SWLCG Core Box Review - Rebels

Introducing the new Reviewers:

CobraBubbles:
I’ve been playing on and off since around the start of cycle 2. Unfortunately there are very few players in my area so I don’t get too many games in these days, but I’m an LCG nut and like the mechanics of SW a lot so I do spend plenty of time thinking and theorycrafting about the game. When I do get to play I like to experiment with pods and decks that aren’t considered tier 1 - if you’ve ever heard of me, it’s probably because I gained some notoriety by taking a Sith deck with Virago in it to the top 8 of UK nationals last year..
In writing my reviews I’ll be judging the design of the pods as well as their competitiveness, trying to highlight what was good about the design of good pods, and how bad pods might have been better design. I’ll also be looking at how these old sets are/might be used in modern decks and what new pieces could be released to make them more viable. And finally, as a regular AGoT and Netrunner player, I’m hoping I can bring some insight by comparing this game to the other LCGs. Looking forward to it!

BakaMatt:
I'm a passionate casual of the game who has played since the start, although I've been constrained to a very small playgroup and haven't once taken part in any tournament level. I originally got my ears wet with a little-known game called Magic: The Gathering in the 90s and have been a card game fan ever since, naturally gravitating to Decipher's Star Wars CCG when it arrived on the scene and dabbling into other games along the way, like the old VS System, the Lord of the Rings LCG and 1st edition Game of Thrones. I describe myself as a "passionate casual" because despite my limited direct involvement in the competitive scene, I am still very much on top of the latest news - what's making rounds in regionals/nationals/worlds, what's being said amongst numerous podcasts and what is up-and-coming in the future. I'd like to think what experience I have is made up with heart.


THE RATING SYSTEM:
We'll only be rating the pods as a whole in these series. No in-depth analysis on the individual cards, as everyone already has an established opinion on them and it would take more time than what we can afford. Sorry to disappoint.
While the following isn't particularly precise, the different scores could be seen as:
1 - Poor - Probably a combination of subpar cards, low edge and lack of synergy. Should prove to be a weak addition to a deck even when building around it.
2 - Bad - Overall a weaker pod that can have its moment when properly supported, but usually stays within the realm of "just fun".
3 - Average - A fair choice that is simply outclassed by other options in most cases. May prove to be the superior pick in very particular decks.
4 - Good - All-around solid and can most likely pull its weight by itself.
5 - Great - Cohesive set with with several strong elements which can fit in a plethora of decks. Or it may be somewhat niche but incredibly strong in certain archertypes.


THE REVIEWS:

The Defense of Yavin 4: 11.5 out of 15 possible points.


CobraBubbles (4/5) – Last time we saw a bunch of Jedi sets which (almost) universally sent a single message about how to play this game. They said: ‘big, hard-hitting main units are super important’. This first Rebel set says something rather different, making for a fascinating exploration of different design space.
The message of DoY4 is: ‘The little guys can do it too!’ I love this, not just because it adds diversity to the game, but because it’s wonderfully thematic. After all, that’s pretty much the message of every popular rebellion ever, right? We may not be strong, but we are many. Whether this bears true in this game as it does in life is something I’ll return to later in this article. Certainly though the cards in this set add a lot of power to a Vehicle swarm deck. The Astromech and Rebel Assault in particular are key, as they provide powerful ways to help your otherwise-underwhelming units dish out pain to the dark side. Of course, the set also plays well with less-swarmy decks built around larger Vehicles, and that versatility is a large part of what makes it so strong.
A quick cross-LCG sidenote: the ability on Defense is a cool example of how a simple card game concept can be very different in SW than in other games. Thrones for example has seen a few different ‘discard cards to get resources’ effects in its long history. There, the decision the player has to make in using such an effect is quite open ended; they must judge how much they’ll need the card to be discarded in the rest of the game. The edge battle and hand-refilling mechanics in SW create a more specific but arguably more difficult decision point. In using Defense I have to think something like ‘Can I be confident that having the extra Vehicle(s) this gets me will be worth not winning edge this turn? Or if not, will I be able to maintain this economic advantage into future turns when I can win edge?’ It’s that kind of very engaging decision that makes this such a great game, and makes DoY4 in particular such a fun pod to play with.

