SWLCG Edge of Darkness Review: Smugglers

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:

Wookiee Life Debt: 11.5 out of 15 possible points.


CobraBubbles (4/5) – Holy Deej, the synergy!! This is what a really cohesive set looks like. All the cards here play into each other, without needing to be too explicit about it. The damage output on offer is pretty insane, and it all rolls together into a brilliantly thematic package. Sitting across from the objective is intimidating, and Chewie is terrifying. I love that in this card we get the aggressive side of him that is much hinted at but hardly ever shown off in the original trilogy. The raw power of the set is offset somewhat by its low edge values, but nonetheless I’m a bit baffled as to why this has dropped out of character-heavy decks. Mono-Smuggler is working its way back into the meta, so expect to see a bit more of scary scary Chewie in the near future; in the meantime I recommend it as a spicy one-of in your Smug-Jedi builds.

BakaMatt (3.5/5) – Chewbacca sports a crazy amount of value for a three resource cost unit with good damage capacity, four combat icons and a great reaction. He's just incredible and I'm hard-pressed to think of other units that bring as much to the table for so little investment (outside of the overpowered Yoda, You Seek Yoda). He synergizes well with the other elements of the set, allowing Let the Wookiee Win to produce some dominating swings or enabling some extra punch with the Protect granted by Wookiee Life Debt. The rest of the set, though, is a letdown when you fail to flop the objective at the start of the game. Without reliable ways to enrage the Wookiee Warriors, they're underperformers. Lacking the full potential of soaking damage via Protect and locked out of dealing more with your damaged units, the low edge across the board really hurts. The flop problem makes playing the set a bit of a gamble, but the times it does shine coupled with Smugglers general lack of protection mean that Chewie still isn't a bad choice even in today's meta.

Majestaat (4/5) – Three beefy units, one being an insanely efficient main; protect; some control and a Heat. Sounds like a great package to add to any character deck, and it's no surprise it dominated the LS lists for so long.
But as high as the potential of this set is, it has two major drawbacks. First, its low edge with a main that needs to win it to deal objective damage. Second, it's over-reliance on the objective. Without it, the Wookie Warriors are almost useless, as you can simply ignore them until the LS finds a Let the Wookie win, while Chewie can be controlled via tactics to play around his ability.
Don't know if another set with Let the Wookie Win would break the game, but gimme any sort of self-damage effects and I'd imagine we would all take a second look to this set. Yes, you still have to deal with low edge in a world where pods easily have 8-9+ icons, but you would have agency over what are some very efficient units. Imagine if Heat of Battle could target any participating unit. I'd need new pants.


Raise the Stakes: 11.5 out of 15 possible points.


CobraBubbles (4/5) – No doubt you’ve all heard of the deck that this pod saw the most play in. Though everyone called it ‘Sleuths’, after the units in a pod we’ll get to shortly, I’ve always thought this was the better of the two key sets in that build. You get a really solid vehicle main, an objective with arguably the strongest ‘when undamaged’ ability on the light side, plus a pinch of card draw and action-speed removal. And on top of all that it comes with two of the best utility chuds around. We’re all familiar with the utility of the Op thanks to her appearance in another pod from this box, and the power of the cheap, complete hand information the Spy provides should not be underestimated. Edge aside, this is the complete package for an aggressive deck.
I do think it’s a shame that the cool push-your-luck flavour evoked by the objective isn’t carried through by the rest of the cards here, which are all more about certainty than chance. In fact, given that relative risk aversion, it doesn’t feel all that Smuggler-y. But the cards here are just so good that I can’t let that affect my rating too much.

