Written by Jack of The Golden Dice Podcast
February 26th’s Tournament Report
So, here we are. One last weekly tournament until it is go-time for Regionals in Maryland. At this point I am pretty sold on Sabine and Ezra for my pairing despite it still making me extremely nervous with its OTK match-up. OTK is eSeventhSister, Ciena and Nightsister and can easily kill both my characters turn 2, even with a Second Chance. Yet I still feel Sabine has a chance to beat anyone if she feels like rolling well. Not much a OTK player can do if I roll 12 damage between my first and second activation with her. So with her being my likely choice to run at Maryland here is what I ran with:
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
Hasty Exit
Hyperspace Jump x2
Impersonate
Into The Garbage Chute
Loth-Cat and Mouse x2
Never Tell Me The Odds x2
Scavenge
Scruffy Looking Nerf-Herder
Truce x2
Vandalize
It is basically the same as last week but I have constantly been testing going up to two Scruffy Looking Nerf-Herders or two Friends in Low Places, both specifically for the OTK match-up to take combo pieces out of their hand. A Scruffy right after they Lightsaber Pull a Maul’s Saber is one of my favorite SW: Destiny plays. Still a few slots to play around with but as I have said before, Sabine decks just build themselves. You really only have 4-6 spots to play around with but it is usually the same 8 cards you are trying to fit there.
Round 1 vs eSabine/Yoda
I have been so intrigued by pairing Sabine with Yoda but I haven’t gotten around to trying it out myself. I do see why it would be good with adding Blue and a single Yoda die can perform two actions basically. Plus 3 more health to Impersonate with! The game ended as quickly as it started. End of round 1 I had 0 damage on my characters and he had 6 on Sabine. I felt well in command along with drawing into my Never Tell Me The Odds to finish off his Sabine first action first round. Yoda stuck around and did some damage but overall I was in control. It Sabine mirrors, regardless of the partner, it seems whoever gets ahead tends to stay ahead. Whoever gets off Never Tell Me The Odds (NTMTO) first seems to be the one who will end up winning. It is a very weird game as there is minimal interaction between the players, they both roll out, resolve and claim/pass. Overall I think Yoda pairings will do better than this game but in the moment I was sure happy with Ezra.
WIN 1-0
Round 2 vs eBoba/eSeventhSister
Again a very quick match, seems to be the theme for Sabine. His downfall was going for Ezra first which let me freely ramp Sabine and not have to worry about playing Impersonate or Second Chance right away. Pro-tip: Always go for Sabine first. This gave me extra breathing room and once Sabine got going with 3 weapons there was no stopping her. The Seventh Sister was taken out despite doing work with Maul’s Saber but then a naked Boba was all that was left. He was finished with the usual NTMTO play with Running Interference. This is another scary match-up for Sabine as both characters can do work. I still think the right choice is to burn down the Seventh Sister as it turns off Maul’s Saber but Boba can do work on his own. This game ended in 5 minutes so we played a second game but I switched to eYoda/eHondo, gosh I love how annoying that deck is. My opponent didn’t….
WIN 2-0
Round 3 vs SeventhSister/Nightsister/Ciena
This is the matchup I always dread but I need to get more reps with it. This specific pilot has been great with it and I have yet to beat him with it. This game was close though as I was able to “one-shot” the Nightsister to turn off his rerolls early. Still a part of me regrets never just dumping damage into the Seventh, but killing a partner first turn is huge. He started a little slow with getting an Ancient Lightsaber out first turn rather than a Maul’s but that was surely out the second round. I was able to put some hefty damage into the Seventh Sister this round and was hoping to Hyperspace Jump away but sadly his Probe got it. I was behind already with having to play my Second Chance early to hopefully prevent Sabine’s round two death but two resets leader both my characters were dead round 2. This one was close and has my left questioning my strategy of killing the Nightsister first but more practice will be able to determine that.
LOSS 2-1
Round 4 vs SeventhSister/Nightsister/Ciena
So as I said it is a bad matchup for Sabine, or at least my worst one. Yet I still beat it everytime except for when I play my Round 3 opponent. This was the same. I changed my strategy from last game and just dumped my damage into the Seventh rather than the Nightsister. This game I got very fortunate round 2 as he Nightsister rerolled 4 times, played Price of Failure on her, then played a Price of Failure on Ciena and rolled so poorly he only got 10 damage off. Sabine was still alive with a Second Chance on her. I felt that pretty much sealed the deal. With him missing on his resets and rerolls he wasn’t able to do the damage output he needed round 2. This left Sabine and Ezra vs a Seventh Sister all alone with damage on her already. Both of his Rise Again ended up being 2 of his bottom 4 cards but both of my NTMTO were my bottom two cards so it evened out…
WIN 3-1
I love Sabine, I think she has a great matchup against anything in the field except against an OTK deck. Simply because Sabine becomes unstoppable by Round 3 if she has 3 weapons on her, where OTK is usually killing the opponent round 2 or 3. It is tough and that is why I am just trying to find the sweet spot of having Scruffys and Friends in Low Places to take away combo cards from them. Sadly Yellow hero has very little hand removal to stop those big combo plays so you have to settle for those two cards. What I would give for a ranged version of Close Quarters Assault right now.
Well, this will just about do it for my weekly competitive deck updates as my Regional will be this Saturday at Maryland, hope to see some of you there! Next week will be my last write-up but it will be a special one as we are drafting next Monday! Now that all of us are done Regional prepping we need a relaxing breather. I’ve loved writing for you all and hope that you enjoyed it a bit and maybe got a few deck ideas from me hopping around a bit.
If you want to continue to follow the Golden Dice Podcast you can check us out on Facebook or Twitter and we are also on iTunes and Google Play. So we are out there and would love to hear feedback and get to know you all! Good luck to everyone this weekend at your Regionals, unless you play me. Then I hope you roll all blanks.
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