Two questions floating around a lot now are if decks that relied on Running Interference and Maul’s Lightsaber are still good. I do not have enough experience with Maul’s Saber to give a definitive opinion but I am going to say that yes, both brOTK and Boba/Seventh Sister are still very much viable decks. They both can pump out damage with brOTK maybe being in the worse spot of the two with all the hand disruption running around. As I said though, I have limited games piloting those decks.

Of the two changes I can weigh in on, the change to Running Interference is the one I can talk about more as I have played many games with it in many different Yellow hero decks such as Sabine/X, Obi/Maz, Zeb/Rey and Han/Rey. It really was a card that could go into any deck that could actually run it. For such a game affecting card, it was a bargain at 0 cost. Originally the card was only able to be used once a round but now after your first use it is put into the “Set-Aside Zone” as stated in the new Holocron and Rules Reference Document. As a Sabine player it sucks, as a Destiny player it was a pretty good call. It could still be played around but this was a card that created a negative play experience, for new players especially. Having played this game I know when to expect those big plays or how to plan my turn around an opponents RI activation. You also know that this card exists and could have teched in Vandalize or to a lesser extent, Rend. To never have played against Sabine, to not only get hit for 6-9 damage that you didn’t even get a chance to react to but then see someone turn their dice to 12 damage, is not something you will walk away from wanting to play more of. Which is why I brought this to Rochester, to hopefully play Mr. Chip with.

The real question though is that, with the change is Sabine still a viable character and if she is, does she still use RI? Her and Ezra, and to a lesser extent Yoda, made waves at times in the meta but she was still in a tough spot before this change with decks like Boba/7th and brOTK, who could kill Sabine turn 2. Though I think it is still safe to say that Sabine is still in a good spot. It was very tough for her to stop the impact of Maul’s Saber as only her dice and the Holdout Blaster had shields sides in that deck and you didn’t want to resolve her character dice for a shield. Now that you can stop the re-rolling of Maul’s with a well timed Ezra disrupt you can combat that deck in another way. Even just looking at how she now interacts with RI you can still see why she should still be in a decent spot. Sure using RI to mess with opponents activations and resolving dice was nice but the big thing you wanted it for was Never Tell Me The Odds for loads of damage. So still playing RI and waiting for that big play is still a viable option. If you go that route you hope that no one Vandalize’s RI but is that really any different than before?

Another option talked a lot about is now dropping RI for Infamous which hasn’t seen much play since RI was released, as it effectively did the same thing but RI was more flexible. Infamous was also amazing back when Han Solo, Scoundrel, was viable as it helped with some extra shield generation. Now slotting in Infamous can be a solid call and still can help you keep tempo in many situations as you can ambush action off of yellow removal cards or even Second Chance. The tough part for me is finding that extra resource to pay for Infamous. Often times if I have three resources I want to play a gun like Holdout Blaster or Hidden Blaster and save a dollar for removal like Easy Pickings. Usually I would rather remove two powerful dice than play a card like Infamous. If Ezra doesn’t get you some extra resources early I find myself holding onto Infamous too long and clogging up my hand. Infamous can definitely be pulled off but sometimes that extra dollar just feels bad, especially with all the Hondo decks running around lately.

Lastly another option I have been toying with is running Sabine with a blue partner for Force Speed. This almost acts as if it was Infamous but takes a little more setup and relies on dice rolls. Two characters you can run her with are Kanan or Yoda both at a single die. Losing Ezra’s +2 and resource stealing makes me sad but I know Yoda can pull off some wonky plays. Something like rolling Yoda out, hitting a special on him. Next action you roll out Sabine and with your ambush action you resolve specials, flip to a Force Speed special, take two actions and do Never Tell Me The Odds, or even Concentrate/Alter now that you have blue, to swing for big damage. The blue mix with Sabine is what I have been trying a lot of recently and it does feel pretty good. It also gives more survivability with Sabine in Force Illusion but trying to find room for Force Speed, Force Illusion, any blue mitigation you want and potentially Concentrate or Alter is going to be a tough task in an already stacked mono-yellow list.

Either way, mono-yellow or a splash of blue, Sabine is still here and a deck that you need to test and be ready for come Worlds. I keep telling myself I won’t bring Sabine to worlds yet here I am… Writing and article about Sabine…

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Till next time!