Grandma & Grandpa (Top 8, 69 Player MD Regional)

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Dookan STD 0 0 0 1.0

N3XUSPR0GRAM 61

Introduction: This is the deck that I piloted to the top 8 of the 2019 regional at Games and Stuff in MD. The competition here was incredibly fierce, with some of the best competitors in one room, including the current national champion. My goal was to counter the meta by having as much consistency as possible while being able to utterly shut down Vader and not worry about facing mill. I aimed for top 8, and ultimately went 5-2 and came in 5th prior to the top cut.

Deck Goal: The goal of the deck is to deal fast, consistent damage with the occasional wild swing from Unyielding or No Mercy for a blowout. This is often achieved by using Mother Talzin - Nightsister Matriarch to focus to a Force Speed special and use the ability to activate Count Dooku - Darth Tyranus into a huge damage turn. In addition to ensuring that Count Dooku - Darth Tyranus melee sides are consistently hit, he has the ability to blank your opponent's melee dice and should ideally only be activated after Darth Vader - Terror To Behold in that match-up.

Starting Hand Suggestions: This varied depending on the deck I was playing against, but I tended to mulligan for a Force Speed, It Binds All Things, Force Illusion, Dark Counsel or Energy Bow, and some form of mitigation or Witch Magick. If I drew Stifle I tended to keep it as well.

Against Darth Vader - Terror To Behold, I always tried to get Witch Magick as opposed to mitigation in the starting hand as removing those die aren't that useful unless they are at peak damage or you have a bunch of mitigation to burn.

Playing the Deck: This deck shines against Vader or a melee opponent. My goal was to always load Mother Talzin - Nightsister Matriarch with a Force Speed, use her ability to guarantee the special, and to have the next two actions to activate Count Dooku - Darth Tyranus with a heavy "gut-punch" of melee damage. Getting the modified sides on Ancient Lightsaber or the other heavy duty lightsaber upgrades combined with guaranteed 2 or 3 damage from Dooku's dice made short work of my opponents.

There's a good chance you will win the battlefield roll-off and it is usually best to take your own Theed Royal Palace - Naboo to prevent your opponent from gaining another resource, especially with the prevalence of Vader's Fist and Darth Vader's Lightsaber in the meta right now. The extra two health on your opponent is not a big deal as this deck was described as having one of its cons as "absolutely overkilling the opponent."

This deck is deceptively fast. Even without Force Speed, there's a good chance you will be ahead of your opponents with minimal re-rolling due to the consistency. When combined with the extra resource from Theed Royal Palace - Naboo and the investment in early It Binds All Things, there is a huge potential for using Count Dooku - Darth Tyranus 3 damage, 1 resource pay sides.

Your ultimate goal is to burst down the primary engine of your opponent while keeping both characters alive. The turn that one of your two characters goes down, you will be in trouble. Indirect damage is a huge problem for this deck as the little pings can make it difficult on deciding when to use Force Illusion.

Card Choices Explained: It Binds All Things if played early is a great pick as it ensures you can throw down a Force Illusion at a moments notice or use precious resources for events or even the 3 damage sides on Count Dooku - Darth Tyranus.

Deflect was an auto-include due to the large number of vehicles, Vader's Fist, and even preventing 2 damage from Greedo - Unlucky Mercenary. This card swung games against Vader's Fist.

Unyielding and No Mercy were the final plays of at least three of the games I had leading up to the top cut. Unyielding makes Force Illusion worthless and allows the ranged sides from Mother Talzin - Nightsister Matriarch to be resolved at the same time as the melee sides, allowing for a quick burst kill. No Mercy came in handy when I used it and discarded my whole hand to resolve a Count Dooku - Darth Tyranus die for a total of 7 damage, finishing a game. Is 2 of each overkill? Maybe, but ensuring they were available when I needed them was worth the spot.

Potential Changes: There are a few cards I would change due to the experience of the day and match-ups I faced. I would for sure cut Stifle because it just does not do the work I needed it to do. In its place, I may add in a single copy of Fear and Dead Men, even though its even cost, to do 3 damage to all characters in a 3-wide, which this deck struggled against.

Regional Recap: Here is where I am going to break down the day of the regional, focusing on how the deck performed in the matchups.

Match 1: WIN against Vader/Greedo (Paul Michael of ABG): I really enjoy playing against Paul as it is always a fun, relaxed time and we were paired against each other back at Pax Unplugged on the stream. Hungry for a rematch, I was excited because Paul was my ideal matchup as this deck was explicitly tooled to destroy the Vader/Greedo combination. Unfortunately for Paul, this was my fastest game I've ever played in Destiny. Even though Paul used both a Force Illusion and healed from a Ancient Lightsaber, I still dealt 19 damage to Darth Vader - Sith Lord and killed him by the end of turn 2. I ended up winning this match with a Deflect on Vader's Fist to finish off Greedo - Unlucky Mercenary and we finished our match in under 7 minutes.

Match 2: WIN against Boba/Phasma: I cannot remember my opponent's name, but I do remember him making the top 16! In this match, I ended up not being able to find any upgrades other than Force Speed, but due to deck consistency, it didn't matter. I melted Boba Fett - Deadly Mercenary quickly and used a No Mercy to deal 7 damage to obliterate a lightly injured Captain Phasma - Ruthless Tactician.

