The following is a guest tournament report from David Payton who took TaCos (Mother Talzin and 2x Mandalorian Super Commandos) to a top 8 finish at UK Nationals. If you wish to submit a tournament report or be a guest poster on TheHyperloops.com please email us at thehyperloops@gmail.com.

I’m terrible at picking decks to use. Every event, I wrestle with choices and either decide a day before or on the actual day while traveling to the event. I did it last year for UK Nationals, with my good friend Mat picking Vader/Phasma for me since I’d played Vader/Tusken at Euro’s. I altered the deck list slightly to include Dark Counsel (love that card) and BANG – top 4 at UK Nationals 2017 – robbed of playing in the final against Danny! (Though we’d have lost out on the hilarity of Danny’s Kylo calls hitting Doubt and actually losing a game with Kylo 2/FN to Palpatine)

I arrived to my deck choice via advise from friends and my own gut feeling/comfort level, though that was only decided the day before the event. You see, I had a dilemma where our testing group (Yo Stratford Upon Avon group aka Midlands Meta), had done two days of testing and come to the conclusion Crotch Rocket was -the- deck. My problem? I hadn’t played with Crotch Rocket where I had with TaCos and the latter had the second best record for the day within our group. I was torn between using Crotch Rocket like my fellow mates, or simply going with a deck I’d actually played with.

I chose TaCos, with a few minor modifications based on my own personal thoughts to the meta and play style. The deck list is below:

I altered the force powers simply to include an extra Force Wave as I thought 3 wide would be a “thing”, while also adding in By Any Means and Vandalize. I believed Vandalize would be better for mirror matches plus also for the wide variety of decks using Chance Cubes, or to get through a Force Illusion in a pinch. By Any Means was included as another mitigation card that didn’t require spotting for a certain colour, could remove any type of die (not just character or upgrade) and would be useful against decks like Crotch Rocket (that I knew was making an appearance from at least 5 people).

The pressure was on, I had to try and equal my performance at UK Nationals 2017.

UK Nationals 2018:

ROUND ONE vs Captain Rex/Clone Trooper/Maz

I’d played against Ryan before, who I decided was a nemesis for knocking me out a best of three at a Store Championship. However, I had not tested against this at all. It wasn’t even on our radar as being a thing. I figured the deck would have battlefield shenanigans but didn’t know it would use quick draw. Rex pistol came out first turn – he activated Rex and Maz – pumped a little damage into me while getting out a second Rex pistol onto the Clone after I had shown I was targeting Maz. I felt pressured on being behind so I hard cast force wave on Talzin which allowed me to kill Maz. The next turn had a Hit & Run play that simply deleted Talzin from the table before I could say “Nemesis”. It quickly went downhill, resulting in my first round as a defeat. LOSS

ROUND TWO vs Naked Palpatine

First round loss always stings and it immediately made me question my deck choice, though I felt pretty confident going into this match as I’d played Naked Palpatine myself to a win at the Cantina Royale event earlier in the year so I knew all about it’s tricks. (PLUG: If you’re in the UK, go to the Cantina Royale next year as it raises money for charity and is simply a fantastic event). I managed to mitigate his dice effectively enough so that the damage race wasn’t even close. The constant ping of damage to Palpatine was too much and he fell in short order before I’d even lost a character. WIN

ROUND THREE vs KRAP

There was a mistake in the draw this round that originally had me facing Steps. When the actual pairing came up with me facing KRAP, I somewhat felt more confident going into it. I won the roll off, picked my battlefield, then pinged Kylo constantly for damage. Once one Mandalorian fell, I was able to finish off Kylo then face Pryce with a full health Mando and Talzin. She quickly succumbed and my opponent conceded when she was left with 2 health and no upgrades. WIN

ROUND FOUR vs KRAP

Another KRAP player and I felt pretty confident. Going for Kylo straight away, yet this time he’d managed to get out an Heirloom and Dagger of Mortis to redeploy over to Pryce. A crucial mistake was a moment where he attempted to turn a 2 side to the same side from Pryce’s ability (he didn’t have a resource to turn to the 2 cost one), so had to settle for the 1 side. Regardless, I lost a Mandalorian but killed Kylo turn 2 and was able to mop up Pryce even with the two upgrades on her. WIN

ROUND FIVE – Dooku/Talzin

I’d luckily played against Dooku/Talzin before and knew not to underestimate the amount of consistent damage the deck can throw out. Unfortunately I can’t remember too many details of the rounds in the game bar to how much of a grind it was. This was probably my most taxing game of Swiss to where we both sought the upper hand and resulted in such a back and forth match. In the end, we actually ran out of a time, I know that’s odd for two damage dealing decks but its testament to how much of a fight it was. We were both equal on damage, yet I had no cards left in deck. Knowing I was going to lose otherwise, I discarded my last card in hand and milled myself in an attempt to get the extra points of damage with the intention of bouncing Vambraces afterwards. Spoiler: I didn’t. LOSS (yet such an epic game and curse 1 heal Witch Magick)

