June 24, 2026 | Written by Ryan Miles and Jorge Zhang

The Galactic Championship this year will showcase the best of the best competing for the title of Galactic Champion, but you won't be able to earn the trophy by just building the best Premier deck. You will also need to navigate one of the most exciting draft formats that Star Wars™: Unlimited has to offer, with Ashes of the Empire's mechanics giving more opportunities for skill expression than ever before. Sequencing your turns correctly around Advantage tokens, setting up for explosive Support plays, and understanding the unique dynamics between individual leader matchups are all important tests to succeed in Ashes of the Empire draft play.

With all that in mind, this article will break down the set's Common-rarity leaders that will show up most often in limited formats, and some quick tips on what cards to look for and how to play their decks. Let's dive in!

Baylan Skoll

Baylan Skoll (Ashes of the Empire, 3) is a methodical, controlling leader that likes to build up a single strong unit in both arenas simultaneously. While drafting, look for a good balance of space and ground units. Also keep an eye out for upgrades. Durasteel Plating (Ashes of the Empire, 86), Shin Hati (Ashes of the Empire, 49), and Imperial Armored Commando (Ashes of the Empire, 48) are your key cards that will make a successful Baylan deck tick. Durasteel Plating is great at protecting a strong unit and can be especially hard for an opponent to deal with combined with Baylan's ability. Shin Hati and Imperial Armored Commando are both Sentinel units that shine with Baylan's temporary stat buff; using Baylan's ability on a unit that your opponent has to attack is a great way to maximize value and push damage while also eating up a lot of your opponent's resources. Don't be afraid to draft them despite the fact that Baylan's unit side also gives your friendly units Sentinel. Sometimes you will need to play more units into a contested arena, and having Sentinel naturally helps make your turns easier to navigate. And besides, you can never have too many Sentinel units!

Sabine Wren

Sabine Wren (Ashes of the Empire, 6) is one of the most difficult leaders to get the most out of, but also one of the most rewarding. Finding ways to negate the advantage of giving your opponent Advantage (Ashes of the Empire, T02) tokens is critical to finding success with Sabine: if you fall behind, your opponent can turn Sabine's ability into an extra 2 damage onto your base every turn and close games out before you can use your Shield tokens to gain control. Key Vigilance units for Sabine will have Sentinel or Restore. Lothal E-Wing (Ashes of the Empire, 57) is a great early play to offset the damage of your opponent attacking your base, and Palace Chef Droid (Ashes of the Empire, 73) can slow down the ground arena by taking 2 attacks when Shielded with Sabine. Ambush is another excellent keyword to pair with Sabine's ability, and paring Sabine with the Command aspect can give you access to another great early play in Pathfinder Sergeant (Ashes of the Empire, 106). If you aren't able to find one of these units that can easily offset Sabine's downside, it can be smart to skip using her ability early on. Save it for protecting better units later down the line, and don't let your opponent put unnecessary damage on your base. Your Shielded units will let you eventually win the board, and managing your base HP is just as important as giving Shielded to the correct units. Knowing your opponent's leader also dictates how and when to use your ability; Cad Bane (Ashes of the Empire, 11) is great at dealing with your Shielded units, while Ezra Bridger (Ashes of the Empire, 13), Ahsoka Tano (Ashes of the Empire, 9), and Shin Hati (Ashes of the Empire, 16) can turn that extra damage from the Advantage tokens into more value from their leader abilities. Finally, Get Lost (Ashes of the Empire, 67) is a phenomenal card in the draft format for any deck, but especially in Sabine decks—take it highly!

