The Mos Eisley Mafia: SWCLG "Allies of Necessity" Force Pack Review - Dark Side

Galactic Enforcers: 24.5 out of 25 possible points.


doctormungmung (5/5) – Both Navy and Sith can really make use of extra edge cards via methods like Gladiators and just general good edge cards. Both factions can also work the swarm with TIEs, where seeing lots of cards is a boon. Really, just Gladiators alone make running the seven reserve worth it for the DS. The biggest hits come from not being able to run the Death Star or Tarkin, but there are still lots of good Navy sets that I don’t really see that as much of a reason to avoid this affiliation.

yodaman (4.5/5) – I think this combination can just be totally brutal and may be the best 7 reserve option there is. Sith has good edge to begin with and now you could pair up good Sith sets with Navy sets like Endor Entrapment and really abuse the Gladiators. Team them with Palpy and you can really set up a fortress and just lock down the LS board. It’s a good thing DS can’t include the Death Star or Tarkin Doctrine with this affiliation because that would just be bonkers.

pantsyg (5/5) – The affiliation you want to run if you want to win every edge battle with your big Sith mains and Gladiator abuse. As previously stated, I expect the extra reserve affiliations will be the most commonly run. If the command decks under these affiliations are decent, and I can’t see why they wouldn’t be, this cycle may be dominated by a reserve arms race.

Rio (5/5) – Sith paired with Navy at a 6/6 split. This one grants you an extra reserve. Is the card worth it with 10 cards in deck? Yes, yes it is. 7 reserve is insane, it grants you such an advantage in edge, especially with Gladiators, being able to drop Palpatine into an edge battle when needed is brutal. 7 reserve is the future….

Majestaat (5/5) – This is super exciting for TIEs. You'll pick this affiliation in other builds if you want to be mean and win every single edge battle because Gladiators coupled with usual Sith stuff seems downright dumb. Other than that, Sith and Navy don't seem to have many reasons for wanting to work together, as they lose on powerful effects like Tarkin Doctrine and Dark Lord of the Sith.
Lack of Influence in DS could be an issue early during this cycle, so this may not be so popular right away, but that's likely to change in a few months.


Expendable Allies: 21 out of 25 possible points.
Sith Affiliation Card.
Text: Your objective deck must contain exactly 5 [Sith] objectives and exactly 5 [Scum and Villainy] and/or neutral objectives.
Resources Generated: 2
Reserve: 6

doctormungmung (5/5) – I think this one gets a five just for the name alone. I can totally see either the Sith or Scum using the other for their singular benefit, with no regard to trying to make sure the other one survives the encounter. Flavor wise this is top notch. As for function, a minimum of five resources on the flop, with the potential for considerably more (Scum has a lot of two resource objectives) means that a first turn Vader will be somewhat common, and more first or second turn Palpatines will also be seen. At least Xizor is Scum only, so he won’t showing up early with this setup, but really, there are so many Sith and Scum mains that getting one plus, or a bigger one out earlier will net benefits quickly.

yodaman (4/5) – Sith and Scum both have expensive cards so having the potential resource acceleration helps here. It allows for a first turn Vader or Jabba (Xizor is out because his set is Scum only). Couple this objective with some of the 2 resource objectives in each affiliation and you can get a lot of stuff out in a hurry.

pantsyg (4/5) – Guaranteed Turn 1 Vader or Jabba is always a tempting proposition, but running this locks you out of Xizor and several other juicy Scum-only sets. Further, Jabba loses a ton of value if your deck isn’t packed with Scum events and Bounty Hunters. Still, turn 1 Vader!

Rio (4/5) – The first of the Sith affiliations, this one pairs with Scum at a 5/5 split. I think this one offers a lot to Scum, as they have a serious 2 for 1 resource problem with a lot of 4 cost characters, so you’re either playing a resource and a chud, or just a dude and saving the resource for next turn. This allows for both the resource and the main. Very good for characters like Bane (who wants to be paired with Sith anyways), IG-B, and Boba Fett.

Majestaat (4/5) – It's unfortunate that many of the 5-costers you could abuse with this need dedicated decks to work well. Core Vader likes a ton of Sith events. Opps Jabba wants a lot of Bounty Hunters. You can't even run Xizor here. You could play GA Vader if you can live with Dark Lord being blank and Visage losing consistency.
But you know what I've loved with this card? Force Hunters with Opps Vader. He doesn't care about Sith stuff. You just gotta pack enough fate cards, and I run a lot of Echoes. Both him and original IG-88 are scary T1 plays. The metal guy is guaranteed to have all its combat icons when it's that early into the game.
You could also play Abandoned Hideout and Bane Malar himself right from the start, no matter your objectives.
That deck alone earned this affiliation a special place in my heart.


