Hotcakes! (Hero OTK) - 3rd place at 14 player SC w/ writeup

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TrueOTK 47 38 18 1.0
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Hot Wings 10 7 0 1.0

punchitchewie 527

DECKLIST CORRECTION: The deck I played on Sunday actually had a 1x Concentrate, in place of the 2nd Ancient Wisdom. My apologies all for mis-entering those cards, and thanks to @Rhavas for pointing out the error!

EDIT: Credit for the new deck name goes to Reddit user Chi3f1n6 - I was trying to come up with something clever, but 'Hotcakes' is just too perfect!


This is the deck I took to my local store champs on Sunday - I was going to sit on it for awhile but it looks like another similar decklist has been posted, so the cat's out of the bag!

The results of the day were 2 team kills on turn 1, 1 team kill turn 2 and a loss - going 3-1 over 4 rounds. I'll go into the rounds in more detail below, but really there's not much to say other than "they dealt 5-7 damage, and then they got Launch Bay'+Salvo'd...twice"

I saw @runningonion's decklist called 'TrueOTK', found here: https://swdestinydb.com/decklist/view/20669/trueotk-1.0, and immediately fell in love with the concept a couple months ago. With the release of WOTF, getting Ezra Bridger - Aspiring Jedi, Fond Memories, and Renewed Purpose seemed to slot in perfectly. Ezra gives you an extra discard side that the Jedi Instructor was missing, Renewed Purpose gave the deck even more drawing consistency (and prevented the need for Investigate), and Fond Memories gives you access to a couple loops that just seem unfair.

The night before the tournament, I had sleeved up the same 30 events, but had Anakin Skywalker - Podracing Prodigy and [Stolen Intel], (/card/05172), as I thought the extra card was a necessity. But I kept worrying about my opponents finding out what was going on and focusing the Gungan Warrior, which would turn off the Award Ceremony, and your best chance of huge card draw. The morning of, I switched to a second Gungan Warrior, to give my red health pool a bump, and Espionage was a necessity due to the spot a plot requirement of Renewed Purpose. Additionally, the mill from Espionage isn't terrible, since you're playing Rebel, Cheat, and Fond Memories to get cards from your discard pile.

As for the tournament, here's how my games went:

1st game - Rex/Clone Trooper/Jedha Partisan (W)

  • I felt terrible for how this one went down - I only had one Gungan Warrior going into the day, so asked one of my friends at the tournament if I could borrow one for my deck. Of course, he was my round 1 opponent :/ He looked at the character lineup a bit puzzled, and asked what the heck my deck was trying to do. The answer was - 'Kill your whole team on turn 1'...which is what happened. Though it did take a Tinker into Jar Jar's 1 indirect to seal the deal against Rex.

2nd game - Mother Talzin/Guavian Enforcer/Captain Phasma (W)

  • This one was a turn 2 kill - I was able to draw about half of the deck, but ran out of card draw in hand. Fortunately I had both Premonitions, Launch Bay, and Salvo, so I was able to pump ~5 damage into each of his characters turn 1. Turn 2 resulted in more card draw, and the mopping up of his team.

3rd game - NewDooku/Jabba (L)

  • This was the most entertaining game of the day for me, playing against @Palabrewtis and his Dooku/Jabba list, which you can find here: https://swdestinydb.com/decklist/view/21918/2nd14playersc-jabbaedooku-1.0. He masterfully passed throughout his turn as I was going through the motions, and got the nut draw of Force Throw/Force Illusion off of my Don't Get Cocky, showing a Holocron special, after I played Truce. So of course he rolls in the Force Throw, gets the special, along with a Cunning special, and does 20, followed by 14, damage with my own Launch Bay die. This is where my misunderstanding of the rules came into play - I thought you had to discard down to hand size at end of turn, like in Magic: The Gathering. Not so! Playing from the same spot again, I would have claimed and forced him to mitigate the ~20 damage Launch Bay die turn after turn while trying to chew through my 27 health team. Oh well - live and learn!

4th game - Rex/Clone Trooper/Maz Kanata

  • He started out w/ Rex's Blaster Pistol and Wingman while I slowly rolled out my team, activated his whole team in one go and did about 7 damage. Then he claimed, having only 3 blasters in hand, and I was able to draw the whole deck and do the team kill turn 1.

This deck might seem like a Rube-Goldberg machine of nonsense, but it works...way too consistently I feel. Going forward, I'd add another Launch Bay and maybe even slow down the deck by half a turn or so, putting in a little more mitigation. Then just dare your opponent to mitigate 2 ~15 damage Launch Bay dice turn after turn, while fighting through repeated Strategic Planning's due to Rebel, Fond Memories and Cheat.

If you have any questions of how the deck works, feel free to let me know :)

When the fastest decks can win turn 3, winning on turn 1 seems to be faster!

95 Kommentare

Bminny 48

I’m very confused by this deck lol. How do you win turn one?

Bminny 48

How do you stand up to someone mitigating the Launching Bay?

Bminny 48

Is Hidden Agenda only for Salvo?

punchitchewie 527

@Bminny thanks for the questions! I probably should have had a better explanation about how everything works, so here goes!

