AARP Mill - 1st Place Back-to-Back Store Championships

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JimmyD 84

Get ready to snag a free senior coffee at McDonald's with AARP- the mill deck of choice for the discerning retiree.

This deck (with a couple changes highlighted later) went back-to-back 1st place at Store Championships at Mythic Games in Elmira, NY on 7-27 (11 players) and Just Games in Rochester, NY on 7-29 (28 players).

For the first event at Mythic Games, I wanted to play some kind of mill deck, as the rise of Kylo Ren - Tormented One's popularity seemed to be herding people toward all kinds of vehicle builds. Every deck I played against over the course of the event had some kind of vehicle base (a four wide hero build and three different Snoke-based builds) and the oldest pairing in the galaxy was able to do its thing.

The following changes were made before the next event: -2 First Aid, -1 Mislead, -1 Entrenched, +2 Field Medic, +1 Way of the Light, +1 Control. The First Aid to Field Medic change felt right, as I quickly discovered how much of a Magical Christmas Land scenario it was for First Aid to ever fire on turn one. The Mislead became Way of the Light for extra versatility against things like Planetary Bombardment and other heavy damage dice. Since we already have the ridiculously powerful Suppressive Fire and Pacify for character dice, this was a good change. Control is hot garbage in this deck and was never played once in 11 games on the day. Since mill is on the upswing, something else that's good in the mirror would be beneficial in this slot.

The Just Games Store Championship was a solid 28 players with 6 rounds and a top 8. Here, briefly, were the match-ups:

Rd 1 - eKylo Ren - Tormented One/ eArihnda Pryce - Unscrupulous Governor. Dex's Diner saved the day in this one, feeding Yoda just enough breakfast omelets to survive the onslaught. The heavy discard Leia provides helped early by not allowing a lot of re-rolls for better damage. Like a lot of my games on the day, this was close.

Rd 2 - ePlo Koon - Jedi Protector/ double Padawan. This one can get out of hand quickly if you don't have enough early discard. I didn't, and he dropped weapons like mad. Timed right, Beguile is an all-star late in the game in this kind of situation, especially against a deck with fewer Focus sides. The Diner also did more work, this time with a series of well-timed milkshakes.

Rd 3 - eRex - Clone Captain, Clone Trooper, Maz Kanata - Pirate Queen. This deck was awesome, and his choice to run Jedi Temple - Coruscant as the Battlefield was inspired. Between Rex's Blaster Pistol and Maz, the activation speed was blazing, and Liea got destroyed handily almost in one shot. The fast claiming of the Temple also hit some valuable cards from my hand. Yoda was able to shield up enough to survive, and once again Beguile was a last-minute swing.

Rd 4 - eGeneral Grievous - Fearsome Cyborg, Royal Guard. When my friend Matt decided to run with Grievous I thought he was crazy. Then he turned in a Top 4 performance and beat me in this nail-biter of a game. I was unable to mill or discard either Tactical Mastery and he hit the cyborg's power action with it twice. With no cards left in hand or deck, he had one Ancient Lightsaber left to put on the bottom at the end. With Yoda dead and most of my hand gone to mitigate the damage to an almost dead Leia, a key double blank re-roll of Leia's character dice with no cards left in my hand left me unable to use her Power Action to nab the Lightsaber. My deck was down to almost nothing as well, due to an earlier Force Illusion hit, and the 2 cards I had left couldn't stop him again.

Rd. 5 - Mono eSabine Wren - Explosives Expert w/ Calling in Favorsl. Yikes. This is the deck that mill tells their kids about to get them to clean their room. "If you don't clean this mess up, mono Sabine will come for you." I had to pull out all the stops, shielding with Yoda's special and slamming down cheeseburgers at Dex's Diner. Even with back-to-back Hyperspace Jumps I was able to mill him out exactly with 2 health left on Yoda. He discarded his last card to re-roll the exact damage that would kill me on two dice and my last card was a Pacify to remove one of them. With a few more gray hairs I headed to round 6.

Rd. 6 - eSnoke - Supreme Leader, Ciena Ree - Adept Pilot, Bala-Tik - Gang Leader. The vehicles match is just so good for mill. He got a really fast start that ended up with double Hailfire Droid Tank and a few other vehicles, but with ten cards in his deck I was able to Yoda special twice, Force Meditation, Strength Through Weakness, Leia's power action to get it to 0.

Top 8 - ePlo Koon - Jedi Protector, Jedha Partisan x 2. We milled each other out at about the same clip, but Leia's superior discard was able to strip away his hand pretty fast. Definitely my best Leia discard rolls of the day.

Top 4 - General Grievous - Fearsome Cyborg, Royal Guard. The Revenge Bowl. He missed a weapon drop turn 2, hurting his tempo a bit, and I was able to get aggressive with the mill. This game really played out like the first one, but just slow enough on his end due to the missed weapon and only one Tactical Mastery to allow me to survive and mill him out. I will say that Grievous has some potential, especially against mill decks if the big plays can connect.

Finals - Cassian Andor - Rebellion Operative, Anakin Skywalker - Podracing Prodigy, eYoda - Wizened Master. Jason had gone undefeated on the day and was also playing mill. These were three games to forget, and definitely the least exciting of the day. Game one he got double Force Meditation and Anakin's Podracer and it was not remotely close. Clandestine Operation with a chain of Yoda specials put this one in the bag quickly for Jason. Games two and three I got the jump with some heavy discard and Strength Through Weakness hits. We both agreed these were our worst games on the day. For all the talk that eCassian and eYoda gets, I really do like the Anakin version. His Podracer is amazing with him on the board.

Parting thoughts on the deck: I understand the love for eYoda / eCassian, but I am a big fan of the Leia/ Yoda pairing also, maybe even more so. Leveraging Leia's discard sides with Commando Raid was a killer all day, and red lets you pack Suppressive Fire, which is just bonkers. C-3PO and Chance Cube is also a classic. Triple shielding with the Chance Cube die saved at least one game.I'm also bullish on having two Strength Through Weakness - it helps you close games at just the right time and is helpful in the mill mirror. Also, about Stolen Intel - I may be alone on my island, but I firmly believe that Stolen Intel is superior to Fortify, at least in this deck. The extra card can give you an early jump with things like Chance Cube/ 3PO or Hit and Run/ Commando Raid. Even in the mirror, where it seems counter-intuitive to draw an extra card, the truth is that the games are fairly short and explosive, and getting that first turn Force Meditation or Scout can be huge - not to mention the fact that the shield from Fortify is useless. Try it for yourself and see if you agree. For every game you would lose by exactly one point of damage, you will play many where the extra card will help you have the best possible first turn.

Thanks to all of my opponents for some great games and a great community! Hopefully I will see you all at (shameless plug) our Store Championship at Millennium Games in Rochester on August 11th!

3 comments

XxGRYPHONxX 73

How often did you find yourself using Force Illusion?

JimmyD 84

@XxGRYPHONxX Not as much as I would have thought, but the times I did it saved the game. Against Sabine and Kylo It prevented 5 and 6, respectively. I wish I could cut one, but I don’t think its possible right now- especially if Sabine picks up steam because mill gets more popular.

Sinomi 375

This was a lot of fun to read. Thank you for being you. <3