Welcome back to some more spoiler review & first impressions! It’s been a few weeks and given the speedy nature of this spoiler season, we’re about 45 cards behind! We’re going to tackle about 20 of them, and come back next week to catch up hopefully fairly quickly.

Justin – Well, it looks like the Capture mechanic is already going to have some wild plays available. Relentless Pursuit does a good job of mirroring The Force is With Me in doing two very different things and offering a shield for protection, but that shield for protection will stick since the unit is not attacking making the capture all the more annoying. The cost restriction will avoid any crazy Star Destroyer captures for the most part, but this will still be a pretty big tempo boost for a deck like Boba/Green that ramps out Boba early and can then capture your strongest unit (or a pesky sentinel) and keep swinging!

Tyler – This card seems like a solid tool against aggro. Those decks are likely unprepared to attack a powerful unit to get the captive back. However, it will get less useful the more control-ly and removal-heavy your opponent is. On top of its usefulness, I love trait synergy and am pleased to see it here!

Jayson – Great theme, great art, and probably the most compelling capture card we’ve seen yet. That said, it does have echoes of some other more conditional removal like Strike True- because its potency is tied in some ways to your own board state, it may have a problematic floor.

Justin – This might be my favorite common in the set before and we’re only 20% of the way through card reveals! The funniest combo will definitely be returning your damaged Bossk after he’s ambushed in to trigger his ability which allows you to deal 3 damage to a unit and then 2 damage to a unit. Hard to think that won’t clear an opponent’s board or get close to it!

Tyler – OMG. You can bounce and replay Fett’s Firespray. Or the Falcon. Or Krrsantan. There are so many good options. Hard to imagine this won’t be a meta staple.

Jayson – This is a stupid, stupid card, and I’m very scared. Whoever is the first to crack this bad boy is in for a good time.

Justin – What’s not to love about a Crafty Smuggler with potential upside? If Capture ends up being a powerful meta mechanic, I’m pretty confident L3 will find their way in to every Hero Cunning deck.

Tyler – Yeah, this seems like a 1-1 power creep over Crafty Smuggler for Hero. The designers keep hinting that there’s a leader who reduces smuggle costs, so her ability might become relevant there as well.

Jayson – This confirms for me that Lando is our Smuggle cost reducing Leader. I’ll be shocked if he’s not besties with this gal. This is a fantastic character and it’s nice to see it get the star treatment.

Justin – This card reminds me of Mercenary Company in Set 1 that will feel fairly strong in limited play, but likely not enough to see constructed. Bounties should be plentiful when drafting or playing sealed within set 2 only, so you’re likely able to hit the ability more often to get real good value.

Tyler – Solid draft bomb, but probably understatted for constructed. Maybe with ECL or Timely Intervention you can get value by procing the ability twice and simultaneously activating the Grit.

Jayson – Worth noting that this is just straight up a free Open Fire if you ECL it in. That didn’t help Zeb very much, but hey, times change, and this is a little more flexible.

Justin – Obviously GI is going to be a huge fan of this card, but I won’t be surprised if this card finds some love in other constructed decks. A 3/6 body for 5 that swings for 6 on attack and has overwhelm is fairly strong. Hero aggro would have been in love if it had the hero aspect as well!

Tyler – So many potential uses here for these well-stat-ed Mandos. Mandalorian synergizes with Bo-Katan. Trooper could get hooked by Tagge. Don’t forget that the overwhelm ability can be activated by Shields and Experience upgrades!

Jayson – Just when we thought Grand Inquisitor stocks couldn’t rise faster. Very cool card and it seems pretty likely to me that this will find slots in Premier.

Justin – While 4 attack is an enticing stat for hero aggro decks, Echo Base Defender has mostly phased out of aggro decks due to the similar 3 health. Being a red card does it give it extra synergy with Fighters for Freedom, so maybe if more mandalorian tribal cards show up in the aggro segment, this could find a spot there. Otherwise, you’ll probably exclusively see this in whaever Mandalorian tribal deck comes out on top for constructed.

Tyler – Since the stats and abilities seem on curve, utility here probably rests on the Smuggling keyword. Again, maybe there will be a way to reduce that cost and make Ms. Nite Owl more impactful.

Jayson – Another day, another ballin’ piece of French Carlomagno art. Just hand that guy the keys to the kingdom, already. This is 100% a tribal piece for Mando decks, but there’s worst things to be.

