The Mos Eisley Mafia: SWCLG "Scrap Metal" Force Pack Review - Light Side

MEET THE FAMILY (aka - THE REVIEWERS):
-doctormungmung (codename: Salty), Massachussets' evil genius;
-yodaman (codename: Candy), he who you seek when numbers are involved;
-pantsyg (codename: Spicy), jankmaster general;
-Majestaat (codename: Bitter), the one to blame for typos and delayed articles.

THE RATING SYSTEM:
It's to be noted that due to the SW:LCG's unique way of deckbuilding, it's impossible to just pick the stronger cards. You're likely to stick with some undesirable cards no matter what. Hence, the different scores could be seen as:
1 – Poor – Edge fodder. Drops the total value of its objective set.
2 – Bad – Most likely edge fodder. Either too situational or clearly not strong enough for its cost.
3 – Average – Not stellar but does its job decently.
4 – Good – Solid card with guaranteed impact.
5 – Great – Gamechangers you will always be glad to see and play, if able.
* = indicates unique card.


THE BIG DEALS:


Top 3 LS Cards:
1 – *C-3PO (Hero of a Thousand Devices), with 17 out of 20 possible points.
2 – Well Equiped (Hero of a Thousand Devices), with 16.5 out of 20 possible points.
3 – Protection (Sacrifice of Heroes), with 16.5 out of 20 possible points.
Majestaat's note: A spoiler to how good the LS sets in this pack are. Yes, that's sarcasm.

Top 3 DS Cards (more due to a tie):
1 – His High Exaltedness, with 20 out of 20 possible points.
2 – *Jabba the Hutt (His High Exaltedness), with 20 out of 20 possible points.
3 – Threat from the Depths, with 19 out of 20 possible points.
4 – Feeding Frenzy (Threat from the Depths), with 19 out of 20 possible points.

Overall best rated Objective Set:
His High Exaltedness, with 19 out of 20 possible points.


THE REVIEWS:

Hero of a Thousand Devices (246-1): 11 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (2/5) – This is an ability you have to build around, but in doing so, it can make it very hard for you not to get value out of your attached enhancements. Being able to pull back a Trust Your Feelings, or a standard Lightsaber will be pretty big. So will being able to get and reuse Custom Paint Job or Sabine’s Armor. Still, it requires you to not only play them, but then for your opponent to remove that unit, as opposed to just focusing it down. Where this gets really interesting is with pilots. I’m not sure of the interaction, but I think they’d all go back to hand when their ships go down in flames. That still doesn’t help vs Tarking, but, you know…..

yodaman (4/5) – An interesting and useful ability. When a unit you control leaves play, you get put all enhancements that were on it back in your hand. A nice ability for an enhancement heavy deck.

pantsyg (2/5) – Enhancements tend to be really slow, so even getting really powerful enhancements back in your hand is only good if you’re super flush with resources. Otherwise, it’s decent for maintaining your edge hand and little else.

Majestaat (3/5) – These are the kind of effects that make you feel a whole lot better about unit enhancements. Getting to recycle your enhancements, or simply get them back to use as edge fodder, can be quite valuable. However, you need the units to then replay them, and of course, the resources to do so. Pretty hard to fulfill all these conditions, unless you got the dream flop of this + In You Must Go + Hero's Trial.


*R2-D2 (246-2): 12 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – We finally get an R2 that’s more than just a support piece, although, this one doesn’t like giving up that title. You can put all your enhancement under the spunky little droid, in effect increasing your hand size by as many attachments that you have. You can even use them for edge battles, but don’t expect to surprise your opponent, as you have to show them the card when you put it under R2. Outside of his ability, he’s very sturdy and has decent, if uninspiring icons. He is a bit pricy for the icons alone, so it really depends on what use you get out of his ability to consider him cost effective.

