Episode 4 | Liberation Day

On Wednesday FFG, much like Kylo Ren, did what they knew they had to do and added Jango, Triple Dark Raid, and DJ to the suspended list. Was this enough? Was this too much?

Read on to join us for our thoughts!

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Justin—  Well, it’s official boys, the ban hammer has come out…what are our first reactions?

Tyler— Best possible outcome. All of Justin’s decks were hit. None of mine were 💯

Justin—  I’m actually pretty happy to start tuning Sabine again! She feels like one of the biggest winners from this announcement.

Tyler— Yeah, aggro just got a big boost. Kaz can come back!

Justin—  They actually hit the exact 3 things I was calling for, so I’m really interested to see how the meta shakes up now… so many decks are just playable now!

Jayson— Heading into both suspension streams, the question I saw amongst my friends was pretty similar- will FFG do enough?

When Boba was dominant, there was a lot of talk about potential action being taken against Firespray or Armor, and rightfully we were nervous that they’d make an adjustment and it wouldn’t actually change the status quo. Then they hit Boba himself and everyone was over the moon about that decision.

This time, I would argue the ball heading at them was even harder to hit. My fear was that they’d look at the success of the last suspension and decide to go for a similarly sized scalpel. But for a lot of reasons, just hitting Jango seemed to me like it wouldn’t be enough.

Jango, TDR, and DJ is the exact right call at first glance. Han 1 can go back to exploring other builds, Aggro gets a new lease on life, and without the raging speed and efficiency of TDR even Control seems likely to have viable options again. Devs are on fire.

Justin—  I don’t think anybody could reasonably argue that Jango wasn’t a problem, but I did see many people wanting TDR to live on. While TDR was definitely painful in Jango with the taps, one of the most disgusting plays with it in my brain was always the TDR Devastator for 13 out of nowhere to win a game. A Jango ban along wouldn’t have fixed that. Tyler showed off some of the crazy things you could do with TDR Invisible Hand early on in testing as well, so it definitely felt like we were only going to see more cards to made TDR bonkers level.

Tyler—  I will be sad to see that Dooku/Yellow shell go away, but that’s a small price to pay for nixing the Devastator shenanigans.

Justin—  I do like the interesting things Han1 brings as a leader to constructed, so while I would have been okay with them suspending him instead of DJ, I do prefer the DJ method.

Jayson—I think it’s super funny that they had to ban DJ because when you read the card it really does seem to me like they thought they were being conservative. The problematic effect is priced at 7 cost mono yellow, which is hardly trivial, and he still busted everything. Hopefully this gets them to, rightfully, lean hard away from future designs around resource disruption. It’s not fun design space.

Tyler—  So who are the biggest winners of this suspension?  

Justin— Early front runners feel like Sabine and Blue/Green Villain. While Quinlan TT and Cad will still be around, Sabine had to really skew a lot of the deck to have play into Jango. Now she’ll be able to skew more towards beating the tempo round 1 nukes.

Worth noting, it was nice to see new Game Developer Ryan Miles already playing a role in things. The Game Developers are specifically tasked more with playtesting and balance space as opposed to designing cards.

Jayson— @Tyler – You win. You’re the guy who posted an article not two weeks ago calling Yellow as a color busted from the ground up. Now we’re at 4 cards suspended, all of ’em Yellow. Yer a wizard, Harry.

Tyler—  Ha! The real test is if another yellow leader just rises up to replace Han/Jango.

Justin— I don’t think Han1 is leaving the format, but I suspect he’ll be sticking around in the Green and Red colors now

Jayson—And that’s an interesting discussion for sure. Cad’s been lurking around putting up decent numbers ever since he debuted. Is he the next bae?

Tyler— Mono yellow will still be a thing somewhere, right?

Jayson—Mono Yellow still has Cunning and a dozen other tricks. My guess is Han 1 Yellow is still a real deck even without Tech/DJ.

Justin— I don’t see why you wouldn’t run Tech still. Being able to play those cards from resource row went a long way.

Jayson—Oh, of course. Makes total sense. I’m just so used to those cards being a pair. It’s a new dawn!

Jim— While I like all the suspensions, I think they overlooked the power of Tarkintown and even Energy Conversion Lab. I am hoping that we have seen the last of Epic Action bases, but for now they will wreck first turn plays in a lot of decks. I agree with what most of you have said so far about Sabine, Cad, etc., but I am most looking forward to what leaders can make a splash that weren’t on the radar. We saw Leia pop up in Denver, we’ve seen others play Hondo before really well, I am hoping to see some new spicy decks with leaders we didn’t expect.

