The Mos Eisley Mafia: SWLCG "Jump to Lightspeed" Force pack Review - Light Side

MEET THE FAMILY (aka - THE REVIEWERS):
-chunkygorillas, host to the Ion Control Podcast;
-doctormungmung, Massachussets' evil genius;
-yodaman, he who you seek when numbers are involved;
-TheMAC, the french connection (he's not actually french though...);
-pantsyg, jankmaster general;
-Blake333, the nicest bastard you'll meet;
-Majestaat, survivor of a thousand quakes and the one to blame for typos.


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 5 Cards:
1 – Behind the Black Sun, with 33 out of 35 possible points.
2 – Heroes of the Rebellion, with 32 out of 35 possible points.
3 – Tycho Celchu (Heroes of the Rebellion), with 32 out of 35 possible points.
4 – Arden Lyn (The Reawakening), with 31 out of 35 possible points.
5 – Guri (Behind the Black Sun), with 31 out of 35 possible points.

Overall best rated Objective Set:
Behind the Black Sun, with 30.5 out of 35 possible points.


THE REVIEWS:

The Forgotten Masters (166-1): 21 out of 35 possible points.



chunkygorillas (4/5) – When building a deck you need to consider this effect and make sure your deck can make use of it. If you do that, this card can be super powerful, it can enable your Gotals or since Jedi has a lot of tactics you can lock out all their units committed to the force and take it without having to leave up one of your own units to be committed. It of course has a downside, where your opponent can do similar things to you, but with the right deck you can make sure this effect is helping you more.

doctormungmung (3/5) – This is an interesting effect to start off the cycle with. Having the winner of each edge battle get the force doesn’t do all that much, but it can turn on and off Gotals, and enable or disable Rage. The LS will get more use out of it because they can build around it. And it won’t stop the force struggle from happening, so that will still usually determine the force when it comes time to end the turn, although it can throw off who needs to win the tie.

yodaman (3/5) - The ability is interesting since it’s a double edged sword.
Having the balance flip from one side to the other could lead to some interesting scenarios. Perhaps you could win an edge battle to flip it and then activate your Gotals. On the other hand if it flips from LS to DS, you might have just opened up the door for your opponent to play something like Rage or Force Storm.
More often than not, I probably would bury this objective if I see it in the opening flop.

TheMAC (2/5) – I’m really not a fan of this objective. The main reason is that holding the force for Jedi is a very simple task and risking to lose the balance in an edge battle is not very fun. A dark side player that have cards like rage in their decks will be tempted to use this card against you.

pantsyg (3/5) – I like the idea of changing the Balance outside of the Force phase, but right now the effect is pretty limited in scope. The LS doesn’t have many cards that depend on having the Balance outside of Gotals and Leia, and since Leia’s reaction happens after the opposing conflict phase, winning the struggle on your turn is enough to boost her damage. On top of that, this has the potential to activate DS cards like Force Storm and Rage. Until more cards get boosts from having the Balance, this objective is fairly weak.

Blake333 (3/5) – In my play testing I've not come into many situations where this forced reaction has helped me. It has hurt me a load of times.

Majestaat (3/5) – A double-edged blade that plays in your favor, particularly if running things like Flight of the Crow or Gotals, in which case you can have a Jedi deck with strong edge and unusually high blast. Even then, I'll admit this is the card that has been holding me from playing 2x of the set. I simply dislike not having control over my own effects, and this one can be very valuable for the DS if you lose a key edge battle.


*T'ra Saa (166-2): 30.5 out of 35 possible points.



chunkygorillas (5/5) – Just wow, phenomenal stats for only four resources and she will almost always have edge(2), since with Jedi it’s really easy to build a deck to help you make use of this effect, and the other cards in this set really help as well. Also how do you pronounce this name haha, I always just call her Teresa

doctormungmung (4/5) – Even with blank text, getting FIVE icons with three health for four would be worth it. It almost doesn’t matter than three of those are edge enabled (almost). That’s pretty nuts. And the spread is pretty decent as well. Having three force icons and being a force user also opens up doors. Her text is interesting. Early game it’s usually not going to do much, but once you can start getting out those Lost Masters, she’s going to be rocking edge two most of the time. Unfortunately she’s not elite, so she’s not the best option for committing to the force. Overall she’s just incredibly efficient for her cost, and in the right circumstances will wreck face.

yodaman (5/5) – Impressive stats for a main. The 4 cost since more than fair for a unit with 3 health and 5 combat icons if you win the edge battle. The ability to get edge 2 potentially is incredible and can help activate all combat icons. With two Lost Masters in the set it give you an easier way to have more than 3 units committed to the Force and turn on the ability. The fact she isn’t elite is really her only drawback.

TheMAC (4/5) – Sweet spot cost, good icons, possibility to gain edge. Only thing I would want is elite and it will be available in the form of an enhancement very soon.

pantsyg (4/5) – 5 icons and 3 health for 4 seems like a steal. Most icons are edge-enabled, but winning edge has rarely been an issue for Jedi, and her ability makes it all the more likely you’ll win edge when she’s participating. With the other units in her set and the typical Jedi strength in the Force phase, it seems safe to bet that her text will be active most of the time.

Blake333 (3.5/5) - I love this card. Affordable jedi unit that has all three icon types? And gains edge (2) when you have more units commited to the Force? I only dislike her not being elite.

Majestaat (5/5) – Strong force users not called Luke or Yoda are usually great news for Jedi, and T'ra Saa is no exception, especially with two blast. Even with no text she's very threatening with that many icons and Jedi's superior edge. Talking about edge, she can gain edge (2) without too much trouble. That's crazy. If you feel unconvinced despite all that, she's yet another 3-pips card for your deck.


