Regional Qualifier Lille - Post Suspension Metagame Analysis
Whether or not you’re a veteran Star Wars: Unlimited player, or you’ve just learned how to play, we know that Regional Qualifier Lille is going to be one of the largest celebrations of Star Wars Unlimited in Europe that we’ve seen so far. Recently we were lucky enough to be able to talk to one of the top-performing Star Wars Unlimited players Jędrzej Sobota about his previous deck choices and go into a bit of detail on why we saw the recent suspensions. We’ve prepared a nice two-part series where, in the second segment, we’ll go over which decks and strategies we expect to be heavy hitters in the current metagame and what decks and game plans we expect to see at Star Wars: Unlimited Regional Qualifier Lille.
Alex Kivitz
Alex Kivitz
Qualifier Bounty Hunting
We’ve seen an impressive track record not only from Jędrzej himself but from all the other members of his team. Jędrzej himself has maintained a consistent track record all the way from UK Games Expo last year, ending up in top prizing bracket on both days. We’ve seen consistent Planetary Qualifier top cut placements, and most impressively yet, placed in the top 8 at Sector Qualifier Milan and took second place at Sector Qualifier Liverpool to secure his flight to the Galactic Championship in Las Vegas in July.
Initially prepared for Lille, we expected Jango Fett Tarkin Town to be the premier deck in the format. With the recent suspensions of Jango Fett, Triple Dark Raid, and DJ, we fully expect things to shake up. So in part one of this series, we will be going over the decklist that made it to the finals of Sector Qualifier Liverpool, why the deck performed so well, what made it so versatile, and a little bit on why these suspensions were a good idea in the first place. Hopefully, using the fundamentals of what made Jango such a versatile deck, we will lead into part two where we go over what we predict to be strong metagame choices and why they will perform well.
Like Father Like Son - Fett Deck Supremacy
If I had a nickel for every time a Fett leader was suspended, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice already. We’ve seen in the past that Boba Fett was suspended for being a very dominant deck in the Premier format, and while not as dominant as Boba Fett, Jango Fett had shown to be a clear superpower in the metagame, being very difficult to play around while maintaining a healthy game into the rest of the leaders. Jango Fett was meta-warping enough to warrant the suspension, making up a very sizable portion of top cut placements. Jango was able to protect itself while developing an aggressive board, play in a very versatile manner, and pump out truly impressive amounts of damage thanks to Triple Dark Raid as well.
Triple Dark Raid was shown to be an incredibly over-performing card, with 100% representation in the top 8 of Sector Qualifier Milan. All 8 decks ran 3 copies, not just the Jango Fett decks. And finally we saw DJ receive a suspension. This was more done preemptively as before Jump To Lightspeed was released, Han Solo – Audacious Smuggler with DJ was quite the powerhouse, and the design team did not want to go back to a metagame where that was once again the most prominent deck archetype.
These suspensions have been more widely praised by the community and we now sit in a metagame where players feel the field is quite open. Even Jędrzej mentioned that, while he has enjoyed playing Jango Fett, he already anticipated this deck would be gone before Lille. So, let’s break down what made his Jango Fett deck so powerful, and how we can transpose those ideals into the current metagame.
Jango Fett - Concealing The Conspiracy
Starting from the top, Jango Fett – Concealing The Conspiracy is a Cunning Villany leader that deploys at 5 resources. His leader side has the ability “When a friendly unit deals damage to an enemy unit: You may exhaust this leader. If you do, exhaust that enemy unit.” On the unit side, he may perform this effect as many times per round as possible without exhausting, which led to some oppressive play patterns. We also see the use of Tarkintown as the base of choice, a 25 health base with the Epic Action of being able to deal 3 damage to a damaged non-leader unit.
Units
Most Jango Fett decks ran a very similar core build, utilizing aggressive units with damage effects to maximise the use of Jango Fett’s leader ability. On the low end we saw First Order Stormtrooper, Greedo, and ISB Agent all packing ways to potentially deal damage to opposing units while still putting on some early aggression. The combination of ISB agent and Tarkintown also helps remove an early threat from your opponent and already solidifies control over the field.
Crafty Smuggler and Seventh Fleet Defender were nice inclusions for the mirror matches and potential Quinlan Vos matchups as the shield it provides itself allows it to swing or trade into other ground units. Elite P-38 Starfighter and Guerilla Soldier, continue to deal instances of damage to exhaust opposing units while continuing to use other units to put on pressure and whittle down the enemy life total.
