Twilight of the Republic spoiler season is upon us! The Garbage Rollers team is excited to review new cards again. Today, we’re tackling 10 that piqued our interest and giving a rundown of their possibilities and potential viability.

Our dear Justin is out sick this week. We think it’s ebola or some similar sort of man flu. At any rate we hope he gets better soon, or failing that, that we can dibs his loot. You’ll have to deal with Tyler and Jayson’s opinions in the meantime.

…your mileage may vary.

1. Ki-Adi-Mundi

Tyler – Solid stats and useful traits. I have to wonder if Coordinate will still be online this late in the game? If your opponent hasn’t managed to deal with your units after swinging with their units AND playing a card, is this ability just win-more at that point?

Jayson – First, art for this set continues to astonish. This guy is really interesting- I think his solid stats give him a lot of wiggle room, and this effect is gonna feel really good against an opponent who’s playing lower-curve stuff. Will that be enough to earn slots in Set 3 when our list of options keeps getting longer? Hard to say. The traits are certainly there.

2. The Clone Wars

Tyler – The design here is so rich. With the power asymmetry between droids and clones, you’d theoretically need to pay only 2 additional resources to get an on-curve power differential out of your resources, with the value curving upward from there. But I don’t actually think that’s the way to look at this card. It’s an enabler for more complex plays involving coordinate and exploit- plain and simple.

Jayson – A hilarious card, and one that’s bound to get busted open like a piñata somewhere with all the Coordinate and Exploit bouncing about. When you absolutely positively have to make the size of the table you’re playing on feel less adequate, accept no substitutes.

3. The Invasion of Christophsis

Tyler – I’m a huge fan of go-wide incentives, and this is certainly it. Area-of-Effect cards like Bombing Run are gonna be making a comeback. You just can’t let your opponent have a one-sided Superlaser for 7 cost. Also, note this has the Separatist trait hook.

Jayson – Forget for a moment that it’s functionally Great Value Superlaser Blast- all that you really need to know is that it’s a Legendary and I have no interest in playing it, and that means I’m gonna have about 11 of these bad boys in my case. Hit me up if u tryna invade Christopher’s sis or w/e

4. Sabine Wren

Tyler – 4/4/4 is a pretty pedestrian statline and the On Attack would work well in Hera decks if they are ever a real thing, but what has me thinking this would make the meta is actually the “can’t attack” text. You could load her up with upgrades and be somewhat protected.

Jayson – Playing a relatively safe 4/4/4 is a pretty good way to spend an early turn, and if you sequence well, she could prove very annoying to remove. The potential for an on-attack ping is just gravy. I like her a ton.

5. Calculating MagnaGuard

Tyler – Since units typically don’t stick around long term, having sentinel when played, and then whenever you decide to Exploit a Battle Droid after that, sounds pretty good. 4 is also a juicy health stat- take that you Beach Bum!

Jayson – At first glance I like this a lot better than other conditional Sentinels like Vigilant Honor Guard, Gamo Guards, or, frankly, even Emperor’s Royal Guard. It’s just tough for a staple effect that you often need in a pinch to have hoops to jump through- the “When Played” here helps that immensely, and you have to imagine the mild conditionality helped get this guy another stat point. Solid, solid, solid.

6. Padme Amidala

Tyler – We’ve got a new contender for worst leader in the game. Her text is literally blank until you get three units out, which I can’t imagine happens sooner than turn 2, but often probably later. From there, she has pedestrian stats and a conditional ability. Man, at least IG and Hunter could hit face…

Jayson – Yeah…as ever, they’ve been pretty conservative about card draw’s pricing, and it’s hurt yet another fan favorite character. Padme’s color and Republic synergy mean she’ll see plenty of play in Constructed, but you may not feel tremendously good about it. 5/2/7 is just tough, even with Restore 1, and for her to be great that card draw on the front side really needed one fewer hoop. The combination of needing Coordinate to trigger and a spare resource is likely to mean Padme comes in a bit below other options.

7. Tranquility

Tyler – I’m not sold on a unit this big that doesn’t have an immediate impact on the game. Yeah, you can use Timely Intervention to give it Ambush, but how often will you get to that many resources AND have an opponent’s space unit to ambush AND have the Republic cards you need in hand to make the payoff work. It’s too many hoops and my intuition is this one will sit in the binder with Padme.