BakaMatt (3.5/5) – For a good while, this was a set that formed the backbone of Rebel vehicle builds. A lot of its pieces are still welcome in today's environment, though the set overall has weak units in comparison to later releases. The objective itself is helpful for both swarming/cycling cards while simultaneously acting as a way to help heavier capital ships out. Red Two has combo potential, but really requires enhancing to make it worthwhile. The other unit, the Y-Wing is very fragile and usually can't be counted on for more than a single strike. That leaves the real stars of the show being the Astromech, which cheaply beefs up any vehicle, and Rebel Assault, a fantastically flexible direct damage option. What this set lacks in raw unit strength, it makes up for with a resource, good enhancement, and great event.

Majestaat (4/5) – While it's still a good set by today standards, its weaknesses are more pronounced now. Lower cost units have become much stronger in later cycles, leaving Red Two and the Y-Wing bitting the dust. They can still deal some heavy damage when they're left to do as they please, but there are plenty of sets that'll offer you better units for that same price. Then we have a horrid edge count, with only 6 icons. Not cool when 2 of the 3 blast icons in the set are white, and even though many Rebel vehicles don't really care much about edge for their own combat icons, they do need to win every so often if they don't want to get shot down before getting to do anything.
The objective, enhancements and event are all really good though. You can't use DoT4 as liberally now since cards are so valuable, but having the option is really nice and will make a big difference if facing a deck that'll struggle against swarms. The Astromech is super efficient, almost dumb with Rogue Squadron X-Wings or Endor Home One. Rebel Assault is incredibly versatile, removing pesky support units or finishing damaged mains/objectives for the win.


Mission Briefing: 7 out of 15 possible points.


CobraBubbles (2/5) – My first impression of this set is that, like most small children and large nations, it’s confused about what it wants to be. The objective is identical to Counsel of the Sith, but where that objective comes with a neat package of card and resource advantage, this is accompanied by a really unreliable draw effect and a worse Admiral Motti. The other half of the set forms a fledgling damage-attrition module, but the units are so ineffective that the set gives no real way to turn that into real combat advantage. The Mon herself is trying to be both a resource and an attacker at once, but does neither very well.
Both chuds here are so far below the stat curve it’s upsetting. 2 cost for 1 icon is really bad, and the super-conditional abilities don’t make up for it. The A-Wing has about a 0.1% chance of getting to trigger before it dies. The Engineers are a build-around combo card with too little support. The Emplacement combo is fine but these days you’d expect another enhancement that works with the Engineers in the pod, or a way to use resources in the conflict phase, as the majority of targets for them in the Core are resource-enhancements. That said, what little play this set still sees is almost exclusively in decks trying to leverage the Engineers, so I guess the build-around potential is not completely wasted.
This is one of those sets that suggests that some Core set cards were designed individually rather than as part of a set, and stuck in where there was room, which is saddening. The complete lack of thematic cohesion makes this even more apparent, especially following on from the very evocative DoY4.

BakaMatt (3/5) – This set is middling. The objective is great repeatable card advantage, but everything else is average to poor. Heavy Blaster Emplacement gives a great first impression as a repeatable free source of damage (shortly after Core release, I recall even seeing heavy complaints about it dominating games on the web), but in practice it doesn't sway the game enough to the light side's favor. Damage capacities have been on the increase since Core and it isn't hard for your opponent to find a unit that can soak the incoming point of damage. The rest of the set follows the trend of mediocracy. Mon Mothma is horribly overcosted for what she brings to the table, the A-Wing is a weak draw card without contributing what the light side wants (blast), and the Battlefield Engineers are an awkward combo enabler. This set seems to want to lend support to a unit choking style of play by splashing repeatable direct damage with card fuel, but it doesn't really work out that well in practice.

Majestaat (2/5) – Again, the set is dragged down by poor units, and in this case they're especially bad. Mon Mothma and the A-Wing are downright terrible. The Engineers are a combo unit that exchanges a combat icon for an interesting ability, giving you extra uses out of the likes of Echo Caverns and Natural Cover. If anything, they open resources to play events.
What they all have in common, however, is their total lack of blast damage. And sadly, there's nothing else in the set to make up for that. The Heavy Blast Emplacement can be a real annoyance, but it's well designed in that your opponent selects the target, usually being able to distribute damage and conserve his units, even if heavily damaged. Heat of Battle is usually nice. Unfortunately, the units weak combat stats don't even allow it to shine situationally. A real shame.
The objective itself is really solid with how aggressive the Dark Side can play now. But again, there are no good units to put up a defense with.