Jayson—I agree, Jim. I think the odds are good that getting rid of decks that were just operating at a whole other efficiency level will raise at least one dark horse to prominence.

The other decks that still can make Top Cut when you have decks like Jango and Han/DJ around are partially there because they’re the ones who can fit in some answers while still keeping a gameplan of their own. The biggest losers when decks are so far above curve is the more off-the-beaten-path builds, who normally benefit from SWU’s overall excellent balance and cardpool depth, but just can’t get over the hump of auto-losing to the busted stuff and thusly don’t get fielded at all.

Jim— “I agree, Jim.” Haven’t seen that much from Jayson. It’s now going to be the best week ever!

Jayson—I’ve had that one in the chamber for months, waiting for you to have a decent take 💅🏻 😉

Tyler— @Jim your nemesis Boba4 is set for a big comeback here

Justin—

Jim—  Yeah, I think Boba4 is going to cause havoc, but I think Villain control will eventually overcome him.

Justin— It’ll be the wild west for a few weeks before a meta starts to cement itself at the next few Sectors.

@ Jim I heard playing Avenger for 8 resources goes a long way in that matchup!

Jim— Without TDR, I hope this hasn’t killed people’s hopes of making Piett work. There’s decks out there with him doing well.

Tyler— Anybody have a pet deck they’re excited to try now?

Jayson—Thrawn. Red.

Justin— Is it time for Wedge to shine?

Jim— I am still hoping a Villain control deck will work outside of Bossk, so I’m still hammering away with Aphra, Thrawn, Qi’ra, and Emperor.

Tyler— Emperor Blue could be for real now. Colossus is no joke.

Jayson—They should suspend Colossus next week. Some of us have to be home in time for dinner.

Jim— Yeah, we haven’t mentioned Anakin, but his deck has been slowly rising and will rise faster now.

Justin— Palp blue was def one of the first things I was going to look at. Anakin Colussus is still going to be hot as well. Plus, something pilot-related has to shine now; maybe it’s just a few pilots making their way into most decks.

Jayson—Pilot Chewie’s biggest weakness into the field was that going tall in any fashion was completely untenable with Jango around. He strikes me as being the center of something strong moving forward.

Justin— No Good to Me Dead will def see a lot more play if Chewie’s everywhere.

Justin— Jim mentioned ECL and TT, are there any other cards that were on your radar for hits today?

Tyler— This is an unreasonable dream, but honestly Waylay. Bounce is just too good in this game and 3 is too efficient a cost for that effect. FFG has tried for two sets now to make upgrades “a thing” and it’s not going to work while Waylay exists.

Jim— Nah, Waylay, Spare the Target, Clear the Field, all need to exist in the world with Power to the Dark Side and Merciless Contest.

Justin— Spare the Target is 90% the same card and has 2 aspects, can’t say I necessarily disagree with that. Surprise Strike has always been a staple in yellow as well. I can’t say I’d have found it ridiculous of them to touch that.

Jim— I think the intention was to make Takedown, Vanquish, Fell the Dragon, and Rival’s Fall all be equal to Cunning’s shenanigans, but did they fail there? Not sure.

Tyler— Vanquish costing 5 to Waylay’s 3 will always advantage Cunning over Vigilance.

Justin— We’re about a month out from our first PQ, what’s everyone’s early take on what they would play if it were this week with the suspensions in effect?

Jayson—I’d feel best about Quinlan Red. Waylay + Force Throw + Tarkintown cures many ills.

Tyler— Same. Quinlan is probably top dog now?

Justin— Def the early gatekeeper.

Tyler— Overall, I’m very happy with this and the FFG team seems willing to correct problems quickly and transparently, which is a huge upgrade from the Destiny days.

Justin— It was timely, it did not disrupt event preparation as the next big thing is a few weeks out, it seems to be hitting enough to shake things up, and I’m hopeful it will make a much healthier meta. Total win in my books!

Jayson—Best devs!

Jim— I am hoping this will help deck creativity and prevent us from having this same conversation again in a month. I think this will trend in a more positive direction.

Tyler— I’m off to go put my Electromagnetic Pulses back in the binder…

Justin—  Hopefully the Fett Empire Won’t Strike Back next time we get around to having an episode of the Garbage Cast!

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