Dark Masters: 17 out of 25 possible points.


doctormungmung (5/5) – Neither Navy nor Sith are lacking for elite units. But the extra refresh from the Death Star Engineers coupled with this coupled with Might of the Empire coupled with whatever else you want to fill in means that your board will be free and clear pretty much every turn. And Sith and Navy both have a lot of “living resources”, making sure you don’t get resource screwed by a tactic heavy LS is worth it for factions that like expensive toys.

yodaman (4/5) – This combination actually allows you to play lots of the powerful Navy and Sith sets together and get the bonus. Of course, Tarkin Doctrine and Dark Lord of the Sith aren’t as effective outside of mono builds, but the Death Star can do fine in multi-affiliation builds as can all versions of Palpy. Being able to remove an extra focus can help make units like Rav psuedo-elite and make it a lot harder for your Palpy to get locked down. Another option is to go the fighter route and help keep the non-elite ships available if you can’t find Fel.

pantsyg (3/5) – This seems like one of the weaker affiliation mixes, though the extra refresh is tempting to try out with Sith Executor.

Rio (2/5) – Another Navy affiliation, this one is paired 5/5 with Sith and grants an extra refresh. Navy already had this in Motti, and Sith already has it in GA Palp. Nothing too exciting here, and I can’t think of anything that I would want to do with it in the future either.

Majestaat (3/5) – These affiliations have enough elites, and as already said, going mixed affiliations means they lose some of their strongest tools. Can help TIEs, but overall, I'd stick to extra reserve in my fighter builds. This one allows you to run Superior Numbers, if you like that pod.


Any Methods Necessary: 22 out of 25 possible points.


doctormungmung (5/5) – Navy and Scum both like their big units. Pretty much any Star Destroyer (ISD level), but key ones being Chimaera or Thunderflare or Stalker or Devastator, etc. Even if it’s just a plethora of four-costers, there are still plenty. And while five resources doesn’t net you two four cost units, it does let you play a two for one or a two for two resource and not double focus it. And then there are lots of two and three cost units and events, where just having a base resource pool of five opens up so many options.

yodaman (4/5) – Like with the Sith/Scum affiliation card this ensures you can play that 5 cost Chimaera, Golan or Jabba turn 1. Unfortunately, you can’t use new Jabba with this affiliation card.

pantsyg (5/5) – Who decided Navy and Scum, the big culprits for massive ramp decks, need the 2-money affiliation?

Rio (4/5) – This is a new Navy affiliation card that requires you to play 5 Navy and 5 Scum or neutral pods. This grants you 2 resources instead of the normal 1. I’m not 100% sure how good this is, it could lead to an amazing Capital Ship ramp, with the Spice Trade but Navy was already doing this without Scums help. Maybe we can see a cool capture Trooper deck in the future, since we have pods like Take Them Prisoner. Extra money to start with is always good.

Majestaat (4/5) – While this helps ramp and play big, scary units, it seems like Navy and Scum already have enough tools to do so, making this overkill. Seems like this cycle will finally give Navy more capture tools, so I'm expecting this to be a strong pick when mixing blue and green.


Promise of Power: 23 out of 25 possible points.


doctormungmung (5/5) – Refresh is good, and Sith and Scum don’t have as many elite units as they want. Particularly if they are expensive. Scum also has a good amount of living resources (see Debt Collectors), so being able to either keep them from being locked down helps keep the resources going in what are typically two expensive factions.

yodaman (4/5) – Want to free up your Energy Spiders? This is the affiliation card for you. That fact alone makes this possibly the best variant of the 5/5, remove 1 focus token affiliation card. This variant lets you play powerful Scum sets like Masterful (if you want to forgo the Spiders) and I Don’t Like You, Either alongside Sith mains and free things up more regularly, if needed.

pantsyg (5/5) – The affiliation of choice for Creature decks. This immediately jumped out at me, because makes it Energy Spiders absolutely disgusting.

Rio (4/5) – This one pairs Scum with Sith at a 5/5 split and grants them an extra refresh. I like this with Scum, one of their biggest draw backs early on is the lack of elite units. However now this card can refresh Energy Spiders every turn. It’s also a nice fit with Aphra, so you can use her ability every turn, barring tactics.

Majestaat (5/5) – Scum has a good amount of expensive units that attract focus tokens and lack elite. This is the perfect pick for them. Also makes Energy Spiders easily reusable, which is HUGE.
If Aphra turns out to be as strong as I want her to be, that's yet another reason to run this.
Can't forget Wookies might come full force in the near future thanks to a certain World Champion. Know who loves to face Wookiees? Trandoshans, especially Bossk. He likes this card.


Imperial Contractors: 24 out of 25 possible points.


doctormungmung (5/5) – I think by now you’ve gotten the picture that I like the seven reserve affiliations. One of the nice things about Scum is that they just have good units, so it doesn’t really matter what you have on the board, you are likely to have something effective. Add to that that Scum actually has search, and you get more consistency out of a less consistent deck archetype. Sounds like a win to me.

yodaman (4/5) – This version of the 7 card reserve seems tailor made for expanding on the old Scum/Navy vehicle builds. Put in Xizor, pilot Boba, Fel, pilot Vader, and add in 2 more each of Scum and Navy sets to taste and see how it goes. Fighters sometimes have trouble with edge, but with this affiliation card you get access to Fel plus more cards for edge. You lose out on Superior Numbers, but that’s okay.

pantsyg (5/5) – Again, extra reserve is brutal. With Navy and Scum you can already run decks with high average-icon hands, and Scum has ways to increase its reserve further.

