Tyler: Last weekend was our local Planetary Qualifier at Common Ground Games in Dallas, Texas. Spoiler alert: I won!

I’ll take you through prepping for the event, the games on the day, and my final thoughts, but first, I want to thank everyone at CGG for running a great event. It was super smooth with no delays, disruptions, or controversy, which makes a great day for everyone. Already looking forward to the Set 4 PQ!

The Run Up

If you didn’t know from our YouTube already, I’m a pathological Johnny- drawn to off-meta builds and constantly trying to innovate something new and unexpected.

Problem is, this isn’t a great trait to have when competitive season rolls around. Getting ready for a big event should be all about picking something proven and honing it to perfection, but that’s realllly hard to bring myself to do. So, the weeks leading up to the event were a series of attempts to make Yoda/Blue, Rey/Green, Nala Se/Green and a few other cats and dogs competitive. 

The Deck

Luckily, I had taken an Anakin/Blue deck to a local and won in the month prior, so I had a good fallback. It was mostly a standard list that had been successful at other PQs. Where I changed the deck for the current meta was in the 3-drop spot. The two top decks in the Set 3 meta, Sabine and Han1, both present challenges on the 4R turn:

• Sabine flips her leader and can load up with Darksaber, which if successfully landed will end the game before Anakin flips.
• Han1 runs the Tech/DJ combo which can stall out Anakin’s deploy, which is this deck’s primary win condition.

The antidote to both these decks, handily, is the same thing: have a unit ready to swing for 5 damage round 3. Easier said than done. The existing version already runs Sabine and Cassian, but I felt more was necessary. Yoda only tops out at 4 attack (with Anakin’s ability) so I went to SWUDB to find a unit with ≤3 cost,  at least 3 effective attack, and ≥4 health.

Picking was easy, because good old Embo turned out to be the only available option.

While under normal circumstances Embo isn’t really playable, with Anakin’s ability to temporarily boost his attack to 5, I suddenly had a 5/4 for 3 that could also heal units and help hold the board in the early game. Even with these changes, I still didn’t feel I had the answer for the meta. I knew games against Aggro or Control were going to be tough matchups. My only hope was to face a lot of tempo/midrange decks that I could dominate. I didn’t expect to do any better than 4-3 on the day.

Swiss Rounds

Round 1 – Han1/Yellow – My first opponent was playing exactly the deck I expected to face. Embo was off to a quick start in this game, murdering Liberated Slaves and Techs while also healing my board. My opponent made a fateful choice with his leader which foreshadowed the rest of the day. After Anakin flipped, Han had multiple blasters and could have smacked base for near lethal, but instead, to my surprise, he traded with Anakin. This was an advantage I leveraged all day: players feared the Anakin + Bravado play enough to trade big units into him, rather than aggo’ing me to death. Giving me more space to work won me games. In our second game, he successfully burned me down, taking us to a third. Unfortunately, he’d also been playing rather slowly. Our final game didn’t end before time was called. I’d never timed out before, and it made for a weird start to the day. Draw 1-1

Round 2 – Chancellor Palp/Red – After “losing” round 1, I was kicked down to the lower tables with the now daunting task of winning my remaining 6 games to make the top 8. My opponent was a casual player who brought a deck that might have posed a problem had it been more intense aggro. Win 2-0

Round 3 – Cad Bane/Red – Cad started this game off well running Ma Klounkees to keep the board clear, but once Anakin came out, I was able to close both games fairly quickly. Win 2-0

Round 4 – Bossk/Blue – Now that I was 2-1, I was starting to feel better about the day and hopeful I could end with a winning record. Sitting down across from hard control wasn’t what I wanted to see, though. I don’t think I’d ever managed to beat a Bossk Blue online, so I mentally prepared myself to end my run. The first game went about how I expected, with him controlling me enough to eventually land the Avenger lockout. Second game, I boarded in all my hand discard tools and was able to take his cards and avoid a Death Mark double claim. That helped me win. However, third game I DID NOT avoid the double claim. He loaded a single A-Wing with all three of his Death Marks to draw a massive EIGHT cards after flipping Bossk. Somehow, I survived long enough to land a Krayt Dragon and use the damage it created to close. I was really surprised to win this matchup. Win 2-1

