Han U-Win (2x Store Showdown 1st / Undefeated)

(Spark of Rebellion era, pre-Shadows of Empire)

Undefeated 1st Place at 88 Cardhouse Store Showdown 5/11/24

Undefeated 1st Place at Anime Imports Store Showdown 6/12/24

Han Green is legit, folks! The dream of playing a 7-drop on turn 3 is backed up by a solid plan of quality green units and yellow tempo plays. This is the best shell to play U-Wing Reinforcement, which makes U-Win when you play it 😎

General Tips & Tricks

Stop wasting your Han ability. The only times to use it are when you're going for your big Han double-resource ramp turn, and, on occasion, to play turn 1 Millennium Falcon against Sabine decks to kill their Green Squadron A-Wing. Yes, this means you won't have a leader power for the majority of the game. That's OK! Please, for the love of Chewie, stop using it to Resupply turn 1.

Be aware of what can stop your big Han turn. Your dream is to use Han on 5 resources, giving you that 6th resource which lets you deploy Han, then attack with him to play a big 7. Common plays to watch out for include Energy Conversion Lab+Steadfast Battalion, Overwhelming Barrage (usually on Boba Fett), Power of the Dark Side, Surprise Strike, No Good to Me Dead and opposing Leia Organa. You're generally pretty safe against aggressive decks, and these are the matchups where the quick 7-drop is most important anyway.

It can sometimes be correct to soft pass before committing the card in your hand to activate Han's leader ability. When in doubt, play safely and just deploy Han regular-style on 6 resources. Recklessly running out Han and getting blown out will waste your entire turn and likely spiral into losing the entire game.

Spark of Rebellion x3, maindeck. This card is the reason you have a reasonable shot against your bad matchups. Even against aggressive decks, taking an early unit is perfectly acceptable. They do come out against aggressive decks during sideboarding, but they still do enough useful things in that matchup to have them in the main for game 1.

Millennium Falcon Tax Evasion. Many Han players are already aware, but just in case you aren't, you can pay for the Millennium Falcon's cost and then trash the spent resource for Han's effect, making the Falcon tax free.

Choose wisely when destroying resources for Han. Face-down resources are not all alike, don't just trash them at random. Make sure you're setting up cards for Rogue Squadron Skirmisher and Home One. You want to make sure you're getting something back for Rogue Squadron, even if it's just a card you're going to resource. Home One needs something immediately impactful the turn you play it, like Echo Base Defender or Millennium Falcon. Leia Organa is the best of both worlds and the first thing you want to look for most of the time. On a related note, it can sometimes be correct to burn a card when Greedo dies and there's nothing to shoot, just to put cards in the discard for later.

Leia Organa, useful early and late. Turn 1 Leia Organa (readying a resource) into Greedo against aggressive decks helps you fight for the board early. In other matchups, Leia is a fine resource to burn for Han later. In the mid-to-later rounds, Leia buys you the time to close out the game. Playing her a few times with Bright Hope, Rogue Squadron Skirmisher and Home One is your answer to opposing finishers like Fett's Firespray and Avenger. If you have Leia in hand, it can often be worth giving up other plays to take the initiative and use her to lock down something problematic.

Want to make some changes?

• Admiral Ackbar isn't great. He's primarily here to be the 3rd unit off of a U-Wing Reinforcement (make sure you play your reinforcements in the right order!). In rare situations where you started with the initiative and played a 2-drop on turn 1, he can shoot down a Viper Probe Droid or some such on turn 2, but he's a resource most of the time. Ezra Bridger is a reasonable alternative.

• Auzituck Liberator Gunship has been back and forth with Consortium StarViper and I haven't been happy with either. You have a weak space game and need something to help out, even if it's subpar.

• Rogue Squadron Skirmisher is mediocre but returning a card earns this its slot. Cunning is another good 6 to run, but you don't want to go overboard on events and make U-Win less consistent.

