4 People for the Peter Jacobson Going Away Tournament. Actually we had a 5th, but given the odd number Shad decided to watch games instead and leave after the first round. While waiting for one table to finish we snuck in a few games. We did a round robin and Ethan went undefeated.

1st (Ethan)

Affiliation: Smuggler

Questionable Contacts x2

Against All Odds x1

Along the Gamor Run x1

May the Force Be With You x2

Running the Canyon x2

Secret of Yavin IV x1

Matter Under Mind x1

Affiliation: Navy

Tarkin Doctrine x2

Might of the Empire x2

Endor Entrapment x2

Technological Terror x2

Entrenched Defenses x1

Moon Blockade x1

2nd (Grahame)

Affiliation: Guardians of Justice

May the Force Be With You x2

Spark of Rebellion x2

Sacrifice at Endor x2

Haunting the Empire x2

Behind Enemy Lines x2

Pushing Back the Empire x1

Explosives Artist x1

Affiliation: Navy

Tarkin Doctrine x2

Might of the Empire x2

Endor Entrapment x2

Immeasurable Power x2

Protect the Generator x2

I played the decks I had mentioned in the FFG articles

Affiliation: Mercenary Contacts

Asteroid Base x2

Last Warrior x2

Spirit of Rebellion x2

Pushing Back the Empire x2

Haunting the Empire x2

Mission to Talay x2

Affiliation: Promise of Power

Droid’s Task x2

Nar Shadaa Drift x2

Droid Droid Revolution x1

Rogue Archeology x2

Emperor’s Shadow x2

Emperor’s Web x1

Random Thoughts on my decks…

Pushing Back the Empire is a nice accelerant. Would be better with more cheap rebel units. Looking at you Dodonna…

Converting two Rebel for Hires into two Allies of Necessity from Cassians pod is kinda funny. I got Kyle up to 4 guns.

Crafty Smugglers are too crafty for me. I forgot to trigger his reaction like 5 times in a row.

Reserve 7 is nice but still can still struggle against Gladiators.

Everything dies to Assault Teams :-(

Rogue Archeology triggers almost every turn.

Card Draw with the Shuttle objective is good.

Playing Commando Droids to block unopposed and do 1 gun is…sometimes what you have to do.

Playing nothing but Derpa Droids and Shuttle Pilots is sad

Finally drawing Aphra when you have Iggy-Prime and the Emperor’s Favor in discard and double black market exchange on the table is elating.

Having Brainiac modify Iggy-Prime’s text so that he doesn’t gain his gun and black tactics if LS controls 2 or more units committed to the force is a pro-play.

Promise of Power to remove extra focus makes it very hard to lock down the key players on a DS board.

Derpa Droids are at their best when LS forgets that they have text.

I also got a bunch of side games in with with the trooper deck I also outlined.

Affiliation: Navy

Immeasurable Power x2

Protect the Generator x2

Emperor’s Legion x2

Last Grand Admiral x1

Pattern Analysis x1

Sabotage in the Snow x1

Corporate Exploitation x1

This deck was actually the most promising of the decks I played today.

If you have Immeasurable Power out you can get a lot of free units between converting espo troopers into Death Troopers and flooding the board with Scout Troopers. God forbid you have 2 Immeasurable Powers out.

This deck does a terrible job defending and winning edge battles

This deck does a pretty awesome job of counter attacking and taking enemy objectives.

Prepared Ambush is an awesome mission and makes running x1 Thrawn and Kallus completely viable.

Using Sabotage in the Snow to steal their shield while you have double Forward Command Post is funny.

While it’s hard to win edge battles or hold the force if you trigger enough reactions for free units you can come within range of taking 4 objectives in one turn.

Renz always discards the best cards :-(

Play of the Day goes to…Ethan

Playing Swindled on one of my troopers and triggering Skyhopper to do just enough to take out both of my Emperor’s Legions for game.

6 people today for our Store Championship at Universe Games in Uptown. Following the guidelines the organizer had us do 3 rounds with no cut. I strongly feel that this games needs some kind of cut given that so many matches can end in splits. Today was a particularly interesting example of what can happen. 5 of the players have all made the top cut at worlds during various years. The 6th player is relatively new. Today it happened that all games played between veteran players ended in a split (fairly evenly between DS and LS too). The newer player forced his first two opponents to time—not completely his fault. Shad was playing a stupid Coruscant Defense Fleet deck and despite holding the force the whole game and building a giant Spark board he just couldn’t get through. So after the 2nd round 2 players were on 7 points, 3 players on 6 and one player on 2. The two players on 7 were assigned to play against each other already, and since I had already played both other players on 6 I got paired down against the player on 2. So this tournament was really up in the air the final. The veteran players split and I swept to win the tournament. But who knows what would have happened if there was any kind of cut. or even a top 2.

Interesting enough had the other players games against the newer player not gone to time there would have been 3 players tied on 12 points. I would have lost on SoS, but the other two players would have had a true tie. So what should happen there when assigning a unique prize such as the Regional Bye?

None of this of course would be an issue if we could get to 9 people and have a cut to top 4, but attendance is down and in a game such as SW or Netrunner where you play a match this can definitely occur and it feels very weird when it does.

Regardless of all that, it was a very fun afternoon and we all enjoyed playing the new cards.

1st (me)

Affiliation: No Questions Asked

May the Force Be With You x2

Hero’s Journey x1

Watchers in the Wasteland x1

Secret of Yavin IV x1

Asteroid Sanctuary x2

Along the Gamor Run x1

Spirit of Rebellion x1

Renegade Squadron Mobilization x1

Affiliation: Promise of Power

Behind the Black Sun x2

Spice Trade x1

Out of the Mists x1

Droid Droid Revolution x1

Emperor’s Web x2

Rogue Archeology x2

Plan of the Prophetess x1

2nd? (Tyler)

Affiliation: Guardians of Justice

Heroes and Legends x2

Hero’s Journey x2

Secret of Yavin IV x2

Planning the Attack x2

Haunting the Empire x2

Commando Raid x1

Forward Reconnaissance x1

Affiliation: Imperial Contractors

Masterful Manipulation x2

Hunter’s Flight x2

Hutt’s Menagerie x1

Grand Heist x1

Empire’s Elite x2

Enforced Loyalty x2

Cloud Cover x1

Defense Protocol x1

2nd?? (Shad)

Affiliation: Mercenary Contacts

Asteroid Sanctuary x2

Spirit of Rebellion x2

Last Warrior x2

Pushing Back the Empire x2

Haunting the Empire x2

Behind Enemy Lines x2

Affiliation: Galactic Enforcers

Heart of the Empire x2

Emperor’s Cabal x2

Emperor’s Shadow x2

Last Grand Admiral x2

Might of the Empire x2

Entrenched Defenses x1

Sabotage in the Snow x1

The other decks consisted of 2 skyhopper decks, 2 Navy decks, 1 mono sith deck and my ewok spark deck. Kudos to Tyler and Shad for being the only 2 players not playing May the Force. Double kudos to Shad for bringing a seriously cool DS deck to the tournament and going undefeated with it.

Random Thoughts on my Decks…

I wanted to try a 5/5 build with Jyn and Ahsoka. After a few test games I concluded while I liked both sets I wanted more tactics in the deck so I cut 1 Jyn for Renegade Squadron. I was never happy with the crafty smuggler—still too smart for me!—and the 2nd Jyn was just an edge card. Renegade Squadron gave me another 5 drop with 2 tactics and Echo Caverns can also provide tactics. Just better… After a few more draws I still wasn’t happy with the tactics so Ahsoka sadly got cut for Watchers Obi-Wan. More tactics and the cuteness of looping the Informant for edge with the Marauder was replaced with the efficiency of the Wolfmen. Plus they love some Friendship is Magic…

The 2 resource affiliation card was the least exciting card effect when I looked through the pack so I wanted to force myself to try something with it. It can provide for some very explosive turns. turn 1 Falcon is always available—or Obi or Renegade Squadron, but even better is with the glut of resources from the Falcon pod and Deneba you can frequently play turn 2 Falcon + Bamboozle, or late game just drop Falcon and Jyn and then Falcon out for a Luke.

Well Laid Ambush is pretty darn good turn 1. The resource affiliation card helps with this.

Lightsaber Deflection. How did I spend so much time playing without you?!

Same for guardians…

Jamming Protocol: not a bad card. sucks when it completely ruins your combat math.

Echo Caverns wins games.

Promise of Power untap effect is pretty darn good with spiders.

Moruth Doole has an obscene ability

Guri and Threat Removal are backbreaking cards. Tom was on to something…

Pairing Guri with the black tactics from Palpatine, Aphra, Sariss and Moruth Doole is nice

This deck has great combat tricks, but sometimes all it draws are its combat tricks and its hands can get gummed up if LS doesn’t attack.

Freelance Assassins can do work!

Droid Commandos prevent unopposed! And sometimes kill things!

Deck needs some way to kill Guri once she gets out on the board.

Aphra likes Knives.

Play of the Day Goes to…. THREE WAY TIE!! (similar to the actual tournament…)

Me: Against a Skyhopper deck with Yoda and 3PO available, and focused guardian at 1 health, I attacked, focused Yoda with Doole, targeted struck 3PO with the Freelance Assassin, Force Lightninged Yoda, and choked the guardian. Next turn Palpatine…

Tyler: Niles Ferrier—evidently Niles Ferrier was in the top?!—blocked a horde with his swarm of TIE Fighters. Had lousy edge. only 2 cards. But they were both Princes Schemes. Ouch.

Shad: This one is more a long play of what his DS deck was set up to do. Shad gets out double Defense Fleet with only Coruscant objectives on the table. LS is doing work holding the force and building a board, but doesn’t want to attack into an 8 card edge hand every turn. Gets one Defense Fleet to 4 damage. Shad Fleet Repairs it. LS starts over again. Shad triggers the Sim Aloo pod to shuffle Fleet Repair back into his deck and once the Defense Fleet gets to 4 damage he repairs it again. LS game is dragging. Shad shuffles There is No Escape back into his deck. After 10 turns the dial clicks to 11. Shad plays goes to the force phase plays There is No Escape to get the nudj off the table and move the dial to 12. That game took 68 minutes.

Thanks for everyone who showed up it was an afternoon of incredible games.

Only 3 of us at FFG today, so we did a round robin alternating opponents after every game instead of every match. Ethan came out ahead 3-1, his DS game against my turn one Chewbacca pain train. I split against both opponents getting completely shut down in my LS game against Shad’s double Abandoned Hideout, double Nightsister Warrior, Agent of the Emperor total lockdown combo.

1st (Ethan)

Affiliation: Mercenary Contacts

Feigning Captivity x2

Asteroid Sanctuary x2

Last Warrior x1

Bait and Switch x1

Planning the Rescue x2

Pushing Back the Empire x1

Haunting the Empire x1

Fleeing the Empire x1

Behind Enemy Lines x1

Affiliation: Promise of Power

Hunter for Hire x2

Spice Trade x1

Out of the Mists x1

Shadowed Surveillance x1

Power of the Dark Side x2

Knives in the Night x1

Dark Lord of the Sith x1

Counsel of the Sith x1

Runner Up (me)

Affiliation: No Questions Asked

Wookie Life Debt x2

Badge of Honor x2

Bait and Switch x1

May the Force Be With You x2

Desert Recruitment x2

Secret of Yavin IV x1

Affliation: Sith

Vader’s Army x2

Tatooine Crash x2

Slave Trade x2

Heartless Tactics x2

Automated Assassin x2

Honorable Mention (Shad)

Affiliation: Mercenary Contacts

Wookie Life Debt x2

Badge of Honor x2

Wookie’s Journey x1

Questionable Contacts x1

Commando Operations x2

The Lost Commander x2

Commando Raid x1

Pushing Back the Empire x1

Affiliation: Promise of Power

Masterful Manipulation x2

Hunter for Hire x2

Out of the Mists x1

Power of the Dark Side x2

Knives in the Night x2

Agent of the Emperor x1

Random Thoughts on my Decks

2-1 resources need double resource objectives or affiliation cards to seriously play. The DS deck had too many stalling many first turns

0-0-0 likes exploding sandcrawlers, something Cassian chuds cannot effectively stop!

