Images courtesy of Fantasy Flight Games/Lucasfilm

Yellow Wednesday

Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) announced yesterday the suspension of three cards in Premier play: Triple Dark Raid (TDR), Jango Fett, Concealing the Conspiracy, and DJ, Blatant Thief. The suspensions go live on Friday, the 11th of April.

So let’s take a quick look at what to do when a suspension happens mid-season in Star Wars Unlimited (SWU). I’ll give my quick thoughts on the suspension, and then we’ll look at what decks are affected, and what decks might take the lead. Let’s go.

What to Do After the Suspensions

If the suspensions affected the deck(s) you play, take a breath. Everything is going to be ok.

Pretty much every Jango player I interacted with felt like this was going to happen. The HanSOR players are probably a little upset about the DJ suspension, but take solace in that the SWU dev team still thinks the HanSOR decks are going to do well… they just don’t want it skyrocketing back up to the top of the meta like it did in the TWI PQ season.

TDR is going to affect pretty much every non-control Yellow Villainy deck, but that’s ok because the influx of Jump to Lightspeed (JTL) vehicles really pushed this card over the top. Just know that doesn’t mean those decks are going to be bad.

What’s the next step? Let’s look at the data. We have several 100+ person tournaments in the past few weeks, and there were decks that punched into the Top 64 that were quite creative. Also, look at what did well last season. Fortunately I did I a breakdown of the TWI PQ season here, and that can be a good clue if your deck got nuked or you want to get an idea of what people are going to fall back on.

People have lots of time invested in those top decks, and time equals familiarity, and that usually means better play.

Last, start testing and playing against people. There’s a few weeks until SQ Richmond on the weekend of 26th of April. The meta is wide open again and player’s aren’t going to have to worry about getting both of their arenas exhausted by a flipped Jango and they TDR out War Juggernaut. That opens up a lot of deck building options. I can’t wait to see what the community comes up with.

Do I Agree With the Suspensions?

For what it’s worth, I was totally expecting a Jango ban. I’m not surprised about TDR, because that allows for some incredibly broken plays (which I mentioned in my article that came out a few days ago… RIP Piett Yellow. I was going to sleeve up that deck). It wasn’t too oppressive in the TWI PQ season because there were only three sets that didn’t quite have the vehicles to push it over the top. The Jump to Lightspeed set allowed TDR to absolutely feast.

Now, DJ… that one surprised me. But the FFG devs’ reasoning was legit. They didn’t want HanSOR decks to jump immediately back to the top of the meta. I think that’s a great reason, and it shows FFG is willing step in to keep things fresh. Kudos to them.

Which Leaders Will Rise?

 Let’s all acknowledge that Sabine ECL and Quinlan are the de facto top two leaders to look at and have the bar set. If your deck can’t beat those two, then it’s probably going to be more towards the casual side of Premier play. I want to take a pause real quick and emphasize that that’s okay. Not every deck is going to be a meta deck. Believe me when I tell you I’ll be right there to play your BobaSHD deck with my Dooku deck.

I’ve mentioned that for quite a while now I thought Gar Saxon was going to be competitive. Well, Gar Yellow finished 6th at SQ Liverpool. I mentioned that BobaJTL is going to be good, and I think he’s going to slide in the place of his dad. Cad Bane was a top performer in TWI season and he has put up some top spots in smaller tournaments. Anakin, also a solid performer last season, is getting stronger with JTL. I still think Piett has some legs. Go-big strategies are positioned well. Last, don’t count out HanSOR. If you ignore him it will be at your own peril. It’s not the best deck anymore, it’s just only really good. I’m excited to see how things shake out.

A New Hope

Make sure to stay tuned for more SWU content here on Card Gamer. We’ll have a lot more to say about the Premier meta as things shake out from these suspensions.

Until next time, be cool to your fellow players, be cool to your judges, hydrate, eat well, exercise, and wear clean socks. Hit me up anytime on Bluesky @TheFlyingWriter or Reddit at u/TheFlyingWriter.

Want more Jump to Lightspeed? Check out our full card image gallery here, or you can check out the previews of the next SWU set: Legends of the Force.