Hi everyone, I wrote a tournament report from our Destiny event at the weekend and thought I'd share it here. Please have a look and see what you think. Cheers!

http://destiny.teamsandcrawla.net/unkars-inspection-tournament-report/

Nice, the added threat from the Inspection and the overal high damage looks great.
How did the Salvage Stand work for you?

I like it. Been mulling over different red/yellow villain combinations myself, but I was leaning toward eKrennic + Jabba with more of a control shell. Very impressed nonetheless to see Inspection get its due, and it seems to work just fine as a tempo play in an otherwise aggressive deck. Question: on average, how flush were you with resources? Unkar seems like he'd have no problem rolling out the occasional Endless Ranks or Crime Lord.

I like this deck. I think I played a deck similar, Unkar, 1 DT then something else. Played 2 games vs my Baze/Snap deck. First game he got an early Imperial Inspection and just halted my deck. 2nd game I was able to get multiple upgrades out and he got the Inspection out to late. If you get Inspection and Salvage out together with Unkar, its just dumb lol, not to mention if you get multiple of those.

2 hours ago, WonderWAAAGH said:

I like it. Been mulling over different red/yellow villain combinations myself, but I was leaning toward eKrennic + Jabba with more of a control shell. Very impressed nonetheless to see Inspection get its due, and it seems to work just fine as a tempo play in an otherwise aggressive deck. Question: on average, how flush were you with resources? Unkar seems like he'd have no problem rolling out the occasional Endless Ranks or Crime Lord.

Similar idea here, although I will use Unkar, being able to generate resources is great. Jabba only adds the reroll and more discard, and I have enough ways to do this with events and Krennic on top of Unkar's ability.

What do you think of Commanding Presence?

Only 5 Hero decks, with the highest one placing at 12th.

Can confirm that Inspection is obnoxious as hell.

19 hours ago, player996970 said:

Nice, the added threat from the Inspection and the overal high damage looks great.
How did the Salvage Stand work for you?

It wasn't as useful as Imperial Inspection, but it came in handy a few times. I found it better against heavy-blue decks, as most of their dice control and other shenanigans costs resources to play, and with Salvage Stand I was able to cut them off sometimes, particularly if I'd bounced an upgrade with Imperial Inspection as well.

16 hours ago, WonderWAAAGH said:

I like it. Been mulling over different red/yellow villain combinations myself, but I was leaning toward eKrennic + Jabba with more of a control shell. Very impressed nonetheless to see Inspection get its due, and it seems to work just fine as a tempo play in an otherwise aggressive deck. Question: on average, how flush were you with resources? Unkar seems like he'd have no problem rolling out the occasional Endless Ranks or Crime Lord.

You're probably the first person to not instantly label this a control deck; thank you! It definitely isn't a control deck, as it very much wants to be dealing damage as quickly as you can (just look at the subtle list of upgrades).

As for resources, for the first few turns of the game I was usually focused on getting upgrades into play, so didn't often have any spare resources to throw around. However, if the game lasted more than five turns (and some of my games in the final definitely did!), then I was sat on a stack of resources. In my article, I mentioned the possibility of playing Black Market, but I could definitely consider a copy or two of Endless Ranks.

2 hours ago, Whingewood said:

You're probably the first person to not instantly label this a control deck; thank you! It definitely isn't a control deck, as it very much wants to be dealing damage as quickly as you can (just look at the subtle list of upgrades).

It is more a MidRange / AggroControl I would say

19 hours ago, player996970 said:

Similar idea here, although I will use Unkar, being able to generate resources is great. Jabba only adds the reroll and more discard, and I have enough ways to do this with events and Krennic on top of Unkar's ability.

What do you think of Commanding Presence?

In a control deck... maybe, but I think it might still be too clunky and restrictive. It can only be played on a red character, it only interacts with red dice, and I'd rather not have to worry about all of that at the same time I'm trying to play yellow-only upgrades as well (i.e. Crime Lord, Cunning). For this particular deck I think the IQA-11 is better, since it has 3 damage faces and a disrupt.