Justin – A slightly different Wolffe that also has the hero aspect, hero aggro probably loves Ketsu as a replacement for Fang Fighter that will work with For a Cause I Believe In.

Tyler – 3/2 is a super useful statline and since Shields and Experience can get removed by her ability, it’s hard to see her not getting pretty universal usage.

Jayson – 2/3/2 Saboteur in Hero is all this really needed to be relevant, but we get some ballin’ traits and a little bit of upgrade tech. Good stuff.

Justin – This feels like it will be one of the better capture cards. Since it can capture any non-leader unit in the same arena regardless of cost, you can easily lock down a lane with your Star Destroyer or big ground unit with this card.

Tyler – It’s hard not compare this to Strike True, which hasn’t seen a ton of constructed play. If you have a unit big enough to protect your captive, why wouldn’t you just play Strike True and kill it instead? Maybe the niche here is in countering upgraded units that are otherwise hard to remove?

Jayson – Capture’s floor is discarding all upgrades on a unit. I think that’s worth factoring in as we analyze the cards. This is, with some very minimal additional hoops to jump through, Green Waylay. I think there’s a good chance it sees play, and if nothing else, will be a Limited staple in this set.

Justin – The dream is to drop this guy round 1 for 2 resources after your opponent plays a unit with a bounty on it. Realistically that probably won’t be a viable option more than a handful of games, so are we happy with a blank 3/4 unit for 2 in the mid to late game? Potentially in the right deck.

Tyler – A solidly stated unit for decks running lots of bounties. Not much else to say except that I like the artwork!

Jayson – I’m all about boring units with good stats, so sign me up. Ought to be a real player in the inevitably decimating green Bossk deck.

Justin – One of the devs mentioned each color would be getting a 1 drop Bounty unit. They all have pushed stats with the downside of a bounty your opponent can redeem. I’m not sure the 1 drops will see much play, but the more pushed mid-game units will likely be the sweet spot that sees play IMO.

Tyler – This cycle of bounty units seems like great value. You get the tangible value of the overstated unit now, and your opponent gets what might be a useful card at a future time. Money.

Jayson – I really do tend to agree with Tyler that I kind of don’t care about my opponent getting a card a lot of the time, especially past a certain point. Maybe that philosophy will sneakily lose me games, but for the moment I’m high on this cycle of cards. Go on. Kill my 1/2/3 Restore 1, lol.

Justin – A 4/6 Sentinel ain’t going to cut it boss. While a lot of the smuggle cost on units feels safe, I’m going to patiently wait for them to get pushed more into the playable range.

Tyler – We’re way under on stats here. For 6, we should be getting a 6/6 sentinel (or at least something like Academy Defense Walker with a scalable ability.) I get the use case for playing an emergency Sentinel out of nowhere, but that seems like a get-behind-stay-behind kind of play that you don’t want to plan on. Unless Smuggle turns out to be an incredibly lucrative keyword, this isn’t seeing constructed play.

Jayson – I love this card because I’m tired of Green Villain getting good stuff and this is kinda trash. You love to see it!

Justin – Hero blue just got a whole lot slower and tankier. Protector on this guy is basically Chewbacca on steroids! This will likely be a double blue hero staple.

Tyler – Oh, boy. My man Chirrut is going to live FOREVER. It’s hard not to see this as a lynchpin in a Hero Mono Blue deck with cards like Protector. Given my fetish for unit healing, can’t wait to play with this one.

Jayson – Why would you print this card when Tyler Fultz exists? Terrible decision making going on up there in Minnesota. I’m skeptical that this guy is actually good, but I’m going to lose to it, which means I hate it.

Justin – Interesting to note you can’t smuggle this unit in if you have no other units on the board. Since it isn’t in play when you’re paying the cost of deal 4 damage to a friendly unit, it can’t be smuggled in that situation. Outside of that, it’ll be interesting to see what kind of crazy combos we can do with giving our whole field grit.

Tyler – This is the first card we’ve seen with a really juicy Smuggle price point. I can’t see why you wouldn’t resource this for the Smuggle play later. The deal 4 damage is basically just a buff thanks to First Light’s Grit-giving ability. I think this will see a lot of play!

Jayson –This ought to be a delightful top end for our boy Director Krennic, who is watching this set’s career with great interest. My best guess is that this card is fantastic. It has a ton of use cases and the price is right.

