Introduction:

I want to start out by giving a big shout out to all the other guys from On the Hunt Gaming! They helped me tune my deck through numerous test games until 4 am the night before. Without that playtesting, I wouldn’t have played Vigilance in my deck, which was easily the most insane card in my deck all day. It forced my round 5 opponent to play Vader’s Fist round one which he never resolved since he had both AT-ST and Abandon All Hope in his hand; two very good cards in the mirror.

I came into this weekend extremely sick. To be honest, I was ready to call the weekend a success if I walked away with a few cool spot glosses. I knew going into the weekend that I would be playing Shadow Caster for Trilogies. Only issue was that I didn’t realize how well represented it was going to be, which led me to an awful day 1 going 2-4. We went out to an awesome German bar in Philly named BRÜ Craft & Wurst, it had good food and excellent beer, I highly recommend it if you are in the area. Once back at the BnB we tested out some standard decks. I knew I was going to play Thrawn/Snoke since I had been playing it since the release of Snoke for the most part. I played a few games against Jyn/Cass, Vader/X which Ron took 5-1 day, and Yoda/Qui-Gon Solidarity, which Paul was able to pilot to a 4-2 day. The deck felt okay, but I wasn’t in love with the Grand Moff package. I swapped it out for one more Pinned Down and two Probes. From there, we cut a Tie Fighter since I never wanted 4 and I needed some slots for vigilance.

Round Summary:

Round 1 (Yoda/Boushh)

First round, I was able to chunk Yoda down to 4 hp. On the next round, I killed him early, but then had to fight through 2 second chances. It wasn’t really a game after that.

Round 2 (Biggs/Han)

First round, I killed Biggs. On the next round, I pulled his jump with Thrawn that I saw and got Han down to 5 hp. I should have had him on the third round. Most likely would have, had I not misread Aerial Advantage. Instead, he removed my AT-ST die and I killed him the round after, with Stifle Out.

Round 3 Camera (Thrawn/Snoke)

I got sloppy here with some egregious errors; resulting in the game being much closer than it had to be. One of the errors was calling 5 on round two (not realizing he pitched Vaders Fist), this was the first and last time I did that all day. The second error came with not realizing he couldn’t Beguile me, since I had Vigilance out. This was my first tournament with vigilance and I was unfamiliar with all the card interactions…It almost cost me.

Round 4 (Yoda/Boushh)

This round my opponent rolled poorly and I got out to a good start. Along with some mitigation, I was able to get some Tie Fighters and Umbra Tank Vigilance-blanked one turn here which proved to be enough.

Round 5 Camera (Thrawn/Snoke)

He had a few questionable early claims because of Vigilance. He did hold onto AT-ST and Abandon All Hope (both excellent cards in the matchup), but couldn’t focus the dice and had no money, so both of his dice had 4 blanks.

Round 6 (OTK Ezra/Gungan/Gungan/Maz)

I got the pair down last round and my opponent was nice enough to give me the win.

Conclusion:

Moving forward I do think Thrawn/Snoke is the boogeyman for the foreseeable future. I know many people are calling for Snoke to be nerfed, but I disagree. While a few Snoke decks did well in Trilogies, he wasn’t the best deck in the room— that was Shadow Caster Hero. I honestly think that Thrawn has been the issue; being able to see your opponent’s hand and plan out your entire turn around it is huge and should not be taken lightly. For this reason, I believe that FFG will more than likely nerf Thrawn, instead of Snoke. Some changes I would make to the deck would be to use Docking Bay. I like the idea of being able to grab back any ship, Vigilance or stifle. I would also replace the Dorsal Turret and possibly one Landing Craft for two L1 Hand Cannons, so that the AT-ST gets slightly worse in the mirror.

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Thanks for reading.

J-Rod

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