Welcome to the FOURTH 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 today, we’re gonna throw in our takes to all the various talks of the town. The game is buzzing out there, but how are people expected to form intelligent opinions without hearing from US? They’re NOT, that’s how!

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, let’s throw a little cold water on the “sleeper” Hera list that cleaned up at locals…

TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Justin – This is a very contextual answer, but currently tournament results are very OVERRATED. From people talking about their 3-0 locals decks, even to the 1k winners we’ve seen thus far, a lot of that player base is at varying skill levels and matchups aren’t holding true. While it’s fun to see what decks are doing well and any spicy “meta killer” decks that people show up with, you have to take most results with a grain of salt.

Tyler – I’m gonna have to go with PROPERLY RATED. I don’t see anyone declaring the meta dead yet. Folks understand that this is still the early in SoR and everything is subject to change. Tournaments are happening in different contexts and even different competitive formats. Besides, I wouldn’t want the meta to firm up this early and crush the dreams of my deck-building Johnny friends only a month in.

Jayson – So sentences like “___ won a 1k in Narnia! META BROKE!” and “Boba didn’t even make cut at that win-a-box in Mordor” are flying fast and furious right about now. I think this is indicative of a major truth about SWU, which is that in any given game, whoever pilots the best is most likely to win. It’s the number one factor, in my opinion, since every deck and archetype has a high skill cap and nothing in the game is a gimme. It doesn’t take much bad piloting to skew the results of an entire event, so for now, I’m going to say that putting a lot of stock into what’s winning these early events is OVERRATED. Not all data is created equal, and I expect that our meta monsters will become quite consistent towards the end of the Set 1 environment.

BUYING PRICY SINGLES (i.e. Vader, Boba, Luke)

Justin – This one’s tough. As someone who got in on the cheap singles in the first week of release, I would hate to be paying these prices right now. But at the end of the day, a lot of these high value cards (Vader, Boba, Luke) are going to retain value for quite a while. Personally, with no competitive events for the first set meta, I’d probably wait for the reprint to try and get them for cheaper and play with what I can borrow/already have for store showdowns. So, I guess I land at OVERRATED.

Tyler – I’m gonna go with OVERRATED. Just borrow from friends when you really need to. You’ll work your way into the singles eventually.

Jayson – You know, it’s just kind of hard for me to envision a scenario where the big 3 (and Falcon, really) stop being staples any time in the next couple of years. They’re also a ton of fun to play with. Viewed through that lens, I totally understand the desire to just go ahead and get them now. I think this is PROPERLY RATED, $80 freaking Vaders and all. There’s no guarantee that prices will even go down that much, even with the reprint imminent.

PRODUCT AVAILABILITY

Justin – I think the community has mostly PROPERLY RATED this issue. While it was great in the first week or two of release that everybody could open as many booster boxes as they wanted, and FFG has done a good job holding back product to keep some available, it’s still a bummer that we won’t be able to draft this sweet sweet game until July. I’ve said it a few times, but FFG really nailed the draft experience in this game, and I would be happy doing mostly drafts each week at the LGS if product was available.

Tyler – The product availability issues really obscured the UNDERRATED fact that FFG not only had a plan for this eventuality, but communicated about it. That’s not something we’d have ever gotten from the old FFG and it shows.

Jayson – It stinks that it’s gotten really hard to find a store with enough product to draft now, but overall, I think people have slightly UNDERRATED how many players were able to get all the product they wanted and how smooth the first couple weeks were. The folks left in the cold have mostly been those who jumped in later, and I feel for them, but hopefully it’s not a lasting issue. The game has just been a smash hit, and I imagine things will stabilize before the year is out.

COMPETITIVE BALANCE

Justin – As a mod in the main SWU Community Discord, I’d put this at a steep UNDERRATED due to how many conversations I read a day about Boba being broken. Personally, I think the meta is in a great spot of about 10 different lists that I could see winning tournaments depending on what decks show up for a tournament and how matchups line up. I think that’s pretty great and hope SWU continues that into the future!

Tyler – OVERRATED. I’m a Johnny so there can never be a flat enough meta for me. I want everything to be competitive at all times so I can build to my heart’s content. That’s not where we are though- Boba and Sabine (and Green more generally) are gatekeeper decks that will keep most of the other leaders from being played competitively, and I wish that wasn’t the case.

Jayson – For a single set meta, it sure does feel like an awful lot of decks are capable of stealing games. Good piloting can pretty much take games against anything as long as you’re bringing something that’s at least Tier 2. That’s the mark of a good design, and I’ll keep preaching that sermon as long as it’s true. The community seems to have mostly gotten on board with that, too, despite some lingering fear over the top decks. Overall, I’d say this is PROPERLY RATED, and I’d also say that FFG did a pretty darn good job overall. Just don’t think about Firespray too hard.

THE GARBAGE ROLLERS

Justin

Justin – OVERRATED.

Tyler – PROPERLY RATED. People assume most things the Garbage Rollers do are his handiwork because: A) They usually are. B) He’s omnipresent in the community. He’s absolutely indispensable to us and the SWU community as a whole- and that’s just fact.

Jayson – What is there to say about our human (editor’s note – citation needed) Excel formula, arithmetic tyrant, and fearless leader? The amount of work Justin does to keep the GarbageRollers train chugging is absolutely invaluable, and our content would probably not exist without his devotion to the cause. He can’t be anything except UNDERRATED. And, this of course, is devastating, because Justin sucks and I hate him.

Tyler

Justin – Is that THE Tyler from The Dallas Fort Worth podcast!? As we always joke about with the Golden Dice Podcast, the Tylers are a crucial comedic element of every Star Wars Unlimited Content Creator. This guy is surely UNDERRATED.

Tyler – Given that I’m a robotic set of hands away from being replaced by a Justin-algorithm, I can’t call myself anything other than OVERRATED. Maybe someday I’ll show signs of innovation that differentiate me from the unwashed masses.

Jayson – Tyler has a sizable fan base (editors note – citation needed), and he’s handsome in ways that stretch the bounds of credulity, but watching him choose which cards to resource during games makes me want to jump off a bridge. Let’s say those factors cancel each other out. PROPERLY RATED.

Jayson

Justin – This lad is simply UNDERRATED, as you may note he has written some of our coolest articles (Interview with Jim, Cantina Decks, etc). It’s a shame we can’t tie this guy up and force him to write more than once a week!

Tyler – This really depends on if we’re rating our Houston-dweller on quality or quantity. He’s written some absolutely fantastic and UNDERRATED articles as Justin notes above, but he also doesn’t write them that much, so I’m inclined to call him OVERRATED. Or maybe we should just agree that this man is having a baby, cut him some slack, and give him a PROPERLY RATED.

Jayson – I am, by some distance, the most OVERRATED member on the team, but apparently I’m good for metrics on the blog, which is the real money-maker of the outfit (editors note – citation needed). I’m not quite buying it though. If any of you figure out why they’re keeping me around be sure to let me know. It sure as heck isn’t my ability to win against Justin.

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