Fleeing from the Empire: 10.5 out of 15 possible points.


CobraBubbles (3/5) – Leia’s set has aged a lot better than the Mon’s in terms of competitivity, but from a design perspective suffers similar problems. The chud, enhancement and objective don’t really make sense here (although the latter is very strong). They don’t fit with the main combo of the set, or with each other. The Twist on the other hand may seem like another anomalous inclusion, but actually I think it makes sense here. Leia is the kind of unit that can make strike order very important, which in turn makes edge battles important, so having the best edge card in the game with her is pretty neat.
Speaking of Leia, one thing I do love about this set is the sheer brashness of putting such a huge effect on a Core set card. So many of the Core cards are conservatively designed (with good reason, to be fair), that this wonderfully fun, game-changing ability is really refreshing to see. I just wish that the other cards in this set actually benefitted when you trigger Leia. Putting a ‘Focus to do X minor thing’ ability on the chud, or even just making the objective 2 resources, would have made this feel more like a whole set. As it is, it feels like they got halfway through designing the set and then got bored and stuck in some random cards.

BakaMatt (3.5/5) – If you're looking for real combo power, Leia is your go-to gal. Sure, she's fragile, but you often want to see her leave play to sweep your board of tokens and victory rush. Free shields from the objective, a Twist of Fate(!) and mutliple cheap sources of reliable card draw via You're My Only Hope/Stolen Plans make this an excellent choice as a supporting pod. All that really keeps this from the higher rating spectrum is the lack of any real punch within its own set. Fleeing the Empire may clinch you victory by shoring up your edge or allowing a full team double-strike with Leia, but none of the cards in the set will take the game on their own.

Majestaat (4/5) – A set that doesn't get enough love. The reason? Much of the set's power is loaded in the Leia + You're My Only Hope combo, which just wins game at the proper time. If you don't get to pull it, however, you're left with some decent cards that never seem to have enough impact on their own, mainly due to lack of raw firepower and synergy. With Leia getting insta-choked for the longest time, it's understandable people have a negative perception on the set.
Yet it's pieces are by no means bad. A bit of shielding from the objective is almost always useful. And while the delay from playing a main to getting the shield hurts it, it's nice utility when an important unit gets to survive a round, especially with some shielding tricks like Concentrated Firepower.
Even if Leia doesn't get to leave the game at a proper time, she packs impressive stats for her cost. The chud is pretty standard. Its second edge icon helps him a ton for all the times you don't want to play him (so... most of the time). If your deck can defend, Stolen Plans is fine, often giving you that extra card to win edge. Twist is Twist... and surprisingly, it's in a set wth 8 force icons. Crazy!


The Rebel Fleet: 11 out of 15 possible points.


CobraBubbles (4/5) – Peculiarly, this is the first and only traditional main set for Rebels in the Core. Luckily, it’s a doozy. It’s straightforward, thematic, punchy, and I like it a lot. When your opponent drops Home One you really get the feeling that the Rebellion is bringing its full might against you, and as the Rebel player you feel that maybe, just maybe, the seemingly impossible struggle against the Empire is about to end…
As in Fleeing the Empire, the fate card choice makes a lot of sense here, which is cool. In this case the connection is mostly thematic, as the Rebel Fleet’s assault on the Death Star II is probably the most opportunistic move they make in the whole trilogy, but it also fits mechanically as an addition to the absurd damage output in this set. That ability to put on pressure with lots of objective damage has turned into one of the principal features of Rebel decks, which I think makes this set a success in terms of creating a legacy. Sure, it doesn’t see so much play these days, but that shouldn’t reflect on its quality. Next time you get angry at drawing yet another MC80 cruiser you don’t need, try cutting one of your Solidarity of Spirits for this. You won’t regret it.
Obviously the objective itself is rubbish, which is a shame. I would have liked to see something that somehow interacted with damaged enemy objectives, maybe granting a boon when all of them were damaged, to combo with Home One. That could make it a 5 out of 5, but it’s a very solid 4 as is.

