The Rest of the Galaxy - Troopers!

Welcome back to The Rest of the Galaxy, where we take a look at the neutral objective sets on both sides of the force for Star Wars: The Card Game. These weekly articles are a discussion of the wonderful neutral faction cards that often support the rest of your deck. So read on and be sure to add your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section!

STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP…

What’s that sound? It’s getting closer! It sounds like swarms and swarms of stylish purple boots!!!

Oh no! It’s Corporate Exploitation and the Espo Troopers!!!!!

Corporate Exploitation:
The Action: While this ability does allow you to play 0-1 cost units on your opponent's turn, the lack of come into play effects on those units makes the ability pretty lackluster. Here are three scenarios, in order of likelihood, when you might be able to use the ability:
1) There is an action window after your opponent declares attackers where you can use this action to drop a unit onto the table, then declare it as a defender. There goes their unopposed challenge! (Thanks divinityofnumber for this one!)
2) You saved something like a Death Star Trooper (32-2) for an edge battle, but never ended up using it. Just before your opponent’s turn ends, you can take your action to put him into play, freeing up another card to draw and using a resource that will immediately refresh.
3) Here’s the situation: you have Corporate Exploitation and a Sith Library free, the rest of your resources are focused. Your opponent attacks with a loaded up Yoda (2-2). After he strikes, you can use Corporate Exploitation to drop a surprise Duty Officer (26-3) then play a very surprise Detained (32-4). Whoops, timing issues means you can't play this exactly like described but using Corporate Exploitation to drop in a Duty Officer (26-3) can allow you to wash that neutral resource into an Imperal Navy resource, giving you the resource match for a card like Detained (32-4). You get the element of surprise because you had no resource match before, but it’s a kinda tricky combo that can be ruined by a single cancel.
(Note that the Action says “put…into play,” so you do not have to resource match. Maybe that will make it more useful in the future?)
At this point, I don't think I would ever choose this objective in my opening objective flop, but maybe if we see cool 0-1 cost units in the future that will change.

Espo Trooper x5:
At first glance, the Espo Trooper seems one step above useless. But it's precisely thin uninspiring, generic, crappiness that makes them sort of great. Here are the three factors that make them worthy of considering for your deck:
0 Cost: There's only one other unit right now that is 0 cost, and that Rebel Trooper (14-3) is truly terrible. Being 0 cost means you can put down your big hitter and still have another body on the board to win an edge battle or force struggle. It also means that you aren't losing any resources you want to save when they get Swindled or Heavy Blaster Emplacement'd.
1 Force Icon: This, in conjunction with the 0 cost discussed above, is what sets the Espo Chuds apart from other low cost weenies. They are the lowest of costs, but they can still win the force struggle! Or toss them in an edge battle to bait out that Twist of Fate! I suppose it's true of the entire edge battle/force icon system of this game that I love so much, but Espos always have an opportunity to help you.
Trooper: Trooper decks have been gaining in popularity, and Espos are all about the trooper swarm. If we get a few more cards that interact with the Trooper keyword (and I think that's pretty possible) then Espos will just get a ton better. At that point they would essentially become free keywords on the board.

Best Friends:
Troopers!: Right now I would probably only play Corporate Exploitation in a Trooper deck, but in a Trooper Deck it feels pretty necessary. I have been on the receiving end of 4 Espo Troopers attacking with Trooper Assault and it was both beautiful and deadly (and pretty funny). So nowadays with all of the options to make them more useful, like Trooper Assault (32-4), Orbital Bombardment (26-6), and Navy Darth Vader (41-2).

Bitter Enemies:
Free Damage: Three cards in particular can just shred your legions of Espos. Han Solo (15-2) can shoot one dead each time he attacks (or defends) before you can even say "Edge Battle", and don't even think about keeping them alive once Han Trusts His Feelings (Core 1-5). An even bigger predator for the poor Espo swarm is the Heavy Blaster Emplacement (9-5). Sort of fitting that another free card is such a hard counter to these Espos, though you could also argue that the Espos are there just to be that meat shield for your better units (and I would agree with you). Finally, be careful of Admiral Ackbar (12-2) and his traps. If they have three resources, be careful with your Espo forces.

Overall:
Corporate Exploitation is a unique objective set in the game right now, as it only has units. I think it feels pretty thematic to the dark side as well, giving them swarms of nameless, faceless thugs who can be felled by the lightsabers and blasters of named, important characters. It's a fun objective, especially with a trooper theme, and can support the rest of your more powerful characters as stylish meatshields!

Join me again next week for an in depth discussion of one of the distinguishing features of many neutral objectives, that phrase "Limit 1 per objective deck." Comment below and may the force be with you!