yodaman (4/5) – The new R2 is a bit costly, but he has a great ability. For 3 cost, this R2 has 3 combat icons and 3 health as well as 2 force icons. As an action you can reveal an enhancement from your hand and then attach it to him facedown, then you can use facedown enhancements attached to R2 as if they were in your hand. This gives you a place to store enhancements that you might not be able to play immediately. Coupled with A Hero’s Trial, you have even more options. If nothing else, this can give you lots of potential edge cards which will really mess with your opponent’s battle math.

pantsyg (2/5) – Seems too slow. Hidden Grove is hardly tearing up the meta, and the last thing you want to do in SWLCG is fill your deck with enhancements; even in enhancement-synergy decks, there’s a limit to what you can do with them, and more increases your chances of totally dead draws. Pitching a power enhancement like Shien or Trust because your hand is clogged and you NEED to play a main feels bad, but is having a backup worth 3, and, more crucially, are there enough such impact enhancements to justify this set taking up deck space? For R2’s first incarnation as a non-resource I’d have preferred something more disruptive, drawing from his long history of tampering with enemy systems. But hey, he has a blast and lots of health in a pinch.

Majestaat (3/5) – Although Artoo kicked some ass more than once throughout the movies, it's still strange to see him in such a fighty incarnation. Can't say I'm a fan of this version. His ability is useful to "safeguard" important assets without clogging your hand, but he's just too darn expensive for that. You forgo dropping a proper main to play R2 and set up powerful combos in future turns. This means you're probably surrendering the Force to the DS while dealing little to no damage to his objectives immediately. Worst of all, your enhancements aren't really that safe with R2 if his objective isn't out. So if he gets removed, say goodbye to your weapons cache. Can't help feeling he should have been a 1-2 support unit, with worse stats, of course. As he is, it doesn't feel like he fits in the Jedi's game plan.


*C-3PO (246-3): 17 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – Unlike R2, 3PO continues his resource support roll. He’s very similar to his Endor version with tactics and a resource, and solid health. He does get to pretend he’s a Saboteur and take out one of your opponents cheaper enhancements, which is a great way to knock down their resource base, or remove a pesky lightsaber from Mara.

yodaman (4/5) – The new 3PO costs 2 but comes with a white tactics, 2 health, a resource and 2 force icons. On top of that, when he enters play you get to discard an enhancement which costs 2 or less. Use 3PO to get rid of your opponent’s resources or even to get rid of a Death Mark that may have been played on one of your own mains. An interesting combination my Yoda’s Hut commentary partner has been playing around with is coupling this set with Trust Me so you have 3PO and the Saboteur to try to starve your opponent of resources.

pantsyg (4/5) – This is quite good, exactly the type of disruptive card I enjoy. Note that there’s no restriction on the type of enhancement he can hit, so limited resources are fair game. Hitting a resource (especially Control Room or other 2-for-X) early is a big, sometimes blowout, swing in your favor, and unlike Lando’s Saboteur, this comes with the flexibility of his own resource and the very relevant tactics icon. Like his Endor iteration, this version plays extremely well with Cloud City Operative. In my estimation, 3P0 is the reason to run this set.

Majestaat (5/5) – All decks run resources, and many will fall flat on their faces if they have the disgrace of facing an early 3PO. And unlike the Saboteur, our golden friend keeps offering utility outside of his ability thanks to a resource, tactics and two pips. He definitely makes up for a disappointing R2, who is combo dependant on top of having okay stats at most. 3PO should literally always be useful, even brutal if he shows up soon enough.


2-1B Surgical Droid (246-4): 11.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (2/5) – Here we get a cheap unit that can eat up a Dark Lord of the Sith token about as good as a Nudj. Other than that, he’s a cheap gun with an ability that you have to go through some hoops to use. Healing is great, but you have to make sure your target has an enhancement on them, making this ability pretty card combo intensive. It’s also not fixing your ships, which while thematic hurts the combo potential with pilot decks.

yodaman (3.5/5) – The 2-1B is basically a Repair Droid for non-vehicles. As long as you can keep him alive, you can use him to clear off damage on your units pretty regularly.

pantsyg (3/5) – I don’t much like things that only do things when other things are enhanced, but this is cheap and damage removal at action speed is excellent against attacks that can’t quite finish you in one go or small direct damage pings. The dream here is Qu Rahn with a cheap Training, like Niman.

