Twisted Format Faceoff
In an effort to wring maximum joy out of their Star Wars Unlimited cards, Jawa Jeff and Bernie often come up with unique formats for draft and sealed deck. Part of the goal is to mix things up a bit and force themselves to play with unusual cards and to look for unorthodox combos.
Below is their experience with an interesting spin on sealed deck…
Challenge: Pick your opponent’s leader and base
We decide to do a sealed deck with a twist: we will open our packs and pick the other person’s leader and base. (The base must be a different color than the leader.) We’ll follow all the other standard rules of a sealed deck tournament, including the 30 card minimum.
The Opening Leader Pulls
Bernie:
I pull a choice of Jango Fett, Yoda, Anakin, Maul, Dooku, and Nute Gunray. Jango, Dooku, and Maul are all cards he plays with regularly, so they’re out. Of the remaining cards, Anakin feels a bit too easy. Yoda and Gunray are both blue and I know that Jeff hates playing blue. (He’s not patient enough. Control, Jeff; you need to learn control.) I decide on Nute Gunray for no other reason than that I found the character annoying in episode 1. I pair it with a green base since Nute’s goal is to make battle droids and I *think* I remember yellow and red having more battle droid synergy.
Jeff:
I wasn’t going to give her Obi, Dooku, or Maul. Having opened two Padme’s, there were now only two choices. Padme or Pre Visla. On one hand Visla’s pre-flip ability probably wouldn’t affect much in a sealed deck situation, but his unit side provided decent stats, a likely saboteur, and possibly even enhanced stats. Padme’s preflip could also be limited in sealed play as she needs coordinate and the deck itself may have few republic cards. Given her weaker stat line post flip, I think I can handle the restore. Padme it is.
Now for base color, I don’t remember what has the fewest republic cards, so I think I will give her a blue base.
Building Our Decks
Jeff:
Bernie gives me Nute Gunray and a Green base. This makes going through the cards pretty easy. After pulling all on-aspect cards, I only have 32 cards. Despite the limited selection, the unit-cost curve is not too bad.
I’m not a huge fan of Hold-out Blaster, so I guess that is one card I will be taking out.
I decide to go through the other cards to see if anything off aspect is worth playing. A couple of events and one upgrade seem like possible contenders.
I consider a small batch of off-aspect units. The cost seems high, but two of them are space units, which in a sealed-deck format can often go uncontested. One of them also has exploit, so I could hopefully mitigate the cost to deploy it.
Shaak Ti also catches my eye. She could benefit my – hopefully — legion of battle droids, not to mention creating clone troopers herself. My worry is that she would have a target on her back and that I would have overpaid for the stat line. I narrow it down to 4 off-aspect cards, and then decide to revisit my on-aspect cards. Currently the deck stands at 35 cards, so let’s see if the off-aspect cards make the cut when compared to what is on aspect.
To make room for my off-aspect cards, I pull out Padawan Starfighter, I Have the High Ground, Death by Droids (although this might be a mistake), Guarding the Way, and Infantry of the 212th.
My goal with the deck is to use Nute’s ability to exploit units. I’m hoping to draw into some early cheap units or some battle droid creation events which I can exploit into bigger units. Since Nute allows me to create a battle droid if two others have died, he’s almost like having a discounted exploit.
Bernie:
Jeff has given me Padme Blue. Since her ability is all about Coordinate, I’m going to need to find smaller stuff. That is, assuming I have any decent Republic cards that I *want* to draw anyway.
Of the eight rares and legendaries that I pull, I can use two of them: Tranquility, the giant 7/6 rebel ship and Barriss Offee, a blue 1/1 that boosts healed units. On the bright side, they are both Republic cards, which play well with Padme. But doubt I’ll be pulling off any amazing combos.
In my final count, I have 36 cards on aspect, so I’ll pare out 6 of them.
I decide to keep all the 1, 2, and 3 cost units, given Padme’s Coordinate ability. I also choose the Hold-Out Blaster, since the leader I gave Jeff (Nute) creates battle droids and the blaster is good for an initial single point of damage which will take out a droid. I also keep Grievous Reassembly which heals 3 damage, since I have Barriss Offee. I keep Encouraging Leadership, which gives each friendly unit +1+1 for a phase, figuring it might come in handy with the little stuff. And I keep Hello There both for the possible unit elimination and because it has a really cute name. Frankly, I’m hoping I get to use it so that I can say the line when I play it.
Almost all my big units are republic units, which seems like the aim of Padme. The exception is Multi-Troop Transport, which is a 3/6 separatist tank with exploit 2. Since Padme’s point is to keep units, not exploit them, it’s an easy one to pull.
Noticing that I have a large number of Republic units and hoping to lean into Padme’s coordinate ability, I decide to keep my deck unit-heavy and focus on culling out events and upgrades. Although I initially pull it, I decide to pop Strategic Acumen back into the deck on a whim. Since I have two small 1 cost 0/4, perhaps I can pop Strategic Acumen onto one of them to make them more useful. (Strategic Acumen is a 1 cost upgrade that gives a unit +0+2 and gives the unit the ability to tap to play a unit for 1 less.)
Games
Bernie:
I win the first game, but lose the next three (although the final game is close). Padme’s extra card drawing is useful, but not game-winning (at least not in this deck). Mostly my one win is due to Tranquility, which showed up in my starting hand. 7 damage in space is just tough to deal with and Jeff’s clone trooper army couldn’t keep up.
But despite the fact that I get Tranquility in my starting hand in both the second and third game (lucky draws), the second and third games are a total slaughter. In both games, Jeff uses Nute’s droid generation to exploit out the 8/8 Separatist Super Tank while he has a 4/5 sentinel until on the board and my smaller units just can’t keep up. The other problem is that even when I have three units in play, it’s simple for Jeff to kill one before I can use Padme’s Coordinate ability.
I did end up using Strategic Acumen on the Compassionate Senator in the first game, which turned out to be more useful than I had realized. Since Strategic Acumen only costs 1, if you play it on an untapped, zero power unit like Compassionate Senator, it becomes cost-neutral if you weren’t planning to use the Senator’s ability that turn.
In the second and third games, I begin by playing a 1/1 unit and upgrading it with Strategic Acumen and in both games, Jeff murders my unit in response, making me rethink the usefulness of Strategic Acumen in the early game. Even though Jeff’s unit also dies in the attack, I have used two cards to his one and I go into turn two with a card disadvantage and can’t pull off Padme’s Coordinate abilities until she flips on turn four. By the time I reach turn six and can pop down Tranquility, I am too close to death for it to make a difference.
I did get to use the Hold-Out Blaster to kill a droid, but I didn’t get to use “Hello There”. Maybe in a future game.
Joy = 5 stars. Jeff’s battle-droid army put up a good fight. The decks were more fun to play than I expected. And when I did manage to pull off coordinate, Padme’s card drawing gave me extra choices at the end game that made it more interesting.
Jeff:
My first game starts off with a lousy draw, and I have no 2-cost cards, even after taking a mulligan. Naturally, I lose the first game. But the next three games go much better and I decide that I’m a fan of Nute paired with Exploit.
I was unaware of how many Republic cards were in Twilight of the Republic. Bernie never had a problem drawing into a Republic card with Padme’s ability. But where Padme struggled in the sealed deck format was maintaining the Coordinate ability. I was almost always able to kill off one of her three units to prevent her from drawing cards. The same problem exists even in constructed decks, since we haven’t heard of too many Coordinate decks in the meta.