Grandad and Grandson - Lisbon (Portugal) Tournament Winner 1.0

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• 1.0

Hi everyone!

Yeah, I know, it’s just another Vader-Kylo tournament winning report... or maybe not. Maybe it’s just another out of too many still unexpected Vader-Kylo tournament winning reports! This deck is just incredible! Easy to build, moderately easy to pilot and crazily effective in terms of rolls.

This is surely no ordinary report just because it comes from Portugal and, from what we, players, discussed, this is the first official Star Wars Destiny tournament in this almost 900 year old country. It seems we are still getting some things late, here in the westernmost tip of Europe but the most important thing… it was funny as hell and I won! Hurray!

First, the build:

This deck is pretty balanced and versatile but manages to be practical and straightforward when needed. Its suite of 13 upgrades and 17 events (no supports at all) allows you to either be working on destroying your opponent or make a tempo stall and remove the bulk of their attack. Cards like Isolation, Deflect, Feel Your Anger and Doubt allow for cheap removal of important dice while the normal dice rolls (I won games without using any upgrades) together with Lightsaber Throw and No Mercy can take care of the game by themselves. This deck is brutal!

As a quick insight into what’s coming, this deck won majorly because of three cards:

• 2 x Sith Holocron

Well, this card is just stupid. Enough said. It would be awesome even if it had 4 blanks and 2 specials only. Like it is (with the focus side and the +resource) it is plain unfair for heroes to not have something that’s even comparable. May I remind you it costs 0?

• 2 x Mind Probe

This card is bonkers… The specials make the adversary flinch and they immediately start throwing away everything in their hands. So sweet! This card is the counterpart to Kylo, a real mindfuck. Do they throw away that Endless Ranks and the possibility of resurrecting a character or do they keep it and risk taking 5? Do they throw away a cheap card and nervously hold the juice in their hands? Every card burns when they are facing a Kylo with Mind Probe and the two specials on the table. The plain panic makes them make mistakes and judge their board position badly, I guarantee you that. My God! Playing this deck makes you feel powerful!

• 2 x No Mercy

Well… 2 Resources for an extra 4 damage on a Vader 2 Melee dice? Count me in! This card won me three matches. That’s enough to make it count in any blue villain deck I create. The card is well-balanced but is a total blowout when you play it. The look on the opponents face is always priceless.

Worst Card:

• 2 x Intimidate

Well… this card is awesome if you play it against a Qui-Gon/Rey or Han/Rey. There were none. I think I didn’t get to play it twice. It is good for you to get even in terms of shields after choosing battlefield, however. I think I wouldn’t take them out if there was a tournament tomorrow. Even so it was used mainly for rerolls.

Starting hand

Sith Holocron (of course), Lightsaber Throw, one upgrade and one removal is all I ask. If I get an Enrage I’m even happier. This is almost certainly a round one kill (if playing against 3 characters) or near-kill (on stronger characters) that is completed in the second round. Even if you don’t use the special on Sith Holocron, its focus side is pretty good, allowing you to adapt to the plays of the opponent… will you need a resource or that extra point of damage? Sith Holocron takes care of that.

May I say something a little bit out of the ordinary? Have you played this deck before? Did you notice how the rolls seem to take care of everything by themselves? That Vader rolls its special a lot more times than he should? That the damage output is crazily high? This joint venture of grandad and grandson always surprises me. As I told you before, I’ve won games without using any upgrades. Just rolling, mitigating dice, rerolling and slicing! I feel like threading on the Dark side sometimes, grinning like a villain while thinking what I will do next round… shivers!

Well, now that the metaphysical discussion is out of the table, we may proceed.