Majestaat (3/5) – I like this droid, especially in Smuggler builds, as they don't quite have as much protection as Jedi, making that extra bit of staying power really good. The downside is it doesn't contribute anything by itself. You need this, another unit, an enhancement, and hope the DS doesn't have a way to just one-shot your guys.


Grappling Arm (246-5): 12 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – Now this is interesting! There are plenty of good DS enhancements that the LS would love to get their hands on. Like Sith Lightsabers, Underground Entertainment, or Bones of a Fallen Master. Potentially free damage on DS objectives seems pretty good. Still, you have to have this on a droid that gets to strike, which isn’t trivial. LS droids are in somewhat short supply. And they’re usually fragile, so surviving to strike can be challenging.

yodaman (4/5) – The Grappling Arm has to go on a droid and you have to strike with the droid in order to get its benefit, but for 0 cost and 2 force icons, it’s worth trying to steal a resource or lightsaber from your opponent’s discard pile and use it as your own.

pantsyg (2/5) – Stealing opposing enhancements has the potential to be really annoying, but I can’t imagine many huge value situations unless you’re able to steal a resource that 3P0 has killed.

Majestaat (3/5) – I want to like this more, as it's really cool and can make you ramp like crazy. Obviously, if it was consistent it would be too powerful, so it isn't. While running 2x of this set nets you 6 droids, that's still rather low, and as you've seen from the scores, 2/3 of them aren't too hot.
That aside, you need your opponent to discard enhancements or get a way to do so yourself. While 3PO and Saboteurs can help with that, I wouldn't say you have a whole lot of control over it, so even though I think it's a good card (free, strong effect, two pips), I can't say it's objectively good with a straight face.


Well Equipped (246-6): 16.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – Multi-striking or healing when not expected can lead to some pretty big swings. But then there will be times when this isn’t more than two force pips in an edge battle. But as mentioned in previous reviews, it’s the potential impact to the game that gives it it’s four rating.

yodaman (4.5/5) – This fate card is a nice inclusion here since the entire set focuses on enhancements. Using this to potentially have a main like Luke strike even more often if you get enhancements on him could be really good.

pantsyg (4/5) – Jedi are excited to see this in-faction. Their main man Luke is the character who best makes use of enhancements, and healing Rahn for more value seems solid.

Majestaat (4/5) – Everyone knows it by now. Don't think there's much to add. Refreshing a buffed unit with enhancements is really big.
It's a bit weird to see it here. Sure, the whole pod revolves around enhancements, but it only includes a rather situational one. That said, Jedi already have plenty of unit enhancements elsewhere, so I guess it's okay. BtS Luke and his lightsaber give it some decent consistency. That said, I'll stick to my Bo-Rifle.


Overall: 13 out of 20 possible points.

doctormungmung (3/5) – This set has some neat ideas, and wants to slot into a few different deck types. But it doesn’t actually bring all that much oompf to the table. It’s got light blast which is a bit overcosted, a combo resource/tactics unit, a super situational chud, and a couple of straight up combo cards. I think when it finds the right deck, things will click, but I’m not quite sure what that deck is. It does have a good edge count and a lot of two pip cards, so there is that.

yodaman (4/5) – An interesting set that isn’t as powerful as the Jedi staples but probably has a place in the right set-up. It comes with 9 force icons, a way to store enhancements for when you can actually use them and a resource. It lacks a main, but does have 3 units which is always nice for Jedi.

pantsyg (3/5) – Probably a decent 1x in any deck with Endor Luke or decks that need resources badly enough to pay for 2-for-1 (albeit with a sick effect), but this seems so slow against the current DS meta. I’m sad to write this, because I love 3P0’s card so much. On the bright side, this will be a fun set for players looking to build big enhancement combos with Sabine.

