Snapshot Reactions

July 26, 2024

This special article features quick hits from our content creator partners, including Jack, Brian, and Flockton from Golden Dice Podcast, Kevin from Golden Dice Podcast, Shane from Twin Sunz,, and Brian from Jank it Up, Fuzzball and Deploy Your Leader Gaming.

We're all excited to have our hands on Shadows of the Galaxy and are eager to experiment with the new cards! Whether we're finding opportunities to build brand new decks or supplementing older ones, here are some cards we're excited about right now. First up:

Jack, Golden Dice Podcast

So for this article, Brian reached out and asked about some cards that we are excited to hit the table with! So far, for Set 2, the two main decks I've really played have been Qi’ra Command and Han 2 Command, and the card that has really jumped out at me by surprise was First Light, Headquarters of the Crimson Dawn (SHD 36).

I didn’t think it was bad by any means when it was spoiled, but at the 7-drop spot it is already pretty tight in villain with Count Dooku, Darth Tyranus (SOR 38), Darth Vader, Commanding the First Legion (SOR 89), and Maul, Shadow Collective Visionary (SHD 90) already comfortably there (not to mention Pre Vizsla, Power Hungry (SHD 142) and Dryden Vos, Offering No Escape (SHD 192), as well).

So in my first pass of Qi'ra, I Alone Survived (SHD 2) I didn’t make space for it, but after a few games of having damaged units with shields on my board I thought more about it and, well, what if they all had Grit?! A 5/7 Vader turning into an 8/4 after ambushing into a 3/3 seems really nice!

Plus, another great part of First Light is that it has a Smuggle option that costs the same number of resources, except you now have to deal 4 damage to a friendly unit. This can be awkward at times, but you usually have enough shields to complete the smuggle cost without killing your own unit.

I have really liked playing First Light since slotting it into the deck, and it creates some satisfying board states. Lom Pyke, Dealer in Truths (SHD 32) is also in my deck to hand out shields, so pinging those off and having a board with Vader and a Death Trooper (SHD 30) out can make for some very chunky units to close the game out with!

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to run some games with First Light in your deck. I am even looking at a mono Gar Saxon, Viceroy of Mandalore (SHD 1) build and using this to help close in that too!

Kevin, Roll On Gaming

One of the earliest reveals during Shadows of the Galaxy spoiler season was Crosshair, Following Orders (SHD 87) and to me, he still remains one of the most exciting cards to build around in Set 2.

For four resources, the Crosshair unit provides a ton of flexibility and could very well find a place in a meta that has already begun to take shape for one simple reason: he can flourish with any aspect pairing you can throw at him.

In the early stages of the Shadows environment, you don't have to look very far to find a lethal combination to enhance the effectiveness of your Crosshair units. Take it from someone who has already run into the potential buzzsaw that is Grand Moff Tarkin, Oversector Governor (SOR 7) paired with Cunning; the deck can do some scary things.

Most notably for Crosshair, the ability to churn out Experience tokens, either through Tarkin's ability or from the lethal combination of Triple Dark Raid (SHD 194) and TIE Advanced (SOR 231), can certainly take him to the next level.

When a couple rounds of play can turn Crosshair's tame 2-damage swings into sniping opponent's units for 4-6 damage or more each time his exhaust action is utilized, he suddenly becomes a threat your opponent is forced to deal with.

Maybe Vigilance is more your flavor - for that, Covert Strength (SHD 75) is Crosshair's new best friend. His 6 health lends more of a chance to survive an attack and be able to heal damage, while gaining an Experience in the process and improving his damage potential.

If you smuggle Covert Strength using the ability granted by Hondo Ohnaka, That's Good Business (SHD 5), you can double the amount of EXP given to your unit!

Aggression? Sure, we've got something for that. A pair of upgrades take center stage in Shadows of the Galaxy that can benefit Crosshair here.

Since you'd prefer his sniping ability to attacking, you likely won't need the Ambush effect to get optimal use out of the Hotshot DL-44 Blaster (SHD 174), where you can double Crosshair's power for just one resource. Also, Armed To The Teeth (SHD 175) can duplicate this effect by either putting it on Crosshair himself, or another unit that needs the static power boost more, whose attack can still buff the rogue clone.

All these options, combined with the natural Command strategy of "going tall" by adding power to your units on the battlefield, make for a card I'm really excited to continue to test with. And with three very relevant traits – Imperial, Clone, and Trooper – it's easy to imagine that Crosshair will be a card that fits into more builds going forward as we continue to add more sets to the card pool.

I can't wait to see how Crosshair is incorporated into Star Wars: Unlimited decks during Set 2 and beyond, including my own!

Shane, Twin Sunz

Shadows of the Galaxy introduced a lot to Star Wars: Unlimited, from new mechanics to doubling the leader options in the game. But the overall main take away I wanted to explore was the enhancement of midrange decks through the use of Upgrades.

This was clearly a huge focus with Shadows of the Galaxy, exemplified within the Mandalorians of the set. I have been experimenting with a plethora of different midrange Mandalorian decks, including Gar Saxon Aggression, The Mandalorian Vigilance, and Bo Katan Vigilance. One unit that has stuck out the most for me has been Fenn Rau, Protector of Concord Dawn (SOR 67).

He is a 6-drop who comes down with slightly below average stats of 5/6. However his “When Played” ability allows you to immediately correct this with an upgrade played for 2 less resources to boost him beyond typical 6-drop stats.

My personal favorite is Mandalorian Armor (SHD 73) because this will give him a shield and push him to a 6/9. That’s pretty massive for a 6-drop!

