I'll Be There For You - Jyn/Cassian 4-2 PAX Unplugged

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Husher315 23

This is the deck I took the PAX Unplugged this weekend for the Standard Galactic Qualifier. I'll start right off the bat by saying I didn't want to netdeck the French championship deck, as I had planned on playing this combo before AtG came out. I was going to bring something that was uniquely mine, with some help tweaking from a friend. Obviously, no scrap heap, and no Maz's vault. No, I wouldn't change that. Here's the breakdown.

Setup: Occupied City - Lothal is a great BF for this deck. While I only purposefully milled for two specific games, it was still nice to have, as I think it kept opponents on their toes, as some weren't sure if I was going to mill or go for straight damage. At points, I did both at points due to so many mirror matches. If I'm losing the rollout, I'm putting those shields on Cassian Andor - Rebellion Operative. Jyn Erso - Daring Infiltrator was the first target in every game. Having basically two 12 health characters was nice. I've seen other players putting them on Jyn, but I thought Cassian was the easy pick.

Mulligans, I was hoping for Truce and and an early Second Chance. I know some wait to put this out, but I won most of my matches because it was the first card I played if I had a Truce. From there, I was hoping for Jyn Erso's Blaster, Rex's Blaster Pistol or Holdout Blaster. Basically anything that's going to give me quick re-rolls, double actions, etc. I should have mentioned Hit and Run, but I think that's because it's obvious.

In four of the six games, I played straight damage, activating Jyn first every time, either with a Hit and Run, activating Cassian next, or a Holdout Blaster. Like I said above, I was always trying to get either a Second Chance, Jyn's Blaster, or Rex's Blaster first turn. There was one game I won with literally zero upgrades on either character, which brings me to my last point.

Yeah, you don't need many upgrades, not when you can bank on rolling double two side ranged with Jyn 95% of the time. That, combined with Cassian's damage sides, and ability to deal indirect damage is simply nasty. I was rolling Jyn's damage sides almost perfectly in ALL six matches. Oh, and if you don't roll those and roll mill, you can just mill the crap out of your opponent.

Matchups:

W vs. Iden Versio - Inferno Squad Commander/Mother Talzin - Nightsister Matriarch - This was an odd pairing to see first round. I was convinced it was going to be a mirror match or Thrawn/Snoke. I knocked out a Truce early, put Jyn's Blaster on Jyn, and didn't look back. I ate away at Iden, while my opponent put all of Cassian's indirect on Mother. I milled out his Witch Magick, so that was that.

W vs. Jyn/Cassian - First of three mirror matches. Played against a super nice guy who fully admitted he didn't have some of the same cards as I did. It was typical hit for hit, but I believe he was playing more on the mill end, and I was playing straight damage. Again, I rolled perfectly with Jyn all tournament, so consistent 2/2 on Jyn, as well as Cassian, and the indirect, I won this one out as well.

W vs. Jyn/Cassian: I actually feel bad about this match. I think my opponent was super nervous, and got inside his head too much. He overthought every move, and not only forgot to use many of the abilities available to him, made a lot of mistakes as well. I didn't play a single upgrade this round, and won easily.

L vs. Thrawn - Master Strategist/Snoke - Supreme Leader - This is where things went downhill. I knew going into this match, I was going to have to try and keep things moving and mill out my opponent. This match wasn't a blow out like I thought it would be. I felt good off the bat because I milled away one of his Vader's Fist, and just hoped I could get his second. I couldn't, and it most definitely did me in. I was able to Second Chance Cassian back in, and get him down to 10 total cards, hand and draw, but it just wasn't enough.

L vs. Snoke - Supreme Leader/Mother Talzin - Nightsister Matriarch/Ciena Ree - Adept Pilot - This one went far better than I thought it would be. Really nice guy, we joked around the whole time. I knew my damage output wasn't going to keep up with his so I knew mill was my strategy right away. I know I made a big mistake early in round one, resolving damage sides instead of discarding to re-roll in fear of basically the speed of the game. I wanted to resolve as fast as possible. Had I re-rolled for mill sides, I actually think I might have pulled this one out. By the end, my opponent had three draw cards left and five in hand. This was certainly a good learning experience.

W vs. Jyn/Cassian - best match I played all day because it was against an acquaintance, and we had played the same mirror in a pod the night before. Our decks were eerily similar. I got Second Chance out first round, and milled one of his in the first round as well. This was just a hardcore fight to the finish. My biggest move was Commando Raid, getting rid of a Hyperspace Jump and his final Second Chance. It still came down to who could roll the killing blow first, though I could have also milled him out, as he was down to the one card in his hand. I discarded my whole hand to finally get damage sides on Cassian to squeak out the win. Just an unbelievably great match, if not the best match I've ever played from a nail biter point of view.

Stars: Obviously, the big stars and heavy hitters of the deck are Jyn's Blaster and Second Chance. I don't think this deck is complete without those two cards. Hit and Run is also massive, and for me, I seriously believe Truce won me some games.

Honorable mentions: Rex's Blaster is real nice if you control the battlefield, being able to to activate your other character. And the damage sides sure don't stink either. Clandestine Operation came in handy on more than one occasion, and like I said with Truce for some games, Commando Raid helped secure my last win in a big way.

Busts: Not that it's a bad card, but I didn't play DH-17 Blaster Pistol once. I think I need to keep it, because it's a good discard option, but other than that, it was no existent in any of my matches. Next, I'm going to go on record and say that Handheld L-S1 Cannon might be one of the most overrated cards of the new set. I used it once all tourney. And maybe, it's because I just didn't need it, but I just don't think Leverage is anything special.

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