Lost Master (166-3&4): 26 out of 35 possible points.



chunkygorillas (4/5) – Wow is Jedi’s variant of the Hired Hands is great. It doesn’t have the tactics (it would probably be way too good if it did…) but it will be easier to keep alive, Jedi wants more black blast, and it helps you enable T’ra Saa. Like the other super-efficient one drops it does have downsides, it always being committed to the force means it will be getting two focus, being only useful every other turn (except if you give it elite) and your opponent can stop you from playing it, but I think in most scenarios that is almost a good thing, since if they spend one of their resources to bounce this card then you just play it again, I think 2 resources for this unit and your opponent losing a resource is still great value. Of course they could always keep doing it, but it’s often hard to leave the many resources open except if you’re saving them to play something like an event, and in that case you wouldn’t want to spend the resources to bounce this unit anyways.

doctormungmung (4/5) – Talk about efficiency! One cost for a black blast three health force user! That’s crazy. And sure, your opponent can make you eat them back to your hand. But you know what, just play them again, they cost one! Being committed to the force automatically they’ll help turn on T’ra Saa, and you’ll still be able to contest the force with the likes of Yoda without worrying about force card availability. Unfortunately this also means you can’t use MTFBWY to unfocus them. And like their compatriot, they are not elite, so they won’t be loading up the damage too fast. Still, I think these guys will be doing a lot of work relative to their cost.

yodaman (4/5) – For 1 cost, having 2 of these chuds seems decent. It’s great they also have a black blast and with the 3 health they’re likely to get some objective damage in. Jedi always tend to keep balance anyway and now with some LS units that have the Dark Trooper ability of being considered committed without using a force card it can only help. Plus these are cheaper and have more health than the Dark Troopers. The only downside is your opponent could potentially bounce them back to your hand, but if they want to spend a resource to do that, that’s fine.

TheMAC (3/5) – At first a 1 cost unit with 3 health 1 black blast icon looked good but after a couple of games I found there is many times that a Sith Library is open and the opponent could just pay the resource to bring it back to your hand. You have to wait for the right moment to play them in some game you might throw them away. Once in play the unit, it is a good boost to the force struggle and it can help to get a few damage on the objectives to finish the opponent.

pantsyg (4/5) – Warning: I’m about to go on at length about this humble little guy. I love 1-cost units with “downsides.” Your opponent can bounce this back to hand for the cost of one resource, but that’s a non-issue most of the time. With black blast damage, this guy wants to get on the board early, conveniently when DS is usually tapped out of resources, or holding some open for an important event. Playing these will force the DS to choose between giving you a really efficient attacker or holding out for a Force Lightning. In the worst case, play the bounced copy again to see if the opponent really wants to spend 2 denying you; this unit would be worth 2 anyway. On top of all that, this is the cheapest Force User in the game—perfect fuel for the underused BtS Obi-Wan or Forgotten Heroes, and a really efficient target for the Jedi Lightsaber from the Core Luke pod. Being always-committed slows down his attacks, but also provides fuel for the upcoming Force Illusion, and the fact he’ll probably be double-focused makes sacking him to Funeral Pyre or Noble Sacrifice very palatable. Probably the best card in this set.

Blake333 (3/5) – Cheap blast damage is something Jedi wanted. Too bad it has to get double focused when it strikes. I have had some good interaction with this and Forgotten Heroes.

Majestaat (4/5) – These guys cover some of Jedi's few remaining weaknesses. They're cheap and resilient blast damage that also happen to be force users, allowing them to use most of your effects that usually needed a big main on the table. Furthermore, they help getting that sweet edge keyword on T'ra Saa.
On the flip side, they're slow since you have them available once every 2 turns, and they're basically dead weight in your hand if your opponent has a better economy than you, stopping them from hitting the table altogether.


A Gift from the Past (166-5): 29 out of 35 possible points.



chunkygorillas (5/5) – This card combo’s so well with the objective May the Force be With You, getting Yoda off the force so you can commit him again and trigger MTFBWY is amazing, and you can also use it to strike twice with a unit if you have MTFBWY out, since it would remove the focus off the unit. Even if you don’t have MTFBWY out its still great, sometimes you’re out of Force Cards and getting one on a different unit can win you’re the force, or getting it off an elite unit onto an elite unit is really good as well. And if it’s not being useful, 2 edge pips is always nice.

doctormungmung (4/5) – This allows for more mileage from MTFBWY, being able to free up the same unit multiple turns in a row. And since the unit getting committed to the force will trigger MTFBWY, that’s a free refresh at action speed. That sounds pretty good to me.

yodaman (5/5) – I’ve really liked this card ever since I first read the text. First of all it’s 0 cost and has 2 icons for edge battles. How many times have we all committed something and then wished we could move the Force cards somewhere else after it got buried in focus tokens or we just had a better choice later on in a game? Now, there’s a way to do this that doesn’t rely on playing Echoes in an edge battle. Coupled with the ever present MTFBWY in Jedi decks, this could really lead to some powerful LS turns.

TheMAC (4/5) – I like this card as it brings a lot of flexibility to Jedi decks. You can commit units to the force early with less burden on later turns when you want to bring a more aggressive playstyle. You can trigger it any time and it makes a very nice combo with MTFBWY.

pantsyg (4/5) – A neat little event that will live or die on whether MTFBWY is in play. If yes, this is a free double strike; if not, it might have use moving commitments around to ready units once all 3 of your Force cards are used up, or if you used MTFBWY to commit a non-elite Main like Kyle or Core Luke to win the Force and want to move the commitment before they strike again. Situational, but with big upside.

Blake333 (3/5) – The idea behind this card is neat. Admittedly, it hasn’t paid off for me just yet, but it will eventually!

Majestaat (4/5) – I love free actions. This one can prove very useful to keep the correct units commited to the Force at the right times, switching your focus on combat or the Force Struggle as appropiate. If you happen to have MTFBWY out, you can get an extra trigger out of it. Solid.


