Hey y'all! This is JustJack from Golden Dice. This week I wanted to talk about some ideas I have had for some of the more fun card combos in the game! These aren’t necessarily competitive decks but showcase some fun interactions that I think are good enough for weekly play.
First up is this neat card ECL (SOR 22)! It's a real sleeper card, so I'm not sure if you've ever heard of it… (Kidding!)
Sneak Attack
The actual first card is Sneak Attack (SOR 219)! If you have not seen it yet, it is a single aspect Cunning 2-cost card. It is a trick, and it says “Play a unit from your hand. It costs 3 less and enters play ready. At the start of the regroup phase, defeat it”. So right off the bat we see it not only lets you cheat out a unit for one less resourse but it comes in ready!
Before we dive in, I do want to note that Sneak Attack does not synergize with Ambush in a way you would want. For Ambush, the unit would come in ready, do the ambush, attack a unit, and then finish exhausted. So there's no additional value in using Sneak Attack on an Ambush unit! Sneak Attack DOES WORK, however, with something like Fleet Lieutenant (SOR 240). He comes in ready, could give himself +2/+0, and then immediately attack thanks to his When Played ability!
The fact that the unit brought in with Sneak Attack is always defeated makes me immediately look for cards that have a When Defeated trigger. I wanted to shout out a few that are not often looked at but COULD be decent! I do think the biggest issue with Sneak Attack with some of the hero units is that I do not love the entirety of the Hero Cunning pool of cards. So even if a combo might be decent, the rest of the deck might struggle with what we have so far.
One of the fun Sneak Attack plays I have seen is Obi-Wan Kenobi, Following Fate (SOR 49)! We all know this guy is a powerhouse. Using Sneak Attack could get him out a turn early and also help line up who he gives his XP to upon defeat, making sure you get your card draw off.
Obi-wan also has sentinel and can eat up some attacks the turn he is out. Imagine playing him with Sneak Attack the turn Luke Skywalker, Faithful Friend (SOR 5) deploys. Attacking with Luke would shield up Obi-Wan to make sure he eats every attack that turn! Then, at the end of the phase (or if Obi-Wan dies in combat) you get to buff your leader unit with 2 experience and draw a card since Luke is a force unit!
Another quick heroism shout out is Black One, Scourge of Starkiller Base (SOR 147)! It has a When Played and When Defeated, so you can get two triggers of it in the same phase!
This can be tricky, though, because you want to be able to play some of the cards you draw off the When Played before its defeated so you don’t just discard all the cards you drew! This has been fun in my Han Solo, Audacious Smuggler (SOR 17) deck to help keep his hand full of cards.
For two of the more serious ones before I get into where I am playing Sneak Attack, I wanted to look at two Aggression cards! The first being K-2SO, Cassian's Counterpart (SOR 145) We all know how good he is. Playing him early and combo-ing it with Heroic Sacrifice (SOR 150) can be a very good turn! You would do a total of 9 damage from K2 with his 4 base attack, +2 from Heroic Sacrifice, and 3 more from his defeat! Heroic Sacrifice also lets you draw a card to help keep your hand a bit full after playing 3 cards for that combo!
Lastly I wanted to shout out Ruthless Raider (SOR 134)! This card is rough to deal with at times and sneaking it out for a total of 8 damage to base and 4 to other units can be really hard to keep up with at times.
So all of these combos have been fun – and I encourage you try and find spots for them – but my spot has been with Emperor Palpatine, Galactic Ruler (SOR 6)!
This deck goes all in on Sneak Attack with cards like Jabba the Hutt, Cunning Daimyo (SOR 181) who can search it out, Bib Fortuna, Jabba's Majordomo (SOR 177) to help make it cost less and I Am Your Father (SOR 233) to help draw cards or remove big units to buy you time!
The big plan for this deck is to stall until you can line up Sneak Attack with Devastator, Inescapable (SOR 90). Then, play Sneak Attack and
- Kill their big unit with Devastator's When Played ability
- Attack their base for 10
- Play Admiral Motti, Brazen and Scornful (SOR 226)
- Kill Motti with Palpatine,
- Use Motti's When Defeated ability to reset Devastator
- Go face again for another 10 damage.
20 damage can usually close out a game, as you might have gotten some chip damage in earlier rounds with Emperor's Royal Guard (SOR 82) or Greedo, Slow on the Draw (SOR 204).
