The Mos Eisley Mafia: SWLCG "Ancient Rivals" Force Pack Review - Dark Side

There is No Conflict (234-1): 13.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – This objective has a very powerful effect. Being able to lock out a LS resource on an objective can be massive, particularly if it’s early in the game. But tempering that ability, you need to reveal one of (most likely) four cards from your deck in an edge stack. That’s not great odds to pull that off. First you need the card in hand, then you need an edge battle. The former is the more difficult condition, so I wouldn’t count on getting to use this ability much. And if you pull it off later in the game after your opponent has their resource base up and running, it won’t has as big an impact. The objective is also Sith only, which makes splashing other affiliations into a predominantly Sith deck using this objective challenging.

yodaman (4/5) – The ability on this objective is interesting. You get to put a focus token on an enemy objective if you reveal 1 or more Sith fate cards in an edge battle. This means you can deprive your opponent of resources by double focusing an objective. If there were more Sith fate card this objective would be nuts. The fact it’s Sith only is a bit of a drawback.

pantsyg (3/5) – Oppressive effect, but with the Fate cards in this set being the only Sith fates so far, it’s far from guaranteed to trigger.

Majestaat (3.5/5) – Like Ahsoka's, this objective is currently being held back by the lack of Sith fates. Very impactful if you get an early trigger, when your opponent hasn't expanded his resources, it's likely getting weaker as the game progresses, though it still has the potential to block key event plays.
Unlike Ahsoka's objective, I'm not sure if this would be a clear 5/5 with more Sith fates. Certainly a 4 at the very least.


*Darth Vader (234-2): 16 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – Vader number five is here. And he harkens back to his roots (kind of like Han). He’s got his usual statline, elite, force icons, cost and health. What makes him unique is his ability is a modification of his Sith event damage ping. When you resolve a friendly fate card, you can ping a unit. That’s just about the same effect, but instead of being in control of when it happens, you have to get an edge battle (not that hard) and get a fate card past any potential twists (a bit more challenging). Still, you get an opportunity to do a damage outside of an action window, and you can trigger it both on your and your opponent’s turn (assuming you have enough fate cards). So this version of the Dark Lord is a slightly worse (IMHO) version than his core version. Still, he’s a board clearing machine if you get things set up right.

yodaman (4/5) – The newest version of Vader is good, but seems to be lacking as compared to his other Sith versions. He still costs 5, has 4 health, is elite and has 2 black guns, 1 black blast and 1 white blast. This Vader’s ability is that once per turn you can use him to deal 1 damage to an enemy unit when a friendly fate card resolves so he can ping things like Core Vader just with a different trigger. The issue is if your fate card gets twisted away, then Vader’s reaction doesn’t work.

pantsyg (3/5) – It’s hard for me to rate a unit that has a damage ping ability low, but this Vader is noticeably weaker than his core or GA versions. Triggering damage on Fate cards is easy enough in the opponent’s turn, but attacking on the DS turn with Sith often puts you in a bad edge position for the following turn, especially if you’re pitching a Fate card to get Vader’s damage out.

Majestaat (5/5) – Core Vader V2. And it's somehow... a downgrade? You lose a lot of flexibility on that ping damage by requiring to play an edge battle. Shielding and other annoying abilities will get to trigger in cases where core Vader would have stopped that.
Admittedly though, it's still a great ability and Vader keeps his awesome stats. That said, I can't help thinking his ability should have a little extra to differentiate him from his core counterpart. What if it could ping objectives or trigger twice per turn, once per engagement? Probably too strong, but really there's little point to pick this over core Vader, especially when so many good events are already free, like fate cards.


