Hey all!

I am just fresh off Origins. Last minute I realized that I could make the trip for Trilogies and Standard so I dragged Brian along as usual. We drove out Wednesday afternoon with little to no testing!

I was unsure about what to run, I was leaning towards Aphra because I was comfortable with playing her as I did at NOVA. I found her 3 die build to destroy about everything in its path. Except for mill. If mill won their battlefield, I was going to lose that game. So what do I do? I opt for mill!

It is a pretty standard build. Some might be surprised at Force Meditation not being there but I milled fast enough to not really care. It also became a little weird paying 2 for it and leaving myself open to getting destroyed by an opponent. The other standout inclusion is probably the Aquata Breathers. With Aphra being big I thought they were a great way to counter the indirect, it also was a great trigger for Astrogation. I ended up facing Aphra twice and Padme, they probably blocked around 5-6 damage each game. Bewilder might raise an eyebrow or two but it was clutch throughout the day. Whether it got people off damage or I used it after they claimed to get another card or two from their deck without worrying what it rolled. Another debate is the plot, some prefer Lightsaber Mastery in this list. I see it’s upside in having Circle of Shelter and Deflecting Slash available at all times. I opted for Astrogation mainly because of mill mirrors, I was hoping to get an extra 2-3 cards off my opponent while they would have a dead plot in LM.

So let us get into the games real quick! I want to note that this was only 38 people so we only did 5 rounds before there was an undefeated. Origins was one, if the not the smallest, GQ that there has been. Con GQs have been struggling in attendance and it showed this weekend as well.

Round 1: vs eAphra/GeneralGrievous/Messenger

Thought the choice of elite Aphra over GG was interesting, I think I would rather have two of his dice. I opened up with 2 Aqua breathers round 1 so I was able to just tank up and eventually got a Soresu Mastery down to guarantee that I was going to be able to finish this game.

Round 2: vs eWatto/eWat/Clawdite

This was Rich Kopaz who I have gotten to meet at many events before. This started off really well for me, I was able to disrupt his plan and Watto really wasn’t working with him this game. The game was well over in my favor until the last round got a little dicey. I was so far ahead that it didn’t matter but in the final round he dropped Vigilance. This stopped me from effectively playing Beguile and using Salt Flats against him. Not turning my dice wasn’t the worst, I was more sad I couldn’t mitigate him properly. On the last turn I only had 4 damage on Leia, I got all his final cards and he natural rolled to kill Leia and do 3 into Yoda. I knew his max cap of damage was below what he needed to win the game so I was not concerned.

Round 3: vs eObi3/eAayla

Shoutout to Mike Hill from the Chance Cube who was my opponent this game. This was the only game where one of my characters died before I already had the game won. This was a little scary when he opened with Loth Wold Bond and rolled some solid damage. I was able to stop a few but he got around 5 damage into Yoda round 1. He eventually was able to snipe Yoda with an Ataru Strike that I couldn’t stop, I saw it coming when he opted to take 2 shields from Obi’s dice. This came down to the last round where I had to roll either a discard on Leia and a Ring special or a double discard on Leia. I ended up rolling a 2 discard and the special. This let me play Motivate again and dump the last 3 cards from his hand. If I had rolled the one discard I still would’ve taken the game as I had No Answer in hand. Was the closest game of the day.

Round 4: vs eGeneralGrievous/Aphra/Messenger

Another Aphra match. Was a little slower to get out Aqua Breathers and Soresu so he was able to pile damage on quickly. It stabilized as he never got 000 on the board but he did get 2 Hailfires, BT and a Climate out. I was able to get off a No Answer for the win.

Round 5: vs ePadme/eAayla/AR

I was a bit nervous about this match-up. Haven’t really played against it, Force Jump and Soresu aren’t the best in this matchup with Padme’s focus sides but I was able to use them on Aayla a bit. Pacify and Hidden Motive were great in this match-up. Overall he wasn’t able to get a good board state and rolled very poorly when he needed even a half decent role. He got a Target Acquired onto Leia but that let me just dump my shields and Aqua breathers on her. It ended up being one sided in my favor. Man mill is just so strong .

Round 6: BYE!

Not enough people so I already won my seat! Yay!

Despite it being a smaller sized GQ it felt great getting a paid seat to Worlds. I can’t match my boy Eldis’ win at PaxU with like 85 people.

Overall this deck felt insanely good. Again I only had one close game where i felt worried. There were some dumb plays where I rolled double special on Yoda and I would focus to a 2discard and special on the Ring to play Motivate again to grab a 3 discard without my opponent seeing it coming. No Answer is still really good. Unsure what Spark of Hope will bring but if GenCon is on this meta, I would expect mill do just dominate. Also, shout-out to Scott for telling me to bring my collection. That let me build mill the night before instead of being forced to run Aphra.

Lastly, a big shout-out to my boy Brian for taking the drive with me and taking down the trilogy GQ the day before! I know they were small tournaments but was awesome to see him take trilogies and myself take standard!

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-JustJack