Gudo and BeeDee bang out some games with new Jump to Lightspeed leaders Kaz, Piett, and Thrawn.

What’s better than playing SWU? Being on a team with SWU! Gudo discusses some of the benefits.

“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.

The Two To Basers discuss which leaders to choose for the Jump to Lightspeed pre-release.

March has finally arrived, which means two bigs things coming up for Two To Base: the Jump to Lightspeed pre-release weekend and the Bothan Invitational at the end of the month!

First for set 4, the whole team is excited to finally crack open packs and play with the cards that we’ve been previewing and playtesting. The majority of the team will be doing a midnight pre-release at The Haven. Look for a future post this weekend about how the event went! And then, soon after pre-release weekend, we’ll be jumping right in to preparing our actual decks that we’ll be taking to Atlanta.

The Bothan Invitational is a huge deal: not only is it the highest prize-payout event ever in SWU history, but it is also the first time that SWU will see a 3 vs 3 tournament. Teams of three will square off against other teams of three in this unique format. Not only was Two To Base personally invited by the Bothan Network, but our very first round will be against Frank and his team of Bothans! AND ours will be the first game of the tournament that will be streamed! We don’t take lightly how much of an honor this is, and we’ve been doing lots and lots of behind-the-scenes prep to show our A-game in set 4’s first tournament.

Each week we’ll provide an update on how our preparation is going, until the final big event at the end of March. Keep an eye out here and on our YouTube channel to follow along on this crazy adventure!

Jump to Lightspeed pre-release is this week and the Two To Basers have been doing some playtesting with the newest leaders!

Here’s everyone’s thoughts on who they are excited to use for this new set:

Beatza - Luke Skywalker, Hero of Yavin

I like that his ability doesn’t cost any resources, and Luke as a pilot is easily one of my favorite characters in SWU. It reminds me of the Death Star trench run scene which is probably my favorite in the entire series.

Initially I’m testing him with Tarkintown and it seems to be pretty good. It’s not too hard to use Luke’s ability and ping abilities go together with Tarkintown like peanut butter and Jelly. Using Tarkintown also opens up access to Aggression, which I think in the right deck is going to be one of the strongest cards in the Jump to Lightspeed meta. Every option on the card is good, and being able to defeat leader pilots with it makes it a must have.

One of my favorite lines so far on 6 resources is to swing with Red Five, play Aggression to ready it, then deploy Luke onto the readied Red Five. Then it can swing 8 to base, and because of Luke’s ability, you can do 5 damage to a unit. If you did 4 damage with Aggression, you just got 21 points of damage total on the board! (if my math is right.) I’m looking to swing with big numbers and do some really fast burn damage with this deck.

I think Luke will be a contender in the meta depending on how well control decks can adapt to the incoming space-heavy meta. Piett can be brutal to play against if you don’t get under him fast enough. Restore can be hard to overcome. But I have outraced Sabines and burned through Thrawns so I think the deck certainly has legs. Another good thing is the deck is relatively cheap to build with Aggression being the only Legendary card I’m using in it so far.

BeeDee - Major Vonreg, Red Baron

I think he is very strong. Paired with ECL, he can deploy strong units for the midgame like Darth Maul and Phasma while having an aggro plan for the early game with an early deploy that has Sabine stats. Vonreg with his ship is 7 attack, and in some cases that is better than Sabine with the Darksaber.

It’s a bit hard to tell how strong he will be, due to him being a pilot leader, and we don’t know how good those will be yet. I think he is a solid rogue tier at worst and at best he will replace Sabine as THE aggro leader.

Gudo - Kazuda Xiono, Best Pilot in the Galaxy

I mostly like that he’s an early deploy leader that can deploy onto a Millennium Falcon and swing for 7 with Petranaki Arena. You can also use Cunning on the flip turn into the Falcon so you can swing for 11 damage on the 4 resource turn pretty consistently. That alone is enough to decide a game.

