We’ve compiled some decklists from store champs and have given our hot takes on them.

ePoe / eMaz – Carver, MA – Mike Gemme

Mike’s Take: I’ve talked at length about my Poe/Maz list and the archetype in general both on TinyGrimes’ Podcast and in my article Monday , but if we are breaking down store championship lists, Poe Maz is a good place to start, as according to DHaus’ thread on the FFG forums, it has been crushing the scene (Maddest props to DHaus for starting the thread, hopefully it gets more exposure and we can get a ton of information on there).

I would only make one change to the list; I knew the format was fast, but I didn’t know it was so fast that four out of my six games would be over on round 2. In that kind of world, C-3PO is just too slow considering 4 of our 30 cards require our control of the battlefield and are game-winners. I’ve been running Maz’s goggles in that spot and have been loving it. It increases our odds of hitting focus with a Maz roll to a disgusting degree (I think it’s like 83% but I don’t remember the math exactly) and also provides us with an additional Special ability to use with Thrown Room. Speaking of Specials – I know I talked about it a ton already but Cunning absolutely won me the tournament. It was insane copying Poe’s ability, triggering Anakin’s ability, and was also great in providing another special to claim with so that I wasn’t losing value when I claimed, and was providing great value to claim early.

NJCuenca’s take: This is definitely the meta defining deck, all paths to winning go through this deck. It has already placed in and won many of the store championships. Practice against this deck with their battlefield and with your own battlefield to get a good feel for the match up. Sometimes it might be right to let them have their battlefield because of the way you are planning to attack them. If that’s your plan and its effective you’ll be ahead since they will probably never take yours.

Mike’s list is great although it seems whenever anyone plays Planetary Uprising against me its the stone nuts. I’d consider that card especially if Palpatine is a major player in your metagame.

HonestlySarcastc:

There isn’t much to be said about this that hasn’t already been said. Most of the change’s we’ve made to the list are about removing it’s weakness, which is the removal of a Poe die. It is currently the best way to combat it since most Poe Maz lists damage is usually halved when that occurs. The list is very tight and good at being consistent in what it does and has ways of making Maz a threat in the case that your Poe goes down. If your deck can’t compete with this deck, then that would be a valid reason to not play it in big events. If you can keep the battlefield away from them and not ruin your damage, you’ll limit their sustainability and removal. Reason 1 for the return of Deflect in blue decks, providing that they didn’t already have it in there.

ePalpatine – Las Vegas, NV – Justin McBride

Mike’s Take: I was shocked to see Palpatine in the finals of my own store champs, and am pretty impressed that it was able to take down a tournament week one. It’s possible that the early part of the format is the best spot for Palpatine, as many people have almost completely eschewed die-removal from their lists. In that arena Palpatine will thrive.

This list seems pretty standard, but I really dislike the All-In here. This deck doesn’t have a ton of focus, all it’s damage sides are ranged, and it’s grey, which makes our No Mercy’s worse. Doubt is acceptable b/c it’s amazing vs. Vibroknife which absolutely crushes this deck and its 0-cost is huge if we’re trying to Rise Again every game. I would cut the Doubt for a second overconfidence or possibly try and work some rejuvenates in there. <Editor’s note: As the internet police pointed out, Rejuvenates are in the list. I meant to write Trust Your Instincts, but made a mistake.>

I’m not really sold on Palpatine being a top-tier deck, but it can certainly spike its fair share of tournaments with its insane damage output. If you havent’ tried it, you should. It’s pretty fun to boot.

NJCuenca’s take: It’s presence is very real but I don’t think most of the Palp lists are favored vs Poe/Maz (or even any of the heavy removal Unkar decks). I’ve played a similar list to this one and I think its unfavored. I’m a Doubt hater, not because I think the cards bad but because its just bad in our metagame. Two of the most important dice in the format, Palpatine’s and Poe’s, are terrible to Doubt. Mike points out its good vs Vibroknife and while its true I think its important to have mitigation that deals with good dice even if it costs resources. You can use other control to deal with knife. No Mercy hates grey things by the way.

My general impression is that Palp isn’t positioned very well in the metagame but there’s a chance that I’m wrong. When you roll well this deck its certainly scary but the metagame is becoming full of mitigation because character dice are so important to their strategies.

