The Mos Eisley Mafia: SWLCG "Redemption and Return" Force Pack Review - Light Side

MEET THE FAMILY (aka - THE REVIEWERS):
-chunkygorillas, host to the Ion Control Podcast (MIA – He may or may have not been eaten by a Canadian Wampa);
-doctormungmung, Massachussets' evil genius;
-yodaman, he who you seek when numbers are involved;
-pantsyg, jankmaster general;
-Majestaat, 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 5 Cards:
1 – The Emperor's Promise, with 20 out of 20 possible points.
2 – Emperor's Royal Guard, with 20 out of 20 possible points.
3 – *Lady Valarian (The Lady's Lesson), with 20 out of 20 possible points.
4 – Vicious Counterattack (The Lady's Lesson), with 20 out of 20 possible points.
5 – Smuggler's Hideway (Beyond the Rim), with 19 out of 20 possible points.

Overall best rated Objective Set:
The Lady's Lesson, with 18.5 out of 20 possible points.


THE REVIEWS:

A Hero's Duty (212-1): 18 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – Being able to zero out a good portion of the cards that might be going into your opponents edge battle is HUGE. All fate cards now have zero pips. That includes things like Secret Objective and Battle of Endor. All those three pip events now are much better used as events. Your opponent can still contest by using their characters, but then, those characters aren’t hitting the board, so that’s still a win. I’m betting this will be the first objective the DS will damage, and they’ll probably make an effort to do so very early.

yodaman (4.5/5) – This objective’s ability may be overlooked by people initially. Eliminating icons from edge battles on cards that are not units is pretty powerful and causes the DS player to have to play edge battles differently. Navy and Scum in particular have lots of good edge cards that are not units and this objective can negate that at times. It’s a good thing this is a while undamaged objective or else it would be a bit over the top.

pantsyg (5/5) – Sure it’s while undamaged, but the effect is simply brutal. Your opponent needs to shut this off ASAP to have any chance in edge battles.

Majestaat (4.5/5) – Wow, this downright wins you the game if left unchecked. Burn your best units or lose edge. Sith shouldn't suffer that much from this, since they win edge by discarding their mains anyway, or simply control you via events, not needing to play the edge game in the first place. Scum and Navy are in a worse position, as they don't have as many units with lots of pips, and thus depend on other cards as well, like Tractor Beam and Show of Force.
Obviously, the big downside to the objective is that it can be easily shut down, but Jedi have the easiest time defending out of all LS affiliations and can even build strong defensive decks.


*Luke Skywalker (212-2): 17 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – As far as Luke’s go, I think this one is near the bottom of the pile. He’s got GA Vader’s pseudo targeted strike, but it only works on defense, and typically LS will want to be on the offense. Still, he is (usually) elite, and has edge 1, which is significant. He also has Luke’s standard icons, which have been good since the game first came out. He’s great in the edge battle, and can hold the force better than most. And unlike Endor Luke, this Luke doesn’t mind being committed to the force.

yodaman (4/5) – The new version of Luke is solid, but seems to lag a bit in comparison to both core and BtS Luke. His 4 cost, 3 health and combat icons of 2 black guns, 1 black blast, 1 white blast are the same as those, but this Luke is better on defense since he basically has targeted strike when defending. He does gain elite when committed and has 4 icons. However, given the choice BtS Luke and Core Luke are probably better since, in general, LS wants to be attacking rather than defending.

pantsyg (4/5) – Probably the weakest Luke yet (barring his Rogue Squadron incarnation), but still quite good. His ability can help clear the board for your counter-attack while leaving him free to hang out on the Force on your turn, but I’ve found that often he just wants to use his unit damage icons against the units he’s fighting. Still, elite, edge 1, 4 pips, and his icon spread make him worth the cost of entry.

Majestaat (5/5) – Even though this is arguably the weakest (aka – hardest to use) non-pilot version of Luke, he's still a pretty impressive unit with his stats and up to three keywords, kinda. Elite is easy to acquire. That pseudo targeted strike isn't hard to trigger either, but it doesn't fully depend on you, requiring the DS to attack.
The only real downside of this Skywalker is that he really wants to defend, in which case his blast damage is kinda worthless. Really wish he had a white tactics instead of the black blast, but again, with edge, elite and some form of targeted strike, he might have been too strong that way.