Budget Alternatives for expensive cards:

• Millennium Falcon -> Consortium StarViper
• Home One -> Reinforcement Walker
• Change of Heart -> Overwhelming Barrage (you can afford the 7 cost off-aspect)
• U-Wing Reinforcement -> do not play this deck without U-Win Reinforcement, this is the only one that is mandatory

What not to run:

• R2-D2 and C-3PO. You can use your ability to play them both turn 1 and recoup that card you trashed on the leader ability, but even after that it's a mediocre board presence that something like Battlefield Marine would be better at. And more importantly if you draw one droid without the other, they're real bad. You don't need to recoup cards if you just play conservatively with your leader ability.
• Mon Mothma. As above, you don't need the card draw and she doesn't do anything useful on the board. You can bounce her with Bright Hope, but most of the time you're better off trying to control the board instead of sitting around drawing cards.
• Chewbacca. It pains me to not include Chewie, especially in a Han deck, but he's basically a vanilla sentinel. When you play him, you want to be claiming initiative pretty soon after, but if you do, you won't get to do anything with his readying effect. He's another awkward hit into U-Wing piles, and you want to minimize those.
• Sneak Attack. Sure, you can live the dream and surprise someone for 10 damage with Home One into Millennium Falcon, but outside of that, it doesn't do anything. You want cards that are consistently useful.
• Energy Conversion Lab. I know, it's crazy to be playing secondary Command and not run it, but so many of your units already have Ambush or don't make good Ambush plays. Giving up the 5 life against aggro is not worth it-- playing Echo Base effectively counters Sabine's first For A Cause I Believe In for free.

Sideboarding

• vs Rebel Aggro (Sabine Wren/Leia Organa)

+3 Colonel Yularen +2 Reinforcement Walker, -3 Spark of Rebellion -2 Home One

The immediate healing of Reinforcement Walker makes it better than Home Run, although they're both useful. If your opponent has seen you play Traitorous, it can be correct to take those out instead because they're very likely bringing in Disabling Fang Fighter. Against double-red, the Traitorous always comes out because they have Aggression.

• vs Blue Villain Control (Director Krennic, Iden Versio, Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin)

+3 Bodhi Rook +2 Reinforcement Walker +2 Change of Heart -3 Traitorous -2 Admiral Ackbar -2 Auzituck Liberator Gunship

Bodhi is hot fire in these matchups, coming down as part of your U-Wing Reinforcement bundle (without paying his aspect penalty!) to protect your new army. Honestly, he's pretty decent even when you're just paying 5 for him. Play carefully around Power of the Dark Side and have a recovery plan for after they Superlaser Blast, although many lists are only running 1 copy these days.

• vs Boba Fett

+2 Change of Heart +2 Reinforcement Walker -2 Admiral Ackbar -2 Rogue Squadron Skirmisher

Their units are often too large for Ackbar or Rogue Squadron to be able to kill anything useful. I like to hold Spark of Rebellion for their Boba flip turn to stop Steadfast Battalion or Overwhelming Barrage. Traitorous is primarily for this matchup, looking to take Boba Fett or Seventh Fleet Defender.

• vs Han Solo

+2 Reinforcement Walker +2 Change of Heart -3 Auzituck Liberator Gunship -1 Admiral Ackbar

The dastardly mirror match! Save a Leia Organa to interrupt their Han turn. Try not to be the first person to play unit Han Solo, because the second Han to show up is the one that survives. You can use Change of Heart to steal an enemy unique unit that you also have in play, and then you sacrifice their copy to the uniqueness rule.

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Reinforcement Walker comes in for every matchup, but that does mean you want them maindeck. You don't want to run too many things that cost 8, especially because they're more cards that U-Wing Reinforcement can't hit. You can be a little clunkier in the slow matchups, but you need to make sure you're running smoothly to be able to keep up with Sabine.

If you want the spicy tech, you can run Overwhelming Barrage off-aspect, in place of Change of Heart for the midrange matchups. Your deck is the king of making 7 mana, and it's a pretty powerful card to play at 7-- when it's not rotting in your hand and being completely useless the other times.