The Mos Eisley Mafia: SWCLG "Power of the Force" Force Pack Review - Dark Side

Lure of the Lost (254-1): 15.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – Card recursion is good, particularly when you can pull any card back (like Palpatine, Vader, Force Lightning, etc). Getting a card shuffled back into your deck is less good, as you still have to draw it, which might happen the turn you do it, or never. One thing, though, is that the longer the game goes, the more likely you are to see those recurred, and if you keep doing it, seeing them on a regular basis. So the way I see it, this objective will be blank early game, when you need the resource for units, etc. But once you’ve got your resources base set up, I think pretty much every turn you’ll be shuffling a high value card back into your deck with this. Although if you are running an expensive deck, it might take awhile to get that resource base up and running.

yodaman (4/5) – Sure you have to focus the objective, but the ability to get any card from discard back into your deck for that cost can’t be underestimated. It’s finally a way to recycle the Sith Holocron and help Sith level the field against the Owen recycling shenanigans LS has. Still you have to weigh the cost of losing the resource to get the ability and sometimes you need the resource for other things. If you could use the action at any time rather than just after you refresh, it would be a different story.

pantsyg (5/5) – Can recur Sith Holocron, automatically super strong.

Majestaat (3.5/5) – Not completely sold on this one since it's nearly worthless early game when you need every resource you can muster. Becomes much better once you can get a couple enhancements down, allowing you to edge your mains or combo pieces without completely losing them.


*Rav Naaran (254-2): 15 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – Efficient unit? Check. Although again, not quite as efficient as the others in this pack. Rav only has a couple of force icons, no tactics and only a single rider ability, which is conditional. Admittedly, that condition is fairly easy to meet. Having a unit (your or your opponent) leave play during the conflict phase (not an engagement, mind you), can be triggered by a sacrifice effect, removal effect, or just straight up unit damage. Getting to ping an enemy objective on both your and your opponent’s turn can add up. Especially if you have things like Bones of the Fallen Master, The Emperor’s Promise, etc out. Sith has always had some trouble with blast, so getting cheap and easy blast helps fill up their weaknesses.

yodaman (4/5) – Rav is an interesting character. He has 3 cost so he’s not that expensive and 3 health to help keep him alive. His combat icons are fair for the cost (1 black gun, 1 black blast, 1 white gun) and he only has 2 icons. He’s a Force User which means you can put lightsabers on him and also get out Vader’s Meditation Chamber for free among other things. His ability though is very useful especially since you can find ways to trigger it yourself. Whenever a unit leaves play during the conflict phase, once per turn you can trigger Rav to deal a damage to an enemy objective. So you can get a bonus for killing an opponent’s unit or capturing one as long as you time it right. You could sacrifice an ISB Liaison chud or IceTromper to trigger him. You could even use his ability with Threat from the Depths and trigger when the creature leaves play after an engagement. Since you can do this on your conflict phase as well as your opponent’s, you can deal damage consistently. Coupled with other cards like Yularen, Imperial Fist, Thunderflare, Emperor’s Promise, Bones, etc.. you can really do a lot of objective damage without attacking. The main drawbacks are he’s not elite and his ability is good enough you have to be careful in how you use him because you want him to stay on the board.

pantsyg (3/5) – Units on both sides tend to leave play during the conflict phase, so expect Rav to trigger pretty reliably. Sith Control likes this effect to speed up the end of the game; aggressive decks with cheap units like bonus objective damage. Limit once per turn limits Rav’s potential quite a bit, but he’s still solid. He just doesn’t do a lot on his own with light icons and low pips.

Majestaat (4/5) – Unimpressive stats. Okay to say the most. However, his reaction is insane, and for that alone the LS will have to find a way to deal with him permanently, as tactics won't do. Between RavFlamerock and the Executor, you can ping for tons of damage, then finish the job with a Berserker, no problem.