Moff Gideon

Moff Gideon (Ashes of the Empire, 8) is a leader that likes to play units ahead of schedule. While drafting, your first priorities will be cheap Imperial units that can find trades with enemy units and trigger Gideon's resource acceleration ability. It can also be valuable to draft Imperial units with powerful keywords that can improve the effectiveness of Gideon's unit side. Shielded, Grit, and Sentinel can all go a long way for making Gideon's deploy count. AT-ST Raider (Ashes of the Empire, 98), the Moff Gideon (Ashes of the Empire, 97) unit, and Long Live the Empire (Ashes of the Empire, 103) are your key Command cards to look for when drafting for the Moff Gideon leader. AT-ST Raider is a general all-star in the draft format, where non-unique units make up your standard early plays. The Moff Gideon unit with Sentinel can be a significant road block for your opponent, while setting up your Moff Gideon leader with Sentinel in the future. Long Live the Empire is a great card to help you reach your deploy turn sooner; leaders that deploy at 7 resources are often tricky in draft, and if Moff Gideon can deploy a turn early, he can really take over a game when he comes in with the right keywords. Choosing a second aspect for Gideon is mostly a question of what additional keywords you're looking for on your deploy, and largely come from a suite of 4-cost units: Imperial Armored Commando (Ashes of the Empire, 48) in Vigilance gets you Shielded and Sentinel, Praetorian Elite (Ashes of the Empire, 145) in Aggression gets you Grit, and Emperor's Champion (Ashes of the Empire, 193) in Cunning gives Shielded and Saboteur. When playing against Moff Gideon, pay close attention to the deck's aspects, as that will give you a good idea of what keywords you'll need to deal with when that leader deploy finally comes online.

Ahsoka Tano

When Ahsoka Tano (Ashes of the Empire, 9) is your leader, it's important to understand who the aggressor is in any given matchup. Knowing when to use your leader ability to take favorable trades with enemy units, and knowing when push damage to their base instead, is the defining factor for success. Against a Shin Hati (Ashes of the Empire, 16) deck, for example, you'll want to prioritize taking enemy units off the board, as your ability will often be too slow to let you get an attack off with your boosted unit. Against a Cad Bane (Ashes of the Empire, 11) deck, your opponent will more often make trades for you, and you may want to get as much damage in as quickly as you can. An Ahsoka player can find a lot of success just drafting good units on curve, as long as you keep putting higher and higher power units onto the board, but you can also get a lot of value out of Mandalorian (Ashes of the Empire, T01) tokens. Warrior's Legacy (Ashes of the Empire, 134) can grant power to a unit to help use Ahsoka's ability more easily, and it can also leave behind a valuable Mandalorian token to hold her ability the turn after. Stronger Together (Ashes of the Empire, 140) puts two Mandalorian tokens into play at once, which practically guarantees a unit in play for your 5-resource turn, and you're also extremely likely to still have at least one of them in play when you deploy Ahsoka herself the turn after. Drafting for durable units with high HP or shields will help you leverage Ahsoka's strengths best!

Cad Bane

Cad Bane (Ashes of the Empire, 11) is one of the best damage-dealing leaders that Star Wars: Unlimited has ever seen, but with one major downside: he can't actually defeat anything. He's great at softening up large HP pools and taking out shields (especially on Mandalorian tokens), but you will need to use your units to actually finish the job. Cad Bane's best tools are units that can pile on additional damage. Imposing Scout Walker (Ashes of the Empire, 176) has a much easier time defeating units to generate additional Advantage tokens when paired with Cad Bane, and The Cyborg Mech (Ashes of the Empire, 147) packs a lot more punch when it goes after a unit that's already been damaged. Cad Bane can also set his sights on your own units in a pinch, turning Grit into some additional damage, or finding an easier way to use something like Galvanized Leap (Ashes of the Empire, 188). Overall, Cad Bane is one of the leaders that can impose the most control over the game, but can struggle into opposing Grit units, or units that are simply too large for him to easily chop down, such as Dinosaur Turtle (Ashes of the Empire, 131).