I Will Not Fight You (212-3): 12 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – For one resource you get a great hedge against getting locked down by a swarm of tactics units, or getting a key unit killed by being ganged up on. You can also use this to help get further attacks through by letting your own tactics go a bit further. Yoda can now (hopefully) soak up a hit, kill who just struck him and focus out a bigger threat so someone else can get through. This is really a teamwork event, so if you don’t have much of a board, it isn’t going to help too much. Also, sometimes your opponent just wants to block with the minimum number of units, in which case, you have a pretty poor edge card here.

yodaman (3.5/5) – The threat of this card being played is probably going to have a bigger impact than the card itself. It only costs 1, which is good value for what it can do. Being able to even the playing field by having the DS remove units until both sides have the same number in an engagement can certainly have a positive impact for a LS player. I would expect DS players to do everything they can though to play around the other event in this set (Search Your Feelings) so that means, by default they will play around this one too and just make sure to only have the same number of units in engagements as the LS player does whenever possible.

pantsyg (2/5) – Your opponent chooses the units removed, so you’re going to be stuck fighting his best engaged unit. There will be situations where you can push out a unit with edge-enabled tactics after the opponent has gone all-in to win an edge battle or to prevent lethal damage on an objective, but in most situations this will be a dead card.

Majestaat (2.5/5) – The power of this card can vary wildly depending on matchup and the stage of the game. Because the most orthodox way to play the game is by focusing on mains, the board isn't usually overflowing with units. This reminds me of Entangled, a card that I love and is very strong on paper. But when you put it into practice, you notice it's actually very situational and so, is hurt by its single force icon.


Search Your Feelings (212-4): 18.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (5/5) – This card is great. Steal your opponent’s biggest unit for an engagement and use it against them. Palpatine about to tactics out your board? Throw a tactics back the other way. At action speed, you have a lot of options to make the most tactical use out of it. And unlike I Will Not Fight You, this event will always be useful. I think stealing an Energy Spider or BtS Boba Fett will be a lot of fun.

yodaman (4.5/5) – Even more than “I Will Not Fight You”, just the threat of this card is going to have a huge impact. The DS player needs to avoid committing more units than the LS player or else they’ll risk having their best unit in the engagement switch sides for that engagement at only 1 cost! One thing this event may do is force DS players to be less aggressive than they might be otherwise. Again, expect DS players to do everything they can to play around the possibility of getting hit with this event. But when it goes off, it can be crazy. You could steal a Palpatine, Vader, core Tarkin or some other heavy hitter and use the DS’s power cards against them.

pantsyg (5/5) – This card is amazing if you can jump through its hoops. The opponent needs to block with more units than you have in the engagement for this to work, but the upside of this card is enormous. There’s no restriction on what units you can take, and you’re gaining a strike while denying one to your opponent. The look on your opponent’s face when you steal a Golan or Tarkin or any unit with the blast to finish an objective is priceless.

Majestaat (4/5) – Another situational event, it being rather easy to play around for the DS. This one, however, has a much stronger effect than the previous one. You deny combat icons for your opponent and in turn get to use them yourself, and there's no restriction to what unit you can take, from a lowly trooper to the Chimaera to the Emperor himself.


Secret Objective (212-5): 18 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – Three pips to edge is always great. And being able to work around the Tarkin tax, or Bones of the Fallen Master will also help mitigate some of the potent things the DS can do with their objectives. You do have to be careful when you try to use it, because if you order your attacks wrong, it won't work. You’ll still get the pips, though.

yodaman (5/5) – This is still one of my favorite fate cards. 3 pips and a way to get around Tarkin Doctrine, which is still a thing despite the current variety appearing in DS decks.

pantsyg (4/5) – 3 pips and lets you sneak around Navy BS, my opinion here is pretty standard.

Majestaat (5/5) – Too good in LS. Good edge, good effect. Allows you to take the best DS objective down very fast.


