Kenobi’s Focus

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Kenobi’s Focus 0 0 0 4.0

terrick 16

This is an experimental control deck based around Kenobi.

Section 1: Deck Overview

Kenobi and Maz each come equipped with a pair of sides dedicated to focusing dice. Because Maz can, on activation, resolve any two dice in the order of your choosing, it is easy to consistently deal damage off by rolling in Kenobi, who will be followed the next round by Maz, allowing for the immediate resolution of damage sides (if present) or focus sides to set up damage against which your opponent cannot respond, if they have not removed the damage dealing dice already. The deck includes options to remove your opponent’s dice (including Kenobi himself), as well as heal your characters enough to stay in the fight long enough to bring down your opponent.

Section 2: Why Kenobi and Maz?

Kenobi serves several functions in this deck. First, he is a constant damage removal engine thanks to his guardian ability (which allows you to force your opponent to deal suboptimal damage, or removes their ability to modify their higher rolls). Second, his focus sides enable him to turn dice to their best possible results. Third, Kenobi has a powerful 3 melee damage side, which can be modified or made unblockable via vibroknife. Finally, Kenobi can play a blue card for free from either your hand or discard pile, allowing you to get away with discarding your more expensive upgrades or events when needed to reroll dice.

Maz brings action economy to the table by allowing you to resolve two dice after her activation. She also provides access to useful events and supports, and Thermal Detonator against 3 or 4 character decks. Both Kenobi and Maz come with two individual focus sides on their dice (including Kenobi’s 2 focus side). Since the dice are rolled independently of each other, we have a 1/3 chance on each die to hit the focus side. With three dice, this probabilistically ensures that we will have at least one focus side available to resolve when Maz activates.

Section 3: Main Plaza

Praise be to Empire at War for this lovely gift of a battlefield. The plaza serves two functions: it heals our characters, and it allows us to dump damage onto an opponent’s character (of our choice!) at a key moment later in the game. Of course, this is a double edged sword-our opponent may be able to claim and slam that damage down on our characters as well. However, this deck tends to finish rounds quickly thanks to having few characters and supports to activate (and Maz’s impressive ability to resolve dice on her activation). Having so many focuses available also decreases the number of turns needed to reroll dice to desired results, and Force Speed can also increase the efficiency at which the deck can progress through the round.

Section 4: Card Choice Rationale

Upgrades:

Ancient Lightsaber: 2 resource upgrade with a potent +3 side and the ability to heal 2 damage off of attached character AND be played without restrictions. Dangerous to our opponent and potentially life saving. We need 2.

Force Illusion: This one is a bummer to draw if your opponent has Vibroknife, but failing that, it is a life saver. It also secretly empowers Kenobi’s death trigger by filling the discard pile with (potentially) more blue cards for him to play. 2 is suggested, but you might prefer dice removal instead.

Force Speed: 0 cost upgrade that enables us to move even more efficiently through a round. Can also help to establish Kenobi as a threat to protect Maz. Definitely need 2.

Lightsaber: The key here is the redeploy ability, which means that we can stick it on either character and make our opponent hesitant to strike at them. We want 2.

One With The Force: A potent upgrade on its own, given its considerably powerful focus sides, OWTF is the classic choice for Kenobi’s death trigger. If it’s already on the battlefield when he dies, even better-it’s not unique, so you could have two at once or play a card more suited to the situation. 2 please!

Thermal Detonator: This is our best tool to deal with decks that throw 3 or more characters into play. It’s also a great way to avoid guardian effects (it has no damage sides). I use 2, but you may want 1 if you want to substitute in more dice removal. Vibroknife: Ambush, a wicked combo with Running Interference, and the ability to bypass shields with melee damage (when the vast majority of our deck is melee damage) make this a must-run-2.

Supports:

Running Interference: The definition of a control card, and amazing to play with the ambush cards at our disposal, RI is crucial to keep our opponent from acting efficiently. If we play Vibroknife, we can then activate RI on the “play a card” action, and then roll out whoever we want. Our opponent will then not be able to play a card, ensuring that they will not be able respond with removal cards from their hand until you’ve had a chance to resolve your dice. It can also slow down activations from your opponent’s characters. 2 copies are strongly recommended.

Events:

At Peace: This allows us to turn all dice to blanks. Since we can usually get our dice resolved quickly thanks to focuses, this effectively blanks out our opponents. I run a 1 of, but going to 2 could be good in variants that focus on removal.

Block: Answers a crazy damage board state (ideal roll, focuses, pitch to reroll shenanigans, etc.). You usually don’t want more than 1, but it is a life saver.

Dodge: See Block, but think ranged damage. 1 of is fine.

Draw Attention: The ability to move damage off of your opponent’s first choice to kill can break their strategy for dealing with your deck. Although you can proc Kenobi’s death trigger with it, this is usually not an ideal play. Use it to keep a character alive if your opponent has been focusing them. 1 of is fine.

Electroshock: Get rid of specials, modified sides, low damage, or anything else you’d rather not deal with. Great removal...so long as Maz is alive. Definitely need 2, but beware that it becomes a dead card if Maz falls.

Friends in Low Places: Such a great card that someone wrote a song about it! These occupy the slot formerly held by Fast Hands. Usually, you’re going to use FiLP to get rid of nasty removal cards (like The Best Defense) so that you can get a sense of how much removal you’re going up against and ensure that your dice resolve as optimally as possible. 2, for sure.

Loth-Cat and Mouse: A slightly worse version of He Doesn’t Like You. Just play it when you have no good dice or only one left that you don’t care about (usually, if you don’t need Maz’s character die, she makes a fantastic choice for this). This is probably your best removal card, so play 2.

