The Garbage Rollers team picks the best 16 cards in the game in a conversational snake-draft.

Tyler (@DJStormtrooper) —

Welcome to the Garbage Rollers Fantasy Draft! We’re taking a gamified approach to making a tier list today by doing it snake-draft style.

For those unfamiliar, on their turn each competitor will pick a card from the existing pool. The card goes onto their “team.” Once everyone has picked once, the order will reverse and we’ll pick again.

For this draft, we’re doing four cards each, with each player having to pick one Ground Unit, one Space Unit, an Event, and an Upgrade. It’s up to the players to define what “best” means and to defend their picks as the absolute best 4 card team! We hope y’all as the readers will sound off at the poll at the bottom on who you think did the best!

Justin (@Inception) and Jayson (@ImpossibleGerman) are here, PLUS special guest Mike Gemme (@BobbySapphire) from KTOD!

Random.org says our pick order is:

1. Justin
2. Mike
3. Tyler
4. Jayson

Justin

I’d be a loser not to pick the card people have been calling to be banned since we had only 65 cards in the game. That’s right, pick #1 is Overwhelming Barrage, baby!

Tyler

I can’t disagree at all. It’s an amazing card with huge range and flexibility.

Jayson

The public will be on your side! It’s on my list but wouldn’t have been my first grab. There’re other events I’m more concerned about, believe it or not, so I’m happy to see you out of this category. 😎

Mike

I think OB is amazing, but like the Texans I’m glad to see you take it #1 overall. It has all the intangibles but relies too much on hype and its career before all the cards were spoiled. Backbreaking when you ramp into it after sticking an early drop, but outclassed pretty easily by some of the other best cards.

With the #2 pick we’re taking the best ground unit, unit, and non-base card in the game Darth Vader, Commanding the First Legion – my dude has the best ability: Ambush, the best traits: Force, Imperial, and he can wombo-combo pulling cards like Death Trooper to kill a 7 HP unit and Stormtrooper Lieutenant to trigger a double attack. What an absolute monster.

Justin

Can’t argue with that, he was who I really wanted to take #1, but I feel like there is a group of several strong ground units right there with him. He checks all the boxes on what I look for in my 6+ units, and I’m almost never hesitant to play him on 7+ resources.

Tyler

Really strong pick. He’s clearly under-costed for what he does.

Jayson

No surprises so far, and a pretty strong statement out of the gate that the first two cards are both Villain/Green. Whatcha got Tyler?

Tyler

I’ve gotta codify Boba/Green dominance by going with Fetts Firespray . It’s got big stats for a space unit, comes in ready, and even combos with ECL. It’s probably the biggest reason nobody plays Thrawn. I might agree with Thork that this is the first card to get a balance adjustment.

Jayson

Yup. Right near the top of my space list, too.

If Boba/Green really does bottom out at 50% matchups with the rest of the field as some folks are speculating, this is obviously the most problematic piece of the puzzle. Did a leader as well rounded as Boba need a kicker this strong? It’s hard to say, but until further notice, Firespray run in a Boba deck is the game’s premier space unit- almost without contest.

Though I do have a close second place in mind…

Justin

I can already see the card Jayson is eyeing as his 2nd best space unit in the game, and I completely disagree… but that’s not where we’re at yet! It’s safe to say Fett’s Firespray is one of the best space units in the game, and I would speculate it will be the best space unit in the meta for set 1. There’s one space unit might put ahead of it in a vacuum, but Firespray’s synergy with the strong villain Cunning card pool gives it the nod in my books as well.

Mike

I gotta give it up for Fett’s Firespray, what a ship. I think it is just slightly held back because of how limited it’s area of play is.

Jayson

I’m gonna game the system a little bit here- the next best cards in the game are not upgrades, but my number one upgrade in the game is, to my eye, substantially stronger than every other upgrade, so for the sake of my overall draft I’m sniping it now. That card, of course, is Jedi Lightsaber, which can singlehandedly terraform the board with those potent 1v1 buffs. The -2/-2 thing in tandem with the stat boosts just gives so much reach. Yoda one shots Boba as long as he’s packing this heat. It’s likely to be a staple in Hero Force decks for a long time.

Tyler

Dammit! I was hoping this would wheel. It was top of my upgrade list as well. It’s leaps and bounds better than its Villain counterpart. Chirrrut is a menace with this baby.