Redeem the Fallen (212-6): 15.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – Permanently stealing a unit is great. Particularly if the cost is basically something you were going to do anyway (like blow up an objective). But there is a hefty limitation here, in that the character you are stealing has to be in the DS discard pile. So if you haven’t been removing units, or they haven’t been edging or discarding significant units, you’ll wind up with a Dark Side Apprentice. Still, late game, you should be able to pull something juicy, although uniqueness could be an issue.

yodaman (4.5/5) – The first Jedi mission is really intriguing. Like most missions it does cost 1 to play it, but that’s okay. If you manage to destroy it you get to take control of a non-vehicle DS unit with 4 force icons or less. That means you could swing any non-vehicle unit other than Palpatine to the LS and use as your own as long as it can stay on the board. I’m surprised the text doesn’t specify “if, able” since something unique like Vader being on the DS board would negate the LS player’s attempt to grab a different version of Vader out of the discard pile if the event is destroyed. Still, this could be powerful in the right situation.

pantsyg (4/5) – Thematically and mechanically very cool. I’m hesitant to rate it highly as it costs 1 to play and can’t grab a Unique if the opponent has a copy on the board, but by the same token, if you put Vader into play on your side, your opponent is locked out of doing the same. Bonus points if you prevent a Yularen play by Redeeming his other copy, because **** that guy.

Majestaat (4/5) – Like most other missions, this will keep your opponent on his heels. If there's nothing worthy in the DS discard pile,leave it with 3-4 damage until there's a good target for it. You either get a big unit or keep your opponent wary of what he chooses to edge.
It does keep the downsides of most missions, however. It's a tempo hit for you when you play it, and it's a nuance if it shows up late, as you won't have the time to invest on it, nor will it have the pips to compensate through edge.


Overall: 14 out of 20 possible points.

doctormungmung (3/5) – The real stars of this set are the objective and Search Your Feelings, although the set as a whole synergizes pretty well, and can put the DS in a bind in how they play. BUT (big but here), there is only one unit, no card search, and no resource. Jedi already run unit light, and their card search comes in a set with no resources (Heroes and Legends). You have to be very careful when building with this set, as the odds of getting a dead hand go up significantly over any other Luke set available.

yodaman (4.5/5) – This is a very solid set, but having only 1 main drops it down a bit in my eyes. The objective text is better than I initially thought after playing with and against it. Luke is a solid main and the events and mission are meant to compensate for the fact the set only has 1 unit. It has great synergy and theme along with 10 icons. In the right builds, I could see this set being very effective.

pantsyg (3/5) – While the individual cards here are quite good, the fact that the set contains only 1 unit, an extremely situational event, and a strong but also situational event keeps me from rating the set as a whole highly. While I don’t see it being competitive, I think this pod will be fun in decks designed around it, but they’ll require ways to slow the game down while you dig for your units and careful play to preserve the Mains you do play.

Majestaat (3.5/5) – While the individual cards should make this a higher score, I think this is one of the strange cases where the sum of the parts is worse than the pieces. As good as Luke may be, he's the only reliable unit in this set, and he has no resource to back him up. Furthermore, he's not quite as devastating as his other verions on attack, which is what you ultimately need to do to win as the LS. The events, while cheap, still demand resources, so you can't use the same turn you play Luke. Not only that, they're also situational and don't contribute much to edge battles.
That said, I can see the potential here, and I'm sure a better mind than mine has the deckbuilding abilities to make the set shine.


Engineering the Future (213-1): 16 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – I like that with this objective out, you don't have to worry about your attackers getting targeted struck off the board during the DS turn, or choked to oblivion. Although the choke (and Vader’s reaction) can work around this and just be played before things get focused. The effect can be turned off, though, and rather easily. But with some of the other objectives the Rebels have available to them, this might be low on the list (specifically I’m thinking of Planning the Attack and Commando Operations). This will help a bit with making Rebel characters viable (I think they’re currently pretty close, but not quite there), but not by much.

yodaman (4/5) – This ability is odd although potentially useful. While it’s undamaged the LS player can’t deal damage to your exhausted Rebel units via combat icons or card effects. This means you can keep your power Rebel units safe from Force Chokes, core Vader’s reaction, targeted strike, etc.. if they’ve done their damage attacking.

pantsyg (4/5) – The effect is obviously super strong, making your units invincible after they strike or protecting resource generators like Crix from Chokes and targeted strike. It doesn’t protect from tactics, though, and I’ve been finding my While Undamaged objectives hard to keep undamaged as Rebels.

Majestaat (4/5) – Some annoyance for the DS, making your units impervious to a counterattack after they strike. Especially valuable when facing any form of targeted strike, but just getting protection from enemy guns in your own turn can already allow you to keep your units for another go.


