The following guest tournament report is by Ira Fay. He took Yoda/Cassian to top 16 of GenCon North American Champs. If you ever want to submit a tournament report you can do so at thehyperloops@gmail.com.

Last year, I was fortunate to make Top 8 at GenCon, and actually go undefeated that whole event (I conceded to HonestlySarcastic in Top 8 because I had to catch a flight). I got pointed in the right direction by HonestlySarcastic with FN Nightsister , but I did a lot testing and tuning without a large team. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it again this year.

I’ve always thought that mill could be powerful, and tried a variety of mill ideas over the course of the game, including eJabba Vader, eJabba Tarkin, and then a whole lot of things with Way of the Force: eLeia eYoda, eLeia Anakin Guard, eLeia eCassian, eCassian eYoda, and eYoda Cassian Anakin. There was really an explosion of options with Way of the Force, and I settled into eYoda eCassian pretty quickly. While I liked Leia’s dice, the power action was slow, and I’ve always found that mill can be most powerful with Command Center and claiming aggressively. For that same reason, I didn’t like eYoda Cassian Anakin, because it would take too long to claim. And to be fair, for most of my testing period, Sabine was still alive and well, and I was seeing a lot of aggro deck options too.

Of course, the big reason not to play mill are the tiebreakers. But, with the speedof eYoda eCassian, the game would regularly end on round 4, and sometimes 3 or 5. I knew that with practice, I could play 4 or 5 rounds within 30 minutes, prepared even for a best of 3 match, so I kept practicing.

The real breakthrough (for me) with the deck was when I saw Drew W (thanks, Drew!) playing a version of the deck with Power of the Force and blue upgrades. Leia had the incredible Commando Raid. Power of the Force is Cassian’s Commando Raid. With proper deck construction and mulligan strategy, the deck could reliably have 3 blue upgrades in play by round 2. Obviously Force Speed, Force Illusion, and Force Meditation go in, but there’s also Force Jump and Aquata Breather. I decided to go with 1x Force Jump, since it costs 1, doesn’t work against specials or action cheating, and only goes on Yoda. I’m very happy with 2x Aquata, because I expected (and saw) plenty of indirect, and I wanted a blue upgrade that could go on Cassian to help close the game after Yoda was defeated. For zero, canceling 1 damage (even after claiming) is perfectly fine, and in many games it saved me 3+ damage – most vehicle decks, any damage deck with Cassian or DJ or Snoke. Also, it’s safe from Probe and FiLP , which help defends my hand and gives me better reroll options if needed.

The other interesting deckbuilding choice was Rend , which I was very happy to see vs. Chance Cube or Force Speed . I had a variety of removal options, and I felt like where I ended up was about right, but I think it would have been relatively similar if I had swapped a few options around. I also liked Bespin Wing Guard to help close out the game. Here’s the decklist:

With all that preamble, here was my GenCon run:

Round 1 vs FN Mother Talzin Profitable Connections: and his battlefield was Port District. Luckily, I won the battlefield roll and picked mine, or it would have been a very different game! and his battlefield was Port District. Luckily, I won the battlefield roll and picked mine, or it would have been a verydifferent game!

I made a stupid mistake where I resolved 3 discards (2 Yoda, 1 Cassian) when he had only 2 cards in hand. We called a judge and I couldn’t take it back. It almost tilted me for the whole game, but I ended up pulling it through when he rolled out relatively badly and didn’t have cards to spend on rerolls. My mistake made me realize a problem with playing only on TTS, which is that I got used to easily seeing how many cards my opponent has… Win 1-0.

Round 2 vs Yoda Anakin Cassian mill on Imperial Palace: I won the roll and chose mine. Pretty easy game, especially after a round 2 (or 3) hyperspace when he hadn’t resolved any dice yet. My Rend got his Chance Cube. Winning the battlefield roll helps a lot! Win 2-0.

