Top 4 Star Wars: Unlimited Premier Decks from our Store Showdown
At our Store Showdown, we had 16 participants who built their own decks just 2 days after the release of the new set and tried their luck. Among the decks that didn't make it into the top 4 were some Boba Green lists, Han Solos, Sabines and others. In the end Dominic (Qi'ra Green), Mario (Sabine Red), Me (Tarkin Yellow) and Jonas (Kylo Red) made it into the top 4.
The Top 4
In the first semi-final (left), I had a close duel against Mario, who deserved to make it through to the final after a narrow 2:1 victory. On the other side, Dominic was able to survive Jonas' onslaught and also advance to the final. The final was also closely contested, but in the end Dominic won the tournament with a 2:1 victory.
The deck I have chosen is very firmly focused on board presence. It tries to play units that stay on the field and then buff them. With very efficient removals like Legal Authority, No Good to me Dead and Swoop Down, it tries to have an overpowering force and then kill the opponent quickly.
Against aggro decks, it quickly tries to kill the opponent's units and then kill the opponent as soon as you control the board. This is a close matchup that I won twice in the Swiss Rounds, but then unfortunately lost in the semifinals. Triple Dark Raid into Reinforcement Walker can be the difference between life and death. However, you should resource the Walker in this matchup if you have it in your hand, as the game is always over before you have eight resources.
Against Control, the goal is to bring in a Lurking TIE Phantom and buff it. This renders Avengers and Power of the Dark Side useless and otherwise only dies against Make an Opening or in combat against enemy Space units. Therefore, try to buff as quickly as possible so that it cannot be removed. However, you have to watch out for Traitorous, which can simply steal your Phantom.
Jonas made it into the top 4 with this deck, even though he woke up 10 minutes before the tournament and therefore had to compete without a sideboard. This deck has the potential to do an incredible amount of damage in a short amount of time. For this reason, Jonas was able to win against Sabine by simply being faster. Lightsaber on Kylo or on Fifth Brother is very scary and can lead to very short games if you don't have an answer.
When playing, make sure to aggressively use Kylo's ability and discard for extra damage, as you don't want to have any cards left in your hand on the 4 resource turn so Kylo can reach his full potential.
Compared to Sabine, however, the deck has less reach without having units on the field, which is why it performed worse against Tarkin and also Qi'Ra.
Sabine Red is similar to the deck that already existed in Set 1. With Bo Katan you have another premium turn 1 play, with Poe a scary top end and with Chaos of War additional base damage.
Cassian Andor and the Assault Ship are also worth mentioning, as the latter together with Aggression won a game against me alone. He played the ship on his 4th resource turn, then didn't resource it so he had less resources than me. Then he played 2x aggression to destroy my spaceships and 2x additional attack with the ship. That's how the ship did 20 damage to me in 2 turns.
The Darksaber also represents another danger, as you can simply play it on Sabine and then have a 6/8 leader that is almost impossible to kill.
This Qi'Ra list is Dominic's latest take on the old Krennic deck. The advantage of Qi'Ra is the ability to give your units shields. On the other hand, you can damage all your units on the 5 resource turn by deploying Qi'Ra and then kill them with Barrage.
Blue/Green control decks are extremely different and should be adapted to the meta and to the player, which Dominic has done brilliantly here.
This is probably the deck with the fewest new cards, which shows that even in Set 2 not only synergies are important, but also card quality can win tournaments.