CPH Regional Winner - 40 Player (Wrinkles) 1.0

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As already published in Claus Staal’s tournament report on YOUR Destiny, this is the deck I brought to take home the claim of the 40 player regional in Copenhagen, Denmark. Having a small baby have unfortunately meant this coming out a bit late, but nevertheless, here it is :) The first part is the tournament write-up, some parts a lot more in detail than others, the second part some general considerations for card choices.

Enjoy. -Mathias

Deck choice: Since the release of AtG I had been working hard to get Qui-Gonn Jinn / Yoda / Bitter Rivalry work. QGJ is a powerhouse, but the deck was a 50/50 matchup against Vader, and also had some serious issues handling shadowcaster/reset decks (though this could be somewhat remedied with EMPs). So, seeing as the meta developed, me and my testing partner Christian Apetri (former Regional champ and TOP 4 NORDICS 2017) started testing out other decks to better handle the field. Come VA Regional and the win by Minion Krell (aka Runningonion), my interest was quickly spiked. I had long wanted to make a Leia/Yoda deck, and seeing as it was now a very viable deck, I sat down to tweak Minions list to my playstyle. As such, I can fully accredit Minion aka runningonion with the deck, as my deck was born off of his. If you haven’t already (but you probably have;)) I recommend you go read his write-up, here on SWDB or his deck analysis on YOURdestiny.dk. Also a big shout out to Agent of Zion for his winning San Diego deck, which also had some influence (mainly senate chamber).

Tournament report:

1 round: Millionaires – Christian Apetri (Regional winner 2018) First round gets called and I am going head to head against my sparring partner and good buddy Apetri. Both having just become fathers and me shortly after moving to the same apartment complex as him, we have spent some late nights testing decks while the babies were asleep. We had worked for some time making QGJ work but both opted for mill in the end, him picking 3-wide and me sticking with 2-wide. Almost an autowin for me by default, it felt terrible going in to the match. 3-wide takes more time to setg-up, which the health pool makes up for, but in this matchup that becomes a big weakness. It struggles with hand discard from the get-go, as it needs Anakin’s Podracer for this. First round I milled his podracer, keeping Flames of the Past in hand. When it came down turn 2 it got flamed and the game was pretty much set. He did manage to timewalk me for a whole round by excellent mitigation hand though, and almost caught up with me. In the end, Yoda/leia simply gets the hand more readily and faster and last round often comes down to this. Apetri is an excellent player, and one whom I admire as a player and a good guy. Felt bad, but was certain skill would make him catch up. 1-0

2. Round: Mirror – Yoda/Leia TG – Thomas Bjørn Leth-Nissen Met Thomas at one of last year’s regionals, both of us playing Thrawn/Talzin and getting matched-up round 2 for the mirror, me coming out on top. Fate, apparently, is not without irony. Actually, hadn’t done any real testing against the mirror as Mill is not that prevalent in our local meta at ASK gaming café, but had included determination and senate chamber to better navigate the mirror in case. When it comes down to it, I think the match-up more surely relies on the roll off and who gets the best board state. As so I knew that Flames of the Past might come in handy again. As it so happened I won, picked my battlefield, and on top had a gross starting hand with all the goodies. First round hit his hand with a hit’n’run into commando raid, got down Force speed and force meditation and held on to my flames. Second round, flamed his second Meditation and well… game pretty much over. Thomas is a great guy, and equally as skilled at Destiny as I, but apparently fate (Destiny) was on my side again this regional. 2-0

3. Round 3: Vader/Greedo – Aron Björk After 2 mill match-ups I finally ran into Vader. This was, after all the deck, this deck was preying on. Honestly, I do not remember to much of the game in details, but I remember milling his fist early, again keeping flames in hand and biting my time. He was not lucky on his rolls, and when the Fist finally came down last round it was up in flames before any resolution. Nevertheless, I do remember Aron being an absolute champ and true destiny gentleman. In one round, he having claimed and my one leia dice in the pool showing a 2 focus, I had a brain-fart and passed to reset for next round. He kindly asked if I was sure I did not want to use my PA!!! I truly was a bit in awe, as you do not see this much at competitive events. I do make an effort myself to point out if my opponent makes an, as obvious mistake which he clearly just “forgot” to do, but having other people do it back, is absolutely awesome! (after all, let’s say you play a damage deck, and just passes with a two damge unresolved in the pool) In the end, I can’t remember if the two milled cards made a big difference, but a very big shout out to Aron!
3-0

