Star Wars: Unlimited Breakdowns - Vigilance 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
Aggression Leader Breakdown
Command Leader Breakdown
Cunning Leader Breakdown
Booster Contents & Variants

The VIGILANCE aspect is all about defense and control. You’ll be shielding your UNITS, repairing your BASE, and removing your opponents biggest threats. It uses the SENTINEL keyword to prevent your opponents from attacking your BASE or other units, or the RESTORE keyword to repair your BASE while attacking. So let’s take a look at a few awesome LEADERS to build around.

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.

Luke Skywalker, Faithful Friend (SOR#005) can be found in the starter deck products, but that doesn’t make him an easy target. Luke can dish out shield tokens everywhere, first to a UNIT that entered this turn, then, once deployed, giving any unit a shield every time he attacks. Add in the auto-include Luke's Lightsaber (SOR#053) to heal Luke when he’s low on remaining health, and he becomes an extremely potent attacker on the battlefield. You’d find him nicely paired with some of the control options present in the CUNNING aspect like Leia Organa, Defiant Princess (SOR#189) (which you’ll also find in the starter deck with him) or in the COMMAND aspect with units like Admiral Ackbar, Brilliant Strategist (SOR#097) and Home One, Alliance Flagship (SOR#102) for the added RESTORE keywords.

You can’t talk about VIGILANCE leaders without discussing Director Krennic, Aspiring to Authority (SOR#001). This man can turn a high-toughness SENTINEL deck into a great damage-over-time build by increasing the power of UNITS under your control when damaged and giving access to UPGRADES like Resilient (SOR#069). When he’s on the field though, he’s also repairing your BASE with RESTORE as well as providing the power-bonus, meaning your units can dish out the damage protecting your BASE while he gets to work repairing it. Krennic seems to be at home in a purely VIGILANCE build, utilising a base like Security Complex (SOR#019) to provide an extra shield somewhere on your board, only paying the base cost of Vigilance (SOR#058), and having access to great removal options like Takedown (SOR#077), Vanquish (SOR#078), and Maximum Firepower (SOR#234). 

Well if it isn’t the Rebellion’s very own walking carpet getting a LEADER card for Star Wars: Unlimited, and it’s a card that can create protection for your BASE on a whim. His non-deployed side allows you to spend an action to play a UNIT give it SENTINEL until end of turn, meaning opposing units in the same arena can't attack your non-sentinel units or your BASE. Allow me to introduce you to the GRIT keyword, a mechanic that boosts a unit’s power for each damage marked on it. Rugged Survivors (SOR#067), if given the SENTINEL keyword, just becomes better every time your opponent has to attack it, and throwing Resilient (SOR#069) onto them just makes their hits harder and harder. And the deployed side of Chewie is the same, forgoing the ability to give other units SENTINEL and instead having it and the GRIT keyword himself, to create the same scenario. We’re still in the midst of spoiler season for Star Wars: Unlimited and I’m expecting a few more GRIT cards to be announced across the other aspects so I’m yet to find his aspect pairing but rest assured, he will be a LEADER to watch upon release.

I’m still not entirely sure where Iden Versio, Inferno Squad Commander (SOR#002) sits as a LEADER. She can slowly heal your base which gives her a slight edge over more aggressive builds, but healing only one point per turn when undeployed isn’t really enough to turn the tide when you are possibly losing your own units in their attacks to meet the conditions of Iden’s healing action. The key for her seems to be adding in the COMMAND aspect to ramp up resources. This opens up the Energy Conversion Lab (SOR#022) as a possible BASE option to get those fast enemy defeats through the AMBUSH keyword.  You still have plenty of control/defeat options in VIGILANCE with cards like Death Trooper (SOR#033), Takedown (SOR#077), and Count Dooku, Darth Tyrannus (SOR#038) but adding it great COMMAND+VILLAINY cards like Darth Vader, Commanding the First Legion (SOR#087) and Overwhelming Barrage (SOR#092), your ability to keep defeat opposing units in the mid-late game can see Versio sitting somewhat comfortably in a decent midrange deck.

*UPDATE 31/01/2024:* The last VIGILANCE LEADER has been spoiled and it’s Chirrut Imwe! Everyone’s favourite blind believer is taking up the mantle of leader in the first set of Star Wars: Unlimited. So, how do you turn him into a deck? There’s really two great options for him. Either you stick in the VIGILANCE aspect with Security Complex (SOR#019) and get access to great double-aspect cards like Protector (SOR#057) and Vigilance (SOR#058) that can really see Chirrut take the brunt of your enemy’s units, or you can pair him with COMMAND to add some other great cards like Admiral Ackbar, Brilliant Strategist (SOR#097) and Bright Hope, The Last Transport (SOR#099). Either way, you’re going to be including a bunch of upgrades to beef up your units, and Guardian of the Whills (SOR#061) to piece together like an unstoppable beast. And, of course, you have to add Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight (SOR#051) to round it out as he is an absolute beast of a unit. There’s still plenty of room to experiment with Chirrut so I can’t wait to see what other spicy brews are built around him.