A Christmas week edition of Magnuson Madness! The new Holocron has introduced some madness into the system by both given us new options and taking away the old ones. We’re left with a somewhat understood meta (Reylo, Palp, 5-die Chopper, Aphra), but with more of an open door for new combinations and ideas to make a dent. With that in mind, I’d like to explore an archetype I’ve been curious about since the Holocron dropped – 3-wide Hero Guns decks. We saw three characters reduced to the point where they can fit in this archetype – Finn, Zeb, and Rex – while the hit to Fateful Companions has gotten rid of the old 3 wide Hero Guns deck (Han droids). We’re left with a plethora of possibilities – all of which I think could be good, none of which I’m completely sold on either. Why do I like this archetype? For one, it lends itself to some pretty beefy 3-wide lineups. But also, it utilizes one of my favorite combos in the game currently: Ewok Ambush+Rex’s Blaster. One of the few advantages Hero has over Villain currently is better action cheat options and subsequently more explosive plays – Ewok Ambush is the best action cheat card and Rex’s Blaster is the best facilitator of these plays. But I digress, let’s get into some decks!
Magnuson Madness – Rebel Traitor+Pulse Cannon
The Madness is back! Now that the suite of major tournaments is over and I don’t have to play lame meta staples anymore (cause reps), I can start to explore some new combinations of cards to see if anything shows promise. One place I always like to start is with powerful cards that have yet to see much play. Pulse Cannon is a great example of this – it is really powerful when it goes off, and has one of the highest damage upsides of any card in the game. Villain upgrade lineups (besides Palp), just haven’t quite been able to make the cut recently, and Pulse Cannon is very susceptible to removal. As I started to explore some Pulse Cannon decks, I realized that it combos really nicely with the Rebel Traitor, who can get the Pulse Cannon into the pool protected. And I noticed that even without considering Pulse Cannon, Rebel Traitor’s ability is quite useful in the current meta – you can really mess up the sequencing of Droids or SM if you do it right. And thus the deck building began!
Top 64 Worlds Tournament Report – Michael Berg
Today’s tournament report comes to you from Michael Berg – 14 year old phenom and youngest player to make the top cut at Worlds this year! He’s been practicing with us for a while now, and it’s been a pleasure to watch him improve as a player. And now that he beat both Magnuson brothers at Worlds… we had no choice but to take him on as an official Padawan of the Destiny Council! Maybe someday he’ll achieve the rank of Master and sit on the council ;). The format is a little different for this one, as I (Luke) did a question/answer article with him. Turns out he’s also funnier than Jon and I 🙃. Hope you enjoy!
A Tale of Victory – Andrew Rothermel Tournament Report
Worlds 2019, was quite memorable. But possibly for none of the expected reasons.
I’d been planning on Chopper for quite some time leading up to the event, basically since popular opinion had said Satine was the better yellow (gotta stick up for my main man). Played three pods, to 8-1 overall, which felt decent. My one loss was to the legendary Cuenca delving a Fist turn 1. But I also had a scare vs the standard Reylo matchup, (which was harrowingly close) and it pushed me to reconsider the blue titan.
Rolled in Thursday with the intent of finalizing my Reylo list. Played one pod, had a matchup vs the 8-0 Hunter on Aphra, and he literally dropped BT, Trip 0, AND Megablasters, turn 1.
Let’s just say, that’s the game that I won.
The other two matchups I got smoked. Turns out Delve Fist turn 1 is good and Rey’s special is removable. Who knew. :’) At this point, I was officially off Reylo and on something that could beat Delve Fist.
Re-enter the master of versatility himself, C-C-C-C-Chopper. This little guy is Jango Fett, if Jango Fett could recur stuff, namely melee Dh-17’s, hello Grappling arm, and another card that’s arguably better. He also comes with Easy Pickings and Flee the Scene. Oh yeah. The fact that your opponents often shouldn’t target him first, is icing on the cake and also hilarious, in an evil master of villainy kind of way.
Top 64 Worlds Tournament Report – Rami Chehouri
Today’s article comes to you from Rami Chehouri, Destiny Council member and a key part of our core test group. He piloted Han Droids to a Top 64 finish at Worlds, where he was knocked out by Mike Gemme. Read on for his recounting of the action!
First and foremost, I want to congratulate my teammate Andrew on his worlds win. He’s a really talented player, and he constantly makes you consider scraping your deck after testing against him. Andrew and I were pretty set on chopper weeks before worlds. I dabbled with Reylo and 4LOM a bit but both felt underwhelming. We had a prime the weekend before and decided to just play Reylo to keep the list off streams. Of course Andrew took me out in the cut of the prime. Luke’s Han deck had started coming to form a couple weeks before worlds and after the prime win, I wanted to explore it further. After some testing games, I decided I wanted to play Han. Partly because the Reylo matchup felt much easier than with chopper. Roy Wilkins Auditorium is only about 2 miles from my house, so I was able to grab a Lime and scooter back and forth.