Round 3 vs Snoke Rebel Traitor Admiral Piett: He got out Hailfire round 1. He had lots of cool tricks with Rebel Traitor and Piett abilities, and he could reliably Snoke the Rebel Traitor die due to Piett’s ability. I misplayed in round 2 by using Clandestine Operation to chain Yoda into another Yoda special into Force Jump special to flip Hailfire into… Oh wait, Hailfire doesn’t have any blank sides. Doh! At least I realized it before resolving my Force Jump die, but my Clandestine was only for 2. I definitely felt good about Aquata x2. One prevented at least 4 that game, maybe even 5. I won at the end with Hyperspace Jump, when he likely would have killed me later that round. Good game. Win 3-0. He got out Hailfire round 1. He had lots of cool trickswith Rebel Traitor and Piett abilities, and he could reliably Snoke the Rebel Traitor die due to Piett’s ability. I misplayed in round 2 by using Clandestine Operation to chain Yoda into another Yoda special into Force Jump special to flip Hailfire into… Oh wait, Hailfire doesn’t have any blank sides. Doh! At least I realized it before resolving my Force Jump die, but my Clandestine was only for 2. I definitely felt good about Aquata x2. One prevented at least 4 that game, maybe even 5. I won at the end with Hyperspace Jump, when he likely would have killed me later that round. Good game.

Round 4 vs Poe2 Cassian: Again, I was happy to have Aquatas. I luckily won the battlefield roll again! I’m sure that has made a difference so far. Yoda got a round 1 Force Speed, and my opponent gets Rex’s Blaster. I played I should have used my 2 force speed actions to focus Yoda to discard and then Power of the Force immediately, disrupting his combo. On the last turn of the game, he had 1 card in hand and it went: I play Bespin Wing Guard, he rolls in Poe (not showing lethal yet), I use Bespin Wing Guard, he rolls in Cassian, I Hyperspace Jump. GG. I think this was the game I’m most proud of, because I made correct claim decisions even wasting lots of dice. Win 4-0. Again, I was happy to have Aquatas. I luckily won the battlefield roll again! I’m sure that has made a difference so far. Yoda got a round 1 Force Speed, and my opponent gets Rex’s Blaster. I played Force Meditation on Cassian round 1 thinking I’d be able to use it and mitigate damage, but then my opponent used Impulsive on 2 focus turning 3 damage into 7, and now Cassian has only 3 health remaining. I have Force Illusion in my hand, but no Second Chance. With Rex’s Blaster, I think he’ll be able to kill Cassian at the start of round 2 if he has the battlefield, so I chain Yoda into Force Speed special, play the Force Illusion, and claim Command Center, wasting Cassian and his Force Meditation die, never even activated. The next round of that game, I draw Second Chance, overwrite immediately, and he switches targets to Yoda. Since he has Rex’s Blaster, and the battlefield claim mills 2, I claim very aggressively, perhaps activating Cassian only once the whole game! My biggest mistake came near the end game: Yoda has 5 health left, first action I roll in Yoda showing, shield, 2 focus, and Force Speed special. He roll’s in his Cassian with 1R and discard. I figure he’s likely to have Quick Draw or Hit and Run to kill Yoda, but I get greedy: I use Force Speed to roll in my Cassian, thinking I’ll get a discard and use power of the force for 3. I do get a discard, but I forgot about his Suppressive Fire, and he removes the discard side. I use my second action to focus Yoda and Cassian, but then he Quick Draws + All In, and Yoda is dead. I think I claim then, too, not using Cassian’s die. Instead,I should have used my 2 force speed actions to focus Yoda to discard and then Power of the Force immediately, disrupting his combo. On the last turn of the game, he had 1 card in hand and it went: I play Bespin Wing Guard, he rolls in Poe (not showing lethal yet), I use Bespin Wing Guard, he rolls in Cassian, I Hyperspace Jump. GG. I think this was the game I’m most proud of, because I made correct claim decisions even wasting lots of dice.

The lunch/dinner break was excellent, going in with high spirits. Hint to everyone for future GenCons: the best place to eat is called Pearings Cafe, and it’s here: http://www.pearingscafe. com/ (Sorry to HonestlySarcastic for not telling him about it sooner.)

Round 5 vs eYoda eCassian aggro: Round 1 I open with Loss 4-1. Round 1 I open with FiLP and he has 5 upgrades! My biggest misplay was not playing 2nd chance on Cassian when I could have, and he died to an All In from Yoda. I couldn’t mill him out at the very end, even with good chances: he had claimed with 2 cards in hand. I had a Force Meditation die showing a focus, and 2 Yoda dice plus a Force Speed die in the pool. I needed to get Yoda showing 2 discard sides, and I had 3 rerolls to do it. That’s basically needing to roll a 6 on a d6 with 9 tries. Unfortunately I missed, and he won next round. If I hadn’t let Cassian die, I doubt the game would have been that close. In the end, he milled me out, but I would have been dead from damage too.

