Over the weekend, Fantasy Flight Games hosted the first two Sector Qualifiers for Star Wars Unlimited to some mixed reception. Sector Qualifiers are the largest-to-date events for our new, barely year old, game. Looking back on the first year most players can agree there was a rocky start between some overpowered Leaders and a suite of promos most players found underwhelming. It stands to reason that these events would also present a learning curve for tournament organizers.

There were reports of prizes changing ticket prices from Day One to Day Two, as well as local players who didn't make it to Day Two being asked to return to gather their prizes. This was also mixed with reports of side event entries having a large price tag with virtually no prize support.

Of course, the elephant in the room is the appearance of Jango Fett as a leader. Just like his clone son Boba, Jango Fett is dominating the meta in a way that should be called out. At the end of Day One in Denver 36 decks made the cut into Day Two. Among them were 16 Jango Fett decks and each one of them ran Aggression as one their base split with 12 being Tarkintown and the other 4 being 30-point bases. This represents 44% of the Day Two decks - not quite half, but still an overwhelming majority. These statistics are exacerbated even further when noting the Top 8 at this event; 5 of those slots are Jango, including each of the Top 3. Other decks here include Cunning Han, Quinlan Tarkintown, and a Command Luke.

Many competitive players are calling for Jango's ban - which I think is a fair call-to-action at this point. Come Wednesday, when Fantasy Flight does their Organized Play stream, there will definitely be some conversation about the road forward. We might see a ban and we might not - but I'd like to foster a wider conversation. Going further into these statistics we can see that 7 out of the top 8 decks are Cunning. Even more specifically 6 of those 8 are Aggression Cunning, with Tarkintown easily being the most utilized base (Tarkintown is present in half of the Top 8 decks) and we can trace the Cunning dominance all the way back to Boba Fett's original ban.

We have a Fett problem; there's no doubt about that. But what's worse is we have a Cunning problem. There are so many efficient Cunning cards, and we continue to get good Cunning cards that exacerbate the Fett issue. I don't really need to look at the deck lists to know they're all running Triple Dark Raid, Sneak Attack, Seventh Fleet Defender, and Greedo - Slow on the Draw. I can easily assume they're also running Lurking TIE Phantom, Elite P-38 Starfighter, and more. And paired with Aggression they get IG-2000 - Assassin's Aggressor, Ruthless Raider, War Juggernaut, and the new Devastator - Hunting the Rebellion that pair so well with those Cunning cards that let you play big cards for cheap. Cunning has always had access to some of the most efficient Events and Units and unfortunately that hasn't changed with each new set - as a matter-of-fact Cunning continues to get access to some of the best cards in every set. Even in Cunning Heroic we recently got Ahsoka Tano - Chasing Whispers and Han Solo - Has His Moments. True Cunning even got Commandeer which is turning out to be one of the most used cards this season thanks to the significant increase in Vehicles.

Cunning even has some of the most utilized removal mechanics in the game so far with the common Waylay seen in competitive decks across all four sets. And in a game with the back-and-forth action economy sending a unit back to hand has a profound impact on the games tempo. Effects like this are prolific in other games, and it presents a situational removal that allows for the targeted player to re-play the card. In other games like Magic, Lorcana, etc. that opportunity to re-play comes the next time the targeted player has their turn which makes the opportunity cost to play the card again much smaller. However, with the back-and-forth nature of Star Wars Unlimited that isn't the case. The next opportunity the targeted player has to re-play their bounced card is the moment Waylay has finished resolving. This would make us think that bounce effects in Star Wars Unlimited are worse than they are in other games except for one consequential truth; that player no longer has the resources to play that card. In my turn-your turn games when the bouncing player finishes their turn the targeted player gets all their resources back to play their card. In Star Wars Unlimited a well-timed Waylay can prevent the player from playing that card for several more actions until the round ends. This added window of opportunity makes bounce much more efficient in Star Wars Unlimited than in other games the same way that exhaust effect cards like No Good to Me Dead feel much more efficient here. Admittedly, this isn't a drastic piece of overpowering tech - we're talking about fractions of advantage in these sorts of mechanics that are all in Cunning design pie.

Outside the elements of removal Cunning also accesses several powerful mechanics that seem on the fringe of any particular design pie. Commandeer, Change of Heart, and Sly Moore - Secretive Advisor shows off their ability to take control of enemy units - if only temporarily. These powerful effects have such a massive impact on the tempo of the game they're often one-turn win cards. And that goes doubly-so for DJ which I wrote about extensively in another article.

Cunning may not have access to Devastator, Darth Vader, or Luke Skywalker, but with the deck-building rules in this game that doesn't matter much. Cunning has access to everything else a deck needs like action economy and card advantage, so pairing it with another aspect solidifies any missing pieces Cunning could have. And from what little we've seen coming out of Legends of the Force, that won't stop anytime soon since many Cunning cards with When Played abilities are about to get much more powerful.

Not any single one of these points or examples, stand on its own, represents that much of a threat to the health of the game. Waylay is good, but it's not the end of the world - and the same goes for No Good to Me Dead. But the day Boba Fett got banned many of the online communities suggested playing the same deck just with Jango instead - and that became true. If Boba Fett were unbanned then this is probably the deck he would run. That's the problem we're facing right now. Banning Jango will save the Sector Qualifiers from being massively overrun by that deck. But if that's what happens I wouldn't be shocked to see that same shell being played with Rio Durant as the leader and still make it into a Top 8.

Unfortunately, I don't have a simple solution because this isn't a simple problem. Cunning has been slowly gaining ground over a year, and the designs for sets 5 and 6 are set in stone already. Banning Jango might be a good first step to try and balance out the diversity of deck lists again for the SQ season. Hopefully, though, you see the same pattern that I do and realize this isn't just a momentary call-to-action but one that needs to addressed for the ongoing health of the game. Is the call to ban Triple Dark Raid instead? Maybe. That might go a little further in bringing about a healthier diversity of cards. It won't reduce the number of Jangos, but it'll make the Jango decks a bit different from one another for the time being as they figure out what works and what doesn't. But both of these are short-term solutions. If we want long-term solutions, there needs to be a change in the design pie; whether that's bringing other aspects in line with the cost-effectiveness of Cunning cards or bringing Cunning cards down with more restrictions or higher costs. It might even just be the answer to get effects like these into other aspects like they did with They Hate That Ship - which I've said time and again is my favorite card out of the new set.

Anyways, we'll see what happens on the live stream on Wednesday.