Go for Papa Palpatine *12-0, 10/5/19 Portland, OR Winner

Simulateur de pioche
Probabilités: 0% – 0% plus
Inspiré de
Aucun. Ce deck est fait-maison.
Inspiration pour
Jabba Palp 1 1 0 1.0
palp version 6 0 0 0 1.0
Palpatine/Jabba 1 1 0 1.0
Worlds TOP 64 - FAT PALP 1 1 0 1.0
Monk's YoloPalp - ePalp3 / Jabba - Worlds (5-3) 10 9 1 1.0
palp/eJango 1 1 0 1.0
PalpJaba222 0 0 0 1.0

jeff3316 207

It was a heck of a day on Saturday, far exceeding my expectations with 12-0 performance even though I put in an inappropriate amount of time building and tweaking this deck through many iterations. I've been testing Pappa Palpatine with my Olympia, WA skeleton crew since Palp was released, and this finally got to the point where it was resilient and powerful enough for me to have confidence in it. Still, I felt it overachieved... At any rate, here is my tournament report: hit me up with any further questions or comments you may have. This is likely to be my only deckbuild that garners any interest, so I have bandwidth to chat about it! jeff3316@gmail.com

In all my papa palpatine testing, card draw has been the biggest issue for me. I play so many cards as upgrades on him, that i've got nothing left for re-rolls or event mitigation. Jabba usually gives me an extra card each round. In earlier versions, I ran seperatist conspiracy, but too often my opponent ditched a card or paid a resource to prevent the card draw. With LM, I have fatal blow or pushing slash on-line and pseudo "in-my-hand" when the time is right. I hate having to run 2 fatal blows and pushing slashes in my deck. Those are the worst to get in your opening hand.

Game 1: Reylo. I wish I could remember his name, but a great guy from Walla Walla, WA. Thanks to him for making the long road trip here. He threw down Reylo, which was my most dreaded matchup. I knew luck was with me when I got my #1 anti-reylo tech card in round 1 and round 2: Galactic Deception. It just turned off every one of his tricks. No loth-wolf bond, no polarity, no Kylo's power action, no rolling Rey's dice back in the pool. As he said, he rolled great!..... if it weren't for Galactic Deception.... By round 3, Papa Palpatine was well on his way towards Unlimited Power without much of a scratch. If I don't get Galactic Deception early, this is a different game.

Game 2: Jabba, Wat, Sentinel Messinger An interesting match - I did have my deck built with the primary intention of competing well with Satine Droids and JWM. That being said, JWM is a prime-time deck. My opponent was great, and self-acknowledged that going for Jabba first was a mistake.

Game 3: Marisa with Satine Droids AR Marisa is a pro and came up from California. She doesn't know this, but my daughter (8 year old destiny player herself) has been a fan of hers since she took down the GQ in Redmond, WA a few months ago.
My luck continued in this game. When it takes 3 rerolls to get a Satine die to hit a resource....ugh. In contrast, every card draw and die roll went perfect for me. It didn't feel good.

*Game 4: James from Dice of Failure - Maul & Mandalorian Super Commando.
I got to play Wyatt from DOF at the Redmond GQ, so it was great to get to play another DOF member at this event.
When Papa Palpatine goes up against a fast, aggro deck like this, it is typical to go to the brink of death before bouncing back.
This really could of or should of been a loss. I knew that my mid-game fatal blow move on the mando dealt 8 damage, but neither of us caught that it was not fatal on the Mando. He should of had one health left and then i'd need another action to resolve a die to finish the mando off. But, it made a difference because James had a redeploy weapon in his hand that he could of played for 1 damage, and keep the resource investment. I'm not sure what other cards I had in my hand to offset the course of events that would of followed, but it would not of been a sure thing.

Game 5: Jacob - Cloud City Roller - Satine Droids My first CCR matchup. I haven't really had any practice playing against Satine droids, but I thought I knew enough of the matchup and assumed/hoped that my deck was suited to take it on. I was pretty nervous about it knowing the power of the deck, but it did work out for me.

Game 6: Brian - IGGY & Phasma 2 Great guy and a great game. I worry about going up against fast aggro, but my deck held up. It probably helped that he did have an inadvertent show of his intent to play admiral on Phasma, and that allowed me to pivot my strategy a bit to handle that. Otherwise, I likely would have been caught off-guard and gone down hard.