However there are plenty of other good options that cost 2, which will be essentially free to play on Fenn. Some examples would be Vambrace Grappleshot (SHD 74), Electrostaff (SOR 71), Armed to the Teeth (SHD 175), Jet Pack (SHD 225), and the list goes on.

Now if you were to play him when you have 7 or 8 resources you can play larger upgrades like a lightsaber or the The Darksaber (SHD 126).

This is already a solid 6-drop in my opinion because it offers a body that can really stick through a lot of removal or trades. The only downside is it requires you to plan and have an upgrade in your hand when you play him.

BUT, that’s not the only thing Fenn Rau does. When you play an upgrade on Fenn, you can give a unit -2/-2 for the round. At times, this can just simply kill an enemy unit with 2 health left, and at other times, you can set up a really advantageous trade.

With all that in consideration, Fenn Rau has been one of the most surprising cards for me and a unit that I plan to keep in many decks for a long time.

Brian, Golden Dice Podcast

What’s up everybody! I hope your first few weeks of Shadows of the Galaxy have been enlightening and enjoyable. Me personally, I have been having a blast, trying out decks with leaders old and new. There are a ton of fun (fun = bad for me usually) ideas I have been tossing around while deck building, and the breakout card of the set for me has been Legal Authority (SHD 124).

What does Legal Authority do for us exactly? It's an upgrade that allows you to capture cards that are equally as powerful as yours or less.

It also gives you a cheeky two health, which is nothing to turn up your nose at. I know what you’re thinking though: I can just use my shiny new hyper-foil Rival’s Fall (SHD 79) and take care of what just captured my unit.

Yes! This is true, but hear me out on a couple of different lines…I know this is where I lose a couple of you.

Finn. Command.

Finn, This Is A Rescue (SHD 3) with Command allows us to do a couple of whacky things.

First up, if we smack a Legal Authority on Obi-Wan Kenobi, Following Fate (SOR 49) or Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight (SOR 51), we can capture some pesky units like Yoda, Old Master (SOR 45), Boba Fett, Disintegrator (SOR 179), or we can even reach across the aisle to take something from the space arena.

This obviously makes them hard to deal with without casting hard removal, but with Finn’s ability, you could even turn the Legal Authority into a shield while still maintaining your captured unit!

If anything, this deck can make things very very annoying for our opponent. If you have Rose Tico, Dedicated to the Cause (SHD 45) out in the middle of this combo, we can start to convert shields into XP to make our units hit harder…and then play additional Legal Authority if we wanted to grab units with even more power.

Now obviously, this deck isn’t winning at Gen-Con or anything, but it is a cute little list to try out at locals and live the dream of making Finn semi-competitive. I have also gone and thrown Legal Authority into my Jabba mono list to snag things once Jabba's Rancor, Pateesa (SHD 91) hits the field.

Is it a card that breaks the meta? Nope! Is it fun and silly? Yup!

Flockton, Golden Dice Podcast

Unfortunately, I had a business trip for two weeks right after the release of SHD but I still have been theory crafting some decks. Currently the card I am most excited for and hope to get lots of play with is the Hotshot DL-44 Blaster (SHD 174).

I think the Smuggle mechanic is going to be really good for increasing hand size and giving you more options. When played with smuggle, this card gives some action cheating that the opponent may not see coming. I hope to use this smuggled surprise to win games outright, but I can see it also being good for trades in the ground arena that I would normally not be able to make.

The DL-44 Blaster is also interesting that has a different aspect showing between its regular cost (1+Aggression) and its Smuggle cost (3+Cunning). The downside to this card is that if you do not have Aggression in your deck, the cost to play this from hand makes it very weak, considering the +2 aspect penalty and not being able to attack immediately.

That said, this is going to be a staple in many Cunning decks, as it can be an early resource before bringing it out using Smuggle and surprising your opponent!

Brian, Jank it Up, Fuzzball & DYL Gaming

I'm still really enjoying the Grand Moff Tarkin deck I built as part of a Box Battle with my buddy Greg. I finally found some kitchen table success with that build, and it didn't take me long to start looking at making some budget-friendly improvements using the new Shadows of the Galaxy cards.

One card that easily shot to the top of the list is a gift from one Imperial Moff to another: Gideon's Phase-III Dark Trooper (SHD 84).

As a 3-cost, 3/3 with Sentinel, he's another version of Cell Block Guard (SOR 229), a Spark of Rebellion card that was also reprinted in Shadows. So while the Dark Trooper has the added Command aspect in its cost – making him less versatile within non-green villain decks – he does come with one very interesting ability: Every time he takes combat damage (and survives, of course), he gains an Experience token.

Well that is just music to Tarkin's ears! A good Tarkin deck wants to pump their Imperials with Experience tokens, and the Dark Trooper – which is an Imperial, along with being a Droid and a Trooper – is eager to mix it up with opponents' units to get even stronger.

Unfortunately, a 3-health unit can be one-shot pretty easily, so boosting its health as fast as possible before engaging in combat is the goal. Using leader Tarkin's own abilities or playing a timely TIE Advanced (SOR 231) or Outland TIE Vanguard (SHD 82) can boost our new sentinel friend to a much more dangerous 4/4 or 5/5.

If you happen to be playing it in a Vigilance build, Shadows of the Galaxy has also offered two new events that can help expedite the experience token pump. Covert Strength (SHD 75) and Calculated Lethality (SHD 39) are more situational, but can also help boost our dark side metal menaces so they become much more formidable protectors of your base.

The bigger they get, the more damage they can absorb. The more combat interactions they survive, the bigger they get. It's a beautiful thing!

As a casual player, I'm really excited to get these Dark Troopers – a Special starter card, found only in the Mandalorian/Moff Gideon Two-Player Starter Set – on my kitchen table!