Written by Shane V.
Hawaii’s first and only Regional Tournament was held at The Armchair Adventurer at Dole Cannery. To my knowledge, we have a small community compared to the mainland. Because of this, quite a few of us were worried about the turnout for the biggest Destiny event yet. I was told that if there was not enough participants in this regional, we might not have one next year. To my surprise we had 18 participants, much more than many of us had anticipated. I just hope it is enough people to keep a Regional Championship here in Hawaii.
Of the 18 participants there was a ride range of players in age, experience level and decks of choice. The youngest player in the group, 6 years old (and part of a father/son duo), played an eKylo2/Vader deck and came in 17th place. And while R2P2(eRey2/ePoe2) made up of about a third of the decks played, there was a diversity of decks being played: eMace/Rebel Trooper, eHan/eSnap, and eHux/eJabba were some that I saw (and played against).
I chose to run with R2P2. Now don’t get me wrong, I actually hated the deck when I first tried it. Had to lose more than I can remember (in person and using TTS) before I started learning how to play the deck and what made it so consistent. I did try eQui-Gon/eKanan, ePoe2/eKanan, 5 Die Rainbow(eBala/eCiena/Nightsister), eKylo2/Vader and none of them felt as consistent and flexible as R2P2.
Decklist:
Characters (30 points, 4 dice):
Rey – Finding The Way
Poe Dameron – More Than a Pilot
Battlefield:
Docking Bay
Upgrade (12 cards, 10 dice):
Ancient Lightsaber x2
Force Illusion x2
Force Speed
Handcrafted Light Bow x2
Poe Dameron’s Blaster x2
Rey’s Lightsaber
Shoto Lightsaber x2
Support (4 cards, 2 dice):
C-3PO x2
Honor Guard x2
Event (14 cards):
All In
Caution x2
Deflect
Field Medic x2
Guard x2
Hit and Run
Lightsaber Pull
Rend 2x
Sound The Alarm x2
Round One:
I played against one of the youngest players, a 9 year old who piloted eMace/Rebel Trooper extremely well. Following Master Yoda’s sage advice, I did not judge him by his size. If I had, he would have easily beat me. I mean he took out Rey in round 3, doing an incredible amount of damage but I was able to mitigate his die and take out Mace, leaving the Trooper all alone.
WIN – 1-0
Round Two:
It was a mirror match, with someone who was new to running R2P2. He went for Rey first and in my opinion, she’s the second character people should go for, especially if I have C-3PO out. After I got Poe loaded with his Blaster and Handcrafted Lightbow, he switched targets and his damage was too spread out.
WIN – 2-0
Round Three:
I played a close friend, whom I’ve play-tested and practiced with for Regionals. He ran eSabine/eEzra. Unlike in our practice matches, he was unable to get his graveyard/ambush shenanigans going. He didn’t play an upgrade till turn 3-4 if I remember correctly.
WIN – 3-0
Round Four:
I played another friend of whom I play tested against, he ran with eHux/eJabba. A very frustrating deck to play against especially when he had double Fast Hands on Jabba. It is a rough deck that will hurt you by limiting your ability to re-roll. It came down to the last round where I had to do enough damage to kill Hux or I would lose to mill. Rey did just enough damage to keep me at 4-0.
WIN – 4-0
Round Five:
Played a mirror match with someone who was visiting from Alabama. He was very skilled running R2P2 and it was a very tough match. Both of our Poe’s died but his Rey was decked out. He handed me my first loss of the day 4-1.
LOSS – 4-1
Cut to the Top 4:
- Brian – R2P2 (Alabama)
- Shane – R2P2
- JP – eHux/eJabba
- Anthony – eSabine/eEzra
Brian w/ R2P2 defeated Anthony w/ eSabine/eEzra
Shane R2P2 defeated JP eHux/eJabba (this was the 2nd and 3rd game we played against each other that day, each game he was very close to milling me but I was able to do just enough natural damage and mitigation through C-3PO as I was rarely able to discard to reroll)
Final match: The R2P2 Mirror
Game 1:
It was a grueling match that went back and forth. Each of our Poe’s died and there was lots of damage mitigation (and healing). He was rolling poorly and was pretty aggressive with his discarding to reroll. I was able to take advantage of this, using C-3PO to mill a few of his cards, taking the 1st game 1-0.
Game 2:
This match was very one sided. My opponent made good plays, mitigated my dice and took out Poe early. Left me to try and do enough damage with Rey but her dice just aren’t consistent alone. Lost badly 1-1.
Game 3:
More of the same. Very back and forth but I had the better rolls.
WIN – 2-1
Every game was close and could have gone either way though our decks were build a little different and it could have made the difference in the outcome. Our decks had about 5-6 card variance from what I could tell. He ran 2 of It Binds All Things and Riposte, I had zero. He had at least one Force Misdirection, I had zero. I ran 1 All In and a Hit and Run which I felt help a little.
It was a great day, with an awesome turnout! I definitely would not have achieved the wins I did without the great group of friends I get to play with on a weekly period. The play-testing, practicing and conversations we have about Star Wars: Destiny helped me in my play to achieve something I never thought I would be able to. I hope that Regionals will stay in Hawaii and that the event will help grow our community.
(In case anyone who reads this lives in Hawaii and would like to join our weekly play-group, look up Star Wars: Destiny (Hawaii) and join our Facebook group. We have good community leaders who run bi-weekly Standard, Sealed Constructed and draft events. I hope we can get a regular league going soon as well.)
irebeldestiny.com 