Welcome to the SEVENTH episode of SWU OVER/UNDER, where the GarbageRollers crew tackles various topics related to the game and decides whether they’re OVERRATED, UNDERRATED, or PROPERLY RATED. This format lets us yap about almost anything, and today, we’re gonna throw in our takes to all the various talks of the town. The game is buzzing out there, but how are people expected to form intelligent opinions without hearing from US? They’re NOT, that’s how!

As with any internet opinion, we encourage you to take these…takes (??) with a grain of salt. Let us know in the comments how off-base you think we are…but keep it professional. You know we at the GarbageRollers always do. 

With Jump To Lightspeed rapidly approaching, what are things like there out in the wild? Stay tuned, dear reader, to find out…

FFG Livestreams

Justin – I think the answer to this can vary based on what type of player you are. For the casual player and collectors, these streams are common and do a great job of communicating details. They’re also just enjoyable to watch and hang! For the competitive player though, the amount of content geared towards them via these streams is very minimal. Overall I think both groups know their lanes at this point, but I do often see the competitive players rubbed the wrong way about “yet another Twin Suns stream” or more lack of info about OP. I guess that lands us at PROPERLY RATED?

Tyler – These are invaluable to helping the community feel connected to the FFG team and build the trust that was so sorely lacking in the Destiny days. On the whole, I think the community is excited about these but might not realize how truly invaluable they are. UNDERRATED

Jayson – I like their consistency, I like their transparency, and the production value and suite of personalities is really pretty good. I do wish they’d stop recycling some of the less interesting recurring segments, but as a sidebar, the Twin Suns streams are actually routinely very entertaining if you are one of the many who skip them. I always tune in for Twin Suns day. Overall, I think it’s fair to call this UNDERRATED and commend FFG once again for the major communications turnaround they’ve pulled off with SWU.

Spotlight Decks

Justin – The spotlight decks continue to do what the previous 2-Player Starter decks did well, showcase the fundamentals of a set, while providing a decent entry point to a new player. I just still wish companies would stop throwing 1 of strong cards in there and just build a normal cohesive deck, so a new player could buy one and be relatively competitive at a local tournament. The community PROPERLY RATED these for what they are.

Tyler – For competitive players (and collectors) these are one step up from the 2-player starters we’ve had, which is good! The caveat is that these still aren’t decks you could take to a tournament and do reasonably well with. Take the new Boba Fett spotlight deck – it only has 1 SoR Fett’s Firespray in it. Clearly these builds are constrained by a desire to show off new mechanics and diversify the cards in them, which comes at the expense of competitiveness. OVERRATED

Jayson – I’ll keep this simple- I liked the self-contained dueling-boardgame-adjacent 2 player starter a lot better for what I use this level of product for, which is teaching. This continued FFG fantasy of a player grabbing a starter-level product and sitting down for competitive play of any caliber is laughable- or, in the parlance of our times, OVERRATED. People don’t use this kind of product that way and they’re not gonna start. The 2 player starter was the correct arrangement, though Han and Boba themselves seem otherwise totally fine.

The OP Judging Program

Justin – This is a resounding OVERRATED from me. Star Wars Destiny did not have a judge program, and I still rarely heard/read about mis-rulings and complicated scenarios occurring on the scale they have here. Meanwhile, during PQ season in SWU, it feels like you can’t go a week without reading about an egregiously wrong judge ruling, general confusion, or drama. I think FFG holds a lot of responsibility for the thus far lacking judge program (notably not starting it at the beginning of the game), and Cascade choosing to sell limited runs of promos bundled with Gamegenic product is pretty up there on the “What Is Going On?” scale…

Tyler – Participating in the judge program is a SWU activity I’ve had to triage to keep my life on track. PROPERLY RATED?

Jayson – Having seen a ton of public criticism directed at this, I can’t call it underrated, despite being happy that something is in place to make sure OP moves in the right direction. It also seems that the judging community is pretty transparent and willing to be self-critical. Is that the absolute most praise I can levy at it for the moment? Yes. Yes it is. This program is a mess and the community is right to be asking for reforms. PROPERLY RATED.

Post-Boba Sabine Play

Justin – The community is all over the place on this one. You get some people saying Sabine is the absolute brain-dead easiest deck to play, but then also plenty of people who understand the difference a knowledgeable and skilled pilot makes on the deck. You have people thinking she’s busted, broken, and needs banned, and other people staring at all the Tarkintown decks in the meta terrified of running her at an event. We can all certainly agree that Sabine is RATED all over the spectrum!

Tyler – In honor of SWU designer John Leo, here’s a short poem about how much I hate Sabine:

In battles waged with cosmic tides
My ire against Sabine decks collides
Each play, a thorn, each move, a pain
An endless dance of foes arcane

The community continues to UNDERRATE what a threat Sabine is in the hands of a top-tier player.

Jayson – I think Sabine’s PROPERLY RATED, but a lot of what’s making her strong is theoretically transportable to other shells. I don’t think she’s necessarily a lock to be the aggro queen forever, but she’s certainly the aggro queen of right now, and I’d also argue hating on Sabine is just plain hating on aggro. There’s always gonna be a deck or two that can go this fast this consistently. I’m definitely glad that the post-Boba landscape is not as Sabine-addled as some of us feared.

Han Solo: Audacious Smuggler

Justin – OVERRATED. This is not Boba Fett. Han is strong, but the strongest parts of his game are being the best double Cunning deck, and being the only leader that can break the DJ smuggle effect. Take DJ out of the equation, and Han likely isn’t winning on the same levels as Boba during PQ season.

Tyler – There’s been a lot of talk about Han being over the curve with him having won ~40% of PQs this season. However, Han himself is costed just fine. The problem is his interaction with DJ. The ability to ramp yourself while de-ramping an opponent clearly breaks the intended template for DJ and a lot of unwritten rules of game design. If they fix his interaction with DJ, then Han returns to a reasonable power level. Of course, I’d support any anti-Last Jedi moves, regardless of context. OVERRATED

Jayson – Tyler’s nailed it here- DJ is underrated and might be a genuine problem, but Han 1 is PROPERLY RATED. I think the players who keep returning to him are onto something. He’s well-rounded and his ceiling is fantastic. But his win-rate is tied to his current interactions. He’s not busted inherently.

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That’s all folks! We’ll see you next time for another riveting episode of OVER/UNDER!