played some store champs prep on TTS.. in a channel wanting to do store champ prep. I opened Poe Maz with a perfect hand. Fast Hands, Hit & Run, Thermal D x2, PUp. My opponent was absolutely defeated when I claimed turn 1 having done 14 damage across jabba and krennic. with that being said, how do you NOT play it when you know that's exactly what you are going to SEE at store champs? he was great about it conceding that.. he may just play poe maz. he is trying not to.. and I did start the day with a poe snap deck..

Also played another guy that was... odd... I mean the guy was fine.. but it was another "store champs prep" server. So he went to split Personal Shields' 3/1 shield side between his two chars.. and I said "you can't split shields from a single die. only diplomatic immunity" and he went into "I've been playing this game from day 1 and I've never heard that". I mean it's fine that people are learning the rules, but what a weird statement. any who I nicely (and genuinely) said "better to find that out here than store champs " and it didn't seem to upset him.

but really struggling with NOT taking Poe Maz.. the only decks I've struggled against was a mill deck which I've learned.. play your shit to the table instead of Poe throwing it.. (which I actually did the second jabba krennic game where I played U-Wing's 2r side to put it on the table) and palp decks where you can't draw into either your defensive position OR your burst in mulligan.

borghe said:

played some store champs prep on TTS.. in a channel wanting to do store champ prep. I opened Poe Maz with a perfect hand. Fast Hands, Hit & Run, Thermal D x2, PUp. My opponent was absolutely defeated when I claimed turn 1 having done 14 damage across jabba and krennic. with that being said, how do you NOT play it when you know that's exactly what you are going to SEE at store champs? he was great about it conceding that.. he may just play poe maz. he is trying not to.. and I did start the day with a poe snap deck..

Also played another guy that was... odd... I mean the guy was fine.. but it was another "store champs prep" server. So he went to split Personal Shields' 3/1 shield side between his two chars.. and I said "you can't split shields from a single die. only diplomatic immunity" and he went into "I've been playing this game from day 1 and I've never heard that". I mean it's fine that people are learning the rules, but what a weird statement. any who I nicely (and genuinely) said "better to find that out here than store champs " and it didn't seem to upset him.

but really struggling with NOT taking Poe Maz.. the only decks I've struggled against was a mill deck which I've learned.. play your shit to the table instead of Poe throwing it.. (which I actually did the second jabba krennic game where I played U-Wing's 2r side to put it on the table) and palp decks where you can't draw into either your defensive position OR your burst in mulligan.

Click to expand...

Hahaha so much sympathy from me rn re TTS. I'll call games "store champs prep" or "Tier 1 lists only" or some other obnoxious name and still get randos busting out Finn. Although w/e...it's honestly not the end of the world to get practice staying disciplined against garbage, and tbh the name is more intended to avert people whining about me playing Poe/Maz or Palp when they see my deck. Moe is good...but there are other totally good T1/1.5 decks too so honestly to me it comes down to whether you actually enjoy playing it. Otherwise just go with one of the other top decks (no 3-char is basically the only thing I'd push hard). Have been playing Moe for like a month now but kind of tired of the unjustified whinging so maybe I'll go blue villain or something.

reminder that North American Champs go on sale in 34 minutes. 288 player limit.

My wishlist is currently Destiny NA Champs, L5R Inaugural Tournament, and Arkham Horror LCG Exclusive 12-player scenario.

man I clicked the button right at 12:00:00 literally and I was 6700 in line. ugh.

Click to expand...

borghe said:

reminder that North American Champs go on sale in 34 minutes. 288 player limit.

My wishlist is currently Destiny NA Champs, L5R Inaugural Tournament, and Arkham Horror LCG Exclusive 12-player scenario.

man I clicked the button right at 12:00:00 literally and I was 6700 in line. ugh.

Click to expand...

Did you get in? Seems like the backlog was just from other stuff and not really Destiny specifically and most people got in so hope so!

In Store Champs news, Palp is dope. Feel really confident giving my wife this deck for Champs though I was initially afraid that power level would not be where Poe/Maz is but as usual Internet Chicken Littles were wrong. Yay! Only bummer is that the Chicken Littles will make it less satisfying getting wins as Poe (b/c you know, cheating). but w/e.

I didn't get in at that post.. it went stupid fast.. but amazingly enough 3 hours later someone dropped and I got in. I was pissed for three hours but finally relieved.

If Poe Maz can draw Defensive Position against Palp it should be a solid start. Or similar ways to get rid of one or two dice. Though my favorite Palp play is to resolve a shields or something and watch the Poe Maz player put 1 or 2 on Maz, then play No Mercy to OTK Maz.

Nice!

I always dump Def. Pos. and Dug In during mulligan with Poe/Maz as I expect to lose the BF and not get my BF picked. I actually think Sensor Placement is a super underrated card in this meta, and am considering running two. The fact that imo mediocre deckbuilders have trashed it just makes me feel even more strongly about it.

I see that FFG has nasty habit of printing one neutral grey really overpowered weapon that anyone wants which drives the prices to legend territory.

First set it was holdout blaster now vibroblades.

I mean to be fair, it's better than saying "omg all neutral rares suck". Sort of damned if you do, damned if you don't. Also values change. I was remembering being annoyed that Poe was my first LG and my first LG elite character (as opposed to Vader, Luke, Jabba, etc), and here we are today with Poe being the second most expensive LG character from AW behind Vader (and of course, because he's Vader). If the meta shifts away from unblockable damage that's going to hit VK's stock a little. Its sides kind of suck and it is missing the redeploy of Holdout. The two best things are unblockable in the post-AW meta, and that it makes Rey's dice decent (as opposed to awful)

AstroLad said:

Nice!

I always dump Def. Pos. and Dug In during mulligan with Poe/Maz as I expect to lose the BF and not get my BF picked. I actually think Sensor Placement is a super underrated card in this meta, and am considering running two. The fact that imo mediocre deckbuilders have trashed it just makes me feel even more strongly about it.

Click to expand...

