A Hot Take with Thorrk

“Ranking cards that depend on an archetype are riskier to rank, and that’s why leaders are suprsingly hard to rank.” - Thorrk

Thorrk of Thorrk’s Hot Takes is known for his introspective takes on how cards will play out in SWU’s meta. His YouTube channel has over 150 videos and over 5,000 subscribers.

What is your background with TCGs?

• Magic The gathering Draft, Modern and Legacy (20 years on and off)
• Lord of the Rings TCG by Decypher (2 years)
• Duelyst (2 years)
• Legends of Runeterra (1 year)
• Duel of Champions (6 months)
• Legend of the Five Rings LCG (1 year)
• Many other TCG/CCG but not so serious (Hearthstone, Eternal, Lorcana…)

What enticed you to start playing SWU?

The gameplay. It regroups all my favorite features from other TCGs in one well-designed package, it’s the best TCG I ever played.

What is your experience with the SWU scene in Europe?

Extremely positive, SWU has one of the best communities I ever had the chance to interact with (maybe being a YouTuber makes people kinder towards me). Tournament organizers that I’ve had the chance to work with (Twomoons, OPE and UKTC) have been amazing. The game is very competitive but in a good way, there is little to no toxicity as far as I’ve seen.

The game where I live (Dublin) is small, but we are all friends, and we have such a great community.

When you do your ranking videos, you’ll follow up at the end of the set with a comparison video of what you predicted versus the actual meta. What are some of the biggest things you’ve learned by doing that?

I already knew that but it [the video] highlights it: cards are not good or bad in a vaccum but relative to an environment (meta). One week before release is not enough to figure out a meta and since the power of a card is relative to it, it’s almost impossible to make an accurate ranking that early. Bans can also mess up the meta quite a bit and invalidate a big portion of your prediction. The power of a card can come down to very small details and it’s hard to spot everything right from the beginning.

Ranking cards that depend on an archetype are riskier to rank, and that’s why leaders are suprsingly hard to rank.

What are some of the cards or leaders you’re looking forward to the most with set 4?

Piett and Thrawn. And for cards, No Glory Only Results and Starhawk.

You can find out more on Thorrk by subscribing to his YouTube channel, as well as learning about his new team Enigma.