We’ll continue until all the cards are revealed, and then bring this segment back at whatever point after March FFG starts spoiling cards for set 2!

Some more impactful cards were released last week, and we officially will see the final leader this Friday! But first, let’s recap last weeks cards.

The first card was spoiled by FFG on social media!

Justin – The One in the middle! A super fun theme card here, I am quite happy to see Bendu in set 1! Completing the double aspect cards for Vigilance, I’m not sure Bendu is enough to make it a viable competitive archetype in set 1. Since the villain side also gets synergy with Childsen, it’s likely the best Double Vigilance deck will be on that side of the equation, but the card below does make a case for hero. The least exciting part about Bendu thus far is there aren’t a lot of big targets for Bendu’s On Attack ability, so you’ll likely be using it more for a free It Binds All Things or something cheap to play multiple cards per round. Bendu’s a card I will likely be excited about more in a few sets.

Tyler – Since Bendu competes with the existing powerful Blue sentinels Obi-Wan and Academy Defense Walker in the six-slot, I’m not sure that Bendu will push mono-Blue into competitive territory. But there’s big potential for Bendu down the road! Justin is right that we don’t yet have an 8-cost neutral Blue card, but if we did, Bendu’s potential to ramp into it could be huge.

Jayson – It’s hard to know how I feel about Bendy, actually. On paper his stats are good, and economy effects are reliably strong. But in practice, especially with that second Vigilance icon, it could range anywhere from unplayed to a key piece of a good mono deck.

The next 2 cards were spoiled by Nelson All Over Cards!

Justin – A spicy tempo play which allows you to effectively boost an attack by 2 permanently and swing taking no damage assuming you have a Force user in play. At 4, this will be a clunk main deck card against certain archetypes, so this will likely see more action in sideboards, if the top blue decks play it.

Tyler – More Chirrut synergy makes me really happy! He keeps getting cards that put extra health on him, giving your opponent more difficult choices about how much damage they have to throw his way to actually kill him. Beyond Chirrut himself, there’s really interesting aggro applications. Could this be the card Sabine needed to make a Red/Blue aggro pairing viable?

Jayson – I love this card so much. It’s a really good teaching tool for showing how a card can punch above its weight with tempo. Compare to a card like Rallying Cry, which is both cheaper and has a much higher value ceiling. But in practice? It’s unplayably clunky and TFIWM is a banger, because here the value gets cashed in immediately and it makes your board stickier. These kinds of sequencing boons can become staples of their color, and I expect TFIWM to approach that territory- though as Justin wisely points out above, just by virtue of being a 4 cost event it may not always work in main decks.

Justin – We’re at a severe lack of quality 4 drops currently, so I definitely see some decks that will be happy to slot this in. With early game Hero Command units typically having some decent staying power, I like the odds to be playing this with Ambush in Round 3 and should have no problem getting a 2 for 1 trade at that point.

Tyler – There’s value to be had here, and I like that it comes on a common card. However, there’s two nonbos holding the skiff back. First is with Resupply and Superlaser Tech. A lot of Green players will run use these cards to skip past the 4-resource cost point. Second is with Wedge Antilles. He grants vehicle units Ambush, so every time a new vehicle with ambush comes along, he gets harder to justify.

Jayson – You can do worse than 4/4/4 and a pretty likely Ambush trigger. Command units are often either numerous or sticky, so in theory this will work out- and another subtle thing is that unlike the other cards in this cycle that grant things based on color presence, Ambush happens from hand, so you probably just don’t play it if you can’t get the trigger, a luxury Partisan Insurgent doesn’t really have. Seems solid!

The next 2 cards were spoiled by Geekbecois!

Justin – Holy bananas! I have a lot of reactions to this card… like why is Rukh Command!? He belongs with Thrawn! I think the saddest part about how meh the Chimaera is as Thrawn’s big toy, is that he should have been able to pair with Rukh as well and gotten good value.

Gameplay wise, the craziest thing of Rukh being in green is that any deck can splash him in with Energy Conversion Lab! Situationally Zeb could be a better ECL target, but Rukh will likely always be insanely good. You have to always keep Rukh in the back of your mind as the game goes on and your opponent hasn’t used ECL yet. Don’t forget, situationally it might be better to resolve the ambush first before shielding Rukh (as Ambush and Shielded trigger at the same time and can be resolved in any order).

Tyler – Ruhk is kinda bonkers. His “kill anything” ability is essentially costed as “free” since his stats and keywords are on curve. He’s going to see a ton of play with decks that can play ECL, which is already a card players build around. While he disappointingly has zero synergy with Thrawn, he will have a keen spot in Boba/Green which was already the game’s most dominant deck. The rich get richer!

Jayson – Yeah, the boys are dead on- it’s a nutty card, and I can’t really understand the small crowd that’s been hesitant about him. I tend to value health quite highly, and have quite a time wrapping my ahead around how this fella got 6 health. Was keeping him out of Takedown range really so essential for Villain/Command, a color that even before Rukh’s appearance seemed pretty solid? Someone at FFG certainly thinks so. That said, the actual units in Villain/Command do leave a little to be desired, so having a genuinely great board warrior in here is a nice touch. Rukh is outstanding and should be 3x in most places he can be.

Justin – Like I said with the Skiff above, there’s a lack of many quality 4 cost units. While I’m not sure this one will make the cut in many decks, Boba Cunning might be happy to slot this in at 4 over Jabba. Hero Cunning decks don’t typically run a ton of Cunning units, so they’ll likely only see play in constructed on the Villain side if at all.

