Here at GarbageRollers HQ, we try hard to be an institution for the people and by the people. Our Meta Snapshot looks to get you up to speed with the competitive scene with clarity and brevity. Our New Player Guide is designed to be the best first stop for fresh players. And the first and second articles in our Cantina Decks series present sets of approachable decks that are aimed at the budget-conscious player. 

But when we dove even deeper into the budget land with our first Penny Pinchers article, people responded with enthusiasm. We were pretty proud of what kinds of decks we were able to cook up for not a lot of dough.

And what do the people want? MORE. This article marks the CONTINUATION of our Penny Pinchers series, pairs of ultra-budget decks that you can slam into your TCGPlayer cart and get right into the action. These decks are easy to pilot, thoughtfully constructed to be well balanced, and are built using only (uh, mostly only) commons and uncommons! And they cost less than $15. In fact, this time they both cost less than $5. Dude, what? And as a bonus, this pair is constructed entirely with Shadows of The Galaxy cards.

So without further adieu, today we have a couple of very cool decks centered around the mechanical themes of their leaders. They’re pretty fun- and I’ve been winning more games with them than you might guess. Check them out!  

Penny Pinchin’ Boba

Buy it for $3.02 on TCGPlayer.

The joke of Ambush.dek flew fast and furious upon Fat Boba’s spoiling, but it’s not a joke when it works. For a budget format, this is one of the most potent things available to players. Things like Enfys Nest and Sundari Peacekeeper are solid cards that become even better in this shell.

As usual when you’re flying on the cheap, Mercenary Gunship and Cloud Rider do great early work against aggressive decks. Using Boba to buff an Ambush unit on the way in the door and thusly trade up is obviously your bread and butter here, but almost every unit here lets you trigger your buff, so sometimes you can sequence it into a boosted base hit or a good exchange with something already on the board. As your resources climb up, Enfys Nest, Falcon, and Fennec are here to seal the deal.

Upgrade Paths – Set 1 as a whole offers this deck some really, really interesting cards. Not the least of these is Han Solo, one of the best cards to pair with Fat Boba. Also, established staples of these colors such as Millennium Falcon Piece of Junk and Home One would be cool to have around. This is very much a deck about just playing good stuff with keywords.

Penny Pinchin’ Gar

Buy it for $4.63 on TCGPlayer. 

Gar’s straightforward ability can really mess with math and has some key combos with otherwise inconspicuous cards like Brutal Traditions and Covert Strength that can make a budget take on him punch hard. This color combo has a lot of excellent midrange stuff, and until Maul hits the scene it’s arguable that Gar is the best choice to take advantage of it.

Fenn Rau is a great piece, but most of your upgrade stuff isn’t playable with him from hand. You’ll have to be careful, though landing a Brutal Traditions or Mandlorian Armor on him can be truly awesome. Mandalorian Armor is our cheater card here- it’s Rare, but it’s extraordinarily cheap on the secondary market, so we’ve gone ahead and included it. Keep your removal cards handy, use your beefed up Mandos to trade into things efficiently, and seal the deal with a flood of units.

Upgrade Paths- There are some really interesting upgrades throughout the cardpool at Rare, but really you’re after staples in this color to improve this shell, especially at the thin top end. Older cards like Ruthless Raider, Palpatine, and Dooku can be really awesome to have around.

Card Games? In This Economy? 

SWU is a special game for many reasons, but one of the best of them is this- because the bones of the game are so strong, it is possible to have a great deal of fun with the game without spending very much money at all. That’s an amazing quality for a CCG to have, and we encourage you to take advantage of that to either explore the game with minimal pressure or expand your selection of play experiences cheaply! 

Happy games. May the force be with you!