When Gungans were printed and tested they were deemed unplayable. It would be easy to dismiss the Spark of Hope Ewoks similarly since they are of a similar roll in the Star Wars universe but I’m here to say that these furry little bastards have some stuff going for them. First off I’m going to discuss Wicket and Traps and then get into what I’m a little more excited for.

Ewok Gang and Trap Shit

I love this thematically and it would be a lot of fun to play some casual games with these cards. Net Trap I think actually has some applications to a competitive metagame simply because of its timing against Vader, TTB. Will TTB be playable? No idea although I’m sure playing against a Vader deck will give you a good idea if your deck is playable (As a side note: if Vader and Fear and Dead Men are a thing you can probably shelve your Ewoks for the season, sorry little dudes). Recurring Net Trap with Wicket gets me a little excited as it will do a good job of neutralizing an offensive character. The big problem with Wicket is that his die isn’t the best and that only one of the traps is competitive. I could be wrong about Rolling Logs as having a recurring effect of that nature could get annoying but since it doesn’t remove dice and just makes your opponent go again it’s not something I’m excited to include in my deck. Ensnare is quite powerful against a damage dealing character with a bunch of upgrades but I suspect that both Mill and support decks will be a big part of the metagame. If you do want to play with Wicket please consider Perilous Escapade as a plot and Nightsister Lair as a battlefield. Lair is particularly hot because it will make traps free or will make them gain you a resource! Overall I think Wicket is overpriced and under powered due to his dice and lack of good trap support. He’s a neat character that I’m relegating to casual games but I don’t think he belongs in a competitive Ewok deck (if the phrase “competitive Ewok deck” makes you giggle you aren’t the only one.)

Competitive Ewoks?!

As I was sorting my collection yesterday I read through all the Ewok cards again and realized something… this card is NUTS!

If you were playing a deck and your opponent played a card that gave them 2 free resources for free without a drawback I think we would agree that the card would be too good. Obviously this has a huge drawback that you will have to have 6 Ewoks on your team but that might not be as bad as you think. The resources you get are only as good as what you are using them for. And if you are playing a mono yellow team the cards you can play are limited. Thankfully yellow has enough cards to keep the dream alive and in Standard has THE BEST UPGRADE IN THE GAME?

When I saw this it was like if the Archangel collective known as THEO came to me and said, yes this the true savior of the Ewoks. In the 6 wide Ewok deck this card has two 6 damage sides and the focus and disrupt side are also worth noting – if you ever caught someone with a 3 plus disrupt it would be absolutely devastating. The big downside to this card is that Ewoks aren’t too robust and paying 3 for an upgrade that doesn’t redeploy isn’t generally going to be money well spent but in a heavy indirect and mill match ups this card will be an absolute house.

Each of them is cute but together they are ferocious!

In Star Wars there is a long standing trope about not underestimating characters just because of their appearance. If you think back to The Empire Strikes Back the first time me meet Yoda he appears to be a crazy old swamp dweller but it turns out he is one of the most powerful Jedi of all time. When we meet Wicket he looks like a silly little teddy bear but when the rest of his gang arrive we start to realize that Ewok Clan ain’t nothing to f*ck with. Since they are best in high numbers they need a leader that can gather as many as possible…

As a 10 point character Chief Chirpa brings with him an additional Ewok. For max Ewok spam you could pay 10 for Chirpa and the Ewok Warrior he comes plus 20 points worth of Ewok Warriors to get a total of 6 Ewok Warriors. This approach might have merit but it doesn’t make me as excited as playing the second Chirpa die and a two cost plot, namely Double Down.

Double Down allows us to get a 3rd copy of of our 2 resource producing card while also letting us get another copy of Entourage. Entourage may seem like its doesn’t belong in this deck but its a great way of turning resources into damage with just one card. Entourage is not at its best in this deck but its still a nuts card. I could put my money where my mouth is and play 3 Gang Up instead but its really risky.

There are a few other payoff cards which makes me think that even if this doesn’t prove to be the best Ewok deck that someone might crack it. Placing a Diplomatic protection on Chief Chirpa is going to make the decision of whether they want to kill him very difficult – since his die can deal 3 damage They probably will have to. Convergence can kill any support in the game. Support of the Tribe can heal up Chirpa from almost dead to completely healthy. Ewok Ambush is pretty sweet when Gang up or Vibrocutlass are equipped, the possible explosive KO moves are going to be scary. If Games go long and you somehow got your battlefield Arena of Death is going to be doing 3 indirect for you, this will set up some pretty sweet situations where you can claim twice to win the game. Ewok Bow is missing from my list and it’s a fine payoff card but I wanted things that were harder hitting.

The deck slots itself automatically as an anti Aphra deck or any heavy indirect deck because of cards like Diplomatic Protection and Support the Tribe. I’m thinking those match ups would be favorable. However, if Vader with Fear and Dead Men or new Maul are present in the Meta then the deck could be a tough one to play. I have no idea how this would fair against Mill but with Ewoks doing about 5 unstopable damage a round it could have a chance.

Overall I’m pretty hyped for Ewoks and there are certainly various configurations I want to try. I know some people have been trying a red splash for Strenght in Numbers and that sounds like it could be pretty dank. Let me know what you are thinking of doing with Ewoks on here or on social media, I’d love to hear your ideas. Take care and as always…

-NJCuenca