Lobot – Cloud City Coordinator

Two resources for a Vigilance unit with Sentinel.  We’ve seen this basic blueprint before with Pyke Sentinel and Loth-Wolf each of which has a slight variation from the other.

Either of these units can be traded with during the second round by a number of similarly cost round one playable units in the ground arena.  For example, a Battlefield Marine could take out either one.

Lobot can take that 3 damage hit, stick around and attack right back thanks to Grit.

In fact there are currently only two round one playable units that on their own could defeat Lobot in one swing, Attuned Fyrnock and Chopper – War Hero, both coming in at 4/1 in the Aggression Heroism aspect combo.

Even in the late game when you absolutely need something to block a direct attack to your base from the ground arena, Lobot is simply more likely to take something extra to knock him out of commission.  That extra 33% in the hit point column could mean an extra action spent by your opponent to get him off the board, plus he’s getting that chance to counter attack after that first hit leaves him standing.

Limited Spin

You can expect to see a lot more spies in limited.  Lobot can block a Spy and turn right around to defeat it, leaving you with a respectable 2/2 Sentinel.

Punishing One – Take No Prisoners

What initially looks underpowered could be extremely deceiving.  

Having a resource cost of 5, you would expect to get in the neighborhood of 9 to 11 total points between power and hit points.  At 8 total points, this ship is going in at a disadvantage from the outset.  However its ability of Raid 1 for every damaged enemy unit means in theory there is no cap to how powerful this could get.  Adding that it can do a point of damage to a target when played could easily mean that it’s effectively starting with Raid 1.

Combo with an IG-2000 or War Juggernaut the round you want to attack with Punishing One leaves you an opportunity to attack with Raid 4 or more.  Paired with a Cunning aspect base also gives you access to ISB Agent and Elite P-38 Starfighter as additional ways to put at least a point onto enemy targets and get the Raid engine really revving up.  You also get Sneak Attack to bring Punishing One out a turn earlier for a big surprise attack.

Staying on theme, Dengar from JTL as a pilot on his own ship puts your opponent in a tricky spot having to make a decision of damaging their own units and beefing up Punishing One or just taking the indirect damage straight to their base.

Limited Spin

Punishing One may also end up being quite the bomb of a ship in limited formats.  Shifting away from the super tuned decks of Premier usually there are more units just hanging around on the board for longer.  The ability to do a point when played and again on each attack can easily help clean out some of those pesky enemy units or just create a major Raid problem in space for which there may be no easy answers.