Dengar’s Chud to move your Slave Trade captures around while building for a big discard with Vader’s Army is pretty good.

BT-1’s reaction can win games!!

Con Artists can really mess up DS’s final push

Energy Spiders are susceptible to clever distractions

The Lak Sivrak Wolfman combo is as good as it looks on paper

4 Health Chewbacca is a scary dude

The deck has a lot of ways to damage 4 health Chewbacca

Desert Recruitment to heal 4 health Chewbacca allows for even more cars in the pain train

Play of the Day goes to… Shad!

Remembering all his triggers, Shad commited the Nightsister Matron, drew a card, won the force struggle by 3, used the resource on the Matron (his only sith resource) to pay for Force Manipulation to blow up Cassian, triggered Palpatine to unfocus the Matron, and then to end it all he brought back out a Steve.

Shad’s double Abandoned Hideout, Nightsister Warrior combo was also really strong. Made even stronger when I blew up an objective and he flopped into Agent of the Emperor. I didn’t get to do anything for the remainder of the game…

My coolest plays involved detonating sandcrawlers with 0-0-0 if the edge battle went poorly, and playing Wroshyr Forest and Wookie Champion to force Moruth Doole to block (and die)

Ethan’s best play involved flipping 3 sith objectives including Dark Lord of the Sith and playing turn 1 Bane to prevent Shad from ever having units.

Thanks for the updates, Mac! I just re-watched your 2014 final match the other night. So epic! I miss being there and playing SWLCG with you guys!

Again only 3 of us this weekend of the Last Jedi LCG tournament this weekend at LCG. Shad, Ethan and I again did a round robin alternating every game before going out for dinner and later to the movie. On this weekend I pulled out ahead, but I think the real winner of the day was Guardians of Justice…

1st (me)

Affiliation: Guardians of Justice

May the Force Be With You x2

Hero’s Journey x2

Secret of Yavin IV x2

Lost Commander x2

Pushing Back the Empire x2

Mission to Talay x2

Affiliation: Galactic Enforcers

Emperor’s Web x2

Merciless Plans x2

Emperor’s Shadow x2

Enforced Loyalty x2

Pattern Analysis x2

Immeasurable Power x2

2nd (Ethan)

Affiliation: Guardians of Justice

May the Force Be With You x2

Hero’s Beginning x2

Sacrifice at Endor x2

Lost Commander x2

Planning the Rescue x2

Fleeing the Empire x2

Affiliation: Navy

Tarkin Doctrine x2

Might of the Empire x2

Endor Entrapment x2

Inexorable Destruction x2

Imperial Blockade x1

Enforced Loyalty x1

3rd (Shad)

Affiliation: Guardians of Justice

In You Must Go x2

Secret of Yavin IV x2

Hero’s Journey x1

Survivors x1

Haunting the Empire x2

Lost Commander x1

Pushing Back the Empire x1

Explosives Artist x1

Mission to Talay x1

Affiliation: Galactic Enforcers

Emperor’s Promise x2

Emperor’s Shadow x2

Encounter at Stygian Prime x2

Enforced Loyalty x2

Cell Block Detention x2

Repair and Refurbish x1

Reinforcements! x1

I wound up sweeping Shad. Beating Ethan’s Navy deck after several turns of building a protection shell strong enough to get through his units striking immediately, and then losing to his Cracken deck after building for 7 turns, repelling his attack and then forgetting he had an unfinished business to grab Yoda when I went for the counter attack. Shad and Ethan split against each other. Shad kept a hand with double Bones of a Fallen Master master and forced Ethan to get two Promise triggers each turn or suffer a volley. Objective damage just piled up on Ethan’s side of the board and Ethan did what he could with all his Ewok tactics. Then Shad draw crap two turns in a row. In the second game Shad got his protection shell out and Kyle swang in with a lightsaber and with the help of a little friendship is magic cleaved the Chimaera in half.

Random Thoughts on My Decks

Double Emperor’s Shadow and 4 recursion enhancements is dope. So much card draw

Force Choke continues to be an amazing combat trick.

Kallus Fist is real

Pattern Analysis with all the recursion enhancements is pretty sweet.

Using an expendable scout to draw into exactly the card you need feels like cheating

Krennic Posse doesn’t card how many guns you have

Funeral Pyre makes Palpatine sad

Not having a mission out makes Boc sad

Sith Lightsaber is sweet but needs more than 4 targets in the deck

Well Equipped is terrible when DS needs to defend and amazing when you’re ready to attack

Mon Mothma is solid ramp

It’s hard for DS to focus you down when you have the Rex objective out. This makes Kyle Katarn happy.

Rebel for Hire is pretty sweet for getting Cassian chuds, or allies of necessity, or on the rare occasion grabbing Kyle.

Mon Mothma’s ability evidently reduces cost every phase?! So Shad pointed out I could Rebel for Hire to find Rebel for Hire and then next phase Rebel for Hire again to get Kyle. Thins the deck!!

Battlefield engineer feels like he should be amazing with Trust Your Feelings. But sometimes the only way to win is to try to dig for friendship is magic and then refresh your supply cache when you declare to dig again. And if it’s against Ethan it always works!!

Luke and Kyle like to mess things up.

Rex feels largely over rated, but likes to show up late game to be a 3 bomb unit.

The best part about Mon Mothma is her black tactics. Tyler knows what I’m talking about!

Plays of the Day

Turn one against Shad I double focused an objective to play Kyle, trigger pushing back the empire, play a guardian and attack in with friendship is magic. bye bye board.

Shad playing a main every turn against Ethan and complaining about not being able to find his protection.

Ethan taunting me with his LS deck’s infinite combo potential so I would get mess up and use Sensor Array on things that didn’t need to be canceled.

All in all a great afternoon. Our regional is Jan 6th and there are just too many fun decks to try right now!

7 of us showed up for the FFG regional today. Originally the TO said we would do 3 rounds of swiss no cut, but said if we all agreed we could cut to top 2. Since our last store championship ended with all veteran players splitting and people only getting 4 or 6 points if they played the new player this was preferable to all of us. Even in the last round things we’re really open and as to who would sweep to the front. Ethan made the cut with the only 15 point record. Shad got in at 12 and I came up short at 11. Each player took a game with their LS, a coin was flipped to determine who would choose the deck in the final round (since seed only affects the first round of the cut??) Ethan won the flip, picked LS and won the tournament.

1st (Ethan)

Affiliation: Guardians of Justice

May the Force Be With You x2

Hero’s Beginning x2

Sacrifice at Endor x2

Planning the Rescue x2

Fleeing the Empire x2

Lost Commander x2

Affiliation: Any Methods Necessary

Might of the Empire x2

Inexorable Destruction x2

Technological Terror x1

Hunter’s Flight x2

Nar Shaddaa Drift x2

Spice Trade x1

2nd (Shad)

Affiliation: Guardians of Justice

May the Force Be With You x2

Secret of Yavin IV x2

Hero’s Journey x1

Survivors x1

Haunting the Empire x1

Lost Commander x1

Pushing Back the Empire x1

Commando Operations x1

Mission to Talay x1

Explosives Artist x1

Affiliation: Promise of Power

Masterful Manipulation x2

Hunter for Hire x2

Unsavory Contracts x1

Power of the Dark Side x2

Knives in the Night x2

Agent of the Emperor x1

Ethan’s LS deck did all the crazy things it was built to do. This included Leia several times and making BK one sad wookie. Apparently BK did a lot of work throughout swiss and committing him with knives out and then going to town kept a lot of boards very clear! In the end the Leia refresh multi-striking with Rex and Cracken was just way to much. and Funeral Pyre was clear to focus out anything meaningful Shad played on the next turn.

the game with Shad’s LS against Ethan’s DS was much more interesting to watch. There was a narrow window where Ethan could have potentially taken out his 2nd-4th objective getting 3 strikes in with the Demolisher, but because Shad had committed Rex (with Trust Your Feelings) to have him available as a blocker there was no way to get all the strikes in with both Rex and Yoda being declared as blockers. The other interesting thing about that game was every time Shad played a main he followed it with an enhancement! Yoda came out turn one with custom paint job. Shad: “Take that Boba Fett!” Rex came out with Trust your Feelings, and in the 2nd to the last turn my boy Kyle hit the table with his concussion rifle.

Nick and Joe were both at the tournament and it was good to play them again. They were both running Skyhopper decks, but Joe had it in Guardians of Justice and Nick slotted it in a deck with Freeholders. Nick was on mono Navy and Joe was on his quad Palpatine deck. Jacob made the trip down from Fargo to play. It was good to see him. He played a mono Jedi deck with triple tactics Yoda that utterly locked down my board, and an interesting Navy Sith deck with Delta One and Core Tarkin.

My Decks (3rd?)

Affiliation: No Questions Asked

Spark of Rebellion x2

Desert Recruitment x2

Survivors x1

Wookie Life Debt x2

Badge of Honor x2

Along the Gamor Run x1

Affiliation: Galactic Enforcers

Power of the Dark Side x2

Knives in the Night x2

Scouring the Empire x2

Dark Trooper Project x2

Reinforcements! x2

Last Grand Admiral x2

Random Thoughts on my Decks…

Matron is draws lots and lots of cards

The DS deck has too many force phase triggers

Signal Scrambler is a nightmare to figure out how all your triggers will work and what you need to commit to win by etc.

Double Night Sister commit to kill Brainiac is so worth it

Double Force Storm is mean and feels great

Thrawn can smell a Farlander coming a mile away!

This LS deck has a lot of good objectives and if they blow one up another relevant objective is almost sure to flop

Spark wookie flood is real

Desert Recruitment to heal Chewbacca is real

there are a lot of ways to damage Chewbacca in this deck. a lot.

I used Tom’s wookie Champion to force a turn 2 Palpatine to block! Somehow I won edge and used Friendship is Magic to get the champion up to 3 guns!! Victory laps are always fun

What’s also fun is using Dice’s reaction to say “there will beeee an engagement… Here….” then wait to see what they push forward as blockers and kill them with let the wookie win Chewbacca and heal Chewbacca with desert recruitment after finally declaring my attackers. Good times.

Plays of the Day

Joe plays turn one Brainiac, discards 3 cards with Defense of Yavin IV to play Independence. Uses Brainiac to increase Independence’s capital ship reduction to 2 and plays a Corvette discarding another card. Ah Gaurdians of Justice Planning the Attack 8 reserve Defense of Yavin starts…

Jacob has Dice give in to her anger and gets an Arden Lyn out the process!

Nick looping memory from home Brainiac, Yoda and Skyhopper all on the table.

All the crazy stuff Ethan did with his LS deck…

All the kills Shad got with Burger King.

Me using Melucci to call Palpatine to a fight and then getting up to 3 guns with friendship is magic.

Thanks to everyone who showed up and also to Tyler who was our judge and played games against whoever had the bye! For everyone with a regional coming up, go out there and have fun!

