Why So Angry? - 30 Person Tournament Winner

joemasilotti 1377

I took this deck to victory at a local 30-person tournament today. 4-1 through five rounds of Swiss and then three rounds of single elimination.

A natural progression from my Kylo/Dooku deck from Awakenings but with a little more aggression to keep pace with the new cards. This deck shines in being able to dish out consistent damage and mitigate damage from the suite.

Overall Strategy

Even with Vader this deck still wants to play slow and control your opponent when possible. Most of the events help remove or flip die and Force Throw/Push help even more.

Don't play any upgrades until you know who your opponent is going to focus on. It really hurts when Vader get's a Sith Holocron to Force Throw and then dies the next round. As expected, play everything but the Lightsabers on the other character.

Play your opening upgrades on Kylo. If your opponent focuses Vader first, as they should, then you can keep everything until the end of the game. If you can somehow encourage them to go for Kylo first then your end-game with Vader will be very strong. It's worth losing a Holocron (even an force upgrade).

This deck can struggle for s, so make sure you are putting both It Binds All Things and Enrage to use. Also, pretty much always take Kylo's side when you roll it.

Battlefield Choice

Mostly for a surprise 3 from Vader's . But it also can help control an extra die from your opponent if Force Throw is on the table.

Mulligan

Look for the following cards, in order of preference:

  1. Sith Holocron with any blue ability
  2. It Binds All Things with any blue upgrade
  3. Enrage with Lightsaber

Don't be afraid to Enrage turn one and play the Lightsaber right after it. Just make sure you know who your opponent will focus on first - play the upgrade on him to take advantage of the redeploy.

Resource Management

You might run into issues if you don't manage your resources well with this deck. Vader lacks any s sides and the two characters together have four paid sides.

It Binds All Things, Enrage, and Sith Holocron all help mitigate this risk. This in turn leads to blue abilities over more weapons or upgrades, like Lure of Power. Second in priority is the "redeploy" keyword helping get double value from each Lightsaber. The lack of Kylo Ren's Lightsaber and Lightsaber Pike should now be obvious.

On top of those cards you should almost always be resolving Kylo's resource sides. These go a long way in allowing you to play upgrades and the one control cards to keep the team alive.

Anger

Anger is pretty situational, but you can help force it on yourself with a little planning. Firstly, Sith Holocron has two blanks, so if you have one in play your odds are already quite high. Once you have a single blank showing you can Manipulate another die to open up Anger the following turn.

Meditate

Thanks to @Scactha's comment in my previous version for this suggestion! This card can also prove a little situational, but essentially turns a blank die into a focus die. If you have any Vader die on the board focus it into a . Or, if you are playing a vehicle heavy deck, Kylo's can hit hard!

32 comments

Kelathet 1

Hmm i really like Command Shuttle in this deck. Why not throw x2 in? Just curious.

peekitup 14

What do you think of Lure of Power in this? I'm not sure exactly where to put it but I feel it's a strong card.

joemasilotti 1377

@Kelathet It feels like Command Shuttle was almost made for this deck, right? However, in practice, its too expensive and too slow. There's no way of discounting the cost of the support via Sith Holocron or It Binds All Things, so you end up paying the full 3 s every time. This doesn't work well in a deck already tight on .

@peekitup I mentioned it a little in the write-up, but it comes down to cost. Since it is (oddly) not an ability you can't use the Holocron to cheat it in. Even if it was, though, it is a very risky card to play. Sometimes it will help sneak out an extra two (or even !) but there will be a lot of times it rolls blanks. And the +1, in my opinion, usually isn't worth the cost.

BuzzsawMF 1

Tournament report?

joemasilotti 1377

@BuzzsawMF sure, here's one I posted earlier on Reddit.