Round 5 – Han1/Yellow – Being 3-1, I was now up at the top tables. My opponent started game 1 with a skillful deployment of Tech and DJ to take one and then a second resource from me and close the game. Luckily, I recognized the mistake I’d made which was to start space without one of my 3-power ground units to control his plays. I rectified that in game two by starting Sabine and following with Embo. I also kept a Perilous Position in hand to deal with the Han flip turn. This combo of three drops and Perilous would be my bread and butter for the next three rounds. Knowing my gameplan, I ran the same thing again in game three to get the win. Win 2-1

Round 6 – Han1/Yellow – My next opponent was a friend of my round 5 opponent and a little scared since he was on the same deck. This time, I mulligan’ed more aggressively to make sure I had to tools to control the ground. After winning game one, I boarded out my Sabers and Obi-Wans (which I’d done against all my opponents since they weren’t aggro) and ran the playbook back to win one of the last two games. Win 2-1

Round 7 – Han1/Yellow – Three Hans in a row! This was last round of Swiss so it was win and in. I knew what to do in this matchup, it was just a matter of playing it right. My opponent was excellent and we split the first two games. In the third and final game, it came down to the final round. He had a SoR Falcon out and initiative with 20 damage on his base, while I had Cassian and Poe with 26 on mine. If he drew a pump, it was 100% game over, but if he didn’t, I had a chance. First action of the round, he smuggled out Tech, implying that he had a pump to smuggle and could close the game next action. However, I had the sneaking suspicion that this was a bluff. So instead of killing the Tech, I attacked base and called him. He was bluffing! He shook my hand and ended the game. This was an incredible round that took my heartrate through the roof. I was hoping that he’d make the cut but ended up on 9^th. Win 2-1

Top 8 Cut

Top 8 – Kylo/Yellow – At this point, I’d seriously exceeded my expectations for the day. Thanks to my last three rounds, no Han Yellows had made the top cut. Even more encouraging, no Sabines had made it either. My biggest fear, the top-seeded Palpatine/Green, was on the other side of the bracket. Things looked good!

Standing in my way was my bud Aaron who I’d played in the top four of a local case tournament last month. The judges conducted a deck check and, unfortunately, found a problem with Aaron’s deck. This meant a game loss for him. Luckily, Aaron is an excellent sportsman and didn’t seem salty at all.

First game, he burned me down thanks to a misplay by me on the Kylo flip turn. I’d planned to pass and hold my ground units to make sure I could murk Kylo when he deployed, but instead, I attacked, and he was able to flip into 5 damage. A Daring Raid sealed the deal for him.

Game 2, I boarded into my Concord Dawn Interceptors and Top Targets and was able to control most of what he played. The win felt convincing. Technically, this was the end of the round because of Aaron’s deck list loss, but I asked the judge if they’d let us play out the third round anyway. They weren’t sure but let us start playing anyway. Unfortunately, the judge called it halfway through, saying that he needed to force the game loss on Aaron to preserve the integrity of the deck check. Bummer way to end since Aaron is such a great guy, but a win’s a win. Win 2-1

Top 4 – Han1/Red – At this point, I was on my 5^th Han match of the day and felt confident. The red variant wasn’t going to have the same combo potential as Yellow. In even better news, the Palp/Green that I probably would have cratered against had somehow lost to hard control in the first round. That meant if I could win this round, the final might be winnable as well.

A problem I didn’t expect also surfaced in this round: my hands were cramping. In an odd, but necessary move, I asked the TD to shuffle my deck for me. This led to some quick discussion on accessibility regulations. Props to FFG for having this in place, even for people like me that usually have working hands. The games themselves went slowly, but inexorably in my favor. Candice couldn’t maintain control of board thanks to my Lukes repeatedly killing Han units after their ambush. Win 2-0

Finals – Bossk/Blue – John was running Bossk and I was yet again worried about how Anakin would fare. I couldn’t be completely sure that my opponent earlier hadn’t just misplayed. However, things went surprisingly well. I kept the pressure up and he didn’t hit much healing. And game one went my way before I boarded in my discard package for game 2.

In game two, I hit a double Force Throw early and made him discard a Krayt Dragon to clear his board. I was then able to use Pillage to timewalk him twice to the win. Win 2-0

Final Thoughts

I still can’t believe I won this tournament. I feel like I played well and picked a good deck versus what showed up on the day. But the luck factor here was HUGE. I didn’t have to face a single Sabine, nor a villain ramp deck. I honestly think if I’d faced either, I could have scrubbed out. Fortune was on my side though and I was able to squeak by in every round. 

And bonus- I pulled a Sheev showcase from my prize packs!

Huge thanks again to Common Ground Games for hosting and to all my opponents who were gracious and fun to play against. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Galactic Championship!