It is finally here – Jump to Lightspeed pre-release weekend. There is so much to be excited about, but first I want everyone to know what they are getting into: fun! That’s what you’re getting into. Everyone coming together to celebrate the release of a new set. New cards. New rules. Maybe it’s people’s first time playing the game. It’s exciting, and this particular pre-release is exceptionally special for a number of reasons. Let’s… Jump into it so I can hopefully share my excitement, and I can get you ready if this your first pre-release event.
Star Wars Unlimited‘s Other Limited Format
Last time we covered Drafting, but now we have a big event in 72 hours and you need a crash course to get ready for the other limited format: Sealed. But first, what is Sealed?
It’s pretty straightforward: open six packs, choose a leader from those packs, pick a base (any common 30 HP base or a rare base from a pack you opened), and then choose a minimum of 30 other cards. The only difference in a pre-release Sealed event is that your pre-release box will contain the two leaders from the pre-constructed decks, which you can use in addition to your six other leaders you opened.
You can’t use cards from outside those packs (except for common bases), you can’t trade cards with anyone else, but you are allowed to have as many copies of a card in your deck that you open (who’s going to be the first to open four Han Solos?). Furthermore, all the cards you open are considered your sideboard, and players are permitted to change the construction of their deck at any time in between games. So go ahead and try different leaders if you want. Get wild!
Since we’re getting you ready for JTL pre-release, let’s talk about the mindset now. Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) considers pre-release events to be casual-tier, so don’t go into these with a PQ mindset. Be there to help people out, be cordial to people (experienced and new) with the new cards and rules. Let people read the cards you play, ask to read their cards, and be understanding of the different levels of ability of the players. I’d be selling you short if I just left it at that, so let’s break this down with an example. I wasn’t lucky enough to get a Content Creator Big Box, but I did enjoy cracking a SOR box and simulating a pre-release kit for you all. Let’s get at it.
The Most Important Stuff in the Sealed Kit
Aside from some cardboard counters, quickstart rules, a cardboard deck box, and a cardboard divider, this is what you’ll see in a respective pre-release kit (just remove the Vader and Luke and you’d have exactly what you’d get for a sealed event).
First things first, don’t open your kit until the tournament organizer tells you to. However, you’re only going to have 30 minutes to make your deck, so there needs to be a plan. There’s many ways to tackle deck building in Sealed, but I’ll just show you how I do it.
Organizing Your SWU Sealed Pool
First, organize your cards while opening your packs. Remember, you’re on a time constraint and being disorganized will hinder deck building and add to the stress. Trust me, 30 minutes is more than enough time.
I organize everything (more or less) into columns. Left to right:
- Units on top with cost 1 to highest
- Underneath units are upgrades in respective cost column
- Underneath upgrades are events in respective cost column
- Separate column for rares and legendaries
- Leaders on the far right of my mat
Now I have a visual representation of what I’m working with. I compare my units, upgrades, events, and rares/legendaries to what leaders I have. As you can see, I got two IG-88, two Krennic, a Leia, and a Cassian (and my pre-release kit Vader and Luke). My rares are heavy in red and yellow, and if you remember the acronym BREAD I’m going to look at those cards.
My Bombs are pretty awesome in these pulls because they also all have Extra abilities. Ruthless Raider, AT-ST, Academy Defense Walker, Fett’s Firespray… Looking like Villainy for me in those categories.
Now looking at Removal, I have two Power of the Dark Side, and two Open Fire.
Aggro has some decent cards in Death Star Stormtrooper, Battlefield Marine, two Green Squadron A-Wing, and two Seventh Fleet Defender.
Plenty of Duds to smooth out the curve so I’m not worried there.
Last I’ll take inventory of Heroism and Villainy. In my pulls, it looks like I’m better on the Villainy side and that’s great because Cassian isn’t that great of a leader. However, Leia is good, and I got lots of solid green cards… but I’m kinda lacking on the Rebel trait to maximize Leia’s ability. So, it’s down to IG and Krennic. IG is kind of solid for the faster pace of limited because he flips on five and then gives all my units Raid 1, and my blue units are severely lacking in the middle cost cards.
Kind of easy decision for me, but I’m keeping my eye on Leia.
Making Your Sealed Deck
I once again separate my cards into cost order, units on top and upgrades/events underneath. If you look over to the top left corner, I did put all the Leia support cards in a pile (including the red heroic cards… those A-wings are sweet). If I have a possible “second deck” I keep that accessible just in case I flubbed the decision on the first deck. I took all my blue cards and put them away (and that Vigilance into my trade binder).
Now I’m looking at my rule of thumb: 69, 68, 69. I need 6-9 first round plays (usually units that cost one or two resources), 6-8 event/upgrades, and 6-9 space units. I got all of those boxes checked and then some. Sometimes, the cuts are harder than if you just have the minimum. Just a quick note, I put Cunning in the six-cost column because I would incur the two-cost aspect penalty for being double yellow. Sometimes a card is just that good to accept the aspect penalty in the limited (or even constructed) format.
Now, we go back to BREAD. I got 40 cards in my columns, and I typically want to get to the minimum deck size of 30 for the limited format. I don’t need two AT-STs because I got plenty of other bombs, so I cut one. I definitely don’t need the top end of nine first round plays because I have a lot of good event cards, so for sure toss out the second Underworld Thug. And as much as I love Surprise Strike (any card that allows you to play the card and then get an additional action is just a little bit better than normal), three is a bit excessive and will easily push me over the 6-9 event count. Three down and seven to go. Smoke and Cinders is a niche card that doesn’t fit this aggro deck so that’s easy to remove. Rallying Cry, while a cool card for go-wide aggro decks, will get cut because I can’t justify the five cost and I’m heavy on events already. Still five cards to go, and looks like I have to look at the events.
The Final Cut
I opted to lean into the hard aggro events that would beef up my units. I went top end of nine events because Bib Fortuna and Bossk both have good interactions with events. Keep Fighting could easily be another Open Fire, but I’m going hyper aggressive and Open Fire can’t hit the base. Also, I have eight space units and all but two of them can be targeted with Keep Fighting. I took the rest of the cards that I pulled from the initial 40 and put them on the side (top left corner). All in all, I’m really happy with these pulls and I would’ve loved to have played this deck at any Sealed event.
Remember to Have Fun!
Pre-releases are casual events. It’s a time to celebrate the release of a new set and play rounds of SWU. Understand there’s going to be mistakes made by you and your opponent, and that’s ok. No need to be cutthroat when you’re probably playing with the cards for the first time. No need to fight over new rules, just call the judge.
One last thing. An informal rule we have in our area is: if you pull a Showcase leader then you have to play it… even if it is Finn.
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 to learn more about playing Star Wars Unlimited? Check out my complete how-to-play guide here.