Berserk Hunter (254-3&4): 16 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – Talk about cheap and easy blast. These guys are super cost effective, although not quite as cost effective as Energy Spiders. But, you get more of them, and they combo off of sacrifice effects. And unlike the Spiders, which can get locked out and then forgotten about, these guys will be ready to strike until they actually do, so you can be pretty sure you’ll get some black icons from them at some point. Their health of three also helps with that, although otherwise is kind of useless.

yodaman (4/5) – Cheap blast is never a bad thing, especially since some Sith deck archetypes often rely more on removal and unit damage to control the game. You get 2 of these 2 cost, 3 health units in the set that each have 2 black guns and 2 black blast a la Energy Spiders. They do leave play after they strike so you most likely will want to use them on offense and remember that if they’re your only unit in the engagement you can’t get unopposed with them. However, if Rav’s out you can use that to trigger his ability and get an extra damage. Only 1 pip means they’re pretty useless for taking force or edge battles, but you want them on the field anyway.

pantsyg (4/5) – Energy Spiders taught us that undercosted units have to be respected. It’s harder to exploit these guys with Doole since they blow up on strike, but getting 4 mana worth of icons for 2 is still a steal. Amusingly, if you run this with Scum you can use Dr E to blank the Hunters, making them truly monstrous.

Majestaat (4/5) – Holy stats, Batman! Although they're not nearly as good as Energy Spiders, these guys definitely deserve some respect. They do have the upside that tactics aren't that permanent a solution against them, since they won't explode until they get to strike. Sith do appreciate being able to deal some heavy damage without exposing their mains. If you happen to have Rav and/or the Executor out, the LS objectives won't stand around for long.


Naaran's Lightsaber (254-5): 14 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – Recurring edge one is nice. Is it worth a resource? That’s debatable, although having edge one means that you get more milage out of your Twists. But where this saber really shines is when it goes on Rav. Now you get to not only ping an objective each turn, you also get to ping a unit. And consistent pings add up (remember core Vader and Force Choke?). And when you already have a copy out, it’s got two force icons, making it a decent edge card.

yodaman (3.5/5) – As lightsabers go, this one is a bit odd. It gives you edge 1, so that’s never a bad thing, but it doesn’t add any combat icons. It does synergize well with Rav’s ability since if it’s on Rav, whenever a unit leaves play during the combat phase, once per turn you can deal a damage to an enemy unit. You’ll get your money’s worth if it’s on Rave. If he’s not out, I’m not so sure it won’t be a 2 pip edge battle card since it’s unique and you really may not want it tied down on someone else.

pantsyg (4/5) – Edge 1 is a decent generic effect. On Rav, though, you add yet another way for Sith to push indirect damage onto units, and that can be crushing. Pair Rav with Icetrompers for lots of at-will damage.

Majestaat (3.5/5) – Sure, it's great on Rav, but you won't always get the combo, and I'm not sure how good this saber is on anybody else. Sturdy mains can obviously get some mileage from repeatable edge, but ultimately, I don't think it's better than gaining an extra gun when that usually means going from two the the magic number three.
Maybe it's not that hard to pull the combo since the objective helps you to recycle Rav and his saber. Didn't matter much to me since I usually had better cards to cycle.


Twist of Fate (254-6): 20 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (5/5) – Still my favorite edge card. Just knowing that you have one (or more) in your deck makes your opponent approach edge battles totally differently. That’s why I like having at least one in a deck. Rav’s set isn’t very high on edge, so getting a twist helps even that out.

yodaman (5/5) – Still the best fate card in the game. Always good to see it reprinted.

pantsyg (5/5) – It’s Twist, enough said.

Majestaat (5/5) – You don't need me to tell you why Twist is great. The pained expression on your opponent's face is already doing that.


Overall: 16.5 out of 20 possible points.

doctormungmung (4/5) – This is a pretty solid objective that helps fill in Sith’s gaps. Namely, objective damage. It’s not going to keep your opponent from striking or do the usual sith lock down, although it does have a bit of unit removal. But really, this is a filler set to help close out your games faster. It’s relatively cheap, so not having a resource doesn’t impact things too much, and having three units helps considerably with board presence. And, of course, there’s the Twist, which there aren’t that many running around in the current Sith decks, other than Killing Cold in creature decks. I suppose Council makes an occasional appearance, but I don’t see it all that much these days.

yodaman (4.5/5) – I really like this set. Sure it’s not Dark Lord or Emperor’s Web, but it’s a nice option to add to a variety of decks. I could see people using it in Sith Creature based decks to get some extra blast, Navy decks to take advantage of the indirect damage, or even Emperor’s Promise decks for the same reason. It only has 6 icons, but you get a Twist so that’s pretty typical for the icon count so that’s fine.

pantsyg (4/5) – There’s a lot of damage potential here, for a variety of decks. Anything with Icetrompers or other effects that let you kill units at will benefits from Rav and his saber, while the extra blast on the Hunters offers game-finishing potential for Sith Control or additional damage for already-aggro decks. I expect to see a lot of this set.