The point of the deck is to draw your entire deck, and then resolve a Launch Bay, with Salvo, to deal damage to your opponent's entire team. In my experience, especially without discard from your opponent, you can normally get to 13-15 cards in hand by the time you are ready to fire off the first Salvo. You do this by playing Award Ceremony to draw 4 cards, Renewed Purpose to draw 3 cards, and Rebel to replay the Award Ceremony, which again draws you 4 cards. That right there is 22 cards, which combined with the initial 5 you draw at the start of the game, leaves you only 3 cards left to see your entire deck.

In my playthroughs, I normally can resolve Renewed Purpose/Award Ceremony/Rebel ~ 5 times, along with Trust Your Instincts and Don't Get Cocky, which draws another 6 total cards. So, the math behind it is as follows:

  • 1 card from Espionage (1 total)
  • 5 cards from starting hand (6 total)
  • 4 cards from 2x Don't Get Cocky (10 total)
  • 2 cards from 2x Trust Your Instincts (12 total)
  • 12 cards from resolving Award Ceremony 3x due to Rebel (24 total)
  • 6 cards from resolving Renewed Purpose 2x due to the other Rebel (30 total)

Even with all that, you still have the option of playing Hidden Agenda on Ezra for +1 resource and a card (+1 resource due to using it to resolve Salvo, and +1 card from Ezra's Power Action), and the lone copy of Ancient Wisdom if you need for +2 cards.

Now that you've drawn your whole deck, you can play out the Launch Bay for free, thanks to the 2 copies of Premonitions.

After drawing your deck, you most likely have 1 copy of Renewed Purpose/Award Ceremony/Rebel in your hand, and the 2 copies of Found Memories. You can then do a loop as follows:

  • Play 2nd copy of Long Con from your hand (because you've drawn your whole deck) to get 3 resources (3 resources remaining)
  • Play Fond Memories, placing Long Con, Renewed Purpose, and Rebel on the bottom of your deck (2 resources remaining)
  • Play the copy of Renewed Purpose/Award Ceremony/Rebel in your hand, drawing the 3 cards (1 resource remaining)
  • Play Long Con (4 resources remaining)
  • Play the second Fond Memories, putting the other copy of #Rebel, Long Con, and some other card (most likely Friends in Low Places to take away mitigation) (3 resources remaining)
  • Play the newly drawn copy of Renewed Purpose (2 resources remaining)
  • Play the newly drawn Long Con (5 resources)

So now, you're sitting with 5 resources, with 2 copies of Rebel to replay whatever you need from your discard pile.

  • Opponent has lots of shields/health? No problem - Salvo, Strategic Planning to reset Launch Bay, and then second Salvo. I was able to do 17 damage to each of my opponent's characters that way!
  • Opponent has lots of mitigation? Playing Friends in Low Places 3 times in a row should help

Hopefully this helps clear some things up!

punchitchewie 527

@Bminny as far as someone mitigating the Launch Bay die, it's really easy to play Strategic Planning a couple times due to the above mentioned loop, so even if the die is removed, you can just ready Launch Bay again. With the loop executed, you can play Strategic Planning 4 times in a row thanks to the Strategic Planning in your hand, the 2x copies of Rebel, and the Cheat

Razelll 244

@punchitchewie Great deck build, thinking of making it my self. haha. Just wondering, you guys didn't cut to top 4 or anything like that?

punchitchewie 527

`@Razelll right on!

Regarding the SC, they just did the standings after Swiss games. I'm guessing if there were a few more participants we would have had a top 4 cut, since there would have been more than one undefeated, clear-cut person at the top.

Razelll 244

@punchitchewie Makes sense I guess.

Venator class star destroyer! 20

You need 2 Launch Bays to use Premonitions.

punchitchewie 527

@Happy Jedi so the wording on Premonitions is weird, but the way it works here is like so:

  • Imagine you have both copies of Premonitions and the single Launch Bay in hand
  • You play the first Premonitions, choosing the first option to set this card aside and stack a card from your hand on it facedown. In this instance, the Launch Bay would be facedown on this Premonitions card, which is in the set-aside zone
  • You play the second Premonitions, choosing the second option on the card to play the card stacked on another copy of this card for free and discard the set aside copy
  • In the above instance, the card stacked on another copy of this card applies to the facedown Launch Bay, and for the another copy of this card - the this applies to the set aside copy of Premonitions
  • Following along, in the discard the set aside copy, the card being referenced here is the copy of Premonitions in the set-aside zone that was underneath the face-down Launch Bay

So, the end result is that you have played 2 copies of #Premonitions, both of which are now in your discard pile. And you were able to play the single Launch Bay for free, with no second Launch Bay required!

Hope this helps clarify - let me know if not!

Scactha 888

Now this is skill. Great work putting this together. Despite not being a combo fan, neither in SWD nor Mtg, it’s fascinating to see.

chazz 157

Just gave it a roll. Hilarious. Has Long Con been FAQd to be "put aside" or can you use Rebel and such to recycle it? Drew all 30 cards in the first turn. Activated Launch Bay three times as well as getting the salvo off. This was with premonitions being the last card of the deck too. My only concern would be against mill decks of Cad/Snoke with a four discard early in the round. Could shut down the combo. Have you tested against this? Fond memories is obviously clutch here.

punchitchewie 527

@Scactha thanks for the kind words!

@chazz glad you're trying it out! As far as I know there is no errata to Long Con that sets it aside, so you should be able to use Rebel to play it from discard.

