US Nationals 1st Place - Rainbow 9s 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

My list is almost identical to the Hyperloops list. Special thanks to Joe and the rest of those guys for tightening the list up and providing a lot of sample matches for their patrons. I used to run 1x Award Ceremony and 1x Electroshock in place of Friends in Low Places, but added it for the mirror match (also helpful against Poe Maz).

Mulligan targets: Enrage (best card to draw in opening hand) Logistics (not great in the mirror match) Friends in Low Places (in the mirror) Aftermath (super important in the mirror)

I usually will keep a 2 cost weapon if I draw it in case I can't get 3 resources in turn 1. I'll also keep a 3 cost weapon (with minimal pay sides) if I drew a Enrage or Logistics (unless they have a Nightsister).

Turn 1 goal is to get 3-4 resources off and get a 2 or 3 cost weapon on FN-2199 - Loyal Trooper. If opponent has a 7 or 8 health character, try to kill it on turn 1 for a Bala-Tik - Gang Leader reactivation or Aftermath resource.

If you draw Friends in Low Places in the mirror, I like to go first and try to take out an Enrage or Boundless Ambition. If you can prevent them from getting a third resource or take out a Boundless Ambition, this is usually worth losing the 2 shields.

Be careful with Logistics in the mirror and other matches. A smart opponent will ping your resource with their Nightsister or otherwise control it to prevent you from getting out a 3 cost weapon on turn 1. Likewise use caution when focusing to a resource as they may control it and cost you 2 dice (although there is a play to bait them to ping sister to get rid of your resource, so you can kill her that turn and get Bala's dice back anyway).

The deck is pretty straight forward to play, as long as you have some experience and have an idea how to play the match ups. You want to normally roll out Bala-Tik - Gang Leader and Nightsister first to try to get resources or ranged damage (to link up to your modified or unmodified sides on FN weapons). Use Nightsisteras soft control or to fix your terrible rolls on Rocket Launcher or Z6 Riot Control Baton. Try not to let her get too low unless you have Aftermath, in which case feel free to kill her yourself to surprise your opponent with some extra steam at the end of the turn.

If FN dies, normally you'll want to redeploy as much as possible to whoever is unactivated. If you get the stuff on sister you can potentially kill her yourself and then give the gear to Bala in the same turn.

Against Poe / Maz, it's a judgement call on who to target first. And you should consider the battlefield and who has shields, and if you think you could kill an unshielded Maz turn 1 with your hand. If you roll in damage on Nightsister and or Bala-Tik - Gang Leader, it's usually possible. Always be prepared for a Retreat or Hyperspace Jump so play as if your turn will end in 1 action if they are sitting on 2 resources, or immediately if they have 3. Try to use your disrupt sides to keep them too low on resources to pull anything off. Be wary of Defensive Position and resolve any 2 sides ASAP.

Games played at Nationals: Round 1 - Phasma Guav Trooper - W - Killed trooper and then Guav first to make a ton of money and reactivate balatik

Round 2 - Poe Maz - W - Don't recall much about this match other than I prevented him from retreating

Round 3 - Chewy Rey - W - Killed Chewie first to avoid any Second Chance loops since we were on Starship Graveyard

Round 4 - Mirror - W - Super close game on stream (first time for me). Came down to getting a great roll on the last turn.

Round 5 - Mirror - L - Lost to a great player, John Couture, after my "stream luck" ran out

Round 6 - Mirror - W - Don't recall much about this match

Round 7 - FN Kylo Trooper - W - Was able to beat this deck after it destroyed me at Gen Con. Riggs was the last undefeated player going into this match.

Round 8 - Poe Maz - W - Poe couldn't get much going in this game and I was able to grind him down

Finished 1st in Swiss rounds and was #1 seed going into day 2.

Top 8 Match - Scott Landis - Poe Maz - W 2-0 - Rematch of Round 8. Scott is an amazing player, but his deck didn't work for him and he didn't see a Thermal. I found out he had one retreat via the deck lists and as soon as I saw him discard it I threw caution to the wind. I made a terrible misplay in one of these games after immediately forgetting his hand after a FILP (nerves) which led me to roll in Bala when he had a falcon in hand with FN at 7. This match is available to watch on The Chance Cubes twitch.tv account and will later be on youtube.

Top 4 Match - John Couture - Mirror - W 2-1 - Rematch of Round 5. John had the upper hand in game one, but I was able to position myself for a surprise kill with a rocket launcher while he was showing lethal on his rolled in FN dice. He went on to win game 2 in a "roll off" where I had 2 chances to hit 2/6 sides to win and he then had 4 chances to hit 2/6 sides to win. I was able to win game 3 and don't recall much about it.

Finals - Matthew Schmaltz - Mirror - W 2-0 - Another great player in a mirror match. I know I got some hate for not playing Enrage as my first action in our game one, but I figured he would have FILPed as his first action if he had it. I was able to play around his disrupt by holding on to enrage until he rerolled his Nightsister and then get out a Riot Baton as the last card in my hand. I was able to kill Nightsister from his aggressive pings and reactivate Bala-tik.

Matthew managed to get a ton of resources in game 1, but I kept knocking his upgrades out of his hand with discard sides so he was never fully able to utilize his credit bank.

In the second game it was me who had the huge pile of cash (thanks to Aftermath) and I was able to capitalize on it for the win. The finals are also available via Chance Cube.

I want to extend a big Thank You to Chance Cube for streaming the Nationals and to all the players from Star Wars Destiny - Central Ohio for being great competitors!