Galactics is a week out, so Alex and I sat down for a numbers-heavy one. Five weeks of Karabast data, forty-three tracked decks, and a matchup matrix that thinks the format’s biggest deck might not even be the favorite to win the thing.

Cad Bane’s got the play share and none of us are surprised by that. Whether he’s actually the best deck is a different question, and the numbers have some opinions.

Links:

Music: “The Path of the Force — Inspired by Star Wars” by Luis Humanoide via Pixabay
https://pixabay.com/music/main-title-the-path-of-the-force-inspired-by-star-wars-405335/

Prerelease weekend is here, and this week I’m walking through everything you need to know to crack six packs of Ashes of the Empire and build something that actually wins games. Or at least something that doesn’t embarrass you in front of the guy who’s already sleeving up. Faking it convincingly is half the battle, take it from me.

This is a solo episode based on the full prerelease guide published this week at swu.report. We cover sealed fundamentals for anyone who’s new to the format, what makes ASH specifically different from prior sets — the tempo-focused design, Advantage tokens, Support, and the simplified base situation — aspect priorities for this particular card pool, what to do with your promo leaders Luke and Palpatine, and the thing I will apparently never stop saying: get your space units in order.

Links:

Music: “The Path of the Force — Inspired by Star Wars” by Luis Humanoide via Pixabay
https://pixabay.com/music/main-title-the-path-of-the-force-inspired-by-star-wars-405335/

Will and Alex are back to close out the Ashes of the Empire leader lineup. This week we work through the back half of the set from a Premier constructed lens: Bo-Katan Kryze, Cad Bane, Vane, Ezra Bridger, The Mandalorian, Emperor Palpatine, Shin Hati, Greef Karga, and Grogu.

Two quick housekeeping notes this episode: the SWU Report has a Ko-fi page if you’d like to help support the site, and we just launched a Discord server for anyone who wants to talk shop, argue about ASH leaders, or just hang out with the community.

Links:

Music: “The Path of the Force — Inspired by Star Wars” by Luis Humanoide via Pixabay
https://pixabay.com/music/main-title-the-path-of-the-force-inspired-by-star-wars-405335/

This week I’m joined by Alex Schmidt — PQ winner, COO at Stonemaier Games, and fellow card game obsessive — for our first conversation about the Ashes of the Empire leader lineup. Alex and I were introduced by a mutual friend who figured we’d have a lot to say to each other. Turns out that was correct.

We work through the first nine ASH leaders from a Premier constructed perspective: The Armorer, Fennec Shand, Baylan Skoll, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Luke Skywalker, Sabine Wren, Grand Admiral Sloane, Moff Gideon, and Ahsoka Tano. First impressions, initial competitive ceiling reads, and the obligatory moment where we disagree about something and both feel pretty good about it.

Part 2 coming soon.

Links:

Music: “The Path of the Force — Inspired by Star Wars” by Luis Humanoide via Pixabay
https://pixabay.com/music/main-title-the-path-of-the-force-inspired-by-star-wars-405335/

This time I’m walking through the full A Lawless Time competitive season using the APR methodology — and debuting the new APR Dashboard, live today at swu.report.

We cover the Big Three, the overperformers the weekly articles kept flagging, the Data Vault ceiling problem, and the Prague Regional Championship, where the three most-played archetypes in the room combined for exactly zero top 8 appearances.

I was wrong about Prague. The data wasn’t. Those aren’t always the same thing.

Links:

Music: “The Path of the Force — Inspired by Star Wars” by Luis Humanoide via Pixabay

Welcome to the first episode of the SWU Report podcast. This week I’m introducing myself properly — twenty-plus years of competitive card gaming, from A Game of Thrones CCG to co-founding The White Book podcast, to helping keep the AGOT community alive after FFG walked away, to getting dragged back into content creation after the Star Wars Unlimited Galactic Championship in Las Vegas last year.

Fantasy Flight Games once called me a “Championship Level Player” on their official website. It’s funnier in context, I promise.

Links:

Music: “The Path of the Force — Inspired by Star Wars” by Luis Humanoide via Pixabay