Why Yoda/Hondo?

Leading up to the regional, I was 100% positive I would be playing a deck centered on Boba Fett. He is my favorite character in the Star Wars universe and I have been jumping at a chance to use him at a competitive event. With the success of the Boba-Seventh decks leading up to the event, it looked like I was finally going to have my chance. However, that all changed on the Wednesday leading up to the event. I loaded up TTS certain that I would only be looking to tweak a few cards in my deck to prepare for the popular matchups ahead, but I didn’t know what I was in for. Luckily for me, my opponent was Arrow Brook Gaming’s Original and he was ready to open my eyes to the power that is Yoda/Hondo.

A very popular thought heading into this regional was, “If I play X/Hondo, all I have to do is kill X, and I can deal with Hondo.” I would be lying if I didn’t say that I was also of this opinion prior to my first games against this deck. After just two short games, my opinion had completely changed. After playing those games, I could only think of one dramatic word to capture my thoughts…oppressive. How was I supposed to play an upgrade if it meant taking 6-9 damage on turn one? How am I supposed to kill Yoda to deal with Hondo without that upgrade? Can I really pay him all these resources just to have them come back at me in the form of a Handcrafted Light Bow or Cunning? I only saw one path forward, and I immediately cast aside my favorite bounty hunter and began copying down Original’s list card for card.

The Deck:

The overall concept of the deck is relatively simple. It utilizes both Hondo and a collection of upgrades featuring special sides in order to deal damage in chunks of 3. Yoda serves as the engine of the entire operation. Not only does his dice feature two special sides of its own, but those special sides allow the player to focus the other dice in the pool to special sides as well. Furthermore, the game mechanics in Star Wars: Destiny allow the player to resolve all of these dice in one action. In my opinion, this combination of speed and accuracy is not found in any other deck currently found in the meta.

This is the list that I sleeved up for the Connecticut regional. Full disclosure, this list was shaped into its current form by my teammate Original. He is responsible for the dozens of games that led to the finished product. I won’t describe every single card choice we played, but I will highlight some of the cards that really shined throughout the day.

Impulsive:

This card was easily my favorite card in the entire deck. The simplest application of this card was allowing us to be able turn any focus die in our pool into a Yoda special and get the ball rolling on our special chains. Another common application is resolving a 2-disrupt side on Hondo’s dice prior to beginning our special chain. However, those 2 plays only scratch the surface of the power and utility of this card. One of my favorite plays of the weekend was using Rebel to copy my discarded Impulsive in order to resolve a 2-discard side on my dice to discard the last two cards in my opponent’s hand. With my ambush action, I used my Hyperspace Jump to end the game right then and there.

Rebel:

A unique aspect of our Yoda/Hondo list is that we played a single copy of 6 cards. In Star Wars: Destiny, we typically find that most lists are playing two copies of almost every included card. However, we were able to include a wider range of card choices based on the strength of Rebel. This card does come with some specific activation requirements, but with a discard side on each of our character dice and the ability to use our special to focus dice at will, resolving this card was never an issue. The utility of this card is extremely high. Whether it was playing a third copy of Easy Pickings, activating another copy of Force Illusion, or bypassing the remainder of my opponent’s turn via Hyperspace Jump, every time I activated this card it was extremely powerful.

Entangled:

I believe that the introduction of this card in the Rivals set helped push this deck over the top. After we ramp up our special chaining ability, the focus of the deck becomes mitigating the majority of the threatening dice our opponent is able to roll into. In order to accomplish this goal in the most efficient way, we want to play cards that are able to interact with 2 of our opponent’s dice at once. The introduction of Entangled allowed us to do just that and did so without a dice symbol restriction. As I previously stated, opponents are hesitant to commit to a large quantity of dice generating upgrades. This leaves them with a small dice pool each turn. Entangled allows us to essentially cut that dice pool in half, leaving our opponents with very little options.

Riposte:

This card needs no explanation as to its ability to end games, but I felt I needed to mention it none the less. Throughout the day, my opponents would frequently resist donating their resources until their character was within lethal damage from a Hondo Special. Riposte allowed me to counter this strategy. At least three different times I was able to eliminate one of my opponent’s characters after they felt they had survived the round. Riposte gave the deck an unseen punch that prevented my opponent from using their resources to repetitively fend off Hondo’s onslaught.

Match-Ups:

Round 1: Yoda/Hondo vs The Emperor [WIN]

This match up was relatively straight forward. My opponent was nice and very honest about the fact that he had not played a game of Star Wars: Destiny in a quite a while and was looking forward to what new tricks legacies had provided for his Emperor deck. I think it is probably fair to see that Hondo is not the character you want to play against after a long layoff. I play way too much mitigation for him to ever resolve his 5 damage dice and this game was over before long.

Round 2: Yoda/Hondo vs 4-Wide Villain Vehicles [WIN]

When I saw this gentleman unload his four characters I was a little concerned about the amount of damage I was going to have to do. He revealed Dark Advisor, Battle Droid, Ciena Ree, and Guavian Enforcer as his four characters of choice. I was concerned that by the time I dealt 32 damage, he would have built up a stream of vehicles. However, he decided to pay Hondo early, and by the time he realized his mistake, I had built up the usual suspects of Light Bow and friends, and his deck was too far behind.

Round 3: Yoda/Hondo vs Obi/Maz [WIN]

I was a little nervous going into this matchup due to the fact that Obi-Wan Kenobi can churn out a lot of damage at any particular time. Sure enough, he was able to resolve 7 damage against Yoda turn 1 and for the first time, I felt the game may take a turn in the wrong direction. However, turn 2 I was able to resolve 8 damage against Maz, and resolve a Lone Operative special on Yoda. From there I simply mitigated his remaining Obi-Wan dice and kept healing Yoda. Eventually, he was overwhelmed with damage and I was able to take it down.