I look forward to being back this Summer to sling some SW LCG with anyone that would still be interested. I'm not selling my cards... but it's still so sad that the game got canned...

Worlds 2018: The Last Worlds!

With a few exceptions I always try to build a new deck for each event. That way I get exposure and practice with new cards and when Worlds comes around I have an idea of what shows promise and should be explored further. I hit 3 regionals this year, the one at FFG, the one in Manhattan KS, where Shad Ethan and I engaged in an epic Mission Luke competition, and then the one in Niles IL that Ethan won with some Kiwi jank—after somehow convincing me to run all the Iggys…

The restriction of MTF and Guardians of Justice hit a lot of our decks, and while LS still had access to a wide range of awesome strategies we could no longer run what we felt was by far the strongest core and each of us went building in wildly different directions.

My energy was spent continuing to explore Guardians of Justice decks without MTF. The final list wound up looking like this:

Affiliation: Guardians of Justice

Hero’s Journey x2

Secret of Yavin IV x2

Twilight of the Apprentice x1

Danger in the Wastes x1

Pushing Back the Empire x2

Haunting the Empire x1

Planning the Attack x1

Lost Commander x1

Mission to Talay x1

It has good resource acceleration, a lot of protection, a lot of units with shielding, 3 twists, 4 allies and 4 target strikers. The deck could lay a solid beatdown… If it drew the right hand turns 1 and 2.

Problem was the deck never took the force early and even after obliterating a DS board with Luke or Maul striking 3 times with Trust Your Feeling and Cassian, the crack-back would send the dial skyrocketing and I’d lose. It’s still one of my favorite decks to play, but I wanted something with a little more umpf for Worlds.

Shad’s Brain Child

Before the KS regional Shad and I were playing some casual games in the hotel room and I got absolutely destroyed by his latest brew. It was a 7 reserve deck running 12 target of opportunities and it would just flush its hand every turn attacking with reckless abandon… and win on turn 3! On the drive back we discussed going down to 10 targets to make room for 2 Crix. Adaptive Strategy could function as a Target if there was already one in the edge stack, plus it gave us access to Seeds which is just dirty turn 1 with Commando Raid. Final list ended up as:

Affiliation: Mercenary Contacts

Trust Me x2

Fortune and Fate x2

Renegade Squadron Mobilization x2

Rebel Fleet x2

Commando Operations x2

Commando Raid x1

Hit and Run x1

Both Ethan and I sleeved up this deck after returning to MN to see how it did against what we thought were the strongest DS archetypes. It’s a really stupid deck when you think about it, but we couldn’t discount it because it kept winning games! The real trick was that we had observed fewer and fewer players running twists in their DS lists, and without twist in a DS deck every target of opportunity goes through and the deck has a lot of them. Plus the Crix objective can help protect from the early twists and his chuds are great at jumping out and providing extra blast and guns if God forbid they bid any fate cards anyway.

In the beginning Ethan and I questioned ourselves “Is this deck real?”. We didn’t bother asking Shad. He would say “of course it’s real”. Even the games it lost it frequently would come within one point of winning. It was a strong contender for taking to Worlds and as such Ethan and I went on Zero Dark 30 Lockdown swearing we would never tell anyone outside of our meta of the existence of such a deck, or at least not that we were seriously looking at it. Even though we wound up not running it we didn’t want any of our opponents to be on the list.

Ethan and I both ran the Target Deck at the CCO tournament Sat night and obliterated our competition with it—except Tyler. I couldn’t beat Tyler and his undying Weequay hordes. Mostly because he had twists in his deck from jawas. Ethan called the twist in his game against Tyler and won after what was also a very long game. Funny thing about the deck is that even though the games only take a couple turns the attacks that LS has to do are often complicated enough where you need to math our your damage perfectly so you’re not letting any of your blast go to waste. The deck plays that tight and it’s a lot of fun to play… and a nightmare to play against.

Ethan’s Tree World

So while Shad and I looked at different versions of 7 reserve for LS, Ethan explored if Ewok Spark could be a thing. I had explored Logray in a deck with MTF and Falcon along with other ewoks and new that Logray could be really good: Falcon into Logray, into Ewok Hunter, but if I didn’t see Native Blessing my limited number of furballs just wound up dying or Logray was zapped by Force Lightning and his reign of terror would end—yes there are two cancels in the deck, but you don’t always have them when you need them. Ethan fixed that problem:

Affiliation: No Question’s Asked

Spark of Rebellion x2

Native Blessing x2

Sacrifice at Endor x1

Along the Gamor Run x1

Impersonating a Diety x1

Courage of the Tribe x1

Tribal Support x1

Tribe of the Trees x1

That’s right: Ethan had one copy of the god-awful ewok ambusher set in there. And it was a pain in the neck to play against. The deck has almost NO bad flops, and it’s a particularly strange feeling when you find yourself often tucking Gamor Run, but a lot of the other choices are just better. Of course Spark and Native Blessing are all stars, but Tribe of the Trees is the secret juice that gives DS players conniptions. I played against the deck a lot and not being able to Heat, Choke, Echoes, Deadly Sight, Force Lightning, smack with Bane, steal with Boba or Seeds is just ridiculous. It’s one of those things that as the LS player you may not realize how powerful it is because you’re not actively canceling what your opponent is doing, but as the DS player you know exactly how badly you’re being cock-blocked and it sucks.

Otherwise the deck played exactly how you’d expect a deck with Spark and Native Blessing to play: It would spam out a board of unkillable chuds and either win very quickly or win a war of attrition. I tend to like decks that allow a board to go wide because it allows for more avenues of attack and defense, plus I felt that Ethan’s Tree World deck could win games faster and more definitively than the Target deck also also be able to dig itself out of a hole better than the Target deck or my Targeted Striker deck.

The Quest for a DS deck…

Confident in the Tree World build we turned our attention to finding a good DS list we liked. I knew trying to tech against the ewoks would lead me either to a lot of frustration or to a really weird place that would be good against the furballs but terrible against the field. So we agreed to do most of our DS testing against Falcon Jedi lists.

From the decks we played and observed in regionals we knew the stand-outs were the Promise of Power decks. Particularly the ones with Spiders. Getting the removal of both Sith and Scum and a refresh to avoid getting locked down was just too good. What’s cool about the Promise of Power decks is that there are so many different builds available. Every version of Palpatine has a strong PoP archetype based around it. You can also double down on Dr. E and Ponda Boba for a strong combination of aggro and control. They objective goes particularly well with Deadly Sight, but Shad was finding ways to use it to win on turn 3 with Spiders.

Beyond Promise of Power we also brainstormed several 7 reserve decks that included Yularen. I had played a Scum/Navy 7 reserve deck in Niles, that while it included 4 Iggy’s (hey, only 2 of them are bad!) it proved to be a very tenacious deck because of its larger hand size for edge battles and a timely Yularen or Fist showing up to did itself out of a hole. I wanted to explore the Scum/Navy version further and also try a Sith/Navy version that included more removal, but the weekend before Worlds I traveled to Chicago for an Aikido Seminar and wasn’t going to be able to get any more games in.

The 3 of us all wound up fielding Promise of Power lists, but their flavor was each rather different. Shad and Ethan went more aggressive both including spider, while I returned to pods I trusted for a long time and took only a slight variation off a list I played in Manhattan KS:

Affiliation: Promise of Power

Emperor’s Web x2

Plan of the Prophetess x1

Dark Lord of the Sith x1

Vader’s Army x1

Hunter for Hire x1

Unsavory Contracts x1

Tatooine Crash x1

Behind the Black Sun x1

All Out Brawl x1

The couldn’t hit objectives nearly as hard as the lists with Spiders, but it had a lot of tricks. The basic strategy was that if it could disrupt the LS player two turns in a row it would be able to leverage such a massive board advantage over them and eventually win.

Guri is of course always an all-star. I ran her both in KS and Niles as a x1 and knew I wanted to be running her again. Between her, threat removal, twist and 2 Palpatines I felt that the deck had enough edge tricks that it would be able to hold its own in the top tables.

The deck also has my favorite combo from regionals involving 0-0-0 and Sandcrawler. And of course Zekka to mono block all day or get nuked from above with Deadly Sight. Most importantly I felt that the deck let me express myself in my favorite way of playing Star Wars as DS and it was something I was very comfortable in playing.

I won’t get into the specifics of the games here. Several of mine were under the camera so they’ll eventually make their way onto YouTube. Suffice to say both decks performed very well. I did better with my DS list than my LS list, and even a bunch of games I won with the Tree World deck were very close. Uncomfortably close.

In the end they took me to 3rd place. But even better than that…just like Andy I ALSO got to play Entangled to devastating effect during a World’s Tournament!

It was a blast seeing everyone. On Friday and Saturday a lot of us just kept playing LCG. The community for this game is awesome and I will miss everyone deeply.

Great report, Mac! I agree, I will miss everyone as well... such a great community...

5 people gathered this year for the 3rd annual “Peter Jacobson Welcome Home Tournament”. We all wanted to play a lot of games so decided to do a round robin switching opponents every game so whoever had the bye didn’t have to sit out that long. It was a little chaotic, but whenever a game finished one of the players could jump out and and then wait on the other group. Since we had the time it wound up working well. In the end Ethan came out on top only losing one game to my DS list which flopped double Vader’s Fist on him and made him cry.

1st (Ethan)

Affiliation: Jedi

May the Force Be With You x2

Hero’s and Legends x2

Fleeing the Empire x2

Forward Reconnaissance x2

Behind Enemy Lines x2

Against All Odds x1

Affiliation: Imperial Contractors

Masterful Manipulation x2

Patrolling the Wastes x2

Unsavory Contracts x1

Tatooine Crash x1

Might of the Empire x2

Endor Entrapment x2

Deploy the Fleet x1

Sabotage in the Snow x1

2nd (Mick)

Affiliation: Mercenary Contacts

On the Run x2

No Match for a Good Blaster x2

Last Defense of Hoth x2

Hoth Gambit x2

Inhospitable Deployments x2

Evacuation Procedure x1

Sensors are Placed x1

Affiliation: Dark Masters

Unstoppable Advance x2

Blizzard Assault x2

Repair and Refurbish x1

Emperor’s Web x2

Vader’s Fist x2

Sabotage in the Snow x1

3rd (Peter)

Affiliation: Guardians of Justice

Twilight of the Apprentice x2

Running the Canyon x2

Secret at Shantipole x1

Hero’s Resolve x1

Attack Pattern Delta x2

Defense of Yavin IV x1

Rogue Squadron Assault x1

Heroes of the Rebellion x1

They’ll Never Stop Us x1

Affiliation: Promise of Power

His High Exaltedness x2

Hunter in the Night x2

Behind the Black Sun x1

From the Abyss x2

Rogue Archeology x2

Reconnaissance Mission x1

4th (Ryan)

Affiliation: Jedi

May the Force Be With You x2

A New Beginning x2

Twilight of the Apprentice x2

Daughter of Tanaab x2

Following Fate x2

Affiliation: Galactic Enforcers

Order of the Inquisitors x2

Scouring the Empire x2

The Questioning x2

Enforced Loyalty x2

Immeasurable Power x2

Emperor’s Legion x2

5th (Brian)

Affiliation: Dark Masters

Unstoppable Advance x2

Blizzard Assault x2

Entrenched Defense x1

Hunters of the Jedi x2

Killing Cold x1

Fearsome and Foul x1

Sabotage in the Snow x1

Affiliation: Mercenary Contacts

Asteroid Sanctuary x2

Questionable Contacts x2

Gardner’s Secret x1

Renegade Squadron Mobilization x1

Haunting the Empire x2

Lost Commander x2

Explosives Artist x2

The was quiet a bit of Hoth being played on the day and on one occasion I found myself sweating bullets when Snowspeeder Launch Bay hit the table! Lots of Forward Command Posts for DS too contributing to an obscene amount of blast!

