Welcome to the THIRD episode of SWU OVER/UNDER, where the GarbageRollers crew tackles various topics related to the game and decides whether they’re OVERRATED, UNDERRATED, or PROPERLY RATED. This format lets us yap about almost anything, and as always we’ve got some spicy meatballs to chew on today…including some secondary market talk.

As with any internet opinion, we encourage you to take these…takes (??) with a grain of salt. Let us know in the comments how off-base you think we are but keep it professional. You know we at the GarbageRollers always do. 

To start out this episode, it’s time to get fancy.

GAMEGENIC SWU ACCESSORIES

Justin – I am absolutely torn on this. There are some amazing product lines, but the entire range is far from without flaws. I’m going to think outside the box on this one and break it down by each product category…

• Deck Pods: These suckers are gosh darn sexy and do everything I want in a card and token storage solution, with a premium feel, and a compact sizing to fit all those tiny table spaces at big tournaments. My only complaint on these so far would be that some of them seem to have less quality control and the slide case (leader) slot is far too tight, and I also would have loved it if the token tray had some kind of compartments in it due to how many different tokens we use in this game. – PROPERLY RATED
• Playmats: The 2 player mat and Galactic Ambition mat are both absolute bangers with zones and function. I really like the X-wing mat, but the blurriness for motion in the Tie fighter Mat is a bit weird. – UNDERRATED
• Acrylic Tokens: WHY ARE THERE NO 3’S!?!? Single sided and lack of 3’s really plagues my desire to use these. They’re pretty acrylic at a solid price, but I don’t expect these to be in the conversation for my go-to tokens. – OVERRATED
• Sleeves: The art sleeves are real great in my use thus far, and far better quality than any art sleeves I’ve used in the past from other companies. I’m not a fan of outer sleeving though, and I do expect these to show enough wear over time to not be a good tournament opton. Picked up a few packs of the Gamegenic prime matte line, but the backs aren’t fully opaque so I’m not sure those are going to be useable either. – PROPERLY RATED
• Soft Crates: Most of us are too busy getting deck pods to realize these are actually a real solid product. The included token box is also a nice touch, and I think these are the primo value option of the lineup. – UNDERRATED

Tyler – For this one, I gotta take the OVERRATED. The lack of 3s in the token set really hurts their utility. I also don’t feel like I have enough shield or experience tokens.

Jayson – Well, you know Justin’s an accessory head when asking him to contribute to this article on this subject launched him into a full product review. I don’t think that guy ever missed an episode of Pimp My Ride. As for me? I’m less interested in an item by item breakdown than I am in loudly proclaiming this entire Gamegenic partnership UNDERRATED. It’s just so cool that the game is launching with the accessories already so fleshed out. And for my part, I actually love my token set, warts and all. I do wish there were 3s, and I do think one set feels little skimpy, but aesthetically it’s hard to imagine me liking a token set more. The entire line is so slick to look at, and (mostly) to use.

SELLING YOUR SHOWCASE

Justin – These are already tanking in value, and I’m a big “experience” guy in the TCG world. There’s nothing like opening that awesome, shiny, chase card, and that memory is pretty sour if it just paid for some more cards. You bet I’ll be the guy jamming IG-88 games for weeks if I open a showcase. OVERRATED.

Tyler – I can’t see how selling a showcase could possibly be overrated right now. When you could get hundreds of dollars? Sell sell sell! UNDERRATED.

Jayson – When I found out about Showcases, I was fully on the “sell” train. Then…I saw one in person. Sorry, but this is OVERRATED, and if I ever pull one of these bad boys you can pry it out of my cold dead hands. But don’t worry. Years of cracking packs with virtually no luck to speak of has taught me that statistics are meaningless and I’ll never pull one.

HARDCORE PRERELEASE COMPETITION

Justin – I was at pre-release to just have fun playing cards and teach new people the game. Tyler may still be a bit sour I beat him in the finals of our pre-release though with a deck I said was probably worse than his before the game. OVERRATED.

Tyler – Taking competition seriously in a pre-release is definitely OVERRATED. That’s why I let Justin win on Saturday. (editors note: no other reason? k)

Jayson – Maybe I’m not hanging out with the right crowd, but virtually everyone I met this past weekend was so chill and just thrilled to be playing a Star Wars game again. Even with some prizing on the line, everyone was excellent to each other, which means my locals have PROPERLY RATED the totally silly idea of going hard in the paint at a noob-friendly event. I hope I continue to meet players so gracious.

TEACHING SWU TO NEW PLAYERS

Justin – The more the merrier! Can’t wait to see how the community grows, and I hope like Star Wars Destiny was, this will always be a welcoming community that has a blast playing the game together! UNDERRATED.

Tyler – 100% UNDERRATED. Teaching SWU to new players is a great experience. That I was able to teach my wife and daughter in 5 minutes should tell you something about how accessible this game is!

Jayson – Most people have PROPERLY RATED how easy this is to do and how rewarding it can be. I especially like how the turn structure so quickly solidifies itself in players minds most of the time. It makes it easy to teach through active play. I would actually say this is the easiest TCG to teach…ever. Here’s hoping that translates into popularity. Frankly, it should.

CHIRRUT IMWE (ONE WITH THE FORCE – SOR #004)

Justin – I know I can count on Tyler to overrate him down there below me, but I think the community at large has him PROPERLY RATED. He’s a solid leader, with a big potential upside in coming out at 5 and being an upgrade work-horse. If his Leader side had any impact outside of Sentinels, I suspect he’d be in Tier 1 consideration!

Tyler – Chirrut is my great Blue/White hope. I am positive there’s a Tier 1 deck out there for him, it just has to be found and built. He’s my favorite build-around leader. UNDERRATED.

Jayson – Maybe this is dumb, but I still feel like Chirrut is kind of doomed to languish in combo land, though in fairness the potential combos could be pretty insane. I adore his design, but my hesitancy comes from my placing a premium on a relevant Leader ability, and Chirrut’s is just so niche. Many Chirrut decks would work really well in Luke too, where you wait an extra turn to gain 3 stat points and an ability that can take over the game more reliably. Hang me if you wish, but for the moment I gotta call Chirrut a touch OVERRATED.

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That’s all folks! We’ll see you next time for another riveting episode of OVER/UNDER!