4. Round: Vader/Greedo – Morten Ingo Pedersen This was a feared metch-up. Not because of Vader, but because of the pilot. Morten is a local player, and one I consider to be one of the best Vader (and general Destiny) players there is. The match-up was, as far as I can recall very tight. Managed, once again to flame his Fist, keeping the pressure off. Luckily, his Vader dice were not too hot either, and I ended out coming out on top. More or less, I believe I won because Morten hadn’t had much practice against mill as it, as stated, isn’t much represented in our meta. 4-0

5. Round: Plo Koon/Padawan/Padawan – Marcel Jørgensen (as this was recorded and as such reviewable, I will go into some details here) Marcel, a local as well and a good buddy of Mads Utzon dating back some time through MtG was a somewhat joker. Having not played much since Worlds 2018, as he has been stationed off to some remote part of Denmark and just come back decided to join the regional. Bringing Plo/Pads and so far going 4-0 is a testament to his skill as a player. As for the match-up, having played the deck myself, but not having any reps against it with this deck, I was cautious in my evaluation. The deck ramps SUPER HARD, has tons of upgrades, and with no character elimination on top of force speeds can quickly escalate out of control. Hitting his weapons would be key, as well as timely retreats and cautiously used flames. The game can be found on the YOUR Destiny YOUTUBE channel (round 5). He unfortunately got the roll off and as anticipated quickly ran rampant with upgrades (Dagger of Mortis, Treasured LS, Force speed 1st round). 1st round I had senate chamber and no upgrades in hand, but luckily two pacify which did save 4 damage on Leia. Going in to 2nd round with 4 dmg on Leia, the damage keeps stacking up. 3rd round I think was the turn-around for me as things were not looking good for Leia. I manage to get off 2 x field medic on Leia bringing her back down to 4 dmg. Marcel luckily hitting blank city, I manage to hit his hand good and time walking him with a very timely Beguile. Going on to fourth round Marcel manages the second ancients making things a bit more problematic End of round 4 Marcel has 3 in deck and 3 in hand. With leia PA as well as a determination on senate chamber 2-focus takes brings this down to 1 in hand and 1 in deck. Marcel discards his last card to find lethal on Leia who finally bites the dust. This leaves a 10 health Yoda with force meditation, EMP and Force Speed to do the dirty work. I toss my whole hand, send a small prayer to the lucky gods of destiny and goes digging for the last Beguile which I know is the only thing that can save me now (along with some luck). My answers were apparently heard as I find Beguile, but no other mitigation. Now it is up to the rolls. Marcel rolls out showing a bunch of focus and a force speed special. Keeping it cool I go for the yolo not using the beguile prematurely, which ends up being the right choice. Not resolving his focus and not using the force speed he gets a bit greedy and rolls out his first Padawan making my Beguile the better. I blank the force speed to keep him from getting the reroll and removes some high dmg-dice trying to lower his max dmg output. As he then spends his focus to turn to 2 x force speeds specials I know to expect a dice turning card. I focus to deicard with my force speed and discard Lightsaber training while turning the other yoda die to the special. The latter negating his ancient shenanigans as I can specialchain into force meditation. With a max out-put of 9 dmg against my full health yoda, I know I have won. Pheeew…. 5-0. (mostly probably down to Marcel not having played mill ever) 5-0

Round 6: Yoda/HiredGun/Gungan – Claus Staal (runner-up Nordics 2018) Going in to round 6 I couldn’t quite believe I had the chance of going 6-0 against such a strong field. I was paired up with Claus which most everybody knows from YOUR Destiny Podcast. Claus, aside from being the one man army of YOUR Destiny Podcast and an all around nice guy, is also a good buddy and an absolutely excellent player. I knew this match up would be hard, and even though mill is fabled to do well against vechicles, I do not believe it to be as true as in earlier times… before the dark times… before Armored Reinforcements ;P He has already done a write-up for the match at the webside (http://yourdestiny.dk/blog/copenhagen-regionals-2019-tournament-reportish) which covers it mostly. I got my first turn hit’n’run into commando raid, but of the 5 cards in hand, I managed not to hit Claus’s Shadow Caster which in turn turned on his extra reset with N1 using AR round 2. In the end it was extremely tight, and actually came down to a bad decision not to use senate chamber focus for a discard side, but at the time the day was wearing and my head was not as sharp. Also, I didn’t see my EMP before the lastg round at which point I couldn’t afford the actions to play it. Claus as always played an excellent game, making very few, if any mistakes, and I do consider him an one of the absolute top players in the world right now! As such, I ended up 5-1 seeding as 2nd after Marcel in standings. I moved on to Top 8 and that lovely Vader mat  5-1

