While this format appears to have been mostly figured out there are a handful of decks that have won prime championships that are not considered meta decks. I can honestly say that I haven’t played against some of these. From my perspective the season is ending rather soon – I only have two that are in driving distance, but after checking the FFG Prime schedule website the series as a whole is only about halfway through. Perhaps some of these decks will end up being world beaters and we’ll wonder why we missed them in the first place.

First off I’m going to briefly mention some of the uncommon variations of mill and Palpatine. The following data was retrieved from I Rebel:

eLor/eBail/Anakin2 – Menion played this team at Worlds and ended up making day 2 I believe. I’d imagine it has similar match ups to Yoda/Leia mill but is possibly worse in the mirror since its slower. Traditionally that’s how those match ups have gone but I’m no expert when it comes to mill mirrors. It’s important to note that Yoda/Leia has only won one Prime but its a meta deck that is only kept down by its terrible match up against Chopper. The issue with mill is that if it ever hits a reasonable Chopper deck/player in the top cut where the match is best 2 out of 3 its tournament is over. Perhaps there is some secret mill deck that can have at least a shot?

ePalp3/eMotti – Palpatine has so many different variations and they generally have similar strengths and weaknesses. I mention this one specifically since its the less played version and it beat a Chopper droids in the finals of its Prime. Chopper is considered to be an unfavorable match-up for Palpatine in general but with Motti’s built in dice mitigation I suspect that makes it a bit more favorable.

If you play against these two decks and you have played against the more mainstream archetypes you’ll have a basic understanding of how to battle them. The following decks require a bit more improvisation as they contain characters that are underused in the current format.

eIden/eBeckett

This deck went 6-0 in top cut against droid decks and suffice it to say its match up there is positive. It has a lot of free mitigation so it can play around being disrupted and has starting damage dealing dice to take care of characters with low health quickly. It has Desperate Measures and if it draws enough of them it can hang with the support decks. I’d still want to be on the side of either Aphra or 4Lom but a skilled pilot who knows what cards matter in the match up could certainly win. Resources is the biggest problem for this deck and if you don’t draw hands with Counterintelligence your droid match up is scary since you can easily roll into an Easy Pickings or a Flee the Scene and have a bad time. This deck certainly has a plan and if you were looking for a different DM deck that doesn’t want to rely on Vader’s Fist you might want to look at this.

eObi2/eR2

This is a good old fashioned 2 character melee aggro deck. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the version that won the prime championship but this version made top 16 at Spanish Championship. The big draw to this deck is R2D2’s ability to focus Obi’s die to his best side. On top of that it doesn’t have the restriction Reylo does and can play Electromagnetic Pulse. Jedi Lighsaber is also a nice card as well. The deck certainly has more base damage potential than Reylo with 10 possible damage but R2’s dice are worse than either Kylo or Rey’s. I would also assume that not being able to put Niman Mastery on R2 is a big deal which makes me question where you would want to play this over Reylo. It did beat a Droids deck in the finals of its prime so perhaps it’s better in that match up? A card I would love to see in this deck is Hold Off – that card seems like it’s in a great spot and at worst its a shield or a reroll.

eVader3/Greedo

thegandork took down his prime with this innovative take on Vader/Greedo. The biggest innovations here are For a Price and I Performed Violence. I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that Vader/Greedo is better than its results show and with three of the same deck making top 8 of his Prime that has confirmed my suspicion. It’s a deck with Delve/ Fist combo, DM and a high upside character that when he rolls hot is just oppressive. For a Price seems particularly hot while I Performed Violence is a card I can get behind in a shield heavy meta. This is certainly a list worth testing against as many players want to relive the glory days of Vader, TTB.

eYoda2/eBail

This deck is like the hero Palpatine. Yoda tanks in an annoying fashion and kills you with Admiral readying Yoda a few times. The proof of that statement should come in the fact that the player beat Manten from ABG in the finals playing Aphra . I certainly wouldn’t want to play against this with Aphra as those Yoda shields are super annoying. Ataru Strike and Become One are incredibly powerful payoff cards that work well with the strategy and the deck will get a big edge when your opponent doesn’t know you are playing those cards. At first glance Guardian of the Whills looks funky but since its a title Bail makes it free which makes it act like a free resource and shield when you go and overwrite into an offensive upgrade. Generating resources is a problem for this deck and any way this deck can do that is worth considering. This deck is more proof that going rogue requires you to do something powerful and have a plan.

Thrawn2/Messenger/Greedo

This is a cool deck that was piloted by Zhil – glad to see him take it down and I look forward to seeing what he brews up for next worlds. There are a few head scratching cards in here but overall Vader’s Fist/Megablaster Troopers with Delve is going to win a you a bunch of games. Aside from that there aren’t that many threats that this deck can play, unlike 4Lom and Aphra that have plenty of backup threats. This deck shines in villain mirrors where it can use its opponents DM’s for value and with the added health Greedo brings over the two character Thrawn decks it can live a long while.

Writing this was a lot of fun and I look forward to trying these out. I haven’t played against most of these and I certainly haven’t tested them myself. These all do something powerful and have some of the more powerful format staples. Hopefully we can bring a little diversity to the meta before any shake ups happen. Chopper is currently the top dog but I think some of these are an excellent choice because they have game against it.

Take care and if you have any comments post them here or on social media and as always…

ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE IS A GOD!

-NJCuenca