There are a lot of cards to be excited about in Spirit of Rebellion, but in spite of all of the seemingly amazing cards that are sure to change our meta, I keep finding myself being most excited about Cargo Hold – Eravana (SR152). That’s right; Force Speed (SR55) is amazing, Fast Hands (SR150) is really good, and of course, Palpatine (SR11) is going to get some love, even if he turns out to be non-competitive. And don’t get me wrong, those cards are great, but I’m still most excited about Cargo Hold, and I’m going to tell you why!
Art
The art for this card shows the Millenium Falcon in the cargo hold of Han and Chewie’s Florida-retirement-home of a ship, the Baleen-class bulk freighter known as the Eravana. Fans of Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens will immediately recognize this battlefield from two iconic scenes – the first being the moment just before Han’s iconic “Chewie, we’re home” line, and the second being the Millenium Falcon’s escape from the maw of an angry Rathtar into hyperspace. The scene shown on the card is a bit dark for my taste, but, so is the cargo hold of the Eravana, so I suppose that’s appropriate. Overall, the art by Emilio Rodriguez is an attractive enough and accurate representation of the cargo hold that we see on screen and a nice choice for this card.
Claim Ability
The claim ability on Cargo Hold isn’t just occasionally influential as some battlefields are; it’s consistently game changing. Upon claiming this battlefield, you may “move an upgrade from a character to another character controlled by the same player.” Important things to consider are that you may move your own upgrades or your opponent’s upgrades, and there is no restriction to the type of upgrade that can be moved. After all, shady dealings and unexpected surprises are certain to go down in any ship piloted by everyone’s favorite duo of smugglers. The most obvious application of the card is using it to move your own upgrades off of a character that is about to die or moving your opponent’s upgrades onto characters that are about to die. However, Cargo Hold is also a great way to force your opponent to discard upgrades from play. By moving an upgrade onto a character that already has three upgrades attached, you can force your opponent to choose and discard one of them from play. I imagine they won’t be too pleased when you move Hunker Down (AW164) onto Jango Fett (AW21), forcing them to discard one of their Jetpacks (AW66) or a Holdout Blaster (AW63). Lastly, perhaps the most versatile, and at first overlooked, use of this ability is using it as a way to essentially remove dice from your opponent’s pool. While a die already rolled into the pool will not be removed if the upgrade is switched to another character, you can prevent your opponent from ever rolling the die if you claim before they exhaust the attached character and move the upgrade to an exhausted character. This is a clever way to mitigate powerful dice if you have no options for removal. For example, I prevented an opponent from rolling One With the Force (AW42) into his pool by claiming and moving it to an exhausted character.
Possible Combos
The possible combinations of Cargo Hold with other cards are where this battlefield gets particularly insane. There’s been some pretty significant internet buzz about using Cargo Hold to cheat Training (SR125) onto unique characters, giving you powerful elite characters without paying their deck building cost. I ultimately think that there will be errata to prevent this, but in the meantime, I cannot think of any rules that strictly prohibit it. Similarly, it will be common to use Cargo Hold to bypass other play restrictions so that you can, for example, cheat Force Speed onto Poe Dameron (AW29). I don’t actually expect Cargo Hold to get an errata; I think they will create an errata for Training instead, so I suspect that this use of the battlefield will remain legal and potentially very impactful.
Additionally, once Cargo Hold becomes a frequently seen battlefield, you can expect that your opponent will likely be glad to avoid it if they win the roll off, even if it means giving you two shields to do so. However, there are still ways to leverage the claim ability without winning the roll off. Ascension Gun (SR59) has a special die side that allows you to use the claim ability during the round if it’s not in play. That actually makes Cargo Hold somewhat more powerful since your opponent will not have access to the ability (unless they also brought an Ascension Gun) and because you can use the ability without actually claiming the battlefield, which affords you the opportunity to move a powerful upgrade to an opponent’s character and then subsequently kill them during the same round.
Final Thoughts
Whether you or your opponent brings Cargo Hold to the table, you can be certain that it will impact the game significantly – maybe even without it being selected as the battlefield. In every game that I have played with this battlefield, one player was forced to end their turn prematurely in order to get the claim ability of this card. This is definitely a card that shouldn’t be ignored and makes it well worth considering Hyperspace Jump (AW129) if your deck includes a Yellow Hero and you’re concerned about your opponent messing with your upgrades. If you haven’t yet played with Cargo Hold as the battlefield, I strongly encourage you to get in a few games with it soon. You might be surprised about just how much of an impact it can have!
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