I also think just having access to tempo plays like Waylay, Cunning, Spark of Rebellion, and Bodhi Rook is enough to justify playing him in double yellow.

I think he will be sneaking into the meta early on being a potential new aggro leader out of the gate. His ability isn’t used every single turn but when it is used it doesn’t waste an action, so he also is an action cheating leader that won’t miss out on swing damage when turning off cards’ abilities. This is the first of its kind that we have seen where a leader can take a second action in a row.

I think there’s ground to discuss if Petranaki Arena is worth the +1 swing damage, but so far the lower HP at 26 hasn’t felt too bad. Might look into Nabat Village to ensure we draw either Cunning or Falcon early on, as those have been huge game deciders in the end.
I would rank Kazuda right into the “A” tier just based on what colors he can thrive in. I don’t think you can go easy when you are sitting across the table from him.

HecThor - Captain Phasma, Chrome Dome

I have not gotten the chance to playtest and really look into what every set 4 leader has the potential for yet, but as of now I am leaning towards Phasma. Main thing that drew my attention is her color aspect and how aggressive it can be, being able to ping to base once deployed and then ping any unit and base sounds great to me.

No doubt Phasma must be paired with ECL. The main reason is being able to play the new 5 cost Phasma unit with ambush, get to take advantage of its when played and on attack, allowing you to buff 1 First Order unit with a +4 +4 (ideally on your Phasma leader) or +2+2 to two First Order units. Makes the flip turn very dangerous for your opponent.

I don’t think it will be a tier S deck but it may have some potential to sneak some wins here and there. Only time will tell if people can come up with a list to make Phasma a dominating threat, or just a fun deck for more casual settings.

Roberttylerlee - Poe Dameron, I Can Fly Anything

I’m most excited about Poe, for sure. I personally think that Poe yellow is going to make for some extreme aggro play that will be very hard to keep up with. Personally, I want to run Poe with Nabat Village. Nabat would allow you to have a higher chance of drawing They Hate That Ship and Millennium Falcon, Piece of Junk in your opening hand. You can THTS out Falcon for 1, flip Poe onto Falcon, and swing for 5 on turn one (6 if you’re lucky enough to have an R2D2 to attach to Falcon, too). Your opponent has to go in to their turn one expecting you to have that combo ready, which can open you up for other plays as well. I think Poe is going to be a staple in the meta for set 4, for sure.

Spork - Han Solo, Never Tell Me the Odds

I’d be remiss if I didn’t pick Han as my favorite leader! While he doesn’t traditionally ramp, like Han1 or Han2, he does have a powerful flip, that if capitalized on, can swing the game in your favor. He flips on 5, which is cool, and when he’s flipped as an upgrade you get to ready your resources equal to the number of odd-costed units and upgrades you have in play. This gives you the ability to ready up your board and then alpha strike with follow up cards like Surprise Strike and Rebel Assault.

His whole shtick is building a deck around odd-costed cards, which is not hard at all to pull off. The old and new Falcons are odd (except for Lando’s Falcon), Resupply, U-Wing Reinforcement, Han unit, the new Han unit; these are all cards this deck wants, and they play into the deck’s inherent constraint.

Just like how the Spotlight deck comes with Echo Base, I think green is definitely the home for him. Yellow could be an option as well, but I think he gets so much more with cards like Chewbacca, Blue Leader, Bright Hope, and the first Home One.

Plus his showcase looks awesome, so I’m definitely hoping to crack that one!

We’ve all been there before when playing SWU: our opponent is just doing everything to get under our skin. “Why are they taking so long?” “Stop doing that!” “Let me just attack!”

But here’s the thing: our opponent isn’t doing anything to get under our skin or piss us off. We’re choosing to be annoyed with them. Maybe they’re taking into account something we’re not aware of. Maybe that’s just the way they play. Or maybe they really are trying to upset us. Whatever the case, in the end we’re in control of our actions and we choose whether we brush off the things that are upsetting us or to act out on those feelings and tilt.

