Preview Season Begins

The preview season for A Lawless Time has officially begun with yesterday’s drop of a leader and some support cards.

Hera Syndulla – Not Fighting Alone

We saw this artwork previously and it looked like it could be a leader from that first spoiler. Sure enough we get another Hera leader.

It’s very difficult to talk about this one without a direct comparison to the prior Hera leader from Spark of Rebellion. That version was a 4/6 that deployed on 6 resources. 10 stat points for 6 cost has not been great value to this point at 1.67 stat points per resource. That deploy cost and stat line proved be be a significant hindrance as far as competitive play goes.

This new version loses one power but also one resource required to deploy with the epic action, so 9 stat points for 5 cost or 1.8 stat points per resource. We’ve seen other leaders with this deploy cost and stat line have some success, most recently with Sabe who trades the Restore 1 for Raid 1.

Ability wise, the Restore 1 is good and could be a wash when compared to the older card’s gain of experience for another unit on attack. Restore on a leader is always a relevant ability. Restore 1 isn’t going to swing a game like Rey from SHD, but every bit helps.

The aspect penalty removal capability is on both cards in slightly different flavors. This new version of Hera adds a little bit of flexibility while also adding a barrier to usage. You can’t, realistically, play an abundance of off-aspect cards in your deck. So the ones you do play need to be highly impactful. You are then giving up a leader ability for the sake of playing maybe 2 cards over the course of a game. I don’t know if there is anything that good, but we’ll see what the rest of LAW brings. Assuming you have 1 unit out, deploying Hera on 5 resources and playing the new Zeb does sound pretty nice.

The new version’s wording could make Hera an absolute killer in draft and sealed events where having a board full of units is not difficult. Opening your deck pool to more off-aspect cards could be very good.

Ezra Bridger – Spectre Six

The new Ezra Bridger brings us another multi-aspect unit, with some relevant traits. Force and Rebel have both had their time in the spotlight. Ezra’s stats are good at 4 resources for a 4/5 with Raid 1. You are getting his When Played ability for free. While healing units has not proven to be highly impactful in the past, the fact that you are not paying extra to do it may make him a very playable card. Time will tell if Ezra will make the cut, but he is a well designed and well costed card.

Phantom – Spectre Shuttle

That stats are ok, but not amazing. 2 cost for a 2/2 is generally considered bad (you would prefer a 2/3 for 2 resources), however it’s a bit better in space. Phantom also brings along an experience token, which puts it’s total stats in the good pile. Not being a round one play is a strike against it, but it gives an action cheat and an extra experience point so aggro decks could love this at resource 4 by playing two 2 cost units.

With so many space area ships that have seen play in Rebel decks rotating out of Premier, it’s possible that Phantom sees play if a Rebel package continues to be a worthy build.

Fulcrum

This one seems very similar in feel to Figure of Unity from Secrets of Power. Both are upgrades that grant significant abilities to the rest of a player’s units. While Figure goes for adding keywords to all friendly units, Fulcrum goes for flat stat additions to all Rebels. Stats are generally better than keywords, and Fulcrum doesn’t require your unit to hang out in the back office with the other porgs watching everyone else attack before they can join the fun. At this point, there are very few, if any, ways to punish deploying a leader on 5 and attaching Fulcrum to it for a hard hitting turn. They can defeat the upgrade, which is bad, but there is not very good direct leader removal anymore after rotation.

If a post rotation Rebel package is a thing, it’s possible that Fulcrum finds its way into those decks as a potential closer.

Summary

This was a good start to LAW reveal season. We weren’t blown away with anything, but we also saw three cards and a leader that are well designed and well costed for what they do. Players who are fans of Rebels have a fun leader they can win games with and a couple units that could see some play in the right meta and card pool, immediately after rotation.

Porg Depot gives all of these cards a solid 2 and a half Porgs out of 5 and we look forward to the next reveals!