The Holocron has updated so NOW we can start the testing for worlds. I’ll be working non-stop on decks to see if they have what it takes to win the big show. Qui-Gon/Yoda is a deck that hasn’t dominated the format but has performed well enough that it requires a close exploration for worlds. It won both a Nationals and a regional in Canada during this Regional season but aside from that the combo hasn’t been a top performer. I’m going to mostly focus my attention on decks that performed well once and a while but never quite broke out as format boogiemen. I’ll also try to focus my attention on decks that were untouched by the nerfs.

Qui-Gon has been seen with other partners like Aayla and Kanan which I think will be good places to look for ideas when constructing Qui-Gon Yoda but I’m going to mostly ignore them as a possible pairing because Yoda synergises the best with him.

Why Qui-Gon Yoda?

The dice on the characters are very good and Qui-Gon’s passive ability turns Yoda into a damage dealer. These two have synergy together and when characters work well together like that they perform better than the sum of their parts. This past weekend I played vs Qui-Gon Yoda at a Galactic Qualifier and I got crushed pretty hard. My draws and rolls were admittedly bad but he went on to either win or go 5-1. This is of note because his list was very different than the Canadian list. I’ll get to possible cards later on.

Why not Qui-Gon Yoda?

It’s not the most unfair thing you can do and it has a hard time interacting with people’s hands which makes it somewhat susceptible to things like mill, Sabine and brOTK. However, wIth brOTK and Sabine receiving nerfs it certainly makes Qui-Gon Yoda more attractive.

Decklists

This is the Canadian Regional winning list and a week later the list changed by 4 cards: Guard for Hidden Motive and Chance Cube for It Binds All Things. You can read more about this list here and here.

Here is a list from Madrid that top 8’d one of their Regionals. This is a slight departure from the Canadian list, it ignores both It Binds All Things and Chance Cube and leans hard on Yoda for resources. It tries to be a little more bursty with Heightened Awareness and Riposte. Vibroknife is an interesting choice considering how good Shoto Lightsaber is for the plan. The list only plays 1 Ancient Lightsaber which makes me think this person only owns one Ancient Lightsaber.

This list came in 2nd at a Regional in Perth, you can read more about that here. I tested it and didn’t love it. Ataru strike came up rarely and Heightened awareness isn’t great if you don’t draw Riposte with it. The Yoda version definitely runs smoother.

Game plan

These decks want to load up Qui-Gon with weapons and use Yoda as a resource engine/dice fixer and tiny paper cut dealer. Shoto Lightsaber is the most important card in the deck since it will deal a damage or protect Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon has reasonable dice and can deal melee damage or use his shields as damage, essentially QG has 4 damage sides. The deck wants to protect QG as much as possible with cards like Force Illusion, shields and Ancient Lightsaber healing. One of the hardest parts about playing the deck is deciding when to put shields on QG for damage or shields. Going for QG first will make that decision difficult for your opponent.

Card List

Now that we have a variety of lists to draw on we can look at all of the cards that are common in all of the Qui-Gon Yoda lists and the look at the cards that are in some. I will be cheating a little in this process and putting down two Ancient Lightsabers as being in all lists because I’m pretty confident it should be. The Aayla list is there to spark some ideas but it’s definitely a different deck.

In All

Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Lightsaber

Unbreakable

In Some

Chance Cube

Ataru Strike

Defensive Teachings

Heightened Awareness

Mind Trick

That makes for 18 cards that are locks for the slots and 12 that we can play around with. Some questions that come to mind right away are: Do we really need the resource production cards? How good are they early vs how bad they are to draw late? What additional free cards do we want to play? What cards will help us in out worst match ups? Which cards help our fine match ups?

I hope this helps you in your testing for worlds or if you are just a fan of Qui-Gon give this a whirl at your local. Thanks for reading and as always…

May You Turn Yoda Into a Damage Dealing Maniac!

@NJCuenca

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