Random Thoughts on my Decks…

I wanted to try the new Hoth stuff so I made a deck with 4 Don’t Get Cocky’s and Boshek. It was silly.

BoShek and Hoth Derlin are bffs when they swing with edge 6.

Tauntauns and Renegade squadron recruits don’t have blast. But they have guns!

Reeikan can control a board.

Echo Defenders are kind of absurd with 3 guns and a tactics.

Snowspeeder Counterattack is just as good as I remember it being when Shad schooled me with it all the time.

Battle of Hoth can damage DS’s Sabotage in the Snow!!

Make Your Own Resources is the Resurrector of Tauntauns (and sometimes BoShek)

It’s easy to trigger Don’t Get Cocky or Make Your Own Resources with 7 reserve and edge 3+

Don’t Get Cocky is bad against the Guri pod ?

For DS I had been thinking about an AT-AT deck with the refresh affiliation before Worlds, but didn’t have time to seriously test it thinking it wouldn’t be able to cut it in a worlds meta. While the deck did well yesterday I still don’t think it can hold off agains the best of the best. But in a teir “fun” it’s a beast.

Playing a Royal Guard and an AT-AT turn 1 is really good. Blizzard Assault is an absurd objective.

Playing an AT-AT for 2 every turn is really good.

Palpatine is a great edge card! Who knew?!

Snowtrooper Vanguard is a boss.

One Forward Command Post is great. Two is GG.

501 troopers are still terrible.

All of the AT-ATs have great reactions.

Flopping double Vader’s Fist is still awesome.

Plays of the Day

There were a lot of these, but the few that I remember:

Peter: I swing in with BoShek and Derlin with an obscene amount of edge. He doesn’t block loses edge by a lot and plays Threat Removal for free with Jabba’s discount. He also drops in Guri who does a couple damage to BoShek before dying. Then he uses Aphra’s ability to bring Guri back out and into the fight to finish BoShek off.

Also, losing to Myo is just a kick in the teeth.

Ethan: Using a Gladiator to put in a Protection to shield the non-engaged Hoth objective to prevent the point of damage I need with my Battle of Hoth that is under the engaged objective to win the game. Sad days for me. Glorious fanfare for Ethan.

Klaatu was also evidently a boss.

Me: Swinging with BoShek and Derlin and the 3rd objective I needed. Edge Six makes for easy edge battles, but I didn’t have many resources so I wind up using my affiliation card AND BoShek’s resource to play double Don’t Get Cocky on Derlin to swing for 5 blast and win the game.

Ryan: Convincing Peter to not attack him for 3 turns after he entered the death spiral. Sarenda is burned several times and brought back with Return of the Jedi only to be burned again. In the final moment Ryan pays two resources to seek Yoda and click the dial to 12 on his terms.

Brian: Letting the man of the hour, Peter Jacobson, take back his entire turn so he can be killed by a Tauntaun. Good man!

Thanks again for everyone who showed up, especially Brian who traveled all the way to see our beloved Peter. We’ll be hosting a the annual Peter Jacobson Farewell Tournament in a month. Hope to see more of you then!

I didn’t attend November World’s this year, but I did swing by the Radisson Friday night to say hello to people. I had my cards all packed up, but Josh had his boxes so he, Brad, Kiramode and I sat down and grabbed random decks, made sure they didn’t overlap and played a match of 2v2 against each other. It was a blast. I had forgotten how much I love this game and community.

Ethan and I had lunch on Saturday and afterwards were brainstorming ideas for fun alternative formats. Part of what made the 2v2 match so brilliant (apart from being on a team with Brad which was just a hoot) was that the decks weren’t tuned for 2v2 so the games played pretty close. I always like it when games play somewhere in the middle. I had all my cards packed up, back in their binders and that’s when Ethan came up with the idea and we refined it: SW Draft Collective Edition!

Unfortunately, Ethan couldn’t stick around into the evening to see his brainchild play out, but when Thrones was done and people had finished eating Josh, Danny, Tyler and I sat down to try this madness. My cards are split into 6 binders in order of release date. There is some overlap of cycles in the first couple binders, the Hoth and echoes sets are split, but each binder is roughly one box and one cycle.

The plan: Have players randomly grab a binder each and set the remaining two to the side between the two players opposite each other. This forms a hexagon. Players then open the binders and grab any one LS and any one DS pod they want to start the formation of a deck. Once this is done players would rotate the binders one position to the right. The binders at the edges or the hexagon would rotate in and 2 binders would rotate out. Simultaneously the players would rotate the decks they had started one player to the left!

Then players would look at the pods they had gotten and pick and one LS and DS pod in their new binder to add to the deck. Deck construction rules had to be followed so once a player had picked an X-affiliation only card nobody could add an affiliation that would contradict that. Same goes for the restricted list. The idea was the decks had to be “playable”.

Once we did this 10 times we put the decks out all on the table with the pods showing and randomly selected a player to have first choice of LS or DS deck. Once the 4th person picked a deck we reversed the order ala Settlers of Catan for the 2nd pick. Then we played.

Execution: the idea that you’re not drafting your deck but have your thumb on the scale of everyone’s deck is what made this format particularly interesting. You can’t make the deck too good or someone else will draft it and crush you. Can’t make the deck too bad or you might wind up having to play it. As Danny said “You have to make decks that ONLY YOU can play”. And as arrogant SW players we of course all thought we could do this.

It was hilarious passing to Danny around pack 4 he cried out “why do I have to sit after Mick?! I have to fix all his mistakes!” No. No, mistakes here. All those inclusions are by design!

It was interesting watching resource counts in the decks and trying to make sure that the decks were all still functionable as decks. Also sometimes decks needed to have their power level brought up, other times they needed to come down. Around the 8th pick there was a concern at the table that the DS decks were turning out to be stronger than the LS decks so there were definitely some choices made to try to balance out the sides.

Unfortunately, we were only able to get 2 rounds in at which point it was around 2am. It would be fun to do a full round robin. Danny and I ended 3-1 with Josh and Tyler 1-1. But with a final round it could theoretically end a 4 way tie, so who knows what the strongest of these decks are! Personally I’d put my money on Danny, because his sith scum deck was sick and he also got to play his beloved Leia Cracken deck as LS. If we had gotten to finish I’d like to think he would have taken it all meaning that Edge of Darkness Lobot had won a “World’s”.

Kiramode’s Picks

Affiliation: Rebel (3rd pick)

Planning the Rescue

Fleeing the Empire

Behind Enemy Lines

Resourceful Survivors

Questionable Contacts

The Last Warrior

Spirit of Rebellion

Calling in Favors

Impersonating a Diety

Defense of Cloud City

Affiliation: Scum (6th pick)

Double Crossing Droid

Lady’s Lesson

All Out Brawl

I Don’t Like You Either

Agent of the Emperor

Reawakening

Encounter at Stygeon Prime

Council of the Sith

Rogue Archaeology

Corporate Exploitation

Mick’s Picks

Affiliation: Rebel (2nd pick)

Running the Trench

Planning the Rescue

Pushing Back the Empire

Haunting the Empire

Alderaan’s Promise

Mission to Talay

Hero’s Journey

Twilight of the Apprentice

Watchers in the Wasteland

Daughter of Tanaab

Affiliation: Scum (7th pick)

Double Crossing Droid

Droid Droid Revolution

Shadowed Surveillance

Nar Shaddaa Drift

Dark Counsel

Emperor’s Cabal

Emperor’s Shadow

Emperor’s Hand

Serve the Emperor

Ghosts of the Dark Side

Tyler’s Picks

Affiliation: Smuggler (4/5th pick)

On the Run

Asteroid Sanctuary

Renegade Squadron Mobilization

Last Defense of Hoth

Smuggler’s Gambit

Haunting the Empire

Lost Commander

Forward Reconnaissance

Turning the Tide

Green Squadron Deployment

Affiliation: Navy (4/5th pick)

Technological Terror

Repair and Refurbish

Capital Support

Kuat Reinforcements

Protect the Generator

Black Squadron Formation

Emperor’s Sword

Emperor’s Shadow

Agent of the Emperor

Shadows of Dathomir

Josh’s Picks

Affiliation: Smuggler (1st pick)

Renegade Squadron Mobilization

The Last Warrior

Spirit of Rebellion

Lost Commander

Commando Raid

Commando Operations

Rogue Squadron Assault

Draw Their Fire

Mission to Talay

Hope of Rebellion

Affiliation: Scum (8th pick)

Heart of Cold

Lucrative Contract

Heartless Tactics

Schemes and Intrigue

Hunter’s Flight

Jabba’s Reach

Jabba’s Orders

Rogue Archeaology

The Investigation

Across the Jundland Wastes

Random Thoughts on My Decks

I can’t even really do this section for the draft tournament. It’s too big. I was too involved in the construction of all the decks. Suffice to say I STRONGLY recommend this format for people who have a group of players looking for something fresh to do with their collections.

Also while there was nothing in the rules about needing to make highlander decks that’s just what organically happened this time. I think people wanted to be creative with their choices. Same thing about not seeing any May the Force Be With You in the lists. Just didn’t happen because “yawn”.

Plays of the Day

Tyler had the Ghost committed to the force with Green Squadron Deployment out.

Josh played Pilot Boba on a Jawa Trading Crawler to capture Tyler’s Ghost. Get there!!

In what would be my last turn with the dial at 5 and 1 objective down I stole Tyler’s only blocker by playing Join Me, attacked with the Emperor’s Shuttle to take an objective, attacked with Iggy-B with illegal modifications and a swoop to suck his Col Serra into combat, kill it and take the 2nd objective. Then sell the swoop to untap Iggy-B to take out the 3rd objective. Seeing that this was going to happen and the damage had to come out perfectly Tyler used Echo Caverns to move a bomb from the Shuttle to the Swoop which I cancelled with Executive Override.

In Kiramode’s game against Josh he just needed one attack to go through anywhere so he initiated until he could win edge somewhere. Then he pulled a Bo Rifle out of discard and put it on his Cloud City Wing Guard to strike as a participating unit for 2 blast and 2 guns. Then sacced Core Leia to My Only Hope to strike again with the Wing Guard for Game. Get there!!

The draft format was a blast and I highly recommend it. I need to resort all my cards now, but I will be doing that soon so we can draft again!

Puzzler

As a puzzler I leave you one of the decks lists I got to influence with 3 inclusion instead of just 2. Can you pick the 3 objective sets that I contributed to this list?

Affiliation: Scum (6th pick but clearly the best DS list)

Double Crossing Droid

Lady’s Lesson

All Out Brawl

I Don’t Like You Either

Agent of the Emperor

Reawakening

Encounter at Stygeon Prime

Council of the Sith

Rogue Archaeology

Corporate Exploitation

Minnesota Meta gathered for an afternoon of Collective Drafting. Just like Jazz Music: there are no wrong notes. Just notes with more color than others. We laughed ourselves silly with the various inclusions. Danny made the mistake of sitting after me again, but he didn’t complain as much as he did the previous time. With our group of knuckleheads there are no “safe places” to sit. We wound up with a couple tri-color decks this time. We blamed Shad for that but he swears it wasn’t him. Midway through the draft I was passed a Jedi-Smuggler deck that had 5 crazy pods in it already. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it, it was so good already so I threw in a May the Force to see how badly the rest of the table could tank it with the last 4 pods. Unfortunately Danny had the Alliances cycle binder which is just full of gas. He threw in the Biggs pod to force it into tri-color, but that also gave it a 2nd seeds. The last 3 inclusions were Rumors at the Cantina, Gamblo and Undercover Dealings. Unfortunately, Tyler had to leave after only 2 games, so the finished a round robin amongst the remaining 4 players.