Here’s the trouble with tilting: not only does it make for a very un-fun experience for us, it also impacts our opponent, the players seated next to us, the LGS, and even the community at large. Think about it: you’re playing against your opponent and their face looks like a nuclear reactor about to blow, or maybe they already have lost their cool and are beyond frustrated. Not only has the enjoyment of the game diminished, but now you’re walking on eggshells, hoping that they will calm down and not get set off any further. Nobody wants that. So why do we do it?

We’re all human. We all have those bad days. I’ll admit that one time at my LGS I started off pretty level-headed, but after my third loss, I was frustrated. I didn’t lash out at my opponent, but I definitely lost my cool (mostly I just dug through my deck, slamming each card on the table, looking for that answer card that was of course at the very bottom). It felt bad to be so upset and I hated that I lost face in front of a friendly player (it wasn’t his fault that I didn’t draw the cards I needed).

So what can we do about this? While once we’ve tilted, it will take some time to cool down, there’s time to interrupt the process before it becomes too late.

Imagine a cooking pot with a lid on it, and we’re boiling water. All is fine at first. This is us at any given moment: cool, calm, and collected. Nothing to worry about.

However, as the water gets hotter, steam starts pushing up on the lid. Physically this feels like your face becoming flush, your muscles tensing up, or even your thoughts becoming a little fuzzy. It’s during this moment that you have the most important choice of all because you can still think rationally, but you won’t have much longer. You can either let the hate flow through you, or you can realize that you’re getting close to the edge and you need to back down.

It’s too late once the lid has flipped. All that pressure has to go somewhere, so it goes outward. Water is boiling over onto the burners and you’re pounding the table or cursing and yelling. There’s no rational thinking at this point. It’s all lizard brain.

So what can you do before you’ve flipped your lid? The first and most effective thing you can do is so simple, yet we take it for granted all the time. Just breathe. It doesn’t need to be some grand action to reset yourself. Often I’ll just take a deep breath through my nose, hold the breath for a second, and then slowly exhale. Do that as much as you need until your thoughts stop getting so clouded. Another option is to just laugh about it. Yeah, doesn’t it just suck that my board state is shitty and I’m not drawing all my answers? Yup, sure does! I must be the luckiest guy in the world right now to have such odds stacked against me!

It’ll be okay. Maybe this game is a loss, but there’s always the next one.

One thing I do before even getting to that point of my lid bobbing up and down is just being aware of what triggers me. Playing on an empty stomach is a big one. I’ll make sure to have a good meal before the tournament, or even a snack between rounds. Apparently Baja Blast Mountain Dew and Peanut M&Ms work wonders for me. Or if I’m playing against an opponent that I know bugs me, I’ll make sure I’m taking those deep breaths whenever possible and just tuning out whatever annoys me about them. It also helps to compliment them at the end of the match, especially if you lost. “Oh man, I thought I had it, but that Surprise Strike on my leader really took the wind out of my sails! It was all over after that.”

In the end, this is all just a card game. Yeah, winning is awesome, but if everyone won all the time, the game would be pretty boring. It’s those losses that make the wins sweeter. It’s all those moments of staying in control that make the SWU community the best that it is.

It’s okay to get upset: we’re all human. It’s not okay to take it out on your opponent.

On a side note, regarding that one player that I did lose my cool with: I messaged him on Discord and I apologized. I framed it in a way that used “I statements:” “I did this”, “I did that”, not blaming him at all. Because it was my choice how I acted. He appreciated the statement and totally understood where I was coming from. Now when I see him at locals, I don’t need to worry about feeling awkward around him, and I also remember that it’s so much easier to have fun playing SWU when I keep cool.

Gudo and Spork preview even more Jump to Lightspeed cards, including a new leader and some awesome support cards.