Justin – I’m currently very underwhelmed, but I could definitely see myself changing the tune after we see more of the mandalorian card pool. An extra 1-2 damage on a stick every round sounds like it could be decent, but we have to see how good a mostly mandalorian deck can be before we get close to achieving that.

Tyler – The best leader comparison we have is Luke. Stats and price point are the same, so we’re comparing abilities, which seem pretty equivalent. On Bo’s leader side, you get 1 free damage (which is less useful than a shield) but Luke makes you pay. On the unit side, Bo generates two damage and Luke adds a comparable shield. I think Bo’s playability simply comes down to how consistently you can attack with a Mandalorian unit. (editor’s note: John Madden isn’t dead, he’s playing SWU for the Dallas Fort Worth podcast)

Jayson – Free damage is a big deal no matter which way you slice it, but as Justin noted, she by definition will live and die by the Mandalorian cardpool. My early takes on her decks have actually left me pretty optimistic, with cards like Ketsu and Sabine already holding down the fort. She ought to be a blast to play with.

Justin – Hero gets a waylay that combos with For a Cause, what’s not to love? Whether units with bounties attached to them become common in the meta is yet to be seeen, I suspect this card will see plenty of play regardless.

Tyler – Straight power creep over Waylay, which gets played all the time. Run 2-3 in every Hero Yellow deck indefinitely.

Jayson – Nothing to add. Waylay with upside. Show me the Carfax.

Justin – In before one of the below do the classic “dies to removal.” IG-11 has some solid stats, but the abilities mostly want him to stay in play (outside of the capture ability that will likely never be proc’d by an opponent when impactful). Theme is absolutely nailed on this card, and I can’t wait to play him a lot in drafting set 2!

Tyler – On-curve stats and a solid damage ability. Would I like a repeatable Tarkintown? Yes. This one can even damage leaders! Only downside is that at five health, he can get Takedown-ed.

Jayson – Seems okay until you realize he dies to removal. What a chump. (jk, seems good)

Justin – Follower of the way being decent completely requires you dropping an upgrade on him asap. With how upgrade focused Mandalorians are, I’m curious to see if they’ll get any help to combat all the bounce and capture effects that are likely to exist.

Tyler – I like the cost/benefit here. Slightly under curve with no upgrade, but with an experience or other upgrade, he’s over at 2/4. With something this general purpose, hard to imagine it won’t find a meta home somewhere.

Jayson – In my experience, people don’t draft Blue very much, and this guy is good enough to where seeing a few of him might make for a compelling pivot at your local draft table. But does he excite me? Hardly.

Justin – I love everything about this card…the theme, the pushed stats with a potentially big consequence, chef’s kiss. While we’re already starting to see some cards spoiled that make Dr. E look worse, I’m expecting he’ll still likely see play as a great early game unit that always gets resourced late.

Tyler – This card is just the epitome of risk/reward. Big props to the designers for swinging for the fences! I love it!

Jayson – A hysterical masterpiece of design, and I bet the team was itching to spoil it. I’m on the “Dr. E is very good” train, but it’s been hilarious to see how many people will disagree about that until they turn blue. Even at his ceiling, you better play him carefully. If you do, you’ll be rewarded.

Justin – Our first 2 cost Sentinel! Vigilance doesn’t hate to see it, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this pop up in a lot of the late game control decks.

Tyler – Pyke is over curve with one more health than he should have at cost 2. I Imagine that will push it into constructed play. Low-cost Sentinels make good homes for upgrades like Electrostaff, so I’m excited about this guy!

Jayson – If this fella fails to earn slots, my hunch is that it’ll be because the Underworld trait fails to get enough support and traits end up mattering across the board. That outcome feels, uh, pretty specific, so my guess is this guy turns out to be a workhorse!

Justin – Thankfully this doesn’t require Mandalorian units, and can even grab another copy of itself. Hard to say how good this will be without many Mandalorian cards spoiled, but the fact that this exists has me excited to see what all we get!

Tyler – This is a 1-1 Mandalorian copy of Prepare for Takeoff, which didn’t see much play in set 1. However, that likely had more to do with the small vehicle cardpool than it did with the underlying math. Assuming we can fill a deck with enough Mandalorian/Upgrade cards, this should be a staple for those decks.

Jayson – Solid math as Tyler notes. It’ll be interesting to see whether a Mandalorian/Upgrade shell needs draw badly enough to run this, but it’s good enough that it’ll be explored for darn sure.

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Thanks for reading! What cards are you most excited about?