1st (Mick)

Affiliation: Jedi (9th pick, 3-0)

Deep Commitment

Danger in the Wastes

Resistance and Rebellion

Spirit of Rebellion

Escape from Ord Mantell

Planning the Rescue

Fleeing the Empire

Haunting the Empire

Behind Enemy Lines

Commando Raid

Affiliation: Sith (2nd pick, 1-2)

There is No Conflict

Emperor’s Hand

Emperor’s Shadow

Imperial Bureaucracy

Immeasurable Power

Imperial Command

Dark Trooper Project

Emperor’s Legion

Endor Entrapment

Endor Gambit

2nd/3rd (Ethan)

Affiliation: Smuggler (1st pick, 1.5-2)

Last Warrior

Gardner’s Secret

House Edge

Undercover Dealings

May the Force Be With You

In You Must Go

Survivors

Mysteries of the Rim

They’ll Never Stop Us

Rumors at the Cantina

Affiliation: Navy (10th pick, 2-1)

Moon Blockade

Protect the Generator

Dark Time for the Rebellion

Unsavory Contracts

Hunter in the Night

Tatooine Crash

“No Disintegrations”

Lure of the Lost

Plan of the Prophetess

Counsel of the Sith

2nd/3rd (Shad)

Affiliation: Rebel (3rd pick, 1-2)

Running the Trench

Alderaan’s Promise

Lost Commander

Mission to Talay

Last Warrior

Questionable Contacts

Fortune and Fate

Resistance and Rebellion

Defense of Cloud City

Renegade Squadron Mobilization

Affiliation: Sith (8th pick, 2.5-1)

Second Phase

Scouring the Empire

Rogue Archaeology

Vader’s Army

Emperor’s Cabal

The Investigation

Cruel Interrogations

Heartless Tactics

Droid’s Task

Droid Droid Revolution

4th (Kiramode)

Affiliation: Jedi (5/6th pick, 1-2)

Hidden from the Empire

Spark of Rebellion

Inhospitable Deployments x2

Sensors are Placed

Attack Pattern Delta

Planning the Attack

Rogue Squadron Assault

Hope of Rebellion

Echo Base Defense

Affiliation: Sith (5/6th pick, 1-2)

The Questioning

Vader’s Army

Jabba’s Orders x2

Heartless Tactics

Schemes and Intrigue

“No Disintegrations”

Jabba’s Reach

Shadowed Surveillance

Hutt’s Menagerie

Porkins Drop (Tyler)

Affiliation: Rebel (7th pick, 0-0.5)

Mobilize the Squadrons

Draw Their Fire

Turning the Tide

Spirit of Rebellion

No Match for a Good Blaster

Impersonating a Diety

Bait and Switch

Honor Among Thieves

Hero’s Resolve

Sacrifice at Endor

Affiliation: Scum (4th pick, 0-0.5)

Double Crossing Droid

Out of the Mists

Grand Heist

Emperor’s Web

Knives in the Night

Emperor’s Shadow

Counsel of the Sith

Ghosts of the Dark Side

Maw of Madness

Call of the Cult

What we liked playing

Jedi

Rebel: Hoth Derlin

Smuggler: Nien Nunb, Zeb, Jyn

Sith: 0-0-0, Shuttle, Counsel

Navy

Scum: Weequays, Good Dengar, Double-Tap Boba

Plays of the Day

Mick: the blow out card in my deck proved to be Bring Em On from the terrible and secretly awesome Ord Mantell pod. In 2 games it let an unassuming chud bring down a main! Crafty smuggler smacks 0-0-0 for 3, shabaam!!

Ethan: Momaw with bo-rifle and holdout blaster doing work! Zeb also got linked up with these toys in another game…

Shad: Flopping into the Investigation and calling “Hold Out Blaster”. Ethan immediately discards it next turn…

Kiramode: 1st turn droid factory into various droids getting his reserve up to 8/9 cards with Jabba’s Reach. Also he was 3-for-3 with Get Me Solo capturing Cracken, Bail and Yoda.

Tyler: Played Hate on Super Yoda making him very sad.

Gathered for another draft. We were expecting more people, but with people getting sick and the cold snap only 3 of us showed up. So Danny, Ethan and I did a draft…then we ate…then we got bored and decided to draft again with the the left over cards. The rotation was a bit different having only 3 people and 6 binders, so decks wound up seeing the same same binder more than they did in previous drafts, but the decks still came out interesting. Danny emerged the front runner for the day in both drafts going a total of 6-2 vs me and Ethan both at 3-5.

1st (Danny)

Affiliation: Jedi (6th pick, 1-1)

Spark of Rebellion x2

Out of their Element x2

Hidden from the Empire

Sacrifice at Endor

Mysteries of the Rim

Wookie Life Debt

Impersonating a Diety

Sowers of Dissension

Affiliation: Navy (1st pick, 2-0)

The Admiral’s Assault x2

Enforced Loyalty

Might of the Empire

Technological Terror

The Last Grand Admiral

Inexorable Destruction

Entrenched Defenses

Spice Trade

2nd (Ethan)

Affiliation: Jedi: No Questions Asked (5th pick, 1-1)

Hero’s Duty

Ties of Blood

Desert Recruitment

Danger in the Wastes

Master’s Domain

Across the Dune Sea

Broken Horn

Questionable Contacts

Renegade Squadron Mobilization

Last Defense of Hoth

Affiliation: Scum (2nd pick, 1-1)

Lucrative Contract

The Hunters

Out of the Mists

Jabba’s Orders

Automated Assassin

Behind the Black Sun

Shadowed Surveillance

Rogue Archaeology

Vader’s Army

Emperor’s Web

3rd (Mick)

Affiliation: Rebel (3rd/4th pick, 1-1)

Haunting the Empire

Sacrifice of Heroes

Hoth Gambit

May the Force Be With You

Hero’s Resolve

Hero’s Journey

Twilight of the Apprentice

Daughter of Tanaab

Last Minute Rescue

Badge of Honor

Affiliation: Scum (3rd/4th pick, 0-2)

Heart of Cold

Feeding the Pit

I Don’t Like You Either

Slave Trade

Shadow of Nar Shaddaa

Lord Vader’s Command

Imperial Command

Pattern Analysis

Cell Block Detention

Support of the Fleet

Random thoughts on this Draft

So if you draft a deck with all the best Navy pods it is not hamstrung by double Piett. This deck was a monster and Wrecking Ball Piett is a beast.

Order Matters! Don’t damage your won objectives with Sowers of Dissension on the flop.

Funeral Pyre isn’t fun to play against.

Digging with 3PO to find that one target of opportunity to win the game…

Including a random copy of the Melucci pod in an otherwise coherent Jedi Rebel deck is just a **** move. Love it.

Plays of the days

Danny Funeral pyres me on my turn, funeral pyres on the beginning of his turn, pays 2 with Kanan, moves a focus from mysteries of the rim over to Kanan and swings playing a force illusion to push out 3 other blockers. I push an ugnaught forward and make him play an edge battle to win. Danny exlaims “There was a guy back there!?” We’ll return to this moment later in the write-up… Danny wins edge and takes the game…but not how he wanted. Point: …still him.

Ethan flops Jabba’s Orders and leads into Get me Solo nabbing my core Luke, then plays turn 1 4LOM suddenly making my remaining starting hand of Ezra looks a lot less appealing, but I draw into some tricks. I attack not expecting any blocks, but he does block and I put in a heat. He twists and then plays his heat. I figure he doesn’t have a choke so I strike with Ezra and then force rejuv him to strike again killing 4LOM.

In my game against Danny he starts the game by discarding Piett. I call him mad. The deck was meant to do one thing. He pays 5 and plays the other Piett. Core Luke shows up and starts wrecking face. I attack and Danny reveals echoes of the force and seeds to tap out my Luke. Fortunately, I have an echos of my own that triggers after his. But the combo is not set up on Piett. There was some trickiness with the Screed ship stealing black tactics and by the end of the game Piett had 15 edge. Chased down too many of his lackeys assuming I had time to get around to the man himself…

Danny’s board against Ethan goes super wide. His has a wookie out with life debt so stuff isn’t leaving play and he’s getting ready to take things out. He plays double force persuasion to knock out all available blockers and pushes a mystic forward to do 2 capping an objective and sets up his next attack. Ethan cries “wait wait wait!” and plays an Aphra jump droid pre-edge. They bid. Ethan lays twist. Danny lays a 2nd. Ethan lays a 2nd. Danny lays a 3rd. Ethan picks up his 2nd with the Garindan objective. Danny is out. Ethan reveals twist and lays heat. Aphra droid swings killing the mystic. Ethan says “I prefer to take things a step at a time, Daniel!” Danny says “whatever :-(“

Round 2. Fight!

We break for a late lunch at the event center. Talk some about Keyforge and how Danny thought things were cold back in November when we had 30 degree weather. Since we were expecting more people and pushed the start time forward to 10:15am we had plenty of time for another so we decided to just draft again and putting the previous cards back in the binders. Danny was slightly concerned that we wouldn’t be able to make good decks because we had already taken out 60 objective sets, but I did not share this concern. It’s draft and it’ll be fine.

1st (Danny)

Affiliation: Jedi (6th pick, 2-0)

Forgotten Heroes

Knowledge and Defense

Debt of Honor x2

Wookie Life Debt

Badge of Honor

Bait and Switch

Secret Weapons

Renegade Squadron Mobilization

Preparation for Battle

Affiliation: Scum (1st pick, 1-1)

The Grand Heist

Feeding the Pit

All Out Brawl

Unsavory Contracts

Threat from the Depths x2

From the Abyss

Rogue Archaeology

Plan of the Prophetess

Emperor’s Hand

2nd (Mick)

Affiliation: Rebel (5th pick, 1-1)

Explosives Artist

Lost Commander

Behind Enemy Lines

Hero of a Thousand Devices

Hero’s Trial

Trust in the Force

Twilight of the Apprentice

Watchers in the Wasteland

Following Fate

To Arms!

Affiliation: Sith (2nd pick, 1-1)

Brothers of the Sith

Fearsome and Foul

Order of Inquisitors

Killing Cold

General’s Imperative

Immeasurable Power

Protect the Generator

Endor Gambit

Repair and Refurbish

Shadows on the Ice

3rd (Ethan)

Affiliation: Rebel: Information Network (3rd/4th pick, 0-2)

A Legend Begins

Hope of Rebellion

Fleeing the Empire

Haunting the Empire

Rogue Squadron Assault

Resistance and Rebellion

The Daring Escape

Memories of Tanaab

Beyond the Rim

Calling in Favors

Affiliation: Sith (3rd/4th pick, 1-1)

There is No Conflict

The Questioning

Emperor’s Shadow

Droid Droid Revolution x2

His High Exaltedness

The Scavengers

Eater of Luck

Nar Shadaa Drift

Reconnaissance Mission

Random Thoughts on this Draft

LS vehicle decks never seem worth playing in draft

5/2 objectives in draft are huge, especially with how many utility resources are generally included

Staring across at a grid of 4 health wookies backed up by echo caverns is scary.

