This week was a big week. There were 5 regional qualifiers with one the week before that didn’t get too much attention but should have been on your radar if you were attending a regional. We were hoping for some interesting decks to pop up and what did we get? On a quick glance we saw Vader maintain his chokehold on the metagame while Armored Reinforcement decks were hated out. Mill took down Virginia and seems to be a solid deck in the metagame. I’m going to do a metagame breakdown of the all decks that made top 4/8 and see what the percentages look like. To see the results in the aggregate of Week 4 and 5 check out the following link to the I Rebel podcast. If you haven’t checked them out what’s wrong with you??

TOP 8 Decks

Vader Greedo and other Vader Decks: 12, 3 of them winners (only one of the Vader decks was Battle Droid Retribution)

Mill: 9, one winner in Yoda/Leia2 (Also represented was 3 Wide Yoda mill and Lando/Leia)

Armored Reinforcement Decks: 4 (3 Ciena/ Becket and one Lando/Biggs)

Han/Qi’ra/ No Allegiance: 4

DJ decks: 4, Two with Talzin/Double Down, one Snoke and one extra spicy DJ/Aphra

Beckett/Mom/Profitable Connection: 2

Dooku2/Talzin: 2

Kit/Aayla: 2

Wedge/Lando: 2

Cad/Snoke/Bitter Rivalry(old list(: 1

Boba/Phasma: 1

Yoda/Wookie Warrior/Padawan(old list): 1 Grandpa

The biggest surprise is the flip that mill and Armored Reinforcement decks did. Armored reinforcement decks were as represented as DJ decks and Han/Qi’ra decks which is surprising indeed.It might be due to everyone and their mothers having trash like Disable and EMP Grenades in their decks. Not sure this is good for the game but its a thing that’s real.

I don’t think Han Qi’Ra is that good. It has a high ceiling but its too roll dependent. You can try to fix that with a Never Tell Me The Odds version but that apparently was unimpressive in testing.

I’m somewhat surprised by the number of DJ decks. In my mind its hard to combat Vader with removal and even if you do the early indirect is going to go to Greedo. I think DJ is good vs the field maybe? Its just a good ability. The most popular build I think was with Mom and I’m assuming they were playing Double Down for a 3rd Witch Magik and some other card I’d guess either a Sith Holocron or a Chance Cube. Snoke/DJ still works without penalty to deck building and it seems to have a cult following of sorts. This mono yellow DJ deck with Aphra sounds interesting.

In my experience Beckett/Mom has been one of the stronger shells for villain yellow hate cards like Coercion. That extra resource is pretty great for going for a blowout in round 1. The deck also does some pretty great damage with Vader’s Fist and can really screw over opponents with Beckett’s Rifle and his ability.

This upcoming weekend is the time to dust off your Dookus. It seems that the people who chose to play Spooky Dooky might have gotten a little unlucky in their pairings or were a week early with their choice since it seems like it would be great in this field. All you’ll have to worry about is dealing with Vader so test that match up. I have a feeling you can get that to be slightly favorable and I know you’ll be able to beat Mill. If you are packing 2x Deflect you should have a chance vs AR decks. The biggest question with the build is: do you want to go with a Holocron Package or go with Ancient Lightsaber/weapons? Force Speed is too good and too important to beating mill.

Kit/Aayla aka Fish Sticks (go home if you are trying to call it something else, its too perfect) had some hype going into this weekend in our Discord since it has the tools to tango with Vader. Kit’s ability can prevent damage from Vader sticks before its being dealt and Aayla’s special can mess with Vader’s dice without removing them. Yesteday BobbySapphire wrote a love letter to Aayla and he thinks its time for people to stop sleeping on her. He’s not 100% sold on Kit being her best partner but I personally don’t see anyone who would be as powerful (except maybe one of the Qui-Gones). Another combo that he didn’t mention is the pairing of Aayla with Kanan(or Yoda) and Built to Last. It was hovering around in the previous format and maybe its in a good spot?

Wedge/Lando is something HonestlySarcastc was on for a bit but I don’t currently see him claiming its some kind of savior. I was really hyped for Lando and I do still love him but its probably not going to happen in this metagame. I you really want to play Lando I think you are better off playing double Gungan Warrior or Biggs. The metagame is very harsh on vehicles right now and this deck probably wants to be the anti-vehicle vehicle deck. It also does that Planned Explosion thing which is very cute until your Vader opponent sits on a Force Illusion because they know its coming. But hey, you’ll have a million sides of power available so you probably could do a good amount of damage anyway… why are we playing this card again?

The last three were Cad/Snoke/BR, Boba/Phasma and Yoda/Wookie Warrior/Padawan. Cad/Snoke/BR and Boba Phasma are pretty interesting since they are kind of like the same deck. I suppose the plan for them is to action cheat, deal damage, try to beat Vader to the claim and stay ahead. If Vader’s Fist enters the equation then they certainly will be able to claim first but then your opponent played Fist and your two character deck probably isn’t long for the world. I’m not sure who’s faster but I suspect that its close and roll dependent. Yoda/Wookie Warrior/Padawan aka GrandpaJake’s deck is certainly intriguing since its the kind of deck I love to play. It’s consistent, does boatloads of unblockable damage, action cheats and has a high HP pool. I suspect its not the easiest deck to play especially in this metagame where a big Fear and Dead men are going to neutralize your HP advantage. It seems like he lost to mill in the finals and I could certainly see that being a tough match-up although I can see it being winnable with a slightly different configuration.

What didn’t show up?

I’m surprised to have seen no Emo or any Kylo decks at all. Emo always seemed like the kind of deck that had a cult following and I think its pretty decent right now. Imsuprised by the lack of Jynn/Cassian but I suspect people who were playing them realized that the deck wasn’t in a good position.

That’s it for today. I hope this was informative. Good luck at your regional and as always…

Let’s take down Vader!

-NJCuenca

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