Twilight Leaders We're Excited For

Twilight of the Republic is almost here! I asked our content creator partners to each pick out a Set 3 leader they're excited to get on the table. First up:

Jack, Golden Dice Podcast

Hey everyone! This is Jack from Golden Dice Podcast! For this article I am going to walk through a leader I am excited to try out in Set 3! I am really torn between starting off with Count Dooku, Face of the Confederacy (TWI 5) or Captain Rex, Fighting for his Brothers (TWI 7) but I am going to opt for Rex because I know he has been getting passed over a bit!

I am not sure where Rex will fall in the set but clearly Clones and Coordinate are big themes of this set so it feels worth it to try him out at least! There are a few colors I want to splash him in but for this deck we are going to look at pairing him with the Aggression aspect.

Before we even look at the deck I want to talk about a few cards I am excited for:

First off simply being Rex leader! He has a unique ability in that you are able to create Clone Trooper tokens just off of his ability, not needing to spend a card. Now we are paying 2 resources to do that and also need to attack with a unit that phase, but I still that ability in grindy games can really come into play in a big way for keeping Coordinate online. (As a reminder, units with Coordinate get their respective Coordinate benefit while you control three or more units.)

Rex's flip helps bring some good stats to your overall side of the board. Yes, he is only a 2/6 himself, but buffing all of your other Trooper units with +1 health can be huge! He also deploys with a Clone Trooper token (TWI T02) himself for immediately getting 4/9 of stats on the board!

If I counted right, going into Command and Aggression with Rex gives you 46 different trooper units to work with, so we definitely should be able to help buff our units on the board!

Admiral Yularen, Advising Caution (TWI 92) - Next up we continue the theme of buffing our own units! Yularen giving each other friendly Heroism unit +1 defense is a great tool to have on your side. Tired of getting Overwhelming Barrage’d? Well, getting more health on your side of the board can help with that!

Yularen having only 2 attack is okay because we really like is his ability. Having 5 health helps him stick around, plus he has Restore 1 to boot!

Shaak Ti, Unity Wins Wars (TWI 92) - Did I say I liked to buff my own units? Shaak is the other side of the coin of buffing our friendly tokens with +1 attack. Plus, she makes her own Clone Trooper token On Attack!

The big worry here is paying 4 for a 3/4, which is not a very good payoff in stats. She can easily die to things like 4-LOM, Bounty Hunter for Hire (SHD 188), K-2SO
Cassian's Counterpart (SOR 145), Kanan Jarrus, Revealed Jedi (SHD 47), etc. before ever getting an attack off.  I just think it's worth starting off trying to see if she can fit in the deck because she does bring powerful elements to our goal of getting tokens and coordinate online.

Clone Commander Cody, Commanding the 212th (TWI 114) - He seems like a solid payoff for our go wide strategy. He also seems like he will die to a slight breeze. Remember I was worried about Shaak Ti being a 3/4 for 4? Well, Cody is a 4/4 for 5.

He can obviously bring more stats to the board with him giving other friendly units +1/+1 and they gain Overwhelm while he has Coordinate. While Cody himself may be too fragile, his ability is obviously very powerful if we can protect him at all. Going double green to recycle him easier with Command (SOR 107) is one of the big reasons I want to try double Command.

Low Altitude Gunship (TWI 149)  - A great payoff for having multiple Republic units on the board! This unit has a similar ability to Wrecker, BOOM! (SHD 154) with the trade off of needing units on the board, but you don't have to destroy your own resource. Running this does make me want to find slots of Timelys – Timely Intervention (SHD 129) – in the deck!

So with all these cards that I am excited about I decided to throw together this list for Rex Aggression!

Deck link: https://swudb.com/deck/view/LamEKNdqebl

Kevin, Roll On Gaming

It was always Maul.

Ever since we got pseudo-confirmation at the FFG In-Flight Report that a Maul leader was coming, there’s been nothing else on my mind in terms of which leader I plan to play when Twilight of the Republic releases in November.

Now, there are certainly some tempting leaders that have caught my eye as more have been revealed: Pre Vizsla, Pursuing the Throne (TWI 10), Anakin Skywalker
What It Takes To Win (TWI 12), Captain Rex, and even Nala Se, Clone Engineer (TWI 1) for the shenanigans.

But as DYL Brian will tell you, I’ve been on the Maul train for a loooooong time, and it’s going to take a lot to throw me off of it!

This latest iteration of our favorite Sith prince (is he royalty? No. Did that title make sense here? Kinda.) features some enticing characteristics - the most notable of which is his power.

Boasting a big ol’ number six in the red box, Maul is the only leader in Star Wars: Unlimited with a native 6-power stat. Not even Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith (SOR 10), Mace Windu, Vaapad Form Master (TWI 13), or… Hunter (SHD 9)… have that kind of power at their disposal as soon as they flip. Sure, Grit leaders like Chewbacca, Walking Carpet (SOR 3) and Qi'ra, I Alone Survived (SHD 2) can get to 6 and beyond, and upgrades are a thing that exists for any leader. 