One of the Fond Memories setups is Long Con, Rebel, Rebel, which works out to 7 resources! So if you think your opponent is playing Premonitions themselves to try to steal your Launch Bay, you can just do the above set up Long Con and Rebel x2, and play the Launch Bay from hand! It works out to be pretty tidy as well, since you can use the remaining 2 resources to play Concentrate, and then Hidden Agenda + Salvo.

And you're right concerning the hand mill decks - I tried it out against a Leia Organa - Heart of the Resistance / Yoda - Wizened Master deck and had an incredibly tough time. The Pacify is supposed to be in there to handle Cad's 2 discard side, but you only get one of them that way, and Snoke has the focus sides to eventually get the other Cad die set up.

I'm trying to come up with some hand mill counters, but if you have any ideas I'd love to hear your input!

Right now the deck (to me at least) seems pretty unbeatable by all of the 'fair' aggro decks and vehicle decks. But a creative solution to mill could make this a really interesting option.

mikefield 56

Love it! Haven't seen one like this before, and really creative use of Launch Bay!

Just wondering - How does the character selection relate to the card plan? Could you pull this off with different characters? What made you choose this line up?

treygosfa 287

Cool deck!

So, if one were able to relatively dependably remove the Discard dice, as well as Launch Bay die, kill Jar Jar Binks - Clumsy Outcast early to turn off Friends in Low Places, use Extract to set aside cards from your discard pile, combined with some hand mill, and possible use Friends in Low Places or Scruffy Looking Nerf-Herder, they'd have you in a rough spot? Sounds easy enough if you say it really fast! ;)

Rhavas 9

Do you rely on the 1 in 3 chance to hit the ranged side on Launch Bay and then reroll with copious amounts of cards until you hit it? Did you consider any of the blue cards that let you turn a die to a side?

punchitchewie 527

@Rhavas holy cow great catch - I even talked about Concentrate in my reply to @chazz above! There was a 1x Concentrate in place of the 2nd Ancient Wisdom in the decklist I played on Sunday, and is how the deck should be configured. I've updated the list accordingly.

punchitchewie 527

@Rhavas it appears that I can't update the decklist itself, so I'll pin the change at the top. Thanks for pointing that out!

punchitchewie 527

@mikefield Thanks for the kind words!

Regarding the character selection, the main criteria is that it must be 4-wide, and have access to all 3 colors, since the card draw is split between blue and red, and the best money card and recursive elements are in yellow.

Additionally, the list can only be 29 points at a maximum, due to the need to include a plot to take advantage of Renewed Purpose.

So, you have a couple options. Blue doesn't have a character under 8 points, so that is a bit limiting. I chose Ezra Bridger - Aspiring Jedi due to his discard die side (which allows for playing Rebel and Power Action, over the Jedi Instructor, whose main advantage over Ezra is the focus die side.

For the rest of the team, I was initially running Anakin Skywalker - Podracing Prodigy, Jar Jar Binks - Clumsy Outcast, Gungan Warrior, and Stolen Intel, because I thought getting the 6 cards at the start of the game was necessary. After many iterations, the 6th card wasn't needed, so that opened up the chance to squeeze another point into the character list to bring it up to 29.

Additionally, my major fear was that my opponents would know that Award Ceremony was spot Red, which would leave the 6 health Gungan Warrior as public enemy number 1. If I won the die roll, I had a pretty good chance due to the Guardian granted from Fort Anaxes - Anaxes, but that would be moot if I was playing against Rex - Clone Captain, who could steal control of the battlefield. And if I didn't win the roll, I wasn't confident 8 total health (with the 2 shields) was enough to keep the Gungan Warrior alive long enough against the likes of Sabine Wren - Explosives Expert.

So, I thought briefly about switching the Anakin Skywalker - Podracing Prodigy to Rose - Skilled Mechanic, which would give me 15 red health, keep my discard die count at 3, and keep me at 4 character die.

After much more theorycrafting, the idea of double Gungan Warrior, with an elite Jar Jar Binks - Clumsy Outcast came up! 12 red health, 3 discard die sides, and an extra character die. It was perfect!

So yes, it is definitely possible to switch in different characters, but I would recommend staying 4-wide, and to keep your available discard die sides as high as you can. And to keep the red health high, so if you're only running 1 red character, I'd recommend Rose - Skilled Mechanic.

Thanks again for the question!

Rhavas 9

@punchitchewie Not a problem, happy to help. I dig the deck and want to try it out. It looks like a lot of one-ofs, but with the draw ability this deck has, it seems right. Did anything else underperform?

I've made the change a Reddit user suggested, dropping eJarJar and Espionage for Pod Racing Anakin and Profitable Connections. That feels right to me.

punchitchewie 527

@treygosfa Haha indeed! I think if the opponent had access to all of those 3 cards, along with copious damage and discard sides, all on turn 1, I'd be in a bit of trouble :)

punchitchewie 527

@Rhavas Thanks, and glad you're going to try it out! And you're right, since there is so much card draw, you see every card in your deck, so you have access to all of them.

Like the user on reddit suggested, the Pacify was pretty superfluous.