Rio (5/5) – This is the Scum and Navy 6/6 split, 7 reserve affiliation card. It’s just as good here as it was with Sith, maybe even better. Scum has more edge tricks, and can use cards like Prince's Scheme with the Gladiators and help ramp up Navy even more with Masterful.

Majestaat (5/5) – Scum provides the tricks; Navy the raw firepower. This seems like a strong combination if you want to be strong on both offense and defense.


Rogue Archeology (263-1): 23.5 out of 25 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – While not particularly exciting, what this objective will do is give you a shield for one of your objectives every turn. Possibly on your opponent's turn, if you have a non-sith event to play during it. While shields don’t stack, you can funnel your opponent’s attacks to the objectives that you don’t care about. And over the course of a game, the damage prevention will add up. One thing to realize is how ridiculously easy it is to trigger this, even in a mono-sith deck. Do you have a library you are going to play? Well, that’s neutral, so you get a shield. How many sith decks don’t run multiple Libraries?

yodaman (4.5/5) – I really like the effect of this card. There really aren’t a ton of Sith sets with droids so you’ll most likely be playing this set with other affiliation so you’ll most likely be triggering it by playing non-Sith cards regularly. Heck, even Sith Libraries are non-Sith. Getting shields is certainly beneficial and the way it’s worded means you can gain them on both yours and your opponent’s turns effectively adding 2 health to your objectives regularly that your opponent will have to chew through.

pantsyg (5/5) – We’ve seen how powerful objective damage mitigation effects can be for DS in the form of cards like Repair and Refurbish, Heartless Tactics, Corrupt Official, etc etc. This effect is easily triggered and repeatable; in most games I imagine this stops at least 1 damage per turn, with the potential to stop more if you trigger it in both your and the opponent’s turn. I’m also interested to explore this as a way to soften the cost of Second Phase, a set that’s always been on the periphery of my deckbuilding.

Rio (5/5) – I think this card is a sleeper, it’s incredibly powerful. Shields on objectives slows the light side down, and that is just what the dark side wants. This will trigger off any non Sith card, so in a mono Sith deck those libraries and Kuatis suddenly become worth more, but if you couple this with Scum you suddenly get events that can be played on your opponents turn for a surprise shield. It throws off the combat math and could buy you a crucial turn.

Majestaat (5/5) – After playing so much with the Imperial Senate Guard, I wasn't one bit surprised at how powerful this objective was. Shields on objectives buys you time, and that's ultimately all you need to win the game as the DS. If you're packing enough cheap non-Sith tricks to use during your opponent's turn, you can very easily mitigate a lot of damage.


*Doctor Aphra (263-2): 18 out of 25 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – FFG seems to like their droids, and Doctor Aphra is an example of that. Her stats are pretty good for a defender, with black tactics and a potential two unit damage. But she’s not elite, which can slow her down. She’s not the best force holder (again, lack of elite), and only two pips. And in some decks, her ability is close to useless. But if you build your deck around it, she can really throw a wrench into an engagement that she doesn’t even need to be in. Pull any IGgy and toss them in the conflict. That’s usually a lot of icons and a solid special. Or if you’re feeling adventurous, throw a Dark Trooper Legion into the mix for some massive damage. And since this is an action, she can do this after everyone has already struck, or do it before edge to give the LS some tough choices on where to send their strikes. Now, this ability does leave her double focused, so she’s perhaps out of action for a turn or longer, if your opponent decides to keep her locked down. But with the potential big droids out there, getting to strike with even one a game for free is probably worth the cost of this unit.

yodaman (3.5/5) – I want to like Doctor Aphra. Her stats are okay with the 1 black guns, 1 black tactics, 1 white gun, 1 white blast for 4 cost and 3 health. The designers seem to push towards a build with her and Scum because Scum resources can be used to pay for her. However, the lack of elite really hurts, especially considering her ability makes you focus her twice to put a droid into play as a participating unit from your discard pile. But after the engagement, the droid goes to the bottom of your deck. The new “remove an extra focus token after you refresh” affiliation cards can help free up Aphra, but the cost to use her ability seems a bit too steep to me. I think she may get better as the cycle continues, but for now, the only reason I’m giving her this high of a rating is because she does give you 4 combat icons for the 4 cost.

pantsyg (3/5) – I like her for the black tactics, but I’m not sold on her ability for her cost. She feels a lot like the old Escort Carrier in the fighter deck, with the major downside that she has to take two focus and the unit you pull doesn’t get to stick on the field. I do like that her target comes from discard, meaning it’s easier to set her up without having to hold cards in hand. Obviously gross with IG Prime, IG-C, or Assassin Droids, which you don’t want to pay for but can wreck face if brought into an engagement after all other strikes resolve to clean up chuds or injured mains. She’s worth exploring with Black Market Exchange and/or the extra refresh affiliations, but I predict she won’t be a major player, especially because her whole schtick is shut down by a single tactics icon.

