LAW: Top Vigilance Cards
The Porg Depot team has spent the last week attempting to practice “mindfulness” and “patience,” which mostly resulted in Albert Porgstein staring intensely at a thermal detonator. Whether you’re looking to heal your base or just stall until your opponent gives up out of pure frustration, here are the Vigilance cards you didn’t know you needed.
Will these cards save your base?… In theory.
Is “Vigilance” just a fancy word for “being a nuisance”?… Essentially.
Is the blue milk now officially a biohazard?… Proceed with caution.
Hero
ObiWein: Swoop Bike Marauder
It’s well documented in card games that cards that let you draw more cards are considered a good thing. Heck, even in Uno slapping your opponent with a Draw 4 is awesome. Therefore a unit that draws a card when it attacks has to get some serious consideration. The stats at 4/4 seem to be roughly on curve for a 4 cost Vigilance unit post rotation. Not certain this will be heavily played in the new Premier format, but with its Common rarity this card will absolutely be a limited environment staple.
Veers21: Cinta Kaz
Cinta Kaz has a lot going for her in A Lawless Time. She is a 3/5 for 3-resources, gains sentinel with any upgrade, has the Rebel trait in a relevant aspect. There are some decks where she fits great, like any of the new Jyn decks and even LOF Obi-Wan Blue, who can give her an experience counter on round 2 giving you an immediate 4/6 Sentinel. They say Jedi should fall in love, but I’d say Obi-Wan is quite smitten with Cinta.
JawaJeff: Lando
As a 5 cost sentinel, this Lando is pretty well statted. He may cost more than both Captain Typho and Chirrut, but his ability gives him more sticking power than Typho and since he doesn’t need the force, can be played in a wider variety of decks than Chirrut. Also, nothing makes him mutually exclusive from either of those cards, so he can just fill out a nice curve for someone playing a more defensive deck. Typho or Chirrut on 4 resources followed by a Lando on 5 will make a pretty strong ground arena wall your opponent will have to get through.
Villain
ObiWein: Choke on Aspirations
Part of most good control decks will be the ability to heal and stabilize. The original Legendary Vigilance card was so good that some decks would pay 6 resources because of an aspect penalty to use it. Choke on Aspirations is easily the new highest amount of damage that can be healed from a base in one shot. The downside of course is a major hit to one of your units, however if the next play is Single Reactor Ignition then that unit isn’t going to matter much anyhow.
Veers21: Lawbringer
With Avenger rotating out of Premier, Vigilance Villain decks needed something at the top end of their curve to close out games. Lawbringer is no Avenger, but it has a decent when played ability that can help control the board and can continue to activate when attacking. It’s not always going to do what you want it to do, but it’s one of the better options this aspect combo has for now
JawaJeff: Display Piece
Not going to lie, it was hard to pick something other than Lawbringer, but Veers21 beat me to it. After that, the cards in blue villain were a bit underwhelming for me. But if I had to pick one, Display Piece is one I could pick. Post rotation we are losing a lot of our direct removal. There is no more Takedown, Vanquish, Rival’s Fall, or Fell the Dragon, all of which were probably better than this new card. However, in their absence the ability to get rid of any non-leader unit for one less than vanquish would be great but for this card’s obvious downside to ramp your opponent. That said, if you are trying to play a control deck, this card could still be used later in the game when getting rid of a large unit for four cost when ramping your opponent may also have less impact.
Neutral
ObiWein: Droid Laser Turret
The Sentinel ability is very good. When units with Sentinel also have a shield they are extra annoying. Add in that it only costs 3 resources, well now the devs were really cooking. This bane of aggro decks hitting the table in round two and likely taking two hits to get rid of makes it more than a speed bump. Being not tied to either heroic or villainy aspects just means that the upcoming meta may have many of them.
Veers21: Lost and Forgotten
A lot of the premium removal is rotating out when A Lawless Time is released. Lost and Forgotten fills a crucial role lost from Vigilance in defeating a unit and gaining health on your base. In this respect, Lost and Forgotten is better in that it can defeat any non-leader unit while gaining 3 life. It doesn’t have the versatility of Vigilance, but it’s safe to say very few of us will miss the mill win condition. Lost and Forgotten should be a staple removal in control decks.
JawaJeff: The Tree Remembers
With a lot of removal rotating out, The Tree Remembers will likely find its place in control decks, but it also could be a good sideboard card against many space decks. Many of the ships that pilot leaders crew are actually 3 or lower cost. Also due to removing the unit’s abilities it means it negates the text of the Chewie pilot. And even against non-space decks, preventing a when defeated trigger from occurring as you remove an early threat can not be overlooked. Now cards such as Karis Nemik won’t create his spy nor will any number of cards in a Thrawn deck have the same usefulness to your opponent.