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We have some early tournament results from some Sector Qualifiers. Now with the new Jump To Lightspeed set out for a couple of weeks, folks have had time to brew up and test decks for competitive play. It seems like lots of people came to very similar conclusions, because the meta seems to be utterly dominated by....
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| S Tier | Jango Tarkintown |
| A Tier | Quinlan Tarkintown |
| A Tier | Sabine ECL |
| A Tier | Han1 Yellow |
| B Tier | Bossk Blue* |
| B Tier | Cad Green |
| B Tier | Piett Blue |
| B Tier | Kazuda Red |
| B Tier | Piett Yellow |
| B Tier | Gar Yellow |
Jango Tarkintown
The most prolific and dominant deck in the competitive meta is not close, it's Jango Fett, Concealing the Conspiracy running Tarkintown as the base. In the top 52 of the recent Milan Sector Qualifier, 24 of the decks were Jango Tarkintown. To save you getting a calculator, that's just over 46% of the meta. Now of course this is just one tournament, and this doesn't mean that you're going to play against nothing but Jango until the next set, but it was a large, highly competitive tournament - so these results cannot be ignored.
Compare this to Boba Fett, Collecting the Bounty from Spark of Rebellion, the only card as of writing this article to be put on the suspended list, banning it from premier play. Boba Fett own 57% of all Planetary Qualifiers, just barely ahead of Jango's meta share. To be clear, this is NOT me saying that Jango or any part of what makes the Jango deck so good is going to get banned. While I wouldn't be surprised, it's too early in the life-cycle of the game to predict when FFG decides something is bannable.
Let's talk a bit about exactly what is in this Jango deck.
There is no exactly perfect Jango list, but virtually every Jango Tarkintown list runs some key cards. Let's highlight some of the cards released in Jump to Lightspeed.
Guerilla Soldier is a very strong card released in Jump to Lightspeed, because it does exactly what Jango wants, and mitigates the downside. Typically, when you take indirect damage, especially in the early game, you will assign that damage to your base, since board control is so important. This goes doubly so when playing against a Jango deck, because any indirect damage that hits your non-exhausted units will exhaust them due to Jango's leader ability.
As a Jango player, Guerilla soldier often makes your opponent make a difficult decision. Firstly, they can either fully kill one of their smaller units (usually the worst option). Secondly, if they have enough total health on units they have, they can distribute damage in such a way that doesn't kill any units or hit the base, in which case you can use Jango to exhaust their units. Lastly, they can put damage on their base, in which case you get a readied 2/3 for 3 that also hit their base, which you can now use to keep board control. As the Jango player, all of these options will feel strong for you.
Even late game, this card can be good, since oftentimes each point of damage will matter later, your opponent may be more hesitant to just use their base as a damage sponge and may have to lose the ability to attack with some of their larger units. Your mileage will vary depending on the board-state.
Let's talk about IG-2000, Assassin's Aggressor, the ship of IG-88. Once again, this is exactly the kind of card that fits perfectly in Jango. If played on curve, you will be able to ping up to 3 units. From my own testing, I find this kills a unit almost half of the time, and you can use your Jango leader to tap down whatever is the most threatening at the time. This also works great against shielded units, as you can ping off their shield. This can completely ruin your opponents turn 3, and when drawn later continues to get amazing tempo for you. Keep in mind, this CAN and often WILL hit leader units, which Jango can (and will) exhaust.
You all saw it coming, let's talk about War Juggernaut, an uncommon from Jump to Lightspeed. If you've been reading the article closely up to this point, it feels almost silly for me to explain why this is good in Jango. I will simply say this. If you have deployed Jango and use War Juggernaut, you will exhaust ALL of your opponents units. Yes, all of them. If that isn't the most tempo-positive thing in this entire game, then I don't know what is. In addition to getting absurd tempo, it also will be a very large threat that can finish the game in just a couple of attacks.
Ok, let's talk about a few cards that aren't new in Jump to Lightspeed, but really help this deck come together.
Triple Dark Raid Helps keep the deck very consistent and very ahead of the resource curve. Not drawing the cards you need for a given scenario? Triple Dark Raid lets you look at the top 7 cards of your library. Surely you can find something there. You can think of Triple Dark Raid as giving you a discount of 2 on something. Have 3 resources? With Triple Dark Raid you can play something that costs 5. Have 6 resources? Play something that costs 8..... speaking of that.
One of the best things to get with triple dark raid is Devastator, Hunting the Rebellion, an 8 cost ship that will often close games on the spot. A typical line looks like this: When you have 5 resources, you can flip Jango if you think he can survive a turn. Then, on 6 resources, play Triple Dark Raid and get Devastator, readying it. Now you can distribute 4 damage however you want, usually at least 1 to each of your opponent's threatening units, exhausting them, then any you can spare to the base. Then, because Triple Dark Raid readies the unit, attack the base for 9.
