Why I Didn't Take Maul to a Planetary Qualifier

Why I Didn't Take Maul to a Planetary Qualifier

Here's another article from our good friend Kevin over at Roll On Gaming. This installment is a little different, but rest assured it's worth your time. Be sure to check out he and his brother, Corwin, on YouTube and Spotify for more great Star Wars: Unlimited content!

It’s the height of Planetary Qualifier season in Star Wars: Unlimited, and fortunately there have been many more options for players to find a PQ near them, compared to the inaugural season of tournaments. For those interested in competitive play as part of the C3OP structure laid out by Fantasy Flight Games, PQs are the first – and currently only – step into that world.


Winners of Set 3 PQs earn this sweet champion playmat.

I attended one Planetary Qualifier in Season 0 in Las Vegas, and aside from one or two small outliers, had a blast of a time the entire tournament.

It was great to test myself against some of the best players in the region, and I was looking forward to doing so again after the new year, this time closer to my home in Southern California. 

Then the Los Angeles wildfires hit. 

As I sat glued to the local news station, watching thousands of homes and hundreds of neighborhoods nearby destroyed before my eyes, the last thing on my mind was playing SWU.

As a native of LA County, to see the images of devastation and loss was heart-wrenching. But as the images continued, a numbness overtakes you, and to fight that numbness it’s natural to fill the void with distractions.

So at some point, many of us who were signed up to attend the local Planetary Qualifier that was scheduled for 5 days after fires broke out wondered if it would be postponed.

After all, the location of the tournament was mere blocks away from where heroic fire crews (seriously, these folks are HEROES with a capital H) continued to fight a fire that was 27% contained as of the start of the tournament.  

A Tough Call

Ultimately, the venue decided to move forward with the PQ on the scheduled day. This was communicated three days before the event was held, to give attendees enough time to make their own decisions.

I can’t imagine this was an easy choice for the store - on one hand they felt they had an obligation to hold the event as planned, and on the other hand they were likely aware that they faced a lower turnout and refund requests. 

In order to address players’ concerns, store management attempted to provide rented air purifiers to help with circulation and air quality within the store on the day of the tournament. While they were unable to acquire the purifiers, I'm told the air quality in the store was not an issue during the tournament, and the overall air quality in the area had improved significantly.

The venue also extended the refund window for anyone who decided not to attend until the day of the event. The tournament organizer, a local player who has been a force in fostering the SWU community in the area, was communicative and helpful throughout the entire process, and did his best to pass along everyone’s questions and concerns to the store itself.

To Play or Not To Play

Despite those measures, and the fact that this was my only chance at a Planetary Qualifier this season, I could not bring myself to attend. Several others in the community Discord also expressed that they would not be going, including some players in my local play group.

Everyone had their reasons, and mine were simple.

With the uncertainty that the fires and wind conditions presented, I didn’t feel it would be responsible to leave my family for an entire day to play games. I was also concerned about the air quality when I made the decision not to attend, although that seems to have been manageable throughout the day.

Most importantly, I couldn’t sit in that store and pretend that everything was all right while, just over a mile away, my brother and co-host Corwin had to evacuate his own home and was unable to return to the area. 

To be clear: this was my choice.

Others made different choices, and I don’t begrudge them for doing so. Perhaps playing Star Wars: Unlimited with other like-minded individuals was just what those folks needed, to heal or distract themselves from the horrors they’d spent the week witnessing. I applaud those who attended just as I applaud those who didn’t, because they did what they felt was right for them, and that’s what’s important.

All told, there were 92 players who competed in the Planetary Qualifier, and Han1/Tarkintown ended up taking it down. (View that decklist on SWUDB.) A well-deserved congratulations to the winner and to everyone who participated!

(If you would like to help the families affected by the Los Angeles wildfires, a great place to start would be redcross.org for details and donations.)

Editor's note: Kevin is a good friend of mine, and he's had a tremendous impact on the content you have read on this site. I appreciate him writing his thoughts above about what has transpired in LA. In an effort to help those displaced by fires in Los Angeles, Deploy Your Leader Gaming will be donating $4 per order – regardless of order size – through the month of January to Habitat For Humanity of Greater Los Angeles. Thank you, Brian

Waiting In The Shadows

If you’ve followed the articles on Deploy Your Leader Gaming, you may have read my offering on the various different ways to conceive a deck featuring Maul, A Rival In Darkness (TWI 9).

