Aggro, Midrange, and Control Explained -- Star Wars Unlimited Deck Archetypes!

[@jackmaniacki]

As someone who is new to both SWU and relatively inexperienced with TCGs, this content is really helpful.

[@brettdennis5015]

Great info for folks new to collectable card games. Thank you, sir!

[@TowerNumberNine]

Happy to help!

[@pwalmsley9]

This is really useful info! I played an interesting three-way the other day with a couple of friends. None of us particularly experienced with the game. The Aggro player ended up being a bit too conservative, and the Control player managed to build up enough of a blockade that he was hard to overcome even with the two of us teaming up. I was messing around with an experimental Hera deck, but inexperience let me down with a nasty vanquish and then not enough big cards to overcome the Control player.

[@Tylerjstratton]

Hey dude! I loved to see your deck list for Chirrut from the take the initiative tourney, or what you'd play now. I'll be playing him for may the 4th (not many other options in my card pool) and love you take / links!! I enjoy your content.

[@paulrummel4089]

An excellent overview and refresher!

[@TowerNumberNine]

Thanks!

[@12bjorn34]

As someone who’s used every archetype, control is my favorite because it’s just “you play something, lemme get rid of it.” It then allows me to play a bunch of big, cool cards in the late game too. Aggro and mid-range are really fun too, especially GI (who in my experience is both aggro and mid-range). He has such a fun and exploitable leader ability.

[@TowerNumberNine]

Yeah, control lets you send in the big battleships!

[@coachalexmiller]

@@TowerNumberNine avenger: the most fun you can have with your clothes on

[@Jfreak7]

@@coachalexmiller Avenger?!? I didn't even know her?

[@smallspacearcade8158]

I've usually favoured agro in other card games, mostly because deck construction is simple and I've usually refused to invest in a larger card collection. However this game and art work has my buying boosters by the box 😂. So I'm enjoying trying out things thanks to a much larger card collection.

[@johndigiovanni2519]

I love Iden - great deck but playing it in a tournament causes problems (I play Command over Aggression). After a few rounds you're just gassed from the general strain of playing control, and the threat of time and double loss is very real. I also love Leia, but the game seems repetitive after awhile - high tempo, but really repetitive. Both ends of the spectrum :D

[@obsidiantain]

Nice one. Generally enjoy aggro, running Leia Red just because I love her ability. % worse than Sabine but more fun imho. I have a Thrawn deck, but yet to really try a midrange, that’ll be next as I try to round out learning the set.

[@Jfreak7]

A lot of the "control" decks (blue/green) are really just mid range decks that have some extra removal or extra healing. They have a great matchups into aggro because of that reason. "Krennic control" plays exactly like a mid range deck. When I think of midrange, instead of flexibility, I think value. They play the best value they can get with all of their cards. It's why the decks are always the most expensive. Value is pricey. If they can out value other decks at every resource cost, eventually they get a board state that is too strong against aggro, and hopefully too overwhelming against control. The true control decks (red/blue) do struggle against aggro. The removal is expensive and their leaders come out a turn or two too late to have real impact. They can't keep up.

[@Granite-ny8up]

Genuinely useful content. Subbed.

[@SSJGumbercules]

This was great and very helpful. I'm curious as how the sideboard works, like when do you switch the cards out, between match 1 and 2? As for what archetype I am, I'm not sure. I've been playing a double blue Luke deck that I find a lot of fun. Based on you description I think it's a midrange deck...so I guess I'm midrange atm lol.

[@TowerNumberNine]

The sideboard is a selection of 10 cards (normal cards for your deck only -- not leaders or bases) that you can swap in or out in between games of a particular match -- so in between the first and second and/or in between the second and third games of a best of three. For example, if I'm playing Boba Green and wind up against Sabine I might swap out Resupply (dangerous to play against aggro) and swap in Consortium StarViper (great against Aggression/Heroism's early space units). After the match you have to reset to your "standard" configuration for game one against the next opponent.

[@kerambeach]

I love to play aggresive deck, sabine or boba cunning.

[@MisterNorthernCanuck]

Great video! Your content is awesome, keep it up!