501st Commander (234-3): 18 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – With this trooper and officer (so you can play with both of those keywords), you get a very good defensive chud (two black guns for two resources and two health). But he also has a terrific ability. If you can’t win an edge battle vs a jedi unit, you can pull it and the officer out of the battle. That’s a great hedge vs a twist. Say you play around a twist, but aren’t confident of the post twist edge battle. After the twist happens, just don’t put in any more edge cards. Your opponent will pitch their best card (most likely) trying to win, so after you pull out their best unit, if they try attacking with them again, they’ll be down the twist and their best card. That’s a great way to deal with units like Moldy Crow, Yoda, Luke, Obiwan, etc.

yodaman (5/5) – This chud is really incredible. At first glance you have a very effective blocker that costs 2, has 2 health and also has 2 black guns. But his ability is what really makes him good. If he’s in the engagement and you lose the edge battle, you can remove him from the engagement to also remove a target Jedi or neutral unit from the engagement. By doing so, you might set yourself up better for the next engagement by drawing fate cards out of your opponent’s hand. Even though it won’t have quite the same effect against Rebel and Smuggler builds, it can still work on neutral units to give you some benefit. On top of that, the 501st Commander is a trooper, so you can try using this set in a trooper build.

pantsyg (4/5) – This is a very disruptive card. 2 black guns is great on defense, and the ability means you can screw with the opponent’s ability to efficiently engage damaged objectives. If you have a defender with black tactics, this guy becomes really good.

Majestaat (5/5) – Solid 2-cost defender. Huge added bonus against Jedi, especially when you've got some black tactics to lock down that threatening main. Even when lacking tactics, the ability can mess a bit with LS engagements and keep your most valuable objectives around for longer.


Join Me (234-4): 14.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – This is a card many people were hoping for a reprint of, and we finally get it. There are a lot of mediocre to average non-unique units to steal with it. And there are are a few killer units, like the Freeholders, which are making a comeback with the new smuggler sets coming out. Even without taking a good unit, just taking a unit that they’ve paid for is just as good as destroying it. Better actually, as you get a blocker if you need it, or some extra blast, or a gun, or possibly even some tactics. And on top of all that, it’s just completely demoralizing.

yodaman (3.5/5) – It’s nice to see this event reprinted in another set since the previous version is in a set that doesn’t see much 1 vs. 1 play. However, it’s still limited as to what you can take control of when using it. You can only use it on non-unique characters which makes this worthless against vehicle decks or decks that are relying heavily on mains. Still if you can manage to take control of a Freeholder or Guardian of Peace, it will certainly help your DS cause.

pantsyg (3/5) – Value is completely dependent on whether the opponent plays chuds worth stealing. Freeholders are the obvious best steal, but Junk Dealers, Outer Rim Mystics, Wolfmen, and Cloud City Operatives are all decent. If you don’t see any of those across the table, this card feels really worthless.

Majestaat (4/5) – You usually pay 2 for a chud. With this event you do that while also denying your opponent one of his. Great deal, more so considering that cheaper units are becoming progressively better. Guardians of Peace, Mystics, Junk Dealers are all great targets.


Ancient Rivals (234-5&6): 12.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – Here we get the Sith version of this fate card. Everything I said for that holds here, with one extra caveat. The Jedi version trumps this version, because it resolves first. Vs Jedi, this is a good fate card. Vs other’s, it’s basically two pips. Hopefully you can use it to combo with the objective.

yodaman (3.5/5) – The Sith version of Ancient Rivals has a major disadvantage when compared to its Jedi counterpart. While the cards essentially do the same basic thing (you can discard the Sith version of Ancient Rivals to discard a Jedi card or neutral non-fate card from an edge battle and it has 2 force pips), the fact is the Jedi version triggers first. That means the Jedi version can negate the Sith version of the card, but not vice versa. There probably wasn’t anyway around it, but it certainly makes this card drop in value if you’re facing Ahsoka.

pantsyg (3/5) – Worse here than on LS, owing to the power of Ahsoka’s objective vs Vader’s. In its favor, Yoda and Obi-Wan are far more common in LS decks than big Sith mains in the current Scum-heavy meta, so the odds of using this for effect in an edge battle are slightly higher.

Majestaat (3/5) – Almost the same as its Jedi counterpart, to which it loses in a direct confrontation. Also, it doesn't seem like it opens as much plays in this set as it does in A New Beginning.


