5-Dice Killer B's (Bala, Bazine, and their boy) 1.0

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• 1.0

This is the Empire at War deck I've had the most success with so far. Here is my humble guide to how I play it. I'd love to hear from anyone who's played something similar.

It's consistently beaten Ahsoka/Kanen and Cad Bane/Phasma. Unless Sabine/Ezra gets their loop set up, it beats that deck. It pretty much always takes care of any non-top-tier stuff. It usually wins versus eCienna/eBala/Guavian Heat Of Battle as long as you remember to play around Heat of Battle. It has mixed results against Thrawnkar and ePoe/Sabine; those are the weaker meta matchups for this deck, but I'd say you still get about 50% wins versus ePoe/Sabine, and Thrawnkar you get maybe 30% wins. There could be improvements that increase that, though. I just haven't found them yet. I am looking.

Edit: After more extensive testing, I've discovered this deck is a very solid, fun tier 2 deck no one is talking about. Well-piloted, it can sometimes take out tier 1 decks and consistently take out many other tier 2 decks, and it can win a small tournament, but I don't think it has the heat, ultimately, to hang with well-piloted tier 1 decks right now. But man . . . Fight Dirty for like 5 followed by Armed to the Teeth for 3 for the win out of nowhere is addictive as heck. And if the FN/Buy Out/Running Interference errata comes, this deck's stock goes up a bit. /End edit.

Take your battlefield if you can. You're faster than most 3-character decks and you have more use for it than 2-character decks.

Mulligan for a 2-cost redeploy gun, some 0-1 cost removal, and a good trick or two. If you get All In in your opening hand, you may want to keep it; it's only really that likely to be useful when Bala-Tik - Gang Leader and his focus are still alive, and he tends to die first.

During turn 1 and 2, roll Bazine Netal - Master Manipulator for her special. Try to get her special as your first strike on all opponent's characters.

Put guns on Bala-Tik - Gang Leader first, obviously, in hopes of a big reactivation.

Put Deadly on Bazine Netal - Master Manipulator. This may cause people to go for her before they go for Bala, which is fine because it increases the likelihood Bala gets a reactivation before his demise. And then late-game there's always a chance you get another Deadly on someone else. If you draw a 2-cost gun and Deadly in the same turn, consider playing the 2-cost gun on Bazine, resolving the dice, and then overwriting it with Deadly to get 2 solid out of that upgrade slot in one turn.

Armed to the Teeth is a finisher, it's real good.

Friends in Low Places gives you a turn when you can either smoke their removal or at least know what's coming, making it easier to in good conscience use focus, so that's nice. If I could find room for 2 of this card I would do it, but we need everythign here.

Other than that, just remember: This is a deck of tricks. Bait and Switch, All In, Deadly coming out to make Bazine Netal - Master Manipulator's useless-seeming dice into finishers after your opponent thought they were safe, Fight Dirty, Armed to the Teeth. It's tricks. Use the cards to squeeze as much damage as possible out of every round. If you use the On The Hunt special one single time to take of like 2 shields, then use Armed to the Teeth to get a finishing damage out of On the Hunt, that's a card well-used. If you have to overwrite a gun with Deadly to get the last 2 unblockable you need to kill a character, go for it. Destiny right now is about speed, and this deck gives you the tools to ruin lives quickly, it's just a matter of using all the available tricks.

Specific deck matchups: Thrawn - Master Strategist/Unkar Plutt - Junk Dealer -- There are three cards that are in this deck mostly for this matchup. Rend, obviously, for Imperial Inspection. Relby-V10 Mortar Gun, also for Imperial Inspection. And finally, believe it or not, Hound's Tooth. In most matchups, Hound's Tooth is too slow in this deck. But versus Thrawnkar, it saves the day. Why? Again, Imperial Inspection, and also Salvage Stand. Hound's Tooth lets you make enough resources to keep replaying your 2-cost upgrades until you have so many that losing 1 per round to Inspection is livable. Get your cards down on the table fast and Bala's focus plus LL-30 Blaster Pistol's ranged-focus-special can carry you through turns with no rerolls to do plenty of damage.

Poe Dameron - More Than A Pilot/Sabine Wren - Explosives Expert -- Depending on your first-turn burst, which can be very high in this deck, considering going after Sabine. I know most people say go after Poe, but this deck has high enough damage output that you may kill her off before they find Second Chance. That can be crucial. But, if you don't feel you're going to do a ton of damage in the first turn and a half, go for Poe.

Heat Of Battle villain decks/Ciena Ree - Adept Pilot/Bala-Tik - Gang Leader/Guavian Enforcer -- Play around Heat of Battle. Make sure your dice are in the pool when their dice are in the pool, and you'll usually deter them from even playing it. Pick off their dice even before they show damage using removal cards and Guardian from your battlefield to diminish the Heat of Battle when it comes.

Theoretical changes: I want Relentless Pursuit, but I don't have room for it. With that battlefield, Bazine's special, and the action on the Relby-V10 Mortar Gun, there tends to be some damage lying around on non-target characters, and it could be awesome to do that last 2 damage when it looks like you can't.

I was considering a Confiscation for Second Chance. You don't have TONS of money in this deck, but how else do you deal with having to kill Sabine three times?

Anyway if anyone has any comments I'd love to hear them.