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Deck Analysis 102: Han Rey – The Return of the Action Economy!

So last time when I presented you a deck analysis of this pair, it was almost a hopeless lost cause. After some careful considerations, I have updated my deck with Spirit of Rebellion cards and have tested it against a few of the “new hotness” decks and it seems to do quite well against them.

Decklist

Here’s my current deck list and I’ll go over why I feel some of these cards are needed and what might change after more testing.

Battlefield

Starship Graveyard, Jakku (AW174) (Han/Rey, if you aren’t running this BF, you’re doing something wrong)

Characters

2x Rey, Force Prodigy (AW38)
2x Han Solo, Scoundrel (AW46)

Upgrades

2x One With The Force (AW42)
2x DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol (AW51)
2x Holdout Blaster (AW63)
2x Second Chance (AW137)
2x Maz’s Goggles (SR50)
2x Vibroknife (SR57)
2x Fast Hands (SR150)

Support

2x Infamous (AW163)

Events

2x Riposte (AW121)
2x Negotiate (AW131)
2x Electroshock (AW159)
2x Unpredictable (AW162)
2x Loth-Cat and Mouse (SR114)
2x New Orders (SR137)
2x Friends in Low Places (SR146)

Breakdown

So first up, the no-brainer of a battlefield, Starship Graveyard. Did you put this card in your Han/Rey? No?!?!?! Okay, lift up your dominate hand, now slap yourself across your face. No seriously… I know you didn’t do that, lift up your hand, slap yourself. Okay, now go put in Starship Graveyard.

Upgrades

 

Now we are going to go over some of the new hotness that Spirit of Rebellion has been able to add in; that little extra oomph for this deck. For upgrades, we have three fine new pieces that have been talked about quite a bit, but I will detail them a little more and how they fit in with this deck and it’s synergy. Maz’s Goggles, Vibroknife, and Fast Hands. Maz’s Goggles brings a neat set of options do our deck. The only thing holding this upgrade back from being pure broken is that it’s unique and thank goodness for that! Imagine, if you will, on turn one, even after the mulligan you DO NOT GET AN AMBUSH equipment to put on Rey. OH THE HORROR. But wait, you see in your hand Infamous. and Maz’s Goggles!!! That’s right, you now have the option of putting down one of the best supports for yellow, and playing an upgrade onto Rey to get that double ambush cheat, roll in the Han, and see what you can get. Now that’s not the only thing this card is useful for, but also helps with the much needed FOCUS in this deck. Han and Rey do not have a ton of focus, and most of the upgrades that we have chosen also are lacking in that regard, but with this set of spectacles we now have a good chuck of options for those focus.

 

The next card that has been added is the Vibroknife. Just think of it as the Holdout Blaster for Spirit of Rebellion, minus the redeploy. While this card is much more suited in heavy melee decks, it does help Rey get the double-action going on, as well as helps the melee sides of her dice so she can actually be helpful to Han.

This third card that basically let’s you turn EVERYONE who can splash yellow into a Tusken Raider (AW22) without the discard is another card that is sweeping the meta scene right now, and rightfully so. What you want to see is either a Holdout Blaster or Vibroknife, and Fast Hands turn one. Depending on what your opponent is playing, I would cast one of the two cost upgrades (Because quite a few people are now running disrupts) and get your upgrade out on the board first, then use the Fast Hands on Han, roll him out (Autobots, ROLL OUT!), and you’ll have a good chance of resolving something out the door from Han for free (minus the 1 cost for 3 side, or the BLANKS OF DOOM!!). I have even taken a resource if Han rolls it as well because most likely you’ll be packing a removal that needs that one resource. If you don’t have a use for the 1 resource that’s fine, just leave it there for next turn. If you happen to pull another ambush upgrade with the opening hand, play it over whatever one you played before, get one in the discard, roll out Rey, resolve, and claim. Sometimes you can bluff your way into having a removal, especially since now people are running quite a bit of them. You don’t need to claim too early, but having an equipment in your discard gives the impression to your opponent that you could claim at ANYTIME and start the cycle of action economy (cough cheating cough) over again next turn.

Events

The next three cards we have coming in on the event side of the house are Loth-Cat and Mouse, New Orders, and Friends in Low Places. Loth-Cat and Mouse is a weaker version of He Doesn’t Like You (AW97) as your opponent gets to choose your dice first, but in the case of either bad rolls on your part, or even really great rolls on your opponents side, you can change the turn of the battlefield. I’ve never been upset at all using this card and it will remain a stable in this deck until it is either replaced by something better, or it gets retired.