I think a great card to replace it with would be Vandalize - since you have access to 5 character die (in this configuration at least), which could remove troublesome upgrades like Force Throw. And you can always win on turn 2 if you need :)

ruce 91

this is disgusting.. But i love it

Trey 178

I've been goldfishing this deck for the last day or so, and I'm having trouble Salvoing for more than 8-9 in round 1. Is that what you're seeing? My round sequence has been:

  1. Get all the character dice out there, saving Jar Jar for last to have another shot at Ezra's discard.
  2. Draw my deck.
  3. Use Premonitions to get Hangar Bay online.
  4. Get 13 cards in hand by recurring things with Fond Memories/Rebel/Award Ceremony so that I can Salvo for 12. <-- this is where I'm getting stuck. Do I just need to accept that I'm only (lol, ONLY) swatting his team for 8 each, or am I missing something in the sequence? Everything I'm seeing that would bump my hand size up costs too many resources to play Salvo.

punchitchewie 527

@ruce Thanks for saying so!

@Trey So the way I run the sequence is always having Long Con in your 3 card grouping. That way, in the end you're normally working with at least 5 resources. I went into it in a little more detail in my response to @Bminny above - apologies if you've already got that part down!

After that, since you have the 2 Rebel's in hand, you can #Salvo, then Strategic Planning, and then Salvo again!

In fact I think there was only one instance where I only had to Salvo once at the tournament.

Razelll 244

@punchitchewieOk, you got me. I am going to make this deck, but before I play it against anybody, what do I want my starting hand to be?

Razelll 244

And what would I take out for a second Launch Bay?

punchitchewie 527

@Razelll That's great, glad you're going to give it a try!

The cards I'm looking for in my starting hand are Award Ceremony and Renewed Purpose. Don't Get Cocky is normally good enough to keep, rather than mulligan as well, but I wasn't happy about it.

Other than that, any other card that isn't card draw I would mulligan, unless I had a Rebel along with one of the 3+ card draws, since in that case the Rebel will most likely act as card draw as well. The deck as it is currently constructed leans really hard on comboing off, so I'm not looking for any mitigation or hand discard, for instance - just card draw.

punchitchewie 527

@Razelll The Pacify really underperformed, so I'd swap that one out for Launch Bay number 2.

Just to give you an idea, I discarded Pacify off of Espionage at the start of my 4th game against an aggressive Rex deck, and I couldn't have been happier to have it in my discard pile instead of having the possibility of drawing it.

Razelll 244

@punchitchewie Ok thanks, so now that I know what I want I can kill my friends round 1. haha

Rhavas 9

I've made some alterations, swapping Jar Jar Binks - Clumsy Outcast and Espionage for Anakin Skywalker - Podracing Prodigy and Profitable Connection.

I'm wondering if going down from the two Gungan Warrior to a single die Leia Organa - Heart of the Resistance is worth it. It's the same points, but one less health. You lose 1 card off of each Award Ceremony but you have another die with two Discard sides to make #Rebel easier to trigger. Thoughts?

Rhavas 9

The more I think about it, the more I like going back to Espionage but keeping Anakin Skywalker - Podracing Prodigy and replacing a Gungan Warrior with Rose - Skilled Mechanic. This keep you at four characters, three dice with a Discard symbol and Rose's special of gaining a resource is very useful. You also pump your red character health to 14 from 12.

punchitchewie 527

@Rhavas great idea! That may be the way to go going forward - I wanted the extra dice damage from the Gungan Warrior back when I thought you had to discard down to 5 at end of turn - 8 max damage between the 5 character die seemed like the best way to struggle through if your opponent had a character or two left after the Salvo.

Rose - Skilled Mechanic and Anakin Skywalker - Podracing Prodigy are pretty neat additions - like you said they give more money and a discard side, which is pretty solid. I'll be interested to hear how your testing goes!

punchitchewie 527

@Razelll glad I could help, and definitely let me know if there's any more clarification I can provide!

Best of luck against your friends, and hope you keep them after playing this deck :)

coleformayor 65

I have a dream, that everyone runs this deck at their store champs, that the hate flows through this gaming community. I hope to see launch bays at every table, a literal race to see who can get the combo off first, we can call it "the tale of darth launch bay".

cjfm 35

@punchitchewie Any room for Respite? Seems like unless you really need ezra's dice, you could probably swap out tinker for them. Gives you 2 more potential draws round 1...

the BEAST 1128

@coleformayoruntil someone plays Premonitions against the mirror hahaha

punchitchewie 527

@coleformayor #SummerOfLaunchBay

punchitchewie 527

@cjfm the TrueOTK deck from @runningonion had a single copy of Respite, and I tried it out originally before I had all of the WOTF cards and it didn't work out as well as I had hoped.

Since Award Ceremony requires all of your characters to be exhausted to get maximum value, the only way you'd be able to play Respite is if you either had it in your opening hand, or you drew it off of Renewed Purpose or Don't Get Cocky. So in my playtesting they ended up being dead cards mid-combo.

I like the suggestion though - maybe there's a spot for a one-of!

the BEAST 1128

Hey @punchitchewie. Just out of curiosity, how come your opponent rolled the Force Throw special and resolved it before you could resolve your own Launch Bay die? Also, if you add a second Launch Bay, I highly recommend you to watch out for Flames of the Past which is everywhere alongside mill. Great list! It does look fun!

joshshott 8

Hi! I am new to Standard format for the most part, and relatively new to the game, so I apologze if I am missing something. It seems to be your entire set up is predicated on no-one removing the support dice. In four games noone had a way to remove that single dice?

