Homeworlds Sealed Guide
Team Nexus × Team LXO · Utrecht Regional
Everything the Bootcamp testing house learned about Homeworlds sealed: how the format plays, which leaders to build around, how to beat the top decks, how to build your pool, and a ranking of every card in the set.
Reading the Format
This is a unit-control format. Games are decided by trading units well and holding the ground arena, not by racing.
Control the Ground
Players trade units back and forth and fight to keep the ground arena. Generate tempo, push damage where you can, and keep the board under control so you can answer their leader. Lane dodging into space can matter later, but the ground comes first.
Hard Removal Is Scarce
There are very few clean answers to big or upgraded units. Most removal is damage, a power limit (Dragon's Might only hits 4 power or less), or tempo like bounce and exhaust. Plan on having to trade through threats, not delete them.
Upgrades Are Nuts
Because removal is scarce, upgrades like Bestial Bond, Enraged, and Gaderffii Stick stick around and take over games. Value them highly when building, and respect them when your opponent has a loaded unit.
Space Is the Late-Game Reach
Once the ground stalls, the game is often ended by 5- and 6-cost starships. There are a lot of good ones, and many also exhaust your units when played. If you're a slow ground deck and can't contest space, expect to be raced there.
Ramp Is Bait
Lifetree Caravan doesn't generate tempo, and early ramp falls behind decks that curve out. Overgrowth is playable if you pull it in your colors, but don't build around it. It's usually best held to snipe a big or upgraded unit, or to swing your leader's deploy turn.
Two-Drops Are Weak
A vanilla 2/3 is dreadful here: it gets eaten by 3/3 Beast tokens and Raid units. The format is less dependent on a perfect two-drop than last set, so don't panic if your pool is light on them.
Read Their Base
Base traits are locked to one color, so your opponent's base tells you which cards to expect. An Endor base means an aggressive deck with early combat tricks.
Pool Over Leader
The top leaders are close in power, so your pool matters more than your leader. Look at your best cards first, then pick the leader that fits their colors.
Watch for Reach
A lot of reach in this format can catch you off guard, especially in yellow and red. Play around it, and take advantage of it when it's yours.
Pounce+4 power on a Creature attack. Finishes games.
Lurking WampaHidden unit that Pounce turns into burst damage.
NightfallWorth splashing for.
Arena NexuIn Poggle: untapped late for a big hit to base.
Arena AcklayEach Poggle ping that it survives deals 2 to your base.
Filthy DianogaOne of the red creatures Poggle readies for a second swing.
Victor SquadronExplosive space reach; a big threat in Osha.
EnragedUpgrades turn any unit into a real threat.Leader Tier List
The top leaders are much closer together than last set, and none of them carries a bad pool the way some past leaders did. If you had to rank them, Hemlock is a slight S and the rest of the top tier blends together around S-minus or A-plus. Hemlock and Tarfful are the easiest to build and give the most consistently playable pools.
Doctor Hemlock, Emotion Has No Place Here
Tarfful, Fighting From the Shadowlands
Poggle the Lesser, Let the Executions Begin
Asajj Ventress, No Time for Regret
Wicket, Few Greater Battles to Fight
Darth Vader, Might of the Empire
Osha, Haunted by Her Past
Bossk, Cruel Hunter
General Grievous, Separatist Warlord
Darth Sidious, There is no Mercy
The Warrior, Deft Duelist
Jar Jar Binks, Bombad General
Chewbacca, Relentless Rebel
Grand Moff Tarkin, Tyrant of the Outer Rim
Maz Kanata, Eclectic Pirate Queen
Omega, Close Your Eyes and Focus
Maul, Old Master
Cham Syndulla, Hammer of RylothEdge cases: Jar Jar needs a truly broken pool. Chewbacca is a 5-cost deploy with a 3/6 Sentinel body and is decent if you pull a Wookiee-heavy pool. Tarkin needs a critical mass of the right cards to work.
How to Play Into the Top Leaders
Most top leaders get their value by attacking or acting each turn, so answer them early. The 6-cost deploys (Hemlock, Tarfful, Vader) are very vulnerable on the turn they deploy: exhaust them, or just keep hitting their base in space.
