JustJack's PQ Report

Hey all! It is JustJack from the Golden Dice Podcast! I wanted to write this week about my experience at the Maryland PQ!

December was a very busy and sick month for my house, so my Star Wars: Unlimited time was sparse. I am not sure I actually played any SWU until about a week before my PQ on January 18th.

Since I started out Set 3 playing Quinlan Vos, Sticking the Landing (TWI 18), I figured that is what I would return to!

I have always been a big fan of the red hero discard package with things like K-2SO, Cassian's Counterpart (SOR 145) and Pillage (SHD 181).

Yellow hero, of course, mixes in perfectly with Spark of Rebellion (SOR 200) and Qi'ra, Playing Her Part (SHD 202)! 

So Vos with Tarkintown (SOR 25) seemed like the perfect pair, and it had been doing well recently, too! Shoutout to Loopee from L8Night Gaming for hosting a masterclass on the deck with Matty from KTOD and MickeyD from Bothan Network. Made it easier to play catch-up on the ins and outs of the deck!

Huge shoutout to Matty as well as I ran his list 60/60 that he has been working on! 

The Deck

Click here to view this deck on SWUDB.com

So I roll into the Maryland Planetary Qualifier with about 10 games on the deck, and so I'm really just aiming to have a good time. I'm looking forward to seeing familiar faces and use the Maryland event as a chance to help get better on the deck; I am signed up for two more PQs after this one – one on January 25th in NYC and one on February 22nd in Philadelphia.

So really the questions for me were (1) how can I keep a clear head and play tight, and (2) how can I walk away from losses focusing on small steps to improve, rather than be frustrated at a loss or my overall record. 

Round 1, vs. Palpatine Command

So we kick off the day going against a Palp1 Command deck! I have played against this pairing  a bunch as my teammate Scott has been playing some version of Palpatine since Set 1's release. (Editor's note: Scott wrote about piloting a Palp Aggression deck to the Finals of a $1K last April. You can read his article here.)

So I leaned into what my deck does well and tried to rip his hand apart and make his decisions very awkward on what to do each round. My Vos pings helped keep his board clear to prevent him from throwing units at me to draw cards.

Game 1 was in my favor, but Game 2 had my sweating a bit. I was able to close it out with Surprise Strike (SHD 231) on K2 to overwhelm a Colonel Yularen, ISB Director (SOR 109), who had 1hp left. That attack pushed 6 damage through on the overwhelm and my K2 also died, triggered his When Defeated ability for another 3 damage – 9 total – to my opponent's base.

Record: 1-0

Round 2, vs. Han Cunning

Round 2 I go against what is currently considered the best deck of the format, Han1 Yellow!

I prioritized (1) keeping Tech, Source of Insight (SHD 248) off the board, (2) not letting him get any blowout Cunning (SOR 203) plays, and (3) playing Qi’Ra at 4 resources and calling DJ, Blatant Thief (SHD 213), unless he had a Han Solo, Reluctant Hero (SOR 198) in his hand.

Game 1 it worked out, but Game 2 he raced me faster, and then in Game 3 he got DJ off twice! Both games we were each within a health or two of winning so it was super tight! I also noticed my opponent's plastic initiative tokens from placing Top 4 in a PQ, so I figured he was a good player.

Record: 1-1

Round 3, vs. Sabine ECL

Then round 3 I am hoping to bounce back ... and I hit Sabine ECL.

Again I win Game 1 and lose games 2 and 3 in a very tight fashion.

This was also the wildest game in the sense that we called a judge over twice. First, my opponent knocked over a few cards onto the floor, so we call a judge and resolve it. Immediately after that, my jacket cuffs flip the corner of my mat up and flips my discard pile directly onto my deck.

So we call the judge back, and we both recounted exactly what cards were in there, and I knew that the last one was Spark of Rebellion as I had just played that.

Both myself and my opponent laughed about it, and the judge resolved it extremely fast!

This matchup was one where I learned some things right away. One round I burned Tarkintown on something I didn’t need to, and on another I opened up with a pass, which let him claim and drop a Cassian Andor, Rebellions Are Built On Hope (SHD 148) or Sundari Peacekeeper (SHD 98) making it harder for me to ping and TT as they had 5 hp. Lessons learned! 

Record: 1-2

Round 4, vs. Sabine ECL

So going into Round 4 I took those lessons and applied them as I got another Sabine Wren, Galvanized Revolutionary (SOR 14) matchup and took it one down 2-0! It felt great to apply those learned lessons immediately in the very next match.

Record: 2-2

Round 5, vs. Quinlan Vos Tarkintown

Now we move on to my last match before I drop and head over to Outback for a drink –  a mirror match!

These games were very weird. In hindsight, I think I passed too much and it made me wish I maybe ran Crafties (Crafty Smuggler [SOR207]) over R2-D2, Full Of Solutions (TWI 193) just for another shielded unit, but that wasn’t wining me the game.

We went to 3 games, and ultimately he played a Cassian that he was able to boost with a Wing Leader (SOR 241), and that was just too hard for me to crawl back from.

A 2-3 Finish and My Takeaways

Sure, 2-3-Drop isn’t amazing, BUT I had a blast seeing a lot of familiar faces from the Set 2 PQ at Maryland I went to. I also am very glad I stuck with this deck and didn’t try to predict the meta.

I used it as a chance to get reps on a good deck created by a good player. I think too often we can be hard on ourselves of the idea that you need to place or that event isn’t worth it. Instead, I want to challenge you to improve each event no matter how small it might be!

I think it's important to set realistic goals for yourself. For instance, me going 6-1 and making Top Cut would’ve been an insane goal for me personally given my prior month, and I would've only been disappointed with my trip. Instead I set the expectation that I play each game one action at a time and focus on tangible lines I can improve on.

And I did! I was able to beat a matchup (Sabine ECL) that I lost to the round prior. That felt great.

To the Future!

PQs are awesome events, I am excited for the other two I am going to over the next month or so. I also cannot wait for Galactics, Regionals and Sectors to see more of your faces in person. Always be sure to come up and say high, but be fast before I x-3  drop and grab a drink!

Appreciate you reading my ramblings after a PQ. I hope you are able to take something away from the mindset I had during the event and apply it to any tournaments you are going to in the near future!

JustJack
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