The following is a guest tournament report from the Chicago Regional finalist Matthew A. Alvis. If you go deep in a tournament and want us to host your tournament report feel free to drop us a line at thehyperloops@gmail.com, we’re always open to it!

Sabine/Yoda Tournament Report – 2nd Place Chicago, IL

The Deck

The decision to play Sabine/Yoda was a natural one for me. I played Zeb/Yoda in Madison two weeks prior to Chicago. While I was able to pilot the deck to a Top 8 finish, soon after I realized that Sabine/Yoda did a lot of the same things, just differently and, well… better. Coincidentally, in the weeks leading up to Chicago I thought of retooling my Zeb/Yoda list to utilize cards like Running Interference and Concentrate, but concluded it would be an awkward fit in that deck. After reading about Sabine/Yoda taking down a Regional in Ontario, I started working on a list that I could potentially take to Chicago.

Initially, I went all in on the combo, playing two Running Interference, two Force Speed, two Concentrate, two Alter, and one Never Tell Me the Odds. For those unfamiliar with the deck, the combo generally goes like this: activate Sabine, use her ability to attach a weapon with the Ambush keyword from the discard pile, and then with your additional action from Ambush either (1) play Never Tell Me The Odds or Concentrate, exhaust Running Interference to prevent your opponent from playing a card to remove your dice, and then resolve your dice next turn, or (2) resolve Force Speed to play Never Tell Me the Odds or Concentrate with your first action from Force Speed, and then resolve your dice with your second Force Speed action. My early lists also ran a lot of resource generation to help pay for all the expensive events: two Truce, two Smuggling, and one Maz’s Vault. Straight removal was minimal, just two Easy Pickings, one Hasty Exit, and one Hidden Motive. After some testing I concluded that I was better off running multiple copies of expensive but high impact events such as Hyperspace Jump and Impersonate over cheaper but less effective removal such as Hasty Exit or Hidden Motive. Knowing that I would need to be able to pay for all of these expensive cards, I also tweaked my resource generation package to include a second copy of Maz’s Vault, which allowed me to go into every round with the ability to play Second Chance, Hyperspace Jump, or Never Tell Me The Odds, if necessary.

Ultimately, this is the list I settled on for Chicago:

I won’t go through every card, but here are some notes on a few cards/decisions I feel are worth discussing:

Only Seven Weapons: Most Sabine lists run eight weapons, but my initial list included only seven and I never moved off this number. This is likely the bare minimum I could get away with, but I never felt like I needed more. You just have to know to mulligan hard for a weapon if you don’t find one in your opening hand. The inclusion of only seven weapons is also slightly justified by the fact that we use Outer Rim Outpost as our battlefield, which helps dig through the deck.

Impersonate: For me, this is the MVP of the deck. Against almost any deck your win percentage skyrockets if you ever use Impersonate to move eight or nine damage to Yoda. Yoda is not vital to the deck in the same way he is in Zeb/Yoda. He is there to pick up an extra resource or two in the first couple of rounds, and allow us to play Force Speed and Concentrate as an additional way to combo. If you have Running Interference in play, you don’t really need Yoda and Force Speed. Against any aggressive deck I usually kept an Impersonate if it was in my opening hand as basically insurance in case I was spiked for a lot of damage in the first round.

Hyperspace Jump: This is simply one of the best cards in the game right now. It can be used offensively to snowball into a victory, or it can be used defensively to bail you out of an opponent’s nut roll. Succeeding a Hyperspace Jump with a first-turn Sabine activation followed by Concentrate or Never Tell Me The Odds puts a ton of pressure on your opponent. It’s a natural fit with Sabine, but its inclusion is further justified by the rise of Hero Vehicles and brOTK, both of which now play cards like Scruffy Looking Nerf-Herder and Probe specifically to deal with Hyperspace Jump.

