With set 2 - Shadows of the Galaxy - just 4 weeks away, we've seen enough of the set to start to form early opinions on what we think will be good. Players have had a chance to test some new cards through proxy play and tabletop simulator, me included, and today I'm going to talk about 3 decks that I think have a lot of potential to influence the current meta moving forward. Obviously I need to add the disclaimer than any newly spoiled cards can completely alter the landscape of the set and it's entirely possible, even probable, that remaining legendary and rare cards not only find their way into these decks, but also other decks to boost them.
Regardless, I wanted to provide players a jumping off point, call it a midway point, to start building set 2 decks so that when the full set is available you aren't overwhelmed looking at 250+ brand new cards and leaders and not having a place to start. The Leaders that we're going to be looking at today are all new leaders, but that's not to say that old leaders don't get significantly better with a whole new set (looking at you, grand-inquisitor-hunting-the-jedi-sor-11).
In early testing among my group so far, Underworld red/yellow decks have greatly overperformed all expectations both as an aggro deck and a midrange deck. Set 2, expectedly, being focused on Underworld and all, has given life to the Underworld trait, especially in the form of ma-klounkee-shd-229.
Aside from Underworld synergies, we have several new Ambush cards which coincidentally synergize very well with the new boba-fett-daimyo-shd-8 leader on the Heroism side. We'll take a look at how these cards all work together to form a very powerful deck. Finally, we'll dig into bossk-hunting-his-prey-shd-10, bounties, and a very tempo oriented deck that pushes its advantage very well.
Kylo Red Aggression/Cunning Aggro
We'll start with one of the decks I've had the most success with playing early games. When kylo-ren-rash-and-deadly-shd-11 was first previewed, I immediately saw the 5/4 stat line, the 4 deploy, and the synergy with having no hand. There have been decks in previous games that I've played that have taken the "no hand" strategy and melded it into very potent aggro decks; so that's exactly where I started. Fortunately, the large majority of the red and yellow Underworld cards for set 2 are very aggressive focused. Whether by design or not, the amount of shielded units tremendously help aggro by simply giving these decks incredibly sticky units that stick around and allow Kylo to buff them safely to be able to attack for large chunks of damage at a time.
We were also given a few different 3/2 for 2 ships to play in space, one that works very well in conjunction to Kylo's leader ability, we have "burn" cards in the form of lady-proxima-white-worm-matriarch-shd-255 and migs-mayfeld-triggerman-shd-163, and cheap removal with ma-klounkee-shd-229. In essence, the deck builds itself in many ways, but the play lines in the deck are rather complex and known when or when not to use or deploy Kylo himself can be a game altering decision. Here is the deck as it currently stands with the previewed cards. Adjust and revise as you see fit as the last bit of cards come rolling in.
In my opinion from my early testing, I firmly believe that this deck is the fastest deck in the game. By nature it's also going to be very glass cannon in its approach but the amount of damage you can do in the first 3 turns of the game shouldn't be dismissed. I've had opponents at 15 damage after turn 3 which is unheard of for any other deck to date. If I had to replace something, I think dengar-the-demolisher-shd-133 is the obvious one. He doesn't synergize anywhere and is simply a 1-cost 2-power Underworld unit which triggers Proxima and lets us ma-klounkee-shd-229. He has a role, it's just not a flashy one.
Hero Boba Fett Command/Cunning
We really need a way to distinguish hero boba-fett-daimyo-shd-8 from villain without say "Hero Boba Fett" since that's a mouthful, haha. Boba is another leader that I was drawn to due to the kind of decks that he enables. He's the consummate midrange gentlemen in set 2 allowing you to buff your Ambush and Sentinel units while being able to play the great cards that hero Command has to offer. He plays incredibly well with u-wing-reinforcement-sor-104 as well since everything you can grab from it is going to immediately impact the board.
Most Importantly, the new ramp card for hero Command, spark-of-hope-shd-105, is really big for 6 deploy leaders and Boba is going to benefit nicely. Being able to get to your key cards faster, enfys-nest-marauder-shd-219, han-solo-reluctant-hero-sor-198, and u-wing-reinforcement-sor-104 is just going to generate so much value that it'll be hard for opponent's to keep a board.
One main weakness in an Ambush deck is not falling behind early and fortunately FFG gave us cloud-rider-shd-210 to help with that, as well as cobb-vanth-the-marshal-shd-115 to allow us to trade and still get something for our efforts. I think this deck is going to be a big player come set 2 and I'm excited to continue developing it.
Note that "Smuggle" and "Bounty" are keywords for the sake of your leader ability. Also note that the leader ability can buff any unit, not just ones with keywords or one that you just played. On your flip turn, you can use the ability, then deploy which will effectively give one of your units +2 attack for the turn. There are a lot of options you can mix and match with this build but I think this is a solid shell. The smugglers-aid-shd-252 + bamboozle-sor-199 package can be anything from 3 spark-of-rebellion-sor-200, to more units, to spot removal like ma-klounkee-shd-229, strike-true-sor-127, or even waylay-sor-222. Experiment with this however you want but it's been really solid so far!
Bossk Bounties
The last deck I want to look at is Bossk bounties. I was excited when I first saw bossk-hunting-his-prey-shd-10 revealed but wasn't sure how good bounties would really be. They're a little clunky in nature, not very action efficient, and need to be very good to be worth all that risk. The early ones we saw were pretty average but then we got a few bangers, especially in bounty-hunters-quarry-shd-123. I think that one, combined with the revealed cobb-vanth-the-marshal-shd-115, really allows us to play a value style deck that has very explosive flip turns utilizing energy-conversion-lab-sor-22 + jango-fett-renowned-bounty-hunter-shd-138 for big swings. I think I want to top out at 5 for this particular build, but wouldn't be surprised to see certain builds that go to 7 for Maul, if you're looking to use this shell to go a little larger.
The main hitters in this deck are of course the aforementioned jango-fett-renowned-bounty-hunter-shd-138 but also Punishing One. You can have a lot of really big turns using punishing-one-dengars-jumpmaster-shd-137 to ready and attack two or even three times in a turn. I've seen some flip turns where Bossk does tons of damage, clears a board, and ends up with 5 units in play due to Cobb and Quarry. The downside of all this, as I mentioned, is that your action economy is super poor and your hand gets depleted very quickly which leaves you open to hand disruption, especially if they break up your engine of Quarry and Cobb. Here's what I'm currently working with:
There's a lot you can do with Bossk, which is really cool. His stats are great for his deploy and if you can get the vaders-lightsaber-sor-136 on him your opponent has to deal with a 7/7 leader pretty early in the game. The bounty package is of course modular and you can mix and match how you want. I would not play fewer than 3 copies of price-on-your-head-shd-125 or bounty-hunters-quarry-shd-123 but the others you can see fit to adjust how you'd like.
Ultimately, remember that you're a heavy hitting value deck so don't be afraid to make trades early rather than going base. You aren't going to be the beatdown in most matchups but the deck can switch gears if needed. The stolen-landspeeder-shd-161 might feel weak to many but it's necessary against the control decks who try to cut you off from playing Bounties. You play the speeder, ping it, then play a bounty on it turn 2 before killing it with another ping. It just ensures that they can't play around your upgrades.
I hope you enjoyed building set 2 alongside me for these early shells and I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with for set 2 decks!
