Welcome to Episode 2 of Cantina Decks, our series of thematic budget decks for Star Wars Unlimited!

People responded so enthusiastically to our first set of Cantina Decks. Thank you for all the kind words and support! It turns out there’s lots of reasons why players may want something a little more down to earth. 

What if you want decks that are…

• More suited to the power level at your local store?
• Not super expensive to build? 
• More approachable to pilot? 
• Better suited as teaching decks?
• Ready to rumble for casual games? 

We think those are all perfectly reasonable things for all SWU players to want every now and again. Maybe you’re in the market for those kinds of things and you didn’t even realize it! Whatever your reasons, your friends the GarbageRollers have a solution…the Cantina Deck! 

What’s A Cantina Deck? 

Cantina Decks are a set of decks that are meant to be built together, and are made under a few different restrictions in service of one goal: to help players engage with Star Wars Unlimited.

Cantina Decks are for everybody. For newer players, they’re great first steps into constructed gameplay, and for veterans, they’re easy to throw together and keep around for casual games. As for the specifics, all Cantina Decks share a few guidelines that make them what they are: 

• They have no Legendary cards, making them cheaper to build. 
• They are constructed from a single set, though we’ll note suggestions for older cards that slot in.
• Mostly consistent card divisions, with about 12 events and 12 space units in each deck, to make them easier to pilot. 
• A solid power level, because you never know what you’ll face if you find yourself in a wretched hive of scum and villainy. 
• They’re internally balanced, so you can safely bash them together and expect to have some fun games. 
• They’re a set, meant to be built together and covering all four aspects on both the Hero and Villain sides. 
• A thematic name, like someone you’d find in a real Star Wars cantina!

Cantina decks won’t always be perfect- it’s hard to know for sure how strong they’ll be overall, or to catch every matchup discrepancy. You should feel free to get in touch if you notice something out of whack. But as a general rule, these decks are all aiming to do the fundamentals of the game well, and you should be able to effectively use them as dueling decks or teaching tools! 

So now that you know what a Cantina Deck is, it’s time to look at the ones we’ve come up with for Shadows of the Galaxy, Star Wars Unlimited’s second set. Without further adieu, here’s who’s shown up to the Cantina today…

THE CRIME LORD

Deck Link: https://swudb.com/deck/PhYgGJATs

Sitting lavishly in the dark edge of the bar, surrounded by their henchmen, the Crime Lord is right at home here amongst the liars and thieves they command to do their bidding.

Jabba is a very interesting control leader- he shares with his control counterparts a super impactful deploy turn, but unlike them can reliably be defined by how helpful and proactive that leader ability on his front side can be. Jabba is rewarded with resource acceleration for doing something that control wants to do anyway- killing units.

So to that end, we’ve got a lot of stuff that’s good at doing just that. Jabba can spit out bounties on demand for free, which makes early curve units like Reputable Hunter and Hunter of the Haxion Brood absolute no brainer slam dunks for him. We have early trading pieces like Gamorrean Retainer and Mercenary Gunship. And our bevy of Ambush units alongside Ma Klounkee will help us stay ahead long enough for Jabba to unleash his very potent capture effect. Closing out are Maul and Rancor, and all of this combines into a very cohesive gameplan that knows what it wants to do at every stage of the game. Not bad for a deck that currently runs just $61 on TCGPlayer. It’s almost like the Crime Lord planned it this way…

Key Cards From Previous Sets: Superlaser Technician, Overwhelming Barrage, No Good To Me Dead, Bossk: Deadly Stalker, Seventh Fleet Defender

THE SCOUNDREL

Deck Link: https://swudb.com/deck/rMInWyruAd

Usually found with their nose deep in a hand of Sabaac cards, the slippery and decisive Scoundrel knows how to get what they want, calling in favor after favor to make sure they always stay one step ahead of those who would seek to control them.

Young Han is such a perfect leader for our format- he’s all about strong fundamentals, and that’s a great strength to have for a Cantina deck. This deck is all about fielding good, flexible units that aren’t too bothered by coming in damaged, and using a relentless pace of them to keep the pressure on.

