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It is a long-standing adage in CCGs that aggressive decks own the first half of any given meta, while the latter part of a meta belongs more to control and mid-range decks. of course it is not a universal truth, and each individual tournament and even game should be taken as it’s own entity because the aggressive decks generally find a way to maintain competitiveness as the best players fine tune those decks for maximum efficiency.

The sweet spot for a competent control player is when the meta has settled just enough for you to make educated decisions based on the decks you are most likely to see, but not yet set in stone to where nearly every player has extensively tested (either willingly or by forced matchups) against the best control decks. As it stands I would say that there is exactly one control deck in the meta in Thrawn/Unkar and that this list is the best version you can use at the moment for general purpose.

An astute reader would point out that the Reiikan/Padme/Instructor which placed decently well at the Australian Nationals should count as a control deck, but I would disagree. The Hero deck has exactly one win condition in mill, while Thrawn/Unkar can also win via Crime Lord using Thrawn’s ability to lock the opponent out of interacting with that plan.

Right now there are a few things going for control players, and a couple very salient points working against them.

PROS

1.) No-one enjoys testing against ThrawnKar. Anyone who says they do is lying. It is a necessary evil in the meta right now, but in most playtesting it will be the perfunctory step in validating a deck, and probably the matchup many people are willing to accept a poor win-rate against. So most people are not as practiced against it as they should be.

2.) It demands near-perfect decision making on the part of any given opponent. One falter or misplay opens up too much ground in favor of the ThrawnKar player to make up for barring unreasonable levels of future luck. In most matchups, a decks resources, cards in deck, cards in hand and action economy can all be managed relatively independently in the sense that not all of them are being attacked at once. Against ThrawnKar they have to be taken as a complete whole.

3.) Aggressive decks eat their own. Over the course of a tournament the aggro decks (everything is aggro in comparison to ThrawnKar) reaching the top tables will be more and more of a known quality, with the “cute” or “tech” cards being used to defeat the field usually having a lessened or no effect on the control decks. Their race to be the best in their own area will almost always hurt their ability to handle an outside quantity while a control deck can make much more minor changes to shore up specific weaknesses. Simply put, control players have more options.

4.) Skill amplification and RNG suppression. Outside of a couple clutch times where you need a very specific result, a control deck lives and dies on the back of it’s card draw and application rather than its rolls. Especially in the early game, a group of terribly mismatched dice can always be used to simply force discards which furthers your win condition. In comparison, opposing decks care way more about their dice while in many cases are also relying on certain key upgrades or supports to get the job done.

CONS

1.) If you don’t make the proper animal sacrifices to the RNG gods, you can get blown out. There are very few ways to interact with multiple dice at a time, so if a critical mass gets built up and then a reroll occurs it can be entirely too much to handle. Also, action cheating from opposing Force Speeds, Sabine Wren, and Cad Bane can just destroy your best laid plans before you get a chance to act. Some of this can be somewhat compensated for even if it feels bad to control dice which aren’t an immediate threat, or to use a mitigation card on a Force Speed die. But every so often, there’s just nothing you can do.

2.) Mental fatigue hits harder. One game as ThrawnKar is interesting, but by game five everything blurs together and brains start leaking out of your ear-holes. The games will typically last longer leaving less time for recovery in between matches, and note-taking being specifically forbidden by the Tournament Rules puts a lot of pressure to remember the contents of your opponents hand both within a specific round and between rounds.

3.) No-Fun zone and social pressure. As a dedicated Poe/Maz player in the Store Championship season I don’t particularly mind being “that guy”. But there is a very wide gulf between dealing damage in an “unfair” way, and sitting down to the table with the express purpose of preventing your opponent from playing the game. There’s certainly no written rule saying what is acceptable to bring to any tournament, but if you mis-read your audience by too far of a degree then don’t be surprised by the results. A great player should always be generous in victory and gracious in defeat, but it goes double for control players. My general rule of thumb is that if my cards are going to be major assholes I had better be the nicest player on the planet to compensate for them.

