The Asheville Extravaganza was the first large scale tournament in the local area and the talk leading up to it was that there was going to be a huge turn out. Leading up to the 
event, my testing partner Chase and I had been going back and forth on a few different decks. I was high on Villain Blue deck variations while Chase had been having a lot of success with Hero Red. I think in the two weeks leading up to the event, we put in about 10-15 games throwing our best takes on both decks against each other. We kept finding that the Hero Red (more about this later) was winning at a high percentage against non-melee decks but had a somewhat unfavorable match up against Blue Villains. The Blue Villain deck, which I finally settled on the tried and true eVader/Raider variation, had a solid chance against most everything it faced and had answers to a wider range of decks but wasn’t stellar against any single deck it just had a chance versus all of them. It did however have an especially good match up against Chase’s preferred eAckbar/eLeia version of the Hero Red deck and we figured a lot of people would be on that deck or something similar because of how good it is against other Ranged-heavy decks or slower control decks.
We knew we had two good decks but until the day of the event I wasn’t sure what I was going to end up playing. Chase was locked in on his deck, so I decided to take the opposite approach and went with eVader/Raider. When we started, we had 22 players at the event and a very wide range of decks. Seeing a bit of what was being played I felt a little uncertain about my deck choice because there seemed to be A LOT of ranged damage; but it was too late to change.
The Tournament
Round 1 – Bala-Tik/Nightsister/eVeers (Brad)
I sat down to play my first opponent Brad, a local from the Asheville area, and was rather unsure about how to start picking apart his deck. We both started strong, with me being able to take out his Nightsister (AW12) early in round 2, but he knocked out my Tusken Raider (AW22) later in the same round and was able to get a few extra damage on Darth Vader (AW10) from Bala-Tik (AW19) reactivating. I was able to get General Veers (AW4) down a few rounds later while controlling the dice, but not before he was able to get a few redeploy cards on Veers making killing him sub-optimal. I was still taking the occasional shot from Bala-Tik In the last round, Brad was able to roll into the nuts damage and hit Vader for 6+ damage before I was able to finish off Bala-Tik, who was sitting at 2 health.
0-1
Round 2 – ePoe/eRey (Scott)
In round 2, I was paired against a good friend, Scott. I had a vague idea of what his deck was trying to do as we had been talking quite often leading up to the event. I knew the key against this deck was to try and burn down Poe Dameron (AW29) as quickly as possible to avoid Special shenanigans. However, the way the first few turns played out, I changed that and was able to take out Rey (AW38) early in round 2 with some key 3-damage rolls from Vader before he was able to get many dangerous upgrades on her. Scott was able to roll into quite a bit of damage from Poe’s Specials and was able to take out the Raider and put 7 damage on Vader while his Poe had 2 health remaining. The key turning point to the game was at the start of the final round. Scott rolled in a loaded down Poe with Hit and Run (AW106) and hit a Special, 3 for 1 Ranged and 2 Ranged sides. Scott resolved the Special into a mind probe for 5 damage to Vader putting him one health from death. I however had the Deflect (AW145) in hand and was able to toss the 3 damage side back at Poe for lethal damage. If Scott had resolved the Ranged damage against me first, he would have won the game because I had no way to remove the Special die.
1-1
Round 3 – Vader/eJabba (Derrek)
This was a very swingy match. My dice started out hot and I was able to roll enough damage to kill Jabba the Hutt (AW20) by the end of round 2. Then my dice dried up and Derrek was able to take out the Raider fairly quickly. I start having to play very defensively and drop two Hunker Downs (AW164) on Vader to get him shielded up. From that point on, it is a slug fest between the two Vaders. In the end, I pulled out a win with only one health remaining on my Vader.
2-1
Round 4 – Padme/ePoe (Chris)
This game was another case of knowing the right kill order was Poe, then Padme Amidala (AW48), but the dice dictating something different. I rolled out Vader and got 6 melee damage showing, followed up by rolling a Raider with his 3 for 1 melee side. Normally, I would be all for doing 9 damage to Poe, but when I can instead take out a character on turn one I will do that instead. Chris was able to get back into the game with a few key Poe rolls, but in the end my dice control and melee damage were enough to come out on top.