BakaMatt (3.5/5) – This objective and Across the Anoat Sector formed an entire archetype that initially rocked the tournament scene until appropriate counters came about. Making up for the Smuggler faction's traditionally low edge count, this objective presents an alternative to fighting - using speed and trickery to punch through damage without defenders. Blockade Runner is a heavy hitter when undefended, and its text makes it perfect to slip past anything but your opponent's chud units. To help things along, Swindled and Cloud City Operative both provide means to lock down any of those low cost defenders your opponent manage to drop onto the table. Add in Raise the Stakes, which grants an extra unopposed bonus to damage and you're almost single-handedly clearing an objective in one strike, no edge necessary. Bothan Spy has short term value, not being terrible the turn it drops as a means to ensure your opponent doesn't have any nasty tricks, but he's forgettable once he's on the board and the nature of this game's cycling hands means his glance reaction is only going to be useful for a single turn on average. Smuggling Compartment is decent to slap onto Blockade Runner or Sleuths, which are a great set to run alongside this one. Like Chewie's pod, we're seeing a gamble where this objective set can be amazing or awful based on circumstances beyond your control. If your opponent isn't fielding many low drops, you'll easily run up the clock with objective damage in short order. If they're running fighters, troopers, or even just efficient low cost units (which we're seeing more and more of), your job became much harder. It may work spectacularly, or it may just fall flat.

Majestaat (4/5) – Not my cup of tea, but it's a good set. Individually, the cards are almost all useful. As a whole, the package works really well too. Blockade Runner can be difficult to stop, or just engage altogether. It hits hard and it can easily gain the bonus from the objective. The CCO will keep it online while dealing with the small fry that could actually get in its way. Swindled will help with that as well. Bothan Spy often goes unappreciated, I feel. Pay one to see your opponent's hand. If you have Raise the Stakes out, then he can also deal some decent damage, and it's not like your chuds get instantly Force Choked now. As a matter of fact, he can "tank" Dark Lord of the Sith well enough.
Lowish edge isn't that big an issue when your main star can avoid most conflict.
If I had a complaint, that would be the lack of resource, and the set being pidgeonholed to the "unblockables" builds, which isn't the most versatile archetype out there. Maybe that's not the case. I haven't tested it, but I wonder if this and No Match for a Good Blaster would be a good fit. Seems like there's potential there, but also like it would need a ton of pieces in the right places to work well. Plus, they both lack resources, so then you're limiting yourself with what else you can run.


Trust Me: 11.5 out of 15 possible points.


CobraBubbles (4/5) – I love cards like Trust Me, that ask the player to make a highly strategic risk/reward judgement with long-term implications. You have to have a really in-depth understanding of the game to tell whether cancelling this event now will be ‘worth’ the possibility of accelerating the dark side towards victory. Any game where this hits the table becomes a great test of skill for both players (assuming the dark side has events they care about), and that’s always a good sign of an awesome card.
Lando is essentially a 4-cost support unit, and as such can be clunky to play - if you draw him before your real mains he won’t do much by himself. But given how obnoxiously powerful his ability is, I think he’s cleverly and appropriately balanced. The rest of his set lacks synergy, but with 2 universal staples, a powerful hate card and a niche if explosive event, it covers all the bases pretty well. Another neat pod which, like Chewie, could probably pull its weight in modern character decks if you’re looking to mix things up.
Bonus fact: aside from his pilot version or a blank Yoda, Lando is the only unit on LS with that combat icon combination. Weird, huh?

BakaMatt (3.5/5) – Trust Me might be the best cancel effect in the game. Unlike event-based cancel, the objective is always available without clogging your hand or requiring resources. This is perhaps dicey against an aggressive dark side, but all upside against a slower controlling opponent. Lando is powerful, but pricey. He's a bit weak on the statistical Rdepartment at four cost, but the ability to drop a unit out of an engagement can be extremely powerful. Clear a nasty enemy from the defense or better yet, hold back until after the edge battle to either bail out or make a hit and run strike. The only real challenge is finding a moment to spare the resources to drop Lando. Once he's out, he's something to really mess with an opponent's combat math. Sabotage, on the other hand, is much harder to capitalize on. It requires being drawn at the right time and destroying an objective where you have less invested units in the engagement than your opponent. This perfect storm rarely happens, so it's mostly a pitch card with the horrible edge of one. Cloud City Casino and Target of Opportunity are solid cards that don't particularly synergize with anything here, but being solid stock cards are nothing to complain about. Finally, there's the Saboteur, who is really an event disguised as a unit as his stats aren't very useful. Sometimes he'll land and drop an enhancement, and other times he won't be worth the play.

