Richmond Recap

Hey all! The other week, I wrote about cards you might expect at Richmond Sector, so here's my follow-up with how I did at the event! In that article, I mentioned Bamboozle, Sabine’s Masterpiece, Chewbacca, and Force Throw, all of which were featured in the Finals between Sabine ECL and Quinlan Tarkintown. So I guess I wasn’t too far off!

Here is what I ran –

Up until the week before, I was very likely to play Quinlan TT. I had solid success with it in the Set 3 meta with a Top 4 finish at the Philly PQ and Top 8 at NYC PQ. I just wasn’t super happy to play Quinlan into an open field. Mikael from Sekrit is a machine, and his run to the Finals is not likely something I could have done.

I follow a lot of Wooooo’s content, and in the build-up to that tournament, he was talking up Qi’ra a lot that week, so I pretty much ripped his 70 (I want to say 60, but Data Vault (JTL 24) makes it 70 cards total!). This is also only one card different from John Tatta from KTOD, who ran an Onyx Squadron Brute (JTL 33) over a third Inferno Four, Unforgetting (SOR 31).

What put me onto this after playing it a few times was its ability to answer what I expect the meta to do be. Han1 (SOR 17), Quinlan Vos (TWI 18), and Sabine (SOR 14) were the big three decks I was expecting to see. I felt like Qi’Ra (SOR 2) had solid matchups into both Han and Quinlan and 50/50 odds with Sabine. 

Blue Green Villain ramp decks are always going to be somewhere in the meta simply because of the power of Overwhelming Barrage (SOR 92) on top of their crazy end game with Darth Vader (SOR 87), Maul (SHD 90), Avenger (SOR 40), and Devastator (SOR 90)! 

If you do have 90 minutes to spare, I would encourage you to watch Wooooo’s new video on Qi’Ra Data Vault which can give some specific insights on matchups. 

FFG Listened after Denver

As for my weekend, it was such an awesome event. Shoutout to Ron and FFG for making some GREAT adjustments for a majority of the players attending the event. The prize wall prices were significantly better than Denver, along with the cost of side events dropping a bit, too.

The prize wall felt full, with all the Sector Playmats, OP Border Promos (Han, Chewie, Ackbar, etc), SWU T-Shirts, and set pins available. They also had a bunch of Gamegenic products you could get with prize tickets, like deck pods, sleeves, playmats – even the oversized Twin Suns playmat! 

Really outstanding job by them to turn it around just two weeks after Denver.

So jumping into my run!

Round 1, vs. Sabine ECL 

Lost 0-2 to Mike from Against the Galaxy

Round 1 always feels bad to run into someone you got the chance to meet the night before, but Mike was a great opponent! I don’t remember specifics outside of having no answer Game 1 to a Chewbacca pilot (JTL 103), and Game 2 he did an excellent job forcing out my removal and slamming Chewbacca after he saw a Traitorous (SOR 122) come out.

At this point, I was already worrying I would repeat my GenCon Qi’Ra performance with a 2-3 drop!

Record: 0-1

 

Round 2, vs. Han1 Yellow

Won 2-0

Han is still around! I felt comfortable going into Han Command for the most part, but I was curious how hard it would be to navigate Bodhi Rook (SOR 201) ripping my events, Cunning (SOR 203) doing its thing, and Cantina Bouncer (SOR 202) keeping my big stuff off the board. 

Luckily, I was able to have more bombs than him. Enfys and Han are great, but direct answers with Vaders and Mauls felt solid. If we went longer, also having Avenger and Devastators to lock it down was great. Tech (SHD 248) is a lot less threatening in the early rounds without DJ (SHD 213) in the deck following his suspension. Smuggling a Liberated Slaves (SHD 200) at 5 is a lot less scary than a DJ at 5.

Record: 1-1

 

Round 3, vs. Sabine Yellow

Won 2-0

SABINE AGAIN! I was a bit worried seeing another Sabine, but I felt a bit more comfortable knowing he didn’t have ECL with Wrecker (SHD 154) and Poe Dameron (SHD 153) coming at me or a Chewie pilot! 