Round 4: Yoda/Hondo vs Sabine/Ezra [WIN]

When I sat down and saw my opponent’s deck, I knew it was possible that I could lose to strong dice rolls without even having the opportunity to interact with my opponent’s dice at all. I really thought my undefeated day was done once Ezra rolled a resource on the first turn. However, my opponent went for the aggressive play and used 4 resources to play 2 blasters. The dice didn’t roll in his favor and I was able to put 6 damage on Sabine on the very first turn. Sure enough, that 6 damage was enough of a momentum shift and Sabine was dead shortly after. Ezra didn’t put up much of a fight and I was able to continue on with my undefeated streak.

Round 5: Yoda/Hondo vs Yoda/Hondo [WIN]

This round I had to face the dreaded mirror match. What made matters worse, was that I had to face my teammate, Original, playing the same deck except for one card. We had a discussion before the round and were hoping to delay this inevitable matchup for at least another round. The actual game came down to an early Vandalize on his Cunning and 2 Easy Pickings that put me far ahead in terms of momentum. It came down to a close finish, as he was able to shift his strategy to mill and get me down to my last 3 cards. However, I was able to roll out 4 or 5 special dice and resolve a Riposte in my hand for game. Playing against a teammate is always frustrating, but I knew I had to do my best to win out and be the best tie-breaker possible.

Round 6: Yoda/Hondo vs Hero Vehicles [WIN]

This round I played against a member of the Hyperloops, NJCuenca. Hero Vehicles can be a tough matchup without Force Wave, as they pack a lot of health and have a consistent ramp to their strong vehicles. I am a little hazy on the details of this game, but I know I was able to secure an early defeat of Rose. From that point on I was able to keep up a steady stream of damage and secure the win.

Round 7: Yoda/Hondo vs Yoda/Hodo [WIN]

I had to face another mirror match. I was pretty certain that I had guaranteed my spot in the top 8 already, but I knew that a win would seal it. This game was my toughest game of the day. My opponent and I traded resources, shields, damage, and mitigation cards back and forth for a full 30 minutes. In the end of the game, I was able to resolve two shield die in order to ensure that I would remain ahead by 1 health in time to claim the victory. The mirror match can be very exhaustive with this deck. You have to keep track of resources, shields, damage, mitigation cards, and the cards in your deck. My opponent also made top 8, and Yoda/Hondo was the only deck to have 2 seats in the top 8 for this event.

Round 8: Yoda/Hondo vs Boba/Sister [WIN]

At this point, I knew that I had the top 8 locked up, but I really wanted to finish the day undefeated. Boba/Sister was the deck we expected to see the most of and felt that we had a very strong matchup against. Sure enough, the first turn of the game went exactly as we had anticipated. My opponent chose to spend his 2 resources on a Vibroknife and was able to resolve 10 damage against me turn 1. However, he paid a steep price for this aggressive approach. I was able to counter with 9 damage of my own. In the 2nd round, my more consistent dice prevailed and I was able to eliminate Seventh Sister from play. Boba Fett didn’t stand a chance against my onslaught of mitigation and I was able to quickly wrap-up an 8-0 finish for swiss!

At this point, the store called for a half-hour break before the top cut would commence. I was thrilled to have achieved my first top 8, but I was very excited and nervous to play my top 8 match. I did not want my undefeated effort to go home without a Thrawn promo. Thankfully, I found out that my matchup was going to be against a Zeb/Kanan deck. After discussing my options with my teammates, I was sure that his deck would be very resource intensive and that Hondo would be able to mitigate his ability to build up a huge arsenal on Zeb each turn. We also decided that targeting Kanan first would be the best strategy.

Top 8 – Game 1: Yoda/Hondo vs Zeb/Kanan [WIN]

Every turn my opponent would roll out Kanan first in an attempt to hit one of his focus sides to action cheat with Zeb later on. My opponent spent his first two resources on an upgrade for Zeb, and despite our discussion, I chose to focus on Zeb instead of Kanan. I was eventually able to defeat Zeb, but only after going through 2 Second Chance and 2 Force Illusion. My opponent also had to deal with his fair share of health, shields, and mitigation. Going into the decisive last turn, my opponent only had 2 cards left in his hand. I was able to resolve a Rebel targeting my discarded Impulsive, and then activate Hyperspace Jump for game.

Top 8 – Game 2: Yoda/Hondo vs Zeb/Kanan [WIN]

I had finally calmed my nerves and knew that I could win this game and take home my own copy of the coveted Thrawn promo. This game was not nearly as close. I remembered my discussion from earlier and chose to focus on eliminating Kanan ASAP. Once he was removed from the game, it was relatively easy to mitigate Zeb’s dice and deal the necessary damage to defeat him as well.

Top 4 – Game 1&2: Yoda/Hondo vs Hero Vehicles [LOSS & LOSS]

This matchup was a rematch of my round 6 game against NJCuenca. At this point I was exhausted and did not play my 2 best games of Star Wars: Destiny. That being said, he played almost flawlessly and was clearly more prepared for this matchup than any other opponent I had faced that day. His deck also included two copies of Scruffy Looking Nerf Herder and Friends in Low Places. In the first game, I was 1 or 2 resolutions of Force Wave away from stealing the game. The second game was a complete blow-out in his favor, as his event stealing cards were able to prevent me resolving a single Hyperspace Jump, and Force Wave was not enough for me to win this game.

Overall, I had a fantastic time piloting a strong deck to an 8-0 day! My luck ran out in the end, but I was tremendously satisfied with my deck’s showing and I think that Yoda/Hondo is a great pick for a regional event in the near future.