RebelTraitor 259

You could play 1 die jar jar with a profitable connection

Razelll 244

@Rhavas Sounds like some good character changes and I just might have to try them out.

If anybody else has played this deck I would love to here their results, cuz I think it is a very interesting deck that nobody really knows about, and more people need to play it. Just nobody at my local game store, ok. lol

punchitchewie 527

@the BEAST Thanks for the insight!

In that instance, the issue I ran into was that all of this happened while I was comboing to get the Premonitions + Launch Bay in hand. My opponent had out a Sith Holocron, showing a special, so when I played Don't Get Cocky, he drew the Force Throw, and was able to swap it with the Sith Holocron, and then paid the resource to roll it out immediately. It happened to hit the special, so he had that all set up before I even had the Launch Bay in play.

If I were to do it again, I'd still combo off, but not even bother rolling in the Launch Bay that turn. I was under the impression that I had to discard back down to hand size at end of turn, so I tried to power through his Force Throw / Cunning, which was the wrong call in retrospect.

Hope that helps clarify things!

punchitchewie 527

@joshshott normally removal would be a problem, but with Friends in Low Places and Strategic Planning I can weather that pretty well.

I can preemptively play Friends in Low Places to take any of my opponent's removal before rolling in the Launch Bay, and if they have removal that I can't take - like Beguile for instance - I can roll out the Launch Bay, let them remove the die, and then play Strategic Planning to ready the Launch Bay, and roll it in again!

I did have the Launch Bay die removed a couple times, but Strategic Planning came to the rescue and still allowed me to pull off the win!

punchitchewie 527

@RebelTraitor that's an interesting idea - some folks have been throwing out a single Anakin Skywalker - Podracing Prodigy instead of the elite Jar Jar Binks - Clumsy Outcast as well. I personally have been enamored with the 5 dice over 4, but I could see how the extra resource could make a huge difference.

If you try it out in a different combination, I'd love to hear your results!

spooky 51

I was the friend he had to borrow a dice from lol. Sucked losing the first game that way when I won the rest but it was still great to see this deck in action.

punchitchewie 527

@spooky sorry again about that :/ Glad you were able to win out and get the mat though!

dough54321 139

I'm playtesting with Rose - Skilled Mechanic, Anakin Skywalker - Podracing Prodigy, Ezra Bridger - Aspiring Jedi, Gungan Warrior. Rose has a to help Anakin and Ezra out for Rebel and she can also bank you a .

I've also added Targeting Computer to help turn the Launch Bay to the , in case the opponent turns it or the die doesn't roll it. Have you thought about that?

Razelll 244

@dough54321 How has that pairing gone for you, cuz I am thinking of running those characters also?

I like to use Concentrate so that I can turn two dice if I need extra damage other than the Launch Bay. I do think it is a good idea to include something to focus it though, just in case.

punchitchewie 527

@dough54321 you're absolutely right in your suggestion! I actually mis-entered the decklist when I submitted it, there should only be 1 Ancient Wisdom, and the second one was actually Concentrate. I pinned a decklist edit to the top description, but I was unable to change the published decklist unfortunately.

CaptNemo 1

@punchitchewie how do you feel about investigation (perhaps instead of ancient wisdom) for this deck? You mentioned taking out pacify, what would you recommend in its place?

Razelll 244

@CaptNemo I put in Scruffy Looking Nerf-Herder, so that you can get rid of their Hyperspace Jump, Retreat, Force Illusion, or 2/3 cost removal that you can't discard with Friends in Low Places.

Rhavas 9

@Rachel Scruffy Looking Nerf-Herder over a second Launch Bay? I like the addition of Scruffy Looking Nerf-Herder for the combo protection but the second Launch Bay seems like good insurance too.

CaptNemo 1

@rhavas I've cycled through the deck about 6 times, never once did I need a 2nd launch bay. Even if it was discarded, I didn't need it.

Unless there's a card that removes a card from the game while it's in play, I don't see the need compare to more draw effects

Razelll 244

@CaptNemo That is the same for me. I had two Launch Bays in for a little bit, but I found out that the second one was just a wasted card. The only thing is if you discard it with Espionage and then they first turn Extract it. But that is few and far between. Also I didn't know what else to take out for Scruffy Looking Nerf-Herder if I put in the second Launch Bay.

punchitchewie 527

@CaptNemo Investigate may be a card to reconsider - I thought the value of the 2 cards from Ancient Wisdom was better than the selection offered from Investigate, but I could be very wrong there.

Since we have enough card draw to draw a maximum of 29 cards (8 each from 2x Award Ceremony and 2x Rebel, 6 from 2x Renewed Purpose, 4 from 2x Don't Get Cocky, 2 from 2x Trust Your Instincts, 1 from Hidden Agenda), and we only have to draw 24 due to the 5 card initial hand and the mill from Espionage, we probably don't need the extra card from Ancient Wisdom over the selection from Investigate.

Thanks for the suggestion, and let me know how it goes for you in testing!

punchitchewie 527

@Razelll @CaptNemo my testing has reflected what you both are pointing out about the second Launch Bay - it's superfluous, and getting it out costs you cards in hand that reduce the damage potential of the initial Launch Bay. I think 1x is the right call, and just hope to dodge the discard into Extract

CaptNemo 1

I left out that if you don't include Ancient Wisdom, however, you WILL have to use Cheat (the worst option) or Rebel to replay a draw card to get to all 30 cards... for whatever that's worth.

golike 1

A deflect would be deadly against this.