The tournament report:

Although I piloted the deck with a giant headache (was it the dark force working on me?), the games were fast paced, well played and the general mood of Portuguese guys, as you may know if you know any of us, is generally polite and relaxed. By the end of the tournament everyone was happy and smiling and I was holding a Phasma playmat still not knowing how I got to win the tournament. Although this was a short tournament, the Meta was pretty varied and we had only one Poe/Maz (fortunately as you will see later). Portugal is very small, you see? 10 Million poets (it’s true…). The Meta was composed of:

. eBala-Tik/ Jango/ FOST

. ePalpatine

. ePoe/ eMaz (using Frozen Wastes for a more controlish version)

. eJango/ eVeers (You bet! A resurrection of this long forgotten yet feared deck)

. Bala-Tik/ Tie Pilot / FOST / FOST

. eJyn/ Ackbar

. Krennic/ Tie Pilot/ FOST

. eVader/ eKylo

I don’t really know if the result would turn out so well if there was an eVader/ Raider or one more ePoe/ eMaz competing. I seriously doubt it. But judging by the way the deck behaved in the semi-finals and finals, this stack of cards could wreck any other…

SWISS – Best of 1

. 1st Round - Bala-Tik / Tie Pilot / FOST / FOST

This deck is scary as hell. The game ended without space in the table what with all the Tie Fighters, Speeder Bikes, Underworld Connections, Attrition, Aftermath, Back Up Muscle, etc… The turns took forever and he even got to kill my Vader on the second turn, following a god roll of 6 damage on it on the first turn and a well-timed placing of Attrition and Back Up Muscle.

The match came to an end when my 4HP Kylo rolled a Mind Probe Special and a 2 Melee (he had also a Mind Probe and a Force Training equipped) and António, my opponent, was forced to play something else instead of the Endless Ranks he didn't have that would get him the victory (he had 5 resources… I guess I was pretty lucky here). I rolled, smiled and he conceded seeing where his FOST with only 4HP would end. Phew!

. 2nd Round - ePalpatine

This deck was piloted to perfection by Tiago and he lost only to plenty of mitigation and some bad rolls from Palpatine. He got the battlefield and I was faced with 17HP from turn 1. Vader and Kylo paired up and got Melee after Melee after Melee, some specials by Kylo that dealt him 3 damage and I won in a turn in which I dealt 9 damage (!) after he claimed and let his head down from desperation (I mitigated every significant die he got).

Did I mention I played 2 Vibroknives one after the other on the 2nd round after rolling mostly resources on the first one (started 2nd round with 5 resources - Datapads are awesome)?

. 3rd Round - ePoe/ eMaz

Two fast hands on Poe. The game ended. There was no other upgrade played by the Moe player, André.

We still played some unfunny rounds of useless lightsaber blows but when 3rd round began my Vader had 3HP and Kylo 2HP.

This is when the game gets unfunny. This deck belongs to its special tier. A tournament only with Poe/Maz would be a deserved punishment for Moe players.

Semi-Finals - Bala-Tik / Tie Pilot / FOST / FOST

The semi-finals paired me with the same opponent from first Round, António Guerra. This time, however, my two “emos” were unstoppable. All three of us, me, Kylo and Vader entered a state of “oneness” with the Force and I felt like I didn’t need to do anything. I killed a character each round, starting by Bala-Tik followed by the Tie Pilot. By 4th round I had No Mercy in hand and dealt 7 damage to the last standing Trooper spending also the resource to pay for Vader’s 3 Melee side.

My opponent rolled badly and this time around there were no supports in play safe for a Tie Fighter. Shocking display of efficiency by these two villains.

Finals - ePalpatine

The final clash would be played in the Dark Side of the Force.

Do I need to tell you that No Mercy saved the day again? This time this card dealt the last 5 damage Palpatine was still holding on to. The game was harder than the first but die mitigation is the nemesis of Palpatine. A Force Push on Palpatine dealt some damage but I still finished the game with lots of hp. Tiago piloted it flawlessly for the second time but again, there was nothing to do against God rolls of specials and 3 Melee sides. Even Kylo managed to hit Palpatine some times… I love this deck!

Final Thoughts

In conclusion I would like to reinforce that this tournament was a small sample in terms of Meta and Portugal still has very few players, at least that’s the impression we get when only 8 people sign up for the first tournament held in our capital city.

I was very lucky and didn’t get to play either Poe/Maz (in the semi-finals) or Jango/ Veers, those decks would have wrecked mine. New Jango/ Veers is a deck to respect. The sheer power of Awakenings with some add-ons like We Have Them Now and others are terrifying, even more so with Jetpack’s and On the Hunt’s special sides… Ugh!

Try this deck for yourselves and tell me what you think of it. It is not a new iteration or even a very original one but it worked. And I think it will continue to work against almost any deck.