*General Walex Blissex (213-2): 14.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – His icons are a little light for a four drop, especially without tactics, but two blast is solid. The resource helps make up for that, and his health will keep him around for a while. His ability is interesting. He can help keep those “while undamaged” objectives turned on, as well as dish out some protection by way of shields. Combining him with focus removal and he can pull double duty in both combat and as a support unit. He’s an interesting toolbox that has potential.

yodaman (4/5) – Bissex is interesting main. For 4 cost you get an elite unit with 3 health, 1 black gun, 1 black blast and 1 white blast. His ability though means you’ll have to choose whether or not you want to be offensive or defensive with him. You can focus him to remove a damage from a Rebel objective and then put a shield on it. However, his cost is a bit steep for that. He does come with a built-in resource which you could use instead of his ability. Coupling him with cards that could allow you to use his ability then free him up to attack (like core Leia, Bamboozle, CC ops, etc..) are probably the best way to get the most use out of him.

pantsyg (2/5) – At 4 cost, he doesn’t have enough combat icons or Force pips, and focusing a 4-drop for his ability seems like a major tempo loss. Healing an objective and putting a shield on it can be fairly annoying against aggressive decks, but in most cases I'd rather have a competent defender.

Majestaat (4.5/5) – Very interesting unit. He's in a weird spot though, really wanting to attack with his two blast icons, but also liking to stay back and support with his resource or ability.
So use him to attack early until he's in critical condition, and then have him stay out of combat, healing objectives and providing shields to whatever may need it, making it much more difficult for the DS to get those last few dial ticks by destroying your objectives; or alternatively, heal early while building your board, then go ham with his blast.


Overworked Engineer (213-3): 13 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – Hired Hands icons for zero cost. While the rest of Gamor Run was problematic, having four Hired Hands in a deck was the main reason that set got errated to a one-of. So on the surface, this guy is great. But, having to either wait two turns before they start contributing anything is a loooooong time. There are a few ways to speed that up though. If those things also bring something to the table (like perhaps Cloud City Operatives with their tactics), the Engineers could be pretty effective above their weight class.

yodaman (3.5/5) – For 0 cost, you get a unit with 1 of each combat icon (althoutght the tactics is white) and 2 health. However, you have to double focus the Engineers when they enter play so they won’t be helping you out right away without other tricks.

pantsyg (3/5) – I like underpriced units. Sure he comes in buried with focus, but his icons are excellent. An opponent trying to keep him from ever climbing out of his focus pile is likely ignoring other units you have on the board. Just make sure your deck is built to live long enough for him to have impact.

Majestaat (3.5/5) – Impressive stats for 0 cost. Sadly, those stats take some time to do anything at all. I'll give the edge to Hired Hands. I'd rather pay 1 and have an immediate threat, even if it'll disappear by the end of the turn, than get this in play and wait two whole turns for it to see some action. While the LS has quite a few tricks to help him refresh early, you usually want them on an even stronger threat.


A-A5 Heavy Speeder Truck (213-4): 13 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – Here’s a unit that is tailor made to combo with both Walex and the Engineers. It can also alleviate having a locked down board after you’ve lost the tactics board. But really, it’s not so much a unit as an event or enhancement, because once it’s text goes off, it’s not likely to be doing anything anytime soon, or perhaps even for the duration of the game. It’s also a late game unit. If you see it early, it’s not doing much for you, even in the edge battle.

yodaman (4/5) – Speaking of tricks, this A-A5 Heavy Speeder Truck is helpful in that regards with the other units in the set. You can use Bissex’s ability and/or put Overworked Engineers into play and then immediately free them up thanks to the Heavy Speeder Truck. It costs 3, but when you put it into play you clear off all focus tokens from Rebel Character units. That’s a great answer for a main that has been buried under a bunch of tactics. Several Rebel characters (Crix, Mon Monthma, Bissex, etc..) have resources built-in. This give you a way to use all those resources and then clear them off to accelerate help your board state or still use those units in engagements. As a unit though, it’s nothing special.

pantsyg (3/5) – This was a hard card to rate. Obviously this card is huge if you have a big board that’s mired in tactics, or have used resources on big units like Crix, but otherwise it’s actually doing very little for you. Probably an amazing late-game draw.

Majestaat (3/5) – Lategame card. This is basically an expensive event to get you back to full force for a decisive turn. Great synergy with Walex, the Engineer and any unit with resources. Obviously, it will also be a godsend anytime your board has been locked by tactics. Severely hurt from only having a single pip, as that makes it pretty worthless if you see it earlier in the game. Other stats don't really matter much, as once you trigger the Truck's ability, it shouldn't get a chance to ready, ever.