Majestaat (4/5) – Asteroid Sanctuary aside, Trust Me is the only LS pod from EoD I still play regularly. It has shortcomings. Many, actually. But the objective is just bonkers. Not only does it enable a T1 Falcon, it also protects you from those nasty DS events, usually allowing your most valuable units to stick around for a while longer. Thanks to Improvised Defenses, it can now deal with up to three of them! Though realistically, you're likely stopping only one, because this thing attracts a lot of attention. Not like forcing the DS to attack is bad at all.
Lando compensates an incredible ability with really poor stats. He can afford a fancy cape but not a resource for himself. That would probably be broken though, so instead, why not just buff his stats a bit? Giving him a third pip would have been more than enough, so he could at least constest the Force decently, while also increasing the abyssmal edge values here a bit. Saboteur and Sabotage are really hit or miss, which brings the set down and makes me think at least one of them, probably Sabotage, should have an extra pip. While unexciting, a 1-1 resource and Target of Opportunity are good cards.
All in all, a supporty control set that tries to control too many aspects. A tactics chud instead of the Saboteur and, quite frankly, anything instead of Sabotage, would have been better. They are weird fits for what seems like an iconic Cloud City pod. I mean, it's not like Lando was sabotageing his own business.


Asteroid Sanctuary: 14.5 out of 15 possible points.


CobraBubbles (5/5) – Yeah. I don’t need to tell you why this pod is good. If Raise the Stakes and Trust Me had a bit of everything, this set has a lot of everything - and way better edge to boot. Many have said that Asteroid Sanctuary is one of the top 2 light side pods in the game. They’re right.

BakaMatt (4.5/5) – This set is incredible just looking at its power level. There's a distinct lack of any synergy here, but we'll forgive that since we can drop it into almost any deck and get guaranteed value. Asteroid Sanctuary is free, repeatable card draw from winning edge. The Falcon can freely drop into engagements and then escape before receiving any return strikes. Bonus points if you can win the edge battle, strike with Falcon, then bounce it. That action would almost be good enough on its own, but it also puts a free character into play, allowing further surprise strikes later in the turn. Five resources can be costly, but the combination of this ability, Edge(1) and great combat icons make the Falcon an extremely tasty package to swallow. Like a good meal at a fine restaurant, it's worth paying the premium. Bamboozle and Cloud City Operative muddle the waters even further to help keep a read away from your tactics between the transferrance of focus and Falcon's shenanigans. Did I mention this set also has a Twist of Fate? No? Well it does, and that's bonkers given the high card quality and the good edge counts! The only think that makes this miss the mark of a perfect score is a 2-for-2 resource in place of a 1-for-1, and even that is a petty nitpick. Still sees play, and sees it heavily. This set alone almost justifies purchasing two copies of the deluxe box.

Majestaat (5/5) – When every individual card in a pod is excellent, it's only natural the complete package will be great as well. Draw, resources, insane main, tactics, decent edge when you consider there's a Twist in here. Theme of the set? Multi-strikes. The Falcon, CCO and Bamboozle all allow that, giving you some very explosive turns. Hands down the best pod in Edge of Darkness, and still one of the best in the whole game. And unlike MTFBWY, this will theoretically never cycle out.


The Defense of Cloud City: 7 out of 15 possible points.