Sometimes DS just can’t take the force.

Rousing Speeches are good to rile the troops up to kill dragonsnakes!

Droid Droid Revolution can prevent Let the Wookie Win from killing your one drops!

Veers gives the guns! He’s also not bad promoted!

Jedi Mind Trick and Clever Distraction in the same turn to clear the board is mean.

Fate Vader has text!

Lack Sivrak and his wolfman chud are like a gattling gun.

Sometimes decks will live the dream and flop that one copy of Wookie Life debt in all their games.

I can’t win against Dannik Jericho and Ethan can’t win against Myo 😞

Plays of the Draft

I didn't want to attack into Danny’s wall of creatures backed up by All Out Brawl, so I sat on the force with Obi Wan and eventually got Sabines Armor, Chewie’s Bowcaster, Luke’s Lightsaber, Obi Wan’s Lightsaber, a Custom Paint Job and to top it all off a 6 resource I Am a Jedi. Rex got Chirrut’s Lightbow. I chipped way with Wolfmen each turn and in the end I attacked with a battle field engineer, played double well equipped to ready both Obi Wan and Rex for the coup de grace.

Danny plays Join Me on Ethan’s Fleet officer. The arms dealer gives him a 2nd bomb and he swings in to take an objective with spice visions. Good crank!

Ethan lives the dream with Black Market Exchange. He gets Iggy B out with illegal modifications and uses it to do a bunch of bombs and take out my Following Fate Obi Wan with Ezra’s Lightsaber who I was using to dump tactics everywhere. I trigger when he dies and take out the droid. Later Ethan really needs to take a 3rd objective but I’ve locked out Dannik Jericho so the edge battle will matter and he’s falling a bit short on black bombs. He manages to find a swoop and Wittin, pulls back the Emperor’s Favor onto fate Vader and swings for massive double striking opportunities.

Danny took out my Thunderflare with a bade of honor backed 4 point wookie rage. Ouch.

Shield Chewie and his resistance hideout are super annoying. Shields everywhere. You gotta watch Danny though: He was dumping shields out everywhere and I told him he wasn’t outnumbered. “I have 6 units, you have 7. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6!” “You have 7!” and I point at his focused tauntaun in the back row. “There’s a guy back there!? Good times.

A longer break than usual, but the Minnesota Meta gathered after the spring equinox for some more SWLCG drafting. We swore not to make any Navy super decks even if they were hampered by x2 Piett. Ethan and I decided not to give up on making Piett great again and made sure to include him given the opportunity. Today’s draft had a much higher inclusion of Navy cards than in the past and I only pushed one of the decks into Sith when the Navy streak was looking too strong—turned out the sith side was pretty good though! No MTFBWY inclusions this time, which Danny was happy about. Danny was also happy that he wasn’t sitting near me, which I still don’t get. Tyler and I were on the same brainwave with Black Market Exchange, which Danny also thinks is terrible but we love so it gets played x2. Once again the draft format proved to create very interesting decks that match up well again each other. The sides ended evenly 6-6 and what we thought were “bad” decks proved to be surprisingly effective.

1st (Mick)

Affiliation: Smuggler (8th pick, 3-0)

On the Run

Asteroid Sanctuary

The Broken Horn

Renegade Squadron Mobilization

Secret Weapons

Command and Control

Evacuation Procedure

Capital Cover

Engineering the Future

Preparation for Battle

Affiliation: Sith (1st pick, 2-1)

Heart of the Empire

Scouring the Empire

Order of Inquisitors

Admiral’s Assault

The Last Grand Admiral

Death and Despayre

Protect the Generator

Immeasurable Power

Pattern Analysis

Asteroid Pursuit

2nd (Ethan)

Affiliation: Smuggler (7th pick, 1-2)

Calling in Favors

Resistance and Rebellion

The Last Warrior

They’ll Never Stop Us

The Alliance’s Elite

Rogue Squadron Assault

The Lost Commander

Fleeing the Empire

Engineering the Future

Evacuation Procedure

Affiliation: Navy (2nd pick, 2-1)

Inexorable Destruction

Deploy the Fleet

Rapair and Refurbish

Hunter’s Flight

Out of the Mists

Hunter in the Night

The Hutt’s Menagerie

Patrolling the Wastes

Shadow of Nar Shaddaa

Sabotage in the Snow

3rd/4th (Tyler)

Affiliation: Smuggler: Desperate Allies (6th pick, 1-2)

Bait and Switch x2

Trust Me

House Edge

No Match for a Good Blaster

Hero’s Journey

Secret at Shantipole

Heroes and Legends

In You Must Go

Master’s Domain

Affiliation: Scum (3rd pick, 1-2)

Jabba’s Reach x2

Nar Shaddaa Drift x2

Lucrative Contract

Jabba’s Orders

Heartless Tactics

Shadowed Surveillance

Droid Droid Revolution

Patrolling the Wastes

3rd/4th (Danny)

Affiliation: Rebel (4th/5th pick, 1-2)

Mission to Talay

Forward Reconnaissance

Commando Operations

Explosives Artist

Hero’s Journey

Ties of Blood

Deep Commitment

Trust in the Force

Desert Recruitment

Secret of Yavin IV

Affiliation: Navy: Any Method’s Necessary (4th/5th pick, 1-2)

Technological Terror

Pattern Analysis

Entrenched Defenses

Enforced Loyalty

Admiral’s Assault

Unsavory Contracts x2

Bespin Exchange

The Best That Credits Can Buy

Hunt Them Down

What we liked playing x2

Jedi: Core Luke

Rebel: Hoodie Han, Blissex

Smuggler: Lak Sivrak

Sith:

Navy: Kallus, Piett

Scum: Klaatu and Barada, OG Jabba, Black Market Exchange, BK

Plays of the Day:

Tyler: Got out Jabba’s Pleasure Barge and 3 swoops. Played Race Circuit Champion on the Pleasure Barge and started going to town on offense with 2 copies of Black Market Exchange. Every time he unfocused to strike again with the Pleasure Barge the pilot would also ping one of my vehicles.

Ethan: Played Quick Hunt to capture Danny’s super Mon Mothma with 4 enhancements on her. Also attacked into 2 weequays and Dengar with Rex at a full health objective. Won edge and killed damaged weequay, focused Dengar and got a couple bombs. Other weequay struck, then Ethan played You’re Our Only Hope to sac Leia and strike again with Rex getting him enough bombs to finish things off.

Danny: Got the heat of battle stunning blow combo off on my 5th brother preventing him from one shotting Sabine. Went on the wreck my face with Leia

Mick: On my last turn I attack with Falcon, Independence and a Speeder Tank at a high health objective trying to win edge. I pass with edge one. Tyler bids a card. I throw in a card. Tyler goes deep in the tank and passes. Before edge stacks are revealed he switches them with Reversal of Fate and I wind up losing putting me off the bombs I need to win take the objective. He focuses out one of my units in the back preventing me from taking the other objective I needed to win. I start resolving my strikes. Falcon does 2 blast and kills one of his dudes. I draw a card with Renegade Squadron Mobilization. It’s Concentrated Firepower. The Independence focused to strike and tossed its shield to take the objective. I’m still out though because I don’t have the bombs in the 2nd attack. But the Independence is also now at 3 guns so it takes out a 2nd guy and I draw again. It’s Target of Opportunity. Tyler goes on tilt as the streak continues…

We gathered on this Memorial Day weekend for another round of SWLCG draft! We had a 7th binder set to go with Legends cards, although I assumed because the number of binders was prime every deck would see each binder, but somehow a skip happened in the rotation. We also casually agreed to play with the restricted list being a BAN list so as to maximize our league play points. We finished our round robin with time to spare and agreed instead of doing a 2nd draft to redraft the decks for a 2v2 match. DS heavily dominated the individual portion going 9-3, but we split LS wins in 2v2.Mi

1st (Danny)

Affiliation: Smuggler (4th/5th pick, 2-1)

Beyond the Rim x2

Trust Me

On the Run

No Match for a Good Blaster

Wookie Life Debt

Badge of Honor

A Wookie’s Journey

Bargaining for Profit (L)

Hostile Jungle (L)

Affiliation: Navy (4th/5th pick, 3-0)

Pattern Analysis x2

Family Connections

Dark Trooper Project

Immeasurable Power

Protect the Generator

Emperor’s Legion

Reinforcements!

Advanced Designs (L)

Experimental Weaponry (L)

2nd (Ethan)

Affiliation: Jedi (2nd pick, 1-2)

Flight of the Crow

Danger in the Wastes

Ties of Blood

Hero of a Thousand Devices

Across the Dune Sea

Questionable Contacts

House Edge

Defense of Cloud City

Gardener’s Secret

Renegade Squadron Mobilization

Affiliation: Scum (7th pick, 2-1)

Patrolling the Wastes

Last Grand Admiral

Lord Vader’s Command

Capital Support

Guarding the Wing

Might of the Empire

Imperial Vengeance

Pelleaon’s Plan (L)

Private Death Commandos (L)

Sabotage in the Snow

2nd (Mick)

Affiliation: Jedi (3rd pick, 0-3)

The Future of the Jedi (L)

Flight of the Crow

New Beginning

Forgotten Masters

In You Must Go

Mysteries of the Rim

Fortune and Fate

Spirit of Rebellion

Smuggler’s Gambit

Bargaining for Profit (L)

Affiliation: Scum (6th pick, 3-0)

The Scavengers

“No Disintegrations”

Emperor’s Web

Vader’s Army

Lure of the Lost

Ghosts of the Dark Side

Reconditioning Techniques (L)

Engineering Suffering (L)

Merciless Plans

Mission Command

4th (Tyler)

Affiliation: Smuggler (1st pick, 0-3)

Impersonating a Diety

Spirit of Rebellion

Questionable Contacts

Renegade Squadron Mobilization

Covert Operation x2 (L)

Shield Generator Assault

Pushing Back the Empire

Commando Raid

Explosives Artist

Affiliation: Navy (8th pick, 1-2)

Unstoppable Advance x2

Blizzard Assault

General’s Imperative

Empire’s Elite

Capital Support

Cloud Cover

Inexorable Destruction

Sector Lockdown

Shadows on the Ice

What we liked playing x2

Jedi: Crow

Rebel: Legends Jan (L),

Smuggler: Jyn, Echo Caverns, Core Han, Errant Venture (L), Pulsar Skate

Sith:

Navy: Kallus, Unstoppable Advance, Capital Support

Scum:

Plays of the Day

Tyler: Keeping the force away from LS the whole game with Capital Cover and a 181st, takes 3 objectives in the draw phase by playing Aggressive Assault

Ethan: During combat plays DS-61-3 on foot using Ruhk’s objective. Also echo caverns and crossfires Obi-wan to deal with 4 DS units in one strike!

Mick: Herr Direktor’s chud helps Rav dig his lightsaber out of the trash and play it during combat using the Engineering Suffering text and damage starts getting flung everywhere.

Danny: turn 1 plays a reserve trooper and lets Moldy Crow take an objective in order to counter attack and put bombs on the board. Crow bids echos and takes the trooper off the force. 2nd turn plays some reinforcements and recommits the moldy crow. LS feeds a bunch of focus onto a lost master and plays force illusion to take a 2nd objective. 3rd turn: Kallus shows up, gets promoted and tells the reserve trooper to take care of business. All down hill for LS from there.

