Talzin Bros. 4-2 Copenhagen Regionals (13th out of 40) 1.0

• Verziók
• 1.0

Original list went 4-2 in swiss at the Copenhagen Regionals. I ended up at the 13th spot out of 40 players. The deck is a spin off of another list I made for a Store Championship in August where I took 2nd place out of 16 I think.

You might wonder about some of the one-of's. The thing is that I am a bit mental and I don't like buying singles. The magic to me in ccg's is the thing with opening a booster pack and hoping to see that card everybody is talking about. On top of that I don't have a big budget, so i haven't got a lot of cards from ATG yet.

This is my first write-up and it ended up being a bit longer and messier than I had expected. I first write a bit about how I play the deck, then I have a summary of my matches and at last some notes on what I want to change in the deck.

Happy reading :P

Game plan
Most of the things in the deck you want to see in your starting hand so it is easier to write what you don't want to see, which is: Tactical Mastery, Vader's Fist, Backup Muscle, Rocket Launcher.

A nice starting hand could look like, Energy Bow, Chance Cube, Frighten, The Best Defense..., Mandalorian Vambraces.
This deck is resource starved and, if possible, you should only play upgrades round 1 which can produce resources. Always play and roll out the Chance Cube in the first rounds of the game, if possible, and focus the thing with Talzin. It will be a target to your opponents removal, but that will also make it easier for you to push damage through. And don't underestimate the consistent damage dealing of this deck. The Best Defense... can ruin an opponents first round. Taking 3 dmg on the droid is a low cost to pay early game.

Rule of thumb, keep Talzin alive! Mother Talzin - Nightsister Matriarch is key. Losing her early will cost you the game. If you sit with a Force Illusion in your starting hand throw it on her immediately. Do anything you can to lure you opponent to target one of the Mario Bros. You will and should generally always play upgrades on the Mandalorian Super Commando to get the most out of his Power Action. However, a single gun on Talzin can make wonders in combination with Tactical Mastery to make some surprise kills. My favourite move is equipping Talzin with the Rocket Launcher, and Tactical Mastery into either big dmg or taking down those pesky modded planes.

Vader's Fist is a bit out of place in this deck because of the starvation. But, those chance cubes can work wonders with Talzin. And it is worth sitting with the Fist in your hand for a couple of rounds, saving up, before you can cast it because it is just that broken!

Use your dice! Most of the time they will give you what you need, and what you thought you did not need. Do not spend too much effort in making all your dice showing damage. This deck thrives in longer games because you almost never have a round where you are not producing at least 4-6 damage. Be patient! Taking money early game is gonna help you later and help make your characters stay alive while you build up board state. And do not underestimate the discard and disrupt sides. The only thing I almost never resolve is the shield sides. I don't know maybe I should I just feel that this deck thrives in being stable aggressive, constantly applying pressure on your opponent.

I usually roll out the Mandalorian first. Should any of his upgrade dice show resources I snag them. Then depending on the pacing of the game I roll out the Droid. If the thing shows resource I take it. Only then I roll out Talzin and use her ability to flip blank sides to damage or chance cubes to 3. I rarely pitch to re-roll unless I am desperate.

Tournament

R1: Poe2/Han3 -- Loss

• My opponent Erik got off to a quick start with Poe Dameron's Blaster and Rex's Blaster Pistol. Hit and Run shenanigans killed Mother Talzin - Nightsister Matriarch early and I couldn't stand a chance. I feel like I misplayed a lot in this match. I won the roll and picked my battlefield to avoid the Theed Royal Palace - Naboo battlefield shenanigans. He put shields on Poe which normally is my first target. I started pinging Han and he played Poe Dameron's Blaster on Poe. I feel like i at that point should have switched and made Poe my target.

R2: Qui-Gon2/Aayla/Solidarity -- Win

• This game was against a fellow player Dan who I always enjoy to play against. I won the roll and chose his battlefield to make sure Qui-Gon would not get shields. Dan did not get to play any upgrades round 1 which put me in a really good spot. I went hard for Qui-Gon and made sure to mitigate his shield dice when possible. Once Qui-Gon was down the game was pretty straightforward and Aayla died soon after. I was pretty nervous going into this matchup. In my deck I deal a lot of ping damage thus it is hard to splash through shields. I was surprised how well a single Frighten can turn the tables in this match-up.