Echoes of the Force (166-6): 25 out of 35 possible points.

chunkygorillas (4/5) – This is a great edge card for this set, it can help your turn on T’ra Saa, it can win you force struggles and it combos great with MTFBWY for the same reasons Gifts from the Past does.

doctormungmung (3/5) – More MTFBWY shenanigans. Or making sure the Emperor isn’t winning the force for the DS. It’s not as flashy as most other fate cards, and doesn’t hold the same level of utility, but you can get it to do things for you on occasion.

yodaman (3/5) – Not high on my list of fate cards, in general. But it fits with the theme of this set.

TheMac (4/5) – Nice fate card that fits very well in this pod’s thematic.

pantsyg (3/5) – An oldie but a goodie. Echoes is one of the more subtle Fate cards, but in Jedi it can be quite strong. With MTFBWY, it lets you free up another unit to strike later in the conflict phase. Most importantly for this set, it lets you control the number of opposing committed units. Every once in awhile, it will enable a combo with Seeds of Decay. Granted it’s not always the most useful Fate card and often I don’t end up resolving its effect, but I can’t think of a better place for it than in this set.

Blake333 (4/5) – What can I say? Echoes is a great, flexible card.

Majestaat (4/5) – An elegant card, for a more civilized age. While I don't like Echoes in LS as much as in DS, it's a nice fit here to unexpectedly activate T'ra Saa's edge or keep using MTFBWY on your best unit over and over. Can't hurt to have one or two in your deck.


Overall: 28 out of 35 possible points.

chunkygorillas (5/5) – This set is full of great cards and also has some much internal synergy, plus tons of synergy with existing Jedi decks.

doctormungmung (4/5) – The units help make this set, and what makes the units is cost efficiency. Perhaps a Gotal deck is finally around the corner. I hope so, as I’ve always wanted to make them work. This set pairs nicely with MTFBWY, which will help it push its way into the already super tight for space Jedi decks out there, although it’s still fighting an uphill battle with the likes of Rahn, Outer Rim Mystics, et al. Having a total edge count of nine puts it above the curve will help with that.

yodaman (4/5) – A very decent pod on the surface. I like that this set has 3 units. A lot of the main Jedi sets that see play only have 2 units so it’s good to have more units available. It comes with 9 total icons which is certainly good too.

TheMAC (4/5) – This is another fine Jedi pod but it has a lot of competition. I like the main, the fact that it punishes the opponent for giving up on force struggle and it fits pretty well with MTFBWY.

pantsyg (4/5) – As an Obi-Wan fan, I’ve been looking forward to this set since the Lost Master was spoiled in a card fan some months ago. This set delivers another solid main for Jedi, alongside a high Force icon count (9). The kicker for me is this set’s combination of high unit count, which can be really key for Jedi, and blast damage, which is increasingly unscarce for our Force-wielding friends. As mentioned, the cheap Force User units are great for decks looking to combo off that keyword. All-around, another solid Jedi set to compete with the other awesome sets they’ve gotten this cycle. This set definitely makes me want to run a toolbox of mains around a 2x MTFBWY core.

Blake333 (3/5) – Good set that will likely be competing as a 1x in many Jedi decks.

Majestaat (4/5) – Another strong contender for Jedi decks. You should totally consider this one when you need some more blast damage and extra combat-capable units. I don't recommend doubling on it though, as the Lost Masters can be easily shut down if your opponent manages his resources well, and while Gift/Echoes are good, you don't really need more copies of them.

Heroes of the Rebellion (167-1): 32 out of 35 possible points.



chunkygorillas (5/5) – This objective prevents “2 for 1’d” meaning, them playing 1 card like deadly sight and killing your two cards (pilot and vehicle) what is always a downside of playing enchantments on units. Getting rid of that downside to pilots really helps fighter/pilot decks be even better.

doctormungmung (4/5) – This objective basically gives the LS the Executor’s protection. Not being targetable is pretty big. No more I Have You Now, Vader pings, Capture, etc. Although there are still various events that don’t target that will get through this, like Aggression, or the various board wipes. Usually your piloted vehicles are the important ones, so granting them blanket freedom from targeted enemy card effects will go a long way.

yodaman (4/5) – The ability on this card fits the theme of the overall cycle. Being able to keep piloted vehicles from being targeted by things like DS fate cards and powerful events like Force Lightning or Deadly Sight is great.

TheMAC (5/5) – Amazing ability on this objective. This objective neutralizes most cards that I find annoying for a vehicle deck. Piloted vehicle can’t be killed by Deadly Sights or Force Lightning anymore, Snoova can’t capture your rebel units if you just splash a Jedi pod with Jedi affiliation and you don’t need to be afraid of fate cards like Heat of Battle and I Have You Now.

pantsyg (5/5) – Simple, great text. Your piloted vehicles are immune to fate cards, removal spells, and, importantly, Thrawn’s ability. Sadly, it doesn’t protect the pilots themselves from IE's Tarkin evil gaze. I’d start this in a heartbeat. Only downside is with RSXWs, which generally end up sans pilot at some point in their lives, but by then they’ve probably done their duty.

Blake333 (4/5) – I love Rebels! This abilitiy helps a ton to keep your buffed vehicles for longer. Do keep it mind it only works against targeted effectst.

Majestaat (5/5) – Can't say it was needed, but it's very much welcome, no doubt. Now you can rest assured that all those eggs in one basket won't be screwed by the likes of Thrawn, Snoova and Force Lighting.


