Top 32 US Nationals 2018 - Thrawn/Snoke w/ report 1.0

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• 1.0

Took this deck to the top 32 of the US Nationals - this was my first major (non-store champs) tournament, so I was super excited to make it to day 2!

I decided to go a bit lower to the ground, deciding not to play any Tech Team's or Planetary Bombardment's, and running DH-17 Blaster Pistol and Podracer instead. This resulted in me going for First Order TIE Fighter over AT-DP as well, as I wanted as many base range sides as I could find to pair with the DH-17 Blaster Pistol. These changes were all made to combat hero mill, which I proceeded to face zero times in the tournament. At least I was prepared though!

Mind Trick was a blowout every time I played it, and even though I never played Fall Back, just having it in my deck to hedge against 2-character aggro felt like the right call. Also to note, I felt incredibly far ahead whenever I could play a turn 1 Count Dooku's Solar Sailer - the card advantage, focus, shields and resources would just snowball, and as long as I could stay alive I felt like the late game favored me. I maybe missed Hidden Motive a little, but Doubt was great against all of the Snoke matchups, as it forced them to resolve/remove dice without using Snoke's power action.

Day 1 matchups:

1) Tarkin - Grand Moff/Seventh Sister - Agile Inquisitor - Win (1-0)

• Not much was going on after the first turn of the game, but I was able to remove some of his 0-cost upgrades and removal with Thrawn - Master Strategist, and some big Beguile/Mind Trick plays really hindered his ability to use Tarkin - Grand Moff's power action.

2) Snoke - Supreme Leader/Bazine Netal - Master Manipulator/First Order Stormtrooper - Win (2-0)

• I don't remember a ton from this game, but I think Hailfire Droid Tank into cheap vehicles really piled up the damage. Also being able to do some targeted ranged damage thanks to the DH-17 Blaster Pistol helped me to focus down characters rather than have all of the indirect damage spread out.

3) Thrawn - Master Strategist/Snoke - Supreme Leader - Loss (2-1)

• My opponent had some awesome tech in this matchup - Grand Moff with the Jedi Temple - Coruscant battlefield. By the end of the game he had 2 Grand Moff's on Thrawn, so his turn would start with a Grand Moff Power action to strip any events I had, then activate Thrawn - Master Strategist, knowing exactly which number to name to take my most relevant support. Didn't really feel like I had any chance at all once the Grand Moff came down, as I really needed to focus Thrawn - Master Strategist down early and couldn't manage to.

4) Kylo Ren - Tormented One/Snoke - Supreme Leader - Loss (2-2)

• I think I made a huge mistake in this one, and it nearly cost me my tournament. At one point in the game, I had Kylo Ren - Tormented One at 6 damage, with a 2 Focus on one Thrawn die, 2 Focus on one Snoke die, an irrelevant side on a Darth Vader's TIE Advanced, and no resources. I planned out in my head to use Snoke's die to focus Thrawn to his 2 resource and the TIE Advanced to its special, which would have allowed me to kill Kylo, but instead I used Thrawn's 2 focus, which left me 1 resource short! I was able to re-roll to get the 3 range side on the TIE, but him having an extra turn out of Kylo sealed the deal.
• A very important side note here - thankfully both my fiancee and a group of friends from our local game store were up at the tournament as well, and their encouragement really helped me bounce back from making that game-ending mistake. A HUGE thank you to all of them, I couldn't have gotten through Day 1 without you guys!

5) Snoke - Supreme Leader/Sebulba - Cutthroat Podracer/Ciena Ree - Adept Pilot - Loss (2-3)

• This game was decided by one critical turn - my opponent had 4 resources, an AT-ST, and a Ciena Ree - Adept Pilot. He was able to get a shield on Ciena Ree - Adept Pilot, which left me one damage point from defeating her, so I had to watch helplessly as he rolled in the 4 ranged (non-pay) side of the AT-ST 3 times in a row to take my Snoke from 0 damage to dead in one round! To be fair he also had a 2 Focus side on his own Snoke, so I was probably still toast anyway, but to see the AT-ST hit perfectly 3 times in a row after I was one damage from defeating Ciena Ree - Adept Pilot really was a twist of the knife.