This will almost always either close the game or get it so close to closing that your opponent has to change their entire gameplan to something much more defensive. Lucky for you, because of Triple Dark Raid you now have a Devastator in your hand that you can play again next turn using Sneak Attack or just play it honestly in a couple of turns once you hit 8 resources.
1 devastator is tough enough to come back from, but if you're playing it multiple times? Your opponent better start thinking about their sideboard for the next game.
Ruthless Raider is also the perfect card for the job. Playing it right after Jango comes down is great, but playing it right away after deploying Jango using Sneak Attack is great too. Not only does this get the "When Played" effect (exhausting an enemy unit, maybe even their leader), but it will also get the "When Defeated" effect, since Sneak attack defeats the unit. Not to mention the attack for 4. This card slots in perfectly into so many decks, with Jango being one of the most well suited for it.
But wait.... did the Liverpool Sector Qualifier give us hope of a counter?
Bossk Blue
I bet y'all are wondering why I put a little star beside this deck in the tier list....
To the surprise of many folks, a Bossk, Hunting His Prey Blue deck won the Liverpool Sector Qualifier, beating out Jango Tarkintown among other decks. Now winning one tournament doesn't undo the massive hold that Jango has on the meta, but this deck definitely should be taken seriously. It runs only 9 ground units in the mainboard. The Client, Dictated by Discretion for Bossk's bounty synnergy, Supreme Leader Snoke, Shadow Ruler which completely shuts down decks trying to race, and Emperor Palpatine, Master of the Dark Side, which is versatile, and can take out Devastator, Hunting the Rebellion on curve. It also runs just 2 space units, 2 copies of Avenger, Hunting Star Destroyer. Almost every other card in this deck is some sort of removal.
This deck is a control deck, going 1 for 1 with removal long enough to play a Snoke, Palpatine, or Avenger and close the game that way. The deck also features Cham Syndulla, Rallying Ryloth in the sideboard. This card helps Bossk punish the ramp that is key to the gameplan of decks like Han1 and Piett.
So is it a fluke that this deck won the recent Sector Qualifier? Well, probably not. Over all recent Sector Qualifiers, Bossk Blue had a 58.6% winrate against Jango Tarkintown. Are we expecting Bossk Blue to start taking down Sector Qualifiers going forward? Well, kinda. While it has a good matchup into the "best deck" right now, it suffers against Quinlan Tarkintown, widely considered to be the second best deck right now. Against Quinlan, it has a 43.5% winrate. Whether that is enough to keep it in check, time will tell. We have only had one Sector Qualifier where Bossk has really demonstrated this kind of excellence, so we look forward to seeing how it will perform in the next couple of tournaments. We will watch your career with great interest!
Quinlan Vos Tarkintown
Quinlan Vos, Sticking the Landing running Tarkintown as the base is a deck that's been around for a while. It makes use of cards with the Force tag in order to maximize the use of Force Throw, a very powerful card that is almost always has built in "two-for-one" in decks that can support it. Being a little biased, this is my favourite deck on the list. I love making use of force units, and Force Throw is one of my favourite payoffs in the game.
The question that is on everyone's mind is "how does this deck perform against Jango Tarkintown?" The answer to that is "not great". It has a 47.7% winrate against Jango Tarkintown. Quinlan has great matchups against almost every other deck in the meta, especially Boba4 Yellow, Han1 Yellow, and Piett Blue, with a 57%, 58%, and 63.8% winrate respectively. If Jango does end up getting banned, Quinlan will be the deck to beat!
As stated by the person who popularized the deck, the deck counts in 3. The deck aims to deal 3 damage 9 times against 25 hp bases, and 11 times against 30hp bases. Using cards like Surprise Strike to close out games, this deck is an aggressive menace that can go into the midgame as well.
Quinlan as a leader synergizes well with Tarkintown as well. Being able to take out a 4hp unit "for free" just by playing units is very valuable. (In particular IG-2000, Assassin's Aggressor, which you will run into quite often playing against Jango).
The deck also runs a decent amount of "hand hate" in Spark of Rebellion, Ahsoka Tano, Chasing Whispers, Qi'ra, Playing Her Part, and of course Force Throw. How good these are depends on the matchup, and knowing which cards to pick out of your opponents hand is something that takes a lot of practice and knowledge of different decks. As a general tip, you should be trying to take the card that is most "on curve" for your opponent, or key pieces for their game plan. Ultimately the best way to figure out EXACTLY what to take is to practice, since it depends so heavily on matchup and game state.