We have a killer event suite to keep us flexible, with Daring Raid, Desperate Attack, and good old faithful Surprise Strike making sure we’re always in reach of our most important target…even if that’s the base. Our secret weapon Hot Shot DL-44 is usually hiding out in the resource row ready to spring into action- feel free to squeeze a third one of those bad boys in the list (the third Desperate Attack might be a good cut). And when we’re not punching above our weight with all those tricks, we’re just minding our business playing all these great new staple units, like Wrecker, Fennec, and Cassian, a turn early with Han’s ability. This deck is flexible, but you’ll have a lot of tools to get damage out quickly, especially if you have some key cards from Spark of Rebellion sitting around to slot in (those are noted below). Use your best judgment on when to swing for the fences and when to eliminate opposing threats, and The Scoundrel will prove himself worth the risk.

Key Cards From Previous Sets: K-2SO: Cassian’s Counterpart, For A Cause I Believe In, Red Three: Unstoppable, Green Squadron A-Wing, Millennium Falcon: Piece of Junk, Leia Organa: Defiant Princess

THE SURVIVOR

Deck Link: https://swudb.com/deck/brxzycvLGDTkE

The Survivor clutches their drink alone at the bar, eyes up, wary of any who would approach- after all, they’ve made it this far by doing everything in their power to ensure no one can touch them, and they don’t intend to start taking it easy on folks now.

I’m particularly attached to this color combo, as has been noted several times on this site, and Qi’ra might be the best leader to take advantage of its strengths yet! She loves Grit units (you’d think there would be more of those, actually) and has so many tools to last into the late game.

This is the trickiest Cantina deck to pilot so far- ideally, the Survivor is carefully applying her leader ability to get shields in the most impactful places to keep the enemy board manageable. Enemy leaders are usually dealt with efficiently by waiting until they deploy to deploy Qi’ra- getting 4 damage for free on, say, Darth Vader, is nothing to sneeze at, and following up with a quick trade means this deck is outstanding at dealing with big units and enemy units. Daring Raid is also a good add here- I love the tech offered by Give In To Your Anger in combination with Qi’ra’s shields, but if you’re having trouble making it work, Daring Raid is a super safe substitution. With the enemy threats kept far away from your own throat, Qi’ra uses big units like First Light and Covetous Rivals to close things out.

Key Cards From Previous Sets: Power of the Dark Side, Emperor Palpatine: Master of the Dark Side, Takedown, Ruthless Raider, Imperial Interceptor

THE WATCHMAN

Deck Link: https://swudb.com/deck/pMCantNR

Back to the wall, scanning the cantina from under their helmet, The Watchman lets nothing escape their keen gaze, and whether the task at hand is to defend the innocent or ruthlessly neutralize a threat, they intend to be both the first and last one standing up to fight.

Lots has been said about Fat Boba and his synergy with Ambush, but this deck is here to remind you that there are other keywords in the game too! The other keyword that can benefit from Fat Boba’s +1 as soon as the unit hits the board is, quietly, Sentinel, and that means that Vigilance is a wonderful color pairing for our new keyword-buffing bae.

Filled with workhorses across the early curve, this deck is very straightforward, focusing on solid early units to establish a wide board presence for your deploy turn and the accompanying aura effect. The high end here is a little thin, and that’s because a lot of our best options for it are from previous sets (noted below), though I do think you could run Chewbacca: Pykesbane to great effect, especially with Spark of hope around to ramp you up. For decks built only from this set, I think this early unit, more aggressive curve is the way to go. We’re rocking some of the most efficiently costed units in the whole set, and Fat Boba is able to buff them on top of that! Use that stat flexibility to read the board state, make clean trades, and ride those Restore units and Sentinels to victory.

Key Cards From Previous Sets: Luke Skywalker: Jedi Knight, Takedown, Bright Hope: The Last Transport, U-Wing Reinforcement, Restored Arc-170

Kickstart Your Collection

If you’ll forgive us, we hope this collection of characters adds some additional character to your collection! 

SWU is a game with infinite expressions available to its players, and these are just a few of our favorite ways to put some decks together. We hope you have fun with them, but more than that, we hope they inspire you to build your own. And be sure to give us your feedback on these, since we’re sure to be back at it again with more Cantina Decks for Set 2, Shadows of the Galaxy! 

In the meantime, keep your wits about you. You never know what unsavory sorts you might stumble across at your local cantina…

May the force be with you!