6) Kylo Ren - Tormented One/Arihnda Pryce - Unscrupulous Governor - Win (3-3)

• I was able to get out a few ships, including Darth Vader's TIE Advanced, which was able to do 6 damage one turn to Kylo, and 5 damage the next turn to Arihnda. There also was a Dark Ritual to bring Thrawn - Master Strategist back from the dead as some insurance.

7) Yoda - Wizened Master/Cassian Andor - Rebellion Operative/Profitable Connection - Win (4-3)

• My opponent really got the short end of the stick in this one - he didn't get a damage dealing upgrade until the end of Round 2, which was a Force Wave on Yoda after he had already rolled out. I think I was even able to roast Yoda that round with some targeted damage, so he never got the chance to use the Force Wave. His deck drew a lot of combo cards (All In, Impulsive/Quick Draw), but not any of the necessary upgrades to make them scary.

8) Kylo Ren - Tormented One/Arihnda Pryce - Unscrupulous Governor - Win (5-3)

• Sitting down for this match was great - both of us knew we had a chance of making Day 2 with a win, so we were going to have a great game either way! I don't remember a ton of details about this game, but that's mostly because of how incredible my opponent was after the game was over. He ended up seeing the final standings before I did, and proceeded to give me a high-five and a huge hug once he saw that I had made Day 2! Something like that has never happened to me in any game I've played before, and to me, it is yet another example of the incredible people that are a part of this Destiny community. I can only hope that if the roles are ever switched, that I react the same way!

Day 2 matchup:

1) Snoke - Supreme Leader / Bazine Netal - Master Manipulator / First Order Stormtrooper - Loss (1-2)

• Game 1 started out pretty weird - we got about halfway through our first turn before the judges said that time hadn't started, and that we should roll everything back. This seemed like a pretty unfair advantage for me, since I now knew my opponent's entire hand thanks to having activated Thrawn. We decided to just replay our first couple actions as we had before, and even though the die rolls were different, I think we played it as fairly as we could. I was able to win after a long, drawn out battle, with both of us having an armada of vehicles out by the end. I think it may have been the best game of Destiny I ever have played, and having to keep track of all of the information I had thanks to Thrawn was pretty mind-numbing. Unfortunately this game took over half of our allotted time, so we both tried to play our subsequent games faster, to ensure that we didn't go to time. I think this was a tactical error on my part - my turns need to be a lot more methodical due to all of the information I have access to with Thrawn. To be clear, I didn't feel forced to make the decision to speed up, and we both wanted to give ourselves a chance at playing 3 games if it came to it. But I think in the future I wouldn't speed up my play as much as I did - I think I overcorrected.
• Game 2 was a back-and-forth, but my opponent was able to win with still a decent bit of health on Snoke if I recall correctly. A huge difference-maker in this game for him was Salvage Stand, which knocked out a decent number of my resources during the course of the game. I think an error I made was to take his Chance Cube instead of the Salvage Stand when I had called zero with Thrawn and had a choice of discarding either. After playing the game out, I felt like I could have dealt with him having more ships in play (which he could do with resources from Chance Cube), but the lost resources for me via the Salvage Stand really hampered my development. Another error I made here was to pass a handful of times at the end of the game when my opponent had lethal, and already knew my hand from Friends in Low Places. Since I was already worried about time, I should have just conceded, to give us the maximum amount of time for Game 3. I just was on auto-pilot and had forgotten that he already had seen my hand, so the passing to bluff removal was just wasted time.
• Game 3 was a little more anticlimactic - he got out a Count Dooku's Solar Sailer early, which kept him flush with options, resources and focus. One play I do remember was him activating the Solar Sailer after I knew his hand from Thrawn - Master Strategist. He now had one unknown card in hand, which happened to be his singleton Deflect, which really hurt after I rolled out the 3-for-1 resource side on my Hailfire Droid Tank. Big props to my opponent for a hard-fought win!

Thanks again to all of my opponents, all of whom were friendly and gracious in either victory or defeat. Again, I really appreciate how amazing this community is - we all really do have a special game and an wonderful group of players!