Top Cut 1: Brian - IGGY & Phasma 2 While it was great to hang out with Brian again, I don't think either of us were super excited for the same matchup. This time we got to see decklists, and knowing he didn't have "you are in command now" really helped me formulate a strategy to kill Phamsa first and prevent any admiral resets. He made a great call to separatist embargo my force storm in game 1 and my bacta therapy in round 2. Using Jabba to dig for desperate measures made separatist embargo a limited threat. Hero's scruffy looking nerf herder seems so much more powerful in my later matches. An interesting thought I have about this matchup is that I don't fear IGGY's power action. The damage on Jabba just doesn't matter much.

Top Cut 2: Jacob - Satine Droids I think these were my two most intense matchups. Especially game 2. I was burnt out at this point and running on fumes. As with other decks, I know, my deck does require a lot of thought and sequencing. There were times that I was in mid action and forgot what I was doing. The judge needed to remind me that I selected "resolving specials" as my action which allowed me to continue. Not my best and my opponent didn't give me an inch on some other technicalities, but I'd expect nothing less... I'm sure Jacob was going through fatigue also. At any rate, I'm looking forward to seeing the replay of these matches, as I think game 2 may have been my best come from behind victory ever. We both only had about 2 health total left and he had a lot of dice in the pool on horrible sides for him, but he had a hand full of cards. I almost missed this, but I was able to see that I had a chance to empty his hand with a force storm and two barterings on discard sides. After that, I had the potential to do the 2 damage I needed, but he focused to a shield and wanted to resolve it with his next action to prevent the kill. I had been holding my only EMP for a long time and was able to remove the one shield crait speeder die to stop the shield and then deal the two damage for the win. Big sigh of relief for me there, because as the DOF guys told me if it would have gone to game 3, I wouldn't of had time to win the tie breaker.

Top Cut 1: Andres the Ace himself - Satine Droids The new terror of the PNW and odds on favorite to win this thing was one matchup I didn't want to face. He has come to Olympia before to play with our group, so I did get the chance to be crushed by him before. I knew what I was up against, and that (along with an emergency protein given to me by the DOF) allowed me to find the energy to be at my best.
Being able to see the decklists before the match was a huge help. I knew he had the big falcon and entourage package to watch out for. That said, the games were really a big chess match with me getting desperate measures, not taking the bait to blow up his fickles, and him hitting me with scruffy's to trash my desperate measures and bactas. For me, this was a matchup that I won't forget.

Thanks to smuggler's run gaming, dice commandos, my opponents, and everyone else there for one of my best days ever.

Wyatt - the beer you bought me after the whole thing was just about the best beer I've ever had and I really needed it. I owe you one for sure.

37 commentaires

KyloSpren 204

You don't owe me a thing man. You carried yourself with humility and a smile all day. Was a pleasure to get to know you and see you succeed. Looking forward to the next time. -Wyatt

Biercow 48

Congrats Jeff! I was there and dodged you all day but I heard many stories of your deck wrecking face. Hope to have the pleasure of losing to you one day! ;)

Sinomi 375

Congratulations, Jeff! Stellar work this weekend. :D

herrerodani 100

Galactic Deception doesn't allow to give shields but Kylo Ren - Bound By The Force PA doesn't "give" but "move" so it is not negated by GA, what do you think?

Dante2377 20

If he slaps galactic deception down first action, unless reylo energy first and got a shield first action, then the reylo player cannot gain any shields for kylo to PA. That’s what he was saying.

pezyo 22

Congrats!

PeoplesChampion92 2

Congratulations on the win! I’ve been considering a Palpatine/Watto deck for my prime run, but I love the look of this deck. I’m just wondering what defense options you had? Without Soresu Training and Mastery it seems like this deck would be very vulnerable. How do you keep Palpatine alive long enough to ramp? Thanks!

nerf_shepherd 43

How high would you value LSM? Do you think Double Down is a viable alternative?

Dante2377 20

Being able to pull those two moves, particularly Fatal Blow, on demand is critical. Those events clog up the deck and are terrible round 1 and sometimes round 2 draws.

Dice of Failure 822

@melondonkey Having played against this deck and watched it perform on stream, casting it at the same time, LSM was irreplaceable. The constant threat of fatal blow is huge and getting to use Pushing Slash to finish the game is also clutch.