Rounding out the more staple inclusions are IG-2000, Ruthless Raider, and War Juggernaut, acting as large sources of direct damage to units. War Juggernaut and Ruthless Raider were some of Jump To Lightspeed’s biggest power boosts to the Jango Fett deck, really tipping the deck over the top, allowing him to exhaust entire boards when Jango was deployed. Devastator – Hunting The Rebellion was the natural top end of the deck, providing a giant body on the field and dishing out even more indirect damage.
These cards largely encompass the core units of the deck, establishing a baseline for a deck that can trade above rate into units, aggressively attack the opponent’s base while keeping threats exhausted, and closing out games quickly. The units, however, aren’t the sole stars of the deck. There are some very powerful events as well to supplement this game plan.
Events
Triple Dark Raid, also a card that was hit in the suspension, was one of the biggest powerhouses in the deck. When Triple Dark Raid was originally released, there were not as many powerful vehicles to hit that could completely change the board state, mostly just Ruthless Raider. However, in the recent sets being able to cheat out War Juggernaut , IG-2000, or even Devastator in the later game could completely flip the script, allowing Triple Dark Raid to push out much more damage on average than a single card should be able to.
Daring Raid fits well into a tempo based gameplan, helping finish off units low on health for the low cost of one resource. The added benefit of being able to point this damage at the base also can help in a pinch against heavy control decks. Sneak Attack offers similar benefits to Triple Dark Raid, being able to play higher cost units earlier and having them enter ready. However, these cards would be sacrificed at the end of the regroup phase. Rounding out the core events of the deck we have Cunning all-star Surprise Strike; three extra damage on an attack can finish off larger units – or just end games outright.
Flex Spots
The following cards may have differed from deck to deck, however, Jędrzej did highlight why these cards were chosen by his team and why they were integral to the metagame at the time. Electromagnetic Pulse performed very well in the Jango Fett mirror, allowing you to keep up one resource to exhaust whatever vehicle played from Triple Dark Raid or Sneak Attack. It also was good against decks that played Commandeer as it essentially wasted their whole turn. Jetpack was a great way to get a shield on an essential unit of yours to prevent it from getting damaged or exhausted as well. More tech for the mirror and having Smuggle made it very versatile.
Boba Fett – Feared Bounty Hunter was a spicy one-off inclusion. It being shielded and coming down on 5 resources meant that it could take out pesky leaders like Obi-Wan and Anakin when combined with a surprise attack. The use of the piloting keyword, while not triggering Jango’s ability, also gave the deck some early game aggression in space. Count Dooku – Fallen Jedi offered very similar strengths, being able to take out more irrelevant early game units to deal some damage, develop a 6/6 with Overwhelm, and even exhaust a unit when combined with Jango’s ability. This was another way to take out hard to remove leaders.
Side Board
Breaking down the sideboard choices, we see our third copy of Electromagnetic Pulse for the matchups we needed more. One copy of Bazine Netal helps to disrupt decks that rely on playing units on curve, or to remove key pieces that could hurt the field. Smuggle also helps against decks like Han Solo and Quinlan Vos that run a lot of discard effects. Lurking TIE Phantom is more tech into the mirror match as Jango was expected to make up quite a bit of the field, but also is good into other damage based decks like Quinlan Vos and Cad Bane.
We see Cham Syndula to help catch up in resources against Admiral Piett, another top performer in the previous and current metagame. While Command decks play cards like Resupply, Cham allows us to develop a body on board and equalize the resource discrepancy. Finally, we have Planetary Bombardment and Cad Bane – Hostage Taker for when we need to pivot to a more top end control style gameplan. This versatility to switch while maintaining the majority of our deck was one of Jango’s greatest strengths.
Building For Success
While Jango Fett really overperformed, we saw a glimpse into what really made the deck the powerhouse that it was. Aggressive low cost units provided some strong pressure. Powerful effects to stall and limit incoming damage from your opponents, a smooth curve into the midgame with consistent damage output, and the flexibility to pivot into a more aggressive or more control-focused playstyle. Here’s a picture of the full deck list played at Liverpool!
While Jango Fett and Triple Dark Raid may not be available for play currently, we can take these ideas and pivot into what we foresee to be some powerful alternative decks to bring to Regional Qualifier Lille. Quinlan Vos, Cad Bane, and Admiral Piett already seem like strong contenders and we will go into what makes those decks so strong in the next article. Also, special thanks to Jędrzej Sobota and the rest of the team (Qkieu, Idczaq, Bartosz, and TheNapTime) for the deck breakdown. Definitely be on the lookout for them at Regional Qualifier Lille.
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