BakaMatt (3.5/5) – As one of only two Rebel sets from the box with a cost effective resource, The Rebel Fleet saw its share of play, and thanks to the powerhouse that is Home One, it is still in the running of common Rebel sets of today. Home One is single most beefiest, blastiest unit in the game, sporting both good stats and an ability to burst out many objectives at once. It may be costly, but the resources are well invested. Another health point to the Y-Wing, a more useful replacement for the droid and we'd have a top-tier set seen in almost every deck running rebels. As it stands, the set isn't perfect, but the solid "main" with a resource enhancement, resource, and good fate card are enough to classify this as above the average.

Majestaat (3.5/5) – The set that packs the blast, with two units heavy on it plus a Target of Opportunity. Shame the units are so fragile for their cost. In fact, the Y-Wing having only 1 HP makes the Repair Droid almost pointless here.
In the end, the set's main drawback is its lack of a good home. Home One is too expensive for a fighter build, while the other cards here can't support them properly. In a Capital Ship deck, Solidarity of Spirit simply overshadows this set. Even if the Liberty-class are poor units, you're getting many Capital Ships in a single set, maximizing your synergy in such a deck.
With the objective as good as blank, I really would have liked an extra resource on it. Either that or extra HP on the vehicles would have made this a much better set. It's perfectly playable as it is, but it never feels like an optimal pick, even if trying to build around it. To be fair, there's not much building around to do here, with the cards being as straightforward as they are.


Draw their Fire: 9.5 out of 15 possible points.


CobraBubbles (4/5) – I never set much stock in this pod before looking at it for this review, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how awesome it is. Even though it has no text, the title and art of the objective immediately evoke a scenario, and that scenario is represented perfectly by the mechanical interactions of the cards in the set. The Rebels are implementing a defensive strategy of using their smaller fighters to protect their larger cruisers, which is reflected in the Escort and event providing benefits when your Vehicles take hits. The generic X-Wing takes hits well for a unit of its cost, which is just the kind of ship you need for this kind of strategy. The Command Center helps your units take even more hits to prolong the effectiveness of the strategy. And then, when the Rebels have worn out their enemies sufficiently, the tactical genius Admiral Ackbar delivers his masterstroke, turning the Empire’s apparently strong position against them. And you get to shout IT’S A TRAP! at the top of your voice as he does so - so cool!
Ok so the set isn’t great in-game, as the cards can be hard to use well, though they have a high upside. It’s definitely playable as a meta call though if there’s lots of Navy in your meta, as the Escort and Heroic Sacrifice provide pretty strong ways to deal with all their Gladiators, Interdictors, Corellians and Decimators.
A couple notes on the Fleet Command Center. It seems at first like a pretty boring card, but it’s worth noting that it’s probably the best Core card to combo with the Battlefield Engineers, who let you free it up in the conflict phase the turn after you fully tap it, opening up the possibility of a surprise Ackbar or Rebel Assault. Also, I love that in the Core set we got this Yavin 4 traited resource card with Jan Dodonna’s big handsome face on it, and then years later in GA we get a Dodonna who synergises with Yavin 4 resource cards! Coincidence? I think not!

BakaMatt (2.5/5) – The set design here is all over the place and unfocused. Admiral Ackbar is surprisingly good as a moderately priced unit with only white icons. Tactics are always great, with the obvious flavor callout of shouting "It's a trap" as you surprise play him mid-engagement with direct damage). This set seems to fit in with Mon Mothma's design direction as a chokepoint/direct damage style. The escort and heroic sacrifice are meant to break up some of the board where direct damage didn't, and failing that, Ackbar sweeps in and locks down whoever is left to clear the path for an assault. After Core's release, very little of this design trend continued for Rebels, so this is somehwat of a forgotten set as a result. There are too many pieces at work here with too much inflexibility (as much as Ackbar's trap is flavor win, Heroic Sacrifice can't hit Executor to mimic the film scene?) and not enough raw punch to make Draw Their Fire anything but a subpar support set.