HonestlySarcastc:

Palpatine neatly annoys the normal Poe Maz list by being a deck that can play control to slow them down and still outputting damage even when it doesn’t hit damage sides, whilst having the sneaky Holocron and No Mercy plays to output massive damage to ruin plans. There are several different ways to play Palpatine, but he suffers from the same weakness that Poe Maz does, if you control even one die per round, it severely limits his damage. I like the 0 Cost cards in the list. Reason 2 that Deflect should be run in the current meta.

eBaze / eSnap – Troy, NY – Wru

Mike’s Take: I love the idea of this deck. I think Baze is really strong, stronger than I gave him credit for when the set first dropped. Red has a lot of toys, and Snap is an absolute pain in the ass to play against, especially when he’s elite. I’m a big fan of all of these cards, it’s just really hard to show up to a tournament with such little die-removal and win. Defensive Position is great and plays into the strategy of the deck, which is preventing your opponent from claiming (meaning you get to claim), but Sensor Placement is very mediocre. It’s borderline bad. It’s great to steal a resource and could be backbreaking against some specials, but it seems very hit or miss for the high cost. Rebel Assault is pretty good, you just need to aggressively use it on dice that will eventually turn into damage, like Vader’s dice, Poe’s Dice, or any die on Resource in a deck that could be running Bait and Switch.

I think there are several cards that are considerations to replace Sensor Placement, though I admit this list is really tight. I like both Bombing Run and Guerrilla Warfare in this deck. The latter especially as it allows you to keep Snap’s die in the pool, and then use it to do a damage but still claim before your opponent. It could be a little too cute, but I plan to try it. Overall I like this deck and am excited to give it a run on TTS.

NJCuenca’s Take: Now here’s a deck that has metagaming written all over it. I still don’t know if it can beat Poe/Maz but in theory its looking tough for Moe. Carbon Freezing Chamber can let you lock up Poe’s or any heavy hitting character die, It’s a Trap does massive burst damage vs a range heavy meta and you’ll be able to out claim everyone since you’re a two character deck with all of the same damage, a bunch of ambush cards and Snap’s ability. Your speed lets you use and stop the greatest claim cards in Dug In and Defensive Position.

This deck does have weakness. From my experience part of me fears that this deck will have issues vs melee and 3 Character decks. Friends in Low Places can take away one of the decks lynchpins in It’s a Trap and that card will be everywhere. Your health pool is small and Snap is pretty important to your game plan so him dying really puts you at bigger disadvantage compared to say Maz dying. I agree with Mike and think that Bombing Run is where you want to be. I’m also surprised there’s no Planetery Uprising in this deck.

HonestlySarcastc:

Unlike my compadres, I’m not a fan of this deck. I think it has a lot of potential at messing with the current Top Tier decks, but I’ve run into it a few times and when you outclaim the field from them due to being faster / not needing to use your resources, stealing the Baze die with their battlefield, absolutely crushes their damage and a good chunk of the top tier decks are very fast. As people learn how to play versus this, the power that it brings to the table will be limited. I think Snap Carbon combo and It’s a Trap are the two big things carrying the deck and that Snap Carbon can find a better home than Mono Red It’s a Trap. The die removal / protection / card selection is too limited as well as if either guy gets taken out quickly the game is pretty much over, thereby making it too fragile. Yet again, another reason to run Deflect though.

eDarth Vader (Anakin) / eKylo Ren – Standish, ME – Jared Veil

Mike’s Take: After seeing what Cunning can do to EmoVader I don’t think I’d sleeve it up personally, but you can’t deny the damage potential of this deck. Between Anakin’s FOUR damage sides and Kylo’s ability to spike 5 damage in a world of vehicles, it can really get crazy. I love this deck for No Mercy damage, but it’s a hefty cost when one of your two character dice don’t even have resource sides, which brings up my next point…

Where is Sith Holocron? I get that it’s not an auto include in every blue deck right now as it is pretty slow in a fast meta, but it plays things for free and Anakin doesn’t have resource sides! The value there just seems to tremendous. Jared certainly includes a lot of free cards in here, but no Holocron means you aren’t getting any “free cheating” and the fact that the deck is running expensive cards like No Mercy and Kylo Ren’s Lightsaber just compound that point. Another glaringly obvious card that’s missing is Isolation. One of the best removal cards in the game period and it seems to be replaced here by Anger, which is at best a lotto ticket but mainly just a freaking coaster. Kudos to Jared for the win, but I’d like to see how many times he had the opportunity to play that anger.

