Written by Jack of The Golden Dice Podcast
February 19th’s Tournament Report
Another week, another Monday night tournament. With my regional fast approaching I wanted to bring a deck that I will most likely be running at a Regional. With my at-home testing with friends my top 3 choices were eSabine/eEzra, the brOTK deck or eTarkin/eSeventhSister. The brOTK deck being the eSeventhSister/Ciena/Nightsister deck popping up. All of them have their weakness but against the field in general I feel that all three have more good matchups than bad. Sabine can easily blow any character out of the water, OTK can abuse Maul’s Saber like it is no ones business, and Tarkin can just pile on damage while discarding your hand. While knowing all of that I am probably most comfortable with Sabine as I had played her and Ezra back in Empire at War when they first came out. I know the general operation of the deck but was amazed at how well it performs with a few new toys from Legacies, mainly Maz’s Vault and Hidden Blaster. Maz’s Vault helps you keep all your big 3 cost events online at all times. Plus you are usually claiming, and usually have your battlefield so you start with 4 resources. The money this deck makes is crazy at this point, especially if Ezra can steal 1 or 2.
So with that I decided to start toying around with different variations and I came across BobbySapphire’s list from the NJ Regional he took second in. Sabine decks tend to build themselves with all 8 ambush weapons, Second Chance, Maz’s Vault, Running Interference, Hyperspace Jump, and Never Tell Me The Odds you are already at 18 cards. The last 12 cards can come down to what type of mitigation you like, extra resource generation or whatever else suites your play style. With that here is what I ran:
CHARACTERS (30 points, 4 dice):
eEzra Bridger – Force-sensitive Thief
eSabine Wren – Explosives Expert
BATTLEFIELD:
Outer Rim Outpost
UPGRADES (10 cards, 8 dice):
DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol x2
Hidden Blaster x2
Holdout Blaster x2
Second Chance x2
X-8 Night Sniper x2
SUPPORTS (4 cards):
Maz’s Vault x2
Running Interference x2
EVENTS: (16 cards):
Easy Pickings x2
Friends in Low Places
Hasty Exit
Hyperspace Jump x2
Impersonate
Into The Garbage Chute
Loth-Cat and Mouse x2
Never Tell Me The Odds x2
Scavenge
Truce x2
Vandalize
My only change to the deck from Bobby’s was dropping Confidence for a Friends in Low Places. Mainly to get rid of a combo card from OTK if I need it. Although I am thinking of dropping FILP(Friends in Low Places) for a Scruffy Looking Nerf-Herder, even though it costs 1 it has more flexibility as it can pull any event, upgrade or support.
With all the testing I have done I felt confident going into the tournament even if Sabine rolled poorly.
First Round vs eBoba/eSeventSister:
Wow. What a blowout. For my opponent…. First round we traded a few blows with him doing 5 to Sabine and me doing 6 to his 7th Sister. I felt it was a good trade off but need my next hand to have solid mitigation or a Second Chance/Impersonate. I didn’t see much. He rolled out his Seventh Sister with Maul’s Saber on her to then Bait and Switch for 6 damage to kill Sabine. The game was over at that point. We were done in 5 minutes basically. Not the start I was looking for.
LOSS 0-1
Second Round vs RebelTraitor/Nightsister/FirstOrderStormtrooper/FirstOrderStormtrooper:
Not a deck I expected to see but with my opponent taking top 4 at NJ he wanted to play something fun this week. He yelled at me for bringing Ezra but reminded him I had my first and only regional to still practice for! Overall his deck was a vehicle deck with Friends in High Places(FIHP) deck. It worked early. He got a Pirate Speeder Tank down first turn and then FIHP into a Anarchy while the Speeder Tank had a 5 showing… That hurt. Sabine was still able to set up early and do her thing blowing away the Nightsister and then the Rebel Traitor. Last turn I needed to play an Running Interference to set up for my Never Tell Me The Odds play so he had a turn to roll out his two Sonic Cannons, he hit blanks twice. Perfect. This let me roll in Sabine and get exactly enough damage to kill both of his First Order Stormtroopers at the same time.
WIN 1-1
Third Round vs eSeventhSister/Nightsister/Ciena:
Final round against the famous brOTK deck that is popping up. This is obviously a very good deck and I felt I was keeping pace with damage early. He was able to do usual things and kill Sabine before I saw any Second Chances or Hyperspace Jumps which hurt a lot. If I see either of those they might help turn the tide in my favor. I am still trying to feel out this matchup, I can cheat in damage a lot so do I burn down Seventh, do I take away Leadership with Ciena or kill off the consistency with the Nightsister. A tough call. This is probably the deck to beat that I need to test against the most leading up to my regional in Maryland.
LOSS 1-2
Obviously not the result I was looking for being a week and a half out. I think I am still leaning eSabine/eEzra as it is what I am familiar with and has a huge ceiling of Sabine just rolling like crazy. It has done me well in Season 5 of Artificery and the “Padawan” tournament so far. It’s upside is that it has a huge blowout play that opponents cannot stop at all when they are locked out by Running Interference. I’ve still got work to do though!
If you enjoyed the write up I encourage you to come check out my podcast, the Golden Dice Podcast. We do a lot of analysis of the meta and talk strategies of how to combat some decks when you head into your regional. We are on YouTube, iTunes, GooglePlay, Twitter and basically anywhere you would expect us! Till next week!
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