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With the announcement of Force Throw's suspension the meta is in a new state of flux. Though this little card's suspension isn't as much of an upheaval as the suspension of Boba Fett - Collecting the Bounty, Triple Dark Raid, or Jango Fett - Concealing the Conspiracy it's sure to open the doors for other Aggression cards to take up the burden or allow for units with smaller butts to perform higher. Force Throw made its impact in the original Spark of Rebellion set and since then has only increased in performance thanks to all the Force units that came in Legends of the Force. A simple common may not seem to hold that much weight until we consider just how valuable this card can be in the right package. A single resource for a discard is already useful - but adding removal onto the back end makes the card powerful.
It's unclear if this suspension is enough to force (pun intended) competitive players into choosing non-Aggression decks over Quinlan Tarkintown or Cad Tarkintown but it might even the odds for decks like Rey Data Vault to have a more balanced matchup. Even though Qi'Ra Data Vault was already doing very well, I suspect to see a significant increase in her relationship with the meta. Han Data Vault was one of the few decks bold enough in Aggression to not run a Force package to support Force Throw and will also be better positioned to compete against other Aggression decks.
These changes coming right before the release of Secrets of Power couldn't have been better timed. Many higher tier players have been complaining about Force Throw and its dominance through this season. Heading into a new season with a switch in decks, the refreshing Plot keyword, and a recalibrated meta seems like the right time to leave this overpowered card in the rear-view mirror.
Now there's over a month-long period before Secrets of Power releases and when the suspension takes place which allows us a few weeks to see what a more balanced meta looks like. There are a few decks I mentioned that will see an increase in play (if not an increase in win rate) but one in particular jumps to the front of my mind. Vader Yellow has been left in the dust with the previous banning of Cunning cards and was overshadowed by prominent leader's in Jump to Lightspeed, but this deck has been hovering lightly around the meta for a while.
Deck: Vader Yellow by Hibadino | Star Wars Unlimited | 1st PQ Madrid
Leader:
1x Darth Vader - Victor Squadron Leader
Base:
1x Mos Eisley
Space Units:
3x Victor Leader - Leading from the Front
Ground Units:
3x Bazine Netal - Spy for the First Order
3x Wingman Victor Two - Mauler Mithel
Events:
2x Waylay
Sideboard:
2x Swoop Down
2x Confiscate
2x Darth Vader - Commanding the First Legion
This deck focuses on dominating the space arena like any good deck formed from Jump to Lightspeed while relying on removal or other effects to deal with your opponents ground arena. With Bazine you can get a good idea of what your opponent has and plan on dealing with those ground units as they appear. But if there's a ground unit you can't handle yet you can have them discard it with Bazine before it gets deployed.
Death Space Skirmisher is a cheap play allowing you to exhaust an enemy ground unit to keep yourself safe for a round. Sanctioner's Shuttle is a cheap alternative that allows you to capture a cheaper enemy unit to avoid damage for another round. But Geonosis Patrol Fighter is the star of the show allowing you to bounce a cheaper enemy entirely back to their hand to be played another day. The Patrol Fighter also comes with some flexibility in cost with Exploit if you're running on a tight curve. But that's not the only way we have of dealing with a ground arena we've largely abandoned. When push comes to shove, we're running No Good to Me Dead which exhausts an enemy unit for two rounds, freeing our resources up to get more damage on the base. Waylay might be more expensive, but it puts your opponent back an action and the resources - so targeting a ground unit that costs more than 3 grants you action economy. Finally, we have Overwhelming Barrage to pump our space units and remove ground units or a pesky space sentinel in our way.
The goal of this deck is to hit fast. Mercenary Gunship normally provides too much wiggle room for our enemy to take advantage of our tools - but here we need to hit the base early so we run many low cost (and several 1-cost) ships to get the job done. Most importantly we have a crucial leader deploy turn, which I've talked about in my previous article regarding the new Plot keyword, which Vader pilots to increase Lurking TIE Phantom, Clone Combat Squadron, or Victor Leader stats and create more TIE Fighter tokens. Once our board is swarming with little ships we get in with one of those 3 attackers to take a big chunk from the enemy base.
Despite our low cost cards Force Throw represented a problem to this deck of being able to take out almost our whole line up with a single card. Our cheap ships aren't terribly protected which makes them easy targets for removal. Other removal will still hurt us (Takedown, et al.) but those trades are more in our favor and also don't include us discarding a card.
Another note here is PQ Madrid took place in June of 2025, even before Legends of the Force released. I wouldn't be surprised if decklists made room for The Legacy Run - Doomed Debris or Scimitar - Sith Infiltrator. The curve of this deck increases too much by running both, but the deck will definitely evolve with the new cards.
If you're heading into the competitive season of Legends of the Force good luck. My hope for a new meta going into these tournaments is high, and I'm hoping to see some wild and crazy new decks altogether. May the Force be with you.