This matchup can be scary, though, as Sabine Yellow can really dominate the Space Arena. Game 1, my opponent actually went more ground, and it ended up that a 4/4 Childsen (SOR 35) sentinel was enough to slow him down. 

By the end of Richmond, I was not in love with Chilly, but this was one of the games he was perfect. I had the 4/4, he dropped a Darksaber (SHD 126) on Sabine, crashed into Childsen, and then I killed Sabine off with my 3/2 Hylobon Enforcer (SHD 27).

Game 2 was insane as my only out was Overwhelming Barrage. I just so happened to draw TWO, and I was worried about a Spark of Rebellion (SOR 200) or Jam Communications (JTL 207), so I kept both. Then, with his first action, he plays Jam Communications and is not happy to see two OBs (Who would be?!). My remaining OB was able to kill two ships with pilots on them and Sabine.

Record: 2-1

 

Round 4, vs. Vader1 Data Vault

Won 2-0

I loved seeing Darth Vader (SOR 10) starting out at 2-1! A big factor in this matchup is who can ramp and drop bombs the fastest. I am lucky to be in Villain Blue, so my removal package is better. He, however, has access to Krayt Dragons (SHD 172), which can be very tough to deal with if I only have Devastator or Superlast Blast (SOR 43) to kill them.

In both games, I was able to ramp before him and put a lot of pressure on. I dealt with Vader himself with either Power of the Dark Side (SOR 41) or Rival’s Fall (SHD 79), so he never put a lot of damage on the base with his leader either. In Game 2, he went harder into discard, but I had sided in Palpatine’s Return (SHD 94) anyway, simply to replay bombs. That worked out even more with him discarding so much.

Record: 3-1

 

Round 5, vs. Cad Tarkintown

Won 2-0

Starting to feel good about the day! Cad Bane (SHD 14) is a mid-range deck that can play very well into control, though, with cards like Bazine Nestal (SHD 184) and Lurking Tie Phantoms (SHD 187). Luckily for me, he didn’t really get either of them going in both games, I am not sure he even ran LTPs. 

Dealing with Cad leader can be tricky with his 8 health, but the fact he only swings back for two damage makes it easier to just jam Maul into him and force him to have an answer. Overall, I just kept removing Cad Bane units (TWI 187), as that was the card that could really blow me out – it could capture my Avengers! Anytime he played a Cad, I just played my removal and got my units back, all healed, too!

Record: 4-1

 

Round 6, vs. Sabine Yellow

Won 2-0

Another Sabine Yellow! I had a similar game plan, and I was able to execute it in a similar fashion. Overwhelming Barrage is insane in this matchup to help clean up space. If you can OB and then land a Devastating Gunship (TWI 36), it can really bully space. Just be aware of the Valiant Assault Ship (SHD 151) as that can really hit hard if you have more resources. A Surprise Strike (SOR 220) for 8 is a scary thing to hear, even with 33 health!

Record: 5-1

 

Round 7, vs. Anakin Colossus

Won 2-0

These matchups can be super grindy, so I went in prepared for that! I tried to keep his card draw limited, as I had the advantage to start due to his using Colossus (JTL 21). That meant trying to kill C-3PO (SOR 238) as soon as he hit the board!

From there, we exchanged some big blows, and I was able to hit leader Anakin (TWI 12) with a Rival’s Fall before he got out of hand. It helps that I am not doing a lot of damage before Anakin flips so he is often just a 4 or 5 power leader. Game 1 ended up being grindy, and I got him on mill; in Game 2 I just hit ramp and played big things and won!

Record: 6-1

 

Round 8, vs. Kylo Tarkintown

Won 2-0

Boy was I stressed this round. Now sitting at 6-1, we could have intentionally drawn, but I really wanted to put myself in the best possible spot to make Top 8 on Day 2. Finishing 7-1 gave me a MUCH better chance than 6-1-1. So we played it out!

Game 1 he missed a Turn 1 play, and from there it just snowballed. I got very lucky as I bet there is around 15-18 Turn 1 plays in that deck.