Will def throw back Dug In. Will def keep Def Position against Palp. Even if I lose initiative, I'm almost guaranteed to use it round 2. There's a 56% chance you can remove Palp's dice right off his initial roll. If he has an early Lightning that's over 50% that you'll be able to remove all three dice. I do have a New Orders to get my BF back, but even if I win initiative I'll usually give Palp the shields. Too big of a swing to end my turn early. My best round 1 will be Fast Hands, roll out and resolve for 3+ damage, Def Pos (switching the order if he gets a Holocron or not). At this point he'll usually have one action left at least. So it leaves me to either roll out Maz and then claim, or if he only has exactly one action (especially if he doesn't remove Poe), claim right away. Claiming will result either in a special, or Palp locally usually runs with Maz's Castle.. which honestly is not a bad BF early in the game. It lets me cycle for the big upgrades at the same time grabbing a New Orders.

Bought my first box - got Palpitine - hmm is Force Speed mandatory for him ? I can't decide if I should try exchanging him for Force Speed or try to look for another one.

Force Speed is tempting since I've got 2xLuke, 2x Qui-Gon, baby Vader x1, Han Solo x1 and Vibroblades x1 so I could put together several very competitive builds cheaply.

michaelius said:

Bought my first box - got Palpitine - hmm is Force Speed mandatory for him ? I can't decide if I should try exchanging him for Force Speed or try to look for another one.

Force Speed is tempting since I've got 2xLuke, 2x Qui-Gon, baby Vader x1, Han Solo x1 and Vibroblades x1 so I could put together several very competitive builds cheaply.

Click to expand...

I would not include Force Speed on palp. Those are 1-2 cards in his deck that are way better spent.

Force speed on baby Vader and Kylo could be interesting.. especially being able to resolve multiple specials in the pool AND still being able to take two actions. In general I am not a huge Force Speed fan.. but thinking about it, that could be a killer play. Then when one dies just overwrite it. My main kylo vader deck doesn't have a ton of flex spots, but I may explore that.

Rey it is very gimmicky.. even more gimmicky than normal Rey.. I mean it is what it is. If you are playing Rey in that style, it turns her into SSJ Rey I guess.

Fortunately Force Speed didn't turn out to be the game breaker everyone feared it would be. It can do some pretty clever things, but ultimately you do feel that one less damage die on the field. Even more so when you hit the bad 50% and it gives you a shield, a focus or a blank for the initial action loss.

If I played it (I don't), I would definitely have it in a deck where you are popping off specials like candy. Being a card that reads "resolve all of your specials THEN take two more actions" is possibly god mode. But a 50% chance at recurring Tactical Mastery every turn, giving up a damage die.. eh..

It basically gives opponent one chance to remove your die before you resolve something in Palpitine decks and if you claimed battlefield they can't even use die for die removal.

michaelius said:

It basically gives opponent one chance to remove your die before you resolve something in Palpitine decks and if you claimed battlefield they can't even use die for die removal.

Click to expand...

but that's sort of Palpatine in a nutshell already. palp has no way really of rolling out AND resolving in the same action. If he did Force Speed would be bananas with him. Because he has to roll out and wait, his opponent already gets a shot at removal.

You could run it for the special combo I mentioned above.. but typically for palp you aren't playing special heavy upgrades. Holocron.. but you REALLY want Force Lightning (3 sides, its special is the worst), Force Push (2 sides, special is decent control) and Lure of Power on him.

So if you Force Speed on palp. Say you roll out Force Speed, Lure's +3, Palp 2 shield, Palp 2 damage, Force Push 2 damage. Your opponent can now do whatever (assuming they remove 2 damage). You're now left with 1 action. Force Speed->2+3 and 2 shield. Ok.

Now say you rolled the same thing with a Lightning instead of Speed. You have a 50% chance of rolling ranged damage. Say you replace Push with Speed.. Push you have a 33% chance of gaining an action anyway by having ranged sides. Lure of Power you have a 50% chance of resolving at the same time.. but really given the resource sides available probably more than 50%.

So is Speed a speed boost? It can be. But honestly, with what you run with Palp anyway.. you are usually not hurting for action economy because his typical upgrades are soooo synergistic.. You resolve his dice, have an insanely high chance of being able to resolve other dice with his, and you end your turn.

The only decks I've ever run into efficiency/speed problems with Palp are traditional Han Rey, and Poe Maz/Rey. And it goes without saying that those are literally the fastest decks in the game. Poe Maz can realistically finish round 1 in three turns. Fast Hands, Planetary Uprising, Hit and Run-> Activate Poe, fast hands damage, claim to resolve special.

Hmm I see you point - I'll try to borrow one from friend and test then.

But for the moment I went 4-0 in local tourney (my 3rd one ). I took completely crazy deck - Tie Pilot, Trooper, Trooper , Bala

http://swdestinydb.com/decklist/view/10140/endlesstroopers-superbudgetfriendlydeck-1.0

and actually won 4 games with it

First two opponents played eUnkar+Death Trooper+Trooper which turned out to be matchup in my favour since their resource denial wasn't too painful and their damage output was weaker. Third was Qui-Gon-Rey played by my friend who introduced me to the game where I actually used Endless Rank 3 times which made the game tie but I had 4 cards left to his one. Fourth one was eFN+eJango - that one felt much easier actually since I traded Bala and 5 wounds on trooper for FN.

michaelius said:

Hmm I see you point - I'll try to borrow one from friend and test then.

But for the moment I went 4-0 in local tourney (my 3rd one ). I took completely crazy deck - Tie Pilot, Trooper, Trooper , Bala

http://swdestinydb.com/decklist/view/10140/endlesstroopers-superbudgetfriendlydeck-1.0

and actually won 4 games with it

First two opponents played eUnkar+Death Trooper+Trooper which turned out to be matchup in my favour since their resource denial wasn't too painful and their damage output was weaker. Third was Qui-Gon-Rey played by my friend who introduced me to the game where I actually used Endless Rank 3 times which made the game tie but I had 4 cards left to his one. Fourth one was eFN+eJango - that one felt much easier actually since I traded Bala and 5 wounds on trooper for FN.