*Tycho Celchu (167-2): 32 out of 35 possible points.



chunkygorillas (5/5) – This is probably one of the best Light Side pilots, for a Pilot cost of 1 he does some pretty amazing things, shielding is something Rebel fighter decks lack and it really helps them get through tactics. He is also a really good 2 drop, black tactics and 3 health is actually way above average.

doctormungmung (4/5) – Tycho is great! On the mundane side, you get a black tactics and three! health for two cost. That’s really solid. Or for one, you can put him on a vehicle to give it shielding and protect! Those Rogue’s now can do some extra duty. They don’t often get shot at when they’re piloted. Now they can make use out of that three health (four with shield) and protect some of the other fighters, like the Y-Wings that like to fly with Red Two. Then pop Tycho to refresh, and bring him back with a SoT. His only downsides are his low force icon count, and that he only works on fighters. Giving Home One or Rogue Three shielding would have been great.

yodaman (5/5) – Tycho is a pilot you want to make sure hits the board to keep your key units around. He only costs 1 to play as a pilot and giving the vehicle he’s on the protect trait as well as shielding is incredible. On the off chance you have to play him as a unit he’s one of the few pilots that can be effective off ship since he has a black tactics and 3 health.

TheMAC (4/5) – I like Tycho both as a unit and as a pilot. As a unit he got 3 health and a very useful tactic. As a pilot it gives shielding and protect, something I have been waiting for quite some time now. It can save the life of your important unit with a proton torpedo that just waits to make the final blow. If you mix with the old Bucket o’ bolts you can use both him as a tactic unit and later on a vehicle protector to take full use of him. With his low cost and discounts that are available I think Tycho is a very solid unit.

pantsyg (5/5) – I thought he flew A-Wings? Regardless, he’s great as a unit or enhancement. Rebels don’t have much black tactics or protect, so play him on foot or in the cockpit depending on what you need. Shielding is great for an archetype that is really only slowed down by tactics or lots of single-source unit damage, and Rogues with Shielding are obnoxiously strong. This guy is a great Rogue X-Wing pilot if he can’t find his own ride—have his X protect damage, then discard him to get rid of it! The low, low pilot cost is very appealing. I like versatile pilots, and versatile is this guy’s middle name.

Blake333 (4/5) – A cheap card that can provide tactics or a shielding/protect combination according to your needs. One way or another, he will be good.

Majestaat (5/5) – Tycho does a lot of things for the Rebels. Play him as a unit and you get a critical black tactics that's hard to kill in one strike. Play him as a pilot and you get both shielding and protect, making it easier for your blast icons to resolve. So now your unkillable Rogue X-Wings make the rest of your vehicles unkillable as well. Have fun.


*Wes Janson (167-3): 24 out of 35 possible points.



chunkygorillas (2.5/5) – His Pilot Cost seems too expensive for his ability, doing one free damage is good, but with Rebel fighters it will be hard to keep the force so you won’t be getting the 2 damage very often. He is a terrible unit for 3 though what brings this guy down, since sometimes in a pinch you need to play Pilots as units, and generally the pilots are decent vanilla units but Wes’s stats are just really bad.

doctormungmung (3/5) – While Tycho is great, Wes is only good. As a unit he’s way overcosted (he’s a Kuati Trooper that costs one more). As a pilot, he brings some heat, though. For two he gets an action ability of focusing him (not the ship) to do one damage to a participating unit. Sometimes that one damage is all you need to clear out an important defender. Technically he can do two damage if the LS has the force, but in the decks he’ll likely be running in, that’s pretty unlikely. He’s got a bit more flexibility than Tycho as he can go on speeders as well as fighters, although he has the same super low force icon total.

yodaman (5/5) – Another unique pilot in Wes that has an amazing ability. He’s basically Jedi Leia while on a ship except he triggers during an engagement. Use him to help clear the way and if you can couple him with a Heat of Battle during Edge you can take out many of the DS mains in one shot.

TheMAC (3/5) – Direct damage is always a good thing and as a pilot he can do 1 by focusing him. With normal mono-rebel deck that is all he is going to do, as you usually don’t bother much with the force and you wont have many occasions to use him for 2 damage. However if you use him in a mixed Jedi Rebel with Secrets at Shantipole pod he become a lot better. Blue Nine can remove focus from his to deal additional damage and if you include a “Jedi main” pod in the deck you have a way to hold the force for him to deal 2 damage.

pantsyg (4/5) – Love the art, love the card. Pilot (2) is a bit steep, but his ability is very strong. Unlike Tycho, he’s not worth playing as a unit at all. Note that Wes doesn’t have to be participating to use his action. This card makes me want to put together a vehicle build that can hold the force; 2 damage in an engagement for the cost of a focused Pilot is totally absurd. Looking for an answer to Decimators? Maybe he’s your guy. There’s a dream scenario in which you’re holding the force, use Wes, then strike with Blue Nine to refresh him and do it again, but even without the combo or the Force, Wes carries his weight.

Blake333 (3.5/5) –I want this card to be stronger, but the fact is Rebels don’t normally hold the Force for more than 1 turn.

Majestaat (3/5) – Unlike Tycho, Wes is a terrible unit. He's an... acceptable pilot though. Chances are you need some more pieces to make his damage relevant, because let's be honest here, if you control the Force as the Rebels either you or your opponent are doing something terribly wrong. Do note you can use his ability even if he's not participating in the engagement, but the targeted unit must be participating.


*Rogue Six (167-4): 27 out of 35 possible points.



chunkygorillas (4/5) – This card has really good stats considering it probably won’t be very hard to get a pilot on it. Huge bonus if the pilot is Wes, Targeted Strike is a pretty great keyword for Fighter decks since it can help clear out defenders to help you get more attacks in.

doctormungmung (4/5) – Two black icons with two health for two cost is above the curve, so that’s a good starting point. Two force icons are also nice (who knew, Rogue Six likes the number two?). But the real winner is if you get Wes on it, it gets an extra black unit damage and targeted strike! TS isn’t something that Rebels have much access to, so getting that here is nice. Between this and Wes, you can be doing up to four unit damage (most likely three) spread around between two units. That’s some really good utility for a potential two cost (if Wes is put into play with a SoT).

yodaman (4/5) – This ship really needs to be paired with Wes to get the most out it with the Targeted Strike ability, which is something Rebels really haven’t had up until this point. However, as long as any pilot is on Rogue Six, you pick up an extra unit damage. Should work well in tandem with things like the Astromech Droid as that will allow Rogue Six to get off a lot of unit damage in one shot. Nothing wrong with that.