I think that's the genius of this deck that it found a viable way to pair Palp with LSM and still ramp. He uses the cheap upgrades like Niman Training and Bartering to get extra resources on round one and he can dig for Well-Connected with Jabba. So I'd value it very highly, and I don't think you'd get the same value out of Double Down.

jeff3316 207

@herrerodani & @Dante2377 Exactly right - I won the roll-off and took his battlefield so that I got shields. With my 1st action, I played Galactic Deception. So it indirectly shut off Kylo's power action because he had no way to give Kylo shields.

@PeoplesChampion92 In earlier versions when I was running Watto, I had Soresu Mastery in there. I do think it is more powerful for defense in that in can remove a die vs. just turning a die with niman. Watto also makes enough cash to pay for its higher cost than niman. Ultimately though, niman is more flexible, cheaper, and allows for more dice control.

@Dice of Failure and @melondonkey Spot on DOF. I couldn't of said it any better.

I should also add that sith teachings was absolutely clutch all day. Frequently, I used force jumps and niman mastery to blank dice, and then play with teachings to remove it. It was a sweet combo and really helped pump up my mitgation strategy. I think I only played sith teachings once where I didn't remove a die. Holding that card in order to remove a die is crucial IMHO.

Orffme 71

congrats! This deck is beautiful and I want to try it out. Thanks for sharing.

jeff3316 207

That’s high praise. Thank you.

Hey, the link below I s the true inspiration for this deck. This is what enabled our small crew to have the stamina to keep letting me play versions of this against them.

youtu.be

bmarcial 57

Congrats on the win! Super excited you won! The deck is badass.

Turner 282

Stoked to see you included Formidable. Did it see much play in your games? Congrats on the super sick record!

jeff3316 207

Thanks for the great questions. @Turner - maybe a little less then half of the games did it hit the table. It is a fun card to add, and in testing I pulled off the cute ability that it brings on occasion. But in the tournament, I honestly cringed a bit each time I played it. I just don't like the 2 cost. It is the 30th card in this deck I think. Without a doubt, a 2nd EMP would have been better. I've even thought of including Ancient Magicks in that spot because I know that the 6, 1-cost ability upgrade package is the beating heart of the deck. Just playing those is a very soft mitigation because they add health. Plus they turn on fatal blow and bacta therapy. Ancient Magicks doesn't offer near the value that the other 6, 1-cost abilities do, but Papa Palpatine needs to bulk up quickly and formidable doesn't quite do that unfortunately.

Entourage Gaming - Lanza 357

@jeff3316 congrats man! What a weekend!

nerf_shepherd 43

Some more questions—been thinking about this deck. Did you test more aggressive versions of this strategy? I’m thinking of say including two Free-for-All’s (which Jabba can fish for) and then subbing in even more one-cost upgrades, possibly even by excluding Force Storm. Or do you think the deck needs some “base damage” to work that doesn’t come from events?

Dante2377 20

Jeff I’d consider Dark Counsel or Crystal Ball before ancient magics if ramp is what you’re looking for.

Dante2377 20

hmmm forgot those aren’t abilities. If you’re overwriting them I’d probably still consider one.

Queklaine 222

I always cringe when I make a deck with less than 8 removal. You only have 3 and went undefeated!. I know you have some removal tricks like changing dice with nimian or playing sith teachings. Do you have have trouble with just getting overwelmed and losing palp early in your testing? I've seen other decks with in the past with very little removal and it just blows my mind cuz I always get rolled when I try it :)

jeff3316 207

@Queklaine - If you don't mind a longer answer, here are my thoughts on mitigation packages. I also do not consider building a deck with less than 10 mitigation cards. That said, all mitigation is not created equal, and I'll give 1/2 of a mitigation card value for a piece that I have limited control over or if it turns a die vs. removes it. So, here is how I count the mitigation in this deck (the 1st number is the "value" and the 2nd number is the number of them in my deck:

2: 2 Forsaken (Best removal card in the game and so easy to setup with this deck) 2: 2 Dangerous Maneuver (as good as forsaken to remove 2 damage) 2: 2 Bacta's (blow out mitigation) 1: 2 Niman Mastery (I could talk for a while on how to use this) 1: 2 Sith Teachings (overwrite a lightsaber for a free die removal and +1 health) 1: 2 desperate measures (crazy good in some games, but dead in others) 1: 2 Force jumps (has the potential to be wildly above curve) .5: 1 pushing slash (don't play this card until niman master is in play) .5: 1 EMP (crazy good in some games, but dead in others)

Total: 11 In my opinion, this gives me a comparative value of running a deck with 11 mitigation cards. Depending on a little bit of luck and the skill of my play, this is a very conservative number. Not only are some of these repeatable, but a lot of them give me a plus 1 health to boot and simultaneously set up my fatal blow. I also find that this "11" value being spread out over 16 cards gives me as much overall and consistent control of the board state than other decks I run with 14 mitigation cards.

The above was the result of my theory, testing, and then the tale of the tape. I think several of my games will be posted to the excellent Dice Commandos YouTube channel, so I encourage you to check it out as well as the rest of their content. The finals is also up on the Artificary's Twitch page.

jeff3316 207

The formatting of my above post did not work as I intended...

jeff3316 207

@melondonkey Yes, I used to have free-for-all in for a long time. That card is so great as a closer, but again, it can kill ramp and mitigation needs if you get it in in the first 3 rounds. Once I switched out of Papa's 12 point character pairing options and into Jabba to open up plots, I realized that you only really need 1 killer card. LM lets me keep the much better, Fatal Blow available and on demand while also being safe from probes, scruffy's, and counterintelligence.

I'd love for you to test also and see if you find something different with this, but I actually think I only have 3 flex spots at best. Those being Formidable and the Galactic Deceptions. The latter can only be removed if Reylo is out of the meta which seems unlikely. If I were to play tomorrow, I'd sadly replace Formidable with another EMP, but that could be because I faced 6 Satine droids and 3 IGGYs.

Side note: this deck started to become more consistent in testing once I got rid of my hidden motives. I know that's hard to let go of, but I didn't miss it in any of my 12 matches.

Kalaheo 142

The fatigue was real! Great games, and nice job catching that 4 discard that ended it all. I saw the 2 on force storm but was so focused on trying to finish off Palp I totally missed it.

Entourage Gaming - Lanza 357

@jeff3316did you face any mill?

jeff3316 207

@Entourage Gaming - Lanza negative... This is untested against mill, but I doubt it would have a chance against it. #LongLiveEwoks!

stoko 3

This is Brian, it was real fun playing with you. I don't know if you'll be at worlds, but if so we need another go!

jeff3316 207

@stoko Thanks Brian! i'm not heading to worlds.... wasn't even on my radar to think that big, but its been a fun week. We don't live that far apart, so my email is at the top paragraph if anything works out going forward.

Muskymarko 1

@jeff3316 was it worth having one pushing slash under lsm or would you have preferred 2 fatal blow?

KyloSpren 204

@Muskymarko you can't play 2 of the same move on LSM. While draw closer had it's merits in a spot, I watch him get multiple crucial kills with pushing slash.

Muskymarko 1

@KyloSpren ah ya my bad I've never used it an didn't notice the "different ", ya I used draw closer in the palp watto deck for awhile an always felt kinda mediocre

Dice of Failure 822

James from the Dice of Failure here - I'd like the record to show that I strongly object to the asterisk on our match.

From my perspective, I lost that game because I was the worse player. You can watch the stream on the Dice Commando's channel, and you'll see I made the highly questionable decision to spend two resources on a Fear and Dead Men, which essentially just made it so I spent my entire round's income to deal 3 damage to Jabba. Without that, I have the money to get off a huge Pulse Cannon Power Action and probably win the game before the Fatal Blow even mattered.

I've already discussed this with Jeff, but I wanted my objection noted for the record.

Great game! Looking forward to playing against you again!

Orffme 71

How does this deck do into chopper droids, 4lom, or aphra?

KyloSpren 204

Chopper droids is rough. Great into 4lom, unless they bring tech like scorched Earth. Even then. She's it's also fairly good into Beecher the healing and Killin a character with lm.

thE_MAndAlORiAn 84

I kinda think Fatal Blow is so mush better than Pushing Slash (which is also good) that you should just have x2 fatal blow, and 0 pushing slashes.

Kalaheo 142

You can't. Two different move events for LSM.