Vandalize: This was a late addition to the deck and reflected my anticipation that I would see a lot of Running Interference, C-3P0, and of course Force Illusion. I was hesitant to play it because the deck doesn’t really have expendable character dice like Sabine/Ezra, but I thought I could get more use out of it than the one copy of Smuggling I was still running. In the end, I don’t think I played Vandalize more than once. I rarely had it in my hand in the spots where I would have found it useful, and there were at least a couple of times where I could have used it but didn’t want to give up the character die. Still, I consider its inclusion just something I have to test more at this point, and having the opportunity to cast it effectively only once or twice all tournament was probably an anomaly.

With respect to matchups, I felt Sabine/Yoda was well-positioned for the projected meta. Being a very aggressive deck, I liked its matchup against Hero Vehicles and Hero Mill. For reasons discussed more below, I also liked its “mirror” match against Sabine/Ezra. It also performed better than the Ezra version against Kylo, which many anticipated would be popular following New Jersey and Miami (especially since it gained a new partner with Anakin). The only decks I feared were hyper aggressive decks like Boba Fett/Captain Phasma or brOTK (which isn’t necessarily hyper aggressive but certainly can be).

The Tournament

I got off to a rocky start when I realized during breakfast that I had forgotten my bye card at home. I knew my fiancée would not want to drive all the way to the tournament venue to drop it off, so I had to get creative. I ordered an Uber to go to my house, then called my fiancée and asked her to hand the bye card to the driver when he arrived and tell him to deliver it to me to the tournament. Somehow this totally worked, ha. I gave the driver a nice tip, handed in my deck list and bye card, and settled in for a long day.

Round One (Bye)

During round one I played a couple games against a local buddy, Anthony Bagent. He was playing a revised version of a deck he had been playing for some time, Obi/Maz. Sabine did Sabine things and I blew him out in two quick games. More from Anthony later…

Round Two (Luke Skywalker/Yoda)

An early Ancient Lightsaber coupled with Luke’s melee sides and Yoda’s special meant that he could threaten a lot of damage quickly, which is exactly what happened. Fortunately, I was able to roll into some significant damage myself, and he opted to use Guard instead of trading big hits. I hit him hard during the second round and I believe I finished the round with an Impersonate to heal Sabine. Luke went down early in round three and the match was basically sealed at that point. (2-0)

Round Three (Sabine Wren/Ezra Bridger)

One of the reasons I was confident in my deck choice was because I felt I had a good “mirror” match against Sabine/Ezra, which I expected to be popular after it performed well in New Jersey and Miami. The Ezra version typically plays more straight removal, which isn’t very useful against Running Interference and Sabine. In contrast, Force Illusion gets around Running Interference if played early (and assuming it isn’t Vandalized). Sabine/Yoda also has access to Concentrate and Force Speed, which allows the deck to combo better. In a race to see who can burn down their opponent’s Sabine first, those extra combo cards are huge. Finally, most Sabine/Ezra lists I have seen don’t run a second copy of Impersonate. All of this came into play in my third round match. We both ended the first round with six damage on our Sabines. I believe I was able to open the second round with a quick Impersonate to get out of lethal range, and then tag him a couple times before combo’ing into an early kill in the third round. (3-0)

Round Four (Tarkin/Seventh Sister)

I hadn’t played against this deck much heading into the tournament, but I felt confident that it’s reliance on indirect damage tilted the matchup in my favor. I was able to kill Seventh Sister early, but after losing Yoda the indirect damage from Tarkin began to put me in danger. I made a misplay when I used Easy Picking to remove of two Tarkin dice showing double focus instead of two blanks, which allowed my opponent to use Anger on my Sabine dice and pop my Second Chance. After using Tarkin’s power action, I ended the round with just one health left one Sabine, while Tarkin had three or four health left. Next round I activated Sabine with my first action and rolled into lethal damage. Afterward I was annoyed with my misplay and knew I was lucky to pull out the win. (4-0)

Round Five (Poe Dameron/Hondo Ohnaka)

Half the battle against Hondo is knowing how to play the match. Kill the other character, then pay off Hondo. Barring anything catastrophic happening, you should be in decent shape. Another strategy I recommend is spiking Poe for eight damage round one… (5-0)