Top 8: eYoda/Cassian/Anakin (Millionaires) - Christian Apetri As mentioned earlier, I was certain that my sparring partner Apetri did have the skill to shake off that first loss against me in swiss. As such he managed to make it to top 8, where the irony of being paired up against me was even more stupid. As such, he actually opted to scoop the game to me based on how the matchup is. We ended up doing a best of 1 instead just to play it out. Not much to tell, simply had the upper hand running 2-wide. On to top 4 6-1

Top 4: eYoda/HiredGun/Gungan (Shadowcaster reset) - Mads Utzon (Runner-up Worlds 2018 and European Champion 2018) As with my round 5 match, this match can be found on the YOUR destiny podcast YOUTUBE channel. Going into this match I knew from my previous rounds that I sequencing and tight play on mitigation was key. As you can figure, Mads is not a player that makes many mistakes, and also he sees plays that I often do not. A good friend and a buddy at ASK gaming café in Copenhagen I consider myself lucky to be able to practice against him locally. Now we were headed off in the top 4. I knew going in to the match that Mads ran an ultra aggro version of the deck, not having shield generator. As such I know my EMP grenade can do some work if needed. I end up getting the dream start of hit’n’run into commando raid hitting Mads for 4. Also in my hand sits pacify and hidden motive along with a retreat. Mads manages to discard the retreat but except that doesn’t do anything else in the round. Second round I get my EMP down right before he hard casts his ShadowCaster leaving AR on for both the N1 and the caster in case I discard it. I keep him off resources and end the round without any dmg on my characters and holding on to my Flames of the past for those mods. 3rd round Mads gets down C3PO which makes his caster die even more manacing. I chose not to discard his shadow caster him still having AR on and not wanting to waste the EMP. I am not sure if that was the right move, but seeing as my characters were still at good health and he could max get 3 resources I took the risk. Round 4 I start by flaming his astromech as soon as he rolls out the caster as I do not have any mitigation in hand. He hits my hand with C3PO on the caster die getting rid of the second flames as well as a retreat which could have come in handy. He manages to get some dmg through with the hired gun and gungan, ut all in all I am good going in to round 5 with Mads having zero cards in deck and three in hand. Unfortunately he gets rid of my EMP with a pinned down and after I discard his N1 he brings it back in with AR to do some reset shenanigans. He almost finds the damage through c3PO but getting down a force illusion on Leia lets me live and cashing in the first game.
Second game was much more nailbiting. Again my opening hand is excellent having both commando raid, hidden motive and EMP in hand. Mads gets down the caster through AR first round to put on the pressure. Starts round 2 by pilling on mods, with 2 R2’s, having 5 resources to spend and making things looking grim for me. He even manages to get my flames, resets and to my luck he hits the shields. Second reset he hits the disrupt, and I quietly thank the force to guide Mads’s dice preventing a max ceiling of 16 dmg :P Going in to round 3 I know my one chance is to get the EMP off, and as such I opt to roll out Leia trying to discard his mitigation. I don’t get it, and in the meantime the caster gets focused to the max dmg with the dorsal turret, leaving yoda in a very bad place. I hidden motive his caster die, unfortunately not removing it, but at least hitting the shields. Mads overwrites his one R2 with an astromech basically cancelling my hidden motive, but giving me an action advantage. Not having other choice than to roll out the EMP on yoda, I go for the YOLA. Too (yeah once again) my luck I hit a yoda special and Mads doesn’t have any mitigation. As such I blow up his Caster and wins the game. On to the finals. 8-1