Overall: 16 out of 20 possible points.

doctormungmung (4/5) – This is a solid objective set, although not as good as some of the other Vader incarnations. Actually, I’d put it close to the bottom (it’s better than Hoth Vader, but then, what isn’t?). It does hold to the typical Vader motiff of no resource (the Meditation Chamber from GA Vader really makes that one stand out), and it’s unit light. At least the two units it does have are very solid. The event is also solid as long as you aren’t up against a vehicle deck. The fate cards are interesting, but definitely the weak link in the set.

yodaman (5/5) – I really want to like this set more, but after playing with it, I feel like it’s just lacking something, much like the other sets in this pack. It comes with 10 force icons which is good, but doesn’t have a resource and clearly will be better when facing Jedi decks than other builds.

pantsyg (3/5) – Despite the rad Vader art, this set just doesn’t compare favorably to his other incarnations. I don’t feel this set really fits into a deck that wouldn’t be better served by a core or GA Vader, and I’ve been trying to make it work for awhile.

Majestaat (4/5) – If not for Vader being the main here, this pod would see a lot of play. Because that's not the case, you're left to pick between a good Vader set or a great Vader set. Think of this like Master's Domain. Will see little to no play because other (non-Hoth) Vaders are so good.


Heartless Tactics (235-1): 20 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (5/5) – Since the stats are average for an objective, the ability here must be really good to warrant me giving it a five rating. Well, it is. Scum already has a smattering of damage reduction or health enhancement for their objectives, with things like Corrupt Officials or the Hunters. So going with that theme, giving them a way to mitigate more damage is good. Having that be for free (in both card and resource cost) is even better. There have been a lot of new ways to capture cards recently, and those have come in good sets, so there is no lack of capture for Scum to trigger abilities off of. Once you’ve got even one captured card, you can really slow down the LS in taking out a key objective (like Heartless Tactics). This is especially brutal vs a slow LS deck that relies on holding the force for some of their damage. Get a captured card on each objective, and now you can protect your weakest one. And the best thing? The ability stacks, so having two Heartless Tactics out makes your objectives nigh-invulnerable.

yodaman (5/5) – This objective is great. When you have a card captured at a Scum objective, once per turn you can prevent a point of damage to the objective. Since it’s limit once that means if you happen to have both out and captured cards, you can trigger it twice. Scum Fortress with damage prevention and mitigation has been around since Corrupt Officials first appeared. Now this gives another set for that toolbox.

pantsyg (5/5) – With the ubiquity of Scum capture effects, this damage mitigation effect is pretty nuts.

Majestaat (5/5) – Pray Scum takes its time to find its capture-tech, because this objective can make a huge difference long-term. Just like LS loves free blast, DS loves free mitigation, even if its conditional. That's a fair way to keep it somewhat balanced, requiring some proper deckbuilding to make it reliable enough. That's not hard to achieve, really. Scum has many great pods with repeatable capture nowadays, from oldies like Tatooine Crash or Slave Trade, to the annoying creepers like Ephant Mon and 4-LOM.


*Dengar (235-2): 20 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (5/5) – First we get an objective that likes having captured cards at multiple objectives, now we get a unit that likes the same thing. This version of Dengar is so much better than his original version. Instead of needing cards captured at a fragile unit, you can have those cards at relatively safe objectives, and giving you either a pair of tactics, or a pair of blast, or even a few extra guns if that’s what you really need at the moment. Besides his super versatile ability, he comes with standard main health/cost/force icons. And on top of his one to three bonus icons, he also has a pair of black unit damage, which makes him a scary unit to get in the way of.

yodaman (5/5) – This version of Dengar is definitely more playable than the original. For 4 cost, he keeps his 3 health and regular combat icons of 2 black guns, but now he gains a different icon for each objective with captured card rather than what’s on himself. This means you can pair the new Dengar set with any sets that have capture mechanics as opposed to just the ones that capture from play. It makes it a lot easier to get his bonus. Unlike the original Dengar, this version is elite which means you can always commit him to help keep force with his 3 pips and he becomes a lot harder to lock down. He’s also a great target for Jabba’s Summons if you start getting a capture train rolling.

pantsyg (5/5) – Again, because Scum capture has become so consistent, Dengar will usually find himself with 1-2 additional icons. At 2 bonus icons he becomes a real monster, able to lock down 2 units (with EE + normal tactics) or kill a Main and lock down another (with black gun + black tactics). Being able to grab a gun, tactics, or blast depending on the situation gives him unparalleled flexibility as a defender or attacker, and he’s one of the cheapest units available with access to (potentially) 2 tactics icons.

