26 player Store Champ - 1st Place 1.0

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• 1.0

26 player Store Championship at CoolStuff Games in Jacksonville, FL

Being new to competitive card games, I did not know what to expect as I embarked on my first competitive tournament. It turned out to be an amazing experience! It will always be a great day anytime you get to play Star Wars Destiny for 8 hours! As the tournament kicked off I noticed we had quite the crowd, a total of 26 had signed up. We kicked it off with 6 rounds of Swiss, followed by Top Cut to 8, and best of 3 for all matches after that.

It was quite the adventure from the first game of the day. Playing against Leia Organa - Heart of the Resistance/ Yoda - Wizened Master mill and being down to one card in hand and zero in deck. The game looked like it was going to be over in the second round as I had both Force Waves out and a Cunning only to be faced with a Fall Back. I stuck with the Force Wave and was able to pull through by the end of the fourth round. MVP of the match was definitely Force Wave as I was quite alright with hitting myself with one damage every time.

Second match, I had the pleasure of playing Kylo Ren - Tormented One/Arihnda Pryce - Unscrupulous Governor. By the end of the first round having a Cunning, Force Speed, and Force Wave paved the way to take out Kylo Ren - Tormented One turn two. Hitting myself for 1 every time is well worth the 5 damage to the opponent, felt like I had a hero Snoke - Supreme Leader. Arihnda Pryce - Unscrupulous Governor didn’t last much longer and it was win number 2.

Next game was very similar, as I took out Cad Bane - Vicious Mercenary/Snoke - Supreme Leader. This deck is typically starved for resources and to pay or not to pay Hondo Ohnaka - Respected Businessman becomes a very tough choice. He chose not to pay first round which ended with 6 damage despite myself having no upgrades out. I was able to get a Cunning and Handcrafted Light Bow second round to take out Cad Bane - Vicious Mercenary and of course Snoke - Supreme Leader didn’t put up much of a fight, 3-0.

The next three rounds I went 1-2 losing to a Kylo Ren - Tormented One/Arihnda Pryce - Unscrupulous Governor and Cad Bane - Vicious Mercenary/Snoke - Supreme Leader. These were really tough matches and funny enough I actually lost to Kylo/Pryce by mill. My confidence was not shaken however, as both of these players finished Swiss 5-1 and 6-0 respectively.

Finishing Swiss at 4-2, I made top cut in fourth place. My top cut pairing was with the only vehicle deck I played against all day, Snoke - Supreme Leader/Doctor Aphra - Artifact Hunter/Ciena Ree - Adept Pilot. The first match did not start out great for me as my opponent had both Hailfire Droid Tanks out by the end of turn 2. There was so much damage flying my way if it wasn’t for two second chances on Hondo Ohnaka - Respected Businessman I would not have prevailed. Turning point in the game was when I played Impulsive on a double . I chained a couple of to get specials on the board and was then able to take out Ciena Ree - Adept Pilot and Snoke - Supreme Leader. Doctor Aphra - Artifact Hunter wasn’t left with much health and I was able to finish her off in round 4. As the second match started I new I needed to see a Force Wave and Scruffy Looking Nerf-Herder so I mulliganed hard. First action of the game I played Scruffy Looking Nerf-Herder and called support. As close as the last game was, I new I needed to prevent both of those Hailfire Droid Tanks from hitting the board. Sure enough he had a Hailfire Droid Tank. By the end of round two I was able to have a Cunning and two Force Waves which allowed me to build a pretty comfortable lead from that point. Honestly, it doesn’t really seem fair to do 18 damage a turn with those three cards and a couple of Yoda specials.