But Maul, A Rival in Darkness (TWI 9) laughs in the face of needing extra help to get to 6 power, which makes all the things that add power to other leaders that much stronger with him.

Holding an Overwhelming Barrage (SOR 92) in hand for Maul’s flip turn? That’ll be 8 damage, please.

Have a Fallen Lightsaber (SOR 137) handy? That’s a 9/9 Overwhelm unit that also pings.

Maul is a monster any way you slice him… get it, because Obi-Wan… never mind. 

Maul’s ability to give units Overwhelm also has the chance to be extremely relevant. In a world where a deck’s top-end is a major consideration when constructing your list, having units that can sneak damage through while they are dealing out large amounts of damage will help with Maul’s aggro strategy.

And if the meta follows the not-so-subtle shove by FFG into token units and going wide, there will be even more opportunity for Overwhelm to shine.

Maul’s leader ability on either side will be a boon for units like Kylo Ren, Killing The Past (SHD 141), B1 Attack Platform (TWI 133), and even Star Wing Scout (SOR 163), whose power-to-cost ratio has always raised eyebrows. 

He also works great with - you guessed it - Darth Maul, Revenge at Last (TWI 135) who can attack two units at once with a 5-power body. Even if Darth Maul doesn’t survive the onslaught, running into two smaller units and overwhelming BOTH of them could be the extra damage you need to swing the tide in your favor (or outrace Sabine!)

Now, it’s important to point out that despite his obvious strength, the same number 6 also denotes what are potentially his greatest weaknesses.

The competitive meta is littered with leaders that deploy on 5 resources or less, and if players are waiting until 6 and beyond to execute a flip turn, they usually have some way to mitigate the wait, like the healing provided by Rey, More Than A Scavenger (SHD 4) or Iden Versio, Inferno Squad Commander (SOR 2). 

And as for Maul’s 6 HP, well… it’s not 7. And that can be a crucial difference when dealing with so many high-power units now that we are three sets into SWU.

As the cost curve of leaders has stabilized a bit, we are seeing fewer and fewer leaders that cost 6 or more who sport 6 HP or less. While there were five such leaders in Set 1, only Rey and Maul fit the bill since.

Will that relatively low HP for the cost end up hurting our cherished shadow warrior? Maybe.

Will it stop me from playing him?

Not in the slightest.

Maul has been one of my favorite characters in all of Star Wars ever since the trailer for The Phantom Menace dropped when I was but a wee lad in 1998. Nothing is going to deter me from testing this leader in all pairings until I’m either convinced he’s going to win the Galactic Championship... or I’m certain he’s going to prevent me from doing so. 

Shane, Twin Sunz

This was a really hard decision for me. Honestly, most of the Leaders in Twilight of the Republic seem to be extremely fun, but they also look competitive! Ultimately, I simply could not resist the urge to pick the Senate himself, Chancellor Palpatine // Darth Sidious, Playing Both Sides (TWI 17).

This is by far the most unique leader to be added to Star Wars: Unlimited, because he is the only leader without an Epic Action, and therefore the only leader who doesn’t deploy as a Leader Unit. So let’s dig into what this means.

Palpatine has two Leader sides, one Hero and one Villain, while both are Cunning. This leads to some extremely interesting deck building choices.

But before we dig too deep into that, we need to discuss the Actions on both sides.

On the Hero side, the action allows you to draw a card and heal 2 damage from your base if a friendly Heroism unit left play this turn. In doing so, you will flip Palpatine to his Villain side.

This is where things get really interesting. The villain side’s action is much easier to trigger as you only need to play a Villainy card. This allows you to create a clone trooper, deal 2 damage to all enemy bases (hello Twin Suns), and flip back to the Hero side.

So you can see the play patterns of this leader being able to flip from side to side.

But being able to do that consistently is going to require some very interesting deck building.

Palpatine allows you – or, more accurately, forces you –  to create a deck that utilizes both Heroism and Villainy cards. Depending on what side of the Leader you are showing currently will dictate what cards you can play without a resource increase.

So you will need some cheap Heroism units in order to have them leave play, and then really any Villainy cards to trigger the other side.

My first idea is just going straight into the Cunning package and playing Double Cunning. And what would fit well into this? Well another Palpatine! Enter Chancellor Palpatine, Wartime Chancellor (TWI 203).

This other new Palpatine synergizes so perfectly with leader Palpatine. His On Attack requires a unit to have left play, but you get to create a Clone Trooper. On top of that, all your Tokens enter play ready!

There are so many different ways to build this new leader, and it will take some serious fine tuning in order to not have hands that are completely bricked. I truly believe this leader will ultimately be competitive, but also really FUN!