Before we get to the update, I want to talk about Punch-Out… when the hell did he go from Piston Honda to Piston Hondo??? Like this makes Hondo all that much better, but still. Don’t toy with my childhood memories! Found some sweet John Wayne “Hondo” stuff while looking for a featured photo, but wanted to share this one due to the shock.

This week’s Regional Update comes a little late to you, but like normal, it is mainly in V-Log form.

We’re now looking at the end of the EaW Meta finally with the Omaha Regional and we’ve already gotten a fresh jump on Legacies with both the Dallas and Portland ones. Omaha was taken down by the gentleman I’ve mentioned a few times who was trail-blazing with 4 Wide Hero Vehicles and the 32 health pool of doom (not counting Second Chances). Congrats to him (Shane) for crushing the competition as well as Elrathion / odridder for getting Second place. The new version of the deck list is below and you’ll notice that there were some minor changes from the previous version.

Fast forward to the Portland Regional which I believe had 85 people playing and ended up being a 2-day event. I mentioned it in the video, but Legacies was legal, but the Starters were NOT. It was a decision made due to the scarce availability of starters at the time and giving the player base enough time for testing and not scouring to locate cards, which is a great player friendly thing to do. For those wondering why Legacies was allowed to be legal, it was mentioned before with Dallas but if the product is widely available in large quantities (must be in stock at the store hosting the event) then they had the option to have it be legal for the event.

All FOUR of the Top 4 decks have been posted on swdestinydb, but I’ll still put the lists here with the photo’s linking to the actual decks on the site + the breakdowns they gave.

1st Place – Poe2 + Hondo (Also got 6th place by same team)

A Red Yellow Poe deck with Emperor’s Throne Room rears it’s ugly head again. Special chaining decks right now are definitely kings of the fast lane. All four character dice have specials to threaten battlefield claims with as well as 6 additional “special” dice from their upgrades. If you were able to see the live stream, you’ll know that Vandalize absolutely murdered his final round opponent by not allowing a C-3PO to stay on the table which is how that deck ends the game usually. By next week’s Regional events, i’d expect the deck to have some minor overhauls to make it even better as well as people teching cards to do their best to deal with it. The deck can feel a little clunky in some odd spots, but for the most part it runs very smooth and it definitely looks to be a main player in this meta. Also, No Blue cards… say what!!! It is a very cheap deck to build, so when we get back to budget articles, you’ll definitely see this there!

2nd Place – Rainbow Rieekan Hero Mill

Mill almost did it ladies and gents. They almost crossed the finish line to take down a big event. Some of the newer cards put in a lot of work in the matches I saw, with Scrap Heap and Yoda’s Hut helping immensely to fund the deck’s resource costs in the situations where Chance Cube didn’t show up. The deck had a boatload of removal and some potential blowouts due to Easy Pickings, Into the Garbage Chute, and Hyperspace Jump. I haven’t played enough Mill myself to really know what can easily be cut / changed, but Poe Hondo + Vandalize didn’t seem like a great match-up for them so if that becomes super popular, we’ll see where it leads at the end of it all. It’s another deck without Force Illusion… has the meta changed or is it just not necessary with all of the shield good stuff??

Top 4

Artificery’s very own AgentOfZion got Top 4 losing to the eventual winner in a battle of the Hondos. There were some fancy things going on with Lone Operatives and tanking like a monster, but there were seemingly too many “dead” cards in that matchup and the opponent’s Cunning being able to copy Handcrafted Light Bow and Obi’s saber were just too good at busting through the shields. The removal seems much more accessible in Blue Hondo, but the upgrade package also costs quite a bit more. Yoda can afford it, but that still causes a bit more clunky openings and Round 1 starts. Artificery plans to have an article about the deck soon enough so stay tuned to them to see what they have to say about it.

Top 4 – Kylo 2 Talzin

Mother and teenager tear up the town maxing out their credit cards in this mono blue pairing. When i first heard about the 90% odd Talzin decks, i had massive confusion. Like an auto focus each round is a super cool trick, but how will they cast more than a couple cards a round and pay for pay sides if they aren’t running several 0 casting cost cards. It didn’t make sense from an efficiency standpoint, but it WORKS and it is GLORIOUS at times. Witch Magick and Rise Again go a long way towards keeping your characters healthy and against the slow hero decks that have more questionable removal, this pairing can be an absolute beating. I’m used to seeing Chance Cube in the 0 cost slot, but sneaking out Wave and Throw to focus every round can be beyond scary. I don’t have any experience with this version of the deck, but in testing, Vandalize and resource control were huge problems for it at times. As i get more reps, i expect to learn how to cope better with that, but Poe Hondo scares me due to needing to give up my resources or take big hits of damage. We’ll see where this ends up but I can’t see it being any worse than tier 2 due to the 4 die setup really being capable of being a 6 die when you think about Kylo being able to average 1 damage a round and Mother being 1 focus a round for their abilities.

Good Bye, Old Friends

Thankfully January is almost over and we’ll no longer have to think back and focus on the EaW meta. We should start seeing every event allow Legacies and the Starters so we’ll be able to start getting an accurate reflection on the meta, well that is until Rivals decides to show up, which I’ve heard is supposed to be February 15th, but we’ll see if it ends up happening. Will we start to see Villain Hondo decks?? Has 7th OTK been thrown out with the dirty bath water (EaW)?? Will I ever pull myself away from Monster Hunter?? Random Note: For our followers that got a notification about new videos on the main page, but then wondered if they were seeing things because there wasn’t anything, you aren’t crazy (well at least not due to that). I had posted three Coaching Sessions back to back and in my fatigue, I hit the wrong button and posted them to public for a short time, sorry about that. Hyperloop OUT!

~HonestlySarcastc

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