Majestaat (4/5) – May not seem particularly good on paper, but it does fill an important niche and it does so very well. It's the only truly aggressive set for the DS to pack a Twist, so I'm sure it fits some people's playstyle perfectly. It features heavy blast on cheap non-uniques, something Sith could really use to close out games. It also pairs perfectly with The Executor Arrives, if you were itching to play that set again. The Berserks and Twist make this an overall useful inclusion in any deck, but if you take the time to build something dedicated for this, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Kinda reminds me of Emperor's Cabal. That one also turned out to be very good in the correct build.


Cloud Cover (255-1): 18 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – DS fighter decks are good at flooding the board with low health units (and in some cases, non-low health units). They are also good at spewing out pilots. So getting extra health on those piloted units, particularly when there are a good number of them, means that you can get a lot of mileage out of this objective. Extra health often means the difference between getting to strike and being destroyed, and you’ll be surprised how far just one extra health will go. While the setup is somewhat situational, there aren’t many TIE’s splashed into other decks, so most likely you’ll be “living the dream” on a regular basis.

yodaman (5/5) – Great objective. Extra health is always welcome and all you have to do is put a pilot on your fighter to get the +1 damage capacity bonus. If you’re playing fighters you’re going to have pilots so that’s pretty easy to do.

pantsyg (4/5) – I like 5-2s for Fighters, who want to get off to a fast start or play their 2-1 pilot resources without really messing up their curve. I find it funny that the text grants additional health to TIEs; they tend to be explody! Theme aside, extra HP is always welcome.

Majestaat (5/5) – Honestly, just about any objective with 2 resources and a useful ability is bound to get a high score. This one provides you with a smooth early game and an ability that will grant your fighters extra health for doing something you'd be doing anyway, allowing them to get some crucial strikes in and even stick around for an extra turn. Now a Stay on Target can really mess with your opponent's combat math, and potentially save you from an unopposed bonus. Snake levels of Solid.


*"Howlrunner" (255-2): 19 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – As a unit, Howlrunner is overcosted. One black blast is nice, but it’s not really two cost nice (particularly in a DS deck). But as a pilot, she’s a great force multiplier. All your fighters get an extra black gun. That’s similar to Hera, but really, what it means is pretty much all your units get an extra gun. A TIE Attack squadron targeted striking for three will eat through the LS board real fast, especially with a Talon Roll. Or just giving a swarm of Black Squadron TIEs a gun each means that your opponent will think twice before tossing in a sacrificial defender to try and prevent some damage.

yodaman (5/5) – To synergize with the objective’s ability you need pilots and Howlrunner is awesome. She has 2 pilot cost, but she gives all your fighters and extra gun while she’s piloting something. Your fighter swarm is much harder to deal with when they’re armed more.

pantsyg (5/5) – I love Fighter decks, but they used to have a big issue on defense: most only have one gun. Howl effectively doubles the damage of most of your units, transforming wimpy TIEs from minor nuisances to real threats against a lot of units. Well worth pilot 2 if you’ve got a decent-sized board or Targeted Strike. If you really want to watch an opponent squirm, run her with TIE Attack Squadrons.

Majestaat (5/5) – This, a thousand times! Because of their numbers, any global buff for TIEs is massive. No need to be at Baron Fel's level of power. One of the TIEs major weaknesses was their terrible strike economy, and this is the perfect solution.
Sure, she might be a little pricey, but between your pilot resources and Stay on Target, playing her for free is really easy, and then the LS needs hard removal to deal with her, since she doesn't need to be in the engagement and tactics won't shut her down either.


*"Night Beast" (255-3): 16 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – Night Beast, on the other hand, is a decently costed unit. Two health and two black guns for two is solid as a defender. But really, if you want defense, you want him in a cockpit, as he gets to defend in each engagement, if you can keep him alive. Sure, your opponent can expend extra tactics to prevent that, but that’s a tactic that isn’t going to another unit.

yodaman (4/5) – Sure it’s a bit defensive, but the Night Beast has an good ability. While piloting a fighter, if the fighter survives and engagement while defending, you get to take a focus token off of it so you could defend with him again. The extra blocker will come in handy for a pilot cost of 1. Put him on something like a Phantom or Vader’s TIE with a tactics and just do everything you can to keep that ship around to block twice.

pantsyg (4/5) – This is simply an amazing pilot effect. Whatever he’s flying can get into every defensive fight on your turn, as long as it survives on the board. I think this will prove brutal on fighters with lots of guns (like Delta One and sometimes Obsidian Two), tactics (Vader’s TIE, Black Two), or both (Black Squadron). The only issue I’ve had is coming up with resources to play him after spamming out my board!