In Swiss I faced:

  1. Phasma/Guavian/Trooper
    • Not much to say here, my opponent rolled more blanks than anything else. They couldn't push through enough damage to kill either of my characters.
  2. Poe/Rey
    • Anytime you play against Poe with this deck roll out Kylo on your first action. Odds are they mulliganed for the big vehicles so the damage potential is huge. I hit Poe for 5 off of a Millenium Falcon turn 2 which quickly put the momentum in my direction.
  3. Poe/Maz
    • This game came down to the final turn with just Maz vs. Vader on the board. In hindsight, I think that going for Maz first is actually the better approach. Once she is down you are given the opportunity to actually mitigate Poe's die, vs. them just resolving them ASAP with Maz.
  4. Qui-Gon/Rey
    • Vibroknife won this game for me, hands down. I put it on Kylo first action which caused my opponent to target him first. This is huge! You definitely want Vader late game if you can. Once Kylo went down Vader had two Lightsabers and a Force Push. That's a lot of damage.
  5. Poe/Maz
    • My only loss for the day. My thoughts are the same - Maz is the priority target in my opinion. I focused Poe first but they were able to get a U-Wing out and focus it to a 4 ranged and resolve for the win. One of the strongest aspects of my deck is mitigation, and if you don't have a chance to use those cards it can suffer.

Then the cut to top eight:

  1. Quarterfinals were fairly uneventful thanks to some blowout rolls on my end and no mitigation from my opponent.
  2. In the semifinals I played the same Qui-Gon/Rey deck from Swiss. The first few turns I chipped away at Qui-Gon with some melee damage, Vader's special, and Vader's special again from a claim. Once he was gone Rey was left with Force Speed, her staff, and a force power. But it wasn't enough to close out Kylo and another half round of Vader.
  3. The finals pitted me against Vader/FN-2199, the first time I've faced this deck. I knew that my opponent was running lots of weapons so I focused FN first. I was able to get him off the board before the end of the second round - he was only able to use FN's ability twice. This went a long way in keeping both of my characters alive. Then, without Holocron or other ways of paying for upgrades, a naked Vader wasn't much of a threat.

Scactha 888

Great job joe and congratz on the win :) I'm glad Meditate seems to work.

Btw, have you tested Dark Presence too? It´s another zero cost Support which seems to tie in well with all the -sides this deck packs.

BuzzsawMF 1

Thank you for the write up. I am run something similar except I don't run force push due to the prevalence of "it's a trap" decks. Any thoughts on why you went with Push instead of choke?

joemasilotti 1377

@ScacthaThanks! There's actually only six sides in the entire deck, so I'm not sure how many times Dark Presence would get triggered. Then again, I could see it working by swapping out some of the upgrades for another Force Push or Force Choke to squeeze another 1-2 sides in.

@BuzzsawMFThat's a good point, and It's a Trap! definitely scares me. Force Throw has one too, mind you. I actually wanted two copies of Force Push in the deck but didn't pull my second until yesterday so I went with a Force Choke in its place.

The Force Push adds additional control to a deck that doesn't really need any more damage output. Also, because it costs 3 s it can't be targeted by Imperial Inspection. So if you're using Sith Holocron to cheat it in the cost becomes irrelevant.

freelancer799 1

You may have lost to Poe/Maz but I feel like with Kylo's special this deck is one of the strongest counters to that deck since they are bound to have expensive items in their hand.

mboggess 1

I ran a deck almost identical to this but threw in a couple of datapads. Helped run some killer combos of specials and when it didn't it got me resources and blanks to help throw out Anger twice.

Sparetomato 1

@joemasilotti thanks for posting! Looking forward to trying this deck out. Only things I'm missing are 1x Vibroknife and 1x Makashi Training.

Instead of the Makashi Training would you add a Lure of Power for the extra modified sides (albeit with a +1, +1, +2 as opposed to +1, +2, +2) or a force power such as Mind Probe or Force Speed?

Really appreciate your thoughts.

Widied 1

How did overconfidence work for you?

joemasilotti 1377

@freelancer799Yeah, that's a good point. When I play Poe/Maz, or any -expensive deck, I try to roll out Kylo on my first action. This gives me the opportunity to hit a 5 damage support right away.

@mboggessI was thinking about adding in Datapads just yesterday! The two blanks could also help with Anger. I really wish there were two sides, though. What would you suggest replacing?

@SparetomatoI would not add Lure of Power as you can't cheat it in with Sith Holocron. In my opinion, this deck doesn't benefit/need Force Speed, but I need to do some more testing to be confident. Maybe one of them wouldn't be too bad for your opening hand. I can recommend another Force Choke or Force Push to increase your draw odds.

@WidiedOverconfidence worked out excellent for me - I love that card. As long as you understand what the worse-case outcome is you should be fine. For example, if your opponent is showing a single black and Overkill/Jetpack? That is an excellent candidate as more often than not the modified-only die will be removed.

mboggess 1

I took out the 2 Enrage and I also play #Force Speed instead of Force Choke. Ramps the action.