Rio (4/5) – To say I was excited to see Doctor Aphra in the game is an understatement, she is my new favorite canon character, and they actually nailed her design. However, she is the only main in the pack without elite. That’s just really sad. I understand why they did that since her ability is bonkers and if she would be elite it wouldn’t have been much of a price to pay. She has the powerful black tactic icon, which in it of itself is worth a second look. Honestly I think she could’ve had 3 pips, every other main does in the pack, since you’re not going to want to commit her to the force anyways due to her ability. Let’s talk about her ability. She is an archaeologist who grave digs droids. Perfect. Focusing her twice to pull a droid out of discard is probably up there as the most thematic character in the game. The ability is really powerful. Somethings that immediately come to mind are the IGs, specifically B. The Assassin Droids end up in the discard 99% of the time anyways, being able to grab them at any time after your opponent declared attackers is crazy good. If Iggy-B is out they have 3 guns and you could literally murder their entire attacking squad. Also a surprise block with IG-C could be game changing. The ability will only get better with every droid that is printed.

Majestaat (3.5/5) – Even when I take into consideration the upcoming Vader's Army pod, it still feels like Aphra is a bit lacking. I imagine she was elite originally but turned out to be beyond broken, so I'm fine with her not having that keyword, especially since we got an affiliation card to mitigate the demerit from her ability. I'm not convinced at only two pips though, as well as two edge-enabled icons.
Obviously, you want her for her ability, so she could theoretically have even worse stats and still perform. However, for those times when you somehow can't use her ability or are desperate for taking the Force, a little extra would have been very nice. Alternatively, make her 3 cost and remove a combat icon.
Anyway, no point whining. Her action is pretty strong, working very well with the IG-series, Assassin Droids, GA 4-LOM, DT Legions and the upcoming BT-1. She can only get stronger as new droids get released, and that may be enough for wanting to use Promise of Power for more abuse. As things stand now, she seems to work better as a simple splash in Scum.


BX-Series Droid Commando (263-3): 18.5 out of 25 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – This guy is super cheap, and has an awesome ability. For one you get a black gun with a white blast, and the ability to enter any combat and get a strike off. Just wait until everyone else has struck, play this guy, and have him make a mess. In a lot of ways, he’s a slightly more restricted Force Choke. He’s not free, and you can only damage a unit in an engagement, but still, that’s basically one surprise damage your opponent likely wasn’t expecting. Coupled with ways to give him more guns, and he becomes Guri level annoying and destructive to your opponent’s board. Then once he’s done his thing, you get another unit to work with for the rest of the game. That’s a good bargain. Don’t scoff at the blast either. DS aggro decks have been a thing for a while, and getting more cheap blast on the board is not good for the LS.

yodaman (3.5/5) – Combat tricks are always neat so if you can afford to save the resource, you can take advantage of his ability. Getting a surprise defender with a black gun to drop in and block unopposed or getting an extra attacker and extra blast if you and win edge can never hurt, but you’ll have to manage your resources wisely to make the droid effective

pantsyg (4/5) – Super cool-looking card. This is a much better version of the old Human Replica Droids from core, which I really enjoyed in aggressive decks during the Rogue Squadron cycle. At worst, he can jump in at the end of a fight to prevent unopposed. With IG-B, he becomes more dangerous to chuds and hurt mains. On offense, he can be the unexpected final damage to finish an objective. Very solid utility for 1, though the body doesn’t hold up well after he makes his trick play.

Rio (3/5) – A pretty good chud, and to top it off he is a droid. That’s pretty nice with this pod. Too bad you don’t want this guy in discard. He is awesome to ambush in to stop an unopposed attack and ping a damage to someone. He is like a force choke for 1 cost. He also has a quick blast that your opponent may let slide in a weaker attack.

Majestaat (4/5) – Solid for one cost. Not only does this guy trigger the objective, it also provides a bit of surprise damage on either attack or defense, also stopping unopposed damage if you bring him in after every opposing unit has focused. Just a shame that since it's such a weak body overall, it doesn't really offer anything for Aphra.


Secret Information (263-4): 20.5 out of 25 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – The DS get their own non-limited influence resource enhancement. No surprise there. And it’s a carbon copy of the LS one. Also no surprise. And it’s just as good, particularly in a cycle and meta where people like to mix affiliations. Score.

yodaman (4.5/5) – Like it’s LS counterpart, this 2-1 resource comes with Influence and this really is the first DS card that has that ability (ignoring the Looking For Droids cards that don’t use the exact wording). Sith in particular tend to need a lot of resources so the fact it’s not limited really can help a Sith resource ramp.

pantsyg (4/5) – The DS influence resource. I have the same opinion here as I did for the one in Jyn’s set, though non-limited resources feel a touch stronger on DS, especially Scum owing to their proven ability to ramp heavily in the early game.

Rio (4/5) – A standard 2/1 resource. However, this is currently the only resource with Influence on the dark side, so I think we kind of have to over inflate its value. It will be the key to making some of these multi affiliation dark side decks work.