Poggle the Lesser
Probably the most impactful leader, though not necessarily the strongest. He readies a Creature and pings it for 1, so a Hidden 9/6 or a 5/5 in space can come in untapped and swing. You can be 'stable' at 22 and die. Don't race him.
Abuse the self-damage. Wait until they ping their own unit, then finish it off. Don't claim initiative early without a really good reason, or they'll run you down.
Killing Poggle right after deploy matters less than you'd think. Sometimes it's better to leave him alive and snipe the unit he readies.
Doctor Hemlock
Be careful with 1-health units: Hemlock trades with them for free, and Weakness tokens chew through cheap space units, so early space is risky.
Before he deploys he can't stack Weakness on a unit that already has one. After he flips, he can. Deal with the deploy: Corpo Thugs one-shots him even through a Weakness token, and The Warrior ambushing a unit like Raiding Party hits for 6. Space units that exhaust a unit when played can tap him down too.
Many players will default to Hemlock and play behind curve just to use his ability. Punish that: develop on curve, over-trade into their cheap cards, then deal with the deploy.
Tarfful
They start every game with a 3/3 Beast. Trade it off early whenever you can, because the Weakness token is free for them and the Beast is not.
Don't try to grind through Tarfful on the ground. Big ground units and shields make him very hard to beat there. Pivot to space, where shields don't matter, and tap him down on his deploy turn.
Asajj Ventress
Very explosive, with a 5/6 body on a 5-cost deploy. Upgrades on her are insane, and once Restore stacks up she's very hard to race.
You have to deal with her flip side. Play control unless your own end game is bad.
Wicket
A fast, low-curve board-control deck that draws a card whenever a cheaper unit attacks a pricier one. Slow, clunky hands get punished. Make your trades on your terms and don't hand him cheap attacks into expensive units.
Darth Vader
Every unit that costs 3 or more gains Raid 1, which adds up fast, especially with a lot of space units. Strong mid-game ground control too, with cards like Sandtrooper Squad.
His flip is only a 5/5, so he's fragile: answer him with big Ambush units.
How to Build Your Pool
The team's process for turning six packs into a deck. Work through it in order.
Don't pick a leader first. Look at your good cards, then choose the leader that matches their colors. This matters more in Homeworlds than in any set before it.
Sort Your Rares and Bombs
Pull out the true game-winners first (see Best Rares to Open below). These decide your colors more than your leader does.
Count Your 2- to 4-Drops
Make sure you have a working curve. If your pool is short on early plays, Tarfful fixes it by turning spare cards into 3/3 Beasts, and Hemlock is also forgiving.
Check Your Space Answers
Look for efficient space units like Horizon Chaser and Victor Squadron, and ways to handle the 5- and 6-cost starships that end games.
Count Upgrades and Removal
With three or more premium upgrades (Bestial Bond, Enraged, Gaderffii Stick), look hard at Asajj Ventress or Wicket.
Match the Leader to the Pool
Pick the leader that fits your strongest color cluster and your density of payoffs. For Poggle, that means the colors with the best 4- and 5-cost Creatures, not a fixed pairing.
Leader Archetypes
The color reads from testing. It's been hard to find one color pairing that is consistently better than the rest, so treat these as starting points, not rules. Yellow and red are the most aggressive colors and carry the most reach; blue and green are the support colors.
TarffulTested
Still debated. Yellow or red lets you load up on explosive finishers and stop worrying about two-drops, then slam the 3/7 Sentinel and race. Blue is best when you can guarantee Bestial Bond. His green commons are strong in any build.
Doctor HemlockTested
Yellow is the most consistent pool, but don't read that as 'only yellow'. Green and red are decent too. Imperial Venator and Weakness-friendly removal like Dragon's Might are big here.
Poggle the LesserTested
Play the color with the best 4- and 5-cost Creatures. Blue has Zillo Beast and Great Progenitor; red has Arena Acklay and Filthy Dianoga; yellow has Lurking Wampa. Blue tested stronger than green. Five or six Creatures is enough.
Asajj VentressTested
Blue and red have the best cards; yellow is scary with Horizon Chaser and Gaderffii Stick. Pack cheap 2-cost upgrades so you don't miss on curve. Skip her if your pool has few upgrades.
