The Definitive Han Yellow Pilot’s Guide

by eakfoil
edited by [BN] Lego Pizza (Ian)

We are here because of one simple truth: Han Yellow is the best deck in Star Wars Unlimited. By the end of this article, I think you will agree with me. It is the ultimate midrange deck - able to race Sabine, out-grind hard control, and disrupt any opponent’s game plan with the most robust hand hate package in the game. It plays the game on every axis: manipulating the board, hand, and resource row to play where your opponent is weakest and find the best line to victory. I’m aiming for this to be a comprehensive deck/strategy guide updated for the set 3 meta, covering play lines, matchups, win conditions, and the overall mindset you need to smuggle, pump, and DJ your way to victory.

If you want to jump right into the strategy guide, go ahead and skip to The Basics section below. For everyone else, first I want to introduce myself and address some of the discussion about the deck I’ve seen online recently.

Hey, I’m eakfoil! If you’ve never heard of me, you’re probably wondering what makes me qualified to write a guide like this. I’m the type of card gamer who likes to solo-main a deck. I have been playing Han Yellow exclusively since last summer, after I watched it dominate at Gen Con in the hands of [BN] Lego Pizza (Ian) and Troy Yamaguchi. In the two PQs I've attended (so far), I've piloted the deck to 2nd and 4th place finishes. I’m active in forums and regularly discuss lines and strategy with the greats of the deck. This guide is a synthesis of what I have learned from picking their brains, theorycrafting, crushing tournaments, and of course grinding countless hours of Karabast (alt title: I Played 1000 Games of Han Yellow so You Don’t Have To).

Jokes aside, there’s sort of this narrative going around that you have to be an expert with hundreds or thousands of games under your belt to see any success with Han Yellow in tournaments. I want to address this for those of you who might be interested in the deck, but are maybe intimidated because someone told you that the deck is “too hard”. I don’t really buy into that. Yes, it’s true that this deck has a ludicrously high skill ceiling, and that it has more decision points than any other deck in the game. But that doesn’t mean you need to see every single line to win. You don’t have to have the same mental illness I do that makes you play only Han Yellow for months before you’re able to top cut a tournament. I’m not going to lie and tell you it’s not a hard deck to master - I still learn nuances in every game I play. However, I’ve found that much of the complexity can be reduced by simply knowing your role and win condition for each matchup, and following a simple game plan that gets you to that win condition. If you know how you're supposed to play, you don’t need hundreds of reps to see success. You can play all the Karabast you want, but practice by itself doesn’t make perfect - it’s perfect practice that makes perfect. I want this guide to give you the tools to learn more in less games.

Piloting this deck, like the Millennium Falcon, can sometimes feel like the whole operation is on the verge of collapsing at any given moment. You will often find yourself stranded and out of gas, empty handed and playing out of the row. I can give you the coordinates, but I can’t plot the course for you. You will have to improvise. But hey, no one ever completed the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs without taking a few risks. If you’re up for the challenge, then welcome to the cabal.

The Basics

Set 1 Han Solo has the ability to spend a card in hand to gain a temporary resource for a turn, thereby playing 1 resource above the curve each turn of the game. Much of the skill in playing Han is learning when you can afford to activate your leader ability, when to play on curve, and when to hold onto the cards in your hand.

There are two turns of every game where it is most common to activate Han. The first is turn 1, in order to cheat out a 3-drop that can value trade with your opponent’s turn 1 play (e.g. Ezra attacking into Battlefield Marine). This puts you ahead on board from the first turn of the game. The next, and even more common one, is turn 4, where activating Han moves you from 5 to 6 resources in order to deploy Han a turn earlier than his printed deploy cost. Then, when Han attacks you get an additional temporary resource from the top of your deck, giving you access to 7 resources on turn 4. This is the most powerful thing Han does, and the reason he is a tier 1 leader.

The thing that pushes mono yellow over all the other color combinations you can pair with Han - and the thing that makes it the best deck in the game - is the power of smuggling DJ for 7 resources. Han has the unique ability to defeat the resource stolen from your opponent with DJ. This is not the case with other leaders who defeat resources like Lando, who explicitly states that the resource you defeat must be one you both own and control.

This is absolutely busted. The Han/DJ interaction is the only form of one-sided permanent resource destruction in the game. The end result of this interaction is that you come out 2 resources ahead of your opponent. Destroying their resource effectively de-ramps them, and turns the temporary resource you put down with Han into a permanent one, thereby ramping you. If you do this on the flip turn, you will go into the next turn with 7 resources and your opponent still on 5, assuming no one has ramped otherwise.

Even if we are not playing DJ on turn 4, having access to 7 resources on the flip turn gives us a huge amount of powerful options to put us ahead for the rest of the game. Han unit or Enfys Nest can often be even more impactful than DJ, especially in more aggressive matchups. One of the main reasons Mono Han decks include so many different 7 costs is that each one attacks the opponent from a different angle, oftentimes preventing them from playing around each of the various options. For example, deploying their leader early in the turn sequence plays around DJ stalling the leader deploy, but plays INTO an ambushing Han unit. These types of plays can lock your opponent out of a game immediately. Furthermore, other examples of successful flip turns don’t necessarily include a 7 cost card but instead spending 7 resources worth of cards in the most efficient manner, such as Cunning + Blaster to push an additional 6 damage or more. And even if our opponent is able to disrupt our flip turn and prevent Han from attacking, we have great 6 cost smuggle options like Zorii Bliss and Lando’s Falcon as backup plays from the resource row. No matter the matchup, maximizing the flip turn is essential to doing well with Han.

Different Matchups, Different Game Plans

One of the reasons Han Yellow can seem so difficult to pilot for a newcomer is because the optimal game plan looks incredibly different depending on the matchup. There is no other deck that takes the aggressive stance into Sabine ECL, but the controlling stance into Bossk Blue. I think so much of what drives people away from playing Han is simply not knowing how they are supposed to play each matchup. I believe that once you know what your goal in each matchup should be, finding the lines to get there should come fairly naturally, and it will make your practice much more fruitful. I’ve identified three common game plans with different goals and win conditions to help break it down.

DJ Lockout

Resource destruction is powerful in any game, but it is especially powerful in Star Wars Unlimited because it can delay your opponent from being able to deploy their leader - or prevent their leader deploy entirely if you DJ them enough times in a row. Landing a DJ on the flip turn practically wins you the game vs many decks that have leaders who deploy on 6 or later and don’t ramp (with few exceptions). Luke, Rey, Anakin, Iden, you name it - these decks all fold to a DJ on the flip turn. Even against slower midrange/ control style decks who run leaders that are able to deploy before DJ (think Qi’ra or Krennic), playing DJ on the flip turn is still usually the most powerful thing you can do. It delays them from getting to their late game bombs, and the resource advantage you gain allows you to stay ahead in value for the rest of the game. This interaction is why DJ is the best card in the deck. Yes, DJ - not Cunning, not even Tech (though we will discuss the Tech/DJ combo in a bit).

Unless your opponent is on an aggressive deck that will kill you before you can make use of the resource advantage, playing DJ on the flip turn is usually the best thing you can do. The power and consistency of this play enables an entire game plan that can be utilized against a huge chunk of the meta. I’ll call this the DJ Lockout Plan, a strategy where your primary goal is controlling your opponent in the early game to protect your flip turn so you can land a turn 4 DJ and win off the back of the massive value he generates for the rest of the game.

The goal of this strategy in the early game is to stop your opponent from disrupting your flip turn, so that you can successfully get to 7 resources and play DJ. The most common ways to stop Han from getting to 7 are exhausting him or killing him before he can attack - this is what you want to prevent. Some common examples of preventing this include killing your opponent’s ground units so they cannot threaten to kill Han with a pump, using hand hate to strip exhaust effects, and playing Qi’ra to stop your opponent from playing a card from their hand or from top-decking the perfect answer. Against blue decks, naming Perilous Position with Qi’ra on turn 3 is often the best play, even if they don’t have it in hand.

After successfully DJing your opponent there are a few ways to convert the game into a win. Sometimes you will have gotten enough damage on the opponent’s base in the early game to transition straight into beating them down with pumps. But more often, if you have been focused on controlling the opponent’s board up to this point, you will need to hold off for a few turns before pushing for lethal. In these cases, the best way to proceed is using the resource advantage you’ve generated to continue removing your opponent’s threats while simultaneously developing your own board. This is where the lockout part of the strategy comes in: you use the resource advantage generated by DJ to lock your opponent out of the game.