Interesting thing about the round robin: we had a chance for a 4 way tie if Tyler swept Danny in round 3 and Ethan and I split. I held up my end of the bargain, but Tyler misunderstood sweep for “get swept” making Danny the undisputed champion. One of these days we will have an epic 4 way tie though…

After 3 rounds and time to spare we decided to redraft the existing decks for a round of 2v2. We used Ethan’s phone app to randomized teams and then randomized who would choose first for drafting. Ethan and I wound up on the same team with first pic so we decided to go LS first since it had done so abysmally in 1v1 and chose the mono smuggler Beyond the Rim deck.

Mick and Ethan :

Beyond the Rim & Dune Sea Hero

Walkers & Patrolling the Wastes

Tyler and Danny:

Jan Ors (L) & Future of the Jedi

Palpatine & Troopers

In the first game Ethan had the God Flop with Blizzard Assault and we started pooping out old school AT-ATs every turn. Backed up by my Forward Command Post we had a lot of bombs and when OG Veers hit they each had 3 guns so we felt pretty good. Sabine, Jan Ors, Bolster Mirrax and a specforce pathfinder hit the board on the other side. Ethan and I messed up a block and also our final attack and fell 1 objective short of cranking the dial to 16.

In the 2nd game Security Tower and Gamblo game out turn one causing a lot of pain. Ethan freed up my double focused Defense of Cloud City with his Hostile Jungle (L) objective and 2nd turn Core Han with a Jawa blaster and came out and did some double striking with the help of Gamblo to wipe the board save Wittin—who was only saved from with the grace of being indestructible. Kallus was not so lucky. Gamblo saw his demise but proved to rise from the ashes as OG Lando and proved to be an even bigger thorn in their side. DS made a last did attempt to take out Assassination Contract but Lando and Lobot with a Cape! (Obi Wan’s) blocked and a fateful Krayt Dragon Howl pushed out ALL the attakcers and Lobot and Lando auto-won edge and focused out some dudes to set up the win.

Then we sorted cards and discussed on what Ethan wants to do for his birthday tournament.

After Memorial Day we had agreed on gaming again in 2 weeks and since Ethan’s birthday is coming up we let him name the format. He had long heard stories of “build-a-bad-deck-deck-swap” tournaments so that’s what he named and that’s what we set out to do. We did decide on a few constraints. We wanted bad decks not unplayable decks. Fun interactions was still the holy grail. After a some brainstorming at the table and a number of FB messages we agreed on:

The Devil’s Draft

Highlander format

6 resource producing cards

6 units that cost 4 or more than can legally be on the table at the same time

6 pods of any off-color affiliation (if playing off color)

We also decided on a 4 neutral pod max (for mono decks, the affiliation constraint dealt with this for two color decks) and since we wanted to maximize league points we decided to build with the BAN list in mind. Also it was understood we were building 10 pod decks.

The idea with these constraints was to provide an engine to win (units and money), avoid getting color-screwed (off color affiliation constraint making sure at worst you were playing 6/4 and guaranteeing no tri-color), and making you dig deep in the binders to find the truly worst pods (highlander). It was also understood that the 6-6-6 constraint was a minimum, but it became the rule since nobody seemed to want to provide more money or mains that they absolutely had to.

We had two weeks to come up with decks. It was understood that we were going to snake draft them also with the constraint that you couldn’t wind up playing your own decks, which forced some choices for people. We were all pretty hush-hush about the construction process although there were cryptic texts going back and forth, mostly about how bad some pods were and how not-bad-enough other pods were. I kept looking at the decks I had built and thinking “they’re bad… but I’d play em!”

Danny felt supremely confident in the turd decks he was able to build and…. he was completely justified! He went 6-0 for the day and made decks that only won a single game each. He has secured his position as draft and deck-building king of our local meta…but we will continue to challenge his reign…

1st (Danny)

Affiliation: Smuggler (3-0, 2nd pick, made by Ethan)

Beyond the Rim

Prepare for Evacuation

Hero’s Resolve

Hero’s Duty

Out of the their Element

Embers of Hope

Message from Beyond

Journey Through the Swamp

Rumors at the Cantina

Courage of the Tribe

Affiliation: Sith (3-0, 7th pick, made by Tyler)

The Questioning

Hunters of the Jedi

Imperial Bureaucracy

Rogue Archaeology

Call of the Cult

Serve the Emperor

Looking for Droids

Corporate Exploitation

Endless Reserves

Asteroid Pursuit

2nd (Ethan)

Affiliation: Smuggler (1-2, 4th/5th pick, made by Danny)

No Match for a Good Blaster

Prepare for Evacuation

Message from Beyond

Embers of Hope

Hero of a Thousand Devices

Knowledge and Defense

Journey through the Swamp

Secret of Yavin IV

Frozen Refuge

Courage of the Tribe

Affiliation: Scum (2-1, 4th/5th pick, made by Mick)

Heart of Cold

Automated Assassin

Jabba’s Orders

Asteroid Pursuit

From the Abyss

Black Squadron Assault

Threat from the Depths

Imperial Bureaucracy

Emperor’s Cabal

Serve the Emperor

3rd (Mick)

Affiliation: Smuggler (0-3, 8th pick, made by Tyler)

No Match for a Good Blaster

Message from Beyond

Embers of Hope

Hero of a Thousand Devices

Knowledge and Defense

Hero’s Resolve

Journey through the Swamp

Hold the Line

Frozen Refuge

Courage of the Tribe

Affiliation: Scum (2-1, 1st pick, made by Ethan)

Shadow of Nar Shadaa

Jabba’s Orders

From the Abyss

Encounter at Stygeon Prime

Council of the Sith

Call of the Cult

Ghosts of the Dark Side

Serve the Emperor

Corporate Exploitation

Looking for Droids

4th (Tyler)

Affiliation: Rebel (0-3, 3rd pick, made by Mick)

Mission to Talay

Message from Beyond

Embers of Hope

Knowledge and Defense

Hero’s Duty

Stand Together

Last Minute Rescue

Rumors at the Cantina

Frozen Refuge

Courage of the Tribe

Affiliation: Navy (1-2, 6th pick, made by Danny)

Superior Numbers

Lord Vader’s Command

Shadows of Dathomir

Executor Arrives

Killing Cold

Council of the Sith

Call of the Cult

Serve the Emperor

Endless Reserves

Looking for Droids

What we liked playing x4

Jedi: Moisture Farmers, Old Ben’s Spirit

Neutral: Chief Chirpa

Sith: Anzati Elite

What we liked playing x3

Jedi: Daughters of Allya, Jubba Birds

Neutral: Frozen Refuge

Sith: Cultists

Neutral: Viper Probe Droids

Plays of the Day:

Ethan: Bulk action transport to draw into a guardian who can keep Han alive—he was dead on board with 2 damage on him facing off against Executor and an ISB.

Ethan: Plays Anger on Kyle. Kyle’s secret: he’s always angry! …until he dies. which he did.

Ethan: Quarren Bureaucrat stops a spider!

Ethan: Executive Override stops the spider again!

Danny: Size Matters Not on Chirpa for the game!

Danny: Needs 2 objectives to win. Has no money but lots of tactics, but facing off against 1 resource that can become a spider at any moment. Attacks an objective with 2 damage on it with a tukata. I let it go. He plays vast resources to pay for an Aphra droid, bids Allies of Necessity to blow up the objective. I can no longer pay for the spider and lose.

…heh… I build have paid for the spider before unopposed.. dang, this game is hard… /facepalm

Danny: Quarren Bureaucrat asks the spider for his papers and LS has no more money…

Tyler: Rebel Sympathizer sacs himself to force rejuv an ewok horde. Ethan demands to see the Jedi resource since Tyler only had one neutral money showing. Tyler points at the text of the rebel Sympathizer and proceeds with his strikes against Redeem the Fallen.

Tyler: Loses entire board to a first turn No Match Han with a looping Old Ben’s Spirit on him. Plays aggression on turn 3 and comes back

Tyler: Plays vast resources and taps out Lord Vader’s officer to hard cast the Executor. Sith Holocron is left on the board for the sacrifice effect!

Tyler: Force pushes off an Ewok Horde attack. I like to imagine teddy bears flying everywhere in the force explosion.

Tyler: Mon Mothma with Old Ben’s Spirit and a Concussion Rifle becomes a Weapons Master!

Mick: In the 2nd attack Secret Guardian into an Ewok Horde who double strikes with Size Matters Not

Mick: Gets the combo of Hunted/Dark Memories off on Kyle

Mick: Inquisitor crafts the hand which can win edge and play force shockwave to wipe the board.

Unfortunately, we did not have time to try a massive 2v2 game with these decks. The decks probably wouldn’t have been legal since Chirpa is limit 1, but we’d just allow it and say only one Chirpa can be on the board. In individual games the DS took the day 8-4, so it would be interesting to see if the ewoks hordes could overcome the Serve the Emperor decks in 2v2.

We still prefer the Collective Draft format, but this was a good change of pace and we enjoyed thinking about the construction of the decks for the time before the tournament. The games did seem to favor the DS, but they were still very interesting and often came down to the 11th hour. Tyler said “this feels a lot like core set” and I think that’s a positive statement and I agree with him!

It was interesting to see which pods we overlapped on. Chirpa definitely saw a lot of play because he checked so many boxes: 2 resources, 3 “mains”. We discussed changing the constraint to say 6 pods with mains and 6 pods with resources to deemphasize pods like Chirpa, Frozen Refuge and the Cultists.

We’ll try to play again in a month. More of the best games every played!

Do you agree with our bad deck decisions? Post in the comments and smash that subscribe button!!

Thanks for the write up! Enjoy seeing their are still fans of this awesome game!

We decided to tweak the Devil’s Draft format and give it another go. In this format you are building a LS and DS deck that the other players will wind up drafting so the goal is to make it as bad (or amusing) as possible while meeting the 666 constraint. We tweaks things so that the 6s had to be achieved by objectives not cards merely in the draw deck. This make Chief Chirpa and Frozen Refuge less appealing but they still saw play.

Devil’s Draft

Highlander format (all objectives are unique)

Exactly 10 objectives in the draw deck

6 objectives must contain a resource generating card

6 objectives must contain a 4 drop or higher (also all 6 units must be able to legally be on the board at the same time)

If an objective has an affiliation that doesn’t match the affiliation card there must be at least 6 objectives with that affiliation.