MaffiSkywalker 1

I would replace the Force Choke with a Force Speed and the Force Push with either a Lure of Power or a Mind Probe. The extra blank on the Lure of Power can help with Anger and Meditate so I would remove one Manipulate and play two Anger.

SWDUGDMAM 13

Why did you not add the Command Shuttle? It would alow you use the vader and kylo more than once and you could use the battle field with it.

SWDUGDMAM 13

thepinkfox 1

Do we not own Kylo's Lightsaber? Cause I feel like we want a Kylo's Saber in here instead of Force Push.

SWDUGDMAM 13

That is a great point.

joemasilotti 1377

@mboggessI (briefly) tested Force Speed and felt that I never really had anything meaningful to do with the extra actions. What does a typical turn look like when you resolve the ?

@MaffiSkywalkerI mentioned in the description why I don't like Lure of Power (it isn't an ability), but you're right in that it opens up a new opportunity. However, Push and Choke are what gives this deck a little more mid-range mitigation. Removing those two cards would shift it towards a more pure aggro one. If you do that you should also swap out for Lightsaber Throw.

@SWDUDAGPI agree! However, at 3 s it is just a tad too expensive in this deck. That said, getting one out would remove the need to have the battlefield and we could swap it out for something more defensive. I'll replace It Binds All Things with one for the week and see how it fares.

@thepinkfoxI don't think that Kylo's Saber offers much more than the standard Lightsaber. Also, without the "redeploy" keyword you are more likely to lose those invested s when that goes down.

Widied 1

I agree with Joe. I have been toying with my own version of ekylo eanakin and it doesnt need force speed.

Widied 1

Ive gone a slightly different path. Instead of mikashi and vibroknife i went with force training and immobilize. Mostly because other cards are tied up in other decks lol but i found its been working pretty decently. the shields give a pretty decent buffer for anakins ability and enrages. I stick with force push too because i feel the deck wants the control over more damage. Its pretty consistent on damage.

Scactha 888

I'd say this mid-range version doesn't gain from Force Speed, but the aggro does. On the whole I think there's more risk going mid-range due to Resource concerns, which is illustrated by the reliance of the various cost reduction cards.

Aggro can function on Holocron only, accelerate by FS and capitalize more on Meditate due to more and cheaper dice generators.

We gain some and lose some.

the BEAST 1128

I would use a Kylo Ren's Lightsaber in this deck... if you think about it, it has 4 damage sides which is amazing, and the fact that you can take out shields with it's makes it even better especially against eRey/eQui-Gon if you don't have vibroknife yet...

joemasilotti 1377

@Widied and @ScacthaThe beauty of this deck is its ability to take the same two characters anywhere along the aggro vs. mitigation scale. This version plays more in the middle, half aggro and half mitigation. You can make it full aggro with Lightsaber Throw, Force Strike, and Force Speed. Or sit back for more mitigation with Force Push, Immobilize, and Secluded Beach - Scarif.

@the BEAST again,

@thepinkfoxI don't think that Kylo's Saber offers much more than the standard Lightsaber. Also, without the "redeploy" keyword you are more likely to lose those invested s when that goes down.

Widied 1

Yeah I have been playing this deck or my version alot. It's incredibly consistent damage wise. Really enjoying it.

Widied 1

Cool to see your insights. Thanks.

Scactha 888

On the contrary does Kylo's sabre fit well as the threat order is very clear - Anakin is the bigger threat by a huge margin, meaning Kylo can build up in peace. There's little to no reason to ever put an expensive thing like that on Ani.

ender 1

@joemasilottiI played a couple of times this deck and I found it interesting to put #Immobilize to put Vader and the truth is that it gives an interesting resistance to the character. The #It Binds All Things card does not give much use as well as the #Force Choke I've replaced it with #Force Lightning.

You'll tell me what these changes look like;)

Admiral Raddus 16

I need this deck!!!

jipib 20

I will definitely try this deck but I will take 2 Makashi Training out for 2 Force Focus for more ressources and mitigation and also replace the 2 Lightsaber for 1 Heirloom Lightsaber and 1 Maul's Lightsaber because they do more damage with no ressource cost and Maul's Lightsaber power action is great ! Last, i will replace No Mercy by The Power of the Force.