New Orders was actually a card I got to preview before the release on this website and I was quite happy with the card back then, and I’m thrilled to have it in the deck now. Han/Rey rely on the battlefield more than most teams and when they do not claim the Graveyard, it really hurts the ability of the deck to bring back much needed guns and abilities (Hello, Second Chance!) and you’ll love the extra benefit if your opponent takes their field at the start that you can use the Starship Graveyard twice in a turn if you play this then claim!

Friends in Low Places is one of the cards that I have considered removing this last round, but left it in as it goes well with Maz’s Goggles. If you are able to remove two cards from your opponents hands, that’s two less chances of them pitching dead cards to reroll, or in the cases of Hit and Run (AW106), Field Medic (AW105), Dug In (AW139), etc., you can REALLY put a hurt on your opponent’s plans to recover from your onslaught.

Deck Strategies

So now that the new cards have been analyzed, let’s talk about the deck in general and what your ultimate goal is. First and foremost, this is an aggro deck, but because of how fast some of the other decks can be, it’s had to move to a more defensive position. There are quite a few cards that will add shields, but I feel that Han can gain enough shields as it is, and Rey, while usually the prime target, doesn’t seem to die as often as she once did. I believe this is partially from the fact that people know Second Chance is indeed a threat, and they want to kill Han as fast as possible before you can get that upgrade down and start the endless ranks of second change recursion. That is something that can actually play in your favor. I’ve had quite a few games lately that they are ignoring Rey and she’s been getting upgrades upon upgrades on her, and they still go after Han. Then when he is almost dead, BAM Second Chance on him and they have to start the process all over again. One thing this deck has a good amount of is ambush cards and you can REALLY push out those shields on Han. I’ve actually had turns where Han was hit down to zero shields, and with a full hand I was able to get him back up to full shields with no problems.

One of the more important cards in the deck is actually the support, Infamous, which sadly has a little bit of an easier time getting removed since we we now have Sabotage (SR147) and other removals in Spirit of Rebellion. While this doesn’t mess up the deck entirely, you will struggle to get it back on the board, but luckily, with Starship Graveyard, you can easily put it back out the next turn.

Don’t be afraid to overwrite your upgrades to get an upgrade into the discard pile just so you can claim. Getting to claim gives you two options: first, it slows down the rate at which you are taking cards from your draw pile (over five rounds, if you claim and put up an upgrade, that’s an extra round of game play you’ve saved yourself just from recycling your cards), and the second option lets you do the Rey action cheat. The games are running VERY fast lately, and anything we can do to extend or out-pace our opponents is good.

Options for the future

I’ve been talking with some players that also still run the Han/Rey and asking their thoughts. I’ve thought about putting in Reversal (AW160) at some point as it’s a great hard removal, but the high cost is something that has me worried, but I have had games where if I’d been running it, I could have used it easily. Against Palpatine (SR11), it would be a great removal to do more damage to him as well. I toyed with Bowcaster (SR48) over One with the Force, but found it to be too lackluster in the late game. Yes, you get to transfer 2 of them to Han in a pinch, but Han already has a pay for damage side. It’s special is quite lackluster, so I put back in OWTF, as it’s focus sides are just wonderful, and its ability to stick around after Rey is dead is amazeballs! I originally had in Ascension Gun (SR59) instead of Maz’s Goggles, I liked the idea of having a two-cost gun that I could Infamous, but was finding myself not able to bring it in as much as I thought, and when I didn’t have the battlefield, it seemed like I was never rolling the special to use anyway. Swiftness (SR139) was originally in the deck as well, as a way to get all the cards ambush in addition to Infamous, but it proved to be too expensive, even though it did make Han a beast getting 2 shields for one card. In the end it was entirely too situational (and yes having Swiftness->Infamous->Fast Hands on turn one was BONKERS, it’s just a flashy OOOHHH AHHH thing).

Some of the cards that I had overlooked the first time (Negotiate (AW131) for one), are much better against certain decks. With the ability to roll in Rey or Han, then use the action cheat to play that after your opponent has rolled in on say turn one or two is brilliant as they will normally have just two or three dice in their pool, and removing them can really put a hurt on their plans.


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