Written by Freddie Hurley
Goal:
The goal of this deck started with wanting to take the unique droids and build something around them. I probably have not played BB-8 or R2-D2(Spirit of Rebellion) for a while and Chopper has been splashed in a few decks in recent months. I probably ran a deck with any two of them together but never with all four so wanted to give it a shot.
Decklist:
Battlefield:
Medical Center
Characters (30 points, 4 dice):
eTemmin “Snap” Wexley – Recon Specialist
Wookie Warrior x2
Upgrades (6 cards, 2 dice):
Hunker Down x2
Lone Operative x2
Second Chance x2
Supports (7 cards, 7 dice):
BB-8
C-3PO x2
Chopper
Medical Droids x2
R2-D2 (SR)
Events (17 cards):
Cheat
Defensive Position x2
Defiance x2
Electroshock x2
Fall Back x2
Field Medic x2
Flank x2
Loth-Cat and Mouse x2
Sound the Alarm x2
Deck construction:
After the droids, the rest took shape around the thought to get them out would need time and since none of them do much for damage, either I would either have to run a bunch of damage upgrades and sacrifice events or try to make a surprise mill deck with few upgrades. The fact I also had been wanting to run Fall Back in a deck made it a pretty easy choice: Mill.
2 Wookies with 10 health for 9 points became the backbone. Needing red for C-3PO came down to Rieekan or Snap, I had played a deck recently with Rieekan so went Snap. Rieekan at 3 more health but one less die would be an interesting substitute though to get some cards off the top of the deck plus the three extra health.
To keep dead cards low there is only one of BB-8, R2-D2, and Chopper. C-3PO’s ability to increase discard means he’s a necessary two of since I might have surprisingly few discard sides for a mill deck. Medical Droid made it in to increase the droid count and he fits in with healing. Low upgrade package to stay alive longer and Lone Operative also has the discard side.
For events, I saw Cheat as basically a third C-3PO in case someone gets it out of hand before can play it. Also might be good to grab Second Chance or Fall Back if tossed for an early game reroll or was discarded. Otherwise 8 removal, 2 dice disruption, 4 healing, and the 2 Fall Backs that could severely hurt an opponent’s late game. Obvious exclusion is Hit and Run that can get off an early Snap disruption hurting early opponent turns. Defiance was a card I hadn’t tried yet and was a healing card so made it in but could drop if I wanted to go for the Snap play.
Medical Center as the battlefield provides options to me when I claim. I can heal, or if I am holding a Defensive Position, or feel rolling out first means more I can chose not to use the effect. My opponent won’t need to heal so no gain for him. I’m not entirely confident in my choice here but it stays with the theme of healing cards. I have nothing to discard the top card of a deck so using Starship Graveyard to get back Second Chance is not an option. However I don’t feel like I need it either as Cheat can be used for a third one and with 28 starting health and all the healing in this deck with Second Chance and shields, it could take 40+ damage to win as is.
Play Style:
Opening hand I want C-3PO and Hunker Down vs ranged decks. Otherwise anything but having Second Chance and Fall Back in hand to start is fine. C-3PO, Hunker Down, removal, another droid, removal/droid is ideal. C-3PO hits and one resource to removal or second droid plus could make more during turn.
Even though there is no action cheating for him, I still rolled out Snap early for the threat of disruption, make them pay to claim, and his dice are good Loth Cat fodder. Snap is mainly in the deck because his points fits at two dice and he’s going to be the first target. I want to keep him alive but I also want the last character to be yellow so Second Chance and Electroshock are live cards all game.
Early rounds I’m trying to put out droids, grab resources, shields, discards off the Wookies. Hopefully Snap disrupts their resources or makes them pay to claim. Likely early they will spend them rather than lose them and have the option to heal or to go first. Going first only really matters to show more Snap disruption or Defensive Position.
I do not pay for the Wookie damage even if they have chosen to claim. Even though at that point it won’t be a tempo loss, this deck has no ramp. Hunker Down is 0 so it does not decrease a latter Second Chance or Lone Operative. Obviously a Second Chance overwriting Lone Operative would be free but to get either one is going to cost 3. If I get C-3PO out early, using him to gain resources off the melee 3 for 1 might be better than an early discard choice. Also might disguise the mill strategy for a round. Rare exception to this might be if playing Bala who will just get built up for extra activations. Even then I better believe I can finish the job fast to be worth it or else saving the resources for a Fall Back to strip him down would be likely better.
Experiences:
This wasn’t my first try at a disguised mill deck but it was more successful than past attempts and came together rather nicely. Played a friend with his Palpatine – Galactic Emperor and it won both a first game and a re-match a week later. It also showed well vs a couple other damage decks.
Without Hit and Run, Snap never got off a disrupt to stop their initial resource spending but still highly effective to making sure didn’t make too much or sometimes couldn’t pay for a high damage side. It’s an intimidating die to sit out there showing disrupt often tempting an opponent to re-roll to a non pay side or a resource side to damage and thus getting one card closer to winning.
Resource wise the deck worked fine without any ramp in it. I played droids, I played my few upgrades, and usually didn’t cost me the chance to play removal. Part of the reason is no doubt you can heavy mulligan for C-3PO increasing the odds to see him early and use him to grab resources off damage rolls.
On the droid front this deck was a success, I’m sure I got 4+ droids into play each game. The dream of all four uniques in a single game only happened the last game as the one I had hardly played with R2-D2 was always near the end of deck.
Fall Back had its moment in the sun. Certainly not a card that came up as useful in every game but when it hits it surely is every bit of the blowout card it looks like. Once used vs Palpatine I lost 2 Hunker Downs while Palpatine lost a Force Throw and Force Lightning the moment after he paid 4 for a second Force Lightning. And boy did it matter as Palpatine would then God roll into almost enough damage to finish my entire team, wouldn’t have taken much for an extra 2 dice to do the job and certainly made it mill or die to Palpatine next round.
All in all this deck hit all the marks I was looking for: Droids, Fall Back, and fun to play.
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