Goodbye, Jango Fett. Fantasy Flight Games made a crucial meta-announcement suspending a suite of Cunning cards, including Jango Fett, Triple Dark Raid, and DJ. Congratulations are in order for creating a healthier meta and fostering diversity amongst competitive decks. Banning all three was more than I expected - but it doesn't fix everything. You can read more about Cunning's dominance in my recent article The Health of the Jump to Lightspeed Sector Qualifiers.

Today we'll talk about a different Cunning deck making its way through the suspensions and climbing upward on the store level scene; ComMando. This deck utilizes the starter deck leader The Mandalorian - Sworn to the Creed and any 30-Health Command base to maximize the synergy of Mando's ability and new pilots.

Deck: ComMando | Star Wars Unlimited

LEADER:

1x The Mandalorian - Sworn to the Creed

BASE:

1x Command Center

GROUND UNITS:

2x Grogu - Irresistible

2x Mon Mothma - Voice of the Rebellion

2x R2-D2 - Artooooooooo!

3x Chewbacca - Faithful First Mate

3x Han Solo - Has His Moments

3x Luke Skywalker - You Still With Me?

3x Outer Rim Headhunter

3x The Mandalorian - Weathered Pilot

SPACE UNITS:

2x Millennium Falcon - Lando's Pride

3x Black Squadron Scout Wing

3x Blue Leader - Scarif Air Support

3x Death Space Skirmisher

3x Millennium Falcon - Get Out And Push

3x Phoenix Squadron A-Wing

3x Red Leader - Form Up

3x Resistance X-Wing

3x Wing Leader

UPGRADES:

1x Traitorous

2x Price on Your Head

Normally I start with all the good and beneficial things about a deck, then lead into some problems they have. However, this is still somewhat experimental and has a fairly straightforward issue. Since we're trying to play units and then upgrade them, we will always be slower than other decks. Relying on consistent two card combos isn't just slow, it's dangerous because we're inviting our opponent to regularly 2-for-1 us. More importantly, we're on our knees when we play against decks like Sabine who can outpace us without thinking. The sideboard for this deck was left blank because ultimately it will depend on how the meta shakes out.

Typically, we want initiative to attach a pilot which sets off a few triggers that put us in a good place for the rest of the round. We love seeing upgrades, and that includes all our pilots who can trigger our leader ability. This gives us some built in temporary removal just by playing other cards - it's the most efficient way for us to get around aggro and midrange decks. When we play other cards that care about upgrades we improve that efficiency; which is why we play cards like Red Leader - Form Up and Black Squadron Scout Wing with provide board economy and action economy from doing something we're already going to be doing. Then we pack our deck with upgrades that provide even more efficiency like Han Solo - Has His Moments to get a free attack in, The Mandalorian - Weathered Pilot to get some more exhausts in against decks with more units, and Luke Skywalker - You Still With Me? to reclaim some of the 2-for-1 economy we'll be losing.

To get to this engine up and running faster we need cheap ships. Thankfully Command and Cunning have a slew of 2 and 3 cost ships that allow us to take full advantage of the tools given to us. Outer Rim Headhunter lets us exhaust more things, which is our whole removal strategy. Phoenix Squadron A-Wing and Resistance X-Wing are both turn one plays with solid numbers that just love being piloted. For our turn two plays we get Blue Leader - Scarif Air Support and Death Space Skirmisher which provide flexibility for dealing with problem units early on. Wing Leader is a good support ship for us to follow up with to improve some of our more aggressive units. Finally, we have the secret menace of the space arena Millennium Falcon - Get Out and Push which can seat two pilots and ends up rather large.

Traitorous is one of the most fun plays in this deck allowing you to steal an enemy unit, triggering Mando to exhaust another enemy unit. One card can turn the board state around for us. Mon Mothma helps us dig for some of our key cards like Millennium Falcon, Wing Leader, Red Leader, and others. It also helps us find Chewbacca - Faithful First Mate which provides some protection from other removal effects.

Overall, I've had a lot of fun with this Mando build, and I've seen others talking about it in a post-suspension meta. Given that Sabine might be the worst matchup, I'm not sure how consistently it'll see play at higher levels. Which is too bad since it matches up against Anakin and Quinlan quite well. Any deck that Voltrons into one or two units ends up dead in the water with all the exhaust effects we have.

There are other iterations of this deck that lean more into a Rebel package, and another that leaned into a Resistance package using Poe and Wexley. The Resistance side sounds like a different deck and goes much wider trying to utilize X-Wing tokens. This way seems to me like it would need to run more traditional removal, or even Strike True in place of some of the engine building cards.

As we continue into Sector Qualifiers with the new meta we can keep an eye on the growth and decline of certain decks. I don't know that you'll see this deck at those tables, but I hope we get something surprising and exciting!