With a new set having just hit shelves, it's time to dive into all things Jump to Lightspeed. Unlike previous articles, my series on the new set is going to first and foremost talk about an elephant in the galaxy. With each new set comes a rules update from the design team, helping to ensure a fun and consistent metagame experience. Normally this consists of updates to the rules that include detailed wording for new elements and mechanisms (such as Piloting, which I'll talk about in a future article) and cleaning up language on cards. It also includes errata and updates to the ban and suspended list.

Moving into the new competitive season there are no updates to the ban list, despite an article from Game Design Lead Danny Schaefer pointing out the popularity of Han Solo - Audacious Smuggler paired with Cunning. This deck revolves around playing a turn ahead of your opponent - which itself provides consistently advantageous plays. But the bigger issue is this gives the player access to DJ - Blatant Thief within the first few turns of the game. This is a blunder for creating a healthy metagame.

DJ - Blatant Thief utilizes a "take that" style effect to permanently defeat an opponent's resource. Resource destruction has been an effect approached cautiously by TCGs since their inception, ruining an opponent's flow of the game. This isn't a temporary setback like other removal effects since most TCGs restrict the games progression with these resources, and Star Wars: Unlimited is no exception. Not only does DJ remove the resource from your opponent, it allows the Han player to take advantage of that extra resource for as long as DJ remains on the board. And, as you might surmise, taking away a resource makes it harder to move a unit with 5 HP.

Paired with other Cunning/Heroism cards like Tech - Source of Insight this party can get started as early as turn three and creates a downward spiral for the player on the opposite side of the table.

Let me be clear. I like the Han leader - and I don't think he's too powerful. Playing a turn ahead (with reasonable risk) creates an interesting play pattern. This isn't like Boba Fett where the leader is too powerful and creates too much advantage. Han still needs players to engage in efficient and smart plays. But resource destruction doesn't create obstacles and plays your opponent needs to outsmart or overpower, it reduces your opponent's ability to engage with the game on a basic level. It doesn't feel good to be on either side of a DJ play - it makes me feel scummy to win with it, and it makes me frustrated to see my way to play the game disappear without any input or option from me.

In Danny's article he says "[Resource destruction] isn't the type of interaction we want to show up too frequently in the metagame, so we discussed the possibility of suspending DJ to break up the combo while still allowing Han Solo to exist." And even mentions one of the reasons the team talked about this synergy is the unpleasant play experience. Of course, I don't know the future. Danny ends that section of the article saying it's possible a major shakeup will come to the format with Jump to Lightspeed, just a week before release with all the spoilers live.

There were 144 Planetary Qualifiers this season, which means 144 winners. Danny provides some data in his article, giving us some context around this decision. "Just over 20% of Top 8 PQ decks" featured Han Solo, which seems just a touch high for diverse health, but nothing to be alarmed over. However, that number doesn't match the PQ win rates, where Han takes up "just shy of 35%" of total wins or around 50 of those 144. Admittedly, not all of that 50 were running Cunning, and we can stretch our reasoning to say that not all 50 featured DJ and Tech. Danny goes on to "double-Cunning at about 24%" of the 144 - meaning 35 winners were playing resource destruction.

Tying all of this together, we can see that double-Cunning Han, representing resource destruction to at least some large degree, shows up slightly too much for a diverse meta. Slightly too high, normally, is nothing to bat your eyes at since we can make long-term adjustments with new pools of cards. And I'm happy to sit across the table from the same deck every four games when I know I can play around it, sideboard effectively, or learn from my mistakes. What I don't want to do is sit across from a deck every four games that takes away my ability to play the game or have answers. I'd be thrilled to see different resource destruction effects in later sets - perhaps with adjusted expectations after seeing DJ in action. Perhaps temporary resource destruction or provide player options for the target player to opt out somehow. And for those old MtG players coming out of the woodwork to tell me about Counterspell and Cancel, please save it. This isn't countering effects; this is land destruction. I can draw out or wait out a counterspell - but I can't recover from never being on curve.

Let me back up, because it sounds like I'm pissed and I'm stoking the mob. I don't want that. I cannot appreciate Danny and FFG's transparency enough. They nailed it when they spoke up publicly about the product shortages with Spark of Rebellion. They heard us about the promo cards from Shadows of the Galaxy. They see and acknowledge the weakness of cards from Twilight of the Republic. They made the right call banning Boba Fett, and the article they wrote about making that decision was a rare moment of vulnerability where they admitted a dev mistake. But I'm afraid to see attendance drops because people don't want to play against this composition - it's not fun. All our highly competitive folks want to win, yes, and they're invested heavily into this ecosystem already. But ultimately, they're doing this as a hobby, which means there needs to be a layer of fundamental joy from playing the game.

What would I do? The easiest solution, obviously, is to ban DJ. His effect is at the heart of this issue, and the part that sucks the joy out of the game. The more difficult option is to errata DJ so a resource returns to the original owner when the unit is defeated. This creates a far more interesting play pattern, incentivizing the target player to defeat a key unit. Ultimately, I'll still waste resources to defeat DJ - but when I succeed I won't be so far away from curve that I'll be 2 or more turns behind the Han player.

Thanks for reading. Please do not harass FFG employees at conventions or on social media just because you feel as passionately as I do about this. If you want to talk more about DJ or JTL you can hit me up on Instagram @wlsobel or on Bluesky. If you're cracking Carbonite boxes, I'd love to see your serialized hits!