In case you missed it, FFG announced the SWU Community Event which we will be attending this weekend! We’ll be filming as much as we can, so expect to see some pack-openings, gameplay, and more! Now on to last week’s card reveals!

The first 2 cards were spoiled on the FFG stream last week!

Justin – Green Hero finally got an event, and its plenty spicy! This might be the card that pushes Sabine Command into play, as it was already pretty close. The extra 2 damage pump is nice, but where this card will really shine is the tempo gain of attacking with 2 units at once (or 3 potentially if you use this with leader unit Leia). This should be a staple card in any Hero Command Aggro deck for quite a while.

Tyler – Great card with a lot of general uses. Justin is absolutely right that Green Sabine Machine^TM is coming for us. Unlike Yellow Sabine, that deck will have access to Energy Conversion Lab, the best base in the game. But Rebel Assault will have applications beyond aggro. Any deck with a combo-able “On Attack” ability will want to take advantage. Think attacking with Luke and shielding the 2nd attacking unit for a clean kill. Value!

Jayson – Hold me mama, I’m in love. Finally puts Medal Ceremony to bed, I think. Justin predicted that Rebel would be the strongest keyword in this set, and I think he might be onto something…

Justin – Thematically love this card, functionally I’m not sure I’ll ever want to play it in game. Since the opponent gets to choose which card sticks to hand, it’s not exactly a Waylay and Vanquish combined since the better target will always be the one that gets bounced to hand. Not quite the bomb removal we want.

Tyler – I’m not as Low on Lando ^TM as Justin is. First, it’s a “trick” event so there’s synergy with Jabba who can tutor it and reduce its cost. Second, a two-for-one Waylay just isn’t bad. If I pay 6 to bounce two units that cost a combined 10+, that’s value. Where I expect this to find a home is in the yet unformed Villain Yellow/Blue pairing.

Jayson – Well first of all, Villain Yellow/Blue is plenty formed, people just aren’t hip to it yet, and it does fit in nicely. I also think Justin’s concern about the opponent getting a choice is a little overblown- this is really a pretty inconsequential decision in a lot of cases, since no matter what both cards leave the board.
Do these distinctions matter enough to make I Had No Choice earn a slot? Well, uh, probably not I would think. I’m famously pretty low on cards that don’t do a ton even if they’re priced well, and this has the opposite problem- despite it offering great value potential on paper, I just think it’s too big to not be clunky. Removal should be accessible, and really, no 7 cost card qualifies as that.

The next cards was spoiled on FFG Social media

Justin – Obvious thematic synergies with the next card below! While I don’t see huge reasons to be playing this card yet, I could see a world in a few sets where this card can combo really well.

Tyler – Retrieving from the discard should cost a little more than 1 (similar to a draw) so to get ahead on value, you’ll need to get back at least two units. That’s not impossible, but the timing will often be wrong. Combined with that fact that retrieving a card for resources is a negative tempo play and you’ll likely forfeit initiative doing it, the use cases for the Emperor’s Legion are narrow. Perhaps a control deck featuring the Emperor will be the place, but we’ll likely need better “when defeated” units to make that happen. Big fan of this art, though – combined with the dark green border, you can really taste the malevolence.

Jayson – Depending on how bad of a day you’re having, this could be the most efficient card draw effect in the game! How often will it hit that ceiling? Hard to say. How often will it have a really low floor? Fairly often. Absolutely one to keep an eye on for a future Villain/Command weenie deck though.

Finally ,we got the big guy on FFG social media at the end of last week!

Justin – The big boy is here, and we finally have our last Leader! While some people were initially underwhelmed by him, I think he’ll be a scary good Leader for the Control archetype. The part that worries me most is how prevalent aggro decks generally tend to be, and that Palpatine will likely have a very tough time playing into them. I’m definitely excited to try though!

Tyler – Palp was not what I expected him to be- in fact, he’s far more interesting! His leader side probably won’t be used much. Sure, he’ll make your Superlaser Techs or Admiral Mottis die on time, but that’s probably a once-a-game activity. Where he’s at his most effective, and most interesting, is his flip turn. The ability to steal your opponent’s best unit will drive the flow of the game. I still feel in my bones that we’re missing a piece to make a true control deck with him viable, but the outline is much clearer now.

Jayson – Sheev is here and they’ve designed him appropriately big and splashy. Phenomenal job with the intersection of theme and mechanics, which we’ve certainly come to expect from the design so far.
Look, this Leader is gonna win tournaments, especially early. Not respecting him, not having a gameplan for him, is just going to be untenable because he has such a massive impact on the board when we deploys. If you’re not pretty close to winning already by the time Palp enters the fray, he can and will lock you out. Because this deploy is an “I Win” button against several decks in the field, I think he joins Sabine as one of our gatekeepers to test against. If you can handle Beanie, you can handle most aggro, and if you can handle Palp, you know your gameplan against control is solid. I’m glad he exists. I expect him to punish those who’ve forgotten he’s around, and fall in the Swiss rounds against fields of players who haven’t.

Justin – We got our last Double Aspect card as well! Love the art on Saw, and one of my favorite Star Wars characters of the last decade. An interesting ability with a decent statline of 5/4 at 4 resources definitely makes him playable in Double Aggression decks, but I’m still not sure what the best version of that will be. When you go Hero Double Aggression, you definitely want to play the Aggro archetype, but you end up hurting your best card (For a Cause I Believe in) because you can’t run enough hero cards to give it favorable hit rates. It’s likely Villain will run it best, which always makes me laugh seeing Saw and the partisans running alongside given their Imperial hate.

Tyler – I’m in the same boat at Justin in that I like Saw for his stats and ability, but not sure what deck he belongs in. I just can’t see giving up a second color for Aggression and Saw. (We don’t like to talk about Rallying Cry.)

Jayson – This boat is getting crowded, for sure. Completely agree with my counterparts, so I’ll use this space to whine- when it comes to mono, I don’t care about power levels right now as much as I care about the fact that I just don’t find it interesting whatsoever. Truly don’t know how to explain it, but I have no interest in exploring that space at all. For those of you who do find it intriguing, I look forward to your emancipation…but I wouldn’t hold my breath for it being in Set 1.

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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?