Disintegrating the Odds

Just last month, we provided a first look at Jump to Lightspeed, including the addition of new product types that would arrive with the launch of the new set. One of those new product types is the Spotlight Decks, which replace the Two-Player Starter of old. These pre-build decks come separately packaged and include a splash of cards from older sets mixed in with the new, all to create a more optimized experience for anyone who wants to pick one up and start playing.

Today, we want to take a deeper look at what cards you can find in the Jump to Lightspeed Spotlight Decks, so without further ado, let's start with a look at Boba Fett!

Swooping in as an Aggression and Villainy leader, Boba Fett (Jump to Lightspeed, 9) shows off both of the set's new mechanics with his abilities. We covered these in the first look article, but to provide a quick recap, Boba's leader ability lets him deal “indirect damage,” which is unpreventable damage that your opponent chooses where to assign. This indirect damage can steadily build up over time, but you can also deploy Boba as a Pilot upgrade to deal a burst of damage all at once (and this is damage that you get to assign).

This theme of dealing damage outside of combat carries through the majority of Boba Fett's pre-built deck. For starters, the deck comes with lots of sources of indirect damage, forcing your opponent to make some hard choices. Keep in mind that, since indirect damage is non-combat damage, Boba Fett can trigger his own indirect damage in response to one of your units dealing some! The First Order Stormtrooper (Jump to Lightspeed, 132), Zygerrian Starhopper (Jump to Lightspeed, 183), and TIE Bomber (Jump to Lightspeed, 237) are all great low-cost units that you can play on the first turn, letting you pressure your opponent with that indirect fire right off the bat. These cards combo well with units like Allegiant General Pryde (Jump to Lightspeed, 133) and Hunting Aggressor (Jump to Lightspeed, 165), the former of which grants you an extra benefit for dealing indirect damage while the latter just increases the amount you deal. You can call on Boba Fett's iconic Firespray (Jump to Lightspeed, 240) for some additional, consistent pings of damage, and if you're feeling extra spicy, have Dengar (Jump to Lightspeed, 139) pilot it for a whopping 5 indirect damage each time it attacks!

Even though it's unpreventable, indirect damage does have that caveat of allowing your opponent to choose where it goes. Thankfully, other cards in Boba Fett's deck let him have a bit more control over where damage is placed, or at the very least can make your opponent's choice even more difficult. For example, No Disintegrations (Jump to Lightspeed, 144) can reduce any non-leader unit to just 1 remaining HP, turning any indirect damage into a lethal blow. Your opponent won't be able to assign more than 1 indirect damage to that unit, effectively invalidating them from absorbing hits for their other units or base. If you want full control over where your damage is dealt, you can call on IG-2000 (Jump to Lightspeed, 140), the unit version of Boba Fett (Jump to Lightspeed, 189), or an Electromagnetic Pulse (Jump to Lightspeed, 230) for some more direct hits.

With all this damage being thrown around, the rest of Boba Fett's deck comes well-equipped for mopping up what's left of your opponent's forces. IG-88 (Jump to Lightspeed, 141) gets a considerable power buff when any enemy unit is damaged (and can grant that same buff to a Vehicle unit if played as a Pilot upgrade), while Bossk (Jump to Lightspeed, 187) can pilot his Hound's Tooth (Jump to Lightspeed, 185) to exhaust an enemy unit and then deal it a hefty 7 damage before it has a chance to retaliate! Follow that up with a Grenade Strike (Twilight of the Republic, 171), Daring Raid (Shadows of the Galaxy, 178), or the previous version of Fett's Firespray (Spark of Rebellion, 184), and your opponent will struggle to withstand Boba Fett's unrelenting offense!

Our other Spotlight Deck for the set features Han Solo (Jump to Lightspeed, 17) as its leader. This version of Han flies in as a Cunning and Heroism leader, and his deck is a bit odd—literally! Every single card in Han's pre-built deck has an odd-numbered cost, and this is all to synergize with his inherent abilities. On his leader side, Han can reveal the top card of your deck and allow you to perform a boosted attack with one of your units, so long as that unit and the revealed card have different odd-numbered costs. When you deploy Han as a Pilot upgrade, he can ready a resource for each friendly unit or upgrade that has an odd-numbered cost, potentially allowing you to refresh all of your resources at once!

This “odds matter” playstyle continues with the cards in his deck. Cards like Shuttle Tydirium (Jump to Lightspeed, 200) and BoShek (Jump to Lightspeed, 215) discard cards from your deck, granting a benefit if those cards have an odd cost. Since all of the cards in Han's deck have an odd cost, this means you'll get these cards' benefits one hundred percent of the time. Similarly, the event card Never Tell Me the Odds (Jump to Lightspeed, 208) also discards cards from your deck, as well as your opponent's deck, and deals damage based on the number of odd-costed cards that get discarded. Since all of Han's cards have odd costs, you'll always deal a minimum of 3 damage with this event, with the potential to do up to 6!

Of course, everything being odd-costed isn't the only defining feature of Han's deck. While Boba Fett's deck focuses more on indirect damage, Han's deck features more cards that show off the new Piloting keyword, as well as cards that care about or interact with Pilot upgrades. First and foremost is Han's faithful first mate, Chewbacca (Jump to Lightspeed, 103), who can protect any vehicle he's piloting from removal effects. The ever-iconic Millennium Falcon (Jump to Lightspeed, 249) particularly appreciates Chewie's assistance, since it can have more than one Pilot upgrade attached to it at a time and gains +1 power for each one. You could also attach R2-D2 (Jump to Lightspeed, 245) to it as another bonus Pilot, then add in Nien Nunb (Jump to Lightspeed, 93) for a whopping grand total of +10 power and +6 HP to the Millennium Falcon from all its pilots! Also of note, Nien Nunb's ability scales off all the Pilot units and upgrades you control, not just the ones he shares a cockpit with, so even if you have a Dagger Squadron Pilot (Jump to Lightspeed, 196) or the aforementioned BoShek on the ground or in other vehicles, Nien Nunb can still boost the Millennium Falcon to even greater heights. Round out your Pilot upgrade synergies with Leia Organa (Jump to Lightspeed, 97) in the commander's seat, and you've got a fleet that's ready to take down your foes.

The rest of Han's deck is full of various tricks to help him adapt to various situations on the fly. If your opponent is fielding a bunch of Vehicle units without pilots, Commandeer (Jump to Lightspeed, 235) one of them to turn their own tools against them. Blue Leader (Jump to Lightspeed, 96) is a unique card that can be a space unit or a ground unit depending on what you decide when you play it, making it especially useful for cards like Tandem Assault (Jump to Lightspeed, 124), which needs a unit in each arena in order to be truly impactful. The Mandalorian (Jump to Lightspeed, 210) and Death Space Skirmisher (Jump to Lightspeed, 217) can both exhaust enemy units when they enter play, and if your space arena is looking more barren than your opponent's, you can play It's a Trap (Jump to Lightspeed, 209) to ready all your space units for another round of fire. Add in some staples from previous sets, such as Admiral Ackbar (Spark of Rebellion, 97), Shoot First (Spark of Rebellion, 217), and Waylay (Spark of Rebellion, 222), and you have all the tools you need to pilot Han Solo's deck to victory!

And with that, you now know all the new cards that you can find in the Jump to Lightspeed Spotlight Decks. Check the image above to see the full card lists for each deck, including all the returning cards from previous sets. Even with everything we showed today, there's still lots to look forward to as we count down to the launch of the set in full. Keep your eyes peeled for more previews in the coming weeks!