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Tyler (@DJStormtroooper): Alright crew, welcome back for another episode of the Garbage Cast! Today we’re talking about the full spoiling of Set 5, Legends of the Force, and what it means for SWU. First off, there was some minor controversy around this release. Here’s what showed up on socials:

We do know that some content creators were given access to the full files prior to release. Was that a fair move on FFG’s part?

What do we think of FFG’s response?

Jayson (@ImpossibleGerman): I’m not sure how I feel about it, actually. This feels like a bit of a concession to a crowd that I kind of fundamentally disagree with.

I am disappointed that somebody broke their NDA and let it slip that the full set was available to folks outside of FFG. I would definitely be curious as to the nature of that decision and what the content was intended to be, but at the end of the day, this conversation is only happening because somebody broke their NDA and I think that’s a shame.

As for the crowd that thinks this fact constitutes an unfair competitive advantage? I would politely disagree. I’ve been part of several playtesting teams, and let me tell you- there is nothing happening with competitive builds behind closed doors that won’t be invalidated a couple days after general release. There isn’t such a thing as content creators with competitive advantage due to NDA because no advance knowledge can withstand the combined might of groupthink and game volume that comes from full release.

The content creators aren’t leveraging some sort of favoritism to secretly get tons of reps on the next hot deck. They’re just making content, y’all.

Justin (@Inception): I think overall it was the right move from FFG. A few groups which were probably playtesters would have had a head start on building and testing decks for the GC, but it’s really just the negative vibes of how it all went down and someone allegedly bragging about the whole thing at the MN regional. It definitely left a sour taste in the mouth of many community members, but I think FFG throwing out the olive branch to everyone by dropping the set and giving content creators prestige/showcase/variants to spoil was a huge win for steering the ship into the right direction for the GC being a huge celebration of SWU.

The meta ebbs and shifts and evolves at a much more rapid pace with 1,000+ players compared to a few dozen at best, so I don’t think it would have been that much of an advantage at the end of the day.

Not to mention the 3-week window to get cards leading up to worlds was already going to be super tight and it will be nice to have a better idea of what cards you need to buy singles for ASAP or try to open/trade for.

Jayson: I’m glad you think it was the right move. I do agree that jumping ahead of the negativity and “evening the playing field” so to speak is the safest path forward in a situation like this.

Jim (@jsharp): We have been a part of playtesting games for Asmodee for a long time (not for SWU), and we have never felt an advantage was given to us in those games.

I agree that FFG was better prepared to deal with this issue (which I think is a minor issue) because some felt that way in Destiny too. I think the players will be happy in the long run and see that this set will be a blast to play!

Tyler: Alright, so now that the set IS out, what are everyone’s first impressions? The goal was to make The Force a thing- did they?

Justin: The limitations of the Rare Force bases seem potentially problematic, but also some of them might be harder to stop. As our resident combo boy, what would you find more reliable Tyler? “Force unit attacks” is pretty loose but not a gimme.

Tyler: For most decks, the Force attack common bases have been enough. You only need to go to the rare ones if you’re trying pull off a particular combo turn 2.

Justin: I’m interested to see how much the Force plays into things. So far, my early barometer is somewhere between Coordinate and Piloting, which doesn’t actually tell you much.

Tyler: I think we’re better looking than both of those keywords. Force doesn’t have the glaring vulnerabilities of piloting, nor the chronic underpowering of Coordinate.

The Force token is generally just value.

Justin : To clarify I’m not saying I expect the force to be less powerful than piloting, I mean more so its overall impact on the meta. Coordinate being non-existent, vs piloting being playable and completely build around-able to an extent

Jayson: But that value does come with both sequencing questions and adjacent costs- the most obvious of these is the 2 health you give up from a common base, but I think there’s opportunity costs at the deckbuilding level as well.

The restrictions at first glance don’t appear to be huge deals, but I think they add up, and the million-dollar question will be whether Force is offering enough actually accessible value to be worth building around. I don’t think you have the luxury of just throwing a few in like we did with Piloting or Smuggle. You probably can’t dabble in Force, so it better bring heat.

Tyler: What about the creature subtheme? Did the designers succeed at making the creature trait valuable?

Jim: It will be interesting to see, but unfortunately, I don’t know many of them who are making the meta decks. Han Solo, Worth the Risk might use more creatures than the planned Kanan Jarus, Help Us Survive.

Justin: I don’t think there’s enough synergy there yet, but I do expect it to end up being more relevant than, say, the Fringe trait.

Traits are one of the things that have continued to see more support with new sets though, so I’m not as worried about that as new mechanics. New Mechanics thus far seem to be pretty isolated as a one set thing.

Tyler: This is very true. There’s lots of talk about how new mechanics don’t get support from new sets- but traits do- and that’s really important. Spectre is almost there! I was excited about the whales🐳. They just needed a notch more synergy to get cooking.

Power level was a serious concern in the first year of the game, as things seemed to ramp progressively down from sets 1 to 2 to 3. Year two, so far, seems to have been better? Is this set powered correctly?

Justin: Set 4 felt closer to set 1 in terms of power level, but I think set 5 is going to be somewhere between sets 2 and 3 in terms of impact.

Jim: I probably should agree with that, Justin. Set 3 is probably considered the worst, but set 2 is better than you think.

Tyler: This set feels the most impactful since set 1. Of course, that has to play out still, but Legends doesn’t seem to have the underpowering of sets 2 and 3, nor the glaring mechanical vulnerabilities of piloting.

One exception to that appears to be leaders. The leaders in this set are largely not up to meta standards. There appears to be a reset in leader power happening in preparation for rotation.

Jim: I guess I think DL-44, Krayt, Snoke, leaders like Qi’ra and Rey, and more from set 2 make it a better set. Now mechanics? I’ll refer to what I said before, if there were more smuggle cards in sets 3-5, set 2 would be a lot better. We’ll see if needing the Force is good as Smuggle is/was. I am not alone in that new mechanics “disappearing “ is disappointing. I want more Smuggler keyword cards. I am hopeful that even Coordinate can exist.

So, if they keep adding to the Force token, then it can have more of an impact

Tyler: Ok gents, let’s get this closed out. If you had one takeaway after seeing the full set, what would it be?

Justin: Outside of cards like Dooku, I’m not sure there’s enough payoff to splash the 28 base for a couple Force cards. My big question is will we see any force usage outside of Avar and other decks focused on it.

Tyler: Yeah, there’s more room for Force decks on the Hero side than Villain. There just aren’t enough villain Force users outside Blue. Talzin will probably be it.

What strikes me the most from the set is just what a bonanza it is for Han2. I wouldn’t be surprised if every different color of him was competitive or if he’s the most played leader at the Galactic Championship

Jim: Of course, I’d love any Han to be competitive (until they make an awesome Jawa or Tusken leader). But I think the set will deliver around 10-12 cards that will be meta, but the mechanic might just be slightly lower than the Pilot mechanic.

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