Portable Shield Generator (213-5): 14 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – Non-limited resources are good, and getting some more of them into Rebels is welcome. Being two for one isn’t great, but at least the effect is always on. That said, I’m not really sure how useful it is to have your ready units able to protect your exhausted units. Really you want it the other way around, so that the ones who got to strike can protect the ones about to strike. Instead, we can have the defenders and force holders protect the previous waves attackers to hopefully keep them around for the next wave. I’m sure there’s some utility here, it’s just rather situational.

yodaman (4.5/5) – Rebels get a resource that is an affiliation match even though it’s a 2-1. That’s okay because it’s ability fits with the theme of the set and is worth it because it gives a limited form of protect. The Portable Shield Generator allows you protect exhausted Rebel units with ready Rebel units. So if the objective isn’t out or it has been turned off, this gives you a way to protect your power, exhausted units from indirect damage like Chokes, etc.

pantsyg (3/5) – Decent because it’s a resource and protect for often-squishy Rebels, but generally I want to protect my ready units more than exhausted ones.

Majestaat (3.5/5) – Non-limited, affiliated resource with two pips. That's pretty good, and its most redeeming qualities. It also gives you a constant ability, though admittedly it's often pretty worthless. When it was first spoiled ages ago, I was very excited for it, not because it was particularly good, but because Rebels were extremely fragile at that time's meta, and any sort of protection would have been great.
But between Rebels getting better mains, Sith choke-spam not being as dominant, and Natural Cover offering protection already, this card isn't a necessity anymore.


Engineering Brilliance (213-6): 16.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (2/5) – Card draw is good. But needing to have exhausted units to get it, while paying one resource is significantly less so. Where you really want your card draw is going into your conflict phase, which is after you refresh (and thus have significantly less exhausted units). This is much more of a defensive card, and even then, it means you're saving some significant units for defense, or just cycling through your deck during your opponent's turn.

yodaman (4.5/5) – Another card that really fits in well with the theme of the set. You’ll definitely want to use this card to help gain card advantage over your opponent and it is well worth the 1 cost. Play the event and you get to draw a card for each exhausted unit you control. Coupled with the units in this set, you could easily play out your hand in such a way that you’d still end up with 5-6 cards in hand for edge battles. Great card.

pantsyg (5/5) – This will easily draw you 3-4 cards if you play it at the end of your turn. An amazing card if you have the resource to spend.

Majestaat (5/5) – Cheap card draw that can get to insane levels. Launch a feint attack with your chuds, get them focused and then draw a full hand to get the edge advantage for the battle that actually matters. If your board was already locked, this can help dig for the Speeder Truck and end the game right there.


Overall: 13.5 out of 20 possible points.

doctormungmung (3/5) – I can see what this set is trying to do, but so much of it is backwards. The event and enhancement specifically. Walex and the Engineers are decent units, and the objective has some interesting text, but overall, I’m not sure how useful this set is going to be. I don’t think I’d ever want to run it as more than a singleton. Perhaps if the LS (and Rebels specifically) get more focus manipulation, this set will find some love from me. Until then, eeehhhhhh.

yodaman (4/5) – Rebel characters have certainly received a boost lately and this continues the trend. It has a couple cards with resources and some limited form of protect. The problem is some of the tricks you may need to take advantage of the obvious combos are actually Smugglers cards rather than Rebel cards. That makes deckbuilding with this a bit trickier, but I could certainly see some builds utilizing this set and doing really well.

pantsyg (3/5) – This set is OK, but I’ve been rather disappointed with it in playtesting. Outside of Brilliance, most of the cards are very, very slow, and the low pip count really hurts Rebels. I don’t think the set adds much to current Rebel character builds, though it may be worth running as a 1-of for Brilliance and a chance at a late-game Truck to bail out a tactics-locked board. Sadly, this set is my biggest disappointment this pack despite my enthusiasm for Overworked Engineer and Speeder Truck when they were spoiled.

Majestaat (3.5/5) – Despite the objective and resource, this set actually lacks the right defensive options to work properly as the slow pod that it is. Then, it still takes some careful focus manipulation to get the most out of it. All in all, I don't think you get a good enough reward for all the effort it takes to run this set.


