Star Wars: Unlimited Breakdowns - Aggression Aspect Leaders

Star Wars: Unlimited is coming, and we’re breaking down the available leaders for each aspect, as they get previewed so you can be ready to hit the ground running when the game drops on March 8. We’ll be updating this article as more cards get previewed over the coming weeks so make sure you check back every so often to see what awesome new synergies are available.

OTHER ARTICLES:

Play Formats & Deck Construction
Vigilance Leader Breakdown
Cunning Leader Breakdown
Command Leader Breakdown
Booster Contents & Variants

The AGGRESSION aspect is all about DAMAGE! It hits hard, deals direct damage to units and bases, and has keywords like SABOTEUR that gets around SHIELDS and SENTINEL, as well as OVERWHELM which deals any excess damage that a unit deals to a defender, to the defender’s base as well. So it’s no surprise that its LEADERS do the same thing.

NOTE: You may notice a little code at the end of the title of a card that says SOR# then a three-digit number. This is so you can easily search the cards we’re talking about in card databases like SWUDB.com. The SOR is the set code for Spark of Rebellion (the first set releasing in March 2024) and the three digits is the Collector Number for that card.

Let’s start with the obvious, Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith (SOR#010). You’ll find him in the Starter Decks and I wouldn’t be surprised if he sees play beyond those decks. When he’s in undeployed side, he rewards your commitment to VILLAINY by giving you an action that deals 1 damage to any UNIT (including your own... sorry Superlaser Technician (SOR#083)) and 1 damage to a BASE. This helps tick off a SHIELD to open enemy units to strong attacks from your other units, as well as slowly providing minor damage to a base that will come in handy late-game. Once he’s deployed though, he becomes a sweeper, dealing out an extra two damage when he attacks, allowing you to defeat that extra-tough enemy unit, remove a shield before hitting with the attack, or just removing some other annoying low-health unit from either battlefield. Pair him with Vader’s Lightsaber (SOR#136) and watch him carve through an enemy base like it’s butter. If you construct a COMMAND build, you can also include Darth Vader, Commanding the First Legion (SOR#087) and get even more uses out of that killer lightsaber.

One LEADER there’s a lot of talk about is Sabine Wren, Galvanized Revolutionary (SOR#014), and with good reason. Her undeployed side does deal damage to both your BASE and your opponent’s, but if she’s paired with some of the VIGILANCE or COMMAND aspects providing healing options for your base, you can mitigate that late-game damage if your opponent survived the coming onslaught, because she can certainly dish it out early. Currently, Sabine has the lowest deployment cost of any LEADER unit, meaning she can hit the board on turn three and start doing little bits of damage by just attacking enemy ground units. If your pair her with CUNNING, you can utilise control cards like Leia Organa, Defiant Princess (SOR#189) or Asteroid Sanctuary (SOR#218) to exhaust enemy units and fast attack cards like Snapshot Reflexes (SOR#215) or Shoot First (SOR#217) to deal extra damage without a response from your opponent.

The AGGRESSION LEADER I’m personally building around currently is IG-88, Ruthless Bounty Hunter (SOR#012). This deck uses the RAID X mechanic, an ability that increases the power of a UNIT by X when it attacks. He pairs nicely with the CUNNING aspect which already has plenty of RAID options, but adding some of the sneaky On Attack AGGRESSION cards is also quite fun. Cards like Fifth Brother, Fear Hunter (SOR#131) that can deal damage to himself on attack to add RAID, or Benthic "Two Tubes", Partisan Lieutenant (SOR#156) that adds RAID 2 to another AGGRESSION UNIT. IG-88 already pushes you to attack when undeployed, and his deployed side just gives everything you control RAID 1. I’ll keep on attacking and worry about what the battlefield looks like later.

If you want AGGRESSION, Grand Inquisitor, Hunting the Jedi (SOR#011) is how you get AGGRESSION. Want to inflict damage on your opponent? NO! How about inflicting damage on your own units to ready them?! It’s no surprise that this guy synergises really well with Fifth Brother, Fear Hunter (SOR#131). After all, you can play Fifth Brother, deal 2 damage to ready him, then attack, inflicting one more damage on him and a ground unit the opponent controls, hitting for five damage, all on Turn 2. The downside to this build is the low healthpool found among AGGRESSION units, meaning he’s probably better paired with VIGILANCE to get the big booty SENTINEL units acting as a defensive line, with some light unit healing in the form of 2-1B Surgical Droid (SOR#059) to mop up the damage you’ve been dealing to your own units and taking advantage of the GRIT mechanic found on Scout Bike Pursuer (SOR#032) and Rugged Survivors (SOR#067), or the COMMAND aspect to ramp via Resupply (SOR#126) and Superlaser Technician (SOR#083). He’s still a LEADER I’m toying around with personally inside of a mono-aggression build, just focusing hard on getting cheap bodies out and dealing damage as soon as I can.

UPDATE: as I was about to publish this article, Star Wars: Unlimited previewed the Occupier Siege Tank (SOR#185), a 5/4 Ground Unit with GRIT in AGGRESSION. So yeah, maybe a VIGILANCE build utilising GRIT may be the way to go with the Inquisitor.

Ah Cassian, arguably one of the best Disney+ Star Wars shows is also a card! In case you couldn’t tell from the rules text on Cassian Andor, Dedicated to the Rebellion (SOR#013), this guy cares about dealing damage directly to your opponent’s base, so the keyword SABOTEUR is fundamental to his deck-build. There are some great AGGRESSION cards that already lend themselves to the deck, like Jedha Agitator (SOR#0158), Fighters for Freedom (SOR#143), and K-2SO, Cassian’s Counterpart (SOR#145). The key to this deck likely lies in an aggressive build similar to Sabine Wren, Galvanized Revolutionary (SOR#014) utilising the CUNNING aspect, to gain access to Leia Organa, Defiant Princess (SOR#189) and Surprise Strike (SOR#220) and focusing on rebel-specific HEROIC cards like Rebel Pathfinder (SOR#239), General Dodonna, Massassi Group Commander (SOR#242), and Fleet Lieutenant (SOR#240) to get that extra damage in. With the Infiltrator’s Skill (SOR#166) upgrade and Precision Fire (SOR#168) event, you can turn those non-saboteur units into the base-killers you need them to be.