Wyliekyote 7

where's the FFG clarification of this? so... so.. broken... You need two copies of the facedown card to use this?!?

CaptNemo 1

@Wyliekyote Premonitions you mean? The language is fairly clear, but not parsed well.

Choose one: set this card aside and stack a card from your hand on it facedown, or play the card stacked on another copy of this card for free and discard the set aside copy.

So you do 1of 2 things when you play Premonitions:

1) Set this card aside and stack a card from your hand on it facedown

OR

2) play the card stacked on another copy of this card for free and discard the set aside copy

The rules reference contains some mentions of Premonitions that should help clarify how it is used.

images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com

Big_Campy 384

Guess I will have to start teching in Lying in Wait in my Villain Vehicles deck. LOL

Jimmy2do 4

I've been fishbowling this deck for the last 2 days and I love it, but what are your thoughts on single die Jar Jar and single die Yoda instead of Ezra? It gives you 2 more health and one less die with a discard, but Yoda's special is soooo good for this deck as a free way to switch Launch Bay to ranged or even Jar Jar to discard, and he still has a discard side on him. I might try concentrate in place of Pacify cause as you said it is very underwhelming when you're drawing your deck on turn 1 90% of the time.

Razelll 244

@Jimmy2do The deck I run is Ezra/Rose/WoTF Ani/Gungan Warrior. If I had yoda I would deffinetly use him though. If you are going to play single Jar Jar, I would run single WoTF Ani.

Jimmy2do 4

@Razelll Anakin is an interesting idea, his die is definitely better for the deck. I wish I could get away with one Gungan Warrior but I feel like 2 red characters is a must because of how important Award Ceremony is. How has Rose been working out? Her die seems similar to Yoda for the purposes of this deck, too.

Razelll 244

@Jimmy2do Ya, Anakin Skywalker - Podracing Prodigy is really good for this deck with his 3 and a sides. Yes, you really need two red characters, otherwise in some games you won't get to even play Award Ceremony. I really like Rose - Skilled Mechanic over a Gungan warrior because she has a and 2 sides, and 2 more health.

Echo7 328

Been having fun trialling this deck. It can really catch people by surprise, but it can be very flaky against certain decks.

Bane/Snoke annihilates me, thanks to quadruple discard (Bane's double discard plus Snoke's ability). Blue melee is painful if they're running CQA for a multiple discard. And hero mill with Cassian and/or Leia. Half decent aggro decks also cause a trouble as Ezra dies turn one, removing a discard die, his power action, Trust Your Instincts and a card from Award Ceremony, making the combo a bit more on the edge. I've tried putting more dice mitigation, but the deck is so tight there's very little that can be swapped out. I think these issues mean this deck is never going to be a major player, but certainly one you need to watch out for and can catch inexperienced or unprepared players unawares. It also utterly destroys battle droids, which is fun.

punchitchewie 527

@rogue6548 Thanks for the feedback, that's great!

Looking back I think you can go all in on the combo, removing the mitigation and swapping out Hidden Agenda for a more usable upgrade to place on Ezra. The thought being that if you win the roll and take your Battlefield, you get the mitigation from Guardian, and if you lose, you can throw the shields on Ezra, forcing your opponent to do 10 damage to turn off those Trust Your Instincts, so having mitigation like Friends in Low Places and Pacify is superfluous.

I was thinking Mandalorian Vambraces as 2-pronged approach to make the endgame a little more difficult for mill, as well as allowing you to keep the in-hand card count high for Launch Bay by popping the upgrade back to your hand. I'm also wondering if there's a way to open up 2 slots for 2 Ancient Lightsaber, again to make the endgame miserable for mill, but also to get down early to give you a chance against the huge hand discard decks like Cad/Snoke and Leia/Yoda/Cassian.

I've seen C-3PO in other people's lists, and that seems like a great way to go into the 2nd and 3rd turns with a way of resolving Launch Bay for large damage without re-rolling, as well as turning the 2 side on Ezra and the 2 side on the Gungan Warriors into hand discard to push through the Launch Bay die.

So my tentative plan would be:

I'd love to fit in the 2x Ancient Lightsaber, and it's possible that the endgame loops are strong enough to drop Premonitions altogether to free up the slots, since you can get 7 resources with your final Long Con/Rebel/Rebel play. That might just be a dumb idea though, and maybe doing something less drastic like removing the Cheat and maybe Ancient Wisdom would work, but that might hurt some of your resiliency.

Thanks again for the feedback, and I'd be curious to hear your thoughts!

Echo7 328

Good thoughts. Hadn't thought of adding C-3PO, interesting.

Btw, I personally prefer the character lineup Ani/Rose/Gungan/Ezra. More resources, more red hp, same number of discard dice.

I agree that you can go all out on the combo and ditch FiLP and Pacify. I play with Investigate. I find it really improves the resilience of the combo, allowing you to draw a Don't Get Cocky or a Award Ceremony to keep it ticking along.