Majestaat (3/5) – Really unsure on a score here. Feels like a particularly bad set because one third of its cards are geared exclusively towards wrecking vehicles, and since the dawn of the game, it's been characters who've dominated the competitive scene.
Ackbar is lacking. You have to save 3 resources and a 3-pips card for a battle, normally one in which you really want to win edge at that to make use of those juicy tactics. Low HP, no elite, no resource... little reason to pick him over his Endor version. The X-Wing is cool, but ultimately suffers the same problem, with the B-Wings in Turning the Tide being better.
The interesting pieces are exactly the anti vehicle tech and Fleet Command Center. Only this last one is dependant on your own build, being a nice utility piece in a shielding deck. The Escort and Heroic Sacrifice are mere meta calls. When the only vehicle Sith are running is the Executor, or Navy fields the Chimaera or Gladiators along their officers, they can be quite strong cards. If the Black Sun Headhunters were more balanced in their cost, you'd get some worth there as well. Can be a great pick if you have a clear picture of your meta, and it includes a few problematic vehicles you can easily get rid of with what's here.


Mobilize the Squadrons: 9.5 out of 15 possible points.


CobraBubbles (3/5) – Mobilize is a strange little set. It has zero internal synergy, missing some obvious opportunities for interaction. Trench Run can’t be hit by Rebel Assault, which is good from a balance perspective but frustrating, and the objective has no targets in the set other than itself. And yet, apparently, 3 good cards do a good pod make. Though the units are bad, the potential upside on the other cards is so high that Mobilize has seen play in many of the game’s best Rebel Vehicle decks.
The set screams lazy design, but the sheer flashiness of Trench Run is so appealing that I can’t bring myself to dislike the set. As a badly-designed pod that is nonetheless pretty competitive, it’s hard to rate, so I’m going to chicken out and compromise with a straight-down-the-middle score.

BakaMatt (3/5) – I wonder how amazing this set would be with a better mix of cards. The objective itself presents a solid resource engine (with option for enhancements). We get another copy of Rebel Assault, which seems awesome to run as a four-of in most decks. And then we get... well, not much else. Don't get me wrong, X-Wing is a great unit, but not exactly a headliner for a set. Rebel Pilot is absolute junk, however, and another X-Wing or Y-Wing would at least lend itself to swarm deck support. Covering Fire isn't a bad event and actually gives a use for the terrible units in the mix. Trench Run creates an alternate win condition, but it requires drawing it soon enough, paying to deploy it, and then telegraphing attacks to your opponent - usually better to pitch than play. We're once again looking at what I'd classify as a support set - this lacks any real punch by itself and really plays a role as helping out other pods.

Majestaat (3.5/5) – Funny how playable this set could be if only the Rookie Pilot was errata'ed to work like a proper pilot. Rogue Squadron X-Wings would love that.
The objective is incredible to accelerate your game early on. Between it and DoY4, a swarmy fighter deck may not even need resource enhancements to run correctly.
The units aren't terribly impactful, though the X-Wing is quite efficient for its cost.
Rebel Assault is always great to have, helping you close the game once your fighters start to run out of gas. The DS really suffers when they keep getting hammered by these.
Covering Fire can be huge lategame, works perfectly with a swarm build and even justifies the existence of the Rookie Pilot, sorta.
Trench will greatly vary in its usefulness depending on your build and when you draw it. Since Asteroid Base got nerfed (thanks a lot Mick ), there aren't many ways to abuse it now. If you're into some jank, you can still build a swarm, hope it doesn't get wrecked by Moment of Triumph and then try to one-shot the Death Star with Advanced Proton Torpedoes. That makes much more sense than Guardians of Peace and Ewok Companions turning their shields into damage to destroy it, though obviously not as hilarious.


Decoy at Dantooine: 5 out of 15 possible points.


