Welcome ladies and germs to another exciting Deck Analysis brought to you by yours truly, The Rekanator!!! (AKA Ken)
Last time, I brought you a deck idea that revolved around the Dark side of the Force, and today I’m here to bring you my own take on a staple of the game, the Han Solo (AW46) and Rey (AW38).
First and foremost, we have Rey and Han Solo coming in at their elite costs for a cool 30 point total cost. The biggest downside we have for this setup is the different damage types between the two. Rey favors melee heavily, and Solo has ranged damage. The real reason we are playing Rey, though, isn’t for her Lightsaber skills, it’s her effect and it’s one of the most brilliant abilities in the game.
The Deck
BATTLEFIELD
Starship Graveyard, Jakku (AW174)
CHARACTER
2x Rey, Force Prodigy (AW38)
2x Han Solo, Scoundrel (AW46)
UPGRADE
2x Jedi Robes (AW40)
2x One With The Force (AW42)
2x DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol (AW51)
2x Datapad (AW62)
2x Holdout Blaster (AW63)
2x Jetpack (AW66)
2x Second Chance (AW137)
2x Hunker Down (AW164)
SUPPORT
2x Infamous (AW163)
EVENT
2x Riposte (AW121)
2x Draw Attention (AW128)
2x Let The Wookie Win (AW130)
2x Deflect (AW145)
2x Electroshock (AW159)
2x Unpredictable (AW162)
Beginnings
Now that we have the decklist out of the way, I’m going to go over some of the specifics of the cards, and why I have named this deck “The Struggle”. We need to talk about how this deck came about for me. When I was first getting into the game, a local store employee ran a Han/Rey deck, and it really took my attention as the action economy was off the charts. I decided after I got my own set of Han to start to pilot the deck, but I was still green at this point and didn’t do so well. (Actually that’s an understatement, I down right SUCKED with this deck!!) I’ve gone through it many times, and asked for help from others many times, even taking this deck apart and rebuilding it after I swore I wouldn’t until the next expansion. I’ve still been trying to find a happy medium for this deck, after taking it to a local tournament again, I feel it still needs some work, but this is the version that I’m going to currently run and see how it works out. So it’s still a struggle to find a perfect Han/Rey for me!
Concept
The main concept behind Rey and Han is to maximize the Ambushes and Rey’s special ability to gain two actions to roll out your dice and resolve them without your opponent getting to react. The Holdout Blaster provides one of the best ways to do just that. With it’s ability to get replaced easily, and redeployed should Rey fall, it is a very good card to have. The combo really starts to shine when you are able to play two holdout blasters in a turn, triggering Han’s ambush twice to give him shields, getting 3 actions total, rolling out Rey and Han, and then resolving whatever you need before your opponent can do anything. If you get the chance to claim, you can start the process all over again next turn if you also happen to pull a DL-44, brutal combo to go against.
Card Selection
Some of the choices I have made might seem to make your head itch. I’ve included two copies of Second Chance, as well as One with the Force, so I can make sure we can get those equipped to Han and Rey as soon as possible, more so the One with the Force as Rey is normally the main target. Her ability can really start to annoy your opponent when you are able to get actions upon actions upon actions. .
I have also gone a little heavy on upgrades to forgo some of the events, mainly because you’ll be upgrading the existing ones, and while you can get them back, you’re only going to be getting back at max, one a round if you are able to claim. The original deck went with Force Protection (AW39), but I decided to cut it as having too many high cost cards was really eating through my resources. With Han, DL-44, and Holdout Blaster having a cost to damage, it was hard to get that extra resources out for it to be worthwhile. I’ve floated the idea of putting in Defensive Stance (AW115) as well as Willpower (AW122), but each time I keep coming back to other cards I like more. I’ve also thought about replacing Jedi Robes for something else, but with the current card selection it’s hard to beat it’s ability to add shields for free and be a good candidate for Rey’s engine of upgrade/replace upgrade/replace.
Strategies
You want to hope for Infamous and/or Holdout Blaster in your opening hand. You can also be fine with Infamous and Datapad, or in the rare case, Datapad Datapad, to get Rey equipped up and rolling those resources out so you won’t have to worry about resources during the game. At first I thought you’d want to play a defensive deck, but after being kicked in the teeth, I’ve decided while you can play defensive, you need to be more aggressive with your playing. You’ll need to play cards like DL-44 generally after your opponent activates to get the full benefit. (One of the best plays is against Hyperloop decks who start off with their Falcon, and you remove that die straight away!) You can also just bring it out on Rey to get that action economy and then get that good 2 actions to roll out. I like to equip Jetpack on Han Solo UNLESS you are able to get Infamous out and get that double action from Rey. Then you can put the Jetpack on her, and roll out Rey and Han in one turn.
One of the best feelings in the game for you, is when you do get that perfect starting hand of Holdout Blaster and Jedi Robes, AND you are able to go first. Some people like to have Jedi Robes down first, then Holdout Blaster for the roll, I prefer to go the other way and start with Holdout, then get Jedi Robes on Rey and roll with that for the first turn and then claim with Holdout in my hand for next time. This nets you 3 shields, 2 on Rey and 1 on Solo. If you’re lucky, you disrupt their resources with Solo so they are going into the first turn without any, making it that much more difficult for them to recover from that first turn.
The hard part of this deck isn’t the action economy, but the RNG gods smiting you down. Since you will be pitching upgrades so much onto Rey to get those actions, you’ll also be strapped for discards to re-roll those dice later in your turn. This is that risk vs reward that is a great part of the game. You can count on having at most 2 re-roll cards per turn. The other cards are upgrades that have been played, or events that have been used to their full potential.
Give this deck a try. Let me know your thoughts on the deck in the comments below, as well as any suggestions you might have and how you fair during your tournament.
UPDATE
After this article went live, I had a terrible time getting this deck to fire, I switched a few more things around, and it was very close to the current decklist that won the TTS over the weekend. I decided to change out just four cards, I lost the Datapads in exchange for Awakenings (AW124) and dropped Let the Wookie Win, for Draw Attention (AW128). While against two decks tonight, those little changes as well as being more aggressive in play style worked to beat a Vader Raider and Poe Rey deck. I think with the current selection of cards, we’ve finally got a true “final” version of this deck.
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