Chaining DJs back-to-back is an incredibly effective and toxic way to do this. Don’t be afraid to sacrifice your first DJ to the unique rule if it means landing a second one unanswered. Remember, landing a successful DJ puts you 2 resources ahead of your opponent, so if you’re able to DJ on the flip turn and DJ again the turn after, you will be on 9 resources while your opponent is still on 5. Brutal! This is why it’s so rough to play a 6-deploy leader (without ramp) against Han Yellow.

If you don’t have the second DJ, no need to worry - a turn 4 DJ will put you at 7 resources on turn 5, the perfect amount to play one of your 7-drop bombs in Han or Enfys Nest. Both of these remove one of your opponent’s units and leave behind a huge body when played, and threaten to do the same thing again if they get to attack the next turn. Unless your opponent has hard removal, DJ into a 7-drop is usually enough to shut the door and prevent your opponent from doing anything meaningful for the rest of the game.

There is one more win condition still - the reason why this deck has the ultimate inevitability, why it can grind longer than almost any other deck, and why it has such an oppressive matchup into hard control. I’m talking about the Tech Grind Win Condition. This is the most counterintuitive one - I did not think to go for this gamestate until I watched Alex Blandin systematically dismantle blue players on Karabast to witness firsthand how oppressive it was.

This win condition is typically used against blue control decks (hero and villain) that run a lot of removal and rely on slamming late game bombs to close out the game. The crux of this strategy is generating a resource advantage through landing at least one, but ideally multiple DJs, and then slowly chipping away at their hand using the discard package until you get to a massive resource count and are able to stick a Tech when you know they have no answer to it. Once Tech is on the board, the resource advantage you’ve generated with DJ will offset the increased cost of playing cards from the row using Tech’s ability. Once your opponent gets to 8 resources, you will often be on 12. With Tech in play, that’s effectively 12 additional cards in your hand. 

An example board state after achieving the Tech Grind Win Condition

Outside of a few specific cards, nothing your opponent plays can threaten us once we reach this gamestate. If your opponent taps out for a bomb like Avenger or Snoke, you can simply use Tech to play a bounce effect from the row (we run 5-6, so we should always have one) and use any remaining resources to redevelop the board, or discard the threat you just bounced. Try to keep two units on board to play around PotDS and Avenger effects, and use Qi’ra to name Superlaser Blast in case they topdeck it. Even if Tech gets removed, just smuggle out the second one and do it all over again. Eventually your opponent will run out of removal and threats, and you can burst for a massive amount of damage across 1 or 2 turns by playing Surprise Strikes, Cunnings, and Falcons from the row.

The few cards I alluded to that are annoying for this strategy are units that can kill Tech when played and leave behind a body essentially 2-for-1-ing or 3-for-1-ing us, such as Vader, Maul, or Luke. Try to save your Spark of Rebellions and Qi’ras to hit these cards if at all possible. Many Green/Villain decks are able to recur Vaders from the discard pile using Palpatine’s Return, so against these decks it’s better to go for the kill a bit earlier than to go for the Tech ultra-late game.

Tempo

For the more aggressive matchups (i.e., Sabine, Jango, Quinlan, etc.), spending 7 resources to play a 3/5 is just too slow. You will die before you get to make use of the resource advantage. Additionally, you will not always draw DJ in the matchups you want to play him, and certain decks like Palpatine Green can ramp multiple times to offset the resource advantage from DJ and win the value grind in the endgame. Luckily, Han Yellow happens to be one of the fastest decks in the game, taking full advantage of the massive power of Cunning, as well as pumps like Surprise Strike and Blaster to aggro down opponents before they know what hit them. Ending games on the flip turn is not uncommon.

However, going exclusively to the base is usually not the best way to win aggressive games with Han. We do not have the inevitable burn damage that Sabine does, so if the opponent is able to stabilize by clearing our board it can be very difficult to get in the last points of damage we need. Taking a key value trade early in the game to get us ahead on board, or playing hand disruption to strip a key card in the mid game is often necessary to shut the door on the opponent’s ability to disrupt us. Our robust bounce package of Waylay, Cantina Bouncer, Enfys Nest, and Cunning gives us excellent ways to remove our opponent’s threats for just enough time to push the damage we need to win the race. This strategy plays much like Boba Yellow from previous sets - I’ll call it the Tempo Plan.

Your win condition here is simple: kill your opponent before they stabilize or before they kill you first. If you’re playing this strategy against late game oriented decks like Blue/Green/Villainy or any color Palpatine, you want to go under them. Use your bounce effects to remove annoying sentinels or big units, use Spark and Bodhi to discard their threats, and go fast. If you’re playing tempo against another aggressive deck, Cunning is the most important card to see. Never resource it (okay sometimes you have to, but you get the point). Tap or bounce their units and pump yours - but don’t get greedy and play the +4 attack mode of Cunning into an exhaust or bounce effect. Taking a key value trade on turn 1 or 2 is often enough to put you far enough ahead on board to win the race.

Vibes

Somewhere between these extremes lies a third speed of play, not as fast as tempo and not as controlling as the DJ Lockout strategy. Against many midrange decks that aim to control the board through units, playing for tempo too early will let your opponent stabilize through value trades, and likewise playing exclusively for DJ can often allow them to get too far ahead on board to come back from. In these matchups, the best way forward is usually to play like a traditional midrange deck, eking out incremental value over time through taking favorable trades and using hand disruption to prevent your opponent from doing the same.

I’ll call this the Vibes Plan, but it is less of a solid game plan as the other two as it does not progress you towards a singular win condition. It is much more fluid - your goal when adopting this strategy is simply to find a way to get some sort of an advantage, which can be achieved in many different ways. Use the first few turns to figure out the vibes of this specific game before transitioning to beating your opponent down and playing for tempo, or navigating to a position where you can land a DJ and using the resource advantage to lock your opponent out of the game. How you play and the stance you take will vary significantly depending on your draws and how the board state develops from turn to turn. This is the hardest strategy to play as the Han pilot, and as such decks that force Han to use this strategy tend to be its most difficult matchups.

Sidebar: The Bozo Combo

What kind of Han Yellow guide would this be if it didn’t address the Bozo Combo? Better known as the Tech/DJ combo, this interaction was coined the “Bozo Combo” by Alex Blandin, one of the all-time greats of Han Yellow, because “only a bozo would get blown out by such a telegraphed play.” A bit harsh, perhaps, but I think the significance of “bozo” can be taken in a few different ways. The combo certainly leaves you feeling like a bozo after it is resolved against you, especially if there was nothing you could have done to stop it. Even a bozo could steal an occasional win if they hard-force this combo every game. And from the perspective of the Han player resolving the combo, you must often take a risk and commit to an option, embracing the inner bozo if you hope to combo off. Kind of poetic, isn’t it?

Much of the early hype around this deck was centered around the power of this combo. The main line of the combo consists of turn 2 Tech into turn 3 DJ, putting you to 6 resources on turn 3. This allows you to deploy Han, attack, get to 7, and defeat the opponent’s resource you stole - all a turn earlier than you normally would be able to. This is made possible because Tech gives DJ an alternative smuggle cost of 2 plus his printed cost of 3, which is 5.

This combo is extremely powerful when you can get it off on turn 3, but any competent opponent will be aware of it and do everything they can to stop it once they see Tech come out on turn 1 or 2. Usually their facial expression will drastically change if they know they cannot deal with the bozo combo. However, timing is key, because even if you start turn 3 with initiative, you will have to spend your first action activating Han to go to 5 resources before you can bring DJ out. This gives opponents time to deal with Tech. Certain decks are more vulnerable to the combo than others - any deck running ECL or Tarkintown has an additional way to damage Tech before you can get the combo off. Takedown and Force Choke are common one-card answers to Tech. Any ground unit attacking for 5 will kill Tech in one action, which is enough to stop the combo on turn 3 because of how the timing works out. Opponents who play to the space arena in the first two turns are especially vulnerable, since it is much harder for them to remove Tech with unit damage. The Bozo Combo is incredibly powerful but also very telegraphed - expect to get it off around 2-3 times over the course of a PQ. 

The good news is if you are able to get the combo off, it’s pretty much a free win regardless of your opponent’s deck. A successful turn 3 DJ puts you so far ahead on both board and resources so early in the game that it’s basically insurmountable for any deck to come back from. Even if you are able to combo off and deploy Han on turn 3, but your opponent is able to remove DJ and get their resource back before you can defeat it, you are often still too far ahead for them to mount a comeback. Opponents know they can not let you get this combo off, and what this effectively means is when you play out Tech on turn 1 or 2, your opponent will see a card with the text “Remove me by all means necessary or lose the game”. 

