With the release of Star Wars Unlimited: Legends of the Force rapidly approaching, many players are left pondering which leaders they should build around. Will there be anyone in this set to challenge the might of Boba Fett? Just how impactful is the new “Use The Force” mechanic? Do I want to join the Jedi or serve the Sith?
This ranking of the 18 new leaders in Legends of the Force will separate the Padawans from the Masters; we’ll show who to build around, and who to avoid.
18. Ahsoka Tano – Fighting For Peace
There are lots of exciting ways to use the Force in this set. Talzin’s Assassin, and Mace Windu – Leaping into Action can use the Force to remove enemy units. Ki-Adi-Mundi can use it to draw cards, and Jedi Consular can exchange Force tokens for discounts on upcoming plays. Ahsoka’s ability to use the Force to temporarily grant a single unit sentinel would be underwhelming if it was on a bulk common. You definitely don’t want this as the effect provided by your leader.
17. Grand Inquisitor – Stories Travel Quickly
The Grand Inquisitor ensures that combat goes your way by debuffing the enemy right before you launch an attack. Doing this uses the Force, and it’s not a great way to spend a Force token. When this Inquisitor enters play, his ability becomes less useful as he can only support his own attacks, and can no longer benefit your other units. This card is entirely unremarkable, and likely won’t see any real play outside of Limited.
16. Mother Talzin – Power Through Magick
Mother Talzin is comparable to The Grand Inquisitor. The debuff she provides lasts longer, is spread over both power and HP, and she trades in his shield for two additional HP. Neither she or the Inquisitor offer anything truly revolutionary. She narrowly scrapes ahead of him, due to her synergy with other Night cards like Old Daka – Oldest and Wisest, Karis – We Don’t Like Strangers, and Talzin’s Assassin.
15. Darth Maul- Sith Revealed
Darth Maul – Sith Revealed has very little that makes him stand out. This crimson Sith Lord can use the Force to dish out damage, which must be dealt to two targets. You can chip your opponent’s units down, or hurt yourself to gain beneficial effects. If you fill your deck with units with the Grit keyword, or with “when defeated” abilities, then you can eke out some advantage. With that said, Qi’ra – I Alone Survived remains the master of this self-destructive strategy, and Maul does little to threaten her position.
14. Kit Fisto – Focused Jedi Master
Kit Fisto wants you to go wide, and play as many Jedi as possible. You’re rewarded for this with a spray of two damage pings on your opponent’s units, and then a scaling attacker that gets stronger the more Jedi that you have in play. This strategy is seriously hampered by a lack of low cost Jedi units. Barriss Offee is the only cost one Jedi. Furthermore, there are only 10 Jedi that cost two, spread out over several different aspects. Kit Fisto wants to be an aggro deck, but he simply can’t build up the speed to get his strategy online quickly enough.
13. Rey – Nobody
Rey rewards you for playing non-unit Force cards by dishing out damage to the enemy’s board. Unfortunately, many of the best cards that would trigger Rey’s ability like Force Choke, Death Field, and Palpatine’s Return are villainous, making it impractical for her to take advantage of them. When Rey is ready to enter play, she has an imposing statline, and allows you to chuck away your hand and refuel, but she won’t be coming down until the late game and doesn’t have any keywords to take advantage of her strength. The trickle of damage from Rey’s ability doesn’t make it worth loading up your deck with Force cards, and she’s not as impactful enough to justify her cost once she enters play.
12. Obi-Wan Kenobi – Courage Makes Heroes
Going wide is the name of the game here. Obi-Wan wants to amass a massive board full of units, and then use Force tokens to buff them all up with experience. This is decently powerful; with the right build regularly, you can Force tokens seamlessly, and you’ll be able to quickly threaten the opposition with an army that’s as plentiful as it is powerful. While not a remarkable leader, this printing of Obi-Wan is a boon to large swarms of units.
11. Darth Revan – Scourge of the Old Republic
Unlike other leaders who distribute experience counters, Darth Revan can do so without needing to use the Force or expend any resources. When he hits play, he’s able to distribute an uncapped number of experience tokens. So long as your units (including Revan himself) can keep defeating the enemy, they can keep gaining experience and growing. This will be huge against any enemies who are looking to go wide, since you’ll easily be able to easily finish off their big swarms of units, and grow stronger as you do so. Unfortunately, this all comes at a heavy cost. Darth Revan only possesses a single aspect symbol, heavily limiting the pool of units that he’s able to draw from. Revan’s effect is powerful, but doesn’t seem quite powerful enough to offset this massive limitation.
10. Anakin Skywalker – Tempted by the Dark Side
This printing of Anakin is one of the most interesting cards in Legends of the Force. Like Chancellor Palpatine – Playing Both Sides before him, Anakin straddles both heroism and villainy. This uncertain Jedi ignores the aspect penalties on all villainous cards, allowing villainous staples like Overwhelming Barrage, and Power of the Dark Side to be cleanly played alongside heroism cards. Anakin doesn’t ignore the aspect penalty on villainous units though, and you need to use the Force to get this discount. There are significant limitations on what this card can achieve, and it’s perhaps more novel than it is powerful, but it is definitely worth keeping an eye on Anakin.