Mike

Lightsaber is a bold upgrade choice and I love it. Also love that my top choices are still available!

Justin

It’s an interesting topic of conversation whether the “best” can have a narrow application, or if “best” revolves around being the best in many places. Always fun to see the different ways people apply it! Jedi Lightsaber is def an amazing Upgrade and would likely be auto-include in every blue deck ever if there wasn’t so much upgrade hate in Set 1!

Jayson

The thing is, we must pick an upgrade, and all that upgrade hate applies to all the other ones as well. Gotta go for the one with the most upside!

I get to pick again, which means I’m able to decide which category of my three has the biggest gap between what’s available and the cards that come after.

I can pitch for lots of other events and ground units, but to my eye, there’s another gap between the spaceship I’m eyeing and the other picks. I’m selecting Ruthless Raider. It’s got reach, board control, lane dominance, and when you deal with it you get punished for that too. It’s a monster, and virtually nothing in the game feels good to use against it.

Mike

Great pick. I had this higher than Firespray, actually, and it’s a bomb with Sneak Attack.

Justin

A good choice, though I feel it suffers from existing in the villain red pool that just rarely sees play in the Set 1 meta given how great Cunning and Command are.

Tyler

It combining with Sneak Attack was a fun theme win for the designers.

For my second pick, I’m gonna go to ground with Obi-Wan Kenobi. The more I play with the card, the more busted it seems. Having a Force unit to pair it with in Hero Blue is not that hard, and since his death creates so much value, it feels like you’re getting a 4/6 sentinel for 3. The best Sentinel in the game.

Justin

Obi-wan can be backbreaking to a lot of decks coming down on 6. A solid choice, though I didn’t have him this high!

Mike

Obi is amazing, only knock against him is the insane lengths people will go to in order to prevent his trigger from taking over the game, which is also kind of a strength…

Tyler

I’m fairly certain my last two picks will wheel, so wanted to get him now.

Jayson

The design team seems to agree with you, having told us that Obi is still making constructed decks in later set playtests. He is amazing, but he wasn’t on my board. Curious to see what Bobby grabs.

Mike

I was hyped to take my top event here until I realized Justin already taking an event means my event is safe. So, I’m taking my number one upgrade here: Luke’s Lightsaber – It’s power level relative to cost is hitherto undreamt of in the SWU! Obviously, it’s not a versatile card which is something I look for when calling something “best” but fully healing and shielding any Luke is bonkers.

Justin

damnit I knew you were going to take it.

Mike

It’s only going to get better too.

Justin

Luke’s lightsaber is 100% the biggest blowout upgrade in the game. Going back to the Firespray conversation, its amazingness is narrow, but damn is it amazing.

The 8 Luke deck will squash the 8 Vader deck for sure

Tyler

Lolz

Agree. Timed right it’s a complete game changer. Where I might push back is that one-shotting leaders is a thing: see the rise of one Steadfast Battalion. The opportunities to play this will be limited.

Jayson

Ah, same reasoning as Ruthless Raider over Firespray for me personally- broader application. The ceiling on LL is full on crazy though.

Justin

Well the dropoff from Top 2 to the 3rd upgrade is quite steep, but its even steeper to the 4th upgrade IMO, so I’ll have to go with Entrenched for my 2nd pick. It’s the most flexible upgrade, giving you a defensive tool if you need to stop your opponent’s huge unit in the space lane. You can also go for the classic “play it on your own unit and get a dominant force in your lane of choice.” The flexibility is what kept this card relevant for so long, though I think it’s hard to see nowadays given the small space for upgrades in a deck.

Mike

I need to give Entrenched a fair shake. It could solve some of my issues with weak two-drops in Villain Blue

Jayson

It’s funny- Upgrades have gone in the precise order I predicted. There’s really a pretty clear separation there

I think Tyler’s upgrade choice is clear. We’ll see if he goes where I think he should!

Tyler

I think Entrenched’s falloff as of late has been part of the reason Fett’s Firespray is so in-season. In the smaller cardpool, everyone ran Entrenched and those big space units could just get bricked by this 2-cost upgrade.

I thought Guardian of Whills would bring sexy upgrades back, but that doesn’t seem to have happened.

Justin

Well, I feel the ground unit space is deeper, so I’m going to go ahead and pick what I view as the best space unit in the game, the Millennium Falcon.  The only reason this card isn’t everywhere is because hero yellow has one of the worst card pools in the game. It’s so good at 3 and has a lot of flexibility.