This is good for you, since it allows you to bait removal and inefficient plays out of your opponent. Often your opponent will have to use 2 attacks with ground units to remove Tech, softening them up to be value-traded with your other ground units or effectively healing 5 from your base against an aggro deck. An early Tech is a great way to force your opponent to burn their Tarkintown or ECL, paving the way for a later threat to go unanswered. If you mulligan into a hand with not much going on, playing a Tech will force your opponent to answer it instead of advancing their own gameplan, preventing you from falling behind.

However, I can not emphasize this enough - do not get greedy. Do not let the allure of the Bozo Combo prevent you from making a better play if there is one available. This kind of greed lost me a PQ - I was in the finals vs Sabine ECL with Tech and DJ in my resource row on turn 2, and 10 rounds of tournament fatigue combined with the temptation of landing the combo in the finals caused me to make a critical misplay that lost me the game. Don’t repeat my mistakes.

If you choose to go for the Bozo Combo, don't think of it as a singular gameplan. It is more of a tool in your early game toolbox that you can deploy if you think the situation calls for it. Sometimes the stars align just right and your opponent has no answer, you get the combo off and win the game. Other times you listen to the siren’s song and get punished, your ship sinking into the depths along with your chances of victory. If you choose to ramp to 5 resources on turn 3, having a backup 5 resource play such as Cantina Bouncer/Plo Koon/Zorii Bliss is the best way to follow up your Tech or DJ getting answered. Use your brain and tread carefully, and don’t be a bozo.

The Decklists

At the time of writing this article (post-weekend 2 of set 3 PQs), there are two main versions of Han Yellow that have done well in tournaments: Good Stuff and Rebels. Both versions had stellar performances at SCG Con Atlanta, culminating in a Han Yellow mirror in the finals of the Saturday $2k with two greats of the deck facing off on their respective versions: Alex Blandin on Good Stuff vs. Ian Klein on Rebels. I think their respective lists perfectly encapsulate the two deck building directions Han Yellow is currently being pulled in - plus, I think it’s a pretty dope storyline. I’ve included both of their updated lists below, as well as my own that I took to a top 4 finish at a small 37 player PQ in Lincoln, NE the same weekend.

Good Stuff

The Good Stuff version of Han Yellow plays the anti-Tarkintown package of Crafty Smuggler, L3-37, and Liberated Slaves, leveraging their 2/2 shielded and 3/5 statlines to be more resilient into the Tarkintown meta that emerged early in set 3. This shores up the matchups vs Quinlan TT, Jango TT, and Cad Bane (any color but especially TT), which can prove difficult for the Rebels version running a suite of early 4 health units that are vulnerable to ping + TT. L3-37 in particular has the additional upside of being able to be played from smuggle, as well as the ability to rescue a captured unit, which is now meta relevant vs. decks running the Cad Bane legendary unit.

“Good Stuff” is a nod to the fact that this version of the deck does not rely on a specific synergy package like the Rebels version does, but instead fills in the deck with cards that are good in a vacuum. Alex Blandin was able to pilot the above list to 1st place at the SCG Atlanta $2k. Then, with some minor adjustments, he immediately turned around and won an 80 player PQ the following weekend. Around this time many other PQs were top-cut or won by similar Good Stuff lists running the same package of 2/2 shielded and 3/5 units. This version of Han Yellow is incredibly well-rounded, but does not have the peaks that the Rebels version does with the ability to draw a ton of cards with C-3PO or the unparalleled aggressive start of turn 1 3-drop into turn 2 Wing Leader.

Fun Fact about the “Good Stuff” version of the deck: the original concept of including all the 2/2 shielded and vanilla 3/5 units was back when Boba was an unstoppable menace during the Set 2 PQ meta. 4-LOM can be an extremely annoying card for the Rebels version to deal with as it ambushes into Ezra and Rogue Operative and lives. Ian Klein and his friend Chris Lewis developed this version as a way to avoid their units dying to 4-LOM every game. Ian was afraid they didn’t test the deck enough but Chris was brave enough to bring it to the NJ PQ. Chris went on to crush the field with the “Good Stuff” until he eventually fell to MaClunky Gaming’s Austin “Krusher” and the Green Boba Menace in the finals.

Rebels

While the Rebels package proved itself as the dominant version of Han Yellow by the end of set 2, seemingly everyone moved away from Rebel Han once the set 3 meta started to take shape as being defined by ping + Tarkintown decks. Everyone, that is, besides the stubborn Ian Klein, who at SCG Atlanta showed the world that Rebels still have what it takes to win by going undefeated in 7 rounds of swiss, taking down a litany of Tarkintown decks, including a Quinlan TT, a Cad TT, and FOUR Jango TTs along the way.

The Rebels version of Han Yellow leverages the power of C-3PO and an expansive suite of 3-costs to draw cards turn after turn, offsetting the drawback of activating Han’s leader ability and increasing the chances of seeing the most important cards in each matchup when you need them. Ian’s version above runs 23/50 3-cost cards, giving C-3PO almost a 50% chance to hit when naming 3. My general rule of thumb is I wouldn’t run C-3PO with less then 20 3-costs, but 24-26 is ideal. This is more-or-less based on preference and feel.

Wing Leader is the other big reason to be on the Rebels package. Turning C-3PO into a 3/6 on turn 2 allows him to meaningfully affect the board while drawing cards, and curving one of your 3-drop Rebel units turn 1 into a turn 2 Wing Leader is one of the most aggressive starts out of any deck. While the set 2 Rebel lists ran Fleet Lieutenant, it has since been cut as a concession to Tarkintown decks. We can’t afford to run too many 3-drops that rely on having a Rebel unit in play to get value when all the Tarkintown decks can kill our 4 health units on turn 1. Wing Leader is the better payoff because its buff is permanent, and it gives enough health to push our units out of Tarkintown range if you sequence around the turn 1 ping. For example, against Quinlan you can play a turn 1 Ezra which avoids a ping as Quinlan cannot play a unit of the same cost that turn. Although the Quinlan player will get initiative for the 3-resource turn, a ping from a first action 3 cost unit can be countered by a follow up Wing Leader - critically pushing Ezra out of Tarkintown range.

Due to the power of the card draw from C-3PO and the aggressive lines Wing Leader enables, the Rebels version of Han Yellow has a better matchup into basically every deck that is not playing Tarkintown or Cad Bane. However, the tough matchups get significantly harder to navigate without the safety of the 2/2 shielded and 3/5 units. If you plan to take Rebels to an event, I would make absolutely sure you know how to navigate the Cad Bane and Quinlan TT matchups, or hope to dodge them entirely.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that Bodhi Rook is the only Rebel that makes an appearance in both lists, and the only unit in the game that is both Imperial and Rebel!

Tweak To Your Preferences

Good Stuff and Rebels are just two ways to approach deckbuilding Han Yellow. As long as you keep the 35-ish card core of the deck, you can fill out the rest with what suits your playstyle and expected meta the best. This is the list I ran at PQ Lincoln to a top 4 finish - you can see that I’m on a Good Stuff version but added 2 Rogue Operatives as a flex 3-drop that attacks for 4 and has saboteur, something none of the other 3-drops do. I also ran C-3PO out of the sideboard to swap out with Crafty Smugglers in matchups where they’re not necessary. The Rogue Ops get this list to 20 3-drops, which is just enough for me to consider C-3PO worth the slot.

Card by Card Breakdown

In this section, I’ll go over the core 35 cards I think you should never cut from any Han Yellow list. Then I’ll break down the use cases of every card in the core, as well as every other card I think you could consider when tweaking a list to your preferences or building your own version from the ground-up.

The Core

These are the 35 cards I’d consider the core of Han Yellow, and the 6 sideboard cards I’d want to have in every 60. I’d never cut one of these cards, but I would often run extra copies of some. Cutting any of these cards would significantly hurt your chances into key matchups, or disrupt your ability to play to one of the 3 game plans I outlined earlier in the article.

Some of these slots are not exact - for example, Zorii and Lando’s Falcon together represent the 6-drop smuggle slot. I think Zorii is better positioned into the current meta, but Falcon is better vs decks that are weak in space. Regardless, I’d never want less than 2 of some combination of them. Same story for Han and Enfys - I’d never want less than 3 7-drops, and I prefer to never go lower than 3 Han units, but many people prefer a 2/2 split between Han and Enfys.

I’d recommend anyone building their own Han Yellow list to start by taking this core, adding an early game package (Rebels or Good Stuff), filling out the main deck with mid game value units and extra copies of core cards, and finally teching out the sideboard for specific matchups. With this in mind, let’s get into the card by card breakdown.