[@TowerNumberNine]

Thanks - more to come!

[@house.of.tremere]

I feel like every deck I play turns into an aggro deck whether it’s meant to be or not, lol At one point I think I had like four or 5 decks built out of Aggression bases. I don’t know if I really have the patience or personality to play control.

[@darthpanda0]

Can we see some gameplay of your Chirrut Red Deck!

[@TowerNumberNine]

I haven't figured out a great way to film real life gameplay yet but if/when I do Chirrut might definitely be one of the decks featured!

[@coachalexmiller]

A big consideration for me right now is that it seems like rounds are actually fairly short; (at least early on when people tend to spend more time thinking and maybe we're not as efficient, so games drag on) We've had rounds anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes and VERY often, we only have time for the first two games. but in my experiences between draft, sealed, premier and twin suns - games last a really really long time when it's more controlly (and god forbid it's control v control) and then, because tiebreakers are decided by base damage, we'll find even if control wins after a brutal game 1, aggro will just deal 5 to 0 and draw the round this is kinda frustrating and makes me not want to run control and just go for aggro/midrange by default :/

[@piercedupdude]

actually (pushes glasses up) tiebreakers dont really exist. If you go to time, you have 1 more phase and then if a base wasnt destroyed both players take a loss. You do not get a win for least damaged base.

[@NooBrainer]

There's also a 5th archetype: Tempo, also known as aggro-control, although perhaps you left it out because it's not a 'classic' archetype. This is an archetype that historically focuses on cheap-but-impactful early game threats, then uses interaction to try to keep those threats alive and disrupt the opponents game plan just long enough to win, rather than a true aggro deck that ignores what the opponent does and just keeps playing units to hit face all the time, or midrange which uses early removal until it can ramp into it's cost-effective threats. MTG wiki gives a good definition: Tempo decks operate on the premise that any type of disruption spell can be converted into damage, given a superior board state. There's not a lot in this game that can qualify as tempo at the moment, because removal is cheap and un-interactable, and it is extremely quick to get up to 5-6 resources. A unit like Guardian Of Whills, which would typically be an effective tempo tool, just gets countered by a Waylay. Full Yellow Boba might qualify as a tempo deck, playing early threats then using a combination of unit-bouncing and exhaustion effects to prevent the opponent from being able to attack your units. The GI Red Blue I am currently favouring might also count as Tempo, combining cheap threats like Scout Bike and Fifth Brother along with efficient removal like Force Choke and Power of the Dark Side. In general the force events do feel like good tools for tempo, and we are just missing the units to take advantage of them, which might come in a later set

[@TowerNumberNine]

Oh yeah, agreed. I think double Cunning Boba is arguably a tempo deck but wanted this to be mostly covering the “basic” archetypes. That said I disagree that removal is cheap, I think this game is notable for having very expensive removal compared to MtG and others.

[@TwelveTables]

Hey tower would you be interested in checking out a deck analysis thing I'm working on. It's taking the data from a bunch of tournaments and the TTI league your in. For deck building trends for the new/average players looking to improve.

[@TowerNumberNine]

That sounds cool! Message me on Discord maybe?

[@TwelveTables]

@@TowerNumberNine Sent a friend request.

[@TruongMtgArenaHearthstone03]

Bobba for me love it

[@LoDoFilmUnlimitedMedia]

I like aggro. Fast and direct.

[@TowerNumberNine]

Sometimes a simple, direct plan can be the most effective!

[@sparta1821]

It is effective of course but after a while I personally feel like you are not playing the game. You just go face ignoring strategic thinking that this game allows. It certainly gets boring after a while ( talking about sabine )

[@wookiemart]

it sucks that a brand new game adopted these old and tired design tropes, brainless low hanging fruit aggro, boring control decks that take forever to accomplish anything, which leaves the hybrid decks in the middle to try and have some fun.

[@TowerNumberNine]

Personally I think aggro decks have lots of interesting choices here that they might not in other games thanks to the resource and initiative systems… Sabine may be an aggro build but she’s not totally trivial to pilot!