CobraBubbles (2/5) – Competitively speaking, this is probably the worst pod Rebels got in Core, although Mothma gives it a good run for that title. However, unlike in both Mission Briefing and the worst Jedi Core pod (Jedi Training), there’s something interesting here design-wise. It’s the only light side pod in Core that provides solid counters to dark side aggression in the form of the objective and enhancement (Log Trap, Emergency Repair and A Journey to Dagobah all being overcosted and ineffective). It also brings the game’s first light side board wipe in A New Hope. Fall Back! is highly conditional, but it combos with Leia which is nice. And the Wookie’s ability explores some unique design space in messing with the 1-engagement-per-objective rule.
The units definitely let the pod down though - while its text is interesting the Wookie has poor stats for 3 cost, and the Trooper will often do absolutely nothing. Which, incidentally, is interesting from a cross-LCG perspective. Games like Thrones and Conquest have had problems in the past with the game being dominated by cheap units, because those games are designed such that any body you can get on the board is beneficial to you, making cheap/free ones valuable even if their stats are poor. The nature of Star Wars’ combat icons changes that. A unit with just one gun is unlikely to achieve anything at all, even if it is free. Remember when I said ‘We may not be strong, but we are many’? In SW, it seems that’s only true if you have ways to give your many little units blast or tactics...
Anyway, because of these poor units and the abysmal edge count I can’t give the pod more than a 2. But I’m not giving it the bottom rating, for two reasons. First, I think we all remember this pod badly because aggressive dark side decks were a non-entity for so long at the start of the game. Nowadays with Navy being competitive, and cards like Endor Palpy and Doole in so many decks, the key pieces in Decoy are better than they were, if still not necessarily top tier. Second, I just noticed that Decoy at Dantooine has some fun little combos with GA Leia. Both the events trigger her at action speed, and she in turn triggers this objective. So there’s potential for modern jank here, even though I don’t think that combo will ever be consistently good.

BakaMatt (2/5) – Here's a recipe for how to make a terrible pod. Take a horribly overcosted unit, an awful unit that lends next to no edge battle unit, add in a weak enhancement that doesn't help your victory conditions and blend it with two average events. In short, I think design overestimated how much allowing a second strike against an objective should cost (they would revisit Wookiee Navigator later in the Endor Cycle and implement the mechanic better with Han Solo and Secret Objective). I think design during Core was likewise worried about how strong a board wipe would be - not only does A New Hope allow three units per side to remain, there are heavy timing restrictions on Sith's version in the Core card There is No Escape. Those two design/development knee jerks to those card designs are the only justification I have for how weak this set turned out. A New Hope also seems to fall in line with that unrealized unit choke theme Mon Mothma and Ackbar's sets were aiming for. Avoid this set in builds, there are too many other good choices not to.

Majestaat (1/5) – This may be the first time I give a set the lowest score, and I've been reviewing SW cards for a couple year now. As with Jedi Training, we got an interesting concept here, but terrible execution, and you get even worse individual pieces than in Jedi Training.
LS fights against the clock in this game, so any effects that'll slow down the dial are greatly appreciated. But then what? The set provides nothing to back that up. Sure, the Wookie can theoretically win the game by itself, but you'd need an absurd amount of setup for that. The Rebel Trooper does absolutely nothing, and you have no sacrifice effects here to make him remotely useful. What purpose does Fall Back serve? I wouldn't want to pay for the Wookie, ever. So why would I pay for him a second time? The Trooper is free, but again, does nothing, not it hand, not in play. No need to bounce him.
A New Hope may be the key piece here, giving you a soft board reset. If only the set had units you'd want to play and keep on the board...
I don't know what to do with this. Would need a ton of changes to be remotely viable. The objective is fine, I think. False Lead should be an area enhancement you can sacrifice when one of your objectives leaves play. The units would have to be completely scraped. Have some sort of ability that interacts with the number in the dial, a la Preparations for Battle.
As interesting as A New Hope is, it doesn't feel like it belongs here. Maybe a reverse Empire Strikes Back event. Destroy a DS objective and reduce the dial by 1.
Alternatively, if Rebels could get strong force control capabilities, they could just sit back and deal damage with Balance, while keeping the dial in check with these effects and a solid defense, only to attack later in the game to seal the match.
Hope the design team revisits the concept of dial manipulation at some point, and prove they learned from their mistakes. And no, I'm not asking for more Nudjs either.



FINAL WORDS:
A couple days later than expected, but still managing to keep our schedule, more or less. We'll have a particularly short article next time, featuring the single Smugglers pod in the Core box + Neutrals. Theoretically, that should be done in just a few days, but I'll be so busy the next few weeks I'm not exactly sure when it will be uploaded. Will try go have it ASAP. After that, Core Dark Side comes, starting with Sith.

I extend my gratitude to the review team and the readers who motivated us to do this. I'm sure there's room for improvement. If you got any ideas, feel free to comment or PM me so we can make the next article even better.
I must say, however, that there's a limit to how many images can be uploaded. That's why I only selected a few images per pod.

If you're looking for more reviews, you can find them in our forum thread here.

May the Force be with you all!