Majestaat (5/5) – My favorite bounty hunter is back, and he's made an impressive jump from trash to god tier. His printed stats make for a fair body that allows him to hold the force and defend properly against chuds. Once an objective takes hold of a captured card, he can become a real monster, and it'll only get worse. Gain an extra gun against standard mains, or a tactics if facing feint attacks. With the perfect setup, Dengar will be a versatile unit whose combat stats will be comparable or downright better than that of more expensive units.
P.S – He's everywhere, now I'm sick of him.


Security Operator (235-3): 14 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – Here we get a standard chud with an ability that really combos well with both the objective and the main. Now you can just have a single Tatooine Crash on the table, and in three turns, you can have each of your objectives with a captured card, providing safety and icons to those interested. Or you can just move a key card away from a soon to be destroyed objective, keeping it out of the LS hands a little longer.

yodaman (4/5) – On the surface the chud may not seem like much as he costs 2, had 2 health and comes with a black gun and white blast. The blast never hurts if you can swing in unopposed. But the best part of the Security Officer is that you can use him to move captured cards to other objectives thereby fueling Dengar more and/or keeping your opponent’s best captured cards in a place that makes them harder to retrieve. Great synergy within the set.

pantsyg (3/5) – Just your standard chud, though being able to move captured cards off of Slave Trade (if you run it) can be pretty nice.

Majestaat (4/5) – The body is only worth a mere 3/5. That's just how valuable the ability is. Scum had much trouble placing captured cards in the right places for the longest time. This guy helps to solve that, making the likes of Jabba's Reach much better; synergizing perfectly with what this set wants to do and even denying the LS his best card when one of your objectives is about to go down.


Fortified Holding Cells (235-4): 19 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – This is a neat twist on a resource enhancement. While it becomes removable by destroying the objective, you get to effectively add a captured card to the objective (letting Heartless Tactics protect it and giving Dengar an icon), as well as giving it an extra health! That’s pretty fantastic. That extra health is also easy to overlook, which can give your opponent a shock if they weren’t paying attention. And to top it off, it’s not limited, so while it is a two for one, you get multiple passive effects and can still put down at least one more resource if you’ve got it. It does also have a couple of force icons, but I don’t see anyone pitching this to edge unless the situation is truly dire.

yodaman (5/5) – This enhancement is nuts. It’s a 2-1 resource that attaches to a Scum objective. Normally, that might make it risky to put out except for the fact that it gives the objective its attached to +1 damage capacity and acts as though there is an extra captured card at the objectives. That means it can automatically give an extra icon to Dengar even if you haven’t captured something yet. It can also give a boost to objectives like Jabba’s Reach or Findsman’s Intuition that give bonuses based on the number of captured cards you have there. If Heartless Tactics is out, you essentially have given an objective +2 damage capacity. Just wow. It’s not unique which means you can put both out to help protect multiple objectives.

pantsyg (5/5) – The synergy on this card is nuts. Bonus health, resource, activates Heartless Tactics, and activates an extra icon for Dengar. You take a tempo hit playing it, but Scum often have Masterful or Spice Trade to grant the extra resources without slowing you down.

Majestaat (5/5) – While it's theoretically a risky resource since the enhanced objective can be destroyed, between the extra HP and its crazy synergy with Heartless Tactics, you shouldn't miss the resource even when/if it goes down.


Captured (235-5): 20 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (5/5) – Now here’s an even that’s been needing a reprint for a long time! It’s the Scum’s Force Lightning, and boy is it worth the cost of admission. For three resources, just remove your opponent’s best unit, and put it somewhere where it’ll start doing you some good. Three cost is a bargain to get rid of Luke, or Yoda, or Home One, or Obi-wan, or the Crow… And the list goes on. Being limited to your turn isn’t that much of a limitation, and is really a lot easier to meet than needing the unit to be focused like for Force Lightning. Not only is this a great card in it’s own right, but it also enables the two best cards in the set. That’s pretty keen.

yodaman (5/5) – This direct removal card has always been good and it’s great to see it reprinted in such a playable set. It costs the same as Force Lightning, but the only restriction is you have to play in on your turn. You can just capture the best unit the LS has on your turn and really slow down their progress. The fact that the set actually has a way to make this cheaper makes it even better and when the new Jabba finally drops, the cost effectiveness of the event will be incredible.

pantsyg (5/5) – In my opinion, Captured is stronger than Force Lightning. While you can only play it in your turn, you can kill any unit basically without restriction.