Majestaat (4/5) – Unlike Howlrunner, you don't want Night Beast in just any fighter. You want something sturdy, hopefully with tactics. Vader's TIE and Black Squadron come to mind.
If you don't have a good target, then Night Beast is a pretty good drop on his own anyway, guaranteeing he'll never become a dead draw.


*Obsidian Leader (255-4): 19 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – Speaking of targeted strike earlier, TIEs get another option. Unlike the TAS, you need Howlrunner out to give this one some teeth. But even without the targeted strike, two black icons for two is good value. Add in that while it’s piloted, you can protect it with EVERY OTHER fighter you have out, and suddenly you have a nigh unkillable little ship there. If the objective is on the table, that only makes things that much harder for the LS. If Fel is in a ship, you’ve now got an elite ship. Add in Howlrunner, for the extra gun. You see where I’m going here. There are so many passive buffs that you can give your TIEs that you quickly get into a snowball effect with a bunch of monster ships sitting in space that all just cost you two a piece.

yodaman (5/5) – It only costs 2 and has 2 health but this fighter comes with 3 pips, 1 black gun, 1 black blast, targeted strike and an incredible ability. While it’s piloted, each of your other vehicles can protect it and help keep it alive. Fighter decks are always combo dependent, but if you can get the Howlrunner’s bonus to get extra guns, you’ll have the ability to targeted strike units for 2 damage consistently while your other fighters protect Obsidian Leader.

pantsyg (5/5) – In X-Wing, Howlrunner (aka Obsidian Leader) is the core component to TIE Swarms, and as a result, tends to get targeted early and killed quickly. Once piloted, the LCG version of her fighter is the complete opposite: if she’s got a posse, possibly health-boosted by the objective, OL becomes ridiculously hard to kill. I love that theme! Enough about X-Wing, though: as a bargain-basement Targeted Strike unit, OL is an absolute menace. With the Howlrunner buff or any of the damage-boosting fighter enhancements, this humble unit gets scary very quickly. A humble-looking unit that causes opponents big problems.

Majestaat (5/5) – Targeted strike with only one gun may not seem like much, but you gotta consider most cards in the game with that keyword or some sort of equivalent are more expensive, so it's a fair deal in the end, and still allows you to pick on damaged units. Plus you have a black blast and 3 pips, making it a steal at 2 cost, really. More so if you take into account how insane Obsidian Leader becomes once you start getting your combo pieces out. With an extra gun from Howlrunner, LS units won't stay around for long, and if you get any pilot on the Leader, it becomes virtually impossible to remove, as any other fighter can take the hits for it.


*Obsidian 2 (255-5): 15.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – Ok, so not all your TIEs are going to cost two. But Obsidian 2 gets you a lot of oompf for that extra resource. Doubling takes place after addition (go weird game math rules). So if Howrunner is out, this guy has four guns when piloted. If it’s piloted by a Black Squadron Pilot, he’s got six guns! That one shots pretty much anything, even with a shield. If you can’t find a pilot to put on, or Howlrunner, then you get an overcosted TIE. But the sheer damage potential keeps this thing relevant. And if you really don’t want to play it, well, it’s got two force icons for edge.

yodaman (5/5) – Another really good fighter. It costs 3 and has 3 health so it’s easier to keep around even if you don’t have the objective and a pilot on it. However, get a pilot on Obsidian 2 and it gets a 2nd black gun. If Howlrunner is out somewhere and Obsidian 2 is piloted, it’s now turned into a 4 gun machine. If you can get Night Beast on Obsidian 2, you can shoot for 4 damage while defending twice in a turn. It’s a bit defensive, but it helps keep your swarm alive and objectives from being destroyed too easily while you build up for your own attacks.

pantsyg (3/5) – When you can get this set up, it’s extremely dangerous. Without a pilot and a damage boost, though, you’re just looking at an overcosted unit that doesn’t do much except provide a high-health blocker. Try putting Black Squadron Pilots on this and watch your opponent squirm.

