Shadows of the Galaxy organized play will come to a head in the next few weeks with Planetary Qualifiers with 22 tournaments across North America and another 18 worldwide. Planetary Qualifiers are single-day events hosted by approved retailers - and this will be the first time in Star Wars Unlimited that the stakes are so high. Each tournament consists of best-of-three matches in a number of Swiss rounds determined by the crowd size, then cutting to single-elimination to find a victor. The winner of each event, a potential 40 people, will receive an invitation to move into Day 2 of the first ever Galactic Championship. If that sounds enticing, it is, because the Galactic Championship also follows other high-tier competitive play because the whole tournament is invitation only. As we rev toward the Planetary Qualifier schedule, let's look at one of the A-tier decks and what Shadows of the Galaxy cards shook those decks up.

Mean Green Sabine

Sabine Wren - Galvanized Revolutionary dominated Spark of Rebellion meta in stores. Lots of folks were hoping that the new set would slow her down - but it didn't. If anything, Poe Dameron - Quick to Improvise helped elevate her above other aggro decks. Wrecker - BOOM! helps with some much-needed removal, even if you're blowing up your own, smaller units like Fleet Lieutenant (who have outlived their usefulness) or K-2SO, Cassian's Counterpart (who may not want to stick around anyways.) On top of that, Energy Conversion Lab continues to be one of the most useful bases - effectively acting like removal for those fast-moving units.

As if that wasn't enough Sabine also gains support from other Shadows of the Galaxy strategies. As a Mandalorian, running copies of The Darksaber to make her Leader Unit much bigger is a must. Paired up with Command, you'd also be a fool not to run Timely Intervention for an additional shot at a surprise Ambush - and utilizing the new Smuggle mechanic helps keep your resource curve in check.

Mean Green Sabine| Star Wars Unlimited

• Leader (1)
• 1 Sabine Wren - Galvanized Revolutionary

• Base (1)
• 1 Energy Conversion Lab - Eadu

• Ground units (26)
• 1 Ketsu Onyo
• 1 Rebel Pathfinder
• 1 R2-D2 - Ignoring Protocol
• 2 Fighters for Freedom
• 3 Battlefield Marine
• 3 Cassian Andor - Rebellions are Built on Hope
• 3 Fleet Lieutenant
• 3 K-2SO - Cassian's Counterpart
• 3 Poe Dameron - Quick to Improve
• 3 Sabine Wren - Explosives Artist
• 3 Wrecker - BOOM!

• Space units (10)
• 3 Green Squadron A-Wing
• 2 Red Three - Unstoppable
• 3 Wing Leader
• 2 Bright Hope - The Last Transport

• Events (11)
• 3 Medal Ceremony
• 3 Rebel Assault
• 2 Timely Intervention
• 3 For A Cause I Believe In

• Upgrades (3)
• 3 The Darksaber

• Sideboard (10)
• 2 Confiscate
• 2 Heroic Sacrifice
• 1 Timely Intervention
• 2 Ketsu Onyo
• 3 Adelphi Patrol Wing

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There's no doubt Mean Green Sabine will show up in the Planetary Qualifiers in spades. Not only is it consistent, but it's one of the easiest decks to pilot right now. Not a lot of thought needs to go into which units to play to stay on curve, and when you turn your team sideways you usually need to go for the base. But the difference between a store league ECL Sabine and a Qualifier ECL Sabine is night and die. Higher skill players will make only the most beneficial trades and let the pressure of a high damage output be their key defense. Those players will also recognize the advantage Sabine has through passive burn damage through cards like Fighters for Freedom and K-2SO.

While most of our power is on the ground, we need to claim some ground in the space arena as well. Red Three is a great closer, but it's quite fragile, which is why we need to blockade our space arena with Bright Hope or time our deployment when our opponent has already attacked in space. Getting those few extra points with Raid or an event like Rebel Assault can be the boost we need in the mirror match or close the deal against a stubborn control deck.

Our sideboard consists of a few pieces against control and mirror matches. Confiscate and Ketsu Onyo are star pieces against all the upgrade cards from this set with the rise of Mandalorian strategies, we might see across the table - like another Darksaber. We also need to get rid of Traitorous while also preparing for inevitable Voltron-like matchups like Chirrut. Timely Intervention helps us get another Ambush-themed removal against other aggro decks. Against control we also pull-out Adelphi Patrol Wing and Heroic Sacrifice to increase the average damage output with each hit, making sure we out damage their healing factor.

The biggest question mark with this deck is R2-D2. Aggression doesn't have great card draw right now and finding it in these aspects proves difficult. Without C-3PO I hesitate to use our astro mech friend - but adding another support unit doesn't fit our curve and doesn't support the numbers we need to close the deal. I'd love to find room for Reckless Gunslinger in this deck, but every cut feels wrong despite bringing down our curve and leaning into Sabine's proven race style.

There's no doubt we'll see a natural evolution of this deck in the next few weeks as Planetary Qualifiers light up around the world. Until then, good luck testing Sabine.