Today, we’re rolling out our first Meta Snapshot for Star Wars: Unlimited constructed play incorporating Set 6, Secrets of Power. We’re really excited about this moment as it’s the culmination of weeks of work by our team to play and learn as much as we can about Set 6. If you want to skip straight to the list, you’ll find it permanently on our website here. Otherwise, stick around for a summary of the changes from Set 5.

This edition of the snapshot is hopefully the most stable we’ve ever released. The lessons of a full year of SWU are that: A) Not more than a couple leaders make the snapshot from any new set- and B) the old archetypes aren’t going anywhere.

Who’s Sticking Around?

Several staples of the previous meta aren’t going anywhere.

Let’s start with aggro. While the form it takes will morph to accommodate the new set, Sabine/Green is still a force, and we’d be fools to discount her. She gains some powerful anti-control tools in Secrets of Power, namely Karis Nekmik along with extra reach in the form of his manifesto. Vader is also primed to increase his meta share as the premiere space aggro deck. In SoP he gets to upgrade several of his 1- drop options with A-Wing and Screeching TIE Fighter. Finally, Boba/Data vault remains the premiere burn deck in the format and, with Topple the Summit and Cinta added to his arsenal, he will continue to be a significant share of the meta.

Many of the midrange and tempo leaders from the last set are also coming back. All of them get new tools to leverage and Secrets failed to produce serious competition for their slots in terms of new leader archetypes. What level of success these tried-and-true retreads will have remains to be seen, but you can be confident they’ll hold a significant share of the meta.

Finally, soft control remains a viable archetype and all three of these decks received upgrades like Fully Armed and Operational, Cad Bane, and Captain Typho. It’s always possible that another deck in their same color rises to replace them, but we continue to expect a H/G/B and V/G/B to operate in this zone, regardless of the leader.

Who’s Fallen Off?

With the ban of Force Throw, Kylo Combo took a serious hit. While it has found limited success in the hands of its original creators, we don’t expect it to continue to be a significant meta presence in set 6.

Furthermore, with the rise of swarm-based strategies in SoP, it’s hard to see how any hard control deck rises in this meta.

Who’s New to the Scene?

One deck that was flirting with meta contention last set was Piett/Red. However, it was held back by inconsistency and couldn’t execute well enough to compete with aggro builds. In SoP, Piett receives a noticeable glow-up. On the low end, the Gonk droid and Imperial Dark Trooper are solid 2-drops that can also proc Invisible Hand. On the high end, he can now deploy the Fulminatrix, which essentially operates as copies 4-6 of Devastator. Having more high-end tools and better ramp lands Piett a spot on the initial snapshot.

“Where are the Secrets of Power leaders?” you might ask. Well, while the overall crop of leaders in the set is underpowered, there is one we’re hopeful for. That’s Chancellor Palpatine. With a reliable draw engine and a massive flipturn that can easily flood the board with 6 units, he’s a contender in the soft control category. What remains to be seen is: will his late flip prove to be too big a liability against faster builds?

What’s on the Watch List?

A couple we have our eyes on here are Mon Montha Official-centric swarms with Unity of Purpose as a finisher, Padme attempting to take up the Tarkintown mantle from Quinlan, Luke piloting with greater effectiveness thanks to Cinta, and Han leveraging plot upgrades to make the most of his flipturn. While we think all of these will compete post-rotation, we can’t be sure of them while Spark of Rebellion still dominates play.

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We’ll be updating the Set 6 meta snapshot periodically in our Meta Monday updates. Come back 0800 (US Central time) on Mondays to see who won tournaments that weekend and what decks we’re moving up and down as the meta develops.

Thanks for reading! Check out the full Meta Snapshot here.