Majestaat (5/5) – Amazing card that was stuck on an okay pod. Not the case anymore. Direct removal that also feeds all sorts of Scummy effects. One of the best DS events in the game, if not downright the best.


Preparation and Planning (235-6): 13.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – Not the most playable fate card in the world, but it will allow you to pull some tricks when your opponent least expects it. If used aggressively, you can play Captured for cheap.

yodaman (4/5) – A situational fate card that synergizes well with the set. When it resolves, you get to reduce the cost of the next event card you play that turn by 2. Now you can play Captured or even Force Lightning for 1 on your turn since the event isn’t required to be a Scum event. Pair it with Navy cap ships and you could play a Tractor Beam for free to have your big ships go to town. There really are lots of possibilities with this card if you can time it right. If nothing else, 2 force pips never hurts.

pantsyg (3/5) – Obviously amazing if you have Captured in your hand, but otherwise dependent on you having a meaningful event to play. That said, getting a Spice Blitz, Jabba’s Summons or Chain Reaction for free can also be convenient. This incentivizes running Sith for Force Lightning to build a truly oppressive removal deck.

Majestaat (3.5/5) – Forget about sacrificing deployments to play your events mid-battle. Not having to leave any resources open will usually give your opponent a false sense of security, and his face will melt once he sees this card. It can only get better with time.


Overall: 20 out of 20 possible points.

doctormungmung (5/5) – This set is just great. Possibly the best Scum set out there (although now-a-days there are several vying for that title). It not only has several cards that are great on their own, but they also have a lot of internal synergy, helping to make the other cards in the set even better. You get a great main, a non-limited enhancement, objective health and damage prevention, and unit removal. Oh, and did I mention the set has ten force icons? That’s just nuts. This is by far the best set in the pack, and this pack doesn’t have any duds, so that’s saying something.

yodaman (5/5) – Scum gets another incredible set. It has great internal synergy, a powerful main, direct removal, a resource and a couple ways to prevent damage and make it harder for the LS to achieve their win condition. Expect to see this set be a staple of many Scum decks for quite some time.

pantsyg (5/5) – Definitely the best set in the pack. Each of the cards is of high to very high quality and don’t really rely on synergy with other sets, making it a very potent include for a variety of decks. Dengar is an extremely efficient Main who I expect to see in lots of decks for a long time.

Majestaat (5/5) – Insane pod. Although it's a bit comboey, the risks and rewards just aren't proportional, and it's super synergistic, so you're not even forced to pick more capture pods to make this work reasonably well. Annoying objective, great main, useful utility chud, resource, removal, high edge. Absolutely nothing to dislike here, unless you're the LS, that is.


FINAL WORDS:
Must say, I wonder when the design team decided to make affiliated fate cards. Feels like Jedi's Resolve, Prince's Scheme and so on should have been affiliated as well. That would have meant a minor but welcomed buff for Master's Domain in particular. Oh well...

I did a minor change to the top rated cards, picking 3 per side instead of 5 among all pods. Seems to be a more reasonable way to do things. Still a single pod to be picked as the best rated. Would be a bit unfair to do 1 and 1 when one side is getting more sets than the other in any given pack. Hope you guys prefer it this way. If not, let me know and I'll change it.

Next step for this team is A Wretched Hive, which was recently released. Like it's been with our latest articles, it should take around a month to be done.

Many thanks to the reviewers for their hard work and the readers for their continued support.
Sadly, it seems chunky was using an ACME brand bacta tank because he didn't make it. Guess he's having a hard time keeping up with life. Best of luck for him.

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.

And while it may be strange to do free advertising to the "competition", you should totally pay a visit to DavFlamerock's new site: The Shadow Archive.
He also rallied a reviewing team, and they've done and amazing work.
Thus, let this be the start for a new Ancient Rivalry .

May the Force be with you all!