Mike

I was curious where the Falcon would go. This card is obviously super strong — the fact that an opponent of mine attacked with three different Falcons against me in one turn is a testament to its raw, untamed power. My only knock against it is that it can get outclassed stat-wise quickly.

Tyler

The flexibility of the Falcon will keep it in the A-tier of vehicles indefinitely. Love the synergy with Han, as well.

Jayson

Yeah, great pick, and neck and neck with Raider when I took mine. I feel like the three space units picked so far can be debated between as best, but the gap comes after Falcon for sure. All three of them are outstanding.

Mike

Alright then I’m going to windmill slam my top Event, which might not be the most powerful event in Spark, but it’s the one carrying an entire archetype on it’s back: For A Cause I Believe In

Jayson

Dammit 🤦‍♂️

Justin

Yeah, I considered For A Cause, but I’ve never seen a villain green deck that didn’t run OB. There are a few aggro decks, that some members of KTOD were even saying, belonged at the top and did not run for a cause! While I fully expect the best aggro deck to end up running it, it’s hard to ignore the power of double red Sabine not running it!

Mike

Even I have come around and put it in my red Sabine. It’s too good!

Tyler

FaCIBI’s power is not just that it reliably burns for 3-4 damage, but that it actively allows you to tutor the next card that burns 3-4 damage whether that be another For a Cause or K2SO. I’ve never seen a burn card this good before.

You could be 10 damage away from death and still lose thanks to this!

Jayson

Sadly, your only options for verbally identifying the card are to navigate a 6-word lingual ball pit or engage in mild Italian stereotyping.

Say it with me kids: Faciiiiibi

Mike

As half Italian, I’m for this.

Tyler

I’m gonna grab my event next. And if I told you it was a 1-cost, neutral event would you believe me? That’s right I’m talking about Force Throw. This is such a tremendously versatile card. You can deplete your opponent’s hand in conjunction with K2SO and Forced Surrender or you can fling a big unit from your own hand to one-shot a leader. Now that Chirrut is with us, we can reliably have the Force unit we need to trigger it.

Justin

That’s wild to me, because at this point I think I peg Force Lightning as the better 1 cost red Force event. It’s no doubt Force Throw has been a strong card since its reveal and had major meta implications, but I find it super rare that the discarding an opponent’s card matters much and would much rather have the flexibility to remove the abilities of something with lightning.

Jayson

Lightning for 1 to blank a dude is great as is- the emergency damage is almost just a bonus. But in terms of raw efficiency, I can kind of understand what Tyler’s on about here. Force Lightning can kill your big dude, but it can’t do it for 1 resource as long as you have a big card in hand.

Mike

I think discard from hand is such a scarce option in the game it realy ratchets up Force Throw’s utility, and it’s really slept on as a Discard 1 card. It of course, has a really high ceiling, and I love that it gives some decks a 1-cost way to take down leaders. No other card comes close to that kind of power, even if it costs an additional card.

Tyler

Force Lightning is also harder to play. Villain force users are less numerous and come out at higher cost points.

Justin

That is a fair complaint, though I don’t expect it to last long past the first set!

Jayson

I have my eye on a few different ground units, but there’s really only one that I can’t find a lot of room to argue against or any real reason not to run in decks with its color- that’d be Boba Fett, Disintegrator, which, despite being pretty staunchly slanted towards control, is simply too strong to be left out of any Villain/Yellow list right now. He can be aggressive, or he can patiently pick off your opponent’s little guys without taking any damage back. He can Shoot First for insane reach, or ECL to get a huge board swing with no response available. Heck, sometimes he just gets rid of a shield before hitting a unit and that’s all you needed. He’s just stacked with stats and utility. He’s 3x… forever?

Assuming Obi-Wan attacks even once, he one-shots him…a 6 drop…and doesn’t even die.

Tyler

It makes me sad how many Boba/Green staples are in this list but it’s hard to argue against them. He does all the things. Even GI can use him.

Justin

I also had Boba near the top of my ground units list, he is mos def the strongest 3-cost ground unit in the game, and he often has late-game play as well.

Mike

Boba Fett is what a legendary rare should look like. Pushed stats, pushed ability. He’s great! I’ve been using him in my Thrawn/Blue deck and loving that synergy as well.

