Las Vegas Open Top 16 - Chopper Droids 2.0

• Versions
• 2.0
• 1.0

G1 – Daniel Johnson (eSnoke/Greedo/Mudtrooper/O66)

I had a few reps against Snoke 3-wides, but mostly the Snoke/Mud/Mando version, I had never played against the Order 66 version and it presents some unique challenges, but the fundamentals are the same. I mulliganed for some extra removal to make sure I could take both Greedo’s and the Mudtrooper’s die if I needed. I don’t remember a ton about this game other than I killed Greedo early off an ewok ambush and that I stole a fickle from him very early and then he was never able to get it back, and it rolled hot fire for me the whole time. He was able to kill chopper after I rolled out with an Order 66, and it ended up being relatively tight, but ultimately I was able to come out on top. (Win 1-0)

G2 – Shane Martin (eSatine/C-3PO/R2-D2/LTP)

Shane is a great player and I have exactly 0 experience playing against this deck, I had practiced some against the Satine Droids AR version though. Going in I was really thinking I needed a good start since he was going to be able to out ramp me significantly. Early on I was able to get good ramp, and based on how he was playing I had a feeling his hand was bricked and had no mitigation, so I went super greedy and focused into max damage to get very far ahead. At the end of round 2 he had a Fickle, Hired Muscle and Entourage but a dead R2 and Satine in range of an Instigate kill, I was also able to convergence off his Entourage which he responded by killing Chopper with a Long-term Plan for 5 damage, but it was too far gone at that point. I think that he did not get what he needed early and while I had a great start and that variance definitely went in my favor, but I’ll take what I can get against a really strong player and nice guy. (W 2-0)

G3 – Peter Desautels (eMaul/Commando)

Maul is my old nemesis, I had taken some bad losses to Maul in previous tournaments, but I was determined to go into this one with a good mindset. The commando version can be dangerous because Act of Cruelty is very strong against Droids and Maul’s power action can just roll you off the table. I think this game start with me getting a bunch of money, him dropping a Maul’s Saber and then me hitting him with Convergence to remove it. His Power Actions never hit the 3 side and I was able to get down Maul early enough that even a loaded up Commando couldn’t make a difference. Flee the Scene was back breaking here as I time-walked him twice by getting ahead in action economy with Ewok Ambush/Instigate and then Fleeing to decimate his turns. He was a great sport and fun to play a game with though. (W 3-0)

G4 – Menion Croll (eBail/eLor/Anakin) This game was streamed by Destiny Council and by ABG so you can find the recording. I have not had the chance to watch the game myself and I am sure I will be very upset by how I played so I have avoided it. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room with this game, yes I made a mistake when I overwrote and kept resource I should not have, I felt really bad about it and apologized to Menion later once I found out which he was really cool about it, it stinks to have that hanging over what was otherwise a really tight and back-and-forth game. Of course it bears mentioning that Menion is an awesome player and came back from way down. I think the big back breaker was when he vandalized my Chewies blaster which in hindsight I should have seen. I’m sure there several lines of play I took that in hindsight were wrong, but I’m not too broken up about it. (L 3-1)

G5 – James Lafferty (Reylo)

This game is where my weekend went from LVO to LVO: Reylo edition. I probably lucked out by not hitting it earlier, as I consider the matchup to be close to a coin-flip. I’m going to do my best to remember each one of these games individually, but I’ll be honest that playing 7 straight games against Reylo makes them blend together in my memory. This one I may remember the best because it was like two heavyweight boxers trading blows, but the opposite, as we sat back and mitigated each other to death. I hit two Easy Pickings, he had Soresu Mastery on Rey that just made her near unkillable. This game honestly came down to me Instigating out a loaded up R2 to try and kill Rey, but then Chewie’s Blaster and Electro Sword hit the discard sides to discard his last two cards from hand instead and then win by mill as he was out of cards. (W 4-1)

G6 – Brandon Flores (Reylo)

I don’t have a lot to say about this game unfortunately as I’m blanking on a lot of the details. Great Player and all around nice guy Brandon absolutely handed me my ass. I can’t remember the specifics, but I recall making multiple errors in this game I should not have made, and Brandon playing really tight and taking Chopper to the woodshed. (L 4-2)

G7 - Kenneth Yu (Reylo)

While I knew that technically there was a possibility that one 4-3 could make it through, I was certainly not going to rely on that, I wanted the win and in. This game was really tight and came down to me reading him for an Ataru Strike and using field medic to get out of range, then focusing into lethal. Had I not healed and went straight for the focus, I would have lost as he was holding ataru strike after all. (W 5-2)

R32 – Brandon Flores (Reylo)

Originally I was paired with James Lafferty, who I also played in swiss, but after the re-pair, instead I got to play a different Reylo that I had played on Day 1. This time it was my Round 6 opponent who thoroughly stomped me. In our first game I think I was unfocused and made a few unforced errors, here I instead what might have been the two best games I played all tournament. Game 1 I was able to drop a late Chewie’s on R2 after he had put damage on Chopper which put him in an awkward spot he was not able to recover from. Game 2 was razor close, but Dagger of Mortis did some major heavy lifting to kill Kylo and we were left with C3PO vs a beat up Rey, and I was able to in Instigate out and hit what I needed between the C3PO pump and ambush to win the game and the match (W 2-0)

R16 – Derek Arnett (Reylo)

This was a tough match for me. We played a really tight game 1 and I made a huge play error mot calculating the damage correctly off a Treasured lightsaber special, which led to R2 dying with a ton of damage dice in the pool. Maybe it was just fatigue or burnout, but I just made a mistake that cost me game 1. Game 2 was not close at all, I got off to a really bad start and Derek’s deck is very aggressive which didn’t give me a lot of opportunity to claw back. Credit to him, he’s a great player and he played mistake free whereas I was making them left and right. So the run ends here in top 16 (L 0-2)