Thanks to our friends at Fantasy Flight Games for sending us a couple spoilers for Legends of the Force to share with the community! We’re pretty happy with this thematic pairing!

For those who enjoy video reveals, feel free to click on the video below and get our blind first reactions to the card!

For those who prefer the written format, just keep reading!

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Justin – Heck yeah! One of my favorite things about Ahsoka Season 1 was Shin, Baylan, and the complete mystery surrounding them. John and Joe definitely nailed this overeager apprentice coming in with a very weak body hiding behind several defensive effects. While you’ll be sad to see cards like Perilous Position and Make an Opening played against her, the Hidden and Shielded keywords mean you should often be able to get some amazing value out of this 4 power unit!

If we see more cards like Shin this set, there’s a chance we might finally see Villain aggro start to become more prevalent than the archetype that has primarily lived on the Hero side of things…specifically with Sabine Wren.

Tyler – I’m excited to get our first Villain Cunning Force unit! There are fun implications here – triggering the common Force bases allows use of interesting combo pieces like As I Have Foreseen and Liberated By Darkness. Maybe I can finally make that Dooku steal-your-unit-and-exploit-it deck work? Or power Thrawn1 to new heights? Even if none of that pans out, this is still a solid unit that should see play!

Jayson – This is a really cohesive design for an aggro piece, rocking a premier attack value for the cost and a defensive suite that gives it a very good chance to actually use that attack. Decks that look to get burst damage out of cards like Hotshot Blaster and Surprise Strike are going to potentially love Shin. A lot to like here, and it has that thing that good cards tend to have where none of the elements are fighting against each other. Every piece of this one works towards the same gameplan and I think that gives it gas.

Justin – Oh Baylan, how I hoped you would be some amazing legendary. This card feels as mysterious as his character in Ahsoka season 1. The 5/5 statline for 5 cost is inherently understatted, so we look the the ability box to see if it makes up for it. Hidden doesn’t quite get us caught back up, but this lengthy When Played ability has a chance. My first thought was to compare to A New Adventure, which functionally does the same thing for 2 resources in Double Cunning. The main problem I have with this ability is that restricting it to a unit that costs 4 or less really limits our options. Typically, we aren’t seeing strong When Played abilities on cards this cheap, other than Ambush.

I’m hoping in the remaining ~130 cards or so we’ll see some more high impact abilities on 4 or less costed units that really enhance Baylon’s ability. Outside of that, I’m not sure he’ll see much competitive premier play.

Tyler – Baylon is slightly understatted, but his ability to trigger Force-related abilities in a Force-sparse color might get him some play time. He also has niche upside in removing upgrades and exhausting a problematic unit in a pinch. Is all of that worth spending a Force token? TBD. You know the Prestige variant of this is gonna be fire, though!

Jayson – I feel pretty spoiled that we got both of these characters to spoil. This pair made quite a splash and they were the best part of that first season of Ahsoka, with incredibly executed portrayals and an aura of chaos and mystery that made them unique among Star Wars villains. I think it’s very cool that Baylan directly synergies with Shin, turning both of her defensive keywords back on, but the current cardpool leaves him a little wanting for compelling targets. There’s a lot of ceiling here if he gets some good tools. Very cool design.

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Thanks again to our friends at Fantasy Flight Games for sending us these sweet card reveals! What do you think of the cards? Let us know in the comments!