Guns and Roses (Columbus December Tournament 1st Place) 3.0

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What do you think about the Thermal Detonator as a tech choice against decks with 3+ characters? May you please also let me know how good is the Second Chance? Are you playing it regularly in your matches or is it needed mostly for some specific matchups? I don't have much opportunities to test it on my own due to the lack of opponents in my region.

Thermal Detonator is too erratic and costly for the 3 cost slot, you are better off using the resources for a DL-44 or Force Throw. The deck has very little issue dealing damage and wading through multiple character lists since it's got plenty of ways to take out a character quickly.

A 2nd Second Chance is a fine choice, removing Hyperspace Jump generally or the second Deflect if your meta isn't all ranged damage like mine. I currently keep it in opening hand against aggro lists with the burst to kill Han early, but in an aggro heavy meta running two is completely fine to see it consistently.

@I Fight Dragons- What deck do you think is the worst match-up when playing this deck? I am looking for a strong tournament deck and somehow I don't see much Solo+Rey decks being played.

I played yesterday and i played second chance twice that game against Vaderaider Second Chance i sooo good, 1 in this deck is a minimum. I love to play this deck, its 1 of my 2 favorit decks :-)

Think the decks that pull you cards from hand is hampering this deck. then you can't do all your shananigans :-)

Sorry for my spelling.

@TakeoSVK Vader is a pain in the neck since this deck often uses most of its hand each turn and losing even 1 card can hurt. That said Vader Raider with a good draw can burn down Han turn 1 or 2 really fast; but so long as you either disrupt their resources, build up the shield wall fast, or get an early second chance you'll probably survive. Vader/Jabba control is definitely a little trickier since it has a lot more control and tons of hp to eat through with Crime Lord as an answer to Han if you don't have second chance.

Other than that, I think the only other type of deck I can sometimes have trouble with is Jango since sometimes he rolls hot and does 6+ damage immediately. I think 2 Second Chance is really warranted if you see a bunch of these types of aggro decks.

I think the middling success of Han/Rey comes down to proper sequencing and timing for the deck to be at its best. It definitely has a pretty low skill floor since if runs really smoothly naturally, but there is some nuance that the deck has that sometimes people lose because they just play everything really fast without much thought.

@I Fight Dragons Thank you very much for such specific response. I will play Second Chance just once - one copy is an auto include I think. I don't expect many mill and control decks considering the official tournament rules.

@I Fight Dragons Few more questions. Is Hunker Down really that good that 2 copies are necessary? And what about Scavenge? It enables some combos with discarded guns and can mitigate occasions when opponent claims the battlefield. Is it just not good enough?

@TakeoSVK Hunker Down is simply an amazing card that can easily net you 2 shields for 0 resources if played right. In what we can assume will likely be a meta where aggro will be played quit a bit, having that repeatable health gain is superb. Even against melee decks they still need to punch through all your shields and deal an actual point of damage to knock it off; and it's pretty decent to recur with Starship Graveyard if you have nothing better to grab.

Scavenge is cool but to me seems to be more on the jank side of the spectrum rather than the practical side. It's a cool hedge if you can't get the battlefield and it does have some neat edge cases where you cycle an attachment and then get it back to cycle it again. To me, it doesn't seem like it has enough situations where it's more useful than another card in the deck, but I'm happy to be wrong here as a guy who loves cool combos.

@I Fight Dragons Thanks once again for your reply. I am looking forward to playing more with this deck. :)

Ooooo, Infamous smuggling to get the 1 resource needed for Dl-44 play Dl-44.... 2 shields, remove a die, 4 activations, love playing this deck!

I really like the idea, but don't have One with the Force yet. I'm thinking about replacing it with Commlink or Force Training. What do you think about such temporary solution?

@Siema One with the Force is especially good due to the fact that it stays in the game after Rey is killed. I would prefer Force Training over the Commlink for this deck, however consider replacing it maybe by Millennium Falcon. Usually, I have the resources later in the game to play it and it is a really strong support once it is on the table. Also you can consider Thermal Detonator if 3+ characters are being played a lot in your region

@TakeoSVK I know OwtF is the best option here. I was considering a temporary measure until I get them :) As for my local meta - it's mostly focused on quicker decks. You can easily see 2/3 eJango/eVeers or eVader/Tusken in a 12 people tournament.

Then you can consider even running 2x Second Chance or 1x Force Protection or Jedi Robes.

@TakeoSVK That's an interesting option, thanks!

@I Fight Dragons Hello. I just want to ask if you have had the opportunity to play this deck against Jango/Veers decks and what your opinion is about this match-up. I think the winrate is about 50:50 when facing Jango/Veers. What do you think? And what do you think about Dodge in this deck? It would be amazingly strong against Jango/Veers but I am not able to find a slot for it to not weaken the deck overall.

I also know that Awakening is a great card but somehow even if I have it in play, I am using the ability just about once (or 2x max) during the game.

Jango/Veers I would call 60/40 in HanRey's favor if you are running 2 second chance, which I now do. Match-up is not really bad unless you have a really slow start, they roll un-naturally well, or you don't see Second Chance. Dodge is indeed a great addition in this meta, but there's not really a slot for it nor does it fit well into the deck's tight curve.

Awakening shores up control match-ups where they remove your base damage dice, making your modified dice useless. I almost never play it into an aggro match-up unless I have no reason to not (excess of resources, secures a kill with Rey's modified melee, ect.)

@I Fight Dragons What have you dropped to play another Second Chance? I am thinking of switching from 2x Hunker Down + 1x Second chance to 1x Hunker Down + 2x Second Chance. Do you have the new version of your deck somewhere for me (us) to see? I am also running only 1 copy of Awakening currently.. I usually don't have resources to play it till mid game as I am paying for the upgrades and dice.

@I Fight Dragons I have also realized that I almost never play Force Throw. I want to see mostly Blasters and One with The Force on Rey and I am not finding any window to play Force Throw. The special ability is great for sure, but other than that it is not very amazing. I don't think this deck should invest too much in the control as I want to do the damage as quickly as I can to claim the battlefield and return my ambush upgrades.

@TakeoSVK I cut Hyperspace Jump for the other Second Chance since the roll they fill is similar; Jump leaning more on utility and Second Chance being purely survivability. I don't think I would ever cut Hunker Down in this ranged and aggro heavy meta that seems to be developing.

As for Force Throw, you are not wrong in that it is not the most useful upgrade in the deck. But cutting it really hurts your playable upgrade count. It also gives some punch in addition to being die removal and has a base ranged side for your modified ranged damage if you don't see Awakening. You'd much rather be playing a better upgrade in this slot, for sure, but I don't think the current pool has much better at the moment.

@I Fight Dragons How about Force Training or Force Protection instead of Force Throw? I'm a bit more inclined towards Protection: same cost, also blue-only but a bit more defensive.

However, Training has one ranged side...

@I Fight Dragons I played few games against Jango/Veers in which Hyperspace Jump allowed me to play Second Chance 3+ times (opponent's battlefield was played till Hyperspace Jump). If I change it for another Second Chance, then I am able to play it only 2 times considering that my battlefield in not being played.

By the way, are you playing on Tabletop Simulator? I would love to play some learning game against you some day.

@Siema It depends on what you want to do with this upgrade slot. With force training you have 1 ranged side and +2 melee side can be resolved with Rey or using Awakening. Other sides are fine as well. Resources and focus are always good. Force Protection gives you shields. It can help you with survability a bit, but it can go only on Rey. I think it is a bit worse as you should be playing the deck as "aggro" and do as much damage as possible. Taking shields is bit passive for the deck. Istead of Force Protection you can consider Jedi Robes.