Welcome to the one and a…halfth (???) episode article of the GarbageCast, where we perform the functions of a podcast…in written form! You may already be scoffing at the idea of fitting those 1-2 hour Golden Dice Podcast episodes into a 50,000+ word article, but fear not. We have limited ourselves to doing these with 1-2 topics and not stretching too long on the word count.

Furthermore, today’s cast is a little shorter than will be typical and coming faster than we had planned on, as it’s a sort of emergency broadcast episode. You see, since yesterday’s inaugural discussion, there have been…developments. We’re sure you know what we mean. Read on to hear our discussion, which we’re not calling a second episode. Check out Episode 1.5: A Timely Intervention below…

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Jayson — Well Tyler, they actually did it didn’t they?

Tyler — [ANGEL CHOIR SINGS]

Jayson — Yesterday, we posted the first episode of our GarbageCast, the topic of which was Boba Fett and the game’s balance. In it, we had a really interesting and wide-ranging discussion on Boba Fett’s PQ results, potential courses of action, and the possible ramifications of those actions. And then a few hours later, in a surprise unannounced livestream, FFG suspended Boba from Premier play effective this Friday, the official launch date of Twilight Of The Republic.

Sooooooooo…how’s my favorite Johnny doing?

Tyler — Oh man, the world is so open to me right now. We just took 4 archetypes on the meta snapshot and opened them up to development. It’s really exciting!

Jayson — The player response so far has seemed nearly universally enthusiastic. I know that it made me want to get deckbuilding immediately, and that’s a great sign for something like this.

In yesterday’s episode, Justin and I talked about the possibility of action against Boba elevating Sabine to ubiquitous levels. As the resident Sabine hater, how are you planning to tackle that potential snag?

Tyler — Sabine was already serving as the “you must be this tall to ride” sign for the meta, so this doesn’t change much as far as my testing goes. I was very happy to hear that the designers were testing various midrange builds into Sabine before pulling the trigger on this.

Hopefully their assessment that you can tech your way though the Sabine problem (provided Boba is out of the way) proves correct.

Jayson — For sure. I definitely grokked that action against Boba could potentially elevate the already strong aggro shell. One thing that Danny highlighted today that gives me even more optimism was something I had considered but not really enough- that Boba being gone gives everybody more deck slots to tech against Sabine/Aggro. Having to work answers to both in the 60 was, as the data shows, too tall of an ask. And Boba probably needs more specific answers than Sabine.

Jim — How many words did they read from our article before they said, “We need to go ahead and publish a response…”

Tyler — So Jayson, as a Sabine player, how do you feel about this? Are you gonna put that s*** on everything?

Jayson — Welllllll, see, the thing about my love for Sabine is that it’s been more a byproduct of a couple things, namely:

• The shame-driven compulsion to bring something that I won’t be guaranteed to scrub out with.
• My love for Hero cards, especially Red Hero and Green Hero.

So my affiliation with Sabine was more rooted in the above, and I’m hoping that I have more options that fit my preferences now! Boba pushed out no archetype as hard as he did other midrange decks, so what this actually does most is make me really excited to build new takes on Han2, Anakin, and maybe even Boba2.

If I was headed to a high stakes tournament tomorrow, would I be taking Sabine? Maybe, and it might even be Sabine Yellow now that it’s tough Boba matchup is fixed. But that’s mostly because I think it will take folks a little time to adjust lists and in the meantime Sabine is stable and proven. It seems hopeful that everyone in the long run will probably find more ways to tech against Sabine now that we’ve entered a new era.

Justin — I’m interested to see what Boba being eliminated from the format does to Control. While Control still hates to see Sabine, it also never had the auto-win you’d want it to have into Boba decks. Does a ban that frees Sabine also free Control somewhat?

Tyler — So there were four spots for Boba on our meta snapshot – the full rainbow. What now takes their place?

Justin — Cad is a big winner in midrange. He was already the Sabine boogeyman, so I suspect his play will rise.

Tyler — Maybe too soon, but I think Sidious may take the Boba/Blue lane. He’s got some powerful control vibes. That Tarkin/Green deck also had a lot of play into things that weren’t Boba Green so maybe it rises up?

Who’s the Mono Yellow Villain leader now?

Jayson — My money would be on Jango, weirdly. God, what timeline is this?

Justin — Villain? Mono Yellow may just be all in on Han1 now!

Jim — Yeah, Mike and I have been talking about Han1 since the Dallas PQ, that if they were to actually pull this trigger that they have on Boba, then his deck would do really well in the meta. And it is nice to see Jayson seeing the possibilities Boba2 has (one of my underdog picks from the set 2 fantasy draft).

Jayson — So what do we think this announcement says about the future of the game? Is this the right move? The right timing? What would we have done differently?

Jim — It reinvigorates the player base for sure. I feel more players will have fun with trying to figure out other leaders could replace Boba.

Justin — I think the biggest thing was Danny owning up to the mistake of Boba’s design! It personally gives me a lot more optimism for the future of the game when leadership is willing to own mistakes and adjust accordingly. It was for sure the right timing to conclude the first wave of Season 0 PQs before taking a chance, and by doing it the week after everyone has ample time to explore the new meta over the next 2 months before PQs start up again.

The only thing I also would have considered was also adding Sabine to the suspension list, just to fully open up the meta to new stuff. I don’t think it’s necessarily needed like it was for Boba, but it would fully embrace opening up the diversity of the meta as well as opening the balance.

Tyler — What seemed to have separated Sabine and Boba is that Sabine is a single archetype. She’s a series of aggro combos. She’s not so innately good that she gets spread across every build. There’s never going to be Sabine Control, right?

Justin — Sure, but how many decks have truly lived in the aggro archetype that weren’t sabine? Kylo and Leia had a little bit of games at times, but she has a similar problem that Boba had of “Why would I ever run X leader when Sabine exists?” She’s just narrow in only doing that within the aggro archetype.

Jim — I would agree, but with the Hero aggro archetype. I think this move on Boba opens up the Villain aggro decks. Don’t you?

Justin — Not unless Set 3 helps out as well. Villain aggro has never really been a thing outside of the Boba/Red that recently surfaced. It wasn’t Boba pushing those decks out, it was lack of support.

Tyler — I would buy Kylo stonks at the right price.

Jim — *stocks

Tyler — No STONKS

Jayson — Earlier today Tyler called this the best FFG stream ever, and I’m inclined to agree. I was enthusiastic about the timing, the transparency, and the precision of what they targeted. It’s a great day to be a SWU player. Be on the lookout for more content from your favorite GarbageRollers! After all, with the boogeyman slain, we have a lot of building to do…

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Did you enjoy this? Any topics you’d like to see us discuss in the future?