In some games, you will be able to completely lock your opponent out of playing for a turn or two. Imagine the following scenario: Your opponent has played their cards and you've removed a few from their hand. They have 0 cards in hand and you have initiative. You both draw 2 and resource 1. Then, with the initiative before doing anything, you use one of your discard events or units. Now they have no cards in hand but all their resources open. This won't happen all the time but when it does, you'll very likely win that game. As you know, taking a turn off is never a good idea.
Sabine Green
This is a deck that has been very strong since set 1. While no longer the "fastest" deck, it still is a very strong aggressive deck which is happy to go to the midgame with powerhouses like Wrecker, Boom! and Poe Dameron, Quick to Improvise. Wrecker in particular being ambushed out with Energy Conversion Lab is often something that can end a game on its own.
The deck doesn't have amazing matchups against Jango or Quinlan, being approximately 45% and 49% respectively, but has a reasonably good matchup against much of the rest of the field. If you are a new player and want to play a competitive deck, in my opinion this is a great one to start with. It will teach you the fundamentals well without being too complicated. If you are playing against this deck, all I can say is watch out for Rebel Assault.... they always have it....
Boba4 Yellow
This deck is the closest thing we have to "burn" in Star Wars Unlimited as of now. It makes use of Boba Fett, Any Methods Necessary and many indirect damage cards in order to make your opponent really feel the pressure. Indirect damage as a mechanic is interesting - in a vacuum it's quite week. Giving your opponent a choice is always worse than it seems. That being said, there does exist a critical mass of indirect damage where it starts to become overwhelming to play against, and this deck attempts to hit that threshold.
One interesting thing about indirect damage is that it makes your opponent make a LOT of decisions, and we're all human, we make mistakes. Boba4 Yellow is, in my opinion, the easiest deck to misplay against.
This deck does play similarly to Jango Tarkintown, which of course is also a deck that relies on lots of ping damage spread around to activate his leader ability. In many cases, this deck is a weaker version of Jango Tarkintown, and that shows in the stats. It has a 39.6% winrate against Jango, which is very very low. It also has a low winrate against Sabine Green and Quinlan Vos. In addition, it has an abysmal 20.3% winrate against Han Yellow, the next deck we'll be talking about.
Yikes! Why are people playing this deck? Well it's not all bad, it has a decent matchup into Piett blue and Luke1 green, two decks that had a solid meta presence. But yes, if I had to pick one deck that was overrepresented given its winrate, I would give that to Boba4 Yellow. This makes the burn player in me sad, but we're just not there quite yet.
Han1 Yellow
This is also a deck that has been around since set 1, although unlike Sabine, it has undergone some pretty drastic changes since then. The biggest line of play that this deck has gotten is the interaction between Tech, Source of Insight and DJ, Blatant Thief. As you likely know, the interaction involves resourcing DJ, and then smuggling him out with Tech on your 5 resource turn, which is a turn earlier due to Han Solo, Audacious Smuggler. Then, at the end of your turn, defeat their resource with Han's ability. You have now set them back a resource early in the game when it REALLY matters, and DJ's biggest downside, that they get the resource back when he is defeated, is no longer relevant, as the resource has been defeated.
All of this in addition to the fact that Han is virtually always playing at least 1 resource ahead means that it is able to have big, explosive turns much earlier than most other decks. Han has a poor matchup into Jango and Quinlan, being 49% and 42% respectively, but a favorable matchup into virtually every other deck on the field. Notably, it has a 79.7% and 84.4% winrate against Boba4 Yellow and Piett Blue respectively, 2 decks that have seen quite a bit of play.
Similar to Quinlan, Han plays lots of effects that make your opponent discard. Also similar to Quinlan, knowing exactly which cards to make your opponent get rid of depends heavily on the match-up, and is something that will come with practice.... think of the curve!
Other Decks
There are lots of other decks that have seen a ton of competitive play, too many to reasonably talk about in 1 article, so I'm going to do 1 paragraph about a few different decks here that deserve mention.
Admiral Piett, Commanding the Armada - Every aspect of Piett has seen play in competitive recently, with Piett Yellow and Piett Blue having the most success. In Yellow, being able to take advantage of Triple Dark Raid in addition to Piett's flip side discount means that you can get some huge ships out very early. Getting a card like Devastator, Inescapable out multiple turns early can win the game on the spot. Piett Blue takes on a bit more of a control archetype, still hoping to ramp into larger ships but opts for a more control-focused plan, rather than cheating things out with Triple Dark Raid.
Kazuda Xiono, Best Pilot in the Galaxy is an interesting leader. I think he is very strong, but he has the unfortunate reality of having an abysmal 14.3% winrate against Jango. If Jango ends up being banned, I think Kazuda lists will become much more ubiquitous. It takes advantage of Kazuda's very unique leader ability to play cards like Stolen AT-Hauler and Fireball, An Explosion With Wings. Kaz is the purest aggressive deck at the moment in my opinion. If you are able to get a Kaz deck until midgame, it will fall off