Core 3-Drops

Never ever ever cut one of these cards. If there was a core of the core, this would be it.

Millennium Falcon (SOR) - No Cunning/Heroism deck should ever leave home without a playset of these, especially a Han deck. Han is able to pay the falcon tax for “free” every turn you activate his leader ability by exhausting a resource first then destroying the resource you exhausted. Great as a turn 1 play that comes in ready and answers any 2-drop space unit, great in the late game to push for lethal after your opponent taps out, great as a curve filler any time. The only time it’s not great is vs. blue or green hero decks because of their annoying space sentinels that are better to ignore than try to fight.

Bodhi Rook - Targeted discard for non-units on a Battlefield Marine’s body. Insane into control decks, since it effectively eats 2 removal cards. Not my favorite turn 1 play since it leaves you without initiative going into turn 2 and enables good trades for your opponent - e.g. Sabine unit trading 1 for 1 with him on attack. Hits a ton of problem cards in the early game: Triple Dark Raid, Darksaber, No Good To Me Dead, Cunning, Perilous Position, and board wipes like Overwhelming Barrage and Superlaser Blast in the end game.

DJ - The best card in the deck. Enables the DJ Lockout Plan that invalidates control decks and slow 6+ deploy leaders. On top of that, he has one the best stat lines for a 3-drop in the game. Great turn 1 play into Sabine if they start ground since it gives you a value trade unless they have exactly Fleet Lieutenant to make the trade even. Great into Tarkintown decks because of the 5 health. In any game that goes long, you’ll find a moment to smuggle him out eventually.

Tech - It’s pretty crazy how Tech isn’t the best card in the deck. It’s a must-kill when played on turn 1 or 2 since it enables the Bozo Combo. Enables the Tech Grind Win Condition against blue control decks. Having Tech in play is sort of like drawing as many cards as you have resources. He allows you to resource bombs, pumps, and bounce effects early and still have access to them in the late game. Busted.

Early Game Good Stuff

The early game unit package to run if you want to target Tarkintown decks.

Crafty Smuggler - Just a 2/2 shielded unit. Survives a ping from Tarkintown decks. Unremarkable besides that. Terrible turn 1 play vs any red/hero deck running Sabine unit.

L3-37 - Like Crafty Smuggler, but can actually be smuggled. Good to play from the row in the end-game where you just need a unit to survive so you can push lethal with a Blaster or a Surprise Strike. Her ability to free a captured unit, while useless last set, is now pretty good vs any Yellow/Villain midrange or control decks running Cad Bane Unit or Relentless Pursuit.

Liberated Slaves - Multiple PQ winning versions of this deck running a playset of vanilla 3-cost 3/5s really puts into perspective how busted DJ is. You know why it’s here: it survives ping + Tarkintown. Curving turn 1 Crafty/L3 into these guys turn 2 presents a pretty resilient ground arena vs. TT decks, preventing them from dominating ground the entire game and never letting you get a good flip turn off.

The Rebels Package

Draw cards and aggressively buff your units, but lose some points into Tarkintown decks. Higher highs and lower lows than Good Stuff.

C-3PO - The main reason to be in the Rebels version of the deck. You want to construct your deck with minimum 20 3-cost cards, but ideally between 24-26 for his card draw to be consistent enough to run. You typically only run him in Rebels because it turns out there aren’t that many good 3-cost cards in yellow hero outside the rebel package. You will have games where he draws 4 or 5 cards and it feels amazing, and you will have games where he draws 0 cards and feels like the worst card in your deck. But even if he draws 1 or 2, he’s worth it. Also, the 1/4 statline lines up well against 3/1 ground units like Greedo out of Jango.

Wing Leader - One of the best turn 2 plays when you play a Rebel turn 1. Turns C-3PO into a 3/6, allowing him to meaningfully impact the board, and turns your 3-drop rebels into early game aggressive powerhouses. Shuts down Power of the Darkside vs. blue/villain decks. You’d think it wouldn’t be good vs ping decks because of the 1 health, but the 2/1 body doesn’t actually matter very much. You can often bait a Quinlan or a Cad to begin turn 2 by pinging your 4 health unit, then following it up with a Wing Leader buff to put it back out of TT range. Although it's not ideal to run out Wing Leader in the mirror, where the opposing Han can Waylay the buffed Rebel, later on Wing Leader can help finish off an opposing Falcon after you attack it with your own Falcon. It’s one of the only ways to kill opposing Falcons in the mirror outside of Surprise Strike and Big Falcon ambushing from hand.

Ezra Bridger - The all-rounder turn 1 play for the Rebels deck. He has the Rebel trait to take a Wing Leader buff, the statline to take a value trade vs almost any 2 drop, and an on attack ability that can… sometimes do something. Don’t get me wrong, when Ezra pops off and finds the exact card you need off the top of your deck it’s incredible. At worst he shows you one of your draws for next turn (which can guarantee the card draw from C-3PO if you also have him out), or digs you closer towards the cards you want to see. I value his on-attack pretty low because it’s unreliable. But hey, maybe you’re more of a gambler than I am.

Rogue Operative - The unsung hero of the Rebels list. Rogue Op does something none of the other 3 drops do: it attacks for 4. The saboteur is honestly just a plus. All of the other turn 1 plays in either version of the deck attack for 3 or less without a buff. The 4 attack hits some important breakpoints: it can kill Yoda, Village Protectors, Dr. Pershing after 1 draw, or a Rebel in the mirror if you start turn 2 with initiative. It’s also great at sniping leaders, being able to attack for 7 with Surprise Strike (killing Jango, Quinlan, Anakin) or 6 with blaster (killing Bossk, other Hans). The 2 attack on defense can sometimes be a liability - don’t play this guy turn 1 vs. Sabine, since she can play Fleet Lieutenant to send her 2-drop into him, killing your unit and leaving both of hers alive. Buffing this guy with Wing Leader on turn 2 is one of the most aggressive starts out of any deck, allowing you to put 12+ damage on your opponent’s base by turn 3 while ignoring sentinels. Ouch.

Mid Game Value Units

Use these units to shore up your middlegame, bridging the gap to your flip turn by disrupting your opponent’s game plan and protecting your own.

Qi’ra - This is often the best card you can play on turn 3 if your goal is to have a successful Han flip turn (which it usually is). Like Bodhi, playing Qi’ra develops a body to the board while also disrupting your opponent’s hand. But Qi’ra has a few distinct advantages - first, she can target units. More importantly, though, she can prevent your opponent from playing a card even if they are holding multiple copies of it in hand. This can really brick your opponent’s turn if they only had one thing to play. Don’t forget that you’re able to name a card that isn’t in your opponent’s hand - often, when I see that my opponent’s hand doesn’t have anything that threatens my gameplan, I will think of what the scariest or most annoying thing they could topdeck would be and name that card.

Gamorrean Guards - Sometimes you just need an annoying sentinel to block up the ground arena. The stats aren’t amazing for the cost, and the sentinel ability is conditional, but having these guys out before you deploy Han can insulate him from any non-saboteur unit sniping him before getting to 7 resources.

Auzituk Liberator Gunship - Usually a sideboard card, this is like a backup Falcon (the small one) typically brought in vs. aggressive space-heavy decks, as well as decks that are weak in space in order to apply more cross-arena pressure. It’s decent into Jango, but playing it on the 4 resource turn is a trap since that’s the turn they want to play Triple Dark Raid.

Plo Koon - Plo is an amazing card, but more awkward to use in Han than in other Yellow Hero decks like Quinlan. With the prevalence of Tarkintown it can be challenging to have coordinate turned on by the time he can be played, and in many matchups you want to be going to 7 resources on the 5 resource turn anyway. However, Plo is excellent in the mirror to snipe opposing Han leaders, and decent into Sabine and other aggressive matchups where 6 attack is enough to kill the opposing leader.

Cantina Bouncer - Waylay with a 3/5 body attached to it - what’s not to love? I’m usually not playing this until after the flip turn unless my opponent spends a lot of resources to upgrade a unit in the early or mid game. Against control matchups, resource these early so you can play them from the resource row with Tech after your opponent taps out for an Avenger or Snoke. Doing this multiple turns in a row is how you really shut the door on them.

6 Cost Smuggle Options

Great backup plays in case your opponent stops you from getting to 7 on the flip turn, and helps you not run out of gas when you’re low on cards in the late game.

Zorii Bliss - 4/7 is a body that’s very hard to remove. When all your units are dying to ping damage and you just need one to stick, Zorii’s your girl. Playing her from hand on the 4 resource turn presents a threat that can threaten to kill practically any leader and survive with the help of a pump spell.