What Didn’t Make the Cut

Rend: It is great against Force Speed and Holocron (and tertiarily against Running Interference), but outside our hardest matchup (Phasma/Anakin) a lot of decks take only one or none of these cards. I don’t feel like the slight edge it gives us in a match that is a coin flip at best is worth taking an edge away from all of our other matches. Sacrifices must be made.

Prized Possession: The matchups in which it is most useful, are the ones where you lose out on half of the effect. You’ll almost always just eat the damage rolled by Cad, Sabine or Han upon the initial roll-out so you lose the nice Isolation effect and are stuck paying for a more expensive Detention Center.

Vibroknucklers: Those net-decking the top placing Australian ThrawnKar will be sleeving it up, but I don’t think it is worth the cost. Only two sides are good, and I’d almost always rather use my focus to make more money for a buy-out play.

Cheat: With all of our options and redundancy, Cheat would hurt the deck more than help in my opinion. Not only does it shred tempo, but it telegraphs upcoming plays to our opponent. I’d rather dig deeper into my deck than spend two cards to repeat one effect.

How to Play Thrawn Unkar

It is difficult to really get to the nitty gritty of actually playing ThrawnKar because 90% of the game you’re entirely reactionary. Even in cases where you go first and roll out Thrawn to start, the goal is to identify the thing that can cause you the most headache and get rid of it which is simply a reaction to the matchup. What I can do is give very general tips for the meta as I perceive it, then dig a bit deeper into all of those specific matchups.

Remember that you have two win conditions! A Crime Lord die is a deceptively difficult thing for any deck to interact with. Electroshock, 1QP, He Doesn’t Like You, Doubt, Flank, and Loth Cat are the vast majority of ways for anyone to affect Crime Lord. ThrawnKar is uniquely positioned to fight those options either directly through saying 1 or 0 when rolling Thrawn out, or playing Coercion/Friends In Low Places to surgically remove them.

Don’t do anything without information! Friends in Low Places and Coercion should be played as earlier rather than later in a turn, to ensure the best Thrawn results. Coercion especially should almost always be played as your first action because in many cases it will force your opponent to pass until that mitigation card can get them even a mild benefit, allowing you plenty of time to get Chance Cube, Hound’s Tooth, and Imperial Inspection on the board rather than needing to find time between your own mitigation actions. In a pinch, the Interrogation Droid can be used to gain the relevant information for Thrawn.

Know your local meta, and peruse all the great information put out by content creators. Tier lists, gauntlet run-downs, and the decklists from major tournaments should generally guide your decisions on turns where you have to roll Thrawn out blind, and be your primary resource for making your initial mulligan decision.

Don’t name a number with Thrawn until you process your Imperial Inspection trigger. Better to get something than nothing, and you can order them however you like.

Use your mitigation! There is so much mitigation in this deck that letting two damage that could have been prevented through is nearly always the incorrect decision. You don’t need to reroll often, so don’t get too hung up on the concept of keeping a card in reserve. A zero sum game is beneficial to you because you’ll almost always come out ahead in resources. If your opponent is throwing cards away just to prevent you from making bank with Unkar’s ability then that is still a win.

Sound the Alarm is a combo panic-button and Kylo confounder. Unless it is to prevent char death, ignore my previous paragraph and hole on to it until it can disrupt 4+ damage. We have a 16/14 yellow tilt so holding on to a single grey card helps us to avoid the two damage bugbear.

I want to reiterate, these tips and the following matchup analysis segments are general guides. I promise you that if you follow them with blind faith and to the letter, you will drop games that could have been won. The best way to learn the deck is through rigorous practice, all I can do is give a good jumping-off point.

Win Condition: Crime Lord Kylo ASAP preferably with Ace in the Hole, then focus on Mill unless your second Crime Lord is near the top. Nearly no resource disruption or Crime Lord die interaction, but you lack the time to play it fairly.