Majestaat (4/5) – Almost want to give this a 5 because this is close to a necessity if you want to run mixed decks with the new affiliations and increase your consistency, but we're definitely getting more of these throughout the cycle, so we'll have more options to pick from. It's unfortunate you can't play this and Aphra on the same turn. It further makes me think she should have been a 3-coster.


Reconstruction (263-5): 13 out of 25 possible points.


doctormungmung (2/5) – We finally run into a card in the pack (and cycle) that I’m meh about. Sure, recursion is pretty good, particularly when you get to bring the card back to hand. But pulling a droid back to hand doesn’t excite me, even with Aphra’s ability. Getting to have fun with multiple Guri’s is great, but you still have to get the original off the board first. Making sure you have IGgy after you edge him (whichever version) is also nice. But still. Maybe when 000 and his sidekick show up I’ll be more excited, but now it’s a two pip edge card (which is why it gets a two rating). If it were free, I’d be much more interested, but one cost for something this situational seems iffy, particularly when you aren’t getting much in terms of pips for an edge battle from the returned droid either. You’d need to trade up to a three pip droid to beat out just using this card in edge, since you’re basically trading them in your hand.

yodaman (4/5) – You get to recycle a droid to your hand from discard for 1 and any time a card gets things back, especially to hand, it’s worth a closer look. Too bad it doesn’t synergize better with Aphra as any droid you may get with her ability ends up back at the bottom of your deck rather than discard. Still it gives you 2 pips for edge and if you get to use it to bring back a powerful droid like one of the IG-88 versions, it’s worth the 1 cost.

pantsyg (2/5) – This is a bad card unless you’re using it specifically to reuse Guri’s effect, in which case it becomes a very strong play. I could also see using it to keep IG-B on the board for his buff potential.

Rio (3/5) – Return a Target Droid to your hand from discard, but don’t I want them in my discard for Aphra’s ability? This card isn’t bad, it can get back key droids like the IG’s, but I’m chucking this in edge 90% of the time so the 2 pips are nice.

Majestaat (2/5) – You'll probably ever play this if you have a weak hand. Why spend an extra resource for a main when I could just play another? Will be edge fodder most of the time. Thankfully, it has 2 pips.


Allies of Necessity (263-6): 21.5 out of 25 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – Guns and blast in fate card form. I liked it over on the LS, and nothing has changed in its descent to the DS, so I like it here as well. Neutral units just make this soooo good.

yodaman (4.5/5) – DS gets their first version of this card and it should be good even if the extra blast may not be quite as useful on the DS. Still, when you use this while you’re attacking, the blast will be appreciated.

pantsyg (4/5) – Slightly weaker on the DS side as often you’re not going to be making use of the bomb, but an extra heat equivalent is always welcome. In a more aggressive deck, this obviously gets full value more frequently. There’s also some hilarious plays to be had here with Armed to the Teeth, converting that bonus bomb into another bonus gun, but that might be stretching things.

Rio (5/5) – I honestly think this card is better on the dark side. Sooooo many good neutral units. It’s just good everywhere.

Majestaat (4/5) – Droids have the blast to play aggressively, so the extra bomb here shouldn't go to waste in the correct deck. The BX Commando makes this really good, since you can swing with a single affiliated unit that may be overlooked, then play the BX and use this fate card for maximum damage.


Overall: 17 out of 25 possible points.

doctormungmung (3/5) – So, this objective is a bit less than the sum of its parts. Individually, there are a lot of really good pieces in here with some great potential, but pulling it all together in a deck to make the most out of that potential is a bit challenging. Perhaps I should knock Aphra down a peg, but I do think that games can and will hinge on her ability. But not being elite will make those more rare, or perhaps push you to deploy a different unit over her when given the choice. I do think the set will see a bunch of play for the influence resource and the fact that there are a TON of droid sets on the DS. It’s just not going to live up to expectations a lot fo the time.

yodaman (3.5/5) – After trying this deck a few times, it seems like the resource and fate card are the best two
cards in the set along with the ability on the objective itself. I’m not sure the set is ready to shine yet, but we know that some Sith droids are coming in the next pack and perhaps after other sets come out, it will turn out that I rated this set too low. But for now, it’s the one set in Allies of Necessity that I’m just not overly impressed with. That’s not to say it’s bad, it’s just that it seems to be suggesting a specific deck archetype that might need more pieces to really work well.

pantsyg (3/5) – This is a reasonable set featuring a resource and a decent main, along with solid combat tricks. The value of this set lives and dies on how well you can abuse Aphra’s ability. While gross plays are available with her, I’m not sure the cost to get her on table and to use her text justifies her as a strong pick. Definitely a very fun, tricky set for those who are tired of playing with meatbags and feel it’s time for the droids to run the show.

Rio (4/5) – I think this set is going to be a slow burner, it will be looked at for every droid deck from here on out. It has a solid main, a good chud, and the DS influence resource, its still waiting for its time to shine, which isn’t right now. Maybe next pack.