ROUND SIX vs 5 Die Villain (eTalzin/eBala/FOST)

I’ve played Chris before, notably while he was using this deck, though last time it was in a best of three with me using Snoke/Thrawn. Luckily for me, we’d actually tested 5 die villain and Gareth had struggled using it against Taco’s (though not me playing the deck). I decided I would target Bala, even with the 2 shields he took – yet our first turn for both of us was rather uneventful. We did pitiful damage to each-other which was rather laughable coming from two aggro decks. It was so bad that he actually managed to get a Bala ready, though I luckily was able to finish Bala off before he could gain the benefits from it. I managed to eek away in the damage race, dropping Talzin and I actually seemed to make Chris feel pressured. I had no idea if Chris could see how similar I felt, though in the end I was able to drop the FOST before time ran out. WIN

ROUND SEVEN – Tacos (On stream)

I felt sorry for my opponent in this game. When I had an opening hand containing 2 Flank’s and one upgrade, I figured I wasn’t going to be able to use mitigation. Yet use it I could as he had drew no upgrades. The game was on stream yet the end of the game was cut off. HonestlySarcastc comment during it sucking out the soul when I played Witch Magick probably best described the game. I was so far ahead at that point that playing Witch Magick pretty much sealed the deal. WIN

ROUND EIGHT – EAphra/Nute/Ciena

Uh oh. Another nemesis of a deck to face. I knew Kayne was a good player and I knew the deck after playing and losing to it at a top cut of a Store Championship from Kayne’s father. In good humour Kayne tried to ask if I wanted to hit Nute and I laughed and declined, choosing instead to hit Aphra. Naturally, Dangerous Maneuvres appeared and damage got shifted over from Aphra to Nute. In what I hoped wasn’t a mistake, I decided to focus on Nute bringing him down to one health remaining. Kayne built up his board state with a 0-0-0 and Droid Tank even after I’d managed to vandalize away his Chance Cube. On the third turn, I managed to snipe out both Ciena and Nute which I felt put me in a commanding position. Aphra lasted only a couple of turns afterwards, yet not before Kayne had managed to drop down a Mandalorian. With lethal on the board, we shook hands and I’d somehow made it to the top cut. WIN

DAY TWO Top 16

Yay. I’d made Top 16. I was ecstatic as I actually thought I wasn’t going to make it once I lost to Dooku/Talzin and had to win three in a row. Yet then the hammer hit and I found out I would me facing Miles on the Sunday. This made me nervous as Miles is the creator of Crotch Rocket and he’d never lost with his deck to TaCo’s before. Infact, he’d tested it with Chris (another of our testing group who’d made the cut and eventual Top 4) and both concluded it was favorable for Crotch Rocket.

I took the decision to then play some practice games against Crotch Rocket on TTS with my best friend (who admittingly had never used Crotch Rocket) and Gareth Parfitt (Top 16 with it who was going to face Graham with Cad/Snoke). My testing went well and while I wasn’t confident, I was sure I could at least punish Crotch Rocket if it faltered and had a game plan in mind for what to do and how to beat it.

VS CROTCH ROCKET (Miles)

Miles won the roll-off and picked his battlefield. I chose Ciena as my target, knowing that generally the deck favors setup rather than mitigation in the first turn and I figured his chances were better to get a vehicle out for Ciena to benefit from later. I did my best to control where his Snoke action could go, but a Truce into Delve brought a Planetary Bombardment to the table. Plus Sebulba seemed to like rolling his special or disrupt sides. Luckily, I was able to kill Ciena for round 2 and Sith Holocron a Force Throw out to be able to deal with Planetary Bombardment. Snoke was next to fall after Force Push was brought down onto the second Mandalorian. Between Flank and By Any Means, I managed to limit the damage I took in return from PB and Hailfire to finish off Sebulba and a resurrected Snoke through Dark Ritual.

For the second game Miles switched tactics and picked my battlefield, placing the shields on Ciena. I decided to alter my tactics accordingly and decided early on to target Snoke as the priority. Snoke is such a powerhouse in vehicle decks with his focus for late game, and what better way to stop the power action then to remove Snoke himself?

Crucial points from the first turn was for me using my battlefield to guardian away Cienna +2R side and controlling the Sebulba die. A vambraces into discarding a random Delve from hand was lovely too – until he played the second Delve in his opening hand and brought forth a Planetary Bombardment turn 1 again. Bantha poodoo, especially as I had used my only mitigation to try and stop the ramp. Taking 5 indirect in turn 1 took me by surprise. Turn 2 brought the PB out to show 5 Indirect with, yet Miles kept it in the pool and rolled out Snoke which telegraphed to me he was going for Friends in High Places. I used the battlefield guardian ability to take the 5 to the face before repeating it again to take 2 to the face on Talzin from Sebulba’s dice. Trying my best to keep him away from the 7 value he needed – yet Miles persisted with getting Chance Cube to 3, followed by a 2 on a Snoke dice and 2 from another die. Vandalize came into it’s own to remove that all important value that allowed Friends. I played out a Force Illusion early on the third turn before continuing to finally finish off Snoke and impact into Cienna, taking the entire hit from PB onto the Illusion – having the dreaded Force Throw hit my discard pile to which Miles commented to being happy about, yet I managed to dampen further ramp through Feel your anger to control. Finishing off Cienna quickly It became a race for damage, which I won through death of a thousand cuts style against Sebulba. With Sebulba on two HP and myself down to just a half damaged Talzin and very low health Mandalorian – his Slave 1 power action rerolled his Sebulba’s Podracer die to try and remove my die showing 1 damage and failed to hit. I dealt the one damage, before playing Backup Muscle to finish off the game and advance me to Top 8. WIN 2-0