CobraBubbles (2/5) – Perhaps ironically, given the name of this deluxe that was designed to define the faction, the most infamous weakness of the Smugglers & Spies is their edge capability. Unsurprisingly, their strongest cards have traditionally been those that circumvent edge battles, or mitigate the impact of losing them. Chewie, the unblockable ships, Swindled, Lando and the Falcon; there are a bunch of examples of this in this box alone.
But in this pod we see the beginnings of a theme that seems pretty peculiar, given that weakness: cards that rely on having the edge to be good. Other examples include Col Serra, Don’t Get Cocky, Renegade Reinforcements and most of pilot Lando’s pod. That would be ok in theory, except that these effects are almost always printed on cards that are either fragile or overcosted, and appear in sets with low overall edge counts. That unpleasant combination is certainly on show here, and results in 3 units who are often totally useless. Protection and the enhancement are some of the most efficient shield-providing cards in the game, but as always it takes a hell of a lot to make up for ineffective units, and they don’t quite cut the mustard.

BakaMatt (3/5) – Here's one of the first "minor character" pods that don't really go over so well. In a game design where you want to ensure the major characters don't get overshadowed by minor ones, we'll sometimes see these sort of pods that include a minor character in a lesser role or capacity. Here we have Lobot, who isn't really much more powerful than your average chud, and he's the feature card of The Defense of Cloud City. We'd see the same mistake repeated in later releases with the designs for Mirax Terrik and Plat Okeefe, and better handling with team-ups like Zuckuss/4-LOM or Dr. Evazan/Ponda Baba. I think the core of this issue lies with the deck construction limitations. Even the objective sets that feature a powerful standalone unit usually bring along chuds, which are okay to have in small doses. But its hard to make a compelling case for a set like Lobot's, who is both underwhelming and not much better than a chud himself. Swarms don't handle well without heavy card draw support and this set is small unit topheavy. I think Security Control Center and Protection are the best cards here, which speaks a lot about the rest of the set. Middle of the pack, probably not worth running outside of a gimmick deck. A more impactful Lobot would have helped, as would have some actual text on the objective. It would take a future release of strong support for swarm unit style play to give this another look.

Majestaat (2/5) – 2-resource objectives are great for the Falcon... if you have a good main or main-enabler, of which there are none here. Lobot is an okay resource with tactics. During combat, he'll work decently on his own. If you want to send him in with some friends... you might be shooting yourself in the foot, which I don't like at all. While they have a cool ability, the Wing Guards are way too inefficient, so it'd have been nice to see a second pip on them to help with actually winning edge. Security Control Center and Protection are really good, but ultimately not enough to carry this set to a comfortable place. Would have liked this set to fully commit to the shields' theme.


Across the Anoat Sector: 9 out of 15 possible points.


CobraBubbles (3/5) – This might be a controversially low rating for a pod that once defined the game, but I maintain that it’s strictly worse that Raise the Stakes. Don’t get me wrong, the objective ability is the nuts and the Sleuths can straight up win games. But if you don’t luck out on the flop and get a blast-boosting objective or two, the ‘attack alone’ requirement means they just don’t get much done. And the support cards are pretty lacklustre, although I’m a big fan of Over My Dead Body.
Once this pod was the scourge of the meta, but there’re plenty of strong, playable sub-3-cost units on dark side nowadays, and the Sleuths’ time in the sun is long past. I can’t say I mind. Their defence-denial ability is entirely uninteractive and therefore pretty unfun. I wouldn’t have minded if you could only have 2 units with that text in your deck, but 6 was definitely overkill.

BakaMatt (3/5) – Just about everything I said for Raise the Stakes applies here. This is a risk-reward gamble set that banks on the ability to avoid defenders through trickery. When it works, it works extremely well. When it fails, it folds. This set has less ways to help avoid combat than Raise the Stakes, but it features a lot of cards that capitalize on it, making the two objectives a natural coupling.

