Much has been written of Mr. Robert Fettuccine, and his emergence as an early favorite of Set 1 should probably come as no surprise. After all, even if he was bad, people would probably still play him. He’s the guy, you know? And in their wisdom and foresight, our benevolent lords at Fantasy Flight Games have made the beloved bounty hunter very good, with even the most skeptical and contrarian of deck theorists conceding his place in the highest echelon of leader options.

But for the most part, the conversation about Boba has centered around pairing him with Command, with Aggression, or doubling down on Cunning. Those decks are known quantities, and they’re probably going to be pretty good. But my favorite Boba deck isn’t any of those, and against my better judgment, I will venture to say that I think this semi-forgotten shade of Boba is being a little bit slept on. Behold- Boba Blue!

We’ll keep this deck updated as the meta develops.

Playstyle

“He’s no good to me dead.”

– Boba Fett, failing to RTFC

This deck isn’t rocket science, actually- you’re just really, really good at killing things, and you should do it as much as possible.

The internal synergy is off the charts. Blue gets us access to a veritable goldmine of hard removal- Death Trooper, Count Dooku, Power of the Dark Side, Takedown, and Entrenched. These cards, which are usually functionally discounted, combine to give the usual Boba favorites extra potency and consistency. In this shell, his Leader ability is utterly trivial to trigger, and that gives us more opportunities for the kinds of huge, hand-emptying combo turns that Boba often rides to a victory.

Your early game is marked by fastidious removal of enemy units. It’s key to not let Boba Unit slow us down too much- he’s a great card that we want on the board, but he doesn’t actually do anything immediately without his best buddy ECL, so a lot of times you’re looking to play him late in a round after you’ve already cashed in some extra resources and set up to continue bullying the board as the game goes on. You also want to land Jabba if you can spare the tempo- he’s seriously one of our best cards, and free Shoot First is a hell of a drug. Also, he’s one of the most effective and hysterical targets for Entrenched in the whole game. He’s an utter bully in that form, though with that said you should get some sort of medal if you can tell me what the hell is happening there, thematically. Is this a younger Jabba? Do Hutts have civil service? Does the Hutt military pay for Hutt college?

…Is Jabba a draft dodger?

……ANYWAY, in the mid game, it’s important to be cognizant of your resourcing. Going up to 6 and eventually 7 is important for Firespray and Dooku, two cards we really want to help us close…but it’s not uncommon for it to be correct to stay at 5 resources and play out your hand because you’re low on cards and need to press. The upside is that usually being in that position means that the board is leaning your way. Speaking of that, this is also the point in the game where you want to be careful about what gets Entrenched. This deck doesn’t field tremendous attack power, so closing can be too slow if you’re too flippant about locking a big unit out of the ability to smack base. Look before you leap.

Things We Want

Whether we get them in the first set or beyond, here’s our wishlist for this gameplan…

• More Turn 1 Plays – We’re hurtin’ Ethel. We’re pleased as punch with Greedo+ISB or Inferno Four, but apart from that our Turn 1s can look really dicey. The sideboard for this deck probably needs to contain full playsets of Crafty Smuggler and Viper Probe Droid for the moment. If I were you I’d be swapping those in versus aggro, where you need guaranteed early gas. Maybe throw out some Dooku, some Entrenched, or some NGTMD if you’re feeling frisky. As a side note- if Greedo is all you have on T1, you should give strong consideration to shielding him with Security Complex, especially if you’re not going to get the initiative anyway. Early trades are where we eat.
• Draw – We like that big ol’ butt, but Jabba is actually primarily here because he gives us a chance, albeit not a great one, to play something card neutral. We would take as much of that as we could get, probably, since this deck is so consistently triggering Boba’s bonus resources. You have to be pretty careful not to drain yourself of cards.
• More Synergy For Blue – A couple cards, like Del Meeko and Scout Bike Pursuer, are solid cards that just don’t quite gel with what we’re up to. This is probably not far from being able to shape into something more definitively Blue, which would likely be a positive development for this pretty control-oriented shell.

Chopping Block

They’re not all roses. Here’s what we’d like to replace if we can…

• Cell Block Guard– I really kind of doubt Villain/Yellow ever gets a strong Sentinel, but Villain/Blue might, and we’d be enthusiastic to have him here. This slot, could and maybe should have been Del Meeko, but I trust good old Cell Block Guard a little more for the moment. Sentinel is a great keyword to have.
• No Good To Me Dead – This is preposterous, I know, but Boba so badly wants things gone, not iced. Look at it from this angle- consider that NGTMD is kind of like a fancy, Villain/Cunning version of Asteroid Sanctuary. Obviously, that’s great- but what we crave is a fancy Villain/Cunning version of Waylay ja feel? Here’s hoping we see that in Set 2.
• ISB Agent – I love damage from hand, but I really love it at slightly higher wattage, a la Death Trooper. This guy won’t last much longer.

Additional Flavor Options

There’s several cool cards I’ve left on the chopping block that might fire you up a little more than they did me…

Change Of Heart – A classic closing option for yellow decks, our top end here is pretty crowded and so it’s a sideboard option (maybe swap it in versus Luke or ramp) for now.

Asteroid Sanctuary – A solid card, and we’re already running Jabba. If you really want to turn this into a tricks deck, the option is there! It’s fun.

Bounty Hunter Crew – I’m not super high on this card given the cost, so this hasn’t been tested, but there’s no question that this deck thrives off of event play so there’s really no harm in giving it a go if it sounds intriguing.

Cunning Daimyo

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at a less obvious color pairing for our favorite bounty hunting boy! What do you think of Boba? Did he blue himself? How dumb is this on a scale of 1 to Entrenched Jabba? Please show us on the doll where Entrenched Jabba hurt you.

Keep an eye on our YouTube in the coming weeks for game footage with this unsung gunslinger!