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oh man, you dodged all the Poe/Maz U-Wings/Thermals.... congrats!!

jstevenson said:

oh man, you dodged all the Poe/Maz U-Wings/Thermals.... congrats!!

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Skill takes many forms But considering I actually played 11 games in SW total I think I did rather ok.

michaelius said:

Skill takes many forms But considering I actually played 11 games in SW total I think I did rather ok.

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Yeah, just nice to avoid the12 DMG per die hard counter

I'd be terrified taking 3 characters out this weekend much less four!

jstevenson said:

Yeah, just nice to avoid the12 DMG per die hard counter

I'd be terrified taking 3 characters out this weekend much less four!

Click to expand...

Oh man.. I played a HG HG Baze player last night round 2. Great kid, and he has like MAYBE 6-7 games at the store under his belt. His dad buys the cards but basically buys enough that they can play together (I say kid but probably 22-24).

Anywho I felt awful. He wins initiative, picks HIS Graveyard... and I have two thermals in my opening hand. It goes exactly as bad as you predict. Round 1 is over in a blink and his HGs are 2/3 dead and Baze is half dead, and of course thermal is on top of my deck. We played another game after where his luck improved considerably. I still won but Baze was loaded up with some upgrades and took down Poe.

borghe said:

Oh man.. I played a HG HG Baze player last night round 2. Great kid, and he has like MAYBE 6-7 games at the store under his belt. His dad buys the cards but basically buys enough that they can play together (I say kid but probably 22-24).

Anywho I felt awful. He wins initiative, picks HIS Graveyard... and I have two thermals in my opening hand. It goes exactly as bad as you predict. Round 1 is over in a blink and his HGs are 2/3 dead and Baze is half dead, and of course thermal is on top of my deck. We played another game after where his luck improved considerably. I still won but Baze was loaded up with some upgrades and took down Poe.

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Hahaha yup...had a tournament a couple weeks ago where I did basically this to two people. Just had no idea what hit them and I had to be as nice about it as I possibly could without sounding condescending, which is an art when you're wrecking someone's deck by turn 2.

It may be because I've been playing Poe/Maz for like a month now but I'm definitely getting kinda fatigued of playing this deck. Power-level wise it's solid tier 1 (the FB/reddit hyperbole is hilarious though) but it truly is a one-tricky pony and you just keep doing that trick over and over. Not to say there aren't interesting decisions as to when to claim, when to activate Maz first, etc. but I've been grinding out some games with my wife's Palp deck that I made for her for Store Champs and just been having a lot more fun with that. And I even throw wonky shit in my Poe/Maz deck like Sensor Placement, Friendly Fire (sometimes), and Launch Bay just to spice things up a bit.

Ugh, opened my second box and still no Palpatine.

Going to have to spring for the single card/die buy, because I want to have at least one of him.

jstevenson said:

Yeah, just nice to avoid the12 DMG per die hard counter

I'd be terrified taking 3 characters out this weekend much less four!

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I'd argue 4 is actually better than 3 - you have bad matchup with AOE anyway.


But it works out more interesting in duel against 3 character decks:

With 2+1+1 die split you have to deal 10-11 dmg to drop half their dies. Meanwhile they have to deal 14-15 to drop 2 of yours.

Plus they invested in upgrades so they lose some of their die in addition to that while our stuff is safe in suport slots.

ePalp is actually a solid counter to Poe Maz. The matchup is definitely luck based on both sides, but at least the odds are pretty evened out. If Poe Maz doesn't draw into removal, or Palp doesn't draw into Force Illusion, things are bad. But if both draw into those, matches last a surprisingly long time. As long as Palp can lay his ranged damage on Poe, Poe WILL go down. All he needs are one or two key Illusuions to keep him alive until Maz can go down. He also turns the 4 AOE cards in Poe Maz into 3 damage each.

Conversely U-wing will definitely see use for shields, especially if you can get a double special off with Poe.

Finally grabbing enough cards where I'm close to being able to put together a good palp, emo boys, and Vader/raider deck. Missing a couple of uncommons and a decent number of rates, and most legendaries for SoR.

Bought the Vader, force choke, and a few other legendaries as well a play set of rare, uncommon, commons for Awakenings which should get here next week and leave me just buying singles from now on.

Debating grabbing one more SoR box (which would make 4) to fill in the missing rares in that set and maybe get some nice legendaries but I'm torn. Any thoughts?

Trying to see if I can put together a decent enough babyVader/Kylo deck for local play before the rest of the cards get in next week but I'm probably better off just waiting and playing on TTS.

So I got to test out my ePalp deck and it turned out to be verse another ePalp. Game was over the opening move of the second round. I killed him and I was down to 2 health. THwe damage ePalp can deal is insane. But he feels kinda boring to me. Having two or more characters involves more strategy and just seems more fun to me.

KnowOne said:

So I got to test out my ePalp deck and it turned out to be verse another ePalp. Game was over the opening move of the second round. I killed him and I was down to 2 health. THwe damage ePalp can deal is insane. But he feels kinda boring to me. Having two or more characters involves more strategy and just seems more fun to me.

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Well tbf mirror matches are always kinda boring (imo) but I really underrated how many tough decisions you have to make w/ Palp. I actually built ePalp for my wife to play at Store Champs on the premise that it would be very easy to pilot (she hasn't played SoR and will only get to play ~10 games w/ this before Saturday), but with a decent amount of testing, at least in our build I find tough decisions most turns and actually opportunities for clever plays too. E.g., resolve specials including Force Speed and Force Lightning, then you can actually chain together Force Lightning specials with your extra actions. Decision of when to ramp into a hoped-for Rise Again vs. playing out upgrades and mitigation is also interesting, as is when to bail on Holocron/Force Speed (or even something bigger) for a Force Illusion. Now tbf Force Speed is not strictly necessary but man is it fun. I actually find Vader/Raider way easier to pilot b/c it's just like reroll Vader into damage, Force Strike, try to stuck a Mind Probe on Raider -- the plays are mostly pretty obvious from the moment you get your hand (and the mitigation isn't even challenging or interesting like Loth Cat or Negotiation on the Hero side, or even High Ground if you run Force Speed Palp), but maybe part of that is from more experience.

epalp is always a decision. heck, if he has 3r 3r 2r 4r out, the first thing I would do is individually apply his 3r, just to see who my opponent puts the extra two on.. then the next 3r.. OR if I see an opportunity maybe I will place Force Lightning's 4/1r first (to use up a Illusion or such)..

you CAN auto pilot epalp.. but to take him to the cut (and win him the champ) it definitely comes down to the choices you make. It's not just about rolling out 3-4 ranged sides and plopping them down on some one. especially in a meta where Poe or emo boys can pretty easily lay out 6-9 damage a round. if you can't set yourself up for an early turn 2 win (and your opponent claims), you could very well lose. In those types of games yuo have to put on the damage in a way that really leave your opponent's characters alive with a few hit points left each AND claim, all while avoiding being within lethal (extraneous situations aside.. like hit and run or such)

Very true, you both are right.