And I agree that Hidden Agenda can go. Mandalorian Vambraces are a good shout, though I might play just one. Alternatively you could play a Chance Cube. It's free to play, gives you Ezra's ability, them you can bounce it to your hand on activation. Haven't tested yet though.

punchitchewie 527

@rogue6548 I like the character combo - spreads out your discard die so you don't lose 2 from losing Jar Jar, and more red health and resource generation seems good. Neat!

Also like your suggestion of the Investigate for Ancient Wisdom swap - card selection is a lot more important than the +1 card draw, that was a mistake on my part in the initial build.

My reasoning for Mandalorian Vambraces over Chance Cube is that Chance Cube only goes back into your hand if you've played it before you activate, so it's not as good if you don't draw it before you play your first Award Ceremony, as all of your characters would be exhausted. You could still use it to play and draw a card with Ezra's power action though, so it might be good enough in the worst case scenario, but above average in the best case.

Razelll 244

Alright guys I found the best card with launch bay besides Salvo. It is Fierce Resolve. Boooooom, game changer. Just don't roll a blank and you're all good guys.

Echo7 328

Good point about vambraces Vs chance cube.

inquistorsz 10

@Razelll
HAHAHA Fierce Resolve is amazing! Good find. Might be tricky fitting it in but I feel like this deck has quote a few options.
Depends if you can afford it I guess. I intend to run the anakin/rose/ezra/gungan version so I should have enough resources.

I need to test more but I find that unless someone has played it before, it's pretty much a guaranteed win. Slow play the first turn, make them think it's a vehicle deck, then once they claim it's over.
If they don't claim then you have to be a bit more careful but that's what Friends In Low Places is for.

I think with the different character combo maybe Long Con isn't necessary either.

Honestly as fun as Salvo is, I think if you can nuke one big character each turn starting from turn 1, then you're probably OK anyway.
Especially those decks that have 1 strong character and 1 support character like Kylo/Pryce or Cad/Snoke.
Nuke the damage dealer, and then you should have another few turns to easily finish off the support character.

Razelll 244

@inquistorsz I also run the anakin/rose/ezra/gungan and I like it better than the jarjar/ezra/gungan/gungan. Ya, if you are in to the turn 2 or 3 kill than you could run Fierce Resolve instead of Salvo. But the reason I like this deck is that I can kill people turn 1 which is what I run it for. So I guess all I am saying is that I run it for the OTK, but if you are more into consistency than you could change it a little bit.

Razelll 244

Here is the link to my deck if you want to check it out: swdestinydb.com

inquistorsz 10

@Razelll Here's my first attempt. swdestinydb.com

I put Respite in. I think Scruffy, and FILP are meta calls. Maybe you only need 1 of them. Perhaps another resource... but depends on how much I end up rolling out. Maybe 1 Tinker is enough. Time will tell I guess.

Need to get some testing done. I like having Fierce Resolve and Salvo. No reason you can't pop both, especially with Hidden Agenda. Guarantee a big kill and take a support or non-unique down as well.

I prefer consistency over a 1 turn massacre. Most decks can't do anything if you kill the main character. The ones that can, like mill or vehicles are often slow enough that you can easily finish them off in the following turns.
Even if you kill half their team then you can probably still hobble home with just your remaining character dice and smaller launch bays. If your opponent has 1 or 2 characters left on 2-3 health each at the start of turn 2... then you're still in a solid place. You only need a 3dmg launch bay to win then, or you start using some of the indirect on the character dice. They'll be saving removal for the launch by while you kill them with rose and anakin lol.

Vash419 1

This deck looks super fun, thanks for sharing, congrats on your placement!!!

Razelll 244

@Vash419 It is super fun. You should try it out, unless you go to my locol store. lol

Razelll 244

I played a version of this deck at a SC, if anybody wants to see it. swdestinydb.com

Razelll 244

Hey @punchitchewie.

Razelll 244

I just want you to know.

Razelll 244

I made this.

Razelll 244

The number 1 hottest topic. Your welcome. lol

punchitchewie 527

@Razelll that's great, glad you gave it a shot! And best of luck in your second SC today!

CupidStunt 7

omg this is absolutly beautiful, i didnt know i could fall in love this way. my only question is why that battlefield choice

Razelll 244

@CupidStunt I run Fort Anaxes - Anaxes, so that they cannot kill one of my characters round 1. Unless they can action cheat or they have a special chaining deck.

JuryDuty 14

I stumbled across your setup a couple weeks ago in search for a team that could compete but wouldn't break the bank. Wow do I love this deck! Mine is slightly different because I only have one Gungan Warrior -- I'm using Rose in place of the second. Another card I LOVE is R2D2 with this deck. Running R2 and C3PO is a nice couple of supports.

I'm also only running one Renewed Purpose, one Fond Memories, and one Ancient Wisdom because I don't have two yet.

My biggest issue is that about 50% of the time I can't get my deck rolling until about round three. Sometimes in round one I can't even draw one extra card. Not sure if I'm missing something or if it's just the luck of the draw. I also don't think I've ever actually played Hidden Agenda. Any thoughts regarding that?

I'm always making sure to mulligan any card except Award Ceremony, Renewed Purpose and Don't Get Cocky.

punchitchewie 527

@JuryDuty thanks for the kind words! The second Ancient Wisdom is actually a typo, it should have been a Concentrate, so you don't have to pick up a second one! The second Renewed Purpose is pretty crucial though - you really do want to have as much card draw as possible, and missing one of those can really hurt.

