In preparation for GenCon we decided to skip our usual Store Champs breakdown to bring you extra analysis of this past weekend’s Artificery.com’s online store championship. This tournament had 88 people which is more people than the usual Store Champs by a wide margin. This is important because it really gives a clear picture of what’s good and what we should be expecting at GenCon and Nova. The metagame breakdown was already covered here by the host but I wanted to point out what I thought were the key takeaways.

1) THE SITH ARE COMING!

Emo Kids, Palpatine, and Vader, Sith Lord decks made up 29 of the 88 decks. I must say that Palpatine is slightly different but its still a Holocron deck with heavy dice which makes it similar in style to the others. What separates it from the other Sith decks is that its a ranged deck (weaker to Deflect) and that its more susceptible to mitigation than the others. While Palp is a pretty good counter to Poe Maz if the meta is bouncing back your lightning to your face it might not be a good place to be. I certainly will be staying away but Palp players seem to be pretty loyal and it will still be around in the early stages of the tournaments.

2) Emo Won’t be Cool Again

Emo alone was 15 of the 88 entries which is slightly surprising. Its a deck that I’m seriously considering at GenCon because Kylo’s an actually a threat in this format and the lines of play are somewhat intuitive. When playing in a long tournament mental fatigue is a real concern and while emo isn’t completely brainless its one of the easier decks to pilot. The extreme representation of this deck is probably slightly in part due to what I’d like to call the TTS effect. Its not exactly the most user friendly program and some of the more casual players might have opted for something a little less taxing due to spending hours on an activity that probably will cause Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

I’ll probably end up staying away because if it does end up being popular, then playing the mirror will be akin to getting Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I also haven’t been completely happy with any of the lists as a whole. Most of the lists I’ve tried feel like they have 24 great cards and 6 cards that feel pretty blah. This is compared to other decks that have 28 great cards and a bunch of good cards that could be in the last slots.

3) Was Big Daddy Vader Winning the Event a Fluke?

Vader, SL and Royal Guard was the deck that won the whole thing. Even though the deck was getting a lot of buzz recently it’s still surprising since the pairing wasn’t on everyone’s radar as a tier one deck but with 2 of the 3 pilots making top 16 I think its safe to say its a serious player. For reference here is the list:

This list is solid but I find the lack of Force Illusion disturbing. I get that you can’t put it on Royal Guard, that Vader ends up being fully loaded and that you’re at risk of decking yourself because of the draw cards but I’d definitely be at least playing 1. I do like that this doesn’t play around with any of the 2 cost abilities and only goes with Vibroknife as its 2 drop, making Imperial Inspection as bad as possible is an aim of mine when making these decks since they can be built like that, Vibroknife is just too good to exclude though.

The Price of Failure is a truly gross card that many people haven’t played against. I think its one of those cards that gets worse once people have practiced against it but it asks the question of who do you go after? If you go after Vader first Guard can protect him long enough to load up Vader and go for a big Price turn, if you go for Guard first that’s more natural turns with Vader. The way this deck is composed I think you want to go for Guard first because it will give them a small window to draw Price and even if they happen to draw it on turn 2 it will be less impactful then if they had priced on turn 3. This deck has a bunch of cards that draw cards and Price of Failure so you can strand your opponent with a bunch of dead cards in the late game by going after Vader 2nd.

In the metagame Vader is pretty good vs the FN-2199 decks because of his ability. FN decks want all the cards they can get and when they have to play with four cards in the early game plus contend with Vader’s big damage it can be overwhelming.

4) Uncle Plutt Died but He’ll be Back

Only one of the seven FNkar decks made top 16. FNkar is probably one of the hardest decks to play period and once you add the TTS effect into the mix you can expect things to not go so well. People have also adapted their decks and play to be more resilient to Inspection- a good FN player can actually play around Inspection and the Sith decks end up being pretty good because of Holocron. Still, I think you will still see plenty of this at the top and lower tables because its hard to play against and has some of the most powerful cards in the game.

5) Poe Maz is Still Good

I think people were sick of playing Moe but with money and street cred on the line the try-hards had to bust out the big guns. Three of the seven mowed down the field on the way to the top 16. That’s an insane percentage and worth noting. With FN and Vader sharing the spotlight Moe’s entering the weekend primed for a sneak attack. The boogeyman laid dormant for while but if you sleep on Moe you’ll be sleeping with the fishes.

6) Phasma is Guarding her Secrets

Two of the six Phasma decks were in top 16. This deck has been out of the limelight for quite some time. I’m personally not a Pha-liever in this deck since its upside isn’t that high and it plays very fair. It still plays a bunch of great cards and the metagame might be at the sweet spot where a lot big dice are around to be eaten. If people leave their inspections at home (it can be a rough card card for the deck) and they bring Palps and Vaders it might be great weekend for Phasma and friends.

7) FN is Great and Other Obvious Statements

Its obvious that FN did well and you should expect every kind of FN deck you can think of at both the top and lower tables. Heck, even FN/Dooku could make an appearance in the top 4.

Those are my thoughts on the tournament. It was a great snapshot of the metagame but the big question is: How similar will the IRL metagame be compared to the online one? My guess is that the online meta will be closer to the top table meta. In the first few rounds you’ll still have to play against the guy who’s still playing Akbar Hired Guns from last year and just happen to be at GenCon. You’ll probably be fine against that but just make sure your deck plays well against random brews.

Because of GenCon we’ll mostly be MIA from Thursday to Monday and we’ll be back Tuesday. I want to thank everyone, especially patrons, for your support. Hopefully we can bring home the trophy for the loopers. We’ll be doing some Vlogs while we travel so stay tuned to YouTube for those.

Have a great week and good luck at your tournaments be it GenCon or your local SC. And as always…

May you never forget what Oscar Isaac looks like while he dances.

-NJCuenca

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