Finally getting a bit more comfortable with playing the game and via Tts while waiting for cards to come in the mail.

Just playing emo boys and doing pretty good. Bear Poe snap and jabba unkar. Rolling shitty feels bad and the deck feels really resource limited whenever you get a 2/1r or 3/1r side to come up but I like it.

Curious to how different it will be to get out to some stores and get playing in the next week or so.

I've got my hands on second baby Vader so I'm putting together emo Sith deck

Just need to trim 8 cards down from it:

eVader (SoR), eKylo

Upgrade (14 12 )

x2 Force Illusion
x2 Force Throw ()
x2 Lightsaber ()
x1 Lightsaber Pike ()
x2 Makashi Training ()
x2 Mind Probe ()
x2 Sith Holocron ()
x1 Vibroknife ()

Event (24 )

x2 Anger
x2 Close Quarters Assault
x1 Decisive Blow
x2 Deflect
x2 Feel Your Anger
x2 Isolation
x2 Lightsaber Throw
x1 No Mercy
x2 Now You Will Die
x2 Overconfidence
x2 The Power of the Force
x2 Trust Your Instincts
x2 Use The Force

Only one Vibroblade because that's all I own, also I've put Makashi over Lure of Power since it's ability so it can be played with Holocron and people love choke decks in my meta.

Wooooo! Been a while since I played in a Store Champs but I remember them being my favorite tournament level in Netrunner so was cool to take one down today:

Click to expand...

List is just the Poe Maz I've been running for like a month, which is just a few choices off from the standard lists so I'm not gonna go touting it on swdb or anything b/c poe/maz who cares but in case you're curious:

Click to expand...

Just skipping right past the regular Poe/Maz stuff, I play without Planetary Uprising because I found that most good decks go really fast and can skip claim to prevent PUs anyway, and playing the PU and spending that much money is a huge tempo hit so I just dumped it for more removal as I was worried about Palp, Poe/Maz, and my friend's V/R, all of which removal is key to beating. I was skeptical about Cunning for a long time but it really is just such an incredible beast, turning Maz into someone almost as strong as Poe in some matchups. Second Chance is not a popular include, but with Cunning and Goggles I like to put on Maz I love having it as an out if people target her (or late-game survival). Didn't wind up using it, but if opponents had luckier rolls would have saved me in at least one game.

R1: Palp. This was actually against one of The Chance Cube (Destiny podcast) people so I was already like OK here we go going straight to the really tough matchup, but it turned out he hadn't planned on playing just TOing so wasn't as bad as it could have been. I did play out a U-Wing because I amassed a ton of credits for some reason so that sort of carried me through pretty well. Also was able to kill one of his Rise Agains with my Maz Goggles, which is one of my favorite plays against Palp.

R2: Baby Vader Kylo aka Emo Kids. I started the game with a Cunning so I really thought this would be an easy matchup. Not sure why this deck is so popular right now but I did expect to see it and it locked me in to keeping Cunning because it just brutalized Baby Vader so hard to Cunning his own special on himself. Think I did it three times. Literally contemplated not even rolling Poe some turns because Maz was crushing. The deck also plays Meditate which is pretty easy to play around if you run 8+ removal like we like to do. Definitely was the one game where my opponent was on tilt because Cunning was decimating him and removal was completely stifling his offense so I just said good game and carried on. It was a guy who godrolled me for the necessary 9 damage from Dooku ages ago in a tournament once so was actually sweet vengeance for me.

R3: FN-Royal Guard-Bala. Now you would see this list and mind and think auto-win, and I sort of did at first but it was actually a really cool list. I didn't draw either Thermal or U-Wing so at least it was a fair fight. Was on very little damage but then he Boundless'd into a ton of upgrades and was able to do 12 damage on Poe to get him down to one health...where he stayed for the next four turns until the end of the game. Dug in, Field Medic, etc. all did serious work here.

R4: Vader/Raider. Played my testing partner in the effective Final as we were both 3-0 (14 people so no cut, which I was actually glad about because best of three is...meh). His Vader/Raider and the way he plays it are both awesome. It's like 14-2 in the last four tournaments, with the only two losses coming to my Poe/Maz (he's beaten other Poe/Maz). We actually both milled ourselves down to four cards, but with both a Rocket Launcher and DL on Poe, I was finally able to pop his Force Illusion and kill him at the end with Poe on six damage (he still had a No Mercy and Fast Hands, so victory was hardly guaranteed). I was claiming hyper early in this game, like with Poe, Rockets, and DL out on the board...much to the perplexment of the people watching us...but I knew he had Deflect in hand so the odds were much better on me having the initiative and it juuuust worked out.

So yeah, we finished 1-2, and then my wife went 1-3 with Palp which isn't too bad for someone who's played literally five games of SoR. One more Store Champs on my calendar -- probably bring something semi-wonky now like my old Han/Rey and see if I can navigate through the meta decks with at least some success.

edit: oh yeah think i get to be on the chance cube tomorrow for this week's episode if folks are interested to listening to me at all . mostly was a fun and casual tournament which is what i was hoping for and nice that it worked out pretty well

Tried out a Krennic/TIE Pilot/FO Stormtrooper deck today that was very successful. Tons of ranged damage, but very dependant on claiming the battlefield, which meant cutting some of my rounds short for the benefit of the overall game.