9. Cal Kestis – I Can’t Keep Hiding
Hitting the table on turn three, and allowing you to exhaust your opponent’s units, Cal Kestis does what cunning decks do best. He hits quickly and disrupts the opponent’s plans. While Cal isn’t likely to stay in play for very long, due to his low HP, he gets in very early, and you can make his presence really count. Even when he’s gone, you can keep using him to lock your opponent’s cards out of the game. While the opponent chooses the target of Cal’s effect, timing the activation of this ability carefully can ensure that you always exhaust something useful.
8. Morgan Elsbeth – Following the Call
There are several cards in Legends of the Force that care about gathering together as many keywords as possible. Oppo Rancisis gains the keywords of each other friendly unit that you control, and cards like Eye of Sion have more keywords than they could possibly need. Morgan Elsbeth seems to be tailor made to serve as the leader for this keyword collecting deck, which looks like it will be fun, and difficult to stop if it can get going.
7. Supreme Leader Snoke – In the Seat of Power
While Snoke in the movies may have been dispatched by Kylo Ren without much difficulty, his TCG counterpart is a lot more threatening. There are a lot of parallels between this card and Grand Moff Tarkin – Oversector Governor. While Tarkin can come down a turn earlier, Snoke possesses 2 more power and his ability is not restricted exclusively to Imperial units. Grow one of your units into a formidable threat, and then unleash an Overwhelming Barrage to wipe out the opposition. A simple plan, but one that’s undeniably effective.
6. Kanan Jarrus – Help Us Survive
Kanan Jarrus encourages a deck loaded up with both Creatures and Spectres. Build an unbreakable wall by continuously generating shields for massive defensive beasties like Graceful Purrgil, and Bendu – The One In The Middle. Ezra Bridger – Attuned With Life was also explicitly designed to work alongside Kanan, providing experience tokens for Spectres and Creatures to complement these shields. Kanan is fantastic to build around in limited, and that strength may just translate into viability in constructed formats as well.
5. Third Sister – Seething With Ambition
Third Sister cares about the Hidden keyword. She’ll keep your important units safe as they enter play, ensuring that they will always be able to accomplish something before getting taken out. This is very useful, especially alongside support cards like In The Shadows. Many villainous units are fragile units with high power, but low HP and Third Sister can keep them safe as they get ready to attack.
4. Qui-Gon Jinn – Student of the Living Force
Qui-Gonn Jinn allows you to loop your units into and out of play, enabling you to repeat powerful when played effects, and repeatedly attack with units that can ambush. There are all sorts of applications for this effect. You can use it to increase the number of red cards that you’re able to play, allowing you to trigger the ability of Fighters for Freedom incredibly rapidly. You can build up an army of Clone Troopers using Captain Rex – Lead by Example, or you can use Patrolling V-Wing to keep drawing cards. Don’t let the fact that Qui-Gon Jinn is a starter deck leader fool you, there’s plenty here to love.
3. Kylo Ren – We’re Not Done Yet
The game plan here is clear. Use Kylo Ren’s first ability to load your graveyard up with upgrade cards, then slam him into play decked out with as many lightsabers and other improvements as he can carry. From Electrostaff to Fallen Lightsabers, Kylo Ren has a plentiful selection of gadgets to draw upon. Ben Solo demands an answer as soon as he enters play. Given how removal in Star Wars Unlimited comes at a premium rate compared to other TCGs, he will definitely get some hits in before he goes down.
2. Barriss Offee – We Have Become Villains
Using the Force to get discounts on events is surprisingly impactful and adds up over time. Using Barriss Offee, you’ll be quicker on the draw than your competition, and able to get your events off more quickly. With Mystic Monastery as your base, you’ll be able to Resupply and get ramping on turn one. You can wipe out their opening unit immediately with Open Fire, or destroy a late game threat with a discounted Rival’s Fall.
1. Avar Kriss -Marshal of Starlight
The legacy of this card depends on how viable strategies based on using the Force turn out to be. Having said that, the ability to guarantee the creation of a Force token every single turn seems incredibly impactful. The abilities of cards like Dagoyan Master, Jedi Consular, and Yoda – My Ally is the Force will always be available when needed. If you run other cards that create Force tokens, then you can cheat Avar Kriss into play significantly earlier than your opponent might expect, and slam into them with an overwhelming 8/10 attacker. Since The Force is the titular mechanic of the new set, there’s good cause to be optimistic about Avar Kriss.
Conclusion
There are several takeaways here:
- Many of the new leaders use the Force. The best of them provide a useful trade-in for your Force tokens. Meanwhile, weaker leaders offer effects that just aren’t worth it.
- Kit Fisto and Kanan Jarrus both reward player for building their deck around cards with certain traits. Both of them will grow more powerful as more cards with these traits are printed. While it’s difficult to use Kit Fisto now, due to the absence of low cost Jedi, there may come a time when he becomes more playable.
- Of the two starter deck leaders, Qui-Gon Jinn is significantly more appealing than Darth Maul. Qui-Gon offers a genuinely new strategy based around looping when played effects, while Darth Maul just deals chip damage. In the future, we may see more leaders going for the same strategy as Qui-Gon Jinn at a lower cost, opening up his niche and leaving him less unique.
Of course, given the set hasn’t been released yet, the new meta hasn’t even begun to take shape. Maybe Darth Maul will surprise us all, or Kylo Ren will end up being much easier to disrupt than anticipated. The only way to find out is to crack some packs and play some games.
For more information on Legends of the Force stick with Card Gamer. We have a complete gallery of cards from the set available to browse, as well as a guide on how the Legends of the Force set’s new Hidden keyword works.
