Pax Unplugged is about two weeks away and I’ve only tested a little Standard. And I’ve only tested things that I don’t consider “broken” because its kind of a hedge to what might happen if FFG decides to do balances or erratas. I do have a list of decks I would play but unfortunately looking at them makes me sick to my stomach. There’s a chance that I’ll end up playing other games on Saturday which has made me focus all my attention to the Trilogy format but I’m still undecided. If we get no words from FFG by Friday this weekend might involve me locking myself and jamming as many games as I can with the following cards:

Editor’s Note: Combo #1 no longer works. In the interest of the effort that NJCuenca put in, I left his write up intact

#1. Qui-Gon Jinn’s Lightsaber, Qui-Gon Jinn and Luke’s Protection.

Our friends at Your Destiny Podcast did a great job of covering this one and if you want a more detailed explanation on this infinite damage combo you can go there. On top of that there’s a massive Facebook thread in the main Destiny group about this so I’ll keep it short. Qui-Gon Jinn’s Lightsaber lets you draw a card whenever a shield is removed even without exhausting it to the first line of the ability. Qui-Gon Jinn removes a shield to do a damage and if you used Luke’s protection to do that you’ll draw it back and you can do that until your opponent concedes or murders you for bringing this to a casual event.

What Counters it?

Killing Luke’s protection will go a long way towards stopping your opponents combo plans. You can also try to kill Qui-Gon’s Saber but that’s more expensive to do. Making them discard and mill is an option with the former being time sensitive although the latter is pretty great at destroying the combo from multiple angles. Unfortunately you can never mill Luke’s protection when the combo is going off since they just draw it right away.

2#. Long Con and Double Down

Long Con was already a negative play experience and now that you can play 3 copies its just gross. You can draw your deck and make upwards of 20 something resources in round 1 because you can play an additional copy of this card. You can keep replaying copies of Long Con over and over again, its just filthy. Our Patreon patrons have access to videos we have posted if you are curious to see it in action. There are a few ways to kill people by doing this and it really doesn’t matter which one you choose although some are better than others.

Game Designer Rant: Long Con is the kind of card that is either unplayable and creates design constraints or you forget it exists a its part of an engine that is incredibly miserable to play against. Double Down creates other kinds of design constraints where you can’t print cards that are gross when you can introduce an additional copy to your deck. I know you want to push things with design into new directions but I think everyone saw and knew that it costing 2 was just too cheap. You can in theory give a character that ability and have them cost two more but that’s very different than having your choice of characters but when you have 28 points to choose from…that’s a whole different story.

What Counters it?

Unlike Qui-Gon combos this is pretty redundant since it relies on drawing your deck. Since it relies on drawing a million cards with events both of these are well positioned to give this combo deck nightmares. Probe is just a good cards that many great decks have played in the past but Lying in Wait is a card that has only seen play from mill decks.

A card like this is a real head scratcher in a game without sideboards. The game isn’t really built on cards in graveyards and playing this card in your deck is just asking to have a stone cold coaster in most of your match ups. I know that you can use it to re-roll but no one wants to play this card. I think you could make a similar point about a card like Deflect but it has enough broad applications that its generally more playable and its inclusion isn’t an indictment on the format. When you seriously have to consider Extract for your deck… that boy ain’t right.

This set has completely changed the landscape of Standard, complaining about Snoke almost seems quaint. These two combos/engines are broken and are obviously problematic but there are other possible problems that others have pointed out like resetting heavily upgraded supports for cheap or Armored Reinforcements. The latter is a card that just seems too good based on other games I’ve played, never has there been a card that reduces and searches for another card that hasn’t been a problem, oh, AND it starts in play.

I’m sure I’ve missed some other cards that could be good vs these two booger men. I’m hopeful that they will do something to keep this in check but I’ve also waited a long time to write this article in hopes that I wouldn’t have to. I’ve never played a game where people were happy to play against decks that reliably kill in round 1 (unless you play vintage magic but that’s a result of Stockholm Syndrome and WOTC generally responds when things get too consistent.) I was sad that Pax Unplugged was two Trilogy and one Standard day but now I’m pretty pumped for that. Trilogies has some new and powerful tools but I don’t think they will be as oppressive as the Standard stuff. I certainly could be wrong but that’s my first initial reading of the situation. If you get the chance to come to Pax Unplugged come on by and say hi!

Take care and remember…

This is How I Feel When I Die in Round 1.

-NJCuenca

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