TheMAC (4/5) – I don’t usually like a matching pilot ability in a card game. The chances to have the right pilot in the right time is actually quite low. However, after playing a couple of game with multiple copies of stay on target in the deck, I found that it can happen more than I originally tough it would. It is quite easy to discard a pilot either from your hand early game or a Rogue Squadron X-wing to then put it back on the right vehicle for the ability to happen. The ability on Rogue Six is also quite interesting with its matching pilot, it gives targeted strike, meaning that the opponent have to chose between taking direct damage from Wes or taking damage from targeted strike.

pantsyg (4/5) – I’d take these stats on a 2-drop any day. It gets better when piloted, and better better with Wes. Wes on Rogue Six with a Resupply Depot to hand him a gun is no joke, and not a hard combo to pull off at all. Rebels love getting defenders out of the way, and Targeted Strike is better than tactics at doing just that. Even with a generic pilot, 2 guns on a fighter can be a real help for clearing out chud defenders or damaged Mains.

Blake333 (3/5) – Pretty standard for a 2-cost unit, but it becomes a huge beast when Wes is on it, giving you a way to deal with support units without having to use your Rebel Assaults.

Majestaat (4/5) – Cheap fighter with black icons, just what Rebels like. Can become quite threatening if its pilot happens to be Keyan or Wes, as you suddenly have a very realistic chance to get rid of the defender, or even support units in Wes' case thanks to targeted strike.


*Rogue Nine (167-5): 24.5 out of 35 possible points.



chunkygorillas (3/5) – This card is pretty good, especially if you get Tycho on it, but 3 cost ends up being pretty pricey in a lot of Fighter decks and I often find myself deciding to play two 2 cost units instead of this unit for 3.

doctormungmung (4/5) – And we found where Tycho likes to live. Three cost for three icons and three health is pretty good. Adding in any pilot gives Rogue Nine some serious staying power with four health. But if that pilot is Tycho, you get a six health monster with shielding and protect. Sort of direct removal and board wipes, it’s going to be very difficult to remove any LS vehicle from the board with this pair in play. And this damage sink can be doing two objective damage a pop as well. That’s a pretty vicious fighter.

yodaman (4/5) – Like Rogue Six, this ship really needs to be paired with a specific pilot (in this case, Tycho) to get the most out of it. But, having any pilot on it gives it a bump in damage capacity. The combat icons are nice too since winning an edge battle gets you two blast.

TheMAC (3/5) - Again a matching pilot mechanic. However this vehicle costs 1 more and while a high health protector is useful that additional cost made a big difference in the games I played. However it is not a bad unit.

pantsyg (3/5) – This is an OK unit, but being a 3-drop makes it a little slow in current Rogue Squadron rush decks. With Tycho it’s obviously insane, making the rest of your already tough fighters that much harder to handle, but unless Tycho is in hand I’d rather get another Rogue out onto the table. The health boost with a generic pilot lets you survive a 3-gun unit, which is nice, but since this doesn’t multi-swing like Rogues, overall it’s far less dangerous.

Blake333 (4.5/5) – I love this X-Wing. Two blast damage is quite relevant. Add Tycho and it becomes a flying iron wall!

Majestaat (3/5) – Compared to Rogue Six you pay one more (going from 2 to 3 is painful for Rebels) for one extra damage capacity, as the white blast will in most cases prove irrelevant due to your weak edge. Unlike R-6, R-9 doesn't really get much out of a pilot if it's not Tycho as there's usually not much difference between 3 and 4 damage capacity. If you do get the combo, however, you have an extremely tanky unit that can protect your whole army for several turns. Have seen it once, and it was mean.


Ready for Takeoff (167-6): 29 out of 35 possible points.



chunkygorillas (4/5) – This card is what Pilot decks really needed, so they can find the right pilot to match the vehicles they already have out, but they do have to be unique what brings this card down a bit.

doctormungmung (4/5) – Card search is usually pretty good. Ready for Takeoff does that on steroids. At one cost, you can collect all fighters, speeders and pilots in the top five cards of your deck. And you don’t lose any of the cards that don’t match that description, as they get shuffled back into your deck. This is the effect I’d rather have had on the Superlaser Engineer. As a bonus, the extra cards can help you win an edge battle that needs to go your way, although usually you’ll want to play what you find.

yodaman (5/5) – Any card that lets you search for cards, no matter how limited, is powerful. This one even exceeds anything else we’ve seen so far in the game since you can search the top 5 cards and put any number of unique Fighter, Speeder or Pilots into your hand. Theoretically it’s possible to build decks where close to half your cards will fit the criteria. You could pick and choose the best units to play at the time or even get something like Hobbie or Blue Nine just for a crucial edge battle.

TheMAC (4/5) - Useful card draw for your wanted uniques.

pantsyg (4/5) – A tutor for ANY NUMBER of unique fighters, speeders, or pilots is bound to be money in the types of decks this set will live in. Rebels don’t really have trouble with card draw, but this just kicks things into overdrive. If you don’t find any, you get to shuffle, which is great because you definitely want Pilots on the top of your deck! Pair with Well Paid from the Han set in this pack and have some giant turns.

Blake333 (3/5) – Hard math versus random card gods. I’ve only had this card pay off 1 time out of 10 times but when it hit, it hits hard. I am super glad they made sure to include speeders in this.

Majestaat (5/5) – This thing is huge, probably giving you some of your best units/pilots and a big card advantage, potentially being able to win an important edge battle that turn to maximize damage. Obviously makes it easier to put Rogue Six and Nine together with their matching pilots. While you can't fetch your main powerhourses: the Rogue Squad X-Wings, you can pull Hobbie to start the crazyness, or some strong vehicles like Blue Leader, Red Five and even all the Rogue Snowspeeders.