Edit: Congrats AstroLad!

Congrats astrolad! It's really gratifying because Astro and I have talked a ton of strategy this season and he's certainly helped me be ready and i hope I helped him.

I made finals of a Stoe Hamp with 25 people today (5-1 after winning top 4 game) but had to concede final due to time.

Still 9-2 this Store Championship seasons with 1st and 2nd place finishes after Swiss and 2nd and 3rd place finishes overall).

Went 4-0 against Poe Maz today.

thanks both! it was definitely a rewarding experience b/c most of my somewhat rare free time the past month has been spent drilling decks both on TTS and IRL. it's hard to play absolutely perfectly, but the practice playing and playing vs. decks really is so helpful.

the only meh part of the whole thing was that there weren't too many casuals there -- maybe b/c the reprints aren't out yet, or also b/c there was a casual tournament happening up north and then a store champs in SF too (oh also it was really nice out )

j -- that's awesome especially in light of how big and skillful the LA Destiny scene is. has to be among the best in the country, so even though all store champs are technically created equal in terms of prizes i would say those are...more...equal

I've got my hands on second baby Vader so I'm putting together emo Sith deck

Just need to trim 8 cards down from it:

eVader (SoR), eKylo

Upgrade (14 12 )

x2 Force Illusion
x2 Force Throw ()
x2 Lightsaber ()
x1 Lightsaber Pike ()
x2 Makashi Training ()
x2 Mind Probe ()
x2 Sith Holocron ()
x1 Vibroknife ()

Event (24 )

x2 Anger
x2 Close Quarters Assault
x1 Decisive Blow
x2 Deflect
x2 Feel Your Anger
x2 Isolation
x2 Lightsaber Throw
x1 No Mercy
x2 Now You Will Die
x2 Overconfidence
x2 The Power of the Force
x2 Trust Your Instincts
x2 Use The Force

Only one Vibroblade because that's all I own, also I've put Makashi over Lure of Power since it's ability so it can be played with Holocron and people love choke decks in my meta.

Click to expand...

super fun team and a good alternative to the Palp/Poe meta for sure. I would honestly be scared to run it if Cunning became very common but I don't think it's quite there yet.

so the full write up.

I took ePalp to the Montclair tournament today. I had two choices today, one in Burbank at 1:00pm, or Montclair at 11:30am. I had a hard stop in that I needed to be at a show I was performing in at 5:00pm (I ended up there at 5:10 so all was good). I figured the Montclair tournament would be done in time for me to make it. And I would've been right... I really like those guys at Gameology, but they did unfortunately run the tournament by hand, and did SoS tiebreakers by hand. the overall slowness of pairings, and tiebreakings, ended up being costly for me.

I've played ePalp exclusively for the last two weeks, after taking Poe/Maz to the Final Four in my first store champ of the season. (4-1 record).

Game 1- vs Jarred's eVentress / eKrennic

I'm pretty much a nightmare match-up for his deck and I felt bad. His goal is to Imperial Inspect, disrupt. As a Palp deck that either has 0 cost upgrades (Holocron or Force Speed) or expensive upgrades, I wasn't really effected. That said, I had a nightmare mulligan where I pulled up 2 Rise Agains and a Force Lightning with no holocron. Ruh-roh. I rolled 6 for the battlefield and took my Otoh Gunga which I think slowed his deck down a lot potentially with mixed damage.

Palp rolled super well this game, getting 4 RNG on turn one for 8 total damage, I had mitigation but he claimed and got the death trooper die for Turn 2. On turn two, Palp was showing 2 or 3 RNG on a die, and he had a Force Speed on special, with 2 Ventress melees. He made his only major misplay here, when used the Force Speed, and put now I am the master on Krennic and then resolved Ventress. He could've played it on Ventress and blanked me out there. I was pretty much in control, Ventress went down and Krennic quickly. I rolled really hot, but I was in pretty firm control.

Round 2 vs ?? ePoe / eMaz

Ah here we go. Poe/Maz. I think we had 8 or so in Montclair, which was a similar number in Burbank out of 35.

This game I made two mistakes, which fortunately didn't cost me. Firstly, I hard cast Force Throw, I realized after this was out of my gameplay, and super dumb, I drew a Rise Again right after it, so I could've discarded it, and gotten 5 health and Force Throw. Also, Maz runs Cunning Now, and he did drop a Cunning on me, and successfully threw a 2 discard back into Palp. Ouch. That said, the Force Throw was good for me too, he rolled his Fast Handed Poe into a double 3, so while he hit Palp for 3, another 3 hit Maz. I don't believe he ever got two

Given Cunning's new prevalence in the meta, I've switched my priority target against Poe/Maz to Maz. I pretty quickly dispatched Maz and then managed to take out Poe a few turns later. I was never in any real danger.

Game 3 vs Jim Lafferty Poe / Maz

I knew Jim's name when I sat down from 20 years ago and the SW:CCG. he was #1 in the world for quite a while, and super high up there the rest of the time. He was also a guy who almost counter navigated the operative meta at the first SWCCG Worlds. Kinda crazy to end up playing him in Destiny years later. He unrolls a Destiny Top 32 world championship mat and it's like, oh man.

Learning from my previous game, I went completely on the defensive here, I won the initiative roll and took his battlefield (Graveyard, which I think isn't the right battlefield) and took the two shields. I don't think I ever cast a force ability in the game besides Force Illusion, which I used two of, and then rose again, and put one back on Palp. I also resolved a Palp 2 shields. In the end, I think he had done 19 damage to Palp, yet my Palp still had 15 health.

He had a terrible draw tho, 2 Hit and Runs, nothing to throw, 1 defensive position, and 1 dug in. He used the Def Pos on a single die.

At one point in this game, his Poe was untouched, and his Maz had 7 damage, I had 2 3RNG showing on Palp. I was in good shape here, (maybe pre-rise again but knowing it was coming), and I debated this play a lot --- maybe it was greedy, but I put all 10 damage on Palp. The way I saw it was I could quickly finish off both with any Palp resolve, versus blowing 2 damage on Maz and leaving Poe at 5 which could survive on onslaught. This also let me claim fast, which I knew would shut off the major dug in, or defensive position that could keep him in the game

it ended up working out, he field medic-ed poe, but there was nothing that could stop me with Palp getting a 2 RNG + shields.

