Written by Ray from Jackalmen Games
Having knowledge of the past is a valuable tool but having pie charts is priceless. I myself have never been good with numbers but when it’s accompanied by colorful visual aids math seems a lot more inviting. Which brings me to the topic at hand how can we use the Regional result pie-charts that posted on this site early this week by JediGeekGirl better prepare for the future and more specifically Worlds?
At first glance we can clearly see that the deck options available are expanding and the meta is a pretty colorful place. These graphs provide players with a visual depiction of the current landscape of decks and characters that have had success at Regional events this season. Players of all skill levels and experience can benefit greatly with this type of next level insight into the meta. But how so? Why are these charts so useful? Well first it allows you to see the decks that are winning and which character pairings have proven to be the strongest. With that being said why are these characters winning more frequently than others. Is is simply because the characters themselves are overpowered or is it due to experience level of the person piloting a particular deck. If we made the assumption that it’s a little bite of both then how can we use this information to put ourselves in the best position to win?
I personally feel that we should examine what type of decks are winning to better understand how we can construct a World Championship deck. First, let’s look at decks like BROTK(eSeventhSister/Ciena/Nightsister), eBoba/eSeventhSister, Hero Vehicles(eAayla/eRose/Ezra), and eYoda/eHondo as these have shown to be the best decks, based on the percentage of wins. As first glance, you may say to yourself each of these decks play a completely different style so there is no tried and true formula to mimic. This collection of winning decks feature elements of aggro, mid-range, and even combo based strategies. Well with the top winning decks so different from one another how can we formulate (math-term) a winning strategy? How can we determine which deck is better for the upcoming worlds landscape? Let’s look even deeper into the top 3 decks that have won the highest percentage of Regionals. BROTK sits at the top of the heap with 18.9% as eBoba/eSeventhSister and eYoda/eHondo are tied for second with 13.5%. What makes these 3 decks the best and why do they keep winning at such a rapid pace. BroTK is a combo deck that is heavily reliant on one character (Seventh Sister) to produce all of its damage output. Using upgrades like Maul’s Lightsaber, ID9 Seeker Droid, and Ancient Lightsaber in conjunction with some timely events like Leadership and Price of Failure to reactive Seventh Sister. Being dependent on one character and the use of several cards to initiate its combo it would appear to make this deck extremely vulnerable, but its ability to generate large sums of damage is what pushes it to victory. Since this deck flourished during a “pre-errata” meta; it remains to be seen if the changes to Maul’s Lightsaber will have a negative effect on this deck, shifting it from one turn kill to 2nd or 3rd turn kill. I still believe the reasons this deck is so highly competitive is due to its ridiculous damage output. Which is how this deck wins! I believe it will certainly still have a strong presences at Worlds.
Next, we have eBoba/eSeventhSister. Unlike OTK decks Boba Fett and Seventh Sister stand together as two characters that can easily take over a game. For this reason, I believe it is more consistent because if one of your characters are defeated you can still ride the other to victory. With the ability to swing large amounts of damage every turn this deck certainly keeps you on your toes requiring you to mitigate as much as you can just to stay alive. This deck is relentless and seeks to abuse both Maul’s Lightsaber with Boba Fett’s special. Since it’s debut into the meta at the Miami Regional, Mitch Brantley’s nasty little creation has taken the meta by storm. I believe the reason it has been so successful is due to the fact that both characters hold their own. Some would argue that Boba is the weaker of the two characters, but I am convinced they have never faced him wielding a Vibrocuttlass in the later rounds. Damage is how the game is won and Boba Fett/Seventh Sister are experts in that department.
Finally we have eYoda/eHonda a very special duo that is especially effective at resolving specials (get it?). It’s character dice do not have any damage sides but do not let your eyes deceive you it’s ability to special chain into whatever it needs is unmatched by any other deck. During the Legacies meta, the SW: Destiny community fell madly and deeply in love with special chaining through characters. Most notable using Yoda, Poe Dameron – More Than a Pilot, and Aayla Secura to fix their dice and satisfy their game needs. Yoda/Hondo are these poster-boys for doing just that. They have the ability to resolve damage before their opponents can even respond, due to special chaining. In addition, it has access to all the great migration cards found in hero Yellow decks (Easy Pickings, Hyperspace Jump, & Entangle) making it very hard to get damage through. This deck aims to use Yoda’s special to provide consistency for Hondo’s dice. While generating enough money to slam-down expensive upgrade to produce damage through chaining specials on cards like Handcrafted Light Bow and Force Wave. Leaving this deck unchecked will allow them to simply special chain all the way down to the final blow at lightning speeds.
But why are they winning? That’s the reason we started this conversation in the first place? Well simply put, these decks found a certain agenda that they stick to in order to accomplish the mission (Yes, I’m in the military) and they do everything they can to repeatedly achieve that goal. Through this article I described exactly what each of the Top 3 decks excel in. Two of them are heavily reliant on producing large amounts of damage and one capitalizes on special chaining. Which brings everything full circle…just like a pie chart (no one?). What I am getting at is focus your deck in a certain direction no matter the characters, events, upgrades, supports, battlefields or even plot. Make sure that you are putting together a deck that enables you to achieve that objective as consistently as possible. However, if you reversed this logic and use these charts to fill your deck with cards that will combat these 3 builds specifically, I am certain that you will fall short against the rest of the field. In conclusion, all of the decks listed in these charts provide a different method of winning. Your best bet would be to review these pie charts and get a better understanding of what will be most played at Worlds. Simply becoming more familiar with your opponents decks will help you tremendously, just ask any good eThrawn/eMother player. Having a good idea of what your opponent is trying to do and the cards that are most likely in his or her deck will be priceless information to better position yourself for a World Champion Victory!
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