Overall: 27.5 out of 35 possible points.

chunkygorillas (4/5) – This set is really strong, and helps Rebels out a lot but with all the unique cards it’s hard to run 2 copies of it since it hinders your deck from being able to just swarm units out, what generally fighter decks want to do.

doctormungmung (4/5) – This set helps tie up the Rebel vehicle deck from this cycle pretty well. It’s got a lot of utility, as well as a lot of damage potential as well. It does have a few things holding it back, though. First, it has a low edge count, at seven. Rebels aren’t great at edge, and this just continues the trend. Also, it has four unique units, which can lead to some dead hands. And those dead hands won’t be helping much in edge battles. So it’s a bit risky to run this in pairs, but it might be worth it.

yodaman (4.5/5) – Rebels have received a much needed boost in this cycle and this set is a great way to finish it off. Should slot nicely into Rebel vehicle decks either as mono-rebel or multi-affiliation as long as you load up with unique pilots, fighters and speeders.

TheMAC (4/5) – This pod is a little hard to use as it focus mainly on combo between the cards that you play. In that sense it will rely a little bit more on luck than other objective set but I find the risk is worth taking. The very good ability on the objective also make it a good choice for vehicle decks and you have 4 units in a single pod, a rare thing.

pantsyg (4/5) – I’m an unabashed Rebel vehicle fanboy, so my enthusiasm for this set should come as no surprise. The objective is nutty and totally shuts down one of the main tools against the Rebel onslaught—targeted removal. Rogue Six is strong with or without its Pilot, but Rogue Nine is a little slow for my taste unless you can get Tycho on it with a quickness. My only concern is the number of unique units this set brings, which might make running 2 a bit risky. Still, this set wants to live alongside Rogue Squadron Assault, which comes with 4 awesome non-unique units, so that might be a phantom concern. LS fighters now have a huge variety of strong options to build around the Rogue Squadron/Defense of Yavin core.

Blake333 (3/5) – I love this pod, but having four uniques in it makes it suffers from the “one of” curse. And unlike Luke's set this one doesn't even have a high edge count.

Majestaat (4/5) – I think this is pretty much an auto-include as a 1x in Rebel fighter or even speeder decks. Every card has a use, while the set as a whole offers a good mix of able offensive combatants and utility. I most definitely wouldn't recommend a second copy due to subpar edge, no resources and a handful of uniques.


That Bucket o' Bolts (168-1): 22 out of 35 possible points.



chunkygorillas (3/5) – It’s a cool ability, to get pilots you had to play as units onto a ship, but the S&S Affiliation Only brings this card down, since it makes it hard to play a mostly S&S pilot deck splashing something else.

doctormungmung (3/5) – One key failing of pilot decks is that sometimes you have to play a pilot as a unit. Then you are usually stuck without them providing their pilot bonus for the rest of the game. Well, this objective will alleviate that, for effectively one resource. That’s a nice utility. But that situation tends to be rather rare. Most of the time, a pilot’s unit cost is greater than their pilot cost, so trying to get them onto a ship via this objective is not cost effective. A few pilots have decent stats as units, so you may want them as units first, and then if their matching ship shows up (eg Tycho / Rogue Nine), you can then put them where they give you the most effect. Still, in the end I think this will effectively be a blank objective.

yodaman (4/5) – I really like this ability. Most pilots aren’t great as units, but every so often you’re forced to play them that way just to cycle your hand. This gives you a way to put Hobbie or new Pilot Han out and win the Force, then attach them to a ship later on. The Smugglers only affiliation is a slight downside.

TheMAC (3/5) – The ability on this can be good with pilots that have both interesting icons and pilot ability, or if you are waiting on the right ship to pilot. What I did not like is the smuggler only restriction. It means you can’t play it with running the trench or mobilize the squadrons. Luke pilot would have made a good mix with this objective.

pantsyg (3/5) – An interesting ability that’s limited by the number of pilots strong enough to be played as units. Most Pilots are overcosted when played on foot, and I don’t know if the tempo loss inherent in trying to make this work is worth it. The Han in this set is a contender with his excellent icons, as is Tycho from the Rebel set in this pack. Pilot Lando is probably the best target, letting you use him for tactics before jumping on a ship after you know you’ve won edge, but his set is nowhere near good enough to run with this, and winning edge is difficult for most vehicle decks. I think there’s something here, but right now I don’t know what it would be.

Blake333 (3/5) – Interesting idea with the ability. I don’t know how often it will prove really useful, but it adds a bit of flexibility, helping you put your guys in order after a bad turn.

Majestaat (3/5) – Combo objective. Unless you have some nice discounts, you will very rarely play your pilots as units, making this card useless. If you do play them for cheap then you can swing with them to draw attention, maybe deal some damage and then use the objective to put them on a ship, attacking with your now buffed vehicle to maximize your damage output.


*Han Solo (168-2): 30 out of 35 possible points.



chunkygorillas (5/5) – His pilot ability is super good, especially when you can deny Palatine or someone like that from blocking. And he is also a pretty good unit, with great stats, just wish he had elite. The art is also awesome!

doctormungmung (5/5) - When pilot Vader showed up, the collective jaw hit the floor. He shut down just about everything. Well, good old Han had something to say about that. When he’s on the offense, he can say to Vader, or anyone, “sorry, you’re not allowed to play this time”. Restricting your opponent’s biggest defender is huge. Get past Palp, or Vader, or anyone, really. Just watch out for IE Tarkin. And his pilot cost is only TWO! That’s almost as good a deal as Vader. Taking away the pilot side of things, Han is still a solid unit with a great icon spread, three health, and three force icons. But really, his pilot ability is what you want him for.

yodaman (5/5) – Pilot Han ought to be good and he doesn’t disappoint. His pilot ability allows him to keep one of the best defenders out of an engagement when he's on an attacking ship is awesome. Plus he has the same combat icons as Core Han so if you need to play him as a unit he can hold up well (actually even better than Core Han since he has 3 health) and then hope to put him on a ship with the objective. Great card.