2 hours ago, blackholexan said:

It is more a MidRange / AggroControl I would say

Almost every deck stacks some form of dice removal at this point, and without an actual curve it's hard to label the mid-point of a given game. Tempo is probably the most apt description.

Alright, so I've brainstormed the following amendments to the original deck, in accordance with my own preferences and philosophies:

2x DH-17

2x DT-29

1x Endless Ranks

2x F-11D

2x Imperial Inspection

2x Suppression

2x Training

2x Undying Loyalty

1x Ascension Gun

2x Backup Muscle

2x Electroshock

2x He Doesn't Like You

2x Jetpack

2x My Kind Of Scum

2x Unpredictable

2x Holdout Blaster

---

Dialing down the number of Ascension Guns was a concession to gaps in my collection, so I replaced one with an Endless Ranks (which I really wanted to include anyways). I flat out removed Imperial War Machine, since there are only 4 dice with paid faces in the whole deck; Suppression is a good use for those faces if I don't have the resources available. Undying Loyalty seemed like another good resource dump late game, if it should happen to go on that long, so I included two over the IWMs. Backup Muscle still feels like something of an auto include in a deck this aggressive, even if spending additional actions to use it is a bit clunky. I'm not a fan of gambling, and Electroshock feels like a safer bet over Doubt for just one resource. My Kind Of Scum is intended to make up for the lack of resource faces the deck suffers from overall, and might happen to generate some early monies early on. Doesn't hurt that it has some synergy with Imperial Inspection.

Gonna try these changes out over the weekend and see how the deck plays out.

Please let us know how you get on!

Thanks for the report and decklist! I was excited to try this kind of pairing out, as it seems the best way to leverage Death Troopers with Endless Ranks. This is my first go at it:

Quote

BATTLEFIELD
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Secret Facility, Scarif (Spirit of Rebellion #159)


CHARACTER
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2x Death Trooper (Spirit of Rebellion #1)
1x Unkar Plutt, Junk Dealer (Spirit of Rebellion #21)


UPGRADE
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
2x F-11D Rifle (Awakenings #8)
2x DH-17 Blaster Pistol (Awakenings #54)
1x IQA-11 Blaster Rifle (Awakenings #55)
2x Holdout Blaster (Awakenings #63)
2x Jetpack (Awakenings #66)
2x Training (Spirit of Rebellion #125)


SUPPORT
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
2x Backup Muscle (Awakenings #99)
2x Underworld Connections (Awakenings #101)
2x Imperial Inspection (Spirit of Rebellion #70)


EVENT
¯¯¯¯¯
1x Cannon Fodder (Awakenings #68)
2x Endless Ranks (Awakenings #70)
2x He Doesn't Like You (Awakenings #97)
2x Electroshock (Awakenings #159)
2x Bombing Run (Spirit of Rebellion #119)
2x Collateral Damage (Spirit of Rebellion #120)
2x Suppression (Spirit of Rebellion #122)

A bunch of damage, a bunch of dice removal, a bunch of economy cards. I haven't really put it through its paces yet, so I'm not sure how it will stand up to serious competition. But I think it has the tools to stymie aggro decks (through dice control and health), and in the long run I feel good about its ability to outlast and outdamage other decks. My biggest concern is mill decks, which can probably burn through my deck faster than I can conjure up damage.

If you are playing Unkar I don't see why would you use Underworld Connections. It slows you down each turn.

1 minute ago, player996970 said:

If you are playing Unkar I don't see why would you use Underworld Connections. It slows you down each turn.

It does slow things down, but it's not like this is a fast deck in the first place (with three characters, disparate dice faces, and lots of dice control). Most two character decks won't struggle to win the claim-race, and any fast deck that wants to claim first will do it pretty effortlessly.

Unkar's ability is great, but we can't forget that you could pull a zero cost event and gain no resources. Since the Death Troopers are so resource starved, and want to play the long game anyways; Underworld Connections adds some consistency and plenty of long term resource generation that help the deck. I also prioritize resources here, as I want to play into Endless Ranks late game.