Majestaat (3/5) – This pod and all it represents can just burn in hell. Your opponent has 2-costers and/or tactics? You lost. They don't? You win. That's pretty much how it goes. Not only that, the cards here are for the most part pretty uninteresting, and there's not much space to express any sort of skill. Though to be fair, being able to correctly read the meta is indeed a great skill, and if you know your meta will be crushed by Sleuths, you probably should go ahead and play them.
All that said, Smuggler vehicle pods from the Rogue cycle onwards have increased the skill ceiling for this set, as there a many fun little combos you can do with pilots. It's not all hoping for a good flop with tons of extra blast on the objectives and early Sleuth spam.


Escape from Ord Mantell: 4.5 out of 15 possible points.


CobraBubbles (1/5) – Seems that every set for the first year or so of the game’s life had to have at least one pod that was all over the place, and this is one of the worst offenders. The rescuing ability is kind of interesting, but even with the new options for seeding captures, the Mission Commander is far too narrow. The Sniper and Bring It On provide a reasonable amount of attrition, but there’s just not enough gas here to justify playing this almost-blastless, edge-poor pod.
A day may come when I stop complaining about completely useless 1 cost 1 gun units - but it is not this day. Even the excessive flavour text on the Short Range Hauler is boring...

BakaMatt (2.5/5) – No real headline unit is a problem Lobot had and is a problem here again. Covert Sniper is the best of the awful unit spread, offering some direct damage and tactics. Short Range Hauler is nigh useless to your cause and Mission Commander is also sadly underwhelming, even in rescue based builds. The events can't salvage this mess. Neither can the objective, which supports a defensive style of play. Light side needs to claim three objectives to win, so anything that doesn't help that goal is a black mark in your deck and this set is full of cards that don't carry any weight. Where Asteroid Sanctuary was that expensive but delicious meal, Escape from Ord Mantell is what you hastily pieced together from the week's leftovers. I don't think this set has ever been close to a worthy play and really needed a big unit or splashy effect to make it worthwhile - drop that terrible Hauler for that unit or effect and we're really talking. As-is, easy pass.

Majestaat (1/5) – Want to like it, but it just fails. The set lacks any real punch, or the utility to effectively support other sets that would provide the firepower. Mission Commander is an average chud with a very situational upside. The Hauler is both weak and extremely boring. The Sniper is really cool in my opinion, and the objective seems almost good when DS can play much more aggressively. Thing is, you won't ever play enough events to make it particularly relevant. I'd rather have seen a copy of Repair and Refurbish for the LS.
Bring Em' On can be a nasty surprise. Should mean a dead enemy unit, and thus, unopposed damage. However, it doesn't make sense for a pod to provide you with such weak edge when it actually wants you to win edge battles.
Over My Dead Body is pretty good now with all those nasty reactions on units like GA Vader, Ephant Mon, 4-LOM, Tarkin, Yularen, et al. Still, not nearly enough to carry the set. If I was so needy for that event, I'd rather go with Across the Anoat Sector, even if it had zero synergy with the rest of the deck. All around better units and objective.


FINAL WORDS:
An imported Cuban flu from my brother made work take longer than expected. I also got his and the Scrap Metal review at about the same time, and instead of being a smart boy and prioritize one over the other, I worked on both at the same time. On the bright side, the Scrap Metal one should be uploaded later today or tomorrow at most.

Anyway, that's the start for the Edge of Darkness deluxe box, also known as the "Smuggler and Scum core box". Although over half of the reviewed sets are perfectly playable, their low edge values have proved to be rather hard to overcome when newer sets keep getting higher total values and provide more and more answers to the tricks offered to Smugglers here, while yellow themselves haven't received the tools to compete with all those counters. I'm still waiting for proper Wookiee support. More Chewies don't exactly help because the EoD version is the one you want to have on the table. Bah, enough venting.

The Jedi, Rebel and Light Side Neutral pods from EoD will be next. That's only four sets to review, so I expect that article to be done soon.

And that's it this time. 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!