MNG Tournament First Place 1.22.2017 1.0

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eJango / Trooper / Trooper

Piloted to a 4-1 to first place finish at a 20-something man tournament at Mr. Nice Guy Games in Monroeville, PA on January 22, 2017.

Edit: I was quoting Squad Tactics in my original write up, which should have been Cannon Fodder. This has been updated.

Deck is straightforward. Pretty exhaustive playtesting against a lot of different lists led me to conclude that this is a better Jango build than that of a Veers version, or an elite Bala Tik version. Need to let Jango do his thing, and put Jetpack and other redeployables (F-11D Rifle, Holdout Blaster) each turn until he is fully loaded.

Jango's action economy is second to none. I observe a lot of people playing him incorrectly, however. Since ideally the game is about doing what you want with your dice and not letting your opponent do what they want with theirs, I laud Jango as the best character in the game because he can resolve and/or control dice before the opponent can react. That manipulates the core strategy of the game to a distinct advantage that no other character (save Rey) does. Therefore, reacting with Jango and resolving key rolls, and then sitting back and controlling the die pool was my build philosophy.

Since you'll be dropping an upgrade most turns, you're left with a lean wallet. That makes cards like Cannon Fodder and He Doesn't Like You critical plays, and desirable in the opening mulligan. Every event save one Dodge is selected for economy and the theory that you want to be able to deny some damage while at the same time dropping an upgrade every turn, applying and maintaining pressure.

There are no tricks here. No Armed to the Teeth, no Fight Dirty. I want the math to come down to me doing more damage, and the economy of the cards dictates that I can deny some big plays from my opponent to Jango with the very low cost and effective Event choices here.

I'm not sure what I have left to change - I'm still not sold on Endless Ranks, but I have won games with it.

Tournament Run-down

Round 1 v. eJabba / Vader

Well. First match of the day against a tough deck. I knew if I rolled decent this could be a good matchup for King Jango. My opponent was running a sensible build, and went for a Crime Lord fairly early. Anticipating it, I held onto He Doesn't Like You and booted out the CL die. He punished me 2x with Abandon All Hope which hurt, but the great thing about my build that I stated above is that I can function without credits. Cards, on the other hand, is a different story. He didn't take any big chunks from my hand, and my damage to Jabba was too fast and swift. I quickly dispatched Vader as well. Result: Win. (Never underestimate AAH though, it really stings when it goes off on you.)

Round 2 v. eHan / eRey

IMO, this is a tough matchup, probably the toughest for this deck - certainly the toughest on the day - since it tries to pull similar action economy. It was a slugfest, and then a battle of dice control. At one point, we had a ton of damage on the table, and then both of us ended booting dice with nothing left. And the following turn we slugged each other, and both Disarmed stuff. An exhilarating matchup. Shields proved to slow me down just enough to force my only timed out game on the day. Result: Loss, by 1 damage! Darn Han shields...

Round 3 v. eGrievous / Dooku

My opponent came out swinging and rolled some 3s, that I was able to control fairly handily. I rolled extremely well with both Jango and the Stormies - I was quite lucky this match, admittedly. When my opponent did manage to roll well I was able to distribute amongst the Troopers and take the match without much issue. Grievous is scary, though. Result: Win.

Round 4 v. eGrievous / Jango

I took a beating early, as my opponent rolled pretty hot. Jango was at 7-8 health but I was able to stabilize and come back and burst hard enough to race Grievous down despite multiple Dug in. I followed this up by Disarm on Jango's lone Jetpack, fearing a lucky counter-roll to lose Jango. My opponent only had one die left in play. I then had enough upgrades to one-shot Jango - I believe I bursted for 13-14. Result: Win.

Round 4 v. eKylo / Vader

I was facing off against the only undefeated deck on the day, a well-piloted Mono Blue Sith. Ironically I had considered bringing a similar deck - Mono Blue plays consistent and when you get the control dies on the table, it can be pretty bleak for the opponent. The only problem is - and it was certainly a problem for my opponent - is that it is slow, even more so if you don't see Sith Holocron or It Binds All Things.

I took advantage of this slowness and upgraded Jango and let him do his work. My opponent seemed to have a thoughtful, sensible build, and tried to apply some pressure to Jango, but the all stars The Best Defense..., Disarm, and Cannon Fodder all put in work on this match. I did mess up and activated Jango twice (noob mistake) but fortunately was able to catch myself and apologize to my gracious opponent, putting the board state back immediately. It also helped that I rolled blanks on all his dice TWICE and it didn't affect the board state at all....(lol). Despite that flub (Brandon, you're the man) it was a great match and my opponent played his deck well. I pulled ahead, dispatching Kylo and then working Vader. Result: Win.

Afterthoughts:

I like mono blue!

Cards I couldn't live without:
Holdout Blaster on Troopers, Disarm, Cannon Fodder, He Doesn't Like You. The synergy between Jango and HDLY is incredible.

Cards I could swap/cut: Endless Ranks, IQA-11 Blaster Rifle (I don't think I deployed one the entire day, and find myself pitching normally).

Cards I was surprised by: Infantry Grenades