Images courtesy of Fantasy Flight Games/Lucasfilm
Many of the Star Wars Unlimited (SWU) Premier players feel a little bit like Admiral Ozzel right now. In a field of Jangos, there was a beacon of hope… Admiral Piett stood stoically at attention on the bridge of the Executor and faced the enemy. Understandably, the community is in a little bit of a tizzy right now. But in the immortal words of the tremendous author Douglas Adams, “Don’t panic.”
Today we’ll to take a look at two options for Admiral Piett, a yellow base and a blue base, and then present some strategies on how to use the decks. Take these foundations and charge into victory with one of Piett’s famous quotes: “I will not fail the Empire!”
What Happened at Sector Qualifier Milan?
Sector Qualifier Milan was one of the largest events to date for Star Wars Unlimited. There was a whopping 546 players that showed up on 29 March, 2025 to compete in the two day event. The results were… concerning to many people. It definitely made me chuckle. I’m not one to get out the ban-hammer after one large event, especially when there’s some data to consider.
One, Jango was the third best (by percentage numbers) in the meta last PQ season, and it just got better weapons with the release of Jump to Lightspeed (JTL). Two, as I mentioned in my primer for the TWI PQ season, people are often going to play a deck they’re most familiar with when a new set drops. Three, there were plenty of other tournaments around the globe that had Jango pretty much right where he was last PQ season.
I’ll be the first to admit, I thought Boba Fett, Any Methods Necessary was going to be the JTL leader to hit the Top 8 first. It’s not the first time I’ve been wrong, nor will it be the last. Also, Piett Yellow was a surprise, because I thought the Vigilance version was “better.” Blue pretty much has all the removal in SWU, so I thought that would control the field until Piett could drop bombs in the Space Arena. The Yellow version looks to be a quicker deck that uses cards like Invisible Hand, Crawling With Vultures to get out extra value by searching out Droids.
Let’s take a look at both versions of Admiral Piett to see how they work.
Cunning – Admiral Piett + Pyke Palace (Yellow)
Malvolio 4th Place Sector Qualifier Milan
Leader and Base (2)
Admiral Piett, Commanding the Armada
Ground Units (20)
1 Bazine Netal, Spy for the First Order
3 Bib Fortuna, Jabba’s Majordomo
2 Maul, Shadow Collective Visionary
Space Units (14)
3 Invisible Hand, Crawling With Vultures
1 Chimaera, Flagship of the Seventh Fleet
1 Finalizer, Might of the First Order
Events (17)
2 Dogfight
3 Resupply
1 Waylay
Sideboard (10)
2 Relentless, Konstantine’s Folly
This deck is well tuned to get the job done. Kudos to Malvolio and whoever he worked with to get this deck out in time for an RQ two weeks after release and finish in the Top 4. Let’s see if I can do it justice by analyzing the deck.
Your best turn-one play is probably putting out Bib Fortuna. Bib sticking around gets the engine going on what this deck wants to do… well, what any Cunning Villainy deck wants to do: Triple Dark Raid (TDR). Turn two with Bib allows you to use his ability, play TDR for two resources and you have an extra resource left over to pay the difference of TDR and the six cost ship, and if you find Resupply Carrier or Invisible Hand you’re in a good spot.
Resupply Carrier ramps you one resource, and Invisible Hand will probably find you a droid. Then you get to swing with the Capital Ship and get added value, and then the unit goes back to your hand. Not too shabby. Remember, if Piett is flipped, you can effectively play a Capital Ship for seven off its cost using TDR.
Another cool synergy is using TDR to play a Vehicle unit, then use the event card Jump to Lightspeed (JtL) to return that space unit back to your hand, and then play it for free and it’ll stay on the board. Theoretically, if you ramped a resource (by either playing Resupply or SLT) on turn two, you can do the exact same line of play in the former paragraph on turn three, find Resupply Carrier, get an extra resource off your deck, play the JtL event for two, and then play Resupply Carrier again for free, getting another resource off your deck. Then you can flip Piett and roll into turn four and play Devastator because you have eight resources and a flipped Piett gives your Capital Ships a two-cost discount.
The sideboard of this deck is intentional with three copies of Scanning Officer, which is just a gut punch to HanSOR decks and their abuse of Tech. Outlaw Corona is a turn-one play with Piett’s ability, and that allows you to get out tough units early. Just be cautious if you choose to board in that card against a Vigilance Villainy deck; they would happily use a Takedown or PotDS to collect that Bounty and get an extra resource.
Vigilance – Admiral Piett + Colossus (Blue)
Leader and Base (2)
Admiral Piett, Commanding the Armada
Ground Units (14)
3 Doctor Pershing, Experimenting With Life
2 The Client, Dictated by Discretion
3 Darth Vader, Commanding the First Legion
Space Units (19)
2 Avenger, Hunting Star Destroyer
1 Annihilator, Tagge’s Flagship
Events (17)
3 Resupply
2 Takedown
Sideboard (10)
3 Del Meeko, Providing Overwatch
I looked at various Piett Blue decks and kind of pieced together my own. Colossus is a great card for control because it gives your an extra five HP for your base at the expense of one card in your opening hand. I wouldn’t worry too much about that in a control deck, because you should have plenty of card draw with Doctor Pershing.
The biggest concepts to internalize when playing control are: patience, thinking ahead, and stabilization.
Patience to understand that you’re going to be slightly behind in the opening rounds of the game. Patience to know you don’t have to use your removal, like Takedown, on the first unit available. Think ahead to what threats your opponent is going to play, and how you can maneuver yourself into the best possible situation to take advantage of that. For example: if you’re playing a Sabine ECL opponent, maybe you keep your base HP on the ragged edge of near defeat by using The Client to heal your base five HP, and have your opponent overcommit their hand until you can play Superlaser Blast. Thus, you stabilize and you take over by dropping your big units.
If Jango is the big baddy right now, in theory, a control deck is the cure for that plague. However, I mentioned previously that Bossk, who was the top control deck in last PQ season, might not do so well because of the indirect damage mechanic. Maybe fine tuning Piett Blue to weather the storm is the way to go. Restoring your base’s HP and going over the top of the Jango players definitely sounds tempting.
Last, I’m control player at heart; my first deck I brewed up was Palpatine Yellow (which I am working on again… thank you very much, Commandeer). So let me tell you something you can do with Piett Blue in a control mirror (here’s your friendly judge rules/interaction tidbit for the article): if you play No Glory, Only Results on your opponent’s Superlaser Technician, then you’ll get to put that unit into play as a resource and ready it on your side of the table. Just hope that their sleeve color is in stark contrast to yours so they know it was theirs for the rest of the match.
Can Piett Beat Jango?
We will definitely see how this shakes out at the Sector Qualifiers in Denver, Colorado in the USA and Liverpool, UK. I’m hoping for a healthy correction, and I think Piett might be the Leader to help shove the meta into a happy place. There’s a proof of concept from Milan, so let’s see what the ultra-competitive SWU Spikes can do in the next Sector Qualifiers.
Until next time, 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 more Jump to Lightspeed? Check out our full card image gallery here, or you can check out the previews of the next SWU set: Legends of the Force.