Mulligan Targets: Coercion, Friends in Low Places, Imperial Inspection, Crime Lord.

Turn 1 Thrawn Choice: Name 2. Take Ancient Lightsaber, Vibroknife, Abandon All Hope, Crossguard, Electrostaff in that order

Turn 2+ Thrawn Choice: Based on opponent resources and board state. If 3+ resources, name 3. Take Z6, Rocket Launcher, Lightaber in that order. If 2 resources, with a weapon on board name 3. If 2 resources with no weapon, name 2 and follow the list above.

Coercion Priority: Boundless Ambition, Clash, Isolation, Doubt

Detention Center: Not worth.

Battlefield: Yours to disrupt hand ASAP.

Stumbling Blocks: Not getting imperial inspection hurts, prioritize resource disruption and try to snatch Imperial HQ out of hand if you can fit it into your turn structure. If they are able to play boundless ambition for 3+ cards your odds of winning the game go down precipitously.

Win Condition: Crime Lord, can be done fairly.

Mulligan Targets: Coercion, The Best Defense, Imperial Inspection, Personal Shield, Chance Cube.

Turn 1 Thrawn Choice: Name 2. Take LL-30, Holdout Blaster, Night Sniper in that order.

Turn 2+ Thrawn Choice: Keep naming 2 as long as Cad is alive. Name 0 after he is dead to remove Bait and Switch, Rend, Unpredictable, Friends in Low Places, Truce.

Coercion Priority: Rend (if Imp Insp is not on field), Bait and Switch, “Fair” Trade, The Best Defense.

Detention Center: Worth.

Battlefield: Yours if Starship Graveyard or if you don’t have Imp Insp in hand, theirs if you do.

Stumbling Blocks: Getting blown out by Cad. Spend your resources to prevent huge Fair Trade swings, and disrupt often to keep Bait and Switch on the backburner. Try to end every turn with them at 0 resources. You aren’t on quite as bad of a time crunch here because Cad/Phasma is very roll dependant, but it will be difficult to win solely through mill.

Win Condition: Crime Lord Anakin ASAP preferably with Ace in the Hole, then focus on Mill unless your second Crime Lord is near the top. Nearly no resource disruption or Crime Lord die interaction, but you lack the time to play it fairly.

Mulligan Targets: Coercion, Crime Lord, Ace in the Hole, Detention Center, Personal Shield, Hound’s Tooth.

Turn 1 Thrawn Choice: Name 0. Take Holocron, Force Speed, Meditate.

Turn 2+ Thrawn Choice: Name 4 if Holocron is on the board. Take Force Lightning, Mind Probe. Otherwise name 0 until both holocrons are gone at which point you name 1 to snag any lingering Lightsaber Throws, Tactical Mastery, Dark Counsel, or Imperial Discipline.

Coercion Priority: The Best Defense, Boundless Ambition, Feel Your Anger, Isolate, Doubt

Detention Center: Worth.

Battlefield: Yours if they brought Throne Room (they brought throne room)

Stumbling Blocks: Force Speed protected rerolls, and raw damage output from Char dice. Spend nearly every action you have to remove their dice even if they aren’t threats. Taking Holocron from hand will force them to prioritize rerolling with their force powers so when possible get 3+ showing on board swiftly. This is your hardest matchup, and if you can’t Crime Lord Anakin by turn two it’s going to be difficult to win at all.

Win Condition: Either/Or. Mill works pretty easily here because of how deep they dig in their deck each turn and how roll-dependent they are without Never Tell Me The Odds or Heat Of Battle. If you can Crime Lord Sabine you’ll usually win though.

Mulligan Targets: Friends In Low Places, Buy-Out, Coercion, Personal Shield, Hound’s Tooth

Turn 1 Thrawn Choice: Name 3. Take Never Tell Me The Odds, Hyperspace Jump, Second Chance, DL-44.

