The 2017 Store Championship Season

With Empire At War coming out very soon, (just 8 days from posting this!) I thought I would sit down and take a look at the decks that won Store Championships and why they were good.

For this article, I’ll be looking at the decks that won the most Store Championships according to The Chance Cube’s Meta Tracker. I’ll also be looking at 2 other decks that didn’t win too many SCs but ended up shaping the post-Store Champs Meta.

Poe/Maz

Ahh Poe/Maz... The deck everyone loves to hate. Many of us tried this deck before SOR even released and found out its true power. Once it gained fame though, I (and many others) dropped the deck and found less mainstream options.

So why was it so good, and why did it win so many Store Championships? The main reason for all of its wins is because of its crazy consistency. The deck doesn’t care much what you draw or what you roll. You rolled two blanks with Poe? Focus one to the special with Maz and Thermal all your opponent's characters for 3. Next action, claim Emperor's Throne Room to throw a Falcon. The deck also has ways of making it to the end game. With a Rocket Launcher and a Second Chance on Maz, your opponent doesn’t stand a chance.

Now I’m not hating on the deck (although I have had some pretty unfun matches against it). I’m simply pointing out why the deck is good. In the future, I expect to see many decks that don’t care what they roll or draw. These decks will rely on cards like Deadly (a recently spoiled card from EAW) to do damage. I know many people are hoping for a Poe nerf but I personally would rather see other decks rise to the challenge of beating it.

Vader(SOR)/Kylo(AW)

Personally, I was surprised to see that this deck made it into the first place slot in so many SCs. Don’t get me wrong, the deck is very good and has super explosive turns, but I didn’t think it was enough to win 11.6% of SCs (according to The Chance Cube Meta Tracker).

As with Poe/Maz, the winning ingredient in this deck is consistency. Lacking focuses (and Maz’s ability) this deck isn’t quite as consistent as Poe/Maz, but it can come close and can, in some cases, pump out much more damage. The consistency comes from the amazing dice (Vader has 4 damage sides while Kylo has 3!) along with several game-winning cards. Cards like Meditate and Datapad are great for this deck because they give you the special side on any of your dice, and Emperor’s Throne Room also helps.

In addition, the holocron package in this deck allows you to have 6 high cost force powers out by round 3 or 4. This also allows you to save resources for those pesky 3 for 1s Vader always rolls.

Overall, this deck works because of its synergy with itself. The synergy allows for consistency to be created and when every die side (even a blank!) is useful you’ve got yourself a very strong deck.

Vader/Raider

The oldest meta-defining deck in the book still has it. This deck hits like a freight train. What makes it so good? Like every other deck we’ve covered, it is good due to consistency. Unlike Poe/Maz and Vader/Kylo, however, this consistency comes not from focuses or self synergy but from having super powerful dice that get resolved immediately.

Note: Yes, I know fast hands was errata’d to be yellow only but most of these SC wins were prior to the change.

Vader has a 2 damage side and a 3 damage side on his die. That’s very consistent, good damage. Combined with Bait and Switch, the resource side becomes a second 3 damage that your opponent doesn’t see coming. How do you resolve these dice without getting them removed? Put Fast Hands and Force Speed on Vader along with another powerful upgrade and roll out to resolve up to 10 damage before your opponent can take an action.

This deck hits hard and fast, and whether you play the Holocron version or the melee weapons version, it can give any deck a run for its money. I expect to see an updated version of Vader/Raider post EAW. The question will only be; is Raider still Vader’s best partner?

Unkar/FN-2199/FOStormtrooper

This deck has been overshadowed lately by Rainbow Nines. I still think, however, that this deck can give any deck a run for its money. The deck generates resources fast by liberally using Unkar’s ability. This also discards cards from the opponent’s hand that they could have played. The deck then puts those resources to good use by loading FN with upgrades.

This deck generally is able to load up FN with upgrades better than Rainbow Nines due to the resources from Unkars’ ability (we’ll talk about what makes Rainbow Nines good down below). This helps the deck win because getting upgrades on FN is the name of the game when you play him. When FN finally dies, you can redeploy all of your weapons to Unkar who can finish out a game for you.

To top it all off, the stormtrooper acts like a living shield taking damage from Cannon Fodder and The Best Defense Alike.