Majestaat (3.5/5) – I think this set has potential to be a 4 or 4.5, but it's not quite there yet, and depends on what new cards we see as new packs are released.
I want to play Aphra with Promise of Power, but it honestly doesn't feel worth it yet. It's easy to pick the Scum sets, and I could just fill with strong Sith sets, but I want some that have better synergy with the droid theme. Unfortunately, The Second Phase is Sith only, so it's out of the equation. Vader's Army should be a nice addition, but I wonder if it'll be enough.


Immeasurable Power (264-1): 17.5 out of 25 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – Free units are free units, although you have to jump through a few hoops to get this one, relying on your opponent a lot of the time, and you are limited to just one type. To get your free unit, you need to hold back a two pip card from the edge, which is hard to do unless you really don’t care about edge. And your opponent needs to kill a trooper (or you can sac one via the targeted strike event in Tagge’s set). Still, I do like the Deathtroopers. They are beefy and have staying power, and combo up really well with Krennic. Ultimately, though, a good chunk of the time this will effectively be a blank objective.

yodaman (4.5/5) – This objective’s text is really good. Anytime a trooper is destroyed, you get to put a Death Trooper into play for free from your hand. Considering Death Troopers normally cost 3, this is good value. You’ll certainly need to be playing a trooper deck to get the most out of this along with 2 copies of this set to maximize the numbers of Death Troopers you can draw. However, since it’s definitely meant for a specific deck archetype I can’t quite give it a 5.

pantsyg (4/5) – This is an extraordinarily situational objective, but it’s hard to rate anything that gives you free 3-drop units poorly and troopers are definitely an archetype that anticipates losing units. In a pinch, you can even trigger this yourself with Precision Fire. Obviously you’re running this 2x to flip the objective on the start; without this objective in play, the rest of the set loses a lot of steam. Like everything here, its value is highly dependent on seeing the other cards from the set.

Rio (3/5) – More empty rooms! Such excitement! Such adventure! However, unlike Cassian’s objective, it’s not as impressive. The ability to put in a Death Trooper for free is good, but extremely situational. This set needs to be ran in a trooper centric deck, with Tagge, and other wackiness. In that kind of deck I start this objective every time. Also why isn’t this card called “DEPLOY THE GARRISON!!!!!”

Majestaat (3/5) – You want to see the objective early. You want to see a cheap trooper early. You want said trooper to die ASAP. You want a Death Trooper in your hand. While the objective seems pretty good on paper, I actually struggled a lot trying to trigger it during my limited testing. Could be I was just not running enough troopers (10-12 on average, Death Troopers aside), but it didn't seem consistent. You do have some tools to trigger this yourself, like Precision Fire and Moment of Triumph, but then it seems like you're investing so many cards, you don't really come out ahead.
Unless I was just extremely unlucky during testing, I don't see my thoughts on this changing much. Except if we eventually see a set with units that are considered as Death Troopers for the purpose of other effects, without being as average as the actual Death Troopers on their own.
What if this allowed you to put in play any trooper that costs 3 or less and was limited to once per turn?


*Director Krennic (264-2): 21.5 out of 25 possible points.


doctormungmung (5/5) – Four cost for two tactics, three health, elite and three pips is worth it every time. You get significant control from his statline alone. But he also becomes almost crazy if he has his entourage out. Being able to hand out shielding, elite (which I bet will just about never happen) or edge for the cost of a resource is fantastic. Getting three Deathtroopers out with Krennic means you will very rarely lose the edge battle you deem most important. Or if you have Family Connections, you get to have a ton of shields at your disposal. If nothing else, pairing Krennic with a single Deathtrooper and shielding up to use his tactics is a great play every time.

yodaman (4.5/5) – Krennic is another solid Navy main. He’s unique which means he triggers Imperial Fist. He’s an officer so you can protect him with Nogris in a pinch or sack him to trigger Apology Accepted. For 4 cost you get a 3 cost, elite unit with 3 force icons and the potential for 2 tactics and very few DS units actually have 2 or more tactics (be they black or white) so that’s great for defending. To top it off he’s got an ability that synergizes with the other units in this set as you can spend a resource to make Death Troopers elite, have shielding or have edge 1 once per turn. Sure he doesn’t have blast, but Navy can make up for that in other ways.

pantsyg (4/5) – Even without his text, two tactics and Elite make Krennic a serviceable officer. His ability is obviously worthless without Death Troopers in play, but having access to that level of versatility makes him very strong even when he can only affect 1 of his bodyguards; hitting 2 or more is a huge play. Edge (1) is powerful for DS to preserve edge resources, while shielded 3-health units become almost impossible to shift or can provide a shield for an embattled objective. His reaction triggers each phase, so with enough spare resources, you can really ratchet up the value of your Death Troopers in all stages of the game.

Rio (4/5) – Krennic is an impressive unit with another awesome wall of text, like Jyn and Cassian. 2 tactics is an insane turn one unit to play, and I would play him turn 1. He gives all the Death Troopers either Elite Edge or shielding for the cost of 1 resource. That’s pretty cool. You could realistically have 3 out on the board most times with the objective so giving them Edge 1 while attacking or shielding while defending could get annoying fast.

