EaW Tourney Winner - Thrawn/Unkar

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
I'll pay you for him... 60 portions!!! 2 0 2 1.0
thrawnkar of mine 0 0 0 1.0
Thrawnkar - 3rd Place Finisher 4 2 0 1.0
Thrawnkar with defense 0 0 1 1.0

TheRumHam 650

Won the first EaW tournament in SoCal with this list. I've been thirsting for Thrawn since he was spoiled and was lucky enough to get him right away. The deck is every bit as powerful as hyped. It has multiple paths to victory, either Crime Lord or Buy Out mill.

Defeated:

  • eMace / Maz (Crime Lord'd both)
  • Dooku / Gamorrean Guard / Ciena Ree (milled out)
  • eDooku/ eQuinlan Vos (Milled out)
  • eUnkar / Gamorrean Guard / FOST Mill (We both milled out same round, so I Crime Lord'd Unkar for the tiebreak)
  • eVader1 / Magnaguard (Prized Possession + Detention Center = quit)

Sneaky Good Tech:

  • Hound's Tooth: I wasn't hyped on this legendary, but after 1-2 playtest games I went up to two copies and now I mulligan for it. It's either a Dug In or +2 Resources practically every turn, and often is used to discard with Unkar. Best support for turn 1.

  • Probe Droid: This little guy bailed me out a bunch, never whiffing on at least 1 event. Ambush really helped, being able to instantly roll it to trigger Imperial Inspection or threaten a discard right away was solid.

  • Detention Center: Any deck with single die characters gets wrecked by this. Against big dudes like Mace or Vader, you can Prized Possession one die, then Detention Center just completely locks that character out of the game. Basically a 2nd type of Crime Lord effect.

  • Prized Possession: Used to play 2, Detention Center took 1 copy. I still want to play 2, its so good to draw early.

  • Coercion: Not as powerful as I thought, but still absolutely keeping it in the list. Making Vader/Mace remove their own dice with their own resources is such a tempo swing for only 1.

  • Blackmail: This was fine but not crazy good. I think it'll be better if I squeeze in a Local Garrison

  • Medical Center battlefield: I often took theirs instead, but when we did play on this battlefield it was delightfully frustrating for my opponents.

Cards I Didn't Play:

  • Friends in Low Places: You get a free one with Thrawn, and Coercion takes it slot as a more powerful version of the effect.

  • Con Artist: Never really pays off. Even if you hit it 2 turns in a row, thats 2 resources and some actions to get only 3 cards off the top. I'd rather Buy Out as my sole deck milling card.

  • Local Garrison: Hard card to find room for, but I think I will. I ran Detention Center instead and loved it, but I still think 1x Local Garrison would be a worthwhile addition.

  • Armor Plating/Personal Shield: Hounds Tooth took the slot, it can be used as shields if needed. I expected a lot of Thrawn/Unkar and healing is dead in the mirror.
34 comments

Aurelius47 52

I'm in love with this deck. I've loved mill since I played it and I can't wait to give this a whirl! Nice job on the win as well!

truth123 311

You really should play ruthless tactics for the hounds tooth since it works ever better with buy out.

herrerodani 100

"(We both milled out same round, so I Crime Lord'd Unkar for the tiebreak)". When both players get milled, the one owning the battlefield wins. Damage is not a tiebreak in this case.

VehicularSupport 41

@herrerodani I'm pretty damage is the first tie breaker

herrerodani 100

From the rules reference:

There are two ways for a game to end:

• All of a player’s characters are defeated. The game ends immediately and the other player wins the game.

• If a player has no cards in their hand and deck at the end of a round (after the upkeep phase), they lose and the other player wins. If both players would lose this way, the player who controls the battlefield at the end of the round wins.

VehicularSupport 41

I was thinking about going to time in a tournament

kittenhead 14

So I may just be wrong here, but I really dislike Crime Lord.

I just feel it is way to resouce dependant, and it be a yellow chracter only and not kiiling the chracter immedately really makes me dislike the card.

I have also found that Blackmail isnt really that great unless you're able to resouce lock them out of the game, or have fast hands, and it just seems like somthing could fit better in that slot.

But I can understand having so few win condidtions can hurt the deck.

I'm just not sure what cards would be better in those spots, Chance cube?

RebelSpy 1304

@herrerodani Whoops, guess I should know that. @therumham, let's rematch :P

TheRumHam 650

@RebelSpy Knowing how it works now, I'm definitely keeping Medical Center battlefield. Mill decks can't claim it against you and win!

RebelSpy 1304

All claim abilities are a "may", so they can still claim and win.

Dave Sharona 601

@kittenhead this deck generates an OBSCENE amount of resources. Against my buddy, I think he was at 16 by round 3. Crime Lord is a great play.

NemesisTK 11

To me medical center is key stone to this deck, as long as your not playing against another mill. I'm planning on using new orders to ensure that I can use medical center. (will drop a coercion) And I'm running a local garrison instead of detention center. Anyone have a better suggestion for either of or both blackmails?