Tyler – Gamorrean Guard occupies the same meta space as Vigilant Honor Guards in that they sometimes have sentinel. That hasn’t proven to be a great space yet, but as Justin said, a mono yellow deck could probably make them reliable enough to compete.

Jayson – Poor Gamorrean Guard is probably fine but had the misfortune of debuting alongside the ridiculous Rukh, so hasn’t gotten a lot of buzz. I made the same comparison as Tyler though- like VGH, I’m just not wild in concept about the idea of a Sentinel that I can lose. At least the piggies are theoretically protecting the pieces that could lose them the keyword if they were removed.

Justin – Yes Baze is a little weird thematically as single aspect and not heroism, but if you take a look at the card art, the snapshot of this character is when he was still on Jedha. This was before he joined the heroes on their journey.

Baze is a little weird in the Chirrut-deck thematic pairing. A cool play line would be dropping him on 4 resources, taking the initiative, and opening up your 5-resource turn with Chirrut’s leader ability to make him a bigger tank for the round. Stalling out your opponent’s turn for the most part with a 7 health Sentinel, that will get stronger if they can’t one shot it, is a pretty cool play. Outside of that, he’s a bit wonky. I’m more interested in trying him out with Krennic!

Tyler – Weirdly, the villain pairings seem like the best for Baze. Any unit with Grit is welcome in a Grand Inquisitor deck and Baze comes in under the strength threshold. Krennic of course likes Grit units as well. In Hero decks, he competes with Bright Hope, Kanan, and K2S0 in the 4-slot so not sure he makes the cut.

Jayson – They were obviously pretty conservative with this stat line because Grit and Sentinel are an incredible pairing. I think this card is likely really good, especially played in in one of the leaders (Chirrut, Grand Inquisitor, Krennic) that can really maximize him. Whether he makes constructed decks is quite a can of worms, with potential cards beating him out of his slot on both the Hero and Villain side, but I think I’ll be taking him early in draft quite often.

To kick off this week, FFG posted this double Command card!

Justin – This card screams way better in the future to me. Right now, a 5/4 body at 5 is tough to work around, whatever ability it has. I definitely like the idea of Krell if we ever get into token units down the road, and you can guarantee a few cards out of his ability. For now, I don’t see much action for him outside of a weird combo deck.

Tyler – I’m baffled by how FFG is costing mono-aspect cards. Adding the 2nd aspect icon is certainly a cost, and it seems to have been priced anywhere from subtracting a cost point (like on Catina Bouncer) to… doing absolutely nothing here on Krell? I don’t know that I would play Krell in constructed at cost 4 right now, let alone at 5 with double-aspect icons. Maybe Justin is right, and this is setup for a Set 2 archetype, but mainly I’m just bummed that mono-Green won’t get more help in Set 1. Poor Hera!

Jayson – I have kept seeing the “better in the future” take pop up, for more cards than this one. I don’t really tend to agree- nothing that isn’t straight unhinged is going to change that this is an engine piece with the stats slanted the wrong way. Jabba had this kind of thing situated much better- with an effect you want to stick around, you want those stats heavily slanted towards health. So where does that leave Krell? In the binder, if I have to guess right now, since anything that buffs him probably will buff other, better cards more. That said, I’m keeping an eye on him- unquestionably, this is an ability with a really high ceiling, and it’s not wise to forget it’s in the cardpool.

We then got 2 more late night drops last night from the Jade Throne Podcast!

Justin – I am deeply saddened when I look at this card compared to my poor wookie gunship. This card is absolutely wild though! Even if it didn’t get the -2/0 effect for the defender when attacking ground, it’d be a pretty strong card in that it can target both lanes. Add that in and I am in love! Outside of the tight list that Boba Green is starting to be, every cunning deck is likely happy to slot this bad boy in.

Important to note, the way Sentinel is written in the rules, Gunship can ignore a space sentinel unit to attack ground units and ignore ground sentinels when choosing targets! Pretty sexy.

Tyler Parrott clarified on twitter, you are required to hit sentinels with it in either arena!

Tyler –

Jayson – Crazy card, probably has my vote as the best single-aspect card in the first set, or at least the top 5. So flexible, and in the 4 drop slot that lots of decks want more of. Han Leader also loves this guy, setting him up a turn early to wreck havoc on both lanes. Give this guy some extra luggage racks and the sky is the limit, baby.

Justin – Here’s your staple cheap Force trait unit! The biggest implication is being able to jam Guardian down at many points in the game before using powerful effects like Force Throw, but you’re also generally fine with a 2/2 body for 2 that can get a little bit of ramp with upgrades. This will likely be a staple for blue force decks.

Tyler –

Jayson – Really solid piece, and one that Force decks needed to be a thing in this first set. I figured we’d get a neutral Force unit, but I didn’t have it on my bingo card that the ability would be this relevant. Upgrade ramp is juicy, especially with all these dope lightsabers floating around. Worth noting- Hero Force decks are already predominantly Blue, but on the villain side, that keyword has mostly lived in Red so far. It’ll be interesting to see what color combos emerge, but my guess is that this takes the value of the Force trait on units like Ezra down a peg. Early Force decks will almost certainly be Red/Blue, on both sides of the Hero/Villain split.

Lastly we got our second Showcase Leader art reveal in Chewbacca! Check it out in its non-foil glory (actual card has a fancy foil treatment).

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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?