“We wanted to create a space that went above and beyond the ‘hole in the wall’ game store that catered to the stereotypical gamer from media and instead was a place for everyone to feel not only welcome, but encouraged to be there.” -Matt

The Haven in Casselberry, Florida is the go-to place for Central Florida SWU players. Store owner Matt shares more about what makes it special.

What led you to establishing The Haven?

I started with Pokemon when I was a kid, moved on to Yu-Gi-Oh for a year or two and then finally landed in MTG in middle school. That’s where working in the industry started. It might not be the most serious start, but I was selling Magic in the school library every morning and buying kids collections to resell. In the more sincere start I was part of the opening staff for Cloak and Blaster and I was one of the very few online stores able to sell Flesh and Blood online when it was released and helped spread the game in FL. I managed the bar and launched their retail store in 2020 when restaurants had to go down to limited seating and mostly take out. Between that and being their TO for Flesh and Blood I realized the things I was enjoying about that job was the community building and running events. Me and my now wife Ally had discussed the possibility of taking over Cloak and Blaster if the owners ever sold, but it became increasingly clear that they had no intention to do so and that we either stayed there or we started our own store. We decided on the latter. We wanted to create a space that went above and beyond the “hole in the wall” game store that catered to the stereotypical gamer from media and instead was a place for everyone to feel not only welcome, but encouraged to be there. Ally had always felt like people in other stores merely tolerated her while we played in stores because “her boyfriend brought her” or people would talk down to her cause she was a woman and assume she didn’t know how to play. So we made The Haven everything we wanted back then. A place that reaches out to the community and tries to bring everyone together over games rather than just being a place to shop.

Ever since the pre-release of Spark of Rebellion, The Haven has hosted midnight events for each SWU set, including even midnight sales of the product’s actual release, which not every store in the area has done. What makes the midnight event a focus for The Haven?

I’ve been doing prereleases since I got into gaming. It’s my favorite time in games. Everyone is excited, all the cards are new, and everyone just wants to get games in with the new stuff. Midnight releases have really dropped off store calendars as the years have gone on and I really wanted to bring that magic back and the SWU community was excited about the game enough to make it work. I wanted it to happen personally, but I needed the community to support it too to make it work as a business.

Have there been any memorable moments around SWU for the store?

That first midnight release was really amazing. New game. First set. Showcases. The energy was really off the charts. [Insert joke about Anakin’s Midi-chlorians here]

The Haven will be hosting a Learn to Play event for SWU on March 1st. What was the inspiration for that?

So there’s two sides to the L2P. Community and Business.

Community - SWU grew really fast at first and it’s kinda tapered off for us lately. Attendance at locals has dropped and we wanna make sure the community can keep sustaining itself and growing healthy. So why not bring people in for a Learn to Play and get some new people into the game?

Business - We have so many 2-players starters and soft crates! Rather than trying to discount them and selling them online for pennies on the dollar we thought it would be better to break them up into decks to teach new players locally while also clearing out some shelf space for the new stuff! They get into the game for cheap, we move some product, our local scene grows. It’s a win-win-win!

What are you excited about for set 4? Are you looking forward to any new cards or leaders?

Sabine’s Masterpiece is a rad unit and also great to see more Spectre support. But let’s be real. Poe leader having an action that brings him out as a pilot and then an epic action that lets you bring him out as a unit that can also attach? That’s crazy. I’m loving the pilot focus of this set and some of the weird bases we’ve seen too. I would have loved to see a bit of a deviation from Han / Boba for the spotlight decks, but I get that they probably test better for marketing purposes. Overall very hyped to see how the game changes with this set release!

The Haven’s Learn to Play event will be Saturday March 1st at 1 PM.

Premier play is every Saturday at 6 PM.

The Haven is located at 3385 South US Hwy 17/92 Suite 269, Casselberry, FL, 32707

Gudo and BeeDee preview some Jump to Lightspeed cards, including a new leader and some insane new ships.