Traitorous Smurf (Snoke/Traitor/Firmus Piett) SC 1st Place 1.0

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• 1.0

This is my winning deck list from the New Holland, PA store championship on 07/20/2018. There was a 14 player turnout for the event.

Deck Tech: Chance cube is one of your most important round 1 draws as it really gives you the ability to avalanche resources round 1 along with Snoking a resource on either Traitor or Piett. You are able to consistently threaten this by activating Traitor first. If you naturally roll the resource, using his ability is a no brainer as you make his die unable to be mitigated by doing so. Otherwise activating Piett and turning to the 1 resource is your next action in most cases. I opted for 2 Ark Angels as once you have 1 out with 2 other supports, the tactical mastery into activating ark angel (and thus activating 2 more supports) is really brutal when you roll well. After making the early Gauntlet list for Kylo/Pryce last week, I knew I had to have some tech to slow it down going into this SC. This led me to Ground Battalion, insuring that Pryce will only get to use her ability on the claim. At that point controlling the most valuable Pryce dice (typically, the Heirloom) really limits her efficacy, and having a rainbow limits the efficacy of Kylo's ability. Battalion is also a delve target, along with your big sticks: speeder tank and planetary. In hindsight, no more than 1 Friends in High Places is necessary as I only executed it once in 4 rounds. Otherwise, mitigation is self-explanatory. Friends in low is likely a good add in the future for when Piett goes down and shuts off Tactical.

Round 1 vs. Identity Krysis (Kylo/Pryce): Sure enough, I find (almost) my list in round 1. I asked him outright if he was running the list from the Hyperloops article, and he said he was running the "Harrisburg list" with some small changes. I informed him that was me... a little pre-game intimidation :). Not a great deal of excitement in this game, as my deck did what I designed it to do... win this matchup. I got out an early Planetary with delve and paid for a speeder tank outright. I got a ground battalion out next round to insure Pryce was neutered, and controlled Kylo's most valuable dice until Pryce went down. A big tactical mastery into 8 indirect sealed this one up fairly early. 1-0

Round 2 vs. Baby Vader/Arihnda Pryce: After the WoTF release, I scoffed at Baby Vader as a vastly inferior choice to Kylo Ren for the Pryce pairing. Turns out it still does a TON of damage. I was able to delve a speeder tank, as well as play an ark angel round 1. I didn't draw another support until round 4. Fortunately I was able to control the most valuable dice and hoard resources until I drew more supports. I had a close call round 3 when Vader naturally rolled a 3, 2, 2, +3, +2 amongst his character dice, an ancient, heirloom, and vibroknife. After deliberating for probably 2 full minutes (thanks for your patience, to my opponent), I hit the Heirloom (2) and Vibroknife +2 with The Best Defense. He was unable to pay for the 3 side and I killed Pryce before she could make a resource. This got me into the next 2 rounds still alive, at which time I paid for a Planetary, and then was able to delve the second planetary to kill Vader with its card effect. 2-0

Round 3 vs. Maz/Finn2: What a strange deck... he dropped a Rex's blaster round 1, and thus was activating both characters in 1 action, using Maz's ability, and basically resolving all of his dice before I take an action. He was running Carbon Freezing Chamber, which shut down character dice dependent decks prior to this. Fortunately, this had little effect on me once I ramped vehicles. Between Quick Draw and Hit and Run shenanigans, he made fairly quick work of Piett and Traitor, though not before I could hoard the resources for a Planetary, Battalion, and Speeder Tank. I dropped a Fang and Arc late in the game and finished this one with a relatively healthy Snoke still. This is probably the fastest deck I've ever played, but lost a lot of its punch once Maz went down. I survived this one through a pair of Hyperspace Jumps as well. 3-0

Round 4 vs Snoke/DJ: One of my local players was also running his version of Snoke/Traitor/Piett and was 2-0 when he played this deck in round 3. Needless to say this was a rough matchup for Vehicles. I caught the end of their game to find a fairly health Snoke and DJ vs a near death Snoke on the other side. Force Throw, Force Lightning, endless mitigation... ugh. I knew my only way past this would be an early big tactical play to push damage. I was able to get out the round 1 planetary, and tactical into 6 in round 2. With all the control in his deck, he often left my resources unmitigated, instead mitigating my focus and damage dice. I was also fortunate to avoid the discard sides on DJ, and with a round 1 chance cube was able to ramp money beyond what he could disrupt. He failed to draw a Holocron until late game, which I think made the biggest difference here. I still had a half dead Snoke in the final round, but he ran out of mitigation with a 3 health DJ and me still having a Planetary in the pool. I had 4 re-rolls to hit any damage side to finish the game. Roll 1, whiff. Roll 2, whiff. Roll 3, whiff. Finally on my last re-roll I hit the 5 indirect to clear his final 3 health. 4-0

As previously mentioned, I'm not sure Friends in High Places has a place in the deck, and certainly not as more than a 1 of. Delve is really amazing, and can enable some really brutal opening rounds if you also draw into your chance cube. In playing against this deck, I think you really need to mitigate resources early. Once it ramps into the big supports early, you're really playing from behind. Even mitigating those dice leaves your character dice alone to do as you wish with Snoke, whether that be huge indirect, more money, shields, etc. This is a deck to watch despite not getting any love in early Gauntlet lists.

Thanks for the read!