This deck hits hard with FN-2199’s ability and can use it frequently with the additional resources from unkar. The only downside is that FN’s ability is solely based on luck and makes your games much less consistent. I expect, after the crazy FN shenanigans Lucas saw at GenCon, that FN will get a nerf in the near future. As to what the nerf may be, we can only guess. Until then, however, he continues to be a strong character, and any deck you put him in will be good.

Palpatine

The Emperor himself came to play your little card game. What makes Palpatine so good? He has consistency unmatched in all of Destiny. Rolled a resource? Take a resource; oh and deal 2 damage as well. Roll 2 discard? Discard 2 cards your opponent was going to play and deal 2 more damage. Things get even more crazy when he rolls 3 range damage and you hit your opponent for 5.

The problem with Palpatine, however, is that you invest all of your character points in these two, easily removed, dice. If these dice are removed, your entire turn is neutered. Your only hope is to roll a special on your Holocron so you can cheat in a Force Lightning or Mind Probe.

The upside to playing Palp is that he has crazy high damage potential. In addition, blue villain has some of the best events and removal in the game including rise again (25 health Palp is crazy!). Once you get an upgrade or two on Palpatine and he starts rolling hot, the game is sure to tip in your favor.

Palpatine is a solid character that can really anchor a solid deck. In SOR he was one of the decks to beat and he kept many potentially meta breaking decks in check. The cornerstone of the deck, however, is Sith Holocron. The Holocron allows you to add dice to your one character without sacrificing valuable resources for rise again. Post EAW we’ll see if Palpatine remains competitive, but for now, he is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Vader/Guard

This deck didn’t do very well overall winning just 2% of SCs (according to The Chance Cube’s Meta Tracker). It did , however, win the largest SC ever (The Artificery online SC), and I personally piloted my home-brewed version into 18th place at the same SC and 2nd place at a local tourney.

What makes Vader/Guard the deck to beat? Well besides being extremely thematic it also gives Vader a Guardian buddy. The Guardian on the Guard allows Vader to live for at least one extra turn. It also allows for a loaded Vader to swing twice with The Price of Failure. When you get the Price of Failure + Boundless Ambition play off, it’s beautiful.

When playing against this deck, the opponent will usually have an idea in their head about which character they’re going to kill first. As the Vader/Guard player, the beauty of the deck is that you don’t care who the opponent kills first. They go for Vader first? Guardian away damage as much as you can. They go for Guard? Then Vader gets at least 1 extra turn to do his thing.

Vader/Guard is a super high damage output deck. It wins games with its Price of Failure power play but it can live without it if need be. The deck will likely be changed now with the introduction of the new Phasma and Praetorian Guard, but this deck certainly deserves a place in the 2017 SC write-up.

FN-2199/Bala/Nightsister

This deck is the deck to end all decks right now. Similarl to its Vader/Guard counterpart, it won very few SCs (3% of SCs according to The Chance Cube Meta Tracker). Unlike Vader/Guard, however, this deck took first and second place at GenCon.

What makes this deck so much better than all the rest? It includes three of the best characters in the game. Fn’s greatness is obvious and doesn’t need to be discussed again here. Bala Tik, on the other hand, is less mainstream. He’s played to great effect here because he will often be readied using his ability (with weapons on him that Redeployed from FN). Nightsister also doesn’t see very much play. Her ability is fantastic. It allows for re-rolling one's own dice when the cards in hand are too valuable to discard, and it re-rolls an opponent’s big damage die.

This deck chains upgrade after upgrade rolling and resolving on Fn. Getting to use some of the best upgrades in the game twice in one round is absurd. In addition, the deck has the same targeting issue as Vader/Guard. Many players will sit down and know they will focus on Bala, Fn , or even Nightsister. Again, though, the beauty of the deck is that the FN player doesn’t much care which character you target.

This deck is an elegant collection of cards and dice. It synergizes well and, being rainbow, includes every good card you can cram into the 30 card limit. Decks like these are the ones that win big tournaments like GenCon. Like I mentioned above, I expect that an FN errata is coming. Until it comes, however, this is the deck to beat.

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Thanks for reading!

-NickTheBug; Mandalorian HQ