Majestaat (4/5) – Krennic has quite good stats with double tactics, 3 pips and elite, though his white icons are a major issue if you don't have plenty of Death Troopers to gain extra edge. This is because the Trooper archetype itself has poor edge due to weak pip/card ratio and the fact they generally want to swarm the board, so they're left with few cards in hand. A black gun or white blast instead of the white gun would have done wonders in my book.
His reaction can go from superfluous to monstruous depending on how many Death Troopers you have on the table. Death Troopers gaining elite will be stuff from legends, but shielding or edge should happen quite often and be very impactful.
I must say, pairing Krennic with Tarkin becomes pretty taxing really fast, so I'm not quite sure if they should be ran together. But not playing Tarkin in mono-Navy seems plain dumb, so...
I'm really sad, because I really want to give him a 5, but I can't. I blame the Death Troopers. Officers always blame the troopers.


Death Trooper (264-3&4&5): 16.5 out of 25 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – These guys are on the border of being great. At two cost they’d be an absolute steal, but at three, they are a little underwhelming for their icons. But they are very versatile, and become absolutely great if Krennic is on the table. Three health means they will stick around for a good while, and when the get locked out, they can just soak up Krennic’s damage for him, keeping him around. They have good edge potential with their two pips, and can hold the force in a pinch. And being troopers means that they combo with all the other trooper stuff out there. Hopefully we’ll get a tier 1 trooper build (they are one of my pet decks). If we do, I’m betting these guys (and this set in general) will be a key part. Getting three of these in the set is both good and bad (good for consistency and getting the most out of Krennic, bad for variety and clogging your hand with expensive units). If only they were cheaper…..

yodaman (3.5/5) – If you have to pay full cost for the Death Troopers, I’m not sure they’re worth the 3 cost for the 1 black gun, 1 black blast and 1 white gun. They do have 3 health and protect Krennic (more synergy!), but trooper decks sometimes are lighter on resources than other Navy archetypes so you really need to get them out cheaper by triggering the objective or via this set’s enhancement.

pantsyg (4/5) – This set is all about Death Troopers, and comes with 3 of them. This really helps the odds of having one in hand for the objective, or a few on board for Krennic. At first blush these guys don’t look like much, but their real strength lies in their 3 health points, making them durable defenders. Obviously, they’re pretty nuts coming in for free from the objective, and become very powerful if Krennic is out. Sadly, 3 can be a tough price point for troopers, who are generally less resource-rich than other archetypes. In all they’re mediocre for full cost, but gain value quickly if you can combo them with Krennic and his objective.

Rio (3/5) – We get 3 of these dudes, but you will not be running this set as a 1 of, so 6 Death Troopers in total. I am fine with the 3 cost, because you are most likely playing them for free. They look like those Sith Worms black gun, black blast, white gun. They also Protect Krennic, which is awesome to keep him on the board, because the deck doesn’t work without him there. If you are playing this set with Tagge, you could actually protect the troopers with the Security Task Force, and have a never dying chain of protect going on. Lots of fun interactions with these dudes.

Majestaat (3/5) – These guys... everything in the set revolves around them, so if they're not good, chances are the set takes a serious hit, and that's exactly the case. You can have up to 6 of them if you run 2 copies of the set. You either do that on don't run it at all because you need your combos to be consistent here.
They're good with the objective, they're good with the enhancement, they're good with Krennic if you can afford the resources. The problems is they're only fair on their own. They are the kind of units you play when you have bad draws, and you normally don't notice that much because other 3-costers similar to them are only 1 per pod, so you don't see them that often. These guys will show up frequently, and if you don't have the required pieces to support them, it feels really bad to spend your resources on them.
I'm not quite sure what could have been different to make them better without breaking them. At most, swap the black blast with the white gun so they could be more reliable on defense when you don't have Krennic and the spare resource, but even that makes me nervous.
What if they were two costers with 2 HP and lost the white gun? They become incredibly better when they don't mess with your curve so much and can actually synergize with Tagge, without necessarily being more powerful. But I guess then it would be too easy to abuse their numbers with Krennic.
In the end, it seems like I don't completely know what to think of them. But my experience playing with them hasn't been nice, so the salt might be getting to me.


Assembly Area (264-6): 22 out of 25 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – Speaking of which, get a discount on your troopers each turn! And in the form of a non-limited resource, too boot. That discount means that you don’t necessarily lose tempo playing this resource, which is always the problem with two for one resources. But then also getting a discount on what’s likely to be a large portion of your deck will help build a big board, or leave a resource open for Krennic or other tricks. And these will stack, so you can get a free two cost trooper with both out, or a Deathtrooper for one. That’s a good deal.

yodaman (5/5) – I really like this 2-1 resource. Trooper decks always seemed to be light on resources because some of the lynchpins (Family Connections and Emperor’s Legion) don’t have them. It’s great to see a resource in a dedicated trooper set and even though it’s 2-1, you get way more value from it as it reduces the cost of the first trooper you play by 1 each turn. If you get both out then you can reduce the first trooper cost by 2 and really build a board more quickly than you could before in trooper builds. It’s not limited so you can combine it with other resource cards like Experimental Tech Lab or Control Room on the same turn and get the resource ramp going more quickly. Great to see it added here.

pantsyg (4/5) – This resource softens the cost of the Death Troopers, who become way over-curve when you’re only paying 2 to hard-cast them. A general boost to Troopers and another non-limited DS resource if you’re looking to play the ramp game.