Fair warning that this can lead to long games, but it feels great having Bib out, having Jabba search Sneak Attack, and hitting your opponent with a big body earlier than they expect since Bib and Jabba make Sneak Attack cost 0 if they are both out! This deck MIGHT want some Recruit (SOR 123), too, to make sure you get Devastator when you need it. I have definitely sent it to the bottom of my deck with a Darth Vader, Commanding the First Legion (SOR 87) or Jabba search!
U-Wing Reinforcement
This card is already known to be good, so I am not bringing anything new to the table, but there are some fun plays I want to draw your attention to that you might find interesting.
I will start off with the most fun I have had with this in a deck, and that is Casino Han. Shoutout to K.T.O.D. for coming up with the deck, which uses U-Wing Reinforcement to grab powerful 7-cost stuff like Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight (SOR 51), Darth Vader, Mace Windu, Party Crasher (SOR 149), etc. It's a blast to play! Check out the list on SWUDB.com
U-Wing Reinforcement, however, can also help flood the board with multiple units, so playing cards that can stack and help each other out is super fun! One of the first cards that came to my mind was someone like Admiral Ackbar, Brilliant Strategist (SOR 97). You play him out and either two 2-drops or a 3- and a 1-drop to then blast an opponent's ground unit for 3 damage (or more if you already have units in the ground arena). This is on top of getting 3 more units on the board!
One of the more fun U-Wing plays to make if you need a space unit is doing something like play Mon Mothma, Voice of the Rebellion (SOR 96) (and search your deck for a rebel using its When Played ability) or Leia Organa, Defiant Princess (SOR 189) (to exhaust an enemy unit), and then play Bright Hope, The Last Transport (SOR) to return them to hand and draw a card off its ability.
This can help you dig for stuff you need to close out a game, such as Home One, Alliance Flagship (SOR 102). It can even be useful if you just whiffed on what you needed from U-Wing. So dropping small guys with Bright Hope is a blast!
There is also something there with Vanguard Ace (SOR 191)! There has to be, right?! If you can play U-Wing Reinforcement, a 2-drop, a 3-drop, and Vanguard Ace, it comes into play as a 4/4 in space, which is pretty nice!
Another idea is playing The Ghost, Spectre Home Base (SOR 50) with Chopper, Metal Menace (SOR 188) off a U-Wing. This guarantees you can give a shield out from Ghost's When Played ability!
The best part of a Hera Syndulla, Spectre Two (SOR 8) Spectre deck is getting to the point where Ghost is dishing out shields and Hera is giving out experience tokens. Those things can snowball really fast, and U-Wing can make sure you hit all the cards you need to see.
I feel like we are all still trying to crack Hera (maybe its hopeless?), but this deck has my two favorite things: Spectres and U-Wing! (Scott does tell me I am the Spectre guy after all…)
The extra combo I have here in U-Wing is Wedge Antilles, Star of the Rebellion (SOR 100)! You can play him the turn before you U-Wing Reinforcement, and then grab some ships off of it and give them Ambush thanks to Wedge! This really helps the turn you play Ghost if you had to burn ECL early.
If you really like the Wedge plays, I honestly would drop Consortium StarViper (SOR 112) and find room for Alliance X-Wings (SOR 237) so you can grab Wedge and a ship off a U-Wing play! You could even swap this deck to an Aggression base and grab Green Squadron A-Wings (SOR 141)!
Ships!
Lastly, my favorite thing right now is ships!
Who doesn’t love a swarm of space units going face all game? There isn’t a crazy gimmick to the deck like my Palpatine one above, but it does feature Sneak Attack.
This deck is just looking to take over the space arena, with nearly half the deck being space vehicles. It also uses stuff like Sabine Wren, Explosives Artist (SOR 142), Leia, K2, and Outmaneuver (SOR 221) to slow down any threats in the ground arena. You can do the Sneak Attack play with K2 and Black One in this deck and use Heroic Sacrifice with either for the additional When Defeated benefit!
Han Solo, Audacious Smuggler (SOR 17) feels like the best leader for this as he can really ramp and let you cheat out two or three units a turn faster. I even love my Turn 1s where I go to 3 resources using Han, play Leia for 2, ready a resource with her ability, and then play another 2 drop!
Overall, I hope you got a few new ideas to try out yourself from this article! If you would like a more in-depth breakdown on any of these lists be sure to reach out and let me know! Best of luck at your weeklies, and get that store credit!
JustJack
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