TheMAC (3/5) – I have a bit of a mixed feeling on Han. His icons can be useful as a unit and would work with the objective to put him later on a ship. Also, with pilot discount resources and well paid he can sometimes enter play very cheaply. His pilot ability can be useful against big Sith units, like Emperor but it can also be quite useless against the new navy deck archetypes. Thrawn can lock down a unit weather or not he is in the engagement and navy usually have more unit available to defend. I would have loved his ability in conjunction with the trench run but again we cannot play this objective with mobilize the squadron.

pantsyg (4/5) – To me there’s a big jump from Pilot (1) to Pilot (2). Pilot decks need to prioritize getting out the ships for their pilots to fly, and paying 2 for a pilot, especially in the early game, puts you at a pretty big board disadvantage, especially if the ship gets destroyed. Fortunately Pilot Han is quite good, letting you push out the best defender to sneak in with some damage—a solid trick in Smugglers, who live and die on tricks to get defenders locked down or out of the way. The dream scenario is him on the Falcon to keep an Emperor or Xizor out of two engagements a turn, but that’s an expensive dream to set up. He’s decent on foot as well, with the same icons and an extra health over his Core version at the cost of his ability and Targeted Strike. My impression is that you want to play him later in the game once you have a board with some vehicles, or on foot for tactics support.

Blake333 (4/5) – Pretty dang powerful! As a unit he is pretty standard (for Han). But as a pilot he is very annoying. Han on a Sleuth Scout can be nigh unstoppable, but let's go big with Home One and bring the pain train!

Majestaat (4/5) – Sleuths on crack. Han can stop any unit from defending and his ship doesn't need to be attacking alone, making it super easy to destroy objectives, especially if your opponent spent his turn playing a big unit not named Thrawn.
My only complaint here would be he's not so hot with Stay on Target since you shouldn't be getting immediate benefit from that.


*Millennium Falcon (168-3): 29.5 out of 35 possible points.



chunkygorillas (5/5) – This card is great, fantastic icon spread, good ability, and excellent keywords. 5 resource is a lot, but like the old Falcon this one is worth it.

doctormungmung (4/5) – Nothing can beat the original Falcon, but version 2.0 isn’t bad. It keeps a lot of what made the original great. You have the same icon spread, three health and edge one. All those combine to make a very nasty attacker. And similar to the original Falcon, it has some tricks to keep it alive, and make it challenging to defend against. With 2.0 you can back out of battles, either before edge, or after edge, or after you strike to keep it alive. The one thing you can’t do is bring it back to hand (with the side benefit of getting another ready unit). So 2.0 is more susceptible to events like Force Lightning. But what you do get is effectively edge one for two battles (if you can keep 2.0 from getting focused). That’s still good for five cost. Just not as good as the original. As usual.

yodaman (4.5/5) – Let’s be honest, the original Falcon is one of the best LS units in the game. As such, it was always going to be nearly impossible to top it. Thankfully, this version of Falcon, while different from its predecessor, is still great even if not quite as good as the original. While most of the stats are identical (5 cost, 3 health, 3 force icons, same combat icons and Edge [1]), the new Falcon also has Elite which means even though it can’t bounce back and forth it’s less likely to get locked down when it’s on the board. The new ability which allows Falcon to simply run away from engagement is great since you can strike and avoid damage. When Han’s on the board as the pilot it makes the new Falcon pretty darn deadly in an attack.

TheMAC (4/5) – It is very different from the original falcon but I find it fit perfectly in pilot oriented decks. It has very good combat icons, it is one of the rare elite ships, and its action means it will be very hard to take down. Keyan Farlander or Grey Squadron Gunner make this ship extremely scary. Only downside is that it is not compatible with some pilots and enhancements that are fighters only.

pantsyg (4/5) – Many think that the original Falcon is the better of the two; I disagree. While this Falcon lacks the crazy tempo potential of the original, it’s tough to lock down, elite, and loaded with icons. The ability is great against defenders without Tactics, forcing the opponent to block its big damage or give you unopposed. Sometimes you can trick the opponent into blocking with a 3-gun defender, only to bail after drawing out some of their edge cards. The only strike is its cost; 5 is a major cost break point in this game, especially for Smugglers, who want resources left over for key events.

Blake333 (3/5) – OK, I might be the only one who DOESN'T like this version of the Falcon. But at a cost of 5 this card seems very much underwhelming. It does, however, have Elite so it can’t be focused down. Ultimately, it’s abilitiy just doesn’t feel that amazing when compared to the Old Falcon.

Majestaat (5/5) – This is no EoD Falcon but it is still pretty darn powerful, and unlike its original version, this one is basically in top form by itself, even having the Elite keyword. No need of big units in hand, or even in your deck for that matter.
It deals a lot of damage and can kill most defenders if it wins the edge battle, which might not be too far fetched even in a Rebel deck thanks to its keyword and the set's high edge count.
If you lose edge but can sustain some damage, you can still get to resolve those 4 black icons. If not, simply use its action to escape combat and try again against another objective.