Jayson – I agree. 7 is a lot of cash to spend for something this mild, even though the on-attack has great potential. Just don’t see it working, and this one especially stings because the Villain Capital Ship this set, as we’ll see shortly, is a doozy.

A friend of mine said this card reminded him of Chimaera. That is…that is not an endorsement.

8. Droid Manufactory

Tyler – The effect is cool, but 24 is a REALLY low health total. Unless my Battle Droids prove to be a serious impediment to aggro, this won’t make the cut.

Sorry, I’m very salty about Sabine/green right now.

Jayson – I definitely had “Rare Base That Makes Tokens” on my bingo card for this set and it’s actually even more intriguing than I had figured on. This instantly turns on Coordinate, sets up Exploit, and, surely, will find even more copacetic pairings as cards get revealed. Is it better than ECL? Is it worth 6 health off a regular 30 base? I’m positive the answer to those questions is yes, in the right deck, and I’m for sure gonna be among the folks trying to suss out where that deck is hiding.

9. Rush Clovis

Tyler – Ah yes, the “It’s good with ECL” argument. Set 2 made it very clear that the going rate for a 3/5 was 3 cost, so if I’m paying 4 for it, the ability better be damn good. Is this worth it? Doesn’t feel like it to me- there’s just more hoops to jump through before getting value. “Hold a resource back” is a cool design space to explore, though.

Jayson – I definitely disagree with Tyler on Mr. Clovis, as I think he’s undervaluing that juicy Raid 2. This is a functional 5/5, and that combined with the relevant traits have me feeling like this guy will see play. Yes, ECL is a boon to his evaluation- but when Rush+ECL gives this color a really solid way to kill Sabine on deploy, I do think that synergy is genuinely notable instead of being just another in a long line of cards that benefit from the 🩼 (shoutout our boy @wooooo)

10. Ziro the Hutt

Tyler – After the exhaust, you’re essentially paying 4 for a 2/8 which isn’t bad. But the On Attack is really what’s crazy. How is your opponent supposed to win while playing down a resource every turn?? The off-the-charts value on Villain Yellow cards continues to ascend to new heights.

Jayson – Congratulations, homie, you have to chew through 8 health worth of Hutt-Butt™️ or you’re ramping down. Remember how many hoops players had to jump through to make DJ playable reasonably early with Tech just so they could shoot the moon to ramp down their opponent, and then that combo genuinely made Han 1 a top-tier deck almost overnight? That’s how good down-ramping is, and Ziro does it a lot easier. Yikes.

Bonus Card: Count Dooku

Tyler – This is biggest body we’ve ever gotten at 7 resources and he’s got Overwhelm and juicy traits to boot. Throw in that he can potentially reduce the cost of a Separatist card by SIX and we’ve got the makings of a meta-setting leader.

Jayson – A lot of folks have been very high on Dooku today, which has made me feel a bit self-conscious about not being completely sold yet. I don’t think enough folks are talking about how he’ll pretty much live and die on the strength of the Separatist trait, a theme that absolutely could die an unceremonious death in the sets that follow this one. He’s definitely going to have a deck, maybe even more than one if multiple colors get strong support for this trait, but I’m going on the record to say that as strong as these effects are, it’s very possible he won’t get enough cards to coalesce into something that has a long-term place in the meta. I hope I’m wrong though, because I love Dooku, and the upside here is clearly huge. Let’s hope we get lots of dope Separatists in the weeks to come!

Also, Tyler forgot Jabba when he said this was the biggest butt at 7 resources. You fool. No one out-butts the Hutts.

This clarification post brought to you by Hutt-Butt™️

Even More Bonus Card: The Invisible Hand

Tyler – First off, four battle droids is A LOT. After that, you’re essentially paying 4 for a 4/7 space unit which is great rate. The On Attack is just icing on the cake. This looks like a meta staple and I’m excited to use Dooku to cheat it out even sooner than 8 resources!

Jayson – This card is fantastic, and it’s gotten tons of wheels turning today across the community. So much combo potential, so much flavor, and a major piece for Dooku all by itself. Hot.