Game 2 was super tight. I got down to about 2-3 life left and my opponent almost took the line to Force Choke (SOR 139) his own Fifth Brother (SOR 131) to see what burn he could draw, but he instead opted to play a Fallen Lightsaber (SOR 137) on Fifth Brother. He was exhausted, so I play Top Target (SHD 71) then Fell The Dragon (SHD 78) to defeat and heal 6. My opponent then drew The Chaos of War (SHD 159) which would have won him the game if he Force Choke’d his own unit! A crazy line to think about but funny it would have paid off!

Record: 7-1 and on to Day 2!

 

Round 9, vs. Gar Yellow

Won 2-0

I was happy to see this matchup as I think we are very favored, even if they heavily upgrade their units. I can use a single removal to kill them, and all blue removal gets through their shields. Game 2 got VERY close as he hit a few units to go wide early with the help of Director Krennic (JTL 32) along with some Surprise Strikes. Qi’Ra deploy is weird here in that it helps remove shields but it weakens OB's effectiveness since they didn’t take any damage from the leader flip.

Record: 8-1

 

Round 10, vs. Cad Tarkintown

Lost 1-2

A stumble! I was somewhat hopeful that I could walk away with the victory as I took care of a Cad on Day 1, but Moophisto from Bothan Network (and a friend from Destiny days!) is an excellent player.

Game 1 went well for me, much like my Day 1 games, but his sideboard changes swung the matchup. Game 2 he played all 3 Lurking Tie Phantoms, and I just could not deal with all that damage coming in from space on top of them eating all my removal. Traitorous is a great card here, but he often played another space unit so if I stole a LTP he was able to kill it immediately. So we had the reverse sweep here, but it was awesome to later see Moophisto win out and make Top 8!

Record: 8-2

 

Round 11, vs. Qi'ra Data Vault

Lost 0-1

A mirror is never fun for blue green villain. We traided big units like Avengers, Mauls, and Devastators, but eventually it came down to mill. We both drew a lot of cards from our Doctor Pershings (SHD 28), I hit two Vigilances (SOR 58) and did mill for both. Going into the end game I had about 15-16 cards in my deck and he had 5 but he had all 3 Vigilances in hand so discarded the rest of my deck which had my third Vigilance in there.

We didn’t have enough time for a game 2, that is likely on me and needing to concede a bit faster but I likely only would have saved 5 minutes and we still go to time game 2. Shoutout to Craw from Bothan Network as well and a old Destiny player too!

Record: 8-3

 

Round 12, vs. Han 2 Data Vault

Lost 1-2

My third Bothan Network opponent in a row! This time was Chrispy who was a lot of fun to play against. We both were already eliminated from Top 8 so really just playing for final placement, and he was hoping to be the top Han2 (SHD 13) player so he could win a showcase!

These games were super tight. Green Red Hero can make life tough for my deck as he can create a lot of 2-for-1s. Having access to Chewbacca to eat removal or even Poe pilot (JTL 100) to create an X-Wing token to eat up things like Power of the Dark Side.

Game 3 I was about to stabilize, but he did Timely Intervention (SHD 129) on a Shadows Poe (153) to discard a card from hand to deal the last 2 damage to base right before I could close with my Devastator and Avenger out!

Record: 8-4

 

An Awesome Weekend

So going 7-1 on Day 1 and winning my first game Day 2 only to lose my last 3 games did feel bad, but I wouldn’t let that ruin the fact I hit my goal of reaching Day 2! If before the event started, you had offered me Day 2 but I'd be losing my last 3, I would’ve taken that deal!

Richmond was an awesome event, and it was a blast meeting so many fans of the Golden Dice Podcast! I really was blown away by how many people that came up and said hello. It makes me all the more excited to be out at Minnesota for their Regional! Be sure to come say hi if you will at the Minnesota Regional, Philadelphia PQ at Redcap’s Corner or the Galactic Championship in Vegas!

Lastly, the current meta break down is awesome! This event felt so good to play in, and I'm looking forward to see what other events bring! I saw Lille had a Sabine Data Vault win with over 800 players. That was certainly not on my bingo card!

JustJack
Golden Dice Podcast
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