Round 4 vs Poe / Maz

Another day another dollar I guess. This guy basically gave up when he saw Palp and said he loses to it. And he was right. I rolled pretty hot and killed man with a no mercy on Turn 2. Poe went down in round 3. The game took 8 minutes. I think he also used Graveyard. This guy threw cunning down on Maz after I had dealt my first 3 damage to her, which I thought was a massive mistake and waste of resources.

Round 5 vs FN-2199 / Baby Vader (Bryan Russo)

I had seen Bryan beat an ePalp in his previous game when the ePalp rolled out and hit Blanks on both Palp dice, holocron, and force lightning, with a plus 1 on Lure of power. Bryan Feel your Angered on it and flipped the game in that one turn.

The only undefeated match-up, both of us were basically ensured of making the cut. Bryan is pretty well known on the SoCal boards from the San Diego area. I think I made a mistake in going after FN-2199 first here. This game was so hyper close. We both had good plays, I was rolling out fast and resolving to avoid Guard. I had a super strong open with holocron, force speed, and illusion out on turn 1. I got force push on in turn two and was whittling away but he was doing damage too. I killed FN-2199 and was getting towards range on Anakin. I rolled in on the next turn and hit two blanks and he reeled your anger and dropped both palp dice. Woof. I still had 2 RNG on Force push, and a no mercy. I made what I think was a misplay here, I sort of thought he couldn't use Baby Vader to kill me without causing a simultaneous death, but realized after Baby Vader wins. So I played the No mercy and dumped by hand to take him to 10 damage, and claimed to heal 1. I thought he could only do 7, but actually with a special (That would kill Palp before killing Baby Vader) he could get 8. He got it with the last re-roll.

I think if I slow play it a bit more, I probably get to roll in first and finish him off on the next turn... I also might've been able to find a rise again.

Still it didn't;'t matter, I came in 2nd after Swiss with the best SoS. Bryan was 1st, Jim Lafferty was 3rd, and Joe Hendrix, who was the Palp player Bryan beat before me, was in 4th.

Now this is where the time crunch killed me, I needed to be leaving the store, but there was a tie on SoS for 4th and 5th, and they had to go calculate Extended SoS by hand. Brutal. Plus then deck checks on a couple people.

Jim and I got going quickly

Final 4 vs Jim Lefferty's Poe Maz

Jim really wanted revenge and a second chance, unfortunately my deck ran really well. I got holocron and force speed out turn one, holocron got me a Force Lightning, which he had to defensive position just that away. On turn 2 the holocron got the second force lightning out. So Palp had 2 Force Lightnings on Turn 2. Those Force lightnings dealt 7 damage and killed Maz, and then splash damage took Poe into lethal territory. Jim fought valiantly, but Palp ramping into two Force Lightnings on Turn 2 will beat just about anything.

I was out of time, Joe Hendrix beat Russo with his ePalp, but I couldn't play the mirror so I conceded the final game and took the mat and card.

Real bummer to not get to play a best of 1 final mirror for the title / plaque / bye, but happy to improve my standing, go 4-0 vs Poe/Maz, and run my Store Championships record to 9-2 in the SoCal area.

And I made it to my show on time and had a good show, so solid solid day

Grats Astro!!! I have one SC next Saturday, then the 1st I'm TOing.. not sure about participating.. does anyone have experience TOing and playing in a store champ? Also, store champ isn't best of 3 in the cut. It's still relaxed format which means single game single elimination. Not sure why I'm reading so many best of 3. That doesn't start til premiere which is Regionals and higher.

I like your Poe Maz removal. I am scared to take out PU simply because my deck plays soooo fast.. with PU out some turns I don't even roll Maz.. basically use my removal to take away the scary stuff, roll out Poe with Fast Hands, and next action claim for a special and 2 damage. The tempo hit is a small speed bump, BUT you are right about the cost.. I will admit that many times I'll keep PU in my hand til round 3 just because I have to use my resources on removal or resolving Poe's 3r/1.

Where do you use Loth Cat? I hate that card.. such a shitty He Doesn't Like You. I NEVER understood the developers' reasoning behind it.. "Oh here, we'll give heroes a version of HDLY that is worse in almost every objective way!!!" It's a 0 cost removal but you're stuck with it in hand until there is a clear swing in the pool. Palpatine and maybe Vader Raider are the only decks where it's pretty playable against. Even emo kids there many times won't be a good swing in the pool.

borghe said:

Grats Astro!!! I have one SC next Saturday, then the 1st I'm TOing.. not sure about participating.. does anyone have experience TOing and playing in a store champ? Also, store champ isn't best of 3 in the cut. It's still relaxed format which means single game single elimination. Not sure why I'm reading so many best of 3. That doesn't start til premiere which is Regionals and higher.

I like your Poe Maz removal. I am scared to take out PU simply because my deck plays soooo fast.. with PU out some turns I don't even roll Maz.. basically use my removal to take away the scary stuff, roll out Poe with Fast Hands, and next action claim for a special and 2 damage. The tempo hit is a small speed bump, BUT you are right about the cost.. I will admit that many times I'll keep PU in my hand til round 3 just because I have to use my resources on removal or resolving Poe's 3r/1.

Where do you use Loth Cat? I hate that card.. such a shitty He Doesn't Like You. I NEVER understood the developers' reasoning behind it.. "Oh here, we'll give heroes a version of HDLY that is worse in almost every objective way!!!" It's a 0 cost removal but you're stuck with it in hand until there is a clear swing in the pool. Palpatine and maybe Vader Raider are the only decks where it's pretty playable against. Even emo kids there many times won't be a good swing in the pool.

