Nick's Vader/Guard Blitz (W/ Guide)

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Derived from
eVader/Guard-Fast Hands Errata? No problem 8 9 15 1.0
Inspiration for
None yet.

nickthebug7777 1381

Hey guys! It's Nick with back with an updated Vader/Guard deck.

I love this deck. It's fast, its fun, and you keep Vader alive with guardian. Sometimes, people will even go for the Guard first which is perfect for you. It also gives you the perfect opportunity to play Price Of Failure with no fear. First I'll go through some of the card choices and then I'll describe strategy and match ups.

CARDS: I run this deck with very few upgrades. You don't have enough slots on your characters to play more than 6 and you usually don't want to play any on the Guard so you don't need very many. I'm not a fan of filling your deck with fodder for Sith Holocron. I feel that it ruins you when Holocron is sitting at the bottom of your deck and you have nothing.

Instead, I run this deck with lots of events. These events either mitigate or deal damage. With guardian as well, this deck has lots of removal. The events were very hard to choose for this deck. I ended up going for a very cheap cost curve so which allows you too play most of the cards in your hand. The one card that stands out is Rise Again. I included Rise because with Lure of Power and Vader's resource I can create an instance in which I have the resources and, if well timed, it can win the game.

HOW TO PLAY: Speed helps every deck because you get to kill the opponents character before they can kill you. Remember, however, that cards like Price of Failure, Use the Force, and Boundless Ambition all are very powerful when the opponent can't mitigate. These cards are wonderful and if you have them in your hand consider stalling out the round so your opponent claims and leaves you free to do your shenanigans ;-).

This deck wins or loses very fast. If the opponent doesn't kill you extremely fast, you should be able to kill them by turn 2-3. Just because you kill fast, doesn't mean that you need to move fast. This decks best plays happen after the opponent has claimed. Consider this situation:

Its the first round of the game. You played a Vibroknife on Vader earlier in the turn. You roll Vader and your GUard and end up dealing 5 damage to Poe Dameron. Your opponent has done 6 damage to your Guard. Your opponent, thinking you are done, claims the battlefield. You play enrage to get yourself a resource, play Price of Failure to kill your guard (now at 1 health) and ready Vader, and play Boundless Ambition to draw 5 cards (plenty of rerolls!). You roll 7 damage with Vader to kill Poe turn one. This actually happened to me.

So make sure you claim and pass wisely because after your opponent claims this deck goes off like a rocket and wrecks face.

Mulligan usually for an upgrade (hopefully Vibroknife) and Price of Failure. Refrain from using Price of Failure unless the Guard will die next action or you have Boundless Ambition to do rerolls.

MATCH UPS: This deck has a very specific set of tough match ups and does well against most other decks.

Poe/Maz: This deck is the top of the meta right now. Vader/Guard does a very good job against this deck by mitigating a Poe die every turn and by killing Poe by turn 2 at the latest. After Poe falls, it's usually Maz vs a full health Vader which is a fight Vader will win.

Emo Kids: Another popular deck. This deck relies on taking down a heavy hitter before Emo Vader dies. Vader Guard, however, does a very good job of mitigating those powerful dice and will often kill Emo Vader by turn one. After this, its OG Vader vs Kylo. Vader almost always wins this matchup.

Palpatine: This deck is very swingy. It will tank n tournaments but it will also win SCs depending on rolls. This is the ultimate deck that suffers to mitigation and guardian. Vader Guard will almost always win this match up.

FN decks: FN decks are this decks worst enemy. They roll in and immediately resolve everything. Do not guarding in the FN match. Instead, load up the Guard and Price of Failure Vader before he dies to win this match. You need to kill FN by turn 2 at the latest to have a chance, however.

Vader/Raider: This deck and Vader/Raider are about even in power levels. The thing that swings in favor of Vader Guard is the guardian. Without Fast Hands, Vader has trouble targeting versus my deck and is forced to take out the Guard first. In addition, Vader/Raider usually doesn't play Price of Failure which is one of your best tools in this deck.

