So I decided as Ireland doesn’t have a regional (cough Jeremy cough!) I would have to do my usual of taking a flight to more competitive waters and try my luck at the closest regional to me in Lanark, Scotland @ Knightly Games. Not knowing what the local scene was but what the top decks were, I tested heavily the so called meta decks and early on decided that, as a villain player I wanted a Vader's Fist deck. But what pairing? Seeing as so many decks can now resource ramp every round, any character that can stop their cash flow seemed a great idea. So Tobias Beckett - Thief For Hire became the choice which left me with either Ciena Ree - Adept Pilot or Mother Talzin - Nightsister Matriarch , AR and Firespray-31 reset or Talzin and Fist so you can guess they a 3 resource start and Lil Momma got the nod.
After being very kindly dropped to and from the event by the immortally nice Ron (cheers again man!) we arrived in plenty of time to chat to some old friends I met at various Destiny events across the UK.
Game 1 and I face a gentleman called Allen who sets down eBoba and Jango with (he admitted later) has no new updated cards from the new set in it but he was here to meet new people. I loved that deck in the previous meta and Boba can be an issue, but a Tobias Beckett's Rifle and nut rolls took Boba off the board very early on, leaving him with just a single die Jango. A nice win vs a fun opponent and I was 1-0
Second game was against a very strong player in Philip Stinchcomb who made my heart sink. My trouble decks are against Thrawn and he set down the blue meanie and Snoke with BR. My deck fails to this 3/5 games and I wasn’t too hopeful about the match up. However Thrawn at ten health allowed me to kill him much easier than previously pre nerf and as I seemed coasting on my way to victory forgot to disrupt a resource allowing Thrawn to be resurrected from a Dark Ritual play. Thankfully as Snoke was at 1 health left I had enough damage to kill Snoke and took Thrawn out the next round. 2-0. All good.
Then not so good. Scott McDonald took the Firespray reset deck with the inclusion of Bala over Rebel Traitor, and our opening hands after full mulligans each were, quite simply, awful. No upgrades. No supports. Scott managed to pull a Fist R2 mine not arriving to R4. Although I killed Ciena very quickly his focus and Fist tore my list apart and as I struggled to mitigate losing key cards to Probe he easily won the game, rerolling Bala 3 times to Snoke his base side for the 3 to win. 2-1. Oops.
Round 4 and I gave Vader Greedo. And smile. This is the deck I have played the most of and built my Talzin deck to counter it. Which it did very well. My most fun opponent all day in Michael went straight for Beckett to stop my money stealing which was during our game hampering him quite a bit. However with the Fist out I managed to put 13 in one round into Vader to essentially win the game. He asked later should he have went for Talzin first, to which I replied most people do as she fixes dices sides. But he did kill off Beckett before Greedos demise and I hope he had fun playing it.
Pete Bee and his Yoda Leia mill deck was my final opponent with the winner certain of a top cut spot. Early on both of us didn’t get the cards we needed, my dice failing miserably and he without massive mill cards to aid Leia. However as the game wore on my discard pile looked like the line of scrimmage in the NFL and both fists, rifles and bows were gone. With my pass 5 cards I finally killed Leia and we reset the board. I roll out both characters and roll a natural 10, enough to gain the kill. But the shields from Yoda saves him. In a last attempt to win I Beckett PA to pay for Slave 1 and roll it out hitting the 2 indirect, again just enough, until a perfectly timed bewilder takes one of Becketts 3 for a dollar side for a Reroll and I hit blank. Loss and I put my toys away 3-2.
However due to my only losses all day being the top seed and Pete I scrape in 4th and have to unpack my cards again to face Scott in the cut.
The short story is I lost both games but they were certainly much more close than in Swiss. In game 1 I again killed Ciena this time turn 1 and easily kill Bala leaving only Snoke. However a focused Snoke is terrible and although behind, Scott bought the game back brilliantly and won just before my backup muscle would have killed him off start of the next round. In game 2 I switched targets and went after Snoke who went down to a Fist and some good character dice. However his Firespray reset with Ciena was brutal, popping Talzin easily. Beckett fought hard with Illusions and Witch Magick, the final one for only 2 did me. With Ciena on 2 health left his reset wins with huge damage and I’m out. Scott went on to win the tournament beating Petes mill deck.
Overall I’m delighted this deck did as well as I expected it to, losing only to mill which is at best 50/50 and a reset deck which is always tough. It easily plays around Vader and and most other tier one decks and the 3 money start for a rifle of if you win bf and a Fist in hand round 2 is totally devastating for the other player.
All in all a great event at a super friendly FLGS and as all I truly wanted was my Vader mat, I'm super stoked to do as well as I did. Next stop UK Nationals! Any questions, as always, ask in the comments below.