Round Six (Aayla Secula/Rose/Ezra Bridger)

I played a fellow Looper in round six, Borghe. We had played each other a couple weeks prior in Madison, so I knew he was a high quality player and that I would have my work cut out for me. I did a decent amount of damage to Aayla round one, but I was slowed down a bit by a Vandalize on my Force Speed. Fortunately, I drew into Running Interference the next round and all was right again in the world. I knew I had to remain flexible while playing this match, and couldn’t be afraid to switch targets if the situation called for it. At one pointed he shielded up Aayla with a Caution and attached a Force Illusion to her. After that I opted to turn my attention to Rose and ping the shields off Aayla with Hidden Blaster overwrites, and possibly draw into a Vandalize play on the Force Illusion. The Vandalize play never materialized, but I ultimately was able to Hyperspace Jump my way to victory. (6-0)

Round Seven (Boba Fett/Seventh Sister)

I had only played a couple games against this deck prior to the tournament, and both times it smashed me. He opened with a Maul’s Lightsaber round one and with little removal in my deck there wasn’t much I could do about the waves of damage coming in. Meanwhile, I found myself without a weapon in my discard pile in the second round, so I wasn’t able to use Sabine’s ability. I prioritized staying alive, but he played a key Vandalize on my Force Illusion to force his damage through. Going into what would be the final round of the match, I wasn’t able to draw into a Second Chance, Impersonate, or my other Force Illusion, and Sabine went down quickly without much of a fight. This was one of those rare games where the deck just didn’t draw into what it needed when it needed it. (6-1)

Round Eight (Seventh Sister/Ciena Ree/Nightsister)

My last round was against another fellow Looper, Drbearsec. BrOTK is a tough deck to pilot. It was my second choice going into tournament, but I hadn’t gotten nearly enough reps in to feel totally comfortable with it. That said, I knew Drbearsec was a really good player and had a lot of experience with the deck, so I wasn’t going to be able to rely on him making any misplays. This ended up being a very weird but hard fought match. I don’t think he played a single Price of Failure of Leadership, but he was able to do enough damage to keep me on the defensive. He used Nightsister’s ability effectively and I struggled to take down Seventh Sister. Somehow we actually went to time, and at the end of the round he had more damage on the board so he took the win. (6-2)

I knew I had pretty good SoS, so despite being 6-2 I felt reasonably certain I would make the Top 8. I ended up getting in as the fourth seed, and Drbearsec and I headed to Walmart to grab some much needed fuel before Top 8… in the form of Lunchables.

Top 8 (Kylo Ren/Mother Talzin)

Another reason I liked Sabine/Yoda over Sabine/Ezra (at least for this tournament) is its matchup against Kylo. With the inclusion of six blue cards, it has slightly better odds against Kylo’s ability. Both games my opponent struggled to consistently hit on Kylo’s ability, leaving him unable to do enough damage to ever really threaten Sabine. Running Interference was big in both games. Once I was able to get both copies in play, I was able to prevent my opponent not only from playing removal, but from activating Mother Talzin to flip Sabine’s dice. Sabine did her thing both games for a fairly straightforward 2-0 victory.

Top 4 (Boba Fett/Seventh Sister)

Remarkably, I had not played against the same deck more than once the entire day until Top 4, which was against my Round 7 opponent. He was on an incredible streak, at this point 10-0. Game One he was able to get a round one Maul’s Lightsaber, but he couldn’t roll much damage. I was able to burn down Seventh Sister early round two, and he wasn’t able to find any upgrades for Boba Fett so his damage output was very limited. Game Two was a similar story. Both games he frequently opted to try to remove Yoda’s die or Force Speed if either was showing a special, which often allowed Sabine’s dice to go through unmitigated without the aid of Concentrate or Never Tell Me The Odds.

