When SWU launched, I wrote an article on SWU’s cost curve and how units from that set fit into it. Now that Legends of the Force is upon us, it’s time to expand that series with an examination of Set 5’s cards and mechanics. Let’s have a look at the new mechanics and cost trends hitting us this week.

As a reminder, the basic formula of the game goes like this:

A basic, 1-cost ground unit has four stat points. Space units have one less stat point than ground units. From there:

1 resource = +2 stat points = 2 direct damage = drawing 1 card = 1 shield = 3 healing

When talking about effects and their value, I like to use a what I call “Resource Equivalents” (RE). The idea is that we can quantify the effect of anything happening in the game, even if it’s not directly transferrable into resources. For instance, you do four damage to a unit – that’s 2RE. If you draw three cards- that’s 3RE. You get the picture.

New Mechanics:

The Force is a new token in Legends and you can either have it or not- it doesn’t stack. You can have 1 Force token or 0, but never 2 or more. The Force can be spent to pay for effects, and the designers have costed this pretty straightforwardly at 1RE. You can see this clearly in the leaders of the set – Obi-Wan and Barriss Offee using the Force gets you exactly 1RE in effect. So, when we look for value in the set, we’ll look for uses of the Force that generate more than 1RE. Conversely, we’ll also need to add 1RE onto the cost side of the equation when using the Force.

Hidden is a new Keyword that prevents a unit from being attacked the turn it is played. This keyword will be “evergreen” meaning that the designers intend to keep it in their toolbox for future sets. It’s been costed at 1 stat point. As you can see from the example above, this shuttle has 1 less stat point than a 3-cost space unit would normally have. Rules note: you can give a unit with Sentinel the Hidden keyword, HOWEVER the “must be attacked” of Sentinel overrides the “can’t be attacked” of Hidden.

The Best and the Worst

In the second year of SWU, the designers are proving more adept than ever at making cards that fit within the good enough but not too good zone. That doesn’t mean there aren’t still some standouts in this set that push the curve!

Undercosted: Talzin’s Assassin

There’s strong precedent from cards like Make An Opening that a -2/-2 stats effect should cost 2 – suggesting that this -3/-3 effect is worth 3REs. So, to add up both sides of the equation here, you’re paying 5RE (4 resources + The Force) for 6RE worth of value (the stats of a 3-cost ground unit + a one-time 3RE effect.) Given that the Talzin deck this unit will go in can generate Force Tokens efficiently, that’s more than a full RE over curve!

Overcosted: Tauntaun

Tauntaun is a 3-cost unit with 2-cost unit stats. Not a great place to start, but does the “When Defeated” ability make up for that? No, not really. First, it’s conditional on the unit being defeated in a timely fashion, then it’s also conditional on you having a certain type of damaged unit. It’s just too many hoops to jump through and leaves our furry friend well below curve. He should have had another stat point.

Undercosted: Gungi

This is the easiest evaluation ever. A 2-cost ground unit should have 6 stats. Gungi has 7. Case closed!

Overcosted: Kaadu

A four-cost ground unit should give us 10 stats and Kaadu only has 8. The “When Played” is pretty situational and it probably could have gone on the unit for free. As is, Kaddu is two stats below curve and not something you’ll want to play outside of a combo deck.

Undercosted: Kelleran Beq

Kelleran is the biggest value unit buck-for-buck in Legends of the Force. For your 7 resources, you get a 7/7 unit (6RE), a card out of your deck (1RE), and that unit can cost three less (3RE). That’s a massive 10RE for the original 7 that you put in. Is there a chance you’ll whiff? Yes, but it’s a trivial amount and doesn’t do anything to dent this man’s reputation.

Overcosted: Death Field

2 damage is worth 1RE, so for each opposing non-vehicle unit out, we’ll get 1RE in value. The card draw is conditional on having a Force unit out, which also raises the opportunity cost of this card slightly. To get this one above curve, your opponent would need to have four ground units out and you’d need to have a Force unit available. Given those situations sound pretty unwinnable, Death Field falls into the niche category of “lose more” card.

Undercosted: Darth Tyranus

A shielded unit with 4/4 stats should cost 4. So, DT is slightly below curve UNTIL he gets ambush where he jets to being solidly above, since you don’t have to spend the Force. Don’t sleep on sequencing his ambush and shielded in your favor, either. If he Ambushes a unit with 2 or less power, he can kill and retain his shield!

Overcosted: Time of Crisis

Disaster indeed… Much like Death Field above, the situations where this card would be good are ones where you’re already quite far behind on board. They would need to have at least three more units than you with at least nine total health to put this on curve. To make it even less appealing, they get to choose their best unit and keep it. The one place I could see this being useful is as a Vader TIE swarm counter.

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Thanks for reading today! Please reach out to @DJStormtrooper on Discord with your thoughts.