eKylo / eSnoke - Czech Nationals 2018 TOP 4 (6:0 Swiss, 3th 1.0

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• 1.0

This is the deck that I have been using ever since Snoke came out. Having played more than 100 games with the deck I knew exactly what kind of deck I would play at the Nationals. In fact, I have been playing Kylo ever since his release, starting with Kylo/General Grievous and then Kylo/Anakin. But only after pairing Kylo with Snoke I have made a powerful deck that hasn't lost in a tournament for several months with the only exception - Regional TOP 4 - I lost to TACOS 1:2.

As you can see, the decklist does not contain any new card from the AtG set. And yet this deck can easily beat vehicles (Thrawn/Snoke) with their new shenanigans, mill or most of other Tier 1 decks. Aphra/Snoke/Droid would probably teach this deck a lesson, though. Several players, with whom I played at the Nationals, praised the universality of the deck. And deservedly so. On the paper the deck looks as another Kylo Snoke deck that cannot surprise anyone. But the key lies in the way how properly it is executed. And believe me, it is not easy at all to play this deck right. Sometimes I start by activating Snoke, sometimes Kylo, sometimes I play more than 1 weapon, sometimes I don't, sometimes I leave resources for mitigation, sometimes I don't. It depends on the round in which I am, on my opening hand, on the status of the boards, on health, number of weapons already in play etc.

What is crucial before taking this deck to any event is a decent awareness of your meta. Kylo punishes mono colored decks (nowadays especially Vader TtB with something, QGJ2) or decks in which one color dominates. But he is good even against big darkside vehicles. Take a look at their deck list. Their vehicles are mostly red and most of the mitigation cards are blue. And what is more, Kylo has disrupt and after getting boost from Snoke's power action it means 3 lost resources for an opponent. And we all know how precious the resources are for any Thrawn/Snoke vehicle based deck in the first round. Or second. Or even third. Against the Mill decks this deck works surprisingly good as well if you know whom target first. Is Lando/Leia problem in your meta? Take this deck and in the second round Lando is gone and Leia usually wont last much longer. Is the Blue Mill problem? You have got Ewok village and Vibroknife to deal with the shields.

I could go on listing all possible Tier 1 decks but let me rather stick to the decks I knew I would face at the Nationals. Now let me turn your attention to the decklist itself. As you can see I run 6x 2 cost weapons, especially Vibroknife is essential because of the ambush keyword which comes handy in a great many of games (mill for example) and because it deals damage under the shields. Torment is a great card - you should always mulligan for it because it essentially gives you one more resource in a round in which it comes into play (of course if you override it with any weapon), so even 3 cost weapons can suddenly out of nowhere come into play.

Some of you might be wondering why Kylo's starfighter? And the answer is - because I value the ability to take a look at my opponent's hand that much that I rather use the aforementioned ship instead of All In which is a great card in this deck and was the last one to go. And what is more, it is always good to roll the special while playing against mono-colored decks. As for the events and mitigation in general, nothing fancy, they just suit my playstyle.

Cards that did not make the list for one reason or another: All In, No Mercy, Close Quarters Assault, Beguile, Stifle, Treasured Lightsaber, Defend.

Nationals 2018

1:0 - eVader/jawa + Retribution. My opponent made couple of mistakes and my aggressive play style forced him to save resources for mitigation rather than for Vader. So, I ended up with 2 damage on Kylo. There was 1 Rise again, though. Or 2?

2:0 - eLando/eLeia - Mill - my opponent managed to get rid of my hands twice in row but in the mean time I had two weapons out and managed to kill Lando in round 2 so essentially shutting down half of the cards. Leia on her own could not survive much longer. It was the fastest game of the day - 3 rounds - 10 mins.

3:0 - eThrawn/eSnoke - vehicles - my opponent played really well but the crucial moment was disrupting his 3 resources so that he was unable to get Battle Droid out. A move that did surprise my opponent as I was willing to sacrifice damage in order to disrupt him.

4:0 - eYoda/eQGJ2 + Bitter Rivalry - the decklist is online so please check it out, it is a pretty good deck and Matej, the player, is a nice guy and played it well but Kylo's ability is too powerful. I did lost Snoke (my only loss during the Swiss), which was a cunning move, but Kylo finished him quickly afterwards.

5:0 - eThrawn/eSnoke - vehicles - I was able to kill Thrawn pretty quickly before he could do anything and even though Fist was on the table (I think) he could not get me killed asap.

6:0 - eHan3/eBiggs - Falcon - I was lucky that my opponent could not draw into Hit and Run in his opening hand, therefore I had an action to do something about his dice. Well, my opponent did roll poorly, so there was no need to and I was able to kill Biggs right away in the first round and Han in the Third.

So, after 6 games I was on the top of the list. 5 out of 6 players with whom I had played that day (round 2-6), made it into the top 8. As #1 after Swiss I was paired against the Mill deck eLeia/Ani/Jedi Guard which was played by another great guy Jacob. And I have got to say that the decklist took me by surprise. In the first game I was rolling poorly not being able to hit any damage via Kylo's ability and Jacob managed to get rid of most of my dice. I made a mistake going after Ani first. And that cost me the first game. It was my first lost game with this deck in months but I lost fair and square. Even two Ancient Lightsaber were not enough. For the second game I decided to play more aggressively and target Jedi Guard first because many of his cards needed to spot a blue character. And it did work. After Killing Guard and then Leia, Ani could not withstand fully armed Kylo and Snoke. In the third game I used the very same tactic but the time was called when his Guard was gone, Leia was almost gone and I had more than 10 cards still available either in the hand or in the deck.

So, after 8 games I made it to the top 4. I had some time to refresh myself but in the mean time while waiting for my opponent a sudden headache struck me. Even though I took a pill right away it did not come into effect. I was paired this time against another great Czech Guy and a skilled player who played eVader/Greedo with a couple of big supports. Had I not taken Kylo/Snoke to the Nationals, Vader Greedo would have been my choice. In the first game everything was going smoothly, with the exception of the headache. Kylo did his dirty work and I was pretty sure I was going to kill Vader in round 3. All I needed was to roll 2 damage. My opening Roll was 3 blanks. Hmmm. Even after rerolling I was not able to roll any damage!!! And in the mean time Lukas, my opponent, managed to get enough resources so that he could play Rise again. And what is more, I had no disrupt on my dice either. Could you believe that? Resource, Blank and completly useless shield. And that was the decisive moment of the game. Lukas managed to play Rise again and in the next turn Greedo's two range damage knocked off Kylo and I conceded the game as there was nothing I could do with one weapon on Snoke against Vader armed with 2 weapons.

My headache was getting worse, therefore I took a second pill. For the second game I decided to play more aggressively. But my opening hand was awful. I mulliged and it was even worse. No weapon!! At that moment I knew it was over. I had 2 torments, 2 events and 1 starfighter. Lukas managed to get out via Delve Vader's Fist and the game was really over. There was nothing I could do, not to mention that I made a mistake that could have given me more time. But it would have been a mere struggle to prolong the inevitable.

So, the tournament was over for me. I managed to play all other 7 players that made it that day to the TOP 8. That is an achievement I would say losing only to one of them (Vader) :)

Vlad