That's been my thought process/experience so far, at least.

Got just a couple of games in against a buddy to size the deck up, it still needs some tuning. Very impressed with Unkar himself so far, or at least his ability. It's a great way to trade away unwanted sides instead of pitching for re-rolls. The two major pitfalls of the deck both revolve around money: it's entirely dependent upon Mr. Plutt to generate resources, and whiffing on the random discard really hurts. Most of the time I was drawing into more upgrades than I could reasonably play, unless I'd managed to pluck something expensive from my opponent's hand the turn prior, so damage output wasn't as consistent as I'd like. The other major issue is the number of disrupt sides, which, while necessary for triggering Imperial Inspection, remain the overall worst die faces in the game. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been able to resolve a disrupt and it's had a tangible impact on the game, and that's going back to Awakenings' release. My (admittedly limited) experiences with this deck so far have yet to prove otherwise. That having been said, I'm eager to swap out Ascension Gun and the DT-29s; I know why they were included in the first place, but the sub 3-resource cost doesn't offset the lackluster specials of each. In their place I'm going to be including Imperial Discipline and IQA-11s. The former brings some additional dice manipulation to the table, and the extra 1-drops can be discarded when it comes time to roll out the big guns.

Incidentally, I've been brainstorming some melee variants to capitalize on the discard aspect of Unkar Plutt's ability, and I think the results will be quite interesting. I'll follow up later, but the general concept so far is FN-2199 + Kylo Ren + Unkar Plutt with Friends in Low Places, Probe, Vibroknife / 'knucklers, etc. It has more native resource generation, lets you peek at your opponent's hand before committing to Unkar's ability, more discard to help you close out a long game, and all the extra tools that blue brings to the table - like the restrictionless Force Illusion! I'm also working on a similar iteration with Dooku + FN-2199 + Tusken Raider that relies on Dark Presence to really mess with the other player, which I have the feeling will ultimately be more effective than Imperial Inspection in the long run.

1 hour ago, sionnach19 said:

It does slow things down, but it's not like this is a fast deck in the first place (with three characters, disparate dice faces, and lots of dice control). Most two character decks won't struggle to win the claim-race, and any fast deck that wants to claim first will do it pretty effortlessly.

Unkar's ability is great, but we can't forget that you could pull a zero cost event and gain no resources. Since the Death Troopers are so resource starved, and want to play the long game anyways; Underworld Connections adds some consistency and plenty of long term resource generation that help the deck. I also prioritize resources here, as I want to play into Endless Ranks late game.

That's been my thought process/experience so far, at least.

It's consistent but expensive, the cost would easily be better justified with an upgrade. Considering your options include denial (Salvage Stand) or Resource generation through denial or forcing the opponent to spend resources (My Kind of Scum), Underwolrd Connections won't shine. I mean just consider it turn by turn, it would be some win more in the late game, but the only thing you need 3 is IQA-11 (best if you activate UC end of turn) or keeping a resource for some event (but then - you have to activate first).

You need dice for Unkar's ability, you need them for Supression, He Doesn't Like you, for Collateral Damage...

Idk, just seems out of place. You have a point and I will try it out if I manage to decide what to take out.

BTW, what do you think of The Best Defense... instead of Cannon Fodder? 3 damage and cost 1 vs 0 and 2-3 (usually), removes one more die?

20 minutes ago, WonderWAAAGH said:

Got just a couple of games in against a buddy to size the deck up, it still needs some tuning. Very impressed with Unkar himself so far, or at least his ability. It's a great way to trade away unwanted sides instead of pitching for re-rolls. The major pitfalls of the deck both revolve around money: it's entirely dependent upon Mr. Plutt to generate resources, and whiffing on the random discard really hurts. The other major issue is the number of disrupt sides, which, while necessary for triggering Imperial Inspection, remain the overall worst die faces in the game. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been able to resolve a disrupt and it's had a tangible impact on the game, and that's going back to Awakenings' release. My (admittedly limited) experiences with this deck so far have yet to prove otherwise.