NemesisTK 11

Also I'm thinking of running fall back as an option if the disrupts/imp inspection/confiscation don't keep the upgrades off. Any thoughts? Also great job with this deck, this concept was in my mind for a heavy control, high support, buy out/mill deck, but you have helped me a ton with this.

jgoldshlag 1

Medical Center is a may, so your opponents can (and probably always will) choose to heal no damage and not hand over the BF to you. Lots of people don't know this, but that is how it works.

Zenclix 1

If I may ask, why Detention Center instead of a second Prized Possession? Doesn't your opponent usually sacrifice a second character die, forcing the discard of Detention Center? Thanks!

Zenclix 1

Ummm, disregard that question, lol. Thanks!

Foz 1024

I can see the usefulness of Detention Center, but bear in mind it's probably quite weak against 2/2 lineups including the mirror. You won't usually clear both of the minor character's dice after it activates, which means if they activate the major character they'll have character dice left to explode Detention Center.

Not_A_Potato 1

@jgoldshlag I don't understand why Medical Center - Kaliida Shoals is a may. It seems that the first and second sentence are independent of each other. For most battlefields, the act of claiming the battlefield is usually what gives you control of the battlefield. In the case of Medical Center, the act of claiming is what gives the battlefield to your opponent.

jgoldshlag 1

@Not_A_Potato all Battlefield claim effects are may effects. From the rules reference:

CLAIM ABILITIES Battlefields have claim abilities on them, preceded by the word “Claim” in bold. These abilities are optional and may be resolved by the player who claims the battlefield.

jdmaze 1

I'm not understanding how you "lock out" a character. You do know you can still activate a character who's dice have been tied up. Also the character abilities still work. You would activate the character and/or use their ability and roll out the upgrades they have. You're just removing a couple of dice. Yes, that sucks a bit for them, but it doesn't "lock them out".

Kfisher109 1

Why Medical Center - Kaliida Shoals instead of Otoh Gunga - Naboo? As stated earlier, you don't have to use the claim ability when taking the battlefield. Therefore, when I claim, I use the ability to heal and my opponent gets control. When he claims, he declines the ability....and gets control!! Seems like a set up to never have control of the battlefield to me. What am I missing???

Kfisher109 1

@Not_A_PotatoFrom page 14 of version 1.3 of the rules reference:

"A player does not have to use the claim ability"

TheRumHam 650

Great feedback everyone! Maybe Medical Center isn't as good as I thought, perhaps Oota Gunga or another battlefield would fit better.

stranglebat 832

Coercion isn't as good as it sounds. Passing is always valid and technically not an action so if you say coercion a The Best Defense against a Vader/Phasma, they can pass until you roll and then use it. The next action they take does have to be that event though so maybe its good if you want to stall them out and get a cheeky claim.

mrk4539 1

Did you consider Cable Launcher#cab in the blackmail slot? Cant go on Thrawn, but excellent character dice removal when you have the resources (which this deck always does).

Foz 1024

@TheRumHam My pick for battlefield would be Fort Anaxes - Anaxes. It's useless to opponents since you don't even have damage sides, and brutally oppressive if you have it.

Foz 1024

Imperial Academy - Lothal could also be used for support support, or Otoh Gunga - Naboo as you mentioned for consistent heals (also useless to opponent). I think the guardian is better though, especially once you consider that if you win the roll you can have that power in use on turn 1 which claim-based battlefields do not do.

rkik 753

Have you played much more with this or done any tweaking to the deck?

I've been running this a bit and I have a real tough time against fast damage decks like Cad/Phasma if I don't get an early Crime Lord. My son beat me soundly last night killing Thrawn easily within the first two rounds and there was almost nothing I could have done to slow him down with Cad's action cheats.

SillyJedi 477

I think Cargo hold is another good battlefield to use, reasons why are because say if Unkar is about to go down u can claim to keep your crime lords

Aorakis 4

NIce decks, tried it a bit on TTop, really fun and consistant. I still think people should always target unkar first.

About the deck itself, would you reckon this to still work and doing good with only one crime lord ?

Cheers

rkik 753

@Aorakis I played a version of this deck in an event over the weekend and in my experience I would say that two Crime Lords are necessary. You could play with one, but you will struggle against fast, aggressive decks. In the 7 games I played this weekend, I lost twice because I wasn't able to eliminate FN-2199 - Loyal Trooper fast enough. Plus, Crime Lord is a big reason the deck is fun to play in my opinion.

Aorakis 4

@rkik

Yeah, i guess two are an evil necessity ^^ Especially once Unkar is dead and you can't play it anymore unless you got An "Ace in the hole"

I thought about only 1 Crime lord for a Second prized possession but i guess it's better with two. It's just that i got only one IRL, so i was wondering. But surely it's better with two.

I'm curious, it looks like you played it a lot more than i, are you wining more by Milling or Crime Lording ?

cheers.

rkik 753

@Aorakis I won't say I've played it a ton, but in the games I have played it's a pretty even split of Crime Lord vs. Mill. Mill seems to be the more consistent win condition, but even in those games I had usually used Crime Lord on at least one opposing character.

I have some more info on my version of the deck here: swdestinydb.com

lord_vader 173

I love Unkar Plutt and I love this deck looks amazing