Majestaat (3/5) – The individual cards aren't great, and unfortunately they play for a type of card that isn't usually great: unit enhancements. Yes, Jedi have plenty of them already (some of which are incredibly strong), and are resilient enough to make them work, but how well does this actually synergize with it? Is it needed? Not so much, me says. In big part because all the units here are droids, so they don't benefit from the existing Jedi enhancements, and the Force Users can't use the Grappling Arm. No need to make a combo heavy archetype even more comboey.


Sacrifice of Heroes (247-1): 11 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (2/5) – Card draw is almost universally good. Losing units is not quite so universally bad. So if you’re losing a unit anyway, it’s always nice to get something out of it. Rebel ships tend to have decent card draw, but that’s because it’s a combo heavy archetype. If you can’t keep units on the table, it finally seeing those combo pieces doesn’t do you that much good if the other half is in the discard pile. The draw is triggered off of destroyed units, which means sacrificing or being captured doesn’t do you much good. So it’s not so much a good ability but something that makes a bad situation a little less bad.

yodaman (3/5) – In general, I don’t really like abilities that only trigger when something bad happens. Sure units die so this objective lets you draw a card when that happens, but more often than not you’d probably rather have the unit on the board.

pantsyg (3/5) – Card draw is great, but getting cards when your units explode often means you’re getting them at odd timings when they’re less helpful.

Majestaat (3/5) – Only working on destruction is a bummer, and somewhat ironic when the other pieces here trigger when units leave play, not mattering the exact way they do so.
While the extra draw is nice, it'll likely only matter if you have enough of a board to force multiple engagements. Seeing how the last few Rebel vehicle pods seem to lean towards fewer, bigger units instead of cheap swarming, achieving this could prove more difficult than it used to.


*Jek Porkins (247-2): 12 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – As a chud Jek’s not bad. He’s a cheap blast that doesn’t die to a choke. As a pilot he’s situational, but kind of neat. Basically you can put him on a high threat unit and hope your opponent takes the bait to kill it, netting you a free replacement in return. Still, you have to have the replacement in hand. But in the right (unlikely) circumstances, you can get a free Home One to replace your Rogue Squadron. More likely though you’re getting a two cost ship for your fighter. Sadly he can’t help protect Rogue Three, as it’s a speeder, and he needs to be piloting a Fighter to trigger his ability. But he’s Porkins, he can hold it.

yodaman (3/5) – Another thematic card that I’m not a big fan of since Jek only triggers when the fighter he’s on leaves play so you’ll always want to play him as a pilot. At least he only costs 1 as a pilot. Sure you get to put a Rebel unit in that costs the same or less as the fighter that left play, but I’m not sure I’d really want to plan around wanting a unit to leave play just to drop something in for free.

pantsyg (2/5) – If there were cards that gave solid passive buffs for piloted fighters, Jek would be awesome. As is, he’s costing you a resource and a card to have no immediate effect on the board. The tempo he saves can be worth it, but if his ride finds itself under a load of tactics, he’s doing jack squat for you. Worth noting that while he needs to be on a fighter to work, you can drop in any rebel unit with him. That makes me at least somewhat tempted to cobble together a deck with just enough fighters to maybe get bigger value from him.

Majestaat (4/5) – Surprised to see Porkins made it into the game before Biggs. Oh well, guess that shows how loved he is (even if for the wrong reasons).
I've had decent success with him. Rebel fighters can easily squeeze enough pilot resources to make him effectively free, and most mains they've received lately are 3-costed. You can regularly play resource + main + Porkins, and still have a good shot at another 3-coster in hand to replace your first main, should it be removed. The draw from Rogue Squadron Assault makes that even easier.
Unfortunately, it should be noted that he doesn't combo with the objective very well. Since Porkins is an interrupt, he must resolve before you draw from Sacrifice of Heroes. You may lose you enhanced fighter when you had nothing in hand, then get the replacement via the objective. That's both disappointing and disheartening.