Match 3: WIN against Vader/Bazine: This match was arguably my longest of the day but one of the best I've played. Talzin was squished towards the tail end of the game, but Darth Vader - Terror To Behold went down around the same time. As Bazine Netal - Master Manipulator was left stockpiling resources, I was nervous because I had a suspicion that she had a Dark Ritual in her hand. However, Count Dooku - Darth Tyranus armed with Maul's Lightsaber, Darth Vader's Lightsaber, and a Force Speed is an absolutely overwhelming combination. It did turn out that she had a Dark Ritual in her hand and had I not finished the turn when I did, I was going to be facing Vader again.

Match 4: LOSS against Vader/Greedo (Nathan Bastanzi): Turns out that Nate is good friends with a friend of mine and we had no idea before the match! Going into a high stakes match joking and having fun was the best thing that could have happened as the stress and fatigue were starting to creep up on me. After two hard mulligans, I still did not end up with any of the cards I had hoped to draw. Nate caught me off guard with incredible rolls on Darth Vader - Terror To Behold and when I thought this painful round was over and I was going to bounce back turn 2, he suddenly went full-in and played The Price of Failure on Greedo - Unlucky Mercenary leading to Count Dooku - Darth Tyranus dying turn 1. There was no coming back from this blowout and I ended up conceding after the end of the second round. I was really pleased to see Nate end up going 7-0 and enjoyed cheering him on and checking in with him after each round to see how he was doing. Making a new friend at a tournament is the real winning prize as opposed to a trophy!

Match 5: WIN against Tarkin/Snoke: Another match where I cannot remember my opponents name, but I was pleased to also see them make top 16. This was easily the closest match I had all day, and I nearly lost it due to a misplay that led to two more rounds being played. I cannot stress enough proper snacking between rounds and taking your time to consider every possible move, like in chess. Indirect damage is one of the two major cruxes to this deck and I was absolutely punished with not being able to land my "turn one gut punch" due to removal. Ultimately, Ancient Lightsaber and Force Illusion kept me in the game and I narrowly sketched out a victory.

Match 6: LOSS against RebelTraitor/Snoke/Ciena (Dave Caruana of ABG): Dave is a blast to play against. No matter what happens, there is always joking, laughter, and general nonsense happening during the match. This deck was the crown jewel of brainstorming by team ABG and it showed. Rebel Traitor absolutely destroyed my strategy of using Force Speed to deal damage with Count Dooku - Darth Tyranus as he would force me to activate and then mitigate before I could land hits. I was able to take down Ciena Ree - Adept Pilot but could not finish the job as vehicles began pouring out overwhelming my characters. I had a blast playing against Dave and would be checking in with him throughout the remainder of the tournament to see how he was doing.

Match 7: WIN against Vader/Bazine: This was my make or break match. Due to the current standings of Nate and Dave, if I won this one I was near guaranteed to make it into the top 8. While my nerves were absolutely on edge, this match drug on forever due to poor dice rolls and discarding to reroll. While Darth Vader - Terror To Behold went down quickly and Bazine Netal - Master Manipulator was not a threat damage wise, I just could not seem to land more than three damage a turn on her. As I was nearing running out of cards, I finally got the damage I needed and won the match.

Top 8 Break: At the initial announcement, I made 8th place! Of my opponents that beat me, Nate ended up going 7-0 and Dave went 6-1. However, due to some miscalculation on the store championship bye value weight, the top 8 standings had to be recalculated. This shifted the top 8 around and some people that were in there were removed, which is the worst feeling ever. Fortunately for me, this actually bumped me from 8th to 5th! Unfortunately, I was paired against Dave who took the 4th seed.

Top 8 Matches against Dave from ABG (LOSS 0-2): I knew I was facing an uphill battle against Dave's deck, something like that wall from Ninja Warrior. We had a blast joking around as we played, but ultimately I could not do more than burn down at most two characters before the damage from vehicles overwhelmed me and I ended up being beaten 0-2.

Conclusion: After doing a lot of deck testing, I decided to go counter-meta and aim for the goal of top 8 as it was my first regional. Had there not been a vehicle heavy deck such as the one piloted by many members of ABG, this deck had the potential to go all the way. Unfortunately, I fell just short but I achieved my goal of making top 8 with arguably a non-tier 1 deck at a regional event. I had a blast with this deck and think it could be tweaked to be even better depending on the matchups.

A huge thank you to my teammates George, Andy, and Bob for dealing with continuous deck testing and waiting for me after the top cut as they were my carpool. It was an incredible tournament with some of the best players in the Destiny community and I made some new friends, the greatest prize of all.

3 komentarze

Jsprague23 31

Sounds like some tough matchups. Well played sir. I liked how you described the less known win condition of any game, making friends! Would love to play you if you're ever in idaho!

N3XUSPR0GRAM 61

@Jsprague23absolutely! If you aren't having fun while you are playing, you need to stop and ask yourself why. I'd love to play you in Idaho, but I don't know if/when I'll be out there. How about TTS?

artyzipp 7

Great writeup. I love this deck. Thanks for sharing