R3: Darth Vader - Terror To Behold / Jawa Scavenger / Retribution -- Win

• I was extremely nervous going into this match. The sole presence of the Terror makes me anxious. However not much can be said about this match-up. I did everything I could to put damage on Vader and early round 3 he was down. My opponent had problems gathering resources for mitigation and he had som unlucky re-rolling that could have killed Mother Talzin - Nightsister Matriarch late round 2. Again this game proved that consistent damage dealing can outperform most decks if they aren't rolling hot.

R4: Qui-Gon2/Rey1 -- Win

• Another Qui-Gon match-up. His gameplan was to play fast with Vibroknife and Loth-Wolf Bond. He did not roll as hot as he wanted and I made sure to control Qui-Gon's dice like in the previous match. Qui-Gon went down early round 3. By that time he had three upgrades on Rey and she was starting to put pressure on me. I found the money for my Fist and that pretty much meant game. I can't believe how broken that card is, and even though it doesn't fit my deck due to its high cost and my deck being pretty resource starved. Making sub-optimal plays and saving up for the Fist is still worth it.

R5: Yoda/Hired Gun/Gungang (Fat vehicle) -- Loss

• This game was against Claus - Mr. YOURDestiny Podcast. I think I had already convinced myself that it would be a loss. He's a great player and spends way more time playing the game than myself. This ended up being the most intense and drawn out game of the day. He got his Shadow Caster down early round 1 and defended Yoda well against my guns. In hindsight I feel like I should have switched targets when he shielded and force illusion'ed Yoda. I could easily have killed the Gungan and made it harder for him to Into The Garbage Chute my dice. On top of that the Gungans 2 indirect side ended up being a big problem for me. I think early round three his Shadow Caster was fully loaded with 2 Arc Casters and a Triple Laser Turret. I managed to play a Rocket Launcher on Talzin and use a Tactical Mastery to shoot down his Shadow Caster, which put me back in the game, though he already had sunk my Mandalorian Super Commando. Unfortunately he sat with an N-1 Starfighter, a couple of mods and a ton of money. He ended up taking the win. I am left with the impression that I could have snagged the game had I played with more confidence and saved more of my mitigation instead of pitching to re-roll. Taking out the Gungan once he shielded up Yoda would have helped me too. In the future I want to add a couple more hard-mitigation cards to deal with those high value dice.

Actually Claus wrote about this match-up as well. It is fun to read both sides of the story http://yourdestiny.dk/blog/copenhagen-regionals-2019-tournament-reportish

R6: Yoda/Leia3 -- Win

• Three wide hate is not my cup of tea and I seriously doubted my chances in this match-up. However it went fairly smooth due to some unintentionally good plays on my side. He won the battlefield and chose his, the Emperor's Throne Room - Death Star II. That put me in a bad spot from the beginning. Now here is the interesting thing, which I learned a lot from. 1st turn I pinged Yoda. That had him put a force illusion on Yoda. I learned from my R5 match that Yoda now would be hard to chew through so I switched my target. Remember im only one action in the game and I have already convinced the opponent that Yoda is my target. Starved of resources he was unable of mitigating more of my dice and I ended up putting 6 on Leia in round 1. I had also kept a The Best Defense... in hand which I used to mitigate Leia's dice to avoid her shenanigans. Late round 2 I was able of killing Leia with a Frighten play. He now sat with Yoda holding a Treasured Lightsaber, a Force Throw and a Force Illusion and a couple of shields. My characters are kind of iffy so the game was not over yet though I definitely had the upper hand. However, I managed to play a Vader's Fist round 4 and that kind of sealed the deal.

Changes

Out:
1x Imperial Discipline
1x On The Hunt

In:
1x Energy Bow (once I get a hold of one more)
1x Deflect (I am not sure, it has a spot req. and Talzin is always the target. On the other hand you are pretty dead if she goes early and usually in a good spot if she goes late..)