*Red Six (247-3): 14.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – Just from the stats, Red Six is a solid unit. It likes the number three, with cost, number of icons, health and force pips. It’s sturdy, which is something you want on a vehicle that has protect. And it’s good at holding the force or at edge. Even its icons indicate you want to keep it back on defense (or holding the force) with the two black guns vs the one white blast. Protecting fighters is pretty solid, and coupling with Tycho you can have some really hard to kill ships.

yodaman (3.5/5) – Red Six is a unit that has some pros and cons. It’s got 3 icons. It has Protect Fighter which can really useful if you’re playing a swarm deck. If Jek’s on it you can actually protect any vehicle and then basically have Red Six die when you want so you can put something else in. However, as a unit, LS always needs blast and Red 6 comes with 2 black guns and only 1 white blast. Not offensive enough in my opinion.

pantsyg (3/5) – Like many 3-drop fighters, mediocre at best. This would be simply amazing as an Elite, so fighters could have a decent Force hound/defender to watch their backs while the more aggressively-statted units attack. Pretty solid in combination with Wedge, but I want 3-drops that can stand alone.

Majestaat (4/5) – Only downside is its weak blast. A rather big downside since Rebel vehicles want to rush their opponent, and not dealing any extra damage in a turn can spell defeat, even if it's not apparent at the time.
That said, it's got all around pretty good stats, and it will keep your heavy-hitters around for longer to cover for its lack of blast. Given its 3 pips and two black guns, you usually leave it to snatch the Force for a turn and provide some soft defense. If you're outnumbering the DS or only facing 2 HP units, then it's good enough on offense, getting unopposed damage with ease.


*R5-D8 (247-4): 13.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – Is this droid a resource, or a source of card draw? (Majestaat's note: Both, duh!) Well, you get to pick, but you only get one. A unit resource with affiliation matching and solid health on top of being immune to force choke isn’t bad. Particularly when you don’t lose tempo for playing him. Less useful (in my opinion) is his discard from hand ability to draw cards when a piloted vehicle leaves play. At least, unlike the objective, you get to draw cards from sacrificed or captured units. And while drawing three cards is great, you’re really only netting two, as you’re losing the droid from your hand.

yodaman (3.5/5) – The droid is a limited 1 cost, 2 health unit that generates a resource and also has a black gun so that’s pretty good for the cheap cost. It also has fits in with the overall theme of the set because its ability lets you discard the droid from your hand if a piloted unit leaves play to draw 3 cards. Again, I’m not a fan of losing units to get a benefit, but at least the droid does give you a resource if it’s on the board.

pantsyg (3/5) – Love the extra resource for Fighters, and the design is really cool. If you’ve got a unique utility unit, why not let the second copy do something valuable? Again though I think cards on unit death can often be a weird timing, and requiring a piloted fighter destroyed is a more limiting a restriction than one would suppose.

Majestaat (4/5) – Cheap living resource with decent HP so it won't just disappear to a soft breeze. It's interrupt makes it so that being unique won't make your second copy useless, which is much appreciated.