Beyond the Rim (214-1): 18.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – I love that this objective is “always on”. Admittedly, you need to be running it in a mono deck. Currently, that’s a little difficult for Smugglers, but not impossible. And for doing that, you get to turn one of your units (your choice, every turn!) into core Luke. That will significantly help with not getting locked down (particularly Sleuths and Blockade Runners), or having someone like Dash or Talon Karrde available for both offense and defense. Sadly, this won't work with the Blastboats.

yodaman (4.5/5) – The ability is something similar to MTFBWY with a few restrictions and we all know how good MTFBWY is. After your opponent refreshes, you can remove a focus token from a Smuggler unit. Now you could potentially attack with a powerful Smuggler ship like Falcon or Renegade Squadron and have it ready for defense as long as you don’t commit it or get double focused. In the worst case scenario it can help keep your unblockables from getting locked down after you attack with them even if you don’t want to use them on defense. I really like this objective text.

pantsyg (5/5) – Refreshing on the opponent’s turn is huge, period.

Majestaat (5/5) – Wow, this is incredible if you have just about any main out. Core Han and Renegade Squadron are especially strong with this, distributing damage and tactics everywhere. Still works with lesser units, perhaps getting a bit of a defense to make the DS burn 1-2 cards if he attacks or simply get pseudo-elite for someone. Simple, yet effective.


*Pulsar Skate (214-2): 14.5 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – If you can get some extra icons onto this unit, you’ve got a serious threat. On demand refresh allows for double striking, multiple engagements, tactics protection, and, in a pinch, force holding. Smugglers do not lack for smuggler traited cards (there are actually very few neutral chuds or events in smuggler sets), so it shouldn’t be too much of a burden. It is limited to once a turn, but that can be both LS and DS turns. And if you really want, you can heal it instead of refreshing it, as it doesn’t specify the type of token. As for the rest of the Skate, it’s reasonably costed at three, and while the icons aren’t great, they’re functional, and it has three of them. It is a little fragile, though, with only two health. So perhaps it will be healing itself more often….

yodaman (3.5/5) – The main in this set is a bit underwhelming in terms of combat icons since it has 2 black guns and 1 white blast. It costs 3, but only has 2 health. Pulsar Skate does have the built in ability of being able to double strike by discarding a smuggler card to remove a focus token, but unless you’re getting blast bonuses, this ship seems more defensive than offensive.

pantsyg (4/5) – At first I saw one white blast and two health and scoffed. Having played a bit with the Skate, though, I can see it’s a pretty dangerous 3-drop. Multi-striking is always strong on LS, and the Skate can refresh at action speed with low cost. Unopposed, or with any icon buff (Echo Caverns is my current favorite), she’ll do work. Also a great ride for Bucket Han, allowing you to get multiple uses of his strong text each turn against non-Tarkin decks.

Majestaat (4/5) – No way to give this a bad score when it has a refresh ability that is so easy to trigger. That explains the below average stats. With any sort of damage buffs, the Skate can be pretty crazy, so you may want to run it with Against all Odds or Across the Anoat Sector.


Navigation Droid (214-3&4): 12 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (2/5) – While Smugglers have been trying to get a vehicle deck up and running (particularly with their unblockables), unit damage isn’t something that’s really been hindering them. What they really need is tactics protection, like the Outer Rim Mystics. You could combo this set with the protect Y-Wings and some Rebel vehicle decks, but then the objective becomes a dead card, and you’re really thinning out the threat density of the deck. I’d be much happier if there were only one of these droids in the set, but instead we’re saddled with two. I guess they can go hang out with the Patrol Craft from pilot Lando’s set.

yodaman (4/5) – You get 2 of these droids which are great considering they only cost 1 and have 2 health. They only have a white gun for a combat icon, but they are a very cost effective way to provide protect to your Smugglers vehicles which is really their use. Really, their cost effectiveness is on par with Royal Guards. The only issue is they are vulnerable to Moment of Triumph which could wipe them out before you could take advantage of their protect ability.

pantsyg (3/5) – Another unit I underestimated. The cheap extra health helps keep the Skate chugging, or lets either Falcon shrug off damage that would usually make them use their abilities bail out. No blast and 2 in the set knocks them down a bit, as they’re not what you want to draw when you need gas or an edge hand, but at worst they’re Skate fuel.