VS BALD TYRES (eBazine/eSnoke/FOST) Greg (stealthmoose)

I’d never faced this deck before. That wasn’t a good sign – though I remember seeing it discussed in The Hyperloops Discord. Curse me not thoroughly reading everything prior. I figure Greg can make a better write up on this than me but I’ll try regardless.

First game couldn’t have gone better for me in the first couple of turns. We began on his battlefield which enabled me to target and burst down Bazine quite quickly. My holocron was worth it’s weight in credits as it enabled both Force Wave and Force Push, effectively forcing the mitigation against Force Wave. With the resources being spent on mitigation, Greg didn’t seem to get much out – or what he did was enough for me to control effectively. I’m not sure if Greg could only draw into mitigation or whether the pressure from the two force powers was just too much – but I managed to close out this game with a rather convincing win.

The first game win boosted my confidence going into the second – until the dreaded moment happened and my mulligan only managed to yield one upgrade in the form of Armor Plating for the first turn. With 2 shields on Bazine, I decided to target Snoke and try and remove that focus and power action engine. My upgrades began to appear in piecemeal on the second and third turn, though it took a long time to kill Snoke. I could sense I was losing the game, especially when Natural Pilot appeared ( a card I was quite unfamiliar with), but I continued to try and persevere. This game was such a grind and took so long as I tried to deal the damage before the Fang fighter and company could overwhelm me. In hindsight, I should have scooped this game far far sooner – but I’ve never scooped before and the thought never really came to me at the time.

Third game I was once more hit with a terrible opening hand with zero upgrades. I did a mulligan to throw 4 cards away, keeping only one mitigation card… I drew into a Force Illusion and three force powers. Maybe I should have gone with all 5 cards, but I figured the odds were in my favour to net one upgrade to use. Unfortunately, without the knowledge of the Sith, Mandalorian’s don’t mesh with force powers and I wasn’t able to power action effectively for the first three turns of the game. Turn 1 – zero, Turn 2 – one, Turn 3 -one. Even with my slow start, I was able to put some considerable pressure on Greg, taking down Snoke and the stormtrooper (again with that darn Natural Pilot), before being left with one Mandalorian and Talzin, both damaged. Between shields and vehicles sneaking in more damage, Greg was able to beat me on tie breakers with having 21 damage on me compared to my 20 on him. (Though he still had a Fang fighter that could roll into more damage). My worst mistake for this was probably healing Talzin for 3 to bring her to zero damage – which enabled Bazine special to inflict 3 damage – yet the Slave 1 and Fang Fighter worried me in character sniping. End of the game had me with just Talzin with 3 damage, armed with an LL blaster, and him with Bazine on 2 damage but a Fang and Slave 1. One more turn and I may (-MAY-) have been able to snipe Bazine through Talzin rolling out and the Backup muscle. Curses!

All three games with Greg were a pleasure to play, even if he is evil for knocking a fellow Looper out.

With that my run was at an end, yet I managed to at least get Top 8 – putting me as one of the consistent players to net two years in the top 8 for both UK Nationals to date. I absolutely love these key events and being able to chat and befriend others who play this game. I’d like to thank everyone in the Stratford upon Avon testing session, notably Mat (Moon) for his deep insight and push for me to play TaCo’s and to John (Who top 4’ed at Euro’s and was the Aphra mat on the stream with the same deck) who was ever supportive and believed in me. I can’t describe to how important it is for people locally to group together and just play – it’s what makes the Midlands group one of the best in the UK.

Finally, thanks to The Hyperloops for the opportunity to write this article and for all the laughs and discussion in discord.

-David Payton

PS: Both me and HonestlySarcastc loved Voidfire Wand in World of Warcraft: TCG

For those looking to be ahead of the competitive curve, do consider signing up for our Patreon. We’ve got a 300+ person discord channel that boasts a near constant discussion of competitive Star Wars Destiny playing. In addition to that we release dozens of extra videos to our $10 tournament prep tier, as well as exclusive articles, deck lists, and primers. It’s a wealth of information, and I challenge you to ask around among our subscribers to see if they think it’s worth it. I have an idea of what they’ll say. Not only do you get all of that, but you also get this dope playmat after 2 months of being on the Tournament Prep Tier OR instead you can receive a set of our OVERWRITE and POWER ACTION tokens (pictured below the mat).

Cloud City