Maul/Watto, Tacoma Prime Top 8 1.0

• Verziók
• 1.0

As someone normally known to play off-meta decks, I decided I wanted to go ham for the last few Primes of this game's life. Two weeks before Tacoma, I built Reylo and told myself I'd jam that until I got good at it.

Nope. You don't get good at Reylo playing 20 games with it.

So, two days before, I borrow the Best Maul Player in the World's Maul deck and play a few hours with it. It's simple enough that I felt comfortable quickly, and has the potential to high roll people off the table, so seemed like a good fit. Turns out, BMPitW had the list Cheshire used at Worlds, so I grabbed her list, made a small tweak (-1 DM, +1 Vibrocutlass for some extra Redeploy) and went in hoping to win enough games to get a copy of Temporary Truce. With that going to T32 and 36 players, I felt like I only needed to win 1 game, maybe 2, to be in the money!

Round 1 - Win vs. Maul/Mando

Turn 1 Truce into Vader's saber is good. His Maul blanked out bad R1, so I jumped to a big lead. R2 he hit a pair of 3's on Maul and PA'd Darksaber into 3, so we traded Maul. Watto vs Mando is real tough, but I'd gotten a Pulse Cannon in play so I felt okay. Had Mando at 1, but blanked out on a Pulse PA that pushed it into another round and had me sweating, but damage from hand with Polarity and Act of Cruelty is real good.

Round 2 - Loss v. Jyn/Zeb

Started off strong, knocking down Jyn before he could get through Maul, since he never controlled my dice. Unfortunately, he eeked out enough to drop Maul at the beginning of the next round with some action cheating, and Watto with Pulse Cannon only has one dangerous die. With all his removal at the bottom, he just controlled that die. Came down to each of us starting a round with 1 hp, but he had initiative and rolled out more than I could control.

Round 3 - Win vs Maul/Phasma

Playing red he's got different conditions for the R1 Saber than I do with yellow, but he got there with Fresh Supplies. We traded damage evenly R1, even though I had a janky Saber in Dooku's since I couldn't get the early resource, so I felt okay. R2 I roll out Maul, resolve him, and then stall with Watto ready hoping to overwrite Dooku's with Darksaber to redeploy, convinced Maul is going down. He gets down Vader's, rolls out, and hits 2/Blank/Blank/Blank... So, Maul survives the round and I use the resources for Truce+Pulse Cannon on Watto and get a ton of damage down. R3 he action cheats to kill Maul, but a good Pulse Cannon trades his Maul for mine, and without dice on Phasma I'm able to control her until Pulse finishes the game.

Round 4 - Win vs Maul/Watto (Best Maul Player in the World)

I'm sorry, I barely remember this game except the last couple rounds. I know R1 we both avoided playing Truce to keep the other from ramping, but his attempts at finding the extra money with Watto didn't go as well as mine. I got a huge R1, getting to play Vader's Saber, Conflicted for damage, and Armored Plating, while also taking Shields to start giving Maul a whopping 17 EHP. We jockeyed for a couple rounds, but I got a blowout roll with 3 and +3 that he Watto'd right back into a 3 that put Maul at 12 and allowed me to finish him. He was left with a tough choice later in that round. He had 2 damage showing on a redeployed Dagger of Mortis, my Maul with 1 HP and Watto with 2. He took the conservative route and killed Maul, redploying the Vibrocutlass to Watto and letting me get more pressure down that round. In the next round, I get Armor Plating and 2 shields off of Bendu to make Watto a little sturdier, and have just enough removal two rounds in a row to keep his Watto with both Dagger and Pulse Cannon non-threatening just long enough for my Watto to pull it off with Dagger+Cutlass. He revealed after that he pulled the Polarity the round after he decided to kill Maul, meaning had he simply killed Watto he'd have won immediately. Absurdly close, and was a joy to get to play the best.

Round 5 - Win vs Vader/FOST

A game decided on a misplay :( I got off to a good start - controlling Vader's dice is hard but I was able to turn his 4 to a 2, which meant no damage after getting Shields for round. On the other hand, I smashed Vader for six, feeling pretty good. R2, Vader is Vader - smacks Maul for 12 over two actions with his Saber. I get 7 out of Maul's dice, and we go to R3 and the mistake... He brings in Vader and hits 1 and 2. He puts 3 into Watto, and kills Maul with the Vader's Saber ping. My Dagger redeploys, I activate Pulse/Dagger Watto, and kill Vader. However, had he done 2 to Watto, 1 to Maul, and not spent the resource on the Vader's Saber ping, he could have The Best Defense...'d my two upgrade dice, leaving Vader alive another round. With his action cheating, the game almost certainly would have gone the other way.

Round 6 - Win vs R2/3PO/Satine/LTP

R1 I controlled his ramp pretty well, disrupting with Watto and controlling his first die showing a resource. Eventually he does get back to 2 resources, drops a Mr. Bones, uses a focus to get it to the 3-for-1, and then I DM Bones... So, bad opening round for him, though I only get 3 damage out myself - 2 on R2, 1 on 3PO, because Shields. R2 I activate Maul first with Vader's, roll well, and he's forced to Flee my Maul dice or get blown out. I PA Vader's Saber into 3 and use his Flee-Pass to end the round. I start R3 with another massive Maul roll that he can't control, allowing me to kill both R2 and 3PO at once. R4, Maul comes in hot again, and he has to Flee once more. I'm showing 7 on Cutlass+Vader's Saber, pay for it, pay for the Vader's Saber roll in on the Maul die he removed, and roll lethal there. This is why you can win games with Maul even if you're bad like me - you just need your dice to roll hot fire!

Top 8 - Embarrassment vs Snoke/Kallus/Order 66

Went as you'd expect. Execute Order 66 makes Maul very very sad. To be fair, this was Henry M., meaning he'd likely have wrecked me no matter what I was playing, but at least this way I went into the round knowing I was done and could have fun with it!

Top 8 was better than I had any right to expect to do, and a lot of it came down to luck - Roll Big or Roll Home! Had a blast, got a cool mat to add to my hundreds of Pokemon mats, and had a good day. Many thanks to F4llout and Cheshire for the list!