My Ally Is The Force: Imagine the ode to joy sounding when you drop this card. Use it to turn a 3 damage side into at least 6 damage and watch your opponents cry if they see modified sides for the follow up resolution. This card enables explosive plays AND lets Kenobi damage an opposing character off his death trigger. Use 2.

New Orders: We don’t rely on our battlefield to win the game, but having Main Plaza helps to keep damage off of our characters and on our opponents’, where it belongs. Plus, if you can use New Orders and claim the battlefield in the same round, you can heal off 2 damage, or slam down one damage onto a character of your choice (unaffected by shields <3). We don’t really need more than one, though, since our battlefield isn’t the crux of our strategy. Against decks that rely on their battlefield (such as angsty teens or Poe/Maz) this can be utterly backbreaking.

Trickery: A fantastic removal card for Kenobi. It doesn’t require a yellow character, so Maz’s death won’t make it a dead draw. Trickery can remove several dice at once, and it can load up your discard pile with blue cards to resolve on Kenobi’s death trigger. That being said, it is situational-you never want it to be the last card in hand, and you don’t want to play it early on in a round. 1 of should suffice.

Section 5: Possible Substitutions

Battlefields:

Frozen Wastes: This battlefield trades survivability and reach from Main Plaza for free character dice removal. If you’re too scared of your opponent’s ability to utilize the claim ability of the Plaza to slaughter one of your characters, consider running this battlefield instead.

Otoh Gunga: If you like the healing ability of Main Plaza but aren’t too concerned about damage, this is your go to battlefield.

Upgrades:

Rey’s Lightsaber: The main differences between this and Lightsaber are an enter the battlefield effect (one shield, since we don’t use Rey in this deck) and the 2 Melee side as opposed to the special. The melee side may be more useful for the deck, as it combos nicely with resolving melee damage and can be modified by the modifiers on other upgrades. However, the Lightsaber special is guaranteed to deal unblockable damage (without Vibroknife) and cannot be guarded out, requiring dedicated removal. Use whichever you like more (or whichever you own)! The free shield may give Rey’s Lightsaber a slight edge, but I only own one, so it doesn’t show up in this list.

Second Chance: This is a tough call. Second Chance is only usable on Maz (we don’t run any way to switch it to Kenobi) and it effectively extends her health to 13 for 3 resources. You do not want to run two if you are using it, as Maz dying will result in it being a dead draw.

Events:

High Ground: This deck resolves dice quickly enough that you will usually control the battlefield, and the ability to remove any damage die can be critical against the L1RK Sonic Cannon (and dealing one damage on removing a character die is a nice plus!). As an added benefit, it doesn’t require spotting a character, so it isn’t as much of a dead draw as Electroshock can end up becoming. Consider replacing Trickery, At Peace, or an upgrade you don’t have/don’t want to use. The downside is that your speed is contingent on Maz’s survival-if she dies, you lose too much action economy to guarantee claiming before your opponent does.

Impersonate: This is a better version of the effect provided by Draw Attention. However, the two resource cost is a bit prohibitive. If you’re trying to build this deck with a longer game in mind, you might consider running this in place of Draw Attention.

Heroism: Not as good as some of the other removal cards you have access to, as it requires you to damage a character (and we do not prioritize shield generation with this deck) to remove the die. If you’re running into resource problems, this holds an edge as a free card, but otherwise, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Use The Force: Useful as either removal or damage amplification, but it requires a blue character to play. Helpful in situations where you cannot remove a die (against a Tie Pilot), but when altering your own dice it leaves you vulnerable to removal. If you are considering it, you may wish to replace At Peace, Trickery, or any upgrade slots you’re not filling.

Section 6: General Strategies

At the start of a round, play upgrades or Running Interference first so that you can activate after an opponent rolls out. This will allow you to guard back any damage that comes up with Kenobi, if necessary, and will equip your characters with more dice to be greater threats when they do activate. Prioritize damage over any other sides when considering what to focus-two extra turns on Force Speed may not mean much if you have to pitch to reroll to get damage from Kenobi or another source. That said, if you have several upgrades out that could deal a large amount of damage, Force Speed’s special could set up the opportunity to ace an opponent’s character. Once you’re done resolving dice, control your opponent as much as you safely can before claiming the battlefield.

An opponent utilizing damage to win the game might choose to target Kenobi first if they want to eliminate your consistent damage, or they may choose Maz as their target to reduce your action economy. No matter who they want to die first, do your best to heal that character as much as possible with Ancient Lightsaber and Main Plaza. If Kenobi is going to die, make sure to set up the board for Maz as much as possible-having her naked with no upgrades will all but ensure your loss. Likewise, if Maz dies, be prepared for Kenobi’s dice to be far more vulnerable to situational removal (He Doesn’t Like You, Suppression Fire, Loth-Cat and Mouse, etc.).

Mill decks can be problematic to play against with this deck. On the plus side, we never have to worry about Kenobi dying, so his damage consistency will not be disrupted. However, mill decks tend to prioritize playing higher amounts of dice removal cards, which can keep Kenobi from ever resolving his dice. Against hero mill (especially Padme) make sure you kill any character that can receive Second Chance as soon as possible. Otherwise, the game will be extended, giving mill the time it needs to finish you off.
Don’t be afraid to pitch expensive upgrades like One With The Force to re-roll. You can always play them off of Kenobi’s death trigger if he dies first.

If Kenobi is the last character standing, ALWAYS ROLL HIM IN AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE. This will ensure that if your opponent can kill him as their first action, he may still be able to respond off his trigger. My Ally Is The Force WILL allow you to win if you can kill their last character off of its ability, since it resolves a blue die before Kenobi dies (and if he’s got Vibroknife then the damage dealt will be unblockable).

Lemme know what you think! This is an experimental deck, using my favorite character from the SW universe (Kenobi). I appreciate any constructive feedback. Thanks for reading! :D

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