We had an odd number of people since a a newcomer had decided to try out the game. We threw together a couple more standard decks for her to play as she learns the ropes. We weren’t able to finish a round robin, but here are the deck lists

Danny

Affiliation: Rebel

Hoth Gambit

Engineering the Future

Evacuation Procedure

Frozen Refuge

Beyond the Rim

Fortune and Fate

Escape from Ord Mantell

Last Defense of Hoth

Across the Dune Sea

Defense of Cloud City

Affiliation: Navy

Training Procedures

Imperial Blockade

Emperor’s Legion

Protect the Generator

All Out Brawl

Hunt Them Down

Carbonite Transport

Shadow of Nar Shaddaa

Mercenary Support

Automated Assassin

Tyler

Affiliation: Smuggler

Wookie’s Journey

House Edge

Prepare for Evacuation

Courage of the Tribe

Last Minute Rescue

Hero of a Thousand Devices

Journey Through the Swamp

Message from Beyond

Embers of Hope

Hero’s Resolve

Affiliation: Navy

Lord Vader’s Command

Superior Numbers

Endless Reserves

Looking for Droids

Serve the Emperor

Shadows of Dathomir

Call of the Cult

Knives in the Night

Counsel of the Sith

Threat from the Depths

Mick

Affiliation: Rebel

Hoth Gambit

Evacuation Procedure

Tribe of the Trees

House Edge

Prepare for Evacuation

Badge of Honor

Across the Dune Sea

Beyond the Rim

Memories of Tanaab

Smuggler’s Gambit

Affiliation: Sith

Counsel of the Sith

Serve the Emperor

Threat from the Depths

Endless Reserves

Jabba’s Reach

Jabba’s Orders

Shadowed Surveillance

Shadows of Nar Shaddaa

Bespin Exchange

Hunt Them Down

Ethan

Affiliation: Jedi

A New Beginning

Following Fate

Deep Commitment

Opening Moves

Sacrifice of Heroes

Evacuation Procedure

Hoth Gambit

Decoy at Dantooine

Resourceful Survivors

Mission to Talay

Affiliation: Navy

Lord Vader’s Command

Admiral’s Assault

Take Them Prisoner

Automated Assassin

Bespin Exchange

Hunt them Down

Hunt for Han Solo

Patrolling the Wastes

Nar Shaddaa Drift

Shadow of Nar Shaddaa

Janna

Affiliation: Jedi

May the Force Be With You x2

A New Beginning

Twilight of the Apprentice

Asteroid Sanctuary x2

No Match for a Good Blaster

Spirit of Rebellion

Last Warrior

Tiny Robotic Sociopath

Affiliation: Sith

Emperor’s Web x2

Fall of the Jedi x2

Order of Inquisitors x2

Scouring the Empire

Counsel of the Sith

Agent of the Empire

Rogue Archaeology

Games this time around were brutal. Janna excluded, LS was only able to win a single game. Might have just been the day, but we are considering creating a ban list for LS when doing the Devil’s Draft. It could also be that what we thought were trash DS pods are actually really good. For example Hunt Them Down. Those Khiraxz fighters eat tauntauns all day! Danny also had no qualms about playing Remote Hideout and fed it a steady chain of 1 drops before powering out a main all afternoon. Serve the Emperor also has super solid objective text. Dragonsnakes are great combat tricks and have black guns. Call of the Cult gets a dial tick and those chuds can shut out the game in a hurry!

Things we like building with x3

Rebel: Hoth Gambit, Evacuation Procedure

Scum: Hunt them Down, Shadow of Nar Shaddaa

Plays of the Day

Portable Shield Generator kept Riekkan alive!

Snowspeeder counter attack nukes Nightsister Matron blowing up a hoth objective in the process to trigger Prepare for Evacuation to bounce another unit. LS ends the turn taking the force to kill off two cultists and leave DS with no board.

Diversion cancels Shadow of Nar Shaddaa trigger!

Khirazx fighter! Feared hunter of tauntauns and spiders!

Mercenary Supports pods in Iggy-D for a blow-out.

Cold Calling Lady Luck and Jubba Bird with Get Me Solo. 2 for 2!

In two weeks we’re looking to do a giant regular draft as friends come in for L5R worlds! Should be epic!

We held a Devil’s Draft back in December that I never got around to doing the write-up for. We changed the construction a little bit this time around: still highlander format, still at least 6 objectives of the same affiliation if any off-color objectives, still needed at least 6 resource producing card, but this time instead of having at least 6 pods with a main (4 drop or higher) Danny suggested we increase the bar to requiring ALL pods to have a pod combined unit cost of 6 or higher. This way there wouldn’t be moisture farmers with old ben’s spirit running around every where flailing at life…

It was still miserable.

1st (Danny)

Affiliation: Rebel (3-0, 6th pick, made by Tyler)

Hoth Gambit

Mission to Talay

Hold the Line

Courage of the Tribe

Memories of Tanaab

Fortune and Fate

Defense of Cloud City

Honor Among Thieves

Prepare for Evacuation

Badge of Honor

Affiliation: Scum (3-0, 3rd pick, made by Mick)

Hunt for Han Solo

Scavengers

Eater of Luck

Bespin Exchange

Dark Trooper Project

General’s Imperative

Kuat Reinforcements

Admiral’s Assault

Cell Block Detention

Lord Vader’s Command

4th (Tyler)

Affiliation: Jedi (1-2, 1st pick, made by Mick)

Hidden from the Empire

Hero of the Thousand Devices

Deep Commitment

Hold the Line

Alliance’s Elite

Evacuation Procedure

Engineering the Future

Mission to Talay

Sacrifice of Heroes

Hope of Rebellion

Affiliation: Sith (1-2, 8th pick, made by Danny)

Heart of the Empire

Serve the Emperor

Call of the Cult

Hunt for Han Solo

Bespin Exchange

Jabba’s Orders

Eater of Luck

Hunt them Down

Carbonite Transport

Shadow of Nar Shaddaa

4th (Shad)

Affiliation: Rebel (0-3, 4th/5th pick, made by Danny)

Mission Briefing

Draw Their Fire

Preparation for Battle

Hold the Line

House Edge

Defense of Cloud City

Breaking the Blockade

Memories of Tanaab

Honor Among Thieves

Prepare for Evacuation

Affiliation: Navy (2-0, 4th/5th pick, made by Tyler)

Superior Numbers

Lord Vader’s Command

Admiral’s Assault

Jabba’s Orders

Jabba’s Reach

Automated Assassin

Nar Shaddaa Drift

Shadow of Nar Shaddaa

Shadowed Surveillance

Patrolling the Wastes

4th (Mick)

Affilation: Jedi (1-2, 2nd pick, made by Shad)

Hidden from the Empire

Out of Their Element

Hero’s Resolve

Last Minute Rescue

House Edge

Defense of Cloud City

Honor Among Thieves

Fortune and Fate

Prepare for Evacuation

Badge of Honor

Affilation: Sith (1-2, 7th pick, made by Shad)

Call of the Cult

Serve the Emperor

From the Abyss

Shadows on the Ice

Hunt for Han Solo

Jabba’s Orders

Jabba’s Reach

Carbonite Transport

Shadow of Nar Shaddaa

Patrolling the Wastes

Things we “liked” playing

Smuggler: Lobot, Vacuum Cleaner, Mirax

Neutral: Rearguards!

Scum: Hunt for Solo, Weequays, Aqualish Thugs

Thoughts

I think it’s time to retire the Devil’s Draft format. Danny is too good at it.

On the plus side it’s L5R worlds this weekend and being are coming and we’re going to do a real draft! (binders!!)

It was Game of Thrones worlds this weekend and we threw a SWLCG binder draft for our guest Drew. The draft process itself is a big part of the fun and as people walked by Tom would yell “I’m playing a real game!” and then explain the process to people. It was fun listening to people complain about decks being too weak, or then decks being too good. Complain that we had included too many Pietts in the meta again… There were 6 of us and Tom suggested we play a game against another person and then switch, so he could play against as many people as possible before going out for dinner/drinks. We got through 3 games and then a few of us stuck around for a 4th game. The decks were very interesting this time around and the games were quite good too. It’s a big jump going from 4 people to 6 people. Danny had to figure out how we would do the binder rotation, but came up with every other draft rotating the binders twice. It seemed to work out.

1st ( Tom)

Affiliation: Jedi (2-0, 8th pick)

A New Beginning

Danger in the Wastes

Journey Through the Swamp

Deep Commitment

Decoy at Dantooine

Defense of Cloud City

Sowers of Dissension

Wookie Life Debt

Badge of Honor

Debt of Honor

Affiliation: Sith Expendable Allies (1-0, 5th pick)

Heart of the Empire

Second Phase

Lure of the Lost

Emperor’s Promise

Rogue Archaeology

Unsavory Contracts

Hive of Scum and Villainy

Hunter in the Night

Jabba’s Orders

Eater of Luck

2nd (Danny)

Affiliation: Rebel Information Network (1-1, 10th pick)

Draw Their Fire

Evacuation Procedure

Blue Squadron Support

Lost Commander

Command and Control

Resistance and Rebellion x2

Beyond the Rim

Memories of Tanaab

Secret Weapons

Affiliation: Scum (2-0, 3rd pick)

Heart of Cold x2

Droid Revolution

Automated Assassin

Hunter’s Flight

Bespin Exchange

Patrolling the Wastes

Schemes and Intrigue

Hunt for Han Solo

Asteroid Pursuit

3rd (Drew)

Affiliation: Rebel (0-1, 9th pick)

Explosives Artist

Mission Briefing

Native Blessing

Ties of Blood

Running the Canyon

Renegade Reinforcements

Bait and Switch

Questionable Contacts

Rendar’s Wrath

Memories of Tanaab

Affiliation: Scum Promise of Power (2-1, 4th pick)

Masterful Manipulation

Heartless Tactics

Trandoshan Terror

Bespin Exchange

Jabba’s Orders

Knives in the Night

The Reawakening

Maw of Madness

Threat from the Depths

From the Abyss

4th (Mick)

Affiliation: Smuggler (1-0, 6th/7th pick)

Wookiee’s Journey

No Match for a Good Blaster

Questionable Contacts

Badge of Honor

Pushing Back the Empire

Draw Their Fire

Sacrifice of Heroes

Hoth Gambit

Hope of Rebellion

Commando Operations

Affiliation: Scum (1-2, 6th/7th pick)

Feeding the Pit

Lucrative Contract

Hunter in the Night

Slave Trade

Hutt’s Menagerie

The Scavengers

Emperor’s Cabal

Rogue Archaeology

Merciless Plans

Imperial Bureaucracy

5th (Ethan)

Affiliation: Smuggler (0-2, 1st pick)

On the Run

House Edge

Calling in Favors

Last Defense of Hoth

Rebel Fleet

Lost Commander

Commando Operations

Mission to Talay

Pushing Back the Empire

Resourceful Survivors

Affiliation: Navy (1-0, 12th pick)

Inexorable Destruction

Admiral’s Assault

Endor Gambit

Repair and Refurbish

Mission Command

Hunter for Hire

Hunter’s Flight

Patrolling the Wastes

Automated Assassin

Shadow of Nar Shaddaa

6th (Tyler)

Affiliation: Smuggler (0-3, 2nd pick)

Fortune and Fate

Against All Odds

Escape from Ord Mantell

Hero’s Journey

Ties of Blood

Hero of a Thousand Devices

Twilight of the Apprentice

Out of Their Element

Knowledge and Defense

Journey Through the Swamp

Affiliation: Scum (0-1, 11th pick)

Lady’s Lesson

Grand Heist

Shadowed Surveillance

His Hight Exaltedness

Admiral’s Assault

Victory or Death

Dark Trooper Project

Protect the Generator

Deploy the Fleet

Endor Gambit

Plays of the Day

Tom attacks with Ahsoka and Lobot into Drew’s Xizor and Arden Lyn. They both bid three cards, but Drew put in Prince’s Scheme. Tom reveals that all 3 of his edge cards are fate cards, one of them being Friendship is Magic, wins the edge battle 6-5 and sends the DS packing.

I played Explosive Charge 3 times in one game against Tom, blowing up his Forest with one of them and Obi-Wans stupid reserve 8 cape with another. Tom found a way back with Life Creates it and then to rub salt in the wound played Force Barrier to shield all his crap and dance on my corpse.

I had a Core Han plus Ackbar play against Tyler. It felt dirty.

Drew gets a random discard on Danny and rips his Rebel Han money instead of his worthless Beyond the Rim money.

Danny holds tight against me with the dial at 11 with pilot Lando and Nien Nunb his only defenders!

I know there was more but I didn’t have time to write it all down last night!

It was a blast playing with our guests, the format really seems to get better and better the more people you have participating in it. We are happy to organize a binder draft for anyone who comes and visits us!