My Top 4 match was against Cad Bane - Vicious Mercenary/Snoke - Supreme Leader. This pilot finished Swiss at 6-0 and had already beat me once. I knew my only hope would be to take out Cad by round 2. First match did not go in my favor, I didn’t draw a single Force Illusion, Second Chance, or Hyperspace Jump the entire game. Needless to say Cad Bane - Vicious Mercenary made quick work and it was on to game two. Cad Bane - Vicious Mercenary took out Yoda - Wizened Master before I could even activate round 2 so of course it looked real grim. However, with him paying for weapons both rounds he had no resources to pay off Hondo Ohnaka - Respected Businessman and with a Cunning, Cad Bane - Vicious Mercenary joined Yoda - Wizened Master. Frustrating part of killing Cad Bane - Vicious Mercenary however, was that he had an LL-30 Blaster Pistol and a Holdout Blaster so now Snoke - Supreme Leader was fully loaded. The match was obviously a lot slower from that point on and I was able to get both Second Chances and Force Illusions on Hondo Ohnaka - Respected Businessman to allow me to finally take out Snoke - Supreme Leader in round 5. Honestly, I thought there was no chance I could win this match because shortly after Yoda - Wizened Master died, I had no money, 6 damage on Hondo Ohnaka - Respected Businessman and my only upgrade out was a Cunning. Thankfully, I drew into a Second Chance and got some money from Double-Dealing to buy it. The third and final match was nothing like the first three we had already played. I was able to get a Force Speed, Cunning, and Force Wave out by the end of round 1. First action of round 2 was to activate Yoda - Wizened Master. I rolled one Force Speed special, two on the Force Wave and nothing else to write home about. My opponent decided not to mitigate any of the dice and that turned out to be the worst possible decision. After he rolled in Cad with his action and did 6 damage to Yoda - Wizened Master, I played Impulsive on the Force Speed to give me three actions. I rolled out Hondo Ohnaka - Respected Businessman first action, focus chained into specials, then did 9 damage to Cad Bane - Vicious Mercenary. Needless to say, this resulted in a quick scoop shortly thereafter.

The Championship match ended up being against the only other player I lost to all day. He was running Kylo Ren - Tormented One/Arihnda Pryce - Unscrupulous Governor. First time around in Swiss, the game went so long I actually got milled. I knew this would be a tough match, in which my dice would be heavily controlled so I would have to rely heavily on action cheating. I won the roll off and chose my battlefield. I definitely didn’t want to risk Arihnda Pryce - Unscrupulous Governor shenanigans claiming with the Emperor's Throne Room - Death Star II. After I played Double-Dealing, my opponent played Probe making me discard my only mitigation. At this point, I knew it would be a race to claim so I could at least get one of his dice off the board. After playing Force Speed I rolled out Yoda - Wizened Master then Hondo Ohnaka - Respected Businessman, then special chained to claim. The claim was key because it prevented Arihnda Pryce - Unscrupulous Governor special chaining. I played a little slower next round as I was able to get out a Cunning and a Handcrafted Light Bow after making some money on the roll-out. Thanks Double-Dealing! With a ready Hondo Ohnaka - Respected Businessman and a Force Speed showing, I knew now was the time for the Impulsive play. Three actions later and Kylo Ren - Tormented One was dead. Arihnda Pryce - Unscrupulous Governor didn’t last much longer and I picked up the W. My Opponet wasn’t playing around second game and picked his battlefield, Emperor's Throne Room - Death Star II. Of course, I knew this meant I just needed to claim first or keep his Kylo Ren - Tormented One dice out. I had mulliganed hard for a Force Speed and Cunning and was fortunate to get both. Throughout the day I started without either and it always felt like I was way behind after round 1. However, not so much here. Once I got Force Speed and Cunning out I was able to chain into a claim and resolved another Hondo Ohnaka - Respected Businessman. First game he took the damage early, and that didn’t work out so well, so this time he paid off Hondo Ohnaka - Respected Businessman. Honestly, neither play was wrong, but I felt it was win/win either way for me; either I build my board state or get early damage. With the extra resources, I was able to get out a Force Wave and play a Hyperspace Jump before he dealt any damage round 2. By the third round, I had a Handcrafted Light Bow to go with my other upgrades. I rolled Yoda - Wizened Master out first, upon seeing the Force Speed I knew it was Impulsive time. On my next turn, I played Impulsive on the Force Speed to get three actions which led to a Kylo Ren - Tormented One death. Pryce wasn’t able to hold on much longer and Yoda - Wizened Master/Hondo Ohnaka - Respected Businessman proved again that they deserve a place at the top of the Meta.

Biggest takeaways from the day are how powerful Force Wave is even against two character decks, and clutch factor of Impulsive. Impulsive into a Force Speed or wins games. However with that being said, Rebel is still my favorite card. I play one of mostly everything because it gives me so much versatility to play whatever I need in the moment with Rebel. I can not overstate how valuable it is to know that any card in your discard pile is actually playable at any point you are holding Rebel and showing . It opens the game up so much to have access to double or triple the cards that are in your hand. At most times, people are playing with 3-5 cards in their hand, whereas with Rebel you could be playing with upwards of 20 cards. Overall it was an amazing experience! Every single person I played with or met was welcoming and helped to make it a truly memorable experience!