Ezra Bridger

Ezra Bridger (Ashes of the Empire, 13) is an explosive, aggressive leader that can deal a lot of damage if left unchecked. While drafting, keep a lookout for units that have 2 or more power. While you'll need to use a 3-power unit to trigger Ezra's ability, 2-power units are also relatively easy to get to that 3-power threshold once the Advantage tokens from his ability start flowing. Cards like Pegasus Tri-Wing and Yellow Aces Bomber are Ezra's bread and butter – look for them early and often. Pegasus Tri-Wing (Ashes of the Empire, 171) not only uses existing Advantage tokens to enter play ready, but its 3 power nets you another Advantage token out of the deal. Yellow Aces Bomber (Ashes of the Empire, 253) similarly can use its Support ability on a unit with Advantage, allowing that unit to deal an extra 2 damage to a base. Then, grant the Advantage token from Ezra's ability onto the Bomber to push another 5 damage to the enemy base on the following turn. Ezra is a strong pick into the slower and more defensive decks of the format, so long as you draft to play in both arenas to dodge pesky Sentinel units. Even when Sentinel units do get in your way, Ezra's Saboteur keyword on his unit side can bypass them to start getting Advantage flowing, or just deal with any Shielded units that threaten to knock off your Advantage tokens for free.

Shin Hati

Shin Hati (Ashes of the Empire, 16) is an aggressive, tempo-focused leader that really capitalizes on action-efficient play. While drafting, keep a lookout for power-skewed units, particularly units with 1 or more power than their cost, as that will enable you to exhaust opposing units and keep your own units safe. Also keep an eye out for units with the Support keyword; the initiative is extra important for Shin Hati, as it lets you exhaust enemy units before they can make efficient trades with your own low-health units, and Support will help keep you ahead in the action economy. Peridea Bandit (Ashes of the Empire, 190), Shin Hati's Fiend Fighter (Ashes of the Empire, 191), and Unsanctioned Patrol (Ashes of the Empire, 222) are great cards that can especially shine in Shin Hati. Peridea Bandit, as a 2-cost, 4-power unit, can punch way above its weight to exhaust 3-cost units while putting a lot of pressure on the opponent's base health. Shin Hati's Fiend Fighter is another great first turn play if you expect the opponent to play into the ground arena; while it has 1 less power than Peridea Bandit, it is a lot safer from opposing combat. Unsanctioned Patrol is a powerful card in Ashes of the Empire draft in general, but it is especially effective for Shin Hati because of the action compression from Support, and providing friendly units with Saboteur is extremely powerful in the heavy Sentinel and Shield token environment of this draft format. Mandalorian tokens can be extremely useful when expecting to go against Shin Hati, as her units will tend to have less HP, but remember that as 0 cost units, those Mandalorian tokens are also always in danger of getting exhausted by her ability.

Greef Karga

Greef Karga (Ashes of the Empire, 17) is one of our more straightforward leaders in Ashes of the Empire. While you will find lots of synergies that specifically use his Advantage tokens, his leader ability can go plenty far with any units you put into your deck. As with Ezra, Yellow Aces Bomber (Ashes of the Empire, 253) is one of your go-to cards for making use of those Advantage tokens. No matter which aspect you decide to pair Greef Karga with, Sabine Wren (Ashes of the Empire, 208) is one of your best mid-game units to get additional value out of Greef's ability, being able to exhaust 2 units (including leaders!) on that crucial 5-resource turn. Far Far Away (Ashes of the Empire, 236) is a great piece of interaction for any deck, but for Greef specifically, it means you can reapply Advantage to units and reuse their When Played or Support abilities, such as those mentioned above. Another key way to get value out of Greef's ability is to maximize his deploy turn. While his leader side can only give out one Advantage token each turn, his unit side can give out Advantage as long as you can keep playing (or creating) units. Going into Command for Children of the Watch (Ashes of the Empire, 111) can quickly swing the board in your favor, putting 3 units with Advantage into play. Drafting Children of the Watch also shores up one of your weaknesses: Greef can struggle into Mandalorian tokens, who can use their shields to knock off Advantage tokens and still leave units behind. Drafting units with Saboteur can make sure that Shield tokens cause you less grief.

With that, you now have a decent idea on how to pilot each of the Common-rarity leaders for Ashes of the Empire. As we mentioned earlier, this is an incredibly exciting and engaging set to draft, and we can't wait to see what players come up with in the Galactic Championship!