This week was the largest event post-Force Throw ban, the Sector Qualifier in Portland Oregon. It was won by friend of the channel Bobby Sapphire with Palpatine/Yellow. Congratulations, Mike! This event gives us a clear picture of what the meta is now that throwing is no longer on the menu.

Day1 Meta

Day 2 Meta

Top Cut

Winner

Notice anything about those results? They’re dominated by Spark of Rebellion. Not a single leader from year 2 made the top cut. 27 out of the 50 cards in the winner’s deck were from Set 1.

Y’all, we are in for a WILD ride when rotation comes.

Now, let’s talk snapshot changes from these results.

The first is that Mother Talzin appears to be off the competitive map. This is an incredible fall from winning the World Championship just over two months ago. With Force Throw, she had the gas to push her aggro-tempo gameplan. Without it, she’s stuck rudderless between faster aggro decks and more durable midrange decks.

Ditto can be said of Quinlan/Tarkintown, which we’re removing. Without Force throw, he just doesn’t have the tools to efficiently control the early game.

Also coming off the board is Han2/Green. This deck never had much removal and losing Force Throw hits it disproportionately hard versus Han2/Blue decks which retain a solid removal suite. Han2 had a lot of utility in the Throw meta where no one could ever assume their leader would survive long enough to swing. Losing his small body just wasn’t a big deal. However, in the post-ban meta, having a solid leader body is again beneficial.

We’re also swapping one of our Villain/Green/Blue builds to capture the best Vader/ECL deck. Formerly, we’d theorized that it was Kylo/ECL, but it’s clear after the sector, that Gar/ECL is the best in this department. Because of his shields, Gar delivers a tempo-based strategy that demands a very specific set of answers from the opponent.

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I encourage all our readers to also check out SWU Competitive Hub, which does a great job keeping up with tournament results!

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If you’re from the UK, Unlimited Power TCG is your one-stop shop for UK tournament coverage.

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Thanks for reading! Check out the full Meta Snapshot here. Any decks you’ve been enjoying that aren’t seeing enough love in the meta? Let us know!