Majestaat (3.5/5) – Pretty meh on its own, and still unimpressive with some support, mainly because Black Squad Pilots are the only ones to provide extra guns and are arguably one of the worst pilots in the TIE arsenal, so even when you get this thing piloted, it'll only have 2 guns. Things only start getting better if Howlrunner is out, in which case you can easily jump to 4 guns, enough to deal with most LS threats. Of course, you could put Howlrunner on this and get that bump instantly, but I wouldn't normally risk her like that.


Stay on Target (255-6): 17 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – Yay, free pilots! Yay, pilot recursion! It’s always a risk to let a ship go through unopposed, because you never know when a surprise pilot will show up and ruin your plans. And pulling pilots back from the dead helps you get your full value when they typically go on rather fragile ships. Although this set aims to make them a bit less fragile.

yodaman (4/5) – The set involves pilots and fighters. Stay on Target synergizes well in this set and it’s good to see it here.

pantsyg (4/5) – You’re probably running this set in a deck chock-full of Pilots, or a deck where you want to spend your money spamming units, so this card will frequently get value. Both of the fighters here suddenly get a lot scarier when you can surprise a pilot into them.

Majestaat (5/5) – Probably just me, but I think we're probably at a point where we should give SoT a 5 considering how many pilots we have available now and how diverse their effects are, giving the card unprecedented flexibility. Yes, only works with the particular pilot mechanic, but most pilot sets want to be with more pilot sets, so in the end, any consistency issues on this card are pretty much inexistant. Certainly a perfect fit here.


Overall: 19 out of 20 possible points.

doctormungmung (4/5) – This is a great addition to TIE decks. You get damage and durability, with good edge, and a Stay on Target. The only downsides are the lack of a resource, which isn’t terrible for TIEs, and four unique cards, which can be a problem. But everyone of them except for Howlrunner are at least decent to throw into an edge stack, so that’s less of an issue. This fits perfectly into a more standard TIE deck, but can also probably find a place in a Black Squadron deck as well.

yodaman (5/5) – A great addition to the DS pilot/fighter deck archetype. It really helps flesh this some great abilities with the potential to get extra guns, extra health and even targeted strike. Couple it with Defense Protocol and now you've got multiple fighters that can get targeted strike and help keep the LS at bay. The only real drawback is the lack of a resource, but as long as you build a deck with that in mind you can add sets that have them. Whether this will make DS pilot/fighter decks good enough that people will try them over established options, even with the latest errata and restrictions, remains to be seen, but the potential is certainly there.

pantsyg (5/5) – TIEs have long been one of my favorite decks, and this set doesn’t disappoint. I like that it adds defensive tools, as most fighter builds I’ve run have been very aggressive. Howlrunner turns your deck into an absolute meat grinder, which feels awesome. It does suffer somewhat from the Heroes of the Rebellion syndrome; 4 uniques in one set makes it hard to run 2x without hitting dead cards, but unlike Heroes all the cards here are ones you want to see. Obviously this high rating is only applicable when played in Fighter-centric decks, but why would you play anything else?

Majestaat (5/5) – Conditional score. Unlike Haunting the Empire and On the Run, which can be really good in a plethora of decks, Cloud Cover would completely fail outside fighter builds. It's a great addition to TIEs though. I'd dare say Howlrunner was a neccesity for the archetype. The objective is very welcome and you can always use more copies of Stay on Target. Obsidian Leader is yet another threatening main, even if it needs some support. Night Beast is perfectly playable on its own and can be pretty absurd in ideal scenarios, leaving only Obsidian 2 as a bummer. But that one isn't terrible either, and with two pips it can always find some use.
If anything, you may struggle a bit finding the correct build for this because it's no Black Squadron. My thanks to anything that will justify running Phantoms again.


FINAL WORDS:

pantsyg's note: What an insane expansion! All of the cards are interesting, and usually powerful; nothing feels dead, and the variety of sets has really reinvigorated my desire to experiment with new decks. I’m guessing this pack will be close to the top of our end-of-cycle votes for best overall pack.

And I guess anyone would have a hard time saying otherwise. The pods here may lack the big names to be as flashy as previous ones, but they're certainly pretty effective at what they want to do and you should definitely give them a serious try.

That's it for this time. Technological Terror is just around the corner, and we're eager to see what has been chosen to close this cycle. Review will likely take over a month since all reviewers seem to be unusually busy as of late.

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!
Soon...