Today, we’re rolling out our first Deck Tier list for Star Wars: Unlimited constructed play. We’re really excited about this moment as it’s the culmination of months of work by our team to play and learn as much as we can about the game. If you want to skip straight to the list, you’ll find it permanently on our website here. Otherwise, stick around for an explanation of our methodology.

What’s a Tier List?

A tier list is a grouping of decks into broad competitive categories. The goal isn’t to say “This is the best deck; it’s going to win all the tournaments” but instead to group the meta into chunks based on what each of the decks is capable of. What happens in tournaments is player dependent.

Also, our linked lists aren’t THE BEST 50 card + 10 card sideboards for every deck on this list– these are starting points for each list for testing purposes. The ideal 50+10 for each list will vary with the meta you play in and your playstyle to a degree.

Why are you doing this now? The game isn’t even out yet.

First, we’re really excited about the game and want to put out this content! Second, the game is reaching a critical mass, both in cards available and in community size, where we feel it’s appropriate. With all the Set 1 cards now revealed, the outlines of the meta are visible, so we’re taking a stab at it. Of course, we’ll update as the meta shifts.

How do you define the tiers in your list?

Tier 0: Used only when necessary. Represents broken decks with insufficient counters in the current meta. The only deck you could reasonably take to a tournament.

Tier 1: Decks with all the upsides needed to rack up wins. They have good match-ups in the current metagame, offer different play patterns during a match, and can have explosive or surprising turns. Wins the majority of its games against lower tier decks.

Tier 2: Good decks with a weakness holding them back – either not being as reliable as Tier 1 decks, countered by another popular deck, or being a work in progress. A good pilot could have success with it, but its play patterns are difficult to master.

Tier 3: Leaders/Archetypes with pervasive issues. Could include: underpowered decks, old archetypes in decline, powerful decks that suffer in the current meta, or unreliable combo decks.

Tier 4: Leaders/Archetypes that are competitively non-viable due to a lack of card pool, severe underpowering, or both.

Budget: Decks that contain a minimal number of legendary cards that can still be Tier 1/2 competitive.

How are you going to update?

We plan to update this list every week on Monday, along with breaking down tournament results from the previous week (when we get them.) Tournament results, balance changes by the designers, and deckbuilding innovation will all feed churn within the list. We don’t expect it to stay static.

What’s on this initial list?

As is often the case at the beginning of a competitive meta, aggro decks are strong. Both Sabine and Leia make tier 1. Their best counter thus far seems to be midrange decks taking advantage of Green- in the case, Boba Fett, Director Krennic and Iden Versio. We don’t see a true control deck as tier 1 competitive yet.

Tier 2 features other leaders like Han, Luke, Chirrut, Vader, Palpatine and Grand Inquisitor. With some deckbuilding innovation, these decks could break into Tier 1. That leaves Jyn, Cassian, Thrawn, Chewie, and Hera languishing in Tier 3. We just don’t feel they have the cards to compete for the set 1 meta, although there’s still room for surprises. The only leader we’re relegating to Tier 4 initially is IG-88. His low health, conditional ability, and lack of supporting cardpool don’t give us a lot of confidence.

In the budget tier, we have three competitive decks. Leia/Green aggro contains no legendary cards, so makes this category with no changes from the Tier 1 competitive list. Sabine/Green is also direct copy of its tier 1 self. Finally, Krennic/Red only features two legendaries, the Avenger, in its sideboard. For budget purposes, we’re removing those and substituting two AT-STs.

I don’t see my favorite deck on the list. Where is it?

SWU has a large color pie. With 20 different color archetypes, and even more leader/color combinations, it’s never going to be possible for us to list every deck (even at higher tiers.) What we have tried to do is list all 20 of the color combinations, and each leader, somewhere on the list. Doing that, without making the list unreadably long, required consolidating. Some decks that are Tier 2 competitive (like Tarkin/Red for instance) are reliably outshone by similar decks (in this case Vader/Green), so you’ll only see the latter on the list. Also, the further down the list you go, the less detail there is. If a leader proves themselves more capable than we expect, they’ll move up the list and get a more granular breakdown.

Thanks for reading! Check out the full Tier List here.