3-1
Round 5 – Poe and 2 Hired Guns
Another round and another Poe deck, and this time around, I was going to stick to my plan and actually kill Poe first. Fortunately for me, I was able to do that but this match was more about my opponents dice going cold than anything else. The first 3 rounds of the game, he rolled nothing but resources despite multiple re-rolls. This let him play out a Millennium Falcon (AW49) and a TON of upgrades on his Hired Guns (AW47), but in the end the early-round damage coupled with my Raider rolling in a Mind Probe (AW60) at the start of a round for an instant 5 damage was enough to secure a victory and a place in the top cut for me.
4-1
Top 4 Cut:
There was one person at 5-0 and who would it be but none other than my play test partner Chase. This made him the #1 seed, his opponent in the final round was the #2 seed. Because of SOS and tie breakers, my first round opponent was the #3 seed, which made me the #4 seed. All 4 players in the cut were 4-1 or better, and none of us were running the same decks. The down side to the whole thing was that as the #4 seed, I got paired up against Chase for the first game of the cut…
eAckbar/eLeia (Chase)
As I mentioned at the start, Chase and I play regularly each week and have tested this match-up repeatedly. What we found was this: If I am able to get a Sith Holocron (AW16) out early, ramp into a huge resource advantage, and avoid
having to roll in possible Ranged damage, the match is about 70/30 in my favor. Otherwise it’s about 50/50. Also, whenever I roll in a Raider and his dice shows Ranged damage, I will 100% of the time pitch a card to resolve it. I learned the hard way in the past that It’s A Trap! (AW107) will wreck me if I don’t.
This match was EPIC and I think I can speak for Chase in this, but it was one of the closest matches possible for these two decks. I started out rolling cold and Chase was able to get some early damage in, but not quite enough to finish off my Raider while I was slowly working away at Admiral Ackbar (AW27). I was able to take out Ackbar, but in the process lost my Raider, so it came down to a duel between Vader and Leia Organa (AW28). Chase was able to get Vader to 6 health remaining while I needed to do 3 damage to Leia. In the final round, I activate Vader and roll AMAZINGLY. Chase, however, has Defensive Position (AW104) to remove the 5 melee damage I had showing on Vader’s dice. This left me with two Force Throw (AW57) and a Force Choke (AW13) dice on the field. One of the Force Throw dice was on a Special and the other two were on blanks. I discard to re-roll and get more of the same. Chase uses Hit and Run on Leia and rolls in 5 Ranged damage and a Blank. He then chooses to resolve the damage, afraid I had a Dodge (AW155) or Deflect (AW145). I discard to roll again and same result. Chase opts to claim the Battlefield, all but assuring he can kill Vader at the start of the next round. I discard to roll again getting a 1 Ranged and a blank again. I have one card left in hand and need to deal a total of 3 damage, I keep the Special and the 1 Ranged damage and roll the Force Choke dice and get 2 Disrupt. I’m able to Force Throw the Disrupt for 2 and resolve the 1 Ranged damage for the win. Chase shows me that he had the It’s A Trap in hand and that if he had simply passed instead of claiming he could have played that when I rolled the Ranged damage and resolved it for the win. Either way it was a close game and it came down to some crazy rolls at the end to eek out a victory.