C-3PO is a great addition - not having to hit the damage side on the Launch Bay, or being able to focus one of your other die seems perfect! I like the addition of R2-D2 too - it seems like it would help especially on turn 2 or 3.

Hidden Agenda was used to get +1 resource and +1 card, and is really only used to play Salvo. If you play it on Ezra Bridger - Aspiring Jedi, you can use his Power Action to draw a card, and use it to play the Salvo for free. It's definitely something you could cut if it's not being useful for you though. Even something seemingly irrelevant like Hunker Down could work, just because you can play it on Ezra and draw a card, effectively making your deck one card smaller.

The second Fond Memories isn't quite as crucial, but is good for looping cards once you've drawn your whole deck. It may actually not be needed though - I'd be curious to see how your testing with only the one has worked out.

Regarding not being able to draw cards in Round 1 - what decks have you been testing against? Now that people know about the deck, if they know to either disrupt you or discard cards from your hand, it might be a much tougher game for you than it was for me (I played against mostly damage decks in that tournament).

Good luck with your testing, and I'm glad to hear that you like the deck!

JuryDuty 14

@punchitchewie Ah--I knew that about Ancient Wisdom. My bad--I actually am running one Ancient Wisdom and one Concentrate, so I'm good there. But, yes, I think I'm feeling the hurt from not having a second Renewed Purpose. Agreed, R2-D2 really shines in subsequent rounds.

I've seen others adding weapons to this deck in these comments, but honestly, I find I'm basically not even playing the characters. They're just meat-shields while I get my deck ready to pummel.

I haven't found a second Fond Memories necessary yet. It's easy enough to pull it out and play a second time if needed. The problem I have with Hidden Agenda is that unless I draw it in round one and play it before the character rolls, it doesn't trigger that round. Here's how my play usually goes:

  1. Mulligan anything except Award Ceremony, Renewed Purpose or Don't Get Cocky.
  2. Roll all my characters, one-by-one and if I can, play any supports and play cards that grab resources. This quite often wastes so much time that the opponent grabs the battlefield and I'm able to play the rest of my round without interruption, which usually results in multiple jaw drops if the chaining happens.
  3. Carefully play my cards in such an order that I can take out at least their most powerful character.

...so because of that, there's not much use yet for Hidden Agenda.

I've been playing against Kylo/Price, Phasma/Fett and some weak Jedi. It's not so much what they do to me as it is that I look down at my hand and I'm just not able to chain until into the third round. Of course, that eliminates the element of surprise a bit.

I'm playing a store tournament tomorrow so I'm interested to see how I do against a wide variety. Last tournament I got stomped with my Qui-Gon/Rey deck...the meta has moved beyond that LOL!

JuryDuty 14

To sum up, my main deck differences are:

Echo7 328

You can never play Fond Memories a second time. Read the text. It gets set aside, not discarded. So you cannot replay with Rebel or grab again with Cheat. I find the second copy is absolutely essential. I often find myself not quite having enough cards in hand, or needing to loop to ready the launch bay a second time and play Concentrate twice to finish off the opponent. You said you're not using Trust Your Instincts as it's only good with Ezra. Are you not playing Ezra? I find the combo can sometimes be right on the edge of failing and the extra draws from this event and Ezra's power action can be clutch. I've played this a bunch of times and get the combo fired off about 80-90% of the time.

JuryDuty 14

@rogue6548 My bad--you're right about Fond Memories. Sorry, I'm still learning this deck. That, along with Renewed Purpose, are cards I would double-up on, but I just don't own duplicates yet and my local stores don't have the singles. I haven't bought online just because I can't get them fast enough for the tournaments I'm playing this week.

I am playing with Ezra, but I like R2-D2 better (sorry, I think I linked the wrong R2 above).

My biggest challenge is just learning the speed to play this deck. I've had a few times now where I've run out of cards and lose by default. This is, of course, entirely my fault for burning through cards too quickly to get resources, etc, without hitting with the combo.

Wow, getting that combo fired off 80-90% of the time is amazing! You've given me something to shoot for. I'd love to hear any tips you might have learned in real practice.

Razelll 244

@JuryDuty Here is my decklist if you want to check it out: swdestinydb.com

JuryDuty 14

So here are my results from yesterday's tournament:

Game 1: Obiwan & Maz - Lost by round 4 - Cards just didn't come in the right order at all. No way I should have lost this one.

Game 2: 5 Battle Droids - Won in round 1 - Hit all 5 droids with 8 damage at once using Salvo, game ended. Jaws dropped all around.

Game 3: Moz and Finn - Lost in round 4 - Was a close one.

Game 4: Snoke and someone - Lost in round 2 - Ran out of cards and this opponent had seen me play the battle droids and therefore took tactics to fight back.

A few changes I'm making--based on @Razelll's feedback, I'm going to get that second Renewed Purpose and Fond Memories. I'm also grabbing Anakin Skywalker - Podracing Prodigy and dumping Jar Jar Binks - Clumsy Outcast to have a better chance at resources.

Overall, I wasn't pleased with the results, BUT I also went in knowing I didn't have all the right cards. Plus, this deck takes a bit of practice to learn how it plays. If you discard cards at the wrong time, you can find yourself out of plays or damage.

My biggest challenge is getting a decent starting hand and then still having enough cards in my hand by the time I shoot off the combo that it hits hard.