In previous installments of this series I went over Qui-Gon Yoda and Hero vehicles. Check them out if you haven’t seen them. Today I want to talk about going rogue-ish. Not necessarily playing something completely unknown, although that might pay dividends, but playing a deck that is under the radar. When you pick a deck that people haven’t tested against a ton, or at all, you gain some equity. However, if your deck stinks the surprise factor won’t matter. You have to be doing something powerful, to be specific, some effect that is above rate for the resources you are investing. Even if your deck is consistent but mediocre it won’t matter. The following are decks that I’ve been working on. Some I think have potential in the hands of a skilled pilot who’s had sufficient repetitions with the decks and the knows their match ups well.

Rainbow 5

This deck’s been in our Gauntlet for some time under “regional consideration”. I think a deck like it could be in a good spot. In the top 32 of the TTS tournament Officer Joe played a 5 die villain deck vs NooBrainer that was all in on odds but it didn’t perform too well, you can see it in action here. The above list is slanted towards odds to attempt to activate Mother more than half the time but its not all in on that plan.

The Good: Bala-Tik and Mother Talzin both have great abilities for being such cheap characters. If we are expecting a lot of three guy decks like Vehicles or Padawans (looking at you Eric) then Bala-Tik’s stock goes up. Mother Talzin can make your deck feel like it has 6 dice on the turns she hits. When you hit with Mother Talzin you can guarantee that Price of Failure will at least be two damage off of a mother untap – that assurance can be very powerful when combined with Bala-Tik’s ability. Having access to shield hate cards in On The Hunt and Frighten can really be a nightmare for shield heavy decks with Rieeken or Qui-Gon.

The Bad: The deck isn’t the easiest to pilot and it can be both roll and draw dependent. The fact that it requires the use of modifiers in a world of Force Illusion and Easy pickings is a big strike against it. The events this deck can play aren’t as good as the hero ones either. Constructing towards mom’s ability can make the deck feel clunky but if you ignore it then you are making it less likely to hit and giving free information to your opponent.

I do think this deck has what it takes to take down worlds but you’d have to have a great list and play it well. None of the lists I’ve played have wowed me but there is still time and there are cards that I want to try.

Cards I Want to Try: Boundless Ambition, Well-Connected, The Best Defense…, and Probe.

Tarkin and Seventh Sister

There is a greater than zero percent chance that I could be playing this team at worlds. This list needs to evolve though.

The Good: Because of Tarkin’s Power Action It can rumble pretty well with mill decks since it won’t need to reroll often. It’s great against most two character decks because Tarkin’s ability will turn to direct damage sooner. I think most of the lists have moved away from actually trying to use Sith Holocron and have moved towards Z6 Riot Baton. I think I like that better although at that point you have to ask yourself, is Holocron even worth it? I know you can overdo it with Tarkin enabling to the point where you are over saturated with do-nothing dice.

The Bad: I HATE Chance Cube. Hidden Motive is a card and your opponent can make you reroll and remove your cube die after you’ve payed 1. If your plan was to fix your cube with Tarkin’s focus you are asking to get blown out by a free card. I get that you can use Tarkin’s ability to use the blank but that doesn’t seem like a great use of a resource early in the game. (As an aside, I don’t mind Chance Cube in Yoda decks mostly because when you use a Yoda special you will generally get a resource out of it and the upside is very high if they don’t touch it.) I don’t feel Doubt is an auto include anymore. People’s starting character dice are really good and you are just gambling with Doubt in a way that isn’t great. Doubting Vibroknife and Ancient Lightsabers are fine but I’ve really soured on the card as of late. I think you just have to consider the card for later in the game when your opponent has played the cards that are “good” to Doubt. Feel Your Anger isn’t great in a world full of Yodas but it still has some nice blowout potential with people playing Chance Cube and C-3po. The dice mitigation suit in general is conditional, finding the right mix seems very important. In particular all the spot blues seem like a tough sell since everyone seems to go for Sister first. Even though I want to build with people going for sister first I kind of want to try ID9 Seeker Droids since I think they will be good vs Mill and Vehicles.

Cards I Want to Try: Mislead, Probe, Hidden Motive, and ID9 Seeker Droid.

Tarkin and Doctor Aphra

I don’t know if you knew this about me but I really like Tarkin as a character. Not really sure why but I’ve always had an affinity for the ruthless old man. Maybe he reminds me of the Grandfather I never knew. All I know about him is that he worked for the Cuban police in the 40s and 50s, was kind of an absent father and then died of a liver disease. I’ve created some imaginary narrative about him that involves him being a playboy alcoholic that worked for Batista ten or so years before the Cuban Revolution. I’m assuming he worked on some kind of secret Cuban project that involved cracking skulls and taking names…

Anyway… I like Tarkin. This deck is great in Trilogy and stinks in Standard. Part of me can’t accept that and needs to try to make it happen.

This list is pretty different than the previous list I tried a while ago. On the Hunt, Backup Muscle and Partnership are kind of exciting adds – I’ll fit the 2nd Partnership in there at some point, its sooo good with Ark Angel. I’ve played it a bit and the deck hasn’t given me a heart attack, so at least there’s that. I feel i can justify working on this a little if I make drastic changes every time. Here I’ve decided to focus on beating aggro decks since I feel like I can battle with slower decks. The discard will come just from my character dice which will hopefully be enough.

This is purely in the fun zone category but a man can dream…

Thanks for reading. This will be the last of the exploring for worlds series because the Mario music is getting faster and time is running out. I probably won’t have time to explore beyond what I have written. Take care and as always…

YOU MAY FIRE WHEN READY!

@NJCuenca

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