eBala/Jango/Trooper (Ken)
Ken was playing the new hotness version of Jango/Bala-Tik and doing very well with it. This is a deck Chase and I had played a few times in testing, but neither of us were that sold on it against the Ackbar/Leia deck. Against Vader/Raider, however, it is lethal. The game was tight early on, with me being able to take out his First Order Stormtrooper (AW2) early, but Ken was able to get shields on both Bala-Tik and Jango Fett (AW21) to keep me from really getting effective damage through. Eventually, I am able to take down Bala-Tik, but I lost the Raider along the way. Vader is sitting at 5 damage and Jango has full shields, but only 4 health remaining. I’m able to plink away with Backup Muscle (AW99), trying to delay having to activate Vader and give him a free Jango activation as I have no way to control his roll off of that, but it comes down to a point where I have to roll Vader, who has two Lightsabers (AW59) and a Force Choke. I roll amazingly, getting 6 damage from Vader and two Specials on the other dice, which means on my next turn I kill Jango, unless Ken can deal with all my dice or….. roll 8 Ranged damage on 4 dice (1 Jango, 2 F-11D Rifles (AW8), and Holdout Blaster (AW63)). He gets max damage across his dice and is able to deal a one shot lethal hit to Vader. Nothing I can do but smile and shake Ken’s hand at the end of a well-fought match.
Ackbar/Leia (Chase)
We were playing the Cut as double-elimination, and Chase had just beat Brad, my first round opponent, so we were squared up to have another rematch. We sat down and talked it out, and I gave Chase the victory because I figured he had a better match-up against Ken’s deck than I did. Our little two-man test group wanted the best chance at bragging rights! Sadly, it was not meant to be. Chase was able to win the first game, but in the final winner-take-all match, Ken was able to edge out a very close game.
Final Thoughts
Not only did I have a blast playing against amazing people, but I also did very well in the tournament. I did learn a few things, though:
1. Vader/Raider, while still a very strong deck, is sometimes too slow to compete with some of these other decks. I would agree it is currently a tier 1.5 deck.
2. Ranged damage is very prevalent (at least in our local meta), and I should not have second-guessed running two Dodges.
3. Poe is an absolute beast in a wide variety of decks and can swing games in a single roll.
4. Mill decks work! There were at least two people running them, and I think they both were 3-2 with some very strong wins.
5. 3-character decks are good. They have so much health that you can’t help but hear the clock ticking if you can’t kill them quickly.
6. This game has such a great community of players and it is a joy to attend local tournaments.
The version of the deck I ended up running was very close to a deck TinyGrimes posted a while back, but with 2-3 cards different based on what I thought I would be going up against. In the end, I wish I had changed more about the deck because there were a few cards I was very underwhelmed with, such as It Binds All Things (AW150), Electroshock (AW159), and Abandon All Hope (AW79). All of which are great cards and have served me well in the past, but were too slow or just didn’t have an impact. An oddly useful card on the day was Gaffi Stick (AW25), as it let me upgrade a 1 melee or modifier side to get a few extra damage in. I think this is a solid deck choice, but it just feels a tad slow for the current meta locally. We shall see what Spirit of Rebellion brings us, though!
Decklist
BATTLEFIELD
Imperial Armory, Death Star (AW169)
CHARACTER
2x Darth Vader, Sith Lord (AW10)
1x Tusken Raider (AW22)
UPGRADE
2x Force Choke (AW13)
1x Kylo Ren’s Lightsaber (AW15)
2x Sith Holocron (AW16)
1x Gaffi Stick (AW25)
2x Force Throw (AW57)
2x Force Training (AW58)
2x Lightsaber (AW59)
2x Mind Probe (AW60)
2x Hunker Down (AW164)
SUPPORT
2x Backup Muscle (AW99)
2x It Binds All Things (AW150)
EVENT
1x Abandon All Hope (AW79)
1x Feel Your Anger (AW82)
2x Force Strike (AW83)
2x He Doesn’t Like You (AW97)
2x Deflect (AW145)
2x Electroshock (AW159)
Thank Yous
Huge shout outs to Randall for organizing and running the tournament. Hillside Games in Asheville, NC for allowing us to host the event at their store. SlingPaint for having an amazing setup to record and stream some of the games. Chase for testing all kinds of crazy stuff leading up to the event and being an amazing teammate. And everyone who was able to attend and make the event awesome! I will be doing a short video on the eAckbar/eLeia deck that Chase ran in the next few days, so stay tuned for that! As always thanks for reading, and May the Force be with you!
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