Top 2 (Anthony Bagent with Obi-Wan Kenobi/Maz Kanata)

As destiny would have it, Anthony and I met in the final. I had some confidence going in due to the games we played earlier in the day, but when I looked over his list before starting the match I was surprised to see how similar our decks were. We both ran Force Speed, Running Interference, Concentrate, Hyperspace Jump, and Maz’s Vault. We also both ran limited amounts of straight removal. It was pretty clear at this point that the games we played that morning were all but meaningless. I had played against Obi/Maz a lot in the two weeks leading up to the tournament, and my strategy was consistent: have a plan for God rolls, and go after Obi first since Sabine can burst out a lot of damage, eschewing the need to chew through tons of shields round after round. Also, Anthony only played one weapon with Redeploy, so that solidified my decision to go after Obi first, barring something weird happening.

Game One we traded some damage early on, and eventually I found myself in a spot where he had resolved most of his dice and I still had one Sabine die and the Yoda die in the pool. I also was sitting on an Impersonate in my hand and nine damage on Sabine. I contemplated playing the Impersonate as my next action, but I opted instead to reroll my dice, thinking that I could always Impersonate later. After I rerolled my dice Anthony played a Hyperspace Jump, and because he had claimed the battlefield last round, I immediately realized that I made a potentially game losing misplay. Sure enough, the next round he played a Vibroknife, locked me out of playing a card with Running Interference, and rolled into lethal damage that I could not prevent. I showed him the Impersonate in my hand and joked that I was just going to sit and stew for a moment over my misplay. I took a moment, laughed it off, and regrouped for the next game.

Game Two went largely in my favor, with the exception of a Force Illusion that blocked six damage but discarded several valuable cards from my deck, including Impersonate and Second Chance. Fortunately, I was able to quickly jam through enough damage to kill Obi that it didn’t matter. The game didn’t last much long after Obi went down.

Game Three we were both able to get Running Interference out during the first round and proceeded to trade six damage. He was able to claim the battlefield, however, which put a lot of pressure on me going into the second round. Sure enough, he opened the round with a Vibroknife and used Running Interference to prevent me from playing a card. With his Ambush action, he activated Obi and rolled into a Force Speed special and enough damage that all he needed to do was activate Maz on his next turn, hit a flip, and then use her ability to flip to lethal damage and resolve the Force Speed special to finish off Sabine. I could prevent this line of play by activating Yoda and using Running Interference to stop him from activating Maz, but I remained vulnerable to him just resolving Force Speed to play Concentrate and then kill Sabine. Ultimately activating Yoda was my only play, but unfortunately he had the Concentrate in hand to finish me off for a well-deserved win.

The Final Thoughts

I would like to congratulate Anthony on the win. He played great and brought a unique take on Obi/Maz. If I had to lose, I’m happy it was to a great player and a standup guy.

Overall I was happy with the deck and my performance. Obviously making it to the final is a great result, but I also have to judge myself on how well I played, regardless of the outcome. Throughout most of the day I stayed true to my strategy going into the tournament: play tight and assume the worst. I missed Anthony’s Hyperspace Jump play during game one of the final, but I’ll learn from that mistake and move on.

With respect to the deck, I think it will be a very good play for upcoming Regionals and Galactic Qualifiers. I don’t think it is a coincidence that both decks that made the final paired a heavy hitter like Sabine or Obi with cards like Running Interference, Concentrate, Force Speed, and Hyperspace Jump. Together, these cards allowed both decks to set up big damage plays that could not be mitigated, and then jump to the next round to do it all again before taking any return damage. Just one of these blow-out rounds allows each deck to absolutely dominate what may otherwise be competitive matches, and likewise to eek out what otherwise should be a loss. Personally I prefer Sabine over Obi because Sabine can better abuse cards like Second Chance and Impersonate, which help ensure that you stay alive long enough to smash your opponent with that big blow-out round.

Finally, I’d like to give a shout out to my testing bros, Adam (who bubbled at 9th place), John and David. I’d also like to shout out the Hyperloops Discord group for providing the 24/7 Destiny insight and discussion. Lastly I want to thank Pastimes Comics & Games for a great event that featured a TON of prize support.

Thanks for reading!

-Matthew A. Alvis