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!
Phasma3 is one of those characters who has been a bit underplayed of late. Much of this was due to the prominence of AR Ewoks, who were just about unbeatable for Phasma. But with Ewoks only on the fringe of the meta and the Arena of Death change allowing early aggression to matter against Ewoks, maybe it’s time for Phasma to come back? Her early aggression is certainly good against droids (8 health ain’t gonna last long), and she has play into Palp and Mill. Delve/Fist decks could present problems, but perhaps the presence of DM can help make those matchups winnable? In any case, Yellow is the version I like best now – not only because of DM, but also because Entangle helps fix the Reylo matchup. Rebel Traitor slots nicely here, and helps make Handheld Cannon and Pulse Cannon extra deadly. Important for multiple reasons, not least of which is that the prominence of DM in the meta means Phasma cannot rely only on supports, as she used to. And there aren’t many better ways to protect a Pulse Cannon than to hide it on a little Rebel Traitor sitting next to Phasma!
Side note – another of my favorite least played good cards is Focused Fire, which is straight 🔥 in this deck.
This one is a little more lame, as the shell is basically the same as the other Delve/Fist/Megablasters decks. But if you can’t beat em join em? This version may not be better than Aphra or 4-Lom, but it does have a few things going for it. For one, it has a couple big upgrades, which could give it a leg up in the DM mirrors. Additionally, I think it may have a better matchup into mill than some of the other rainbow villain decks. The Traitor allows you to protect the initial rollouts for Handheld Cannon and Pulse Cannon, and can also protect his own die, assuring a Snoke PA if you roll an indirect side. And while Snoke is less good into mill than he was before, his PA still only benefits you in that matchup. Besides, haven’t we all been dying to pull Snoke back out of our binders?! 😉
That’s all for today! Nothing too crazy yet, as I get back into the swing of crazy deckbuilding (and let’s be honest, I’ve never been quite as crazy as Jon!). But hopefully the combination of Pulse Cannon with Rebel Traitor has sparked your interest, and will provide some inspiration for your own deck building forays.
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