Jayson

Well, to close out my team, I get to pick the best event remaining in the pool. It took me a ton of thought- I probably should have nabbed my event earlier, as I am very comfortable with OB and FACIBI in the top two slots, but there’s seriously four or five things I feel good about here. At the end of the day though, I’m taking No Good To Me Dead, the best tempo tool in the game. It’s one of our gatekeeper cards, as it singlehandedly shuts down a lot of gameplans on its own, including Voltron strategies and going too all-in on your Leader flip to swing the battlefield. It doesn’t win games on its own, but it can both press an advantage when you’re the beatdown, and efficiently buy you time to stabilize when you’re not. I think it’s the best event left on the board.

Justin

I personally value Cunning as the better Event in its space, but No Good to Me Dead is no slouch at 2-cost. A solid pick for sure.

Jayson

I gave Cunning some serious thought, but I believe in Villain/Yellow more strongly than I believe in Yellow/Yellow for the moment- and, terrifyingly, those aren’t mutually exclusive.

Mike

NGTMD is an absolute blowout and I have it higher than Cunning as well. This allows you to freeze a leader and keep on pushing in a way no other decks can. Great call!

Jayson

See guys! Bobby believes in me! Ya mooks…

Tyler

I’m still kind of flabbergasted that NGTMD costs two. When we were early in the reveal cycle, I thought exhaust effects were going to be costed at 1.5, so when this dropped and the standard was set at 1, our conception of what was viable had to change a lot.

I yearn for a good voltron strategy!

My final pick is my upgrade. I was excited to get Jedi Lightsaber early, but Jayson nabbed it one pick ahead of me so here we are. While my heart is with Devotion, the next best upgrade card is probably Traitorous.  It’s not always the play, but when it is, it has a big impact on the board. Yet another reason green (Boba/Green specifically) is so good.

Mike

Traitorous is the pick of the draft. It’s such an absolute blowout and almost always a two-for-one. For this to go in the final round is criminal and I kind of regret not taking it myself lol.

Justin

I can’t wait for the day we get to see John Tatto (@td_jtatta) arguing with Mike about Traitorous, it’ll be a pleasure seeing a new face arguing about it with him! Traitorous is a great card, but it really loses a lot of its upside due to how few upgrade decks exist in the meta given the other upgrade hate already at play outside of Traitorous. It’s a backbreaking play to steal a Yoda with a Jedi Lightsaber, but that play basically doesn’t happen anymore against green or red decks!

Mike

I still think if you steal a 3-drop and it can kill their two drops, you’ve won big

Tyler

Don’t forget the utility of stealing units with shields or experience. They may not be upgrade cards from hand but they’re added value coming over.

Justin

I just don’t see a lot of these situations coming up in the meta, but I’m always eyeing traitorous for when it shows back up.

Mike

I can tell you from experience that when my opponent plays a 2 into a 3 and I play resupply into take init and then traitorous it’s a huge blowout.

Justin

In that specific situation sure.

If I play resupply, I’m pretty happy in general with my options at that point, though.

Mike

I find it common so far. And I’m usually on the losing end of it!

Jayson

My issue with Traitorous is that, as the game’s most expensive upgrade, all the things that are good against upgrades are good against it. A Fang Fighter knocking off your lightsaber really stinks. A Fang Fighter getting rid of Traitorous means you probably just straight-up lose. It’s a great card, and was high on my list, but I do think the extra risk means it went in the correct round.

Mike

Alright I really wrestled with this choice and if I’m making the right move, but Consortium StarViper is my top ship. It’s in the best color, and neutral, so it sees a ton of play. It’s probably the most ECLd card ever, and it’s a staple in almost every green deck because of how heavily it dominates aggro ships. Aggro has to waste another card to kill it, and by then it’s often too depleted to catch up.

Justin

I thought for sure you’d be going Imperial Interceptor, but I can’t argue with the StarViper. If it isn’t maindeck’d, it’s basically in every sidedeck of Green decks. Which is saying a lot considering how strong in general green is as a card pool. Not many single aspect cards see constructed play, but this is one of the pillars!

Mike

I do like interceptor, but StarViper is just such an important card against so many things that will otherwise shut you down.

Jayson

I could never argue for StarViper over other staples like A-Wing, Bright Hope, and Seventh Fleet Defender, but I think the dominance of Green has given its most versatile neutral ship a place in the game. I was pretty low on Viper when it was spoiled, but context, as always, is king.