Millennium Falcon (SoG) - While your opponent is busy dealing with your ground threats after an explosive flip turn, the big Falcon lies in wait in the resource row, ready to drop into an empty space arena and threaten to close out the game. The 5/5 statline is unfortunate vs blue decks since it gets hit by both Takedown and Fell the Dragon, however this is still a strong card vs. Blue/Green/Villain decks because they are weak in space and tend to run fewer event removal cards. Against Tarkintown decks (besides Jango), Zorii is usually the better option since she helps you contest the ground arena during the critical 4-6 resource turns.

7-Drop Bombs

Han without 7 drops is like an angel without its wings. These are your closers.

Han Solo - Because of the nature of this game’s back-and-forth action system, a Shoot First effect is incredibly powerful. Han threatens to eat your opponent’s ground units for free turn after turn, until you decide you’ve gotten enough value out of him and send him into the base. He’s the highest attack unit in the deck, and threatens to burst for 9 damage in one action with a Surprise Strike. This can put opponents in check and force them into an early claim at relatively low life totals.

Enfys Nest - Against decks with lots of units with 4 or less power, Enfys is a tempo machine. Her bounce ability can cross arenas, making her the preferred 7-drop into Jango, since she bounces all of their space units besides Fett’s Firespray. Having saboteur on top of that makes blue hero players cry, leaving poor Obi Wan as a 6 resource play that gets bounced for free and doesn’t even block an attack. Put a Blaster on her and she can bounce up to 6 power units - buff her with Cunning and she can bounce an Avenger!

Pumps

Surprise Strike - The most efficient pump spell in the game. Unconditional, no downside, no questions asked. Just attack with a unit for +3 power. 3 is an important number since it allows you to hit key breakpoints: 4 + 3 = 7, 3 + 3 = 6, etc. Sometimes a Blaster’s 2 power doesn’t quite do it.

Hotshot DL-44 Blaster - Speaking of Blaster, here it is. While it’s much less efficient than Surprise Strike, it is an upgrade so the power boost is permanent, and more importantly it can be played using smuggle. If you see one in your opening hand, you know you will have access to it for the rest of the game.

Cunning - This card does everything - we will primarily discuss it here. In aggressive matchups, this is the best card in your deck. The biggest strength of this card is the unparalleled action compression. It allows you to stop up to 3 of your opponent’s units from attacking with exhaust/bounce, or it can deal with your opponent’s biggest threats and buff your own with exhaust/buff or bounce/buff. And it does this all in one action. Discard is the premier mode against control decks when you are attacking their hand, and it’s a fine backup in any situation if there is no better option. Note that when playing Cunning or any modal card (like the other double aspect legendaries), you may declare the first mode and wait for it to fully resolve before declaring the second. This allows you to choose to the discard mode and wait until you see what your opponent discards to decide what mode to pick next.

Hand Hate Package

Hand hate rewards players who know their opponent’s deck well. Save disruption for your opponent’s most problematic cards, or use it to completely brick one of their turns.

Spark of Rebellion - Spark is like the Surprise Strike of discard events - unconditional, no questions asked, targeted discard for anything. If you have both this and Bodhi in hand, save Spark to discard annoying units. Playing a Spark in the end game both allows you to take away your opponent’s biggest threat, and gives you information on whether you are safe to go face and end the game or if there is another threat coming that you need to play around. I’m not a fan of playing this turn 1, especially against unit based decks since it is usually a tempo negative play. The ol’ take their only turn 1 play does not work anymore - people are catching on!

Bodhi Rook - Discussed above. Targeted discard for non-units, with a body.

Qi’ra - Discussed above. Not actual card advantage, but comes with a body and increases the cost of any copy of the named card.

Cunning - Discussed above. The only random discard effect in our deck.

Bounce Package

Bounce is good in a deck that plays for tempo - who knew? We’ve already discussed most of these cards but they're here for completion’s sake.

Waylay - The unconditional, no questions asked bounce event. Note that this is here over Spare the Target since we often want to bounce our own units vs control, both to remove bounties from them and to regain access to a key when-played effect like Bodhi Rook. We don’t give out bounties ourselves, and units with built-in bounties are either not played in the meta or not worth bouncing.

Cantina Bouncer - Discussed above. Waylay with a body.

Enfys Nest - Discussed above. Turn-over-turn bounce is gross.

Cunning - Discussed above. Only bounces units with up to 4 power.

Other Considerations

Other cards you should consider to tech against certain matchups or shore up specific weaknesses. Perfect to fill out the sideboard.

A New Adventure - Great tech against Bossk, since it removes bounties from a unit and lets us double-up on a when played effect. Can let you regain control over your unit after it was stolen by Palpatine or Traitorous.

Bamboozle - Exhaust effect + upgrade hate that can be played for free. This blows out a Darksaber play from Sabine, and it’s a great way to tap down Han in the mirror if you’re not able to kill him outright before he can attack. Since token upgrades can not be returned to hand, Bamboozle destroys them, making it great into XP stacking strategies like Wing Leader or Tarkin.

Change of Heart - Good against ramp decks to steal their star destroyer and threaten to kill them with it. You almost always want to play this with initiative.

Fennic Shand - Another option for a 7-drop bomb. She has the potential to kill 7 health leaders, but stacking the discard pile with the costs you need can be awkward - especially in the 3-drop heavy Rebel lists.

Fleet Lieutenant - More rebel synergy and 3-drops for the Rebels build, but can create awkward hands when your turn 1 play gets removed and you’re left with this and Wing Leader as your only turn 2 plays. Better into a meta where Tarkintown is less prevalent. Can also be a sideboard card vs. Sabine.

Greedo - A cheap, aggressively statted unit that’s good to bring in vs. swarm aggro when you want to lower your curve and match their unit spam early in the game.

Jetpack - Another buff that can be played using smuggle. Great to buff one of your early drops so it can use the shield to take a value trade into a key midgame unit, and leave behind a threatening body going into the flip turn.

R2-D2 (TWI) - Seems better on paper than he is in play. The 2/4 statline doesn’t do that much, and his ability to discard to filter is often unnecessary on turn 1, since you’ve crafted your opening hand, though he can save you from a bad mulligan.

Matchup Breakdowns

Next, I’ll break down how to play into the most popular decks in the meta. There are too many viable decks for me to go over every single one, but I’ll try to hit all the major players. You can apply many of the same principles to decks in the same archetype.

I won’t give you a 1-for-1 sideboard guide, since this article covers more than 1 specific 60-card list. However, I will provide a sample of cards that are good to bring in for each matchup.

Sabine ECL

Primary Gameplan: Tempo

Sideboard Cards: Bamboozle, Plo Koon, Gamorrean Guards, Greedo, Syndicate Lackeys

In a pure base race, we are faster than Sabine ECL. Our pumps, and especially the card Cunning, allow us to count to 25 in less actions than it takes them to count to 30. A good Sabine player knows that they should take the control stance into this matchup, aiming to keep our units off the board so we have nothing to buff with our pump spells. The good news for us is that our ability to play above curve lets us play units that naturally trade better into theirs. We are favored in this matchup, but the wins are always by a narrow margin and Sabine is more than capable of winning with tight play.

My typical game plan is to use my turn 1 unit to value trade into theirs, then pressure their base. If they play to space turn 1, a Millennium Falcon in response will eat their A-Wing and lock down the space arena for the rest of the game. Usually they will play to ground turn 1 - our best response is a 3/4 or 3/5 ground unit to threaten the value trade. Their best response is a turn 2 Fleet Lieutenant to send their 2-drop into your 3-drop and trade 1-for-1. 2/2 shielded units are bad turn 1s because of Sabine unit, and Rogue operative is bad because if they Fleet Lieutenant into it, your unit will die and theirs will live. If they have a turn 2 Wing Leader, Waylay or Bamboozle are great answers.

On turn 3, you need to have a plan for Darksaber. There are many ways to play around it - Qi’ra, Spark, or Bodhi can answer it from hand, or you can simply kill Sabine as soon as she deploys before they get a chance to put it on. Ramping to 5 into a Syndicate Lackeys, or Plo Koon if you’re able to turn on coordinate, are great for this. If you have Bamboozle in hand, simply develop a unit and keep passing until they spend their resources. If they play Darksaber, discard a card to play Bamboozle for free and blow them out. If they play anything else, just claim initiative. If you have Cunning in hand, you can also just let them play the Darksaber and tap down Sabine with initiative next turn.