Blue Hero (Rey/X) These decks do a lot of surprise damage and tend to be extremely fast. To beat them, you need to go for the heavy hitter (Luke, Obi Wan, or Qui Gon) first and take them out fast. These decks will generally be on top of the battle field. When they claim that's when you make your move.

Phasma/X These decks play the same game as you. They mitigate damage all over the place with guarding and other mitigation. The key is to do the same and Price of Failure/Boundless Ambition their Phasma after they claim.

I hope you enjoyed this very long-winded read. Please do test out the deck and let me know what you think! Thanks again! -NickTheBug7777

15 comments

Schattenriss 1

@NickTheBug7777: Great idea about how to play eVader/Guard. As Speed is important respective it is important that the opponent can't interrupt your shenanigans, I am tempted to include Force speed.

nickthebug7777 1381

@Schattenriss Thanks!

Force Speed is fine in this deck but it's not stellar. Vader's dice tend not to cooperate so you don't need just 2 additional actions you need 3 or 4 to reroll into damage. Force Speed isn't that important because you can do the same thing after the opponent claims if you play your cards right.

ordinaryjedi.ddu.network 834

Thanks for keeping us posted. Do you think using Force Illusion would be a better fit than Rise Again? I feel you would use Force Illusion more purely on its cost. If you can get it out early to prevent round 1 it 2 damage, it should more than make up for the 5 break Rise Again would offer.

nickthebug7777 1381

I haven't tried Force Illusion in this deck yet. I think, however, that it has minimal use against melee decks (with Vibro running arround) and will only help with range decks. This deck has a little trouble against nines and hero blue but is very good against ranged opponents. Rise Again, on the other hand, heals 5 so can protect against Vibroknife as well. In addition, it costs only 3 because you will usually put an upgrade on Vader which you would have played anyway.

If I were to slot in Force Illusion, I think I would take out No Mercy as the card I use least often in this deck. It helps as a closing play against Palpatine but this deck eats Palp for breakfast without it.

Schattenriss 1

@nickthebug7777according to my understanding force illusion works against vibroknife in the same why as ranged attacks do (technically). Can you explain why force illusion is not working against vibroknife?

Psyker501 1

@Schattenriss Force Illusion specifically in its mechanic blocks damage. Damage from knives are unlockable, ranged damage is completely blockable... unless I am misunderstanding your question.

SwEEEEEtDookie 19

You're correct. Vibroknife damage is unblockable, there for illusion cannot block it. Nice deck tho. I like the fact of few upgrades. Gonna try this build out

nickthebug7777 1381

@Schattenriss Force Illusion blocks damage. Vibroknife makes melee damage unblockable. So the Vibro'd up melee damage slices right through it.

@SwEEEEEtDookie Thanks! I feel as if the fewer upgrades allows you to play better events and Vader's dice are so good on their own. I hope you do test it out! Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Schattenriss 1

@all: Thanks for the explanation!

heavyboots79 7

@Schattenriss the key word is block. Vibroknife is unblockable and illusion says "block" Can't use illusion to block a vibro.

Leddon75 152

I really like this deck, maybe just add a Kylo Lightsaber against these imperial inspections instead of Use the force

nickthebug7777 1381

@Leddon75 That's not a bad idea. I haven't done this yet because I didn't feel as if this deck suffered that much from Imperial inspection but it wouldn't hurt to have more dice out. In addition, Use The Force doesn't put in a ton of work in this deck. I'll test it out.

Thanks for the suggrstion!

HaggisMchaggis 1

How do you go saving up the resources for rise again? This deck looks like it runs light on cash.

nickthebug7777 1381

@HaggisMchaggis This deck does tend to not have much money. The way I pay for rise again is to prepare for a time when I might need it. If Vader has taken heavy damage early I'll save my resources for two turns, resolve a resource side, and boom! I use the Guard's ability and 0 cost removal heavily in these situations to save resources.

Hope this helps!

nickthebug7777 1381

In case you guys were wondering, I piloted this deck into 18th place in the 90 person online store championship missing the top cut by SOS. On tournament day I decided to replace one copy of no mercy with one copy of Kylo's Lightsaber. The card overperformed in all of my games. Thanks for the idea @Leddon75!