Majestaat (3/5) – As much as I dislike them at 2 per set, they can do a lot of stuff just being very cheap Smuggler bodies. They compensate for the Skate's low HP and are great fodder for its ability. They also provide the setup for Last Ditch Maneuver, and gain the bonus from Across the Anoat Sector to actually be useful in combat.
With white blast instead of a gun, they would have been quite strong on their own, instead of being essentially a good combo piece.


Smuggler's Hideway (214-5): 19 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (4/5) – Yay for non-limited one for one resources! Although this card is yet another reason to never splash this set. At least FFG had the foresight to only cause Rebel or Jedi objectives to force the discard, because it would really suck if you had to toss this when the DS played a mission.

yodaman (5/5) – 1 for 1 resources are always great, especially since a lot of Smugglers vehicle sets (Anoat, Raise the Stakes, Secret Weapons) don’t come with resources at all. Here we not only get a 1-1 resource, but we get one that’s Smuggler affiliated and non-limited. That means you could fetch this with Momaw Nadon from GA. The only drawback is that if you ever have a Jedi or Rebel objective out, this gets discarded, but you’ll probably be playing this set in a mono-Smugglers build anyway so that’s okay.

pantsyg (5/5) – A 1-1 THAT’S NOT LIMITED. Of course you’re running mono-Smug if you take this, but so what?

Majestaat (5/5) – Nice resource acceleration, with it being a non-limited 1-1, allowing you to play more resources in the same turn. Since everything in the set is geared towards a mono-Smuggler build, it's text is no real downside.


Last Ditch Maneuver (214-6): 14 out of 20 possible points.


doctormungmung (3/5) – Smugglers get a board wipe! Now there’s something to get excited about. Although it only gets rid of focused units, which limits its usefulness. If you’re getting by defenders with your unblockables, you won't be getting much effect out of this. And the fact that you have to sacrifice two of your units to get the wipe doesn’t help, particularly as Smugglers don’t have a lot of resources at their disposal, so they can’t capitalize on the better board. Annndddd, it doesn’t actually open up the board for an attack, because all their ready defenders are still there, and still ready. Hmmm, maybe you don’t have to get that excited for this card afterall.

yodaman (4/5) – What we have here is a modified version of “There is No Escape” that shuffles all exhausted units back into their owners decks. You’ll have to focus 2 Smugglers units to use it, but it only costs 1 and even a partial board wipe at the right time can turn the game in the favor of LS.

pantsyg (3/5) – It’s a partial board wipe, but making it work in your favor will be tough since it has to be played in your Force phase. Effects that help you focus more of your opponent’s units than your own (like Bamboozle and Cloud City Operative) can tilt this toward you.

Majestaat (4/5) – Hey hey! Some sort of board reset. As said, Navigation Droids are perfect to use for it. This can become incredible if you're running some cheap tactics as well, so that you can get rid exactly of what you want.


Overall: 15 out of 20 possible points.

doctormungmung (3/5) – I want to like this set, but in usual Smuggler fashion, it feels underwhelming. The Skate has potential, but it’s icon spread is lackluster. Getting two protect units that really aren’t good for much else, especially when destroyed units aren’t a huge issue for vehicles (as opposed to characters) pulls the set down. The resource is solid, and the event card can situationally be very strong, but most times it’ll not get you much of an advantage. Still, I think there is some potential in this set. It just might take some digging and creative deckbuilding to find it.

yodaman (4/5) – It has a resource which is always good. The abilities and protect are very interesting. It does only have 6 force icons though which is a drawback. However, this set can cause some serious issues for DS players in the right builds. It probably is one of the better Smuggler sets to have been released in awhile which is good to see.

pantsyg (4/5) – This set captured my imagination more than any other in this pack. The objective is bonkers and the Skate has really grown on me. Initially I disliked the low edge count and double protect chuds, but as part of a mono-Smuggler deck with card draw engines like Asteroid Sanctuary and control tricks like Bamboozle and Cloud City Operative, it really shines.

Majestaat (4/5) – This one has me conflicted. On one hand, you have an amazing objective, a neat resource, a potential game-changing event and a main that can do some work with just a bit of support. On the other hand, it's another Smuggler set with horrid edge and weak combat icons. Because the Skate is the only vehicle here, Well Paid won't be a great fit either, making it quite challenging to build properly. It's actually rather strong once you surpass that initial barrier.