I like to save a Qi’ra or Spark for turn 4 to stop the ECL Poe play from blowing out our Han deploy. Playing a 7 drop on turn 4 isn’t necessary in this matchup, just spend your resources efficiently and use this turn to solidify your board advantage and pump a ton of damage into base. Han attack + Cunning + Blaster pushes 10 damage by itself, not counting any of the other units you have on board already. It’s not uncommon to end the game this turn.

Bossk Blue

Primary Gameplan: DJ Lockout

Sideboard Cards: A New Adventure, Change of Heart, extra bounce effects

This is the quintessential matchup for the DJ lockout plan. Once you learn this matchup the deck will click for you, and you will unlock a new win condition into any game that goes late and grindy. We are incredibly favored into Bossk Blue using this strategy - it is their worst matchup and our best.

This matchup is all about card advantage. Our best openers are Bodhi Rook, or C-3PO if you’re on rebels. If they open with Dr. Pershing, kill him as soon as possible. Playing a Blaster or Surprise Strike to kill him on turn 2 are more than worth it. Keeping them on a low amount of cards in hand is essential to this strategy, as we aim to win in the late game using Tech to give us an overwhelming amount of card advantage. As we continue to destroy their hand, it strains their resourcing decisions by forcing them to choose whether to resource late game bombs in order to have a card to play on an earlier turn, or to save the bomb but skip a turn in the mid game.

If they put a Death Mark on one of your units, bounce it. You can’t let them draw. Top Target you can ignore - damage on base in the early game does not matter since we win in the late game. If they play a Childsen, bounce it, then continue destroying their hand to make the next one weaker. Bossk can be annoying if they’re able to stick an Entrenched on him, so aim to kill him before they can do that. Try to DJ on the flip turn - if you can’t, that’s okay as long as you can land one before they get to 8 resources, ideally. Just keep destroying their hand and playing units to tax their removal, then sneak the DJ in after they tap out.

In the late game, transition into the Tech Grind Win Condition to close it out. Do not play out Techs in the early game that will just die to a removal spell - you need to save them for later. Once you have achieved the gamestate where you have a resource advantage and destroyed their hand, the only way to lose is to overcommit. Don’t play too many units to the board just for them all to get wiped by a Superlaser Blast. Bring in the small Falcon to attack for 3 and return it to hand each turn. Keep 2 or 3 units out at a time to protect Tech from Power of the Darkside effects, but no more. The only time you can go wide is if you can play Qi’ra to name Superlaser Blast. When your opponent taps out for their 8 or 9 cost haymaker, just bounce it and continue steadily pushing damage until you’re in range to burst for lethal with all the pumps you’ve resourced throughout the game.

Jango Tarkintown

Primary Gameplan: Tempo/ Vibes

Sideboard Cards: Auzituk Liberator Gunship, Gamorrean Guards, Lando’s Falcon, extra bounce effects

Now we’re getting into the Tarkintown decks - these matchups are much less straightforward in terms of gameplan, and much more vibes-based and context-dependent based on how the board develops in the first few turns. This is one of the matchups where it is more important for us to disrupt our opponent’s game plan than stopping them from disrupting our own. A ton of the power in Jango comes from their ability to play Triple Dark Raid on the 4 resource turn. One of the best things we can do is to get initiative going into turn 3 so that we can play Qi’ra to prevent this. Ideally, we want to get them to burn Tarkintown before this turn so they can’t use it on Qi’ra. A Millennium Falcon cleaning up a turn 1 or 2 space unit is a great way to bait this.

If you don’t draw Qi’ra, a turn 3 Gamorrean Guards is also good to protect Han from getting exhausted by an attack from Jango. If you can get to 7 on the flip turn, Enfys Nest is your 7-drop of choice. It bounces every space unit in their deck besides Firespray. It might seem counterintuitive to bounce something that gets value when played like Ruthless Raider, but forcing them to pay 6 to replay it just for it to get bounced again and again puts them in a loop of never developing the board.

If you have the ability to kill Jango after he deploys, it might be better to hold off and wait for the right timing window, since killing Jango turns off his leader ability for the entire turn. Use this as an opportunity to play Cunning to buff a unit that they can no longer exhaust. If they don’t have many units left after the flip turn, use Auzituk and Lando’s Falcon to clean up the ones that remain, and bounce everything else that gets played to lock them out. If you don’t think you can lock them out with ambushers and bounce, or you think you could just kill them faster, go base and race them.

Quinlan Tarkintown

Primary Gameplan: Vibes/ Tempo

Sideboard Cards: Gamorrean Guards, Zorii Bliss, extra 7-drops

This is one of the tougher matchups. The first couple of turns are defined by playing around Tarkintown. If you start with initiative, it’s usually best to pass and let them take the first action. If they play their unit before you, they don’t get to ping. If they pass or claim and you skip turn 1, that favors you since Han is the better late game deck. Playing a 3-drop turn 1 is fine since they can’t ping it, but you will lose initiative doing that anyway so might as well pass.

The worst thing Quinlan can do to us is ambush Plo Koon to kill Han on the flip turn. We should approach the early game with a plan to play around Plo. Keeping the board clear to keep coordinate turned off is the best way to do this, but that can be hard to achieve if they’re able to get a good Tarkintown off. With the Rebels version, buffing your unit out of Tarkintown range with Wing Leader after they ping it is a good way to prevent them from getting tons of value out of Tarkintown. Sticking a Gamorrean Guards to eat the Plo Ambush is an okay solution, but it gives your opponent a 2-for-1 so it’s not ideal unless it allows you to get to 7 and drop Han or Enfys.

Force Throw is the other most annoying thing this deck does. Between Grogu, Ezra, Plo, and Quinlan himself, it’s likely that they will get one off at some point. Try to save a low-cost card for when it happens - nothing is worse than getting your own 7-drop thrown into your leader when it was your only card in hand. Try not to activate Han’s ability too frequently, since they run a heavy discard package as well and Force Throw gets better for them the fewer cards we have in hand. Kill their early force units when you can, especially Grogu since he can sit there threatening to tap down Han.

Hand disruption is pretty important to making Quinlan’s life more difficult. After they use Tarkintown, bring Qi’ra out to name Plo Koon or the biggest threat in their hand. Bodhi is a great early unit to strip their Force Throws. Keep in mind that they can disrupt our hand as well, and Qi’ra does increase the cost of cards played from smuggle.

Cad Bane Tarkintown

Primary Gameplan: Vibes

Sideboard Cards: Zorii Bliss, Jetpack, Lando’s Falcon, extra 7-drops

If you curve out with units like normal, this deck will eat you alive. Especially if you are on the Rebels version. You have to play very specifically into this deck, but with careful play and the correct lines the matchup gets significantly better for us.

Cad’s ping is much more annoying than Quinlan’s, since it is not restricted by the cost of the card that was played to trigger the ping. It’s important to note that when Cad pings by playing an ambush unit, he is able to order the ping and the ambush attack in whichever order he likes since they both trigger in the “when played” window. This means if we have 2 units and the ambusher kills one of them, then we have no choice where to put the ping. This is a major way Cad gets big value out of Tarkintown.

Our first goal in this matchup is to enter the flip turn with Cad’s side of the board as clear as possible. It’s hard to keep Cad’s board clear, but the good news is if we are able to get to 7 we can DJ him and delay his leader deploy, giving us time to catch up by sticking a Han or Enfys the following turn. Cad’s main ways of preventing us from reaching 7 resources are No Good To Me Dead, and an ambushed Zuckuss with 4-LOM out. This means we must make sure 4-LOM is not on the board going into turn 4 - counterintuitively, bouncing him is usually the best way to achieve this since we rarely have the units available to kill him with unit damage. We can use Bodhi or Spark in the first few turns to check for No Good To Me Dead.

As far as openers go, passing with initiative on turn 1 is good into Cad as well. Be sure to respect Bazine by keeping two turn 1 plays, especially if you spend a card to go to 3 resources. I like a turn 1 Bodhi quite a lot to check for the aforementioned No Good to Me Dead, but also for Ma Klounkee and Now There Are Two of Them. Keeping a Waylay in your opening hand is wise in case they are able to get off the turn 2 NTATOT. L3-37 is a good turn 1 unit because of her shield, but ideally you want to resource her early so you have access to her later in the game to rescue a unit captured by Cad Bane, Hostage Taker. Going into the middlegame, Zorii is always a great play since her 7 health makes her really hard to remove. She should be able to survive long enough to get a favorable trade.

Post-flip turn, if you were able to land a DJ you should have some time to catch up on the board. If not, it is very hard to regain board control after Cad Leader deploys, since his 8 health demands two attacks to get through. If Bossk is played don’t let him live for long - Ma Klounkee played with Bossk out deals a total of 6 damage with the Cad ping, or 7 if Cad is deployed. If you were able to survive all of that, Ruthless Raiders and Cad legendaries are on the way to shut the door on you, so try to end the game quickly. Pivot into space with both Falcons when you are in striking distance to push for lethal.