Round 6 vs Kylo Snoke: At one point, he focused into 5 dice showing melee and I had Into The Crosshairs, removing something like 10 damage. I could have won faster if I had drawn Power of the Force at any point, but the deck still worked without it. I even let him take back round 1 when he used F orce Speed, rolled Kylo, resolved Snoke’s power action, then tried to use Kylo’s ability. Given my mistake in Game 1, I would have been pretty hypocritical to not allow a requested take-back. He hit the 2 damage, but I still won the game, so that feels the best. He got Force Speed round 1, and kept hitting the special, so he’d use it, roll in Kylo, and immediately resolve Snoke’s power action. It was quite annoying and effective for him. Then, I got my Rend and used it (perhaps round 3) on his Force Speed. As extra bonuses, Kylo drew it that round, and I was able to Easy Pickings after Kylo rolled in, then he rerolled, and I was able to Easy Pickings again! Win 5-1. At one point, he focused into 5 dice showing melee and I had Into The Crosshairs, removing something like 10 damage. I could have won faster if I had drawn Power of the Force at any point, but the deck still worked without it. I even let him take back round 1 when he used Force Speed, rolled Kylo, resolved Snoke’s power action, then tried to use Kylo’s ability. Given my mistake in Game 1, I would have been pretty hypocritical to not allow a requested take-back. He hit the 2 damage, but I still won the game, so that feels the best. He got Force Speed round 1, and kept hitting the special, so he’d use it, roll in Kylo, and immediately resolve Snoke’s power action. It was quite annoying and effective for him. Then, I got my Rend and used it (perhaps round 3) on his Force Speed. As extra bonuses, Kylo drew it that round, and I was able to Easy Pickings after Kylo rolled in, then he rerolled, and I was able to Easy Pickings again! Win 5-1.

Round 7 vs eYoda Cassian Anakin mill (Outrun, eventual Top 4): He got Maz’s Goggles and Anakin’s Pod round 1, and I got no upgrades the first 2 rounds. I feel like I might have misplayed in some way, but I’m not sure. I had some good chances at the end to win, but couldn’t manage it. I made a somewhat critical mistake late game when I didn’t swap to my battlefield after playing Hyperspace Jump, but I’m not sure it would have saved me even if I did. I don’t feel like my dice treated me well with Cassian, though to be fair he did strategically remove Yoda dice quite a lot, so I would need to spend cards to reroll Cassian. Overall, well played on his part! Loss 5-2. The pressure is on for round 8!

Round 8 vs eYoda eCassian mill: This was not entirely a mirror since our decks probably differed by ten cards. This turned out to be an easy game because I got Force Meditation x2 early and rolled well. It also seemed like my opponent didn’t have a lot of practice playing the mill mirror, since he used quite a few cards rerolling, or on low return event effects. I was perfectly happy with an easy win to make it to day 2. Win 6-2.

I was something like 16 or 17th after the swiss, but it really only mattered that I didn’t have to play into the Top 32.

Top 32 vs Hero Vehicles: These were perhaps the easiest two games of the whole event, both because the matchup is good, and all the luck went my way. I’m pretty sure I won game 2 on round 3, which is crazy. In round 2 of that game, I did Power of the Force for 4, wrecking his hand. The following round, I used Rebel into Power of the Force for 5, and then proceeded to roll/fix both Yoda specials, both Force Meditation specials, and Cassian’s other die to mill the remaining 7 cards of his deck. It was brutal. I perhaps only played Power of the Force in ~5 of my 10 games, but when it works, it really works…

Top 16: I decided to concede to BobbySapphire because I knew for sure I wouldn’t go to worlds, and felt no need to seek further glory when I had already proved to myself that my deck choice was solid, and I had the chops to win. He was playing 3 wide mill (same deck that Outrun used to beat me earlier), so it’s certainly possible that I could have lost anyway, but I knew the matchup was in my favor and I think the loss to Outrun was anomalous. It’s possible that I should have conceded to my Top 32 opponent instead, but I don’t fault myself too much for being selfish in wanting the top 16 medal, which I also earned last year. As a non-trivial factor in conceding when I did, I also really wanted to play in the FFG sealed event (which allowed me to get the Hidden Motive promo and an Executioner spot gloss) since I had never played sealed before and wanted to test my skills. In that situation, the further challenge of the NA Champs held less appeal to me than the sealed game, which I can’t play online or in person anywhere else, and had more prizes at stake that I cared about. To be totally clear, Bobby was 100% willing to play me and didn’t try to persuade me at all – it was fully my choice, and in my best interest to drop when I did.