Choosing not to attend this PQ also meant that I would not be able to test my favored Maul version in a high-stakes competition. It’s a deck I’ve been working on ever since before Twilight of the Republic was released, and to this point it’s yielded more than 40 different variations

Yes, 40. I’m a Maul degenerate, apparently.

So while I will have to forestall the Maul takeover until Store Showdowns, I wanted to share my progress on the deck because – let’s face it – it’s been a journey. Here’s what the list currently looks like.Click here to view this deck on SWUDB.com

 

You’ll notice some things in the current iteration that were present in the previous article, like Death Star Stormtroopers (SOR 128), Seasoned Shoretroopers (SOR 83), and Superlaser Technicians (SOR 85).

For a long time during my internal testing, all three of these cards were NOT in the deck; they were removed, and came back when I decided to insert two copies of Precision Fire (SOR 168).

Despite my desire to Overwhelm my opponents’ units, a steady stream of Sentinels  especially Village Protectors (SHD 43) – was proving to be a hindrance to my strategy. The guaranteed attack with Saboteur was something I felt would give me an edge in control matchups, and adding a buff to my Trooper units was a bonus.

Clan Challengers (SHD 169) used to be IG-11 (SHD 170) for a significant amount of time, and IG-11 did some serious work.

I quickly realized in testing that I needed a 5-cost answer to Poe Dameron, Quick to Improvise (SHD 153) or Zuckuss, Bounty Hunter for Hire (SHD 190), so that’s where the droid initially came in. However, IG-11  would present an easy target for my opponents’ Fell The Dragon (SHD 78), whereas the Challengers had 6 HP. They are also Troopers, which meant I could threaten 8 damage at any time. 

While the Troopers were initially out, the Separatists were in. Until recently I was prioritizing additional damage dealers over the Technicians, and I wanted something with a higher ceiling than a Super Battle Droid (TWI 230). So I mixed in Droid Commandos (TWI 81) and paired it with Confederate Tri-Fighters (TWI 132) in space and B1 Attack Platforms (TWI 133) on the ground to have a shot at a Round 3 Ambush.

That combination lasted for a majority of my testing, before abandoning it for the current iteration. 

I also increased my reach in the top end. The latest additions to the list were two copies of Reinforcement Walker (SOR 119) because with 25 health, I thought the added healing and draw might be an asset. And it’s me, so you know I had to play my Devastators (SOR 90). Can’t wait for more Star Destroyers in Set 4!

One Last Lesson

As I’ve played the Maul ECL variant, tweaking and re-tooling along the way, I’ve had some overall observations about the deck and cards therein:

1.) Darth Maul, Revenge At Last (TWI 135) is difficult to use optimally in a world where Sentinels exist. If you’re able to use ECL to Ambush him in, and he takes down two units and survives, he’s amazing. Otherwise, that ECL trigger is probably best suited taking down a Leader unit with Kylo Ren, Killing the Past (SHD 141).

2.) When Maul deploys, he needs support. The dream of a beefy 6-power Maul swinging into your opponent’s base multiple times isn’t as much of a reality without additional units to take the heat off of him because of his 6 health. When he deploys, if you don’t have either a Fallen Lightsaber (SOR 137) or one of the aforementioned big units, he may not be around for long.

3.) For that reason, ramping is great. But having five ramp cards in the deck also makes for some awkward late-round draws, and drawing a Superlaser Technician or a Resupply (TWI 127) when you need to be drawing one of your heavy hitters can shift the game out of your control quickly. That’s why for a while, SLT’s were out of the mix and I relied on Resupply alone to get me there, which proved tricky at times. 

He Will Be Tested

So how much more confident am I in the build, after 40+ versions of Maul ECL? A little, I suppose. 

My barometer was going to be set at the Planetary Qualifier, but in the reps I’ve gotten during Weekly Play at my local game stores, the deck can certainly perform at a high level. I’ve beaten meta decks and casual decks alike (but I still can’t figure out Corwin’s Rey deck!) and I’ve also had some struggles. 

I still think there’s a better version of Maul out there somewhere, whether he’s paired with Command or not. There’s also a very real possibility that no version of a Maul deck can hold its own at the top tables competitively.

But this article has been all about choices, and at least for now, I choose not to believe that. Perhaps someone smarter than me will have their chance to make a deep run in the top cut of a Planetary Qualifier this season. 

If not, maybe you’ll catch me and my Maul deck at the next big tournament. 

Kevin
Roll On Gaming
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