Welp hey everyone, didn’t really want to have this come out with the circumstances we are in – really was hoping this would be a more happy thing. Anyway, if I am efficient this should be coming out on the 11th of February which is my 15th birthday and well, I really just wanted to say thanks to you all for the great memories and fun times. I suppose I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning.
In today’s article I’m going to highlight some of what I’m looking forward to with Covert Missions. I tried to stick to cards/interactions that haven’t received a lot of hype so far, so hopefully this will give you some new ideas! I think there are a lot of good cards in this set that could have an impact on the Worlds meta, and I’ve enjoyed theory crafting over the past few weeks. Hope you enjoy!
For the most part, successful Admiral decks have been decks with a big character that can survive for a long time, allowing you time to draw into Admirals and pull off the big plays (Palp/Motti and Yoda/Bail are the best examples). Few cards provide more survive-ability than Valorous Tribe. I’ve gotten in a few games with this kind of deck, and the theory seems to hold – the decks are very difficult to kill and you almost always get off the big Admiral play. My favorite lineups at the moment are Mace/Kashyyyk Warrior and Tarful/Yoda1.
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!
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!
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!
