YMCA (Yoda Mill w/ Cassian/Anakin) 26 Player SC 1st Place 1.0

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This is my winning list from the Games & Stuff SC in Glen Burnie, MD. There was a turnout of 26 players for the event.

Deck Tech

This is pretty close to the Hyperloops list from Gencon with only a few small changes. I dropped the Force Jump because it just never felt great in the little bit of testing I did prior to the SC. If I didn't roll into it, I rarely wanted to special chain into it because it often meant not special chaining into something advancing my win condition (e.g. Force Meditation or Maz's Goggles). I didn't often find myself wanting to reroll more than once per round, as it both meant slowing my tempo and pitching valuable mitigation, further perpetuating my dislike of Force Jump. I also found in testing that losing a valuable card early on (e.g. Force Meditation, Anakin's Podracer) could really slow the mill to a near halt, which made me want to tech in Rebel. I reluctantly dropped FILP for this, as I felt I was really only using FILP to look for action cheating events (e.g. Partnership, Tactical Mastery, etc.) and they often went off as the first action of a round if my opponent had initiative, decreasing the perceived value of FILP. I also removed Overconfidence for the spot blue requirement as Yoda was consistently the first target of my opponent. I ultimately ended up with an extra of both Hyperspace and Garbage Chute, and the 2 Rebels.

Just some brief commentary on a few cards. Clandestine Operation is insane, you should always be playing 2 of them. I played only 1 in original testing, but I put the second in after really grasping how absurd it is. In nearly every game of the SC I would hit a Clandestine play for 7-9 off the deck total. Flames of the Past is also absolutely savage. I twice used it to get that pesky Ancient Lightsaber off the board. Rebel mostly pulled its weight, though I admit there were some mixed feelings. It did get me back a Podracer early in 1 game after Thrawn scarfed it up from me 1st action round 1. It got me my Force Meditation in another game as well.

Anyhow, onto the tournament report.

Round 1 vs. Solo Sabine: Of course I draw Sabine round 1. So really the big difference in this game was my opponent playing a hidden blaster outright round 1, instead of first discarding and using Sabine's action cheat. This allowed me to mitigate both Sabine dice for the round and leave with no damage done. I milled early and hard with Force Meditation and a Clandestine for I believe 7 in round 2. My opponent had a splashy round mid game with a tenacity play on Yoda into a Never Tell Me The Odds to shut my entire round down, but it was too late in the game at that point. I finished the game next round with a full health Yoda and a 2 health Anakin. As an aside, I ended the game on an illegal play that neither of us recognized until after we cleaned up. I played Rebel on a Clandestine to hit the last 2 cards in his hand, while hitting the last card on his deck for the win. However, Cassian was already dead, so I was not able to use Clandestine. The outcome of the game was pretty set at that point, so I felt bad about it, but don't believe it had any bearing on the result. 1-0

Round 2 vs Thrawn/Snoke: Not a lot to say about this game as the mill was just savage. He hit my podracer with Thrawn first action of round 1, but I promptly played Rebel to get it on the table anyhow. I controlled his Thrawn dice and he was never able to ramp up his money until it was far too late. I finished the game with only 6 cumulative damage on my characters. 2-0

Round 3 vs. Mama Commandos: This was another game with not a lot to say about. I milled both of his Vambraces off the deck round 1, and a chance cube round 2. An interesting downside to Talzin in this matchup is the opponent knowing what's on your deck, so when he revealed the second Vambraces I knew to push for that mill play to get rid of it. He picked up his other Chance Cube the same round (2), and I hit it out of his hand with a discard. He wasn't able to draw useful upgrades, and I controlled his damage sides. Again, the mill was fast and savage and the game was fairly short and uneventful. 3-0

Round 4 vs. Yoda/Cassian (Aggro): This was my first game that was legitimately close. My opponent was playing Profitable Connections and drew a Force Wave round 1 and dropped it immediately. This left me having to make a concerted effort to mitigate its die every round, which I was able to do every time except once. Having to deal specifically with that left Cassian able to resolve his dice often, along with other upgrade dice. I was still able to mill hard, and the game ultimately came down to a pretty wild final round. My opponent was left with 2 cards in hand, and I had my Podracer on a discard side with Anakin still alive, which would have killed his hand. He played hidden motive for discard, and of course my Podracer rolled into a discard... I'm left with an Anakin die and a Bartering die in my pool and 2 cards in hand. I reroll into a focus on the Bartering die, GG. There's nearly no chance I would have survived another round with both Cassian and Anakin near death. 4-0

