If you’re looking for a unique take on a Heroism aggro deck that is not Sabine or Leia, welcome to the right article! This Cassian Cunning deck utilizes some classic Aggression aggro tools, but opts for the fancy tricks of Cunning over the steady power of Command while keeping a slightly heavier focus on Space units. Have a look:
Firstly, some of you may be asking why the leader in this deck is not Sabine Wren, Galvanized Revolutionary (SOR 14). So let’s talk about Cassian Andor, Dedicated to the Rebellion (SOR 13).
"Rebellions Are Built On Hope."
Cassian is clearly slower than Sabine, as (1) he does not deal damage to the base with his ability, and (2) he also comes out later in the game. That being said, there is a level of card draw sustainability from Cassian that we just haven't seen thus far in Star Wars: Unlimited.
If you have an extra resource floating around and have put at least three damage into your opponent's base during a particular phase, you can draw a card with Cassian's leader ability. When he has been deployed as a unit, you should be able to draw a card every phase he remains in the Ground Arena, thanks to his leader unit ability.
Cassian's extra card draw will help keep you from running out of options while also digging deeper in your deck for those big finishing cards, like the Guerilla Attack Pod (SOR 148) or For A Cause I Believe In (SOR 152). On top of that, the Saboteur that Cassian has is very underrated!
"This town is about to blow."
Before I can’t stop talking about how much I love Cassian, let’s move onto the rest of the deck. First up, the Base. As an aggro deck, we have the option to take Jedha City (SOR 28) since we are betting we can kill their base before ours goes down.
Jedha City is really great here, as it allows you to give a unit -4/-0 for the phase. With an aggro deck, even getting just one extra attack through to the opposing base can be game changing, so you want to protect your units. This is a great way to stop an opposing unit from killing any of yours for a turn.
“You just walk in like you belong.”
Typically when I'm piloting an aggro SWU deck I prefer to run 14-16 units that I can play on Turn 1. Here we have 15, and they are 3 of each of the following:
- SpecForce Soldier (SOR 140)
- Green Squadron A-Wing (SOR 141)
- Sabine Wren, Explosives Artist (SOR 142)
- Lothal Insurgent (SOR 190)
- Alliance X-Wing (SOR 237)
I want to go into deeper detail on the Cunning cards in this deck because the Aggression cards are pretty self explanatory, having been seen in a plethora of Aggro decks.
The Lothal Insurgent has a very cool ability (to force your opponent to discard a random card from their hand), but truthfully she is just in this deck as a 3/2, 2-cost Rebel unit. This synergizes with the rest of the Rebel package very nicely, and the 3 attack is huge.
"Light It Up."
Moving onto our 3-drops, we have 3 of each of the following:
- Fighters for Freedom (SOR 143)
- Red Three, Unstoppable (SOR 144)
- Millennium Falcon, Piece of Junk (SOR 193)
- Fleet Lieutenant (SOR 240)
- Wing Leader (SOR 241)
I cannot stress this enough, but the Millennium Falcon is one of the best Aggro cards in the game. It does have the drawback of having to spend a resource each turn to keep it on the board, but coming into play Ready is beyond massive. That extra 3 damage on the turn it's played ramps up the damage very quickly. Besides that, having 4 health unit in space is not easy to deal with! That means the Falcon should stick around and get a ton of damage through.
This deck features a solid grouping of 15 Space units that will provide a serious threat in that arena. There are certainly some others in Yellow that you could easily take, but I wanted to keep mostly Heroism cards to fuel For A Cause I Believe In.
To round out our units we have two Aggression Aggro staples with K-2SO, Cassian's Counterpart (SOR 145) and the Guerilla Attack Pod.
To finish off the discussion on the main deck, I want to highlight two amazing Aggro cards from inside the Cunning aspect: Sneak Attack (SOR 219) and Surprise Strike (SOR 220).
Besides the Falcon, these are what take this deck to the next level. Surprise Strike is just a flat out +3 damage to the enemy base. You need to use this when you are certain the unit you're attacking with will be able to attack the enemy base, so try to play around any sentinel units your opponent has.
Sneak Attack can work well with almost any unit in this deck, as all we care about is getting some extra damage on the enemy base. Remember how I said how huge the Falcon is? Well, Sneak Attack can make any unit in your hand act similarly, although you must defeat that unit at the start of the regroup phase. Luckily for us, we have just the unit for this! K-2S0’s best use is attacking the base, and then being defeated to deal additional damage to that same base! This is a match made in Droid heaven.
"We’d Like To Volunteer."
To wrap up, I want to talk about my Sideboard. I am using these slots more so as an Honorable Mentions. These aren't necessarily what I would bring as a Sideboard to a tournament, but are cards that I have tested out in this deck and could potentially deserve a main deck spot.
Wolffe, Suspicious Veteran (SOR 160) is a very solid Aggression 2-drop with some really great tech into any healing our opponents might have. He does not have the Rebel Trait nor is he a Heroism card, and ultimately that has held him back for me.
Leia Organa, Defiant Princess (SOR 189) does have the Rebel Trait and is a Heroism card, so she is a natural fit. I just opted instead for units with extra damage and also more Red cards for Fighters for Freedom to ping damage with.
Rebel Pathfinder (SOR 239) is another great card, but there are just so many other options we have that I left it behind.
Lastly, Black One, Scourge of Starkiller Base (SOR 147) finally has some use in this deck! Although I still didn’t put it in the main deck, it offers a nice hand sustain effect and allows you to also dig for your finishers. Ultimately, I found Cassian does that well enough. Black One does offer another medium-sized Space unit for the deck, however.
"All The Way."
Well we have reached the end of the article! Did I convince you to give the Cunning aspect a shot in a Heroism Aggro deck? I sure hope I did. This deck opened my eyes to the quickness and tricks that Cunning can offer a faster-paced deck. I cannot wait to see what support this deck gets when Set 2 drops this summer!
If you try this deck, let me know what you think of it and what changes you end up making. I love building decks with the community!
For additional content on this deck, watch my full deck breakdown video here.
Shane
TwinSunz
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