Final: ePlo/Padawan/Padawan - Marcel Jørgensen Me and Marcel both not having a seat for worlds, and Marcel and Claus going 1-1 in top 4, Claus ends up scooping and bringing me against the Plo/pads that I just barely made it out against last time around. At this point, both me and Marcel are feeling the tear and wear, of a whole day of competitive Destiny which shows on the recordings off the match. We both make some stupid plays, but this is what happens  I know from the previous match that controlling his ramp us near impossible, but that the Flames of the Past can really become clutch in the end game. I end of getting that very important roll off in first game which gives me a major advantage and wiining me the match of which was def in my favour. As such, in the second game with his BF, he gets his ramp going. I manage to mill him out, all except for 1 card in hand, but with 1 health left on Leia, and Marcel having 2 characters to roll out, he manages the kill. Last game is a nail biter with Marcel getting down ancient round 1 and me hitting his hand to luckily dicard the other. He nonetheless manages a powerful boardstate which quickly leaves my mitigation wanting. Plo/Pads simply has so much focus and dmg sides that even powerful mitigation such a Beguile can become less so. I cling on to my flames through most of the game picking up the second in the last round. Hitting both his ancient and shoto and left with one card in hand and 6 dmg to go on leia, he decides to claim and hope I don’t hit a discard on leia. With determination in hand I have a 75% chance of getting either a focus or discard but can’t find it, ending uo going for a YOLO and a last reroll. I find the discard and gets the win. Final tally 9-2

Considerations and card choices: My main change to runningonion’s list was SPEED. Whereas the VA deck wanted to go slow, I wanted to go fast, which is more alike to my play style

Inclusions: Hit and Run: No need to explain here, chained together with a force speed on yoda and a 2 focus, it is a guaranteed 4 discard with Leia’s natural dice sides. Put commando raid into the mix and you got yourself a Molotov cocktail to burn your opponents hand.

Retreat: Probably the card slot which differs most from other lists. This was “my” choice over Mind Trick. As we are going fast, retreat became my choice for 2 slots of mitigation. My main fear was of course vehicle resets and the Vader price of failure plays. But against a three wide field or Tarkin/snoke it could also save me some dmg (a match which def doesn’t favour mill). Mind Trick is a great card, and might be the right inclusion for most, but for me, I wouldn’t cut it. It played great on the day but is completely meta-dependent

Flames of the Past: Definitely a 2-off. Besides Fist, Vader’s saber and TLT, also it was a must-have for the mirror-match or Mill-matchup in general. Almost all games this card did dividends! And it won me the final

EMP Grenades: Only a one-off, as I had a hard time finding the spot, but at the same time needed it for the vehicle-resets, as well as an extra mill side for yoda if Leia goes down to fast. The latter paid off in Round 5 of swiss which was recorded and is available on YOUR destiny YOUTUBE channel.

Senate Chamber: This must be accredited to Agent of Zion’s list, winning the San Diego regional. Not obvious at first, aside from the power action (free focus or softmitigation on any die anyone???) and great die-side, I realized that it mitigated the main weakness of the deck, namely consistently discarding from hand if Leia goes down. This can be clutch in the last round of the game when you opponent keeps card in his hand! Furthermore, not only securing a discard side on a die with it’s power action, it also keeps commando raid turned on for some major swings. Having the die in the pool with a force speed, secures you 3 discard out of hand and a card draw. A hidden gem, and a big shout out to Agent of Zion!

Determination: After inclusion of senate chamber, I couldn’t quite get the idea of determination out of my head. Having so many dice with focus (and 2-focus that is!) was simply too good. In the end, and the day before the regional, I decided to swap out the last motivate for determination. Effectively making your leia activation a 75% chance of hitting discard or Yoda a 55% chance to hit discard. Again, this speaks to the weakness of the deck in those last plays where discarding that extra card can mean ending the game. Also, the flexibility is great. Need a disrupt? No problem! Need Ressources? there you go! On top, though having to show the focus (easy with senate chamber), whereas motivate can be turned off when losing Leia, determation is never completely turned off. I would have loved to include a second copy, but spots are tight.

Cuts: Motivate: Most noticeable, and the one people have been curious about is the seclusion of motivate. I admit, it definitely have some good arguments to include, working effectively as a “light” commando raid with the added flexibility. But, damn, getting it late game, when Leia is down is just terrible. I found I seldom used it for the resources, having Yoda as the go-to resource generator so in my mind determination was the better choice to forward my game plan (discard).