Blue/Red Hero

Primary Gameplan: DJ Lockout

Sideboard Cards: Extra bounce effects and 7-drops

We have more or less the same game plan for any deck that uses this color combination. The most popular ones in the current meta are Anakin Blue and Rey Tarkintown. Good news for us - both of these are decks with 6-deploy leaders that don’t ramp. You know what that means!

That’s right, we play to DJ them. The endgame we want to achieve is, similar to Bossk Blue, the Tech Grind Win Condition. The difference here is that Blue hero decks run far more units, and less 1-for-1 removal. That means that we will have to do a lot of unit trading to keep their board clear, paving the way for a safe DJ. Without units on board, the only way these decks can stop us from getting to 7 on the flip turn is Perilous Position. Pre-flip, this is the number one target for hand-hate effects. Turn 3 Qi’ra naming Perilous, even if it’s not in their hand, is often the best play.

We should aim to clear any ground unit they play in the early game, especially force units to turn off Force Throw. The space arena can largely be ignored, since Concord Dawn Interceptors is a brick wall that’s not worth it to get through. However, if you can bait them into playing to the space arena with, say, an early Falcon to eat a Restored Arc, that can give you an opening to take control of ground. Rogue Operative is an all-star for ground combat in this matchup, since it can clear both Yoda and Village Protectors in one swing and live to tell the tale. Once they get to the point of slamming 4-drops like Kanan and K-2SO, it’s more efficient to bounce them.

Rey is significantly easier for us than Anakin, since we are not trying to put pressure on their base in the early game so her restore is pretty irrelevant. Just make sure you’re killing her units while you can, before she buffs them out of range. If you can get to 7 before Rey deploys, Han unit is a clean answer to Rey before she can buff herself to 7 health on attack. If she Pillages us, it’s good for us since she is not developing the board and we have so many smuggle options. DJ is our main plan, anyway. Just make sure you don’t get your only 2 cards discarded on the flip turn, since that leaves you unable to activate Han to get to 6 and deploy.

Anakin is trickier, since his leader ability allows his units to trade up or value trade into ours. Critically, he can send a 4 power unit into Han for 6 to kill him, so any turn 3 Kanans or K-2SOs must be dealt with. Their best line is turn 1 Sabine into turn 2 Cassian into turn 3 Kanan/K2, with Perilous Position in hand for the flip turn. The 3 power units are able to kill our 3/5s with Anakin’s ability, and the 4-drop threatens Han. If they have exactly this line, we probably can’t get the turn 4 DJ off. However, if they miss any one of these pieces it allows us to get control of the board and find a window to play hand hate to look for Perilous. Note that if you discard Perilous, they can bring it back from their discard pile with Razorcrest. Once Anakin deploys, if he is able to attach a lightsaber it is very hard for us to deal with. We need a way to kill him before he can do this - the best way is sniping him with a 4 power unit + surprise strike. Rogue Operative is once again MVP in this situation, since it can snipe Anakin through a sentinel.

For either deck, they will start slamming Poes, Obi-Wans, and Lukes in the middle - late game. Luke is the only annoying one to deal with out of these, so try to save your Spark of Rebellions to discard him before he can be played. Poe and Obi Wan can both be cleanly answered by a Han ambush or a bounce effect. If they have a second unit on board to give experience to, it is much preferable to bounce Obi Wan than to kill him. Luckily, he is extremely susceptible to bounce effects as he is able to be bounced by both Cunning and Enfys Nest. Once you’ve resolved a DJ and a 7-drop, the game is usually over, but if they’re able to grind the game out just keep killing their units and destroying their hand until you reach the Tech endgame.

Blue/Green Villain

Primary Gameplan: Vibes

Sideboard Cards: Change of Heart, Lando’s Falcon, extra 7-drops, extra bounce effects

Krennic and Qi’ra. The game plan against this archetype is another less straightforward one. We usually cannot straight up race them, since they have enough tools to stabilize with healing and board clears like Overwhelming barrage. However, we can’t reliably get to the ultra-lategame Tech grind gamestate, since they typically run more top end than hard control decks, and the top end they do run is more annoying (e.g. Vader, Maul). Post-board if they bring in Palpatine’s Return, it is very hard to grind them out unless you are able to destroy their hand early.

Because of this, we need to win control of the board early so that we can have a successful flip turn, ideally to land a DJ. From there, we aim to end the game around our opponent’s 7-8 resource turn, before they can fully stabilize with their top end. Denying ramp in the early game is very effective if you can do it. Turn 1 Bodhi, or turn 2 Bodhi with initiative is the best way to stop an early resupply. If we have an advantage on board already, bouncing a Superlaser Tech can be a good move - we just don’t want to stunt our development too much, so bouncing it with a Cantina Bouncer or Cunning is ideal, rather than Waylay.

For either Qi’ra or Krennic, the ECL version is a bit harder since it gives them another way to disrupt our flip turn. Their most impactful play is to ECL Gideon Hask into Overwhelming Barrage, but Gideon is easily answered by a bounce effect. Due to this and the lower health pool, we are incentivised to play more aggressively vs the ECL versions, rather than try to force a DJ. Additionally, it is a blue deck so we should expect to see Perilous Position. With so many threats to the flip, I like to play multiple hand hate cards in the early game so I can see what’s in their hand and know what to play around. It’s worth noting that both Falcons get much better against ECL versions, as Green Villian generally is weak to space aggression.

Against Krennic, keep in mind the damage breakpoints his leader ability enables. Doctor Pershing is a high-priority target, since he can draw cards as well as buff up other units by pinging them. Death Trooper is the biggest problem here - it will be a 4/1 after it’s played, which can be annoying for the Rebels version running a bunch of X/4s. If they’re running ECL, a Death Trooper will ambush in for 6, threatening to kill Han. Be wary of deploying if they have 3 resources and ECL still up. In the late game, if Vader is able to pull a Death Trooper, they can have the ping target Vader, making him ambush for 6 in addition to a 2 damage ping that can be put somewhere else. This can easily swing the momentum back in their favor if you thought you had stabilized with Han unit. Krennic himself is annoying with his high health stat, but not too threatening. His low attack makes him a poor target to hold Overwhelming Barrage, so they will look to play it on a 4 attack unit like Death Trooper or Grievous.

Qi’ra trades incremental value over the course of the game for her own explosive flip turn. A good Qi’ra player will know not to waste the flip to simply kill Han and trade 1-for-1. What is much more annoying for us is if she lets us deploy and attack, and keeps passing waiting for us to smuggle out DJ so that she can flip and kill him to get the stolen resource back. Qi’ra wants to attack into 3 power units after the flip anyway, since it leaves her as a 7/1 that can threaten an insane OB the following turn.

Because of this play pattern, if we plan to DJ Qi’ra on the flip turn, we need to have a 4 power ground unit ready to swing into Qi’ra before she can kill DJ. Rogue Operative, Gamorrean Guards, and Zorii Bliss all get the job done. Remember that Qi’ra is able to flip and kill DJ without spending any resources, leaving her all 5 resources to deal with your 4 power unit. So, your goal in the early game should be to get to the flip turn with multiple 4 power units to threaten Qi’ra, or to strip the removal she could have for them out of her hand. Zorii dodges a lot of removal with her 4/7 statline, so she’s your most consistent bet if you’re only able to get one out. Finally, remember to not attack with your 4 power unit until Qi’ra has already flipped!

Once you’re past the flip turn, you need to be ready for their 7 and 8 drops like Vader, Maul, and Reinforcement Walker. Save your Spark of Rebellions for these threats, but post-board they will have Palpatine’s Return to recur them. Bounces alone aren’t sufficient answers to these units - we have to push damage quickly before they take back control over the ground arena. These colors are weak in space, so a great way to get the last points of damage in is by arena dodging with one or both Falcons after they tap out for one of their big ground bombs.

Palpatine

Primary Gameplan: DJ Lockout/ Tempo

Sideboard Cards: A New Adventure, Change of Heart, Lando’s Falcon, extra bounce effects

Bigger and grinder than Qi’ra and Krennic, but much slower and more susceptible to DJ. Our goal should be to get under the Palp deploy by aggressively pushing damage to base, while also delaying them from getting to 8 resources by denying their ramp and DJing them whenever possible. Killing Palp’s units to deny card draw from their leader ability is also effective, but there is a balancing act here. We can’t be too controlling, since they will out-grind us in the end game. Don’t give up a 5 damage swing to base to kill a 1/1 battle droid. If Palp is able to flip and steal our unit, A New Adventure can bring it back into play under our control.