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Loth Cat is killer for Poe Maz

First action roll Poe
Second action roll Maz
Third action loth cat Maz's extra die away to take their good die

That final Maz die is usually not worth that much, so removing a big beefy Palp or Vader die is excellent

Same reason i love negotiate in that deck and it did work for me when i ran Poe / Maz in the Bakersfield store champ

Made some crazy trading over weekend finally I got 2 electroshocks, 2 holdout blasters , second fast hands and most other important stuff. After that I'll only need 1 Vibro Blade and 1 Force Speed

borghe said:

Grats Astro!!! I have one SC next Saturday, then the 1st I'm TOing.. not sure about participating.. does anyone have experience TOing and playing in a store champ? Also, store champ isn't best of 3 in the cut. It's still relaxed format which means single game single elimination. Not sure why I'm reading so many best of 3. That doesn't start til premiere which is Regionals and higher.

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I know! I guess it's because people feel like they're not really beholden to the rules (which, fair enough, it's not like FFG is going to do anything, but technically SC is not like GNK where you expressly can just do w/e you want and that's a known fact), but they also want it to be more "serious" like a Regionals and play a billion games I guess. I personally think BO3 especially during Swiss is pretty bad for casuals, but maybe they had no casuals there I dunno. I'm also biased because I dislike BO3 for Destiny at ALL levels tbh (my ideal would just be double elim for knockout rounds).

Where do you use Loth Cat? I hate that card.. such a shitty He Doesn't Like You. I NEVER understood the developers' reasoning behind it.. "Oh here, we'll give heroes a version of HDLY that is worse in almost every objective way!!!" It's a 0 cost removal but you're stuck with it in hand until there is a clear swing in the pool. Palpatine and maybe Vader Raider are the only decks where it's pretty playable against. Even emo kids there many times won't be a good swing in the pool.

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Haha yeah I can see how it would create that impression. Just power-level wise you have to remember that HDLY is imo still one of the best cards in the game, so I don't think it's disqualifying that LCAM is objectively worse. But that said yeah you definitely have to be way more thoughtful about how you use it. Oftentimes I will actually wind up using it on a blank or disrupt Poe die with no more upgrades to throw to save myself from 3 damage which is a pretty sweet deal. Also I think more so than most Moe players, I often activate Maz first (mostly just if she has Cunning) in which case LCAM is huge value, so also something to consider). Emo Kids I think is actually one of the easier ones to play it against because they're pretty slow, so you can wind up resolving everything you want while they're rerolling for good stuff and then just burn they're good stuff. I actually did this twice yesterday against Emo Kids and it definitely put the dude on tilt.

Made two trades that ironically I previously had. Lots Cat and Maz's Goggles. Not sure who I listened to about Maz's Goggles and 3PO, but I've used 3PO in a handful of games and every one I think I took a hit for the speed. With Loth Cat and Negotiate that's not the end of the world, but I like what you said Astro about rolling in Maz first. This is especially true when you get an upgrade on her. Maz with a Rocket Launcher or a DL-44 becomes almost as good of an opener as Poe.

I was also running Friends In Low Places but what I started seeing was a ton of slow play for not much benefit. With Goggles back in I basically replaced 3PO and Friends, trading 4 cards for 2. It let me then pickup Loth Cat for free. And Goggles' special is a BETTER Friends, while it's 33% Focus sides (along with Maz) basically do what 3PO was there for.

I do like your Second Chance and may get rid of 1 Dug In for it. Right now everyone is still gunning for Poe first. This means I can possibly use Second Chance to get one extra round of damage in to end the game.

One of my favorite plays today was roll in Maz and resolve her dice for two resources. Then play Planetary Uprising. Then Hit and Run, roll in Poe, resolve 3r/1 with Fast Hands and claim using Thermal with Poe. My opponent was confused why I was H&R with Maz already rolled in. I was just planning worst case to claim for 8 damage. Using the whole turn to end with 11 damage in 3 actions......

holy shit.. European Champion won with a eUnkar Trooper Nines deck against Vader Raider. Would love to see the breakdown of that match.

borghe said:

holy shit.. European Champion won with a eUnkar Trooper Nines deck against Vader Raider. Would love to see the breakdown of that match.

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Yeah here's the list:

Mos Eisley Spaceport
2 rocket launcher
2 IQA-11 blaster rifle
2 vibroknucklers
2 flamethrower
2 Z3 riot control baton
2 holdout blaster
2 vibroknife
2 gaffi stick
2 imperial inspection
2 salvage stand
2 the best defence
2 electroshock
2 one quarter portion
2 friends in low places
2 he doesn't like you

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God I'm going to be so annoyed if Unkar becomes a thing because I'll have to go back to my vanilla (non-Cunning) Moe, which mostly crushes Unk, instead of this fun Luke/Rey deck I've been working on. :/ I'm even already trying to tech against it a bit using Destiny and 3-costs.

borghe said:

holy shit.. European Champion won with a eUnkar Trooper Nines deck against Vader Raider. Would love to see the breakdown of that match.

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Also top4 had very interesting Baze+Snap list.

All top 8 lists here:

https://justplaygames.uk/blogs/gami...estiny-european-championships-top-8-decklists

congrats on the SC wins guys. thanks for the write ups. looking forward to hearing you on the chance cube Astro. sounds fun.

this thread alerted me to the fact that this game even exists. been getting into it slowly over the past few weeks. got 2 starter sets and a bunch of boosters, about to pull the trigger on a full box. already got a few people into it, so i have some folks to play with and might try to check out a SC in the next few months.

fun stuff. thx for the thread and the discussion.

Daigoro said:

congrats on the SC wins guys. thanks for the write ups. looking forward to hearing you on the chance cube Astro. sounds fun.

this thread alerted me to the fact that this game even exists. been getting into it slowly over the past few weeks. got 2 starter sets and a bunch of boosters, about to pull the trigger on a full box. already got a few people into it, so i have some folks to play with and might try to check out a SC in the next few months.

fun stuff. thx for the thread and the discussion.

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As a bit of advise since I started few weeks ago - try to buy someones collection they are trying to get rid off. Usually you can get wholesale price that way compared to buying singles.

michaelius said:

As a bit of advise since I started few weeks ago - try to buy someones collection they are trying to get rid off. Usually you can get wholesale price that way compared to buying singles.