Turn 2+ Thrawn Choice: Name 3 until both NTMTO gone, then name 2 if their partner is red to remove Heat of Battle followed by 0 on the off-chance they have Fair Trade.

Coercion Priority: Quick Escape, Double Cross, Hyperspace Jump, Rend

Detention Center: Worth.

Battlefield: Theirs.

Stumbling Blocks: Sabine doing Sabine things. It happens occasionally. If you can’t Crime Lord swiftly, focus on making the biggest Buy-Out play you can as soon as you can just to get NTMTO or HOB out of the picture. Generally speaking they can’t outright kill a char with either until turn 3 unless theyve had good luck with rolls previously. Disrupt when you can, and focus to free shields.

Win Condition: Mill

Mulligan Targets: Friends In Low Places, Imperial Inspection, Buy-Out, Chance Cube, Removal.

Turn 1 Thrawn Choice: Name 2. Take Vibroknife, My Ally is the Force, Ancient Lightsaber, Mikashi Training.

Turn 2+ Thrawn Choice: Name 2 until Vibros/My Ally is gone. Then name 0 to get rid of Do Or Do Not, Riposte, Synchronicity, Force Speed.

Coercion Priority: Noble Sacrifice (lol), My Ally, Riposte if profitable, Caution, anything that costs money.

Detention Center: Worth if Luke/Obi/Ahsoka

Battlefield: Theirs.

Stumbling Blocks: God-rolls. Not a difficult matchup even if they have force speeds or Rey actions. The amount of rerolling needed to get stuff done helps you out a lot, and Imperial Inspection does great work here.

Win Condition: Mill, if you can Crime Lord make sure they don’t have Second Chance in hand before you do.

Mulligan Targets: Friends In Low Places, Buy-Out, Imperial Inspection, Personal Shield, The Best Defense

Turn 1 Thrawn Choice: Name 2. Take Vibroknife, Night Sniper, and Holdouts.

Turn 2+ Thrawn Choice: Keep naming 2. They will almost never run out of stuff to take.

Coercion Priority: Fair Trade, Riposte if profitable, anything that costs money.

Detention Center: Worth.

Battlefield: Yours if you have something to spend your money on immediately, or barring that then to try and snag a weapon with Thrawn.

Stumbling Blocks: Not being able to count to 10. It only takes one Planned Explosion before you pay really close attention to the grab bag of numbers across from you, it’s unfortunate that with all the actions they have that it can happen without any input. If you can avoid that, it’s not too tough because they burn through cards like no-one else.

Win Condition: Mill, too hard to crime lord three people.

Mulligan Targets: Friends In Low Places, Buy-Out, Chance Cube, Personal Shield, Hound’s Tooth

Turn 1 Thrawn Choice: Name 4 against Villain, 5 against hero. Take their vehicles.

Turn 2+ Thrawn Choice: Same plan until the heavy hitters are gone, then just work your way down the list.

Coercion Priority: Anything that costs money.

Detention Center: Not Worth

Battlefield: Theirs.

Stumbling Blocks: RNG. Sometimes their hand is just stacked with too much stuff to deal with quickly and they will get a vehicle out early. It’s almost never unwinnable though, build up money for good buy-out plays and if you can snipe someone with an easy Crime lord it should be Ciena/Maz.

Final Thoughts

I think in the proper hands with the proper practice, ThrawnKar is the best deck at the moment, recent nationals results be damned. That doesn’t mean I like the deck though. I am a combo and aggro player at heart, and no amount of success with ThrawnKar would let me sacrifice the part of my soul necessary to play it as my main deck. Plus my wife refuses to play against it any more, so that’s one more reason to keep it behind the glass.

I would like to see it played more in general, and for more people find their own measure of success with it. There is a certain value to having a baseline control deck in any format, and if people pick it up in high enough numbers then we will be able to see the wisdom of crowds take effect and come up with more effective ways to defeat it.

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