Rio (4/5) – It’s a 2 for 1 that reduces a trooper by 1, if you have a 2 cost trooper in hand the turn you play it it pays for itself. Solid card, and Troopers needed a resource set.

Majestaat (5/5) – May be the most important card in your trooper deck? They were in need of resources, especially if Krennic is gonna come in and demand one every turn. More importantly, the discount on your first trooper every turn will be a massive boost to your economy and board throughout the game. You just need one of these in play for a Death Trooper to suddenly become a very solid unit at 2 cost. Pray you can see this in your opening hand every game. Otherwise the Death Troopers become too heavy a burden.


Overall: 19.5 out of 25 possible points.

doctormungmung (4/5) – I like this set and think it has a lot of potential. It obviously fits into trooper decks (and may be a linchpin), but it does also go in other more general DS decks. While ultimately this is a combo set, there are enough pieces within the set for it to be fairly self sufficient. With a pair of these you get six Deathtroopers, which is enough to reasonably be expected to see a few each game. So you can actively search for Krennic and still have the Deathtroopers on hand to really make him shine. The set also has a non-limited resource and nine force pips, meaning that it won’t set its deck back in either of those areas, and provides another option for a “resource set”. It probably helps my opinion that I like trooper decks, and I think both Krennic and the Deathtroopers are cool. So call me biased.

yodaman (4.5/5) – This is a great addition to trooper decks. It comes with a solid elite main, 3 troopers, a way to get troopers in cheaper and even a way to potentially get one in for free if the objective’s out. The fact the Death Troopers probably aren’t worth full cost knocks this set down just a peg in my eyes, but if you want to try building a trooper deck, you’re going to want to include this set.

pantsyg (4/5) – The set isn’t flashy, but it breathes new life into the Trooper archetype. There’s a ton of internal synergy here, which makes the set much better than the sum of its parts initially seems. If you can hit a few of those synergies, free Death Troopers in particular, this set jumps way up on the power curve. At worst it’s a strong main and 4 units if you just want to fill out a unit-light deck.

Rio (3/5) – This pod is only regulated to Trooper and officer decks, however it may be the missing link that deck was looking for. Krennic is a solid body on the board and he will stay on the board due to the Death Squad Troopers, but everything is reliant on seeing him and the objective.

Majestaat (4/5) – Probably only fits trooper decks, where the objective, and enhancement in particular, really shine. Krennic is good at stalling, but won't win you the game like other mains, and his ability is almost non-existant until you can have 2+ Death Troopers in play. He only synergizes with his Death Troopers, not giving any sort of buff to all your other normal Troopers, unlike other officers like Tagge and Renz. On that note, and as already mentioned, the Death Troopers not working with Tagge is really unfortunate.
Unless you get to discount or cheat Death Troopers in play, you're left with a bunch of 3+ costers in this set, which can severely weaken plays.
As much as I bash it and feel like I should give it a 3.5, it does provide things Troopers were needing: more tactics, a strong Force holder, extra blast, resources and edge, so in the end, a 4 seems like a fair score once I get past my gut feeling.


FINAL WORDS:
Even though this may seem late, it's all proceeding as foreseen. For better or worse, I had a trip to the USA, making it impossible to upload this sooner.
Nice country you have guys. Take care of it.

It's great to be back at 5 reviewers. I really appreciate Rio's offer to help us out. Almost felt like I could skip my work this time because I'm super short on time, but what kind of example would that be? Siths teach us many mean things, but never to grow lazy.

On the review itself, it seems pretty clear what a huge boost the LS received. I think we might have been a little too harsh with the DS mains this pack, but even if we bumped their scores, the LS would be way ahead.
I guess GenCon will help us determine whether Cassian and Jyn can bring the forces of light to closer matches against the dark. From what I've seen thus far, that would seem to be the case, but obviously, GenCon is an event on a whole different level, so that will be the real test. It should also provide some insight on the new affiliations. 7 reserve is the rage, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of the others came out ahead.

Aggressive Negotiations comes next. It's still shipping, so it'll take a while before we have that review up. We don't even get spoilers ahead of schedule anymore to help us gather our thoughts before we actually get to test the cards.

And that's about it for this time.
Many thanks to the reviewers for their hard work and the readers for their continued support.
You can check past reviews in our forum thread here.

Also, yodaman has basically turned his home into a cinema. If you're interested in watching SWLCG matches, pay a visit to Yoda's Hut.

May the Force be with you all!