WicketTested
Buildable in any color, yellow is the favorite for its cheap Ambush units and Gaderffii Stick. Keep the deck at 1 to 4 cost with only a few late cards, and only build him with lots of 1- and 2-drops.
Darth VaderNeeds testing
Yellow villainy is the main build, with red possible. Lean on space units (Raid 1 is like a permanent advantage token), Sandtrooper Squad, Tireless Magnaguard, and Victor Squadron.
OshaNeeds testing
One of the few Saboteur leaders in the set. The flip is a 5/6 that's hard to remove. Only blue has been tried so far.
The WarriorNeeds testing
Often wants red for its many Raid units.
Darth SidiousNeeds testing
Not enough testing yet to recommend a color.
Best Turn-One Plays
The format's two-drops are weak, so these are the best of a thin field. Avoid vanilla 2/3s. Avoid 1-health units unless you're Wicket.
Yord FandarBlue heroism. 2/4 Sentinel when you're at 15 or less
BatcherBlue. Basically a 3/3
Tibidee MateGreen. 2/2 Restore 1
Ewok BrigadeGreen heroism
Secessionist ConvertGreen villainy. Fine with initiative
Poacher's StarfighterRed villainy. 3/1 that becomes a Beast
Adamant EwoksRed. Best two-drop in the set
Clever TrapperYellow. Pair with a Weakness token
Soaring Can-CellBest Rares to Open
If one of these is in your pool, build toward it. Tempo swings like Palpatine and Mae change the game on the spot; Sando and Hunter are better at locking up or recovering a game than winning it outright.
Emperor PalpatineSteals a unit
MaeHuge 2-for-1
Sando Aqua MonsterGround only; wins even games
Clone of the Zillo BeastMust-answer board warper
The Great ProgenitorSnowballs with Beasts
Qui-Gon Jinn
Luminara Unduli
KrrsantanDamage = resources minus 3
Kelnacca
HunterPulls you back in
General GrievousStandout Commons & Uncommons
The cards that show up in every pool and quietly win games.
Bestial BondPremium upgradeEnragedPremium upgrade
Gaderffii StickCheap yellow upgrade
Wookiee RangersAny 4-5 cost Beast is greatFilthy DianogaArena Nexu
Corpo ThugsLeader killer
Raiding PartyLeader killer
Imperial VenatorKey for Hemlock
Tireless MagnaguardComes back for freeSplashable Cards
Splashing means you're happy to pay a 1- or 2-resource penalty. With six packs you'll splash less than you think. Cards tagged "Situational" depend on your pool or your opponent.
PounceSplash it every time
MaimWorth paying 3 for
BreachRemoval is always good
Exploit ConfidenceBounce for 6+ powerKrrsantanQui-Gon JinnFine at 7, not at 9
Ryyk Blademaster
Mysterious DisappearanceInto upgrade-heavy decks
Low Altitude CombatInto heavy space decks
Greater Sarlacc
Dragon's MightHard to justify at 6HunterCard Tier Lists
Every unit, event, and upgrade in Homeworlds, ranked by the testing house for sealed. Filter by aspect to see only the cards you can play. Hover a card for its full name; cards with a green "i" have a testing note.
Units
Events
Upgrades
Bases
Every base is rated S for sealed. Pick the one that matches your colors, and check which aspect's cards it has synergy with.
Dune Sea, Tatooine4 cunning cards with synergy
Great Grass Plains, Naboo4 vigilance cards with synergy
Kachirho, Kashyyyk4 command cards with synergy
Shield Generator Complex, Endor4 aggression cards with synergy
Bright Tree Village, Endor4 aggression cards with synergy
Origin Tree, Kashyyyk4 command cards with synergy
Theed Palace, Naboo4 vigilance cards with synergy
Tusken Camp, Tatooine4 cunning cards with synergy
Bioweapons Lab, Naboo4 vigilance cards with synergy
Dendroid Wilds, Endor4 aggression cards with synergy
Jundland Wastes, Tatooine4 cunning cards with synergy
Shadowlands, Kashyyyk4 command cards with synergy
Kyyyalstaad Swamp, Kashyyyk4 command cards with synergy
Mos Eisley, Tatooine4 cunning cards with synergy
Otoh Gunga, Naboo4 vigilance cards with synergy
Research Station 9, Endor4 aggression cards with synergy