Round 5 vs. Identity Krysis (Kylo/Pryce): I wasn't really looking forward to this match as I knew it was hard enough aggro to beat me. I had a great first 2 rounds, getting out Force Meditation and a Podracer. However, he won the roll off to start the game and correctly chose his Throne Room, which proved to be too much to overcome in this game. I ultimately lost Yoda too quickly, while he still had cards in deck and a full hand. I only managed to get him down to 4 cards left in hand, and do a lot of impressive stalling (2 second chance, 2 force illusion, lots of mitigation, Flames of the Past on his Ancient, etc), but ultimately the damage wave was too much. 4-1

The event was large enough for a top 4 cut, and I went into the cut as the 2 seed. The 4 of us decided to do a single elimination instead of best of 3, as nobody felt like putting in another 2-3 hours.

Top Cut Round 1 vs. Yoda/Cassian (Aggro): Same deck I played in Round 4, same result. It was another relatively close game, although I felt much more comfortable throughout this one. I milled both of his force waves from deck, as well as both Force Speed which meant he had to play fair this time around. Not being able to force speed into the Cassian activation made a big difference, as I could consistently control his biggest damage dice. I finished the game with both Cassian and Anakin relatively healthy. This was the game where he milled my force meditation round 1 with Cassian, only for me to Rebel it into play anyhow. 5-1

Finals vs. Identity Krysis (Kylo/Pryce): Same deck I played round 5. I could not have possibly had a worse round 1 in this game. I didn't draw into either Force Meditation or Podracer round 1, instead having only a bartering to play down as a dice card. My rolls were cold, he took my Yoda special and Cassian die, and ultimately the only card I milled the entire round was claiming (before ever rolling in Anakin). Important note here is I won the roll off this time, which kept him off Throne Room and he was not playing a New Orders. The early claim proved to be a theme early in the game as I learned my lesson in the swiss matchup. I was able to stabilize round 2 with a force meditation, and a podracer and Maz's Goggles the following round. I again was able to Flames of the Past his Ancient (seriously, this card is just savage). His rolls were a little cooler and I had the right mitigation at the right time, and ultimately I finished this game with a pretty healthy Cassian and Anakin. 6-1

Final Thoughts So this deck is really, truly savage. In my particular list, including Second Chance, Force Illusion, Hyperspace, and Rebel, there are 20 cards that represent hard mitigation, which is even more problematic given the ones you have access to in Hero Blue/Yellow... Easy Pickings, Entangle, Beguile, Garbage Chute, Pacify... all are simply absurd in this deck. If you're able to drop the Force Meditation or Podracer round 1, while also controlling their damage (it's often wise to spend on mitigation first, make a dollar with Yoda or Anakin, and drop the Force Med on Cassian or drop the Podracer late round), things feel destined to become ugly at that point. I feel like the Force Meditation was my preferred round 1 drop, especially if I already had a Clandestine in hand as well. I regularly was able to Clandestine for 7, and had 1 particularly absurd play in the 1 game where I resolved both Yoda specials, Force Med special, Bartering Special, and Goggles special to mill 5 with Clandestine, 2 with Yoda specials, 2 with Force Med, and 1 from hand with goggles... 10 cards for 1 resource!!! Executing a play like this early generally signifies that the game is over, especially if you hit a bunch of dice cards or recurring cards (e.g. Vambraces, Chance Cubes, Ancients, etc.).

Moving forward, I think hard aggro is the only thing that has a good shot at a plus matchup vs YMCA, and even that becomes dicey if you mill their upgrades out. I think Yoda is generally correct as the first target, although I did have a couple people today go for Anakin if I dropped the podracer early. I think this is a bit of a trap, honestly, as Yoda is the real engine behind the deck milling. If you can kill Yoda and still have a fair number of cards in deck, the mill slows to a grind.

Thanks for reading!