I've Got a Problem Here (247-5): 12 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – Now here’s an interesting card that doesn’t really fit into a fighter deck. Flipping the force can be really good, particularly if it nets you a damage your opponent wasn’t expecting. But this card only works if the DS changes the force from light to dark. Vehicle decks aren’t the best at contesting the force, so outside of turn 1, this could be a dead card. But, on that turn 1, keeping the force can turn off an Enforce Loyalty that would have wrecked you. Now you just have to worry about Tarkin wrecking you.

yodaman (5/5) – I think this is the best card in the set. The ability to flip balance back to LS after DS takes balance can be great and is well worth the 1 cost. Use the card turn 1 against a Navy deck and immediately get balance to turn off a “while undamaged” objective like Enforced Loyalty or Imperial Blockade. This can be especially useful if they have Tarkin Doctrine and/or Entrenched Defense out.

pantsyg (2/5) – What a troll event. Your opponent needs to win a Force struggle to trigger this which means you have to have it first, so I guess Fighters are going to slow down and care about Force? Early game, especially with Turning the Tide to make it effectively free, this is a cheap way to ping a damage. All this said, I’d much rather this be some sort of focus control or unit damage event.

Majestaat (2/5) – Realistically, it's only playable for its text on turn 1, when the DS is taking the Force from you. After that, you very rarely will contest it if running Rebel Fighters. This archetype really needed a way to slow down the dial a bit, but this is not the proper answer with how restrictive it actually is.


Protection (247-6): 16.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – Shields are great. They protect you from tactics or just straight out dying. This fate card is always useful, as you can put the shield anywhere (not just on something in the conflict). What’s even better is that it’s triggered very early in the stack, protecting your units from the likes of Seeds or Visage.

yodaman (4.5/5) – Shields are always great. Always good to see it included although it seems a bit out of place here.

pantsyg (4/5) – Great fate, especially for Fighters who hate Tactics. Could mean this set goes with Defiance to set up Concentrated Firepower plays.

Majestaat (4/5) – Protection is really versatile and it will help your damage get through despite the dark side's defenses.


Overall: 11.5 out of 20 possible points.

doctormungmung (3/5) – This is a boost to fighter decks, in that it helps keep your threats on the table. Still, fighters suffer from tactics heavy opponents and not that many tricks or counter tricks. You’re still running a combo heavy deck type, which while the set provides a couple sources of card draw to help you get those combos, it comes at the cost of your other combo pieces, so it’s of limited use. I’m still hoping for a tier one rebel fighters deck at some point, but even with this set, it’s still not there (at least I haven’t found or seen it).

yodaman (3.5/5) – Whenever the best card in the sets are the event and fate card it’s a bit of a bad sign. Still those two things are pretty good and the set does come with 10 force icons which is awesome for Rebel sets as well as a resource. It’s a bit of an odd set though since most of its bonuses rely on you losing units, yet the fate card helps keep them alive. The inclusion of Protection makes me want to try running this in a Rebel capital ship deck since shields can help you trigger Concentrated Firepower, but unfortunately, the rest of the cards, other than I’ve Got a Problem Here seem kind of mediocre.

pantsyg (2/5) – A strange set. These cards don’t fit the typical “go fast” fighter mold, so I’m having a hard time figuring out how to use them. Outside of RSXs Fighters feel very fair at the moment, lacking key threat cards that pull everything together, and few tricks or tactics to affect the opposing board in meaningful ways. Many of their “Mains” are mediocre 3-drops, and the newest cards, cool as they are, don’t seem to fit with the old rush strategy. Unlike Wedge, who can do work alongside character pods, Jek feels too saddled to the Fighter trait for consistent cross-over. That’s a shame, as I’ve Got a Problem Here would be excellent in a deck that actually spent time contesting the force.

Majestaat (3/5) – Want to rate this higher as this looks amazing on paper. It has a decent (though out of place) main, very high edge, resources and draw, but I have some big gripes with the set. First the objective being restricted to destruction, but we already talked about that. Second, the last two slots here. Although Protection is really good, I'd have liked sacrifice mechanics instead, giving you more control over your own effects, and so that Porkins won't just be buried in tactics if he doesn't get to pilot Red Six. This is a good support set that tries to do too many different things, I feel. So I'd rather see more focus on the "Lose units to gain rewards" theme. Plus sacrifice hasn't been explored nearly enough in this game.
Finally, it's a little too light in firepower for Fighter standards.