No matter the color of Palp, one of their most common openers will be a turn 1 official into turn 2 Emperor’s Royal Guards. The Rebels version excels here, since you are able to use Wing Leader to buff your turn 1 Ezra or Bodhi to 5 power and cleanly kill the ERG, or you could buff Rogue Operative and ignore it completely to start swinging 6 damage to base. The Good Stuff builds will have to settle for a Blaster or 2 unit attacks to get through the guards.

With the recent dominance of Han, we should expect any Palpatine deck to be targeting us with Scanning Officers. Playing around this card is like a weird dance, and the correct steps depend on when your opponent decides to play it. Some players will play an early Scanning Officer aiming to brick your turn 1 or 2. This can be very impactful when it happens, but we can play around it by choosing to not resource any smuggle cards early. We run so many smuggles that sometimes we are forced to resource some in the early turns, but try to avoid this, and prioritize keeping DJ in your hand so you can play him later.

For the Palp player, it is often more impactful to save the Scanning Officer for your flip turn, since if they hit any smuggle cards they stop you from getting to 7 and getting out DJ. Remember that you are able to rearrange your resources whenever you like, including in response to your opponent playing Scanning Officer. You just need to make sure you have the same number of ready and exhausted resources as you did before the rearrangement. This lets you save DJ in hand until the last possible moment without having to worry about your opponent keeping track of that specific card.

The Palp Blue matchup is like a much slower version of Qi’ra or Krennic. They have far fewer ways of disrupting the flip, so you should be able to DJ them to death with high consistency.

Palp Yellow has the most tricks - most versions I’ve seen are on an Underworld package with Bazine and Ma Klounkee, rounding out the midgame with 4-LOM, Bossk, and sometimes Zuckuss. Their biggest play is to use Change of Heart to steal your unit, then use Palp’s ability to sacrifice it. They could also have No Good To Me Dead as a way to disrupt the flip turn. Use hand hate to get rid of these threats.

Palp Green is the hardest version for us, especially if they run ECL. They have the most ramp and the most tools to grind with. Enterprising Lackeys’ 5/5 statline matches up very well into all our 3/5s, and killing them only returns them to the resource row to come back later. If they are able to ramp 2-3 times, it offsets any tempo advantage we gained by delaying them with DJ. Getting under them and ending the game quickly is more important when facing this color Palp, but as always use hand hate to assess the threats in their hand and find the best way forward.

The Mirror

Primary Gameplan: Vibes/ Tempo

Sideboard Cards: Plo Koon, Gamorrean Guards, Zorii Bliss, Bamboozle, Jetpack

The Han Yellow mirror is all about who comes out ahead after the flip turn. The clearest path to victory is to kill the opposing Han on turn 4, and have yours survive into the following turn to hopefully play a 7-drop. Both of you will be trying to stop the other from doing this, so let’s get into it.

The most consistent way to kill an opposing Han is a 4 power unit + blaster, though Surprise Strike + a 3 power unit also works. Gamorrean Guards is great here since it can both protect your own Han and threaten to kill the opponent’s. The only unit that can get around it is Rogue Operative. Note that Han is able to use a Blaster to kill an opposing Han and survive, so on an empty board starting turn 4 with initiative to deploy your Han first puts you at an advantage. If you’re able to turn on coordinate, Plo Koon is another clean answer to an opposing Han, and another reason why deploying first can make you advantaged unless your Han is immediately threatened.

The other way to win the mirror is to get ahead on board early. A cool thing about the mirror is that playing a 3-drop on turn 1 does not automatically give up initiative if you started with it. In a Rebels mirror, a turn 1 Rogue Operative is a great play if you start with initiative, since it will trade up into an opposing Rogue Op, Ezra, or C-3PO without a follow-up Wing Leader (though a Wing Leader on your Rogue Op will kill the buffed C-3PO). On the Good Stuff version, playing a 2/2 shielded unit with initiative threatens a turn 2 Blaster to kill any opposing 4 health unit. If you don’t start with initiative, playing something with 5 health is the safest thing you can do. Falcon isn’t a great turn 1 play since you will have to pay its upkeep cost, and you want to contest the ground arena before the flip turn.

If you and your opponent are relatively even on board, it’s usually best to attack base unless there is a free value trade available (e.g., Liberated Slaves into Bodhi). This deck is able to burst for a ton of damage at once, so whoever can get their opponent to the critical life ranges first has a massive advantage. Don’t try to fully control your opponent’s board early on. If you come out ahead on the flip and are able to clear their board, then you can lock them out. A note about the late game is that Han unit gets a clean kill when ambushing into himself, so you usually don’t want to be the first person to play a Han.

There’s some debate on whether the Rebels or the Good Stuff version is better into the mirror. Rebels has the advantages of C-3PO’s card draw giving them access to more and better options every turn, as well as Wing Leader to create favorable trades in the early-game. However, Good Stuff has the Crafty into Blaster start that is especially strong into Rebels, and has more room in the deck to fit tech cards for the mirror like Plo Koon, Gamorrean Guards, and Bamboozle. Either way, the margin is pretty close.

Sidebar: Table Mechanics

Before we wrap up, I want to discuss the table mechanics involved in piloting Han using physical cards. Between smuggling, stealing and defeating resources, drawing and discarding cards, and paying the Falcon tax, there is a lot to keep track of before you even leave the Regroup Phase. If you plan on bringing Han to a competitive event, it is critical that you get this down so you don’t miss triggers and get Judges called on you every round. It’s not fair to your opponent if you’re sloppy with your mechanics, and they should not be expected to have to keep track of every resource interaction to keep you in check.

This can all be avoided with careful play and the use of reminder tokens. You might think reminder tokens aren’t necessary if you’ve been playing the deck for a while, but trust me, after 7+ rounds of tournament fatigue you WILL forget something. Better to be safe than sorry, and it also helps any judges watching the game to make sure you resolved all your triggers.

I recommend using at least two tokens when piloting Han: one for your hand and one for keeping track of temporary resources. A token to place on top of your hand when you set it down is good for a pilot of any deck to have, but we interact with the resource row so much that it’s especially important to keep our hand distinct from our resources. Additionally, when I activate or attack with Han, I put a die on top of my resource row turned to the number of resources I need to defeat in the regroup phase. Most of the time you will only need to defeat one, with the exception of the flip turn where you both activate and attack with Han. A two-sided token works for this as well, as long as you remember which side means which.

After I added Zorii Bliss to my deck, I also started using a third token to remind myself when I need to discard a card to her on-attack ability. Critically the discard step happens at the start of the regroup phase before you draw cards, so if you end the turn on autopilot it’s really easy to forget this one. I put the token on top of my deck so that I can’t automatically go to draw before I discard a card.

It’s also important to note that with the recent rules change at the beginning of set 3, players are allowed to rearrange their resources however they like, so long as you maintain the same number of ready and exhausted resources. You are able to rearrange resources this way at any time. What this means for us is that when we smuggle a DJ to steal an opponent’s resource, they have the opportunity to rearrange their resources before we select one to steal. Then, immediately after we have stolen it, we are able to swap the stolen resource with any of our own. This means that if we steal a ready resource from our opponent, we can immediately swap it with one of our exhausted ones. That way, if our opponent removes DJ, they get their resource back exhausted, and our own resource that we swapped with it remains ready.

Finally, if you’re new to the deck, don’t have your first in-person games with Han be at a PQ. Practice the deck at locals for a week or two first - it will allow you to work out the kinks, give you good practice, and support your local scene!

Wrapping Up

If you made it all the way to the end, thanks for reading. I hope this article was helpful in some way, whether you’re a beginner pilot or a PQ Champion. If you’re looking for additional resources to get better with Han Yellow, I highly recommend both the KTOD and Bothan Network discord servers. Both have active threads dedicated to Han Yellow that are full of competitive players regularly discussing matchups, play lines, and new builds of the deck. To stay on top of the latest innovations, these are the places to look. The Bothan Network’s discord is public access, and KTOD’s requires a Patreon subscription to access (it’s worth it). I am active in both of these servers, and pinging me there is the best way to reach me if you have questions. I’ll link both below.

That’s all I’ve got, now go out there and crush!

--

KTOD: https://www.patreon.com/ktod

Bothan Network: https://discord.gg/CNaYbtRzz7

Special thanks to [BN] LegoPizza (Ian) for editing and providing additional context

If you found this article helpful and want to see more content like this, you can support me on Ko-fi:

https://ko-fi.com/eakfoil