Justin

I guess I’ll go ahead and close us out, then. There are many contenders for what could be the top ground unit. Luke Skywalker is an absolute bomb of a unit, Greedo is bonkersly good for 1 resource, Bossk has a fantastic ability to combo with his ambush and good stats, you could go with the best 2-drops in the game Sabine Wren or Battlefield Marine, K-2S0 is such a clutch unit for aggro, or even the card that Jaysonboldly claimed to be the best card in the game early on, Leia Organa. But at the end of the day, villain green just cooks so hard, I can’t help but pick Superlaser Technician. Ramp is just fundamentally strong in this game given that it not only pushes us ahead on resource curve, but it also gets us a step closer to deploying our free leader unit a round earlier which can have very big implications.

Very happy I opened a hyperfoil DJ Deathstar this past weekend!

Mike

Can’t argue much with this pick. He’s a premiere card in so many good decks doing something only a couple cards can currently do.

Jayson

Ramp is strong, so why not an extra instance of two damage while you’re at it? SLT is not problematic. It’s merely really, really good.

Justin

Don’t forget that you also get that resource ready, so there are ECL implications at times!

Jayson

Trust me Justin. Nobody forgot 😂

Tyler

DJ Deathstar makes Alliance Dispatchers so, so sad. I can’t believe the resource comes in ready!

Ok, here’s everyone’s final teams (overall pick # in italics):

Justin

Overwhelming Barrage (#1)

Entrenched (#8)

Millenium Falcon (#9)

Superlaser Tech (#16)

Mike

Darth Vader, Commanding the First Legion (#2)

Luke’s Lightsaber (#7)

For A Cause I Believe In (#10)

Consortium StarViper (#15)

Tyler

Fett’s Firespray (#3)

Obi-Wan Kenobi (#6)

Force Throw (#11)

Traitorous (#14)

Jayson

Jedi Lightsaber (#4)

Ruthless Raider (#5)

Boba Fett, Disintegrator (#12)

No Good To Me Dead (#13)

So if you had to vote for one team that wasn’t your own, who would it be?

Justin

It’s between Mike and Jayson for me, and really hard to pick. The coin flip says I pick Mike though!

Jayson

I think I gotta lean towards Justin, who got a little burned on his upgrade but otherwise has pretty undebatable staples on his squad.

Mike

Hmmm as much as I want to vote for mine (I love my cards) I think Tyler actually has the sauce.

Jayson

Oh gosh. We forgot to tell him. Bobby you can’t vote for Tyler. We have to keep gaslighting him so he stops slotting Star Destroyers.

Mike

Lmao

Tyler

Think I gotta break the 3-way tie and vote for Mike. Those cards are meta-defining.

Jayson

No votes for me despite the clear best list. Pure envy, I have to assume.

Tyler

Everybody, what cards would you have picked if we’d had more draft slots?

Jayson

I think the overall card I like the most left on the board is actually K-2S0?

Justin

Upgrades are all used up, space doesn’t get much better. So, it’d have to be some of the aforementioned ground units, or events.

Justin

Leia is so mad at you

What a tease

Tyler

K2SO is sooo versatile

Jayson

It’s almost like the meta changes a lot as players learn and more archetypes get fleshed out! I wouldn’t trade this rapidly evolving game theory we’ve all gotten to be part of over the last few months for anything!

Mike

I would have given love to star destroyers

Tyler

Force Choke was one I was looking at.

I’m also interested to see what Forced Surrender and Bombing Run do.

Jayson

I considered Choke and Lightning both, yeah. Great removal options. Know what else I darn near took? Heroic Sacrifice, which I think is quietly one of the best cards in the set.

Tyler

A card that draws its replacement can’t be overrated.

Ok team, any final thoughts on the draft?

Mike

Draft was a blast! I listen to so many movie podcasts who do this kind of thing and I’ve always wanted to do one! Next time we have to come up with more rounds, probably easily adding in leader and base once there are more to choose from.

Justin

It’s interesting to look back at when we did this with around 100 cards and what was still picked, and what cards weren’t even considered this go-around.

Tyler

Leia?

Justin

Jayson’s #1 pick last time!

Tyler

He was a younger man then, full of Yellow Hero idealism.

Jayson

It hurts.

Thanks for reading! Please leave us a note on who you think drafted the best team here or on the SWU official discord!