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thanks. any advice as to where to look?

Daigoro said:

thanks. any advice as to where to look?

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In Poland we have facebook group dedicated to destiny trading.

played this deck a bit last night

http://swdestinydb.com/decklist/view/10364/chokeandpunish-flexibleedookueventress-1.0

against a non-Poe maz speed aggro... this deck is insane. like in Awakenings' meta.. this deck would have dominated.

with that being said, it is STILL top notch, even against a vibroknife deck.. ventress essentially ensures that you have two rounds to build up dooku.. with holocrons it is pretty easy. I'd even possibly hard cast a lure of power on her early game.. especially with poe maz claiming early.. lure of power's power play in this deck believe it or not is usually NOT damage, but Focus.there are SO MANY friggin melee or unmodified range sides running in this deck. having a 1 focus out, and being able to turn that into 3-4 focus very easily..

I did beat a poe maz with this. They didn't roll particularly bad.. with a holocron showing focus, a vibro knife and a single lure of power out in the turn before ventress died (she had one health remaining), I pitched my second to last card to reroll.. came up +2 lure and like a dooku 2 melee side and vibro 1 melee side.. my opponent claimed with maz and poe at full health.. I used holocron plus lure to flip the other 3 character dice to 2 melee, used my last card which was lightsaber throw, dealing 11 points to poe. next round he rolls in poe and kills ventress with fast hands. I roll in dooku, he rolls in maz and hits dooku for 3. Poe has 1 health left, I have a vibroknife in the pool, 2 dooku dice, a holocoron (it might have been showing special) and a lure of power.. the rest pretty much went as you'd expect.. maz had no way of surviving the round short of horrible card draw.

a fun combo with this, especially when they have split damage in the pool and you have one blank.. use Manipulate on a non-damage die.. especially a nasty special or I guess another damaeg side as long as you leave the split damage in the pool. They resolve one of the types of damage.. you then use Anger for 0 resolving the other damage type for them worked great against a luke deck who rolled in OwtF's ranged side.

borghe said:

played this deck a bit last night

http://swdestinydb.com/decklist/view/10364/chokeandpunish-flexibleedookueventress-1.0

against a non-Poe maz speed aggro... this deck is insane. like in Awakenings' meta.. this deck would have dominated.

with that being said, it is STILL top notch, even against a vibroknife deck.. ventress essentially ensures that you have two rounds to build up dooku.. with holocrons it is pretty easy. I'd even possibly hard cast a lure of power on her early game.. especially with poe maz claiming early.. lure of power's power play in this deck believe it or not is usually NOT damage, but Focus.there are SO MANY friggin melee or unmodified range sides running in this deck. having a 1 focus out, and being able to turn that into 3-4 focus very easily..

I did beat a poe maz with this. They didn't roll particularly bad.. with a holocron showing focus, a vibro knife and a single lure of power out in the turn before ventress died (she had one health remaining), I pitched my second to last card to reroll.. came up +2 lure and like a dooku 2 melee side and vibro 1 melee side.. my opponent claimed with maz and poe at full health.. I used holocron plus lure to flip the other 3 character dice to 2 melee, used my last card which was lightsaber throw, dealing 11 points to poe. next round he rolls in poe and kills ventress with fast hands. I roll in dooku, he rolls in maz and hits dooku for 3. Poe has 1 health left, I have a vibroknife in the pool, 2 dooku dice, a holocoron (it might have been showing special) and a lure of power.. the rest pretty much went as you'd expect.. maz had no way of surviving the round short of horrible card draw.

a fun combo with this, especially when they have split damage in the pool and you have one blank.. use Manipulate on a non-damage die.. especially a nasty special or I guess another damaeg side as long as you leave the split damage in the pool. They resolve one of the types of damage.. you then use Anger for 0 resolving the other damage type for them worked great against a luke deck who rolled in OwtF's ranged side.

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beeeach! haha. that's what i'm running in my luke/rey and i'm pretty much 100% confident about it (i also do not run OWTF, or premonitions -- 100% in on unblockable melee and cheating via Destiny -- which is SOOOOO much better than premonitions in Hero it's not even funny). honestly that luke/rey deck is probably t2 but t2 is fine for local tournaments i think, and you can still beat t1 either with experience advantage or just a little bit of dice on your side.

the only thing that would bug me about asajj rn is what you alluded to -- she's pretty much blank against moe, and yet her ability is the whole reason for her low health/overcosting. she'd probably do serious work against my luke though unless i got jedi robes and force speed early. imagine she does work against most decks outside of maz actually.

i'm kinda worried about unk rn. not because it's omg unbeatable, but just b/c if unk and imperial inspection becomes a real thing (rather than just a single rando you hope to avoid) you have to do a lot of tech work. i'd honestly just as well go back to moe even though people think unk is great against moe they are very very wrong.

I really think Moe is working itself out of the meta on its own. As the meta had found other "t1" decks that can dish out the aggro just as well (emo kids, ePalp, etc) and make Moe less auto-win, I think most are just moving on from it. It will still have a more-than 50% representation in this Store Champ season.. but I don't see it being super present after that. And I really expect to see it under-represented at GenCon and Nationals.

borghe said:

I really think Moe is working itself out of the meta on its own. As the meta had found other "t1" decks that can dish out the aggro just as well (emo kids, ePalp, etc) and make Moe less auto-win, I think most are just moving on from it. It will still have a more-than 50% representation in this Store Champ season.. but I don't see it being super present after that. And I really expect to see it under-represented at GenCon and Nationals.

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it'll be interesting, I think there may be some tech put it. I don't think Poe/Maz players will give up the consistency lightly. They'll find counters. Cunning for Baby Vader etc.

like that EU guy with Fair Trade... that could fucking wreck Palpatine, which I think is almost a hard counter to Poe/Maz in the hands of a skilled Palp player who is patient and defensive. I would've never seen it coming if a Poe/Maz played it on me Saturday and it probably would've ended the game if it stopped a Rise Again

Still waiting on the Awakenings restock, since I only managed to get a handful of booster backs originally. Sounds like end of the month?