Incidentally, I've been brainstorming some melee variants to capitalize on the discard aspect of Unkar Plutt's ability, and I think the results will be quite interesting. I'll follow up later, but the general concept so far is FN-2199 + Kylo Ren + Unkar Plutt with Friends in Low Places, Probe, Vibroknife / 'knucklers, etc. It has more native resource generation, lets you peek at your opponent's hand before committing to Unkar's ability, more discard to help you close out a long game, and all the extra tools that villain blue brings to the table - like the restrictionless Force Illusion! I'm also working on a similar iteration with Dooku + FN-2199 + Tusken Raider that relies on Dark Presence to really mess with the other player, which I have the feeling will ultimately be more effective than Imperial Inspection in the long run.

IMO Unkar is the best card Villains got in SoR, his cost and ability allow us to play him in every second deck, he has synergy with basically everything, and the 10 health is great. He would shine in decks with more cards with 2/3 sides. I never had problems resolving disrupts, after all - other people depend on resources too, and vs. other Unkar and anything that uses 1-cost events you would want disrupts.

As for melee version - take a look at the new Vader + Rise Again. You can build him up with melee and his ability if strong enough to kill a character, especially if you have Cunning somewhere. I don't find Force Illusion particularly interesting, but I often play against mill deck and any card I discard gets me closer to losing.

eVader / ePlutt is an interesting combination I hadn't thought of before, I just have my qualms about what happens after Anakin goes down. Any recommended builds?

10 hours ago, WonderWAAAGH said:

eVader / ePlutt is an interesting combination I hadn't thought of before, I just have my qualms about what happens after Anakin goes down. Any recommended builds?

I think in this pairing I'd try and finish the game off with Crime Lord on Unkar. Use Vader to chop down the low-hanging fruit, then Crime Lord the big guy.

On 18/5/2017 at 7:29 AM, sionnach19 said:

Thanks for the report and decklist! I was excited to try this kind of pairing out, as it seems the best way to leverage Death Troopers with Endless Ranks. This is my first go at it:

A bunch of damage, a bunch of dice removal, a bunch of economy cards. I haven't really put it through its paces yet, so I'm not sure how it will stand up to serious competition. But I think it has the tools to stymie aggro decks (through dice control and health), and in the long run I feel good about its ability to outlast and outdamage other decks. My biggest concern is mill decks, which can probably burn through my deck faster than I can conjure up damage.

If you want to keep Underworld Connections, I would strongly suggest to swap Secret Scarif for Docking Bay (and maybe swap one IQA and another gun for 2 Ascension Guns as well). This way you can have an easier / cheaper way to drop Backup Muscle and above all Underworld Connections even if you discard them for a needed reroll earlier.

On 19.05.2017 г. at 3:03 AM, WonderWAAAGH said:

eVader / ePlutt is an interesting combination I hadn't thought of before, I just have my qualms about what happens after Anakin goes down. Any recommended builds?

Same that you do with Vader himself - while he's chopping off heads, just add few melee upgrades to Unkar too. Melee with Vibroknife is a king

Eh, I prefer my duders to be on roughly even footing. I'm afraid that letting Anakin go down first would be a less safe bet in the long run than even traditional Vader / Raider. Besides, what do we get out of it apart from Cunning? No red means no Imperial Inspection, so who cares about disrupts, and 1Vader's discard is still probably better than Unkar. I think I'd ultimately rather play Vader / eJabba in a melee-control build than try to capitalize on an overly risky aggro variant.

Went 3-0 at a really small event today, walked away with promo Jango, some damage tokens, and some packs. Not much of a sample size, obviously, but I'll post my thoughts on the modified deck / pairings later. The biggest take aways are that Friends In Low Places is an auto-include with Unkar, and the die fixing on Imperial Discipline panned out far greater than I could have hoped for.