Well Paid (168-4&5): X out of 35 possible points.



chunkygorillas (3/5) – Reducing the cost of all the Pilots and Vehicles you play is pretty great, especially since most of the time most units in your deck will be Pilots and Vehicles, but the limited keyword hurts this card, but what hurts it even more is that you get 2 of them, I don’t find myself wanting 4 of them in a deck, since you can only play one a turn anyway.

doctormungmung (2/5) – Getting two limited events in a set is not good, because that means in multiples, you’re going to have these things clogging up your hand. You could pitch them to edge, but with a single force icon, you aren’t getting much. What you do get is a blanket cost reducer for the phase. These will work great in a swarm deck. But even if you only get to deploy a single big unit (like say the Falcon), that’s not bad. Particularly if your opponent isn’t expecting it (by say, only having four resources out). Still, outside of a swarm deck, I’d rather have the resource on the board and wait a turn. If you only got one of these in the set I’d rate it a three, but with two, the chance of dead hands bring the rating down a notch.

yodaman (4/5) – Let me get this straight. So you play this card for free and then reduce the cost and pilot cost of every other pilot you play this phase by 1. That’s pretty darn good and you get 2 of them in the set to increase your chances of drawing it and getting the discount. As people have long noticed, this card in connection with Hobbie and Hero’s Trial could lead to a game-breaking combo since you can play it in any phase, not just deploy. The fact that the card is limited so it prevents you from playing other resources the same turn and that the combo requires a 3-affiliation deck running Smuggler’s thanks to this objective will probably help restrict its power, but I’m sure people will try to get the crazy combo to work anyway.

TheMAC (4/5) – Instead of a classic resource we get well paid that reduces by 1 every pilot and vehicle. In addition to a feared combo with Hero’s Trial and Hobbie, this card come in quite handy to play many units and pilots in a single turn. On most occasions this card can give a 2-3 resources discount and this is quite good, especially if you can draw a couple of cards via Rogue Squadron Assault or if you are playing Corellian Corvettes.

pantsyg (4/5) – This is a great card, but IT IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR REAL RESOURCES IN YOUR DECK! These help you build out your board quickly and afford events alongside units, but you should still have some resource enhancements to lay down a solid base and use these for explosive turns, rather than relying on them for your resources.

Blake333(4/5) – Super powerful! Mix this with some rebel pods and you can basically play your whole hand in a turn, spamming fighters/speeders like it's nobody's business.

Majestaat (4/5) – This one was tough. Basically a 5/5 if you can draw one per turn because they give you a HUGE discount. If you're seeing more than one a turn, them being limited will present a serious and very possible problem if you double on the objective since you'll have 4 of these.


Heat of Battle (168-6): 25 out of 35 possible points.

chunkygorillas (3/5) – Pretty good fate card for this set, with all the guns the Falcon has this can help it clear out most defenders.

doctormungmung (4/5) – Unexpected unit damage is almost always great. Particularly when you have units that sport three unit damage by themselves. Heat may be better on the DS (or on defense in general), but because it’s rather rare on the LS, it will catch people by surprise, and it’s never a good surprise.

yodaman (4/5) – Always a welcomed fate card since extra unit damage can often clear the way for unopposed. Until now, Smugglers only had Heat in Wookiee Life Debt.

TheMAC (4/5) – A classic fate card that I always like to include in my decks.

pantsyg (4/5) – Simple, awesome Fate card. Extra unit damage is always helpful to vehicles.

Blake333 (3/5) – Always nice to have a decent fate card. This will help with killing defenders to get some unopposed damage.

Majestaat (3/5) – We all love Heat of Battle, but vehicles shouldn't normally get much benefit out of it with them having only one or no guns at all. Then you have the Falcon that probably doesn't need a Heat to finish off defenders either. With all that said, I'll give this a 3 instead of the usual 4.


Overall: 26.5 out of 35 possible points.

chunkygorillas (3.5/5) – This set would be pretty close to a 5, but the S&S Afflation Only hurts it a lot and having 2 copies of a limited card makes it not always fantastic to run 2 copies of the set since you can get flooded by them.

doctormungmung (4/5) – Han is awesome and the Falcon 2.0 is great. The two Well Paid… less so. Still, there are decks that will make very good use of this objective set. And it enables the next infinite loop in the game. Rogue Squadron X-Wings plus Hobbie plus A Hero’s Trial plus Well Paid mean dead objectives if you’re opponent doesn’t have an immediate answer waiting. Time will tell if it’s viable or not, but if it is, I’m guessing we’ll see something either restricted or an errata somewhere. Which must mean that this set is a power set!

yodaman (4.5/5) – After quite a run of so-so Smuggler’s objectives, the affiliation finally gets back on the power bandwagon, even if it’s only for a set. With the unique units of Han and Falcon in here, the set may pair well with Heroes of the Rebellion. Any set with Han and Falcon should be good and thankfully it is. The set has a whopping, jedi-like 10 force icons, which is incredible for Smugglers.

TheMAC (4/5) – I really wish this pod was not Smugglers and Spies only to use it in trench run / running the trench. However the card included are quite good and it sure have a place a vehicle decks.

pantsyg (3/5) This set is strange to me—it’s full of cards I like, but I can’t see that they’re all telling the same story. On the one hand, it has expensive, slow cards like Han and the Falcon that look like they want to play with Smuggler staples like Lando and Swindled; on the other, Well Paid encourages a deck loaded with low-cost vehicles and pilots with events to back them up. Some have already started experimenting with this in Sleuth builds to speed them up, but I think there’s a more stable deck out there somewhere, probably a splash into the Rebel vehicle core. I like a good puzzle, and this set has me excited for some experiments.

Blake333 (3.5/5) – To be honest I’ve gotten no play testing with this set. I’m not a strong Smuggler player, something I need to work on. On paper, I think this will be a good splash set for Rebels who want to try something outside of Keyan or mono-builds.

Majestaat (4/5) – Strong set that lives and dies by the events. Having two is pretty reasonable. Having four poses a worthy risk that seems appropiate for S&S. I can't really give a proper answe here. If you want to go mono Smuggler vehicles or splash yellow into your Rebel deck you should most definitely run one of this objective. Doubling on it is certainly an option. Some times you will have the Well Paids clogging your hand. Other times they will give you one explosive turn after another. I've seen and been through both scenarios but still think 2x is the way to go.
What really bothers me here is the S&S restriction.

Check for part 2 for the dark side cards!