HonestlySarcastc:

I like the concept and I don’t mind not running Holocrons in the deck. Holocron can cheat stuff in, but you also tend to put the overcosted abilities into the deck and resource generation is hard to come by here (i’d probably still Holocron due to some of the other choices like Anger). I feel like I would’ve made some alternate choices, but it is at least a good starting point. Anakin has high damage output even without upgrades, so if you can make Kylo a better threat, you shouldn’t have a decent time KO’ing your opponent’s main guy. Anger most likely piggybacked off of Manipulate in order to resolve, but that is fine if you think about the line of plays where you had a blank (that you can’t Manipulate due to the rules), you Manipulate your die and opponents die for your action, they reroll, then you Anger the reroll and make them sad. I’ll work on a list soon and see what I can come up with, but I expect Force Speed and Doubt to make the list.

NJCuenca’s Take: I’ve already heard of this character combo winning two and placing in other store champs. This combo is a real player in the metagame. Two character decks are pretty good vs Poe/Maz since it lessens the effectiveness of Thermal Detonator and U-wing. Kylo’s special can regularly do 3 damage and has the upside of doing 5.

Wow what a bold deck list! I don’t mind the exclusion of Holocron and focusing on the undervalued It Binds all Things. My biggest gripe is the exclusion of Isolation which I’d put as one of the best cards in the format. I’d probably cut Decisive Blow and an Anger for two Isolations and start testing that. I think the end I’d want to be playing Holocron but I wonder what that would look like?

Andrew Oliva’s Emo Aggro (3rd/4th Place)- Carver, MA

Our friend Andrew made the top 4 of the tournament Mike won with this list only losing to him. Check out his write up here for more info. This is probably closer to the list I’d build. Emperor’s Throne Room seems tough in a world of Poe Maz and I feel like Kylo’s missing his Lightsaber. Meditate is an interesting card that I’ll need to play, its cool that both your character’s dice have damage sides that are specials. Both decks have a lot of similarities. Perhaps no Sith Holocron is the way to go but that’s something that needs to be tested for sure.

eUnkar Plutt / Death Trooper / FO Stormtrooper

Michael Perry’s Unkle DeathStorm

Mike’s Take: These lists are pretty interesting but in the damage one you’re really asking for a lot out of very few dice. Why aren’t there any Riot Batons in that list if we are sticking with Upgrades with Redeploy? I’m not a huge fan of Salvage Stand, but I get that we’re trying to choke. Playing with the Docking Bay is also really curious in a choke deck since it could give your opponent a free Backup Muscle or C-3PO. This is a very customizable deck setup and I’m sure there will be a ton of variations if you’re interested in Plutting people.

I like the mill list a lot more. I really think it should have two endless ranks and maybe even some friends in high places to really extend the game, which is one of mill’s greatest strengths. The list looks really solid, but I’d try and get the other flank in there as the card is still really good. I think the mill list should take a page out of the damage deck’s book and cut the electroshocks, or at least one of them, as Plutt is going to be the primary target in these matches.

NJCuenca Take: Even though they share the same character combo both these lists couldn’t possibly be more different in game plan. Alessandro’s list is very choke heavy which I generally dislike since your opponents can just play things first. This is great because it will help you play around mitigation but many decks like Poe/Maz can just rush you without money or upgrades. The Docking Bay/ Outpost combo is cute but this deck in on the slow end of claiming. In long games your opponents might just have Backup Muscle or Planatery Uprising making this battlefield not so one sided. Since I like shields when I’m Plutt-ing the battlefield isn’t that important to me. Outpost helps trigger Imperial Inspection but I don’t like playing bad cards to make my good cards better.

Michael’s deck goes hard on the mill plan. While I generally don’t like this way of winning I got to give Mike props for designing a very intriguing decklist. He has a lot of control which can let Unkar Plutt survive until the late game. I’m not the biggest fan of Con Artist since Plutt is public enemy #1 but since we are all in on mill getting to mill for even 3 is well worth it. I do like that this deck can use Suppression to great effect. Being able to remove a useless damage to prolong the game is great.

The big thing to take away from these decks is that Imperial Inspections is an insane card in these decks.

HonestlySarcastc:

I have to hold my tongue here since I’m just not good enough with this type of deck to know if my thoughts are valid or not. I’m not a fan of Local Garrison or Outpost here though and think better options might have been available. I like DH-17 as well as some of the other 1 cost red Upgrades. There are a lot of different variations to be played and if Plutt goes down too fast the deck will struggle.

TheHyperloops Team

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

Instagram

TheHyperloops is a proud sponsor of X-Wars! Sign up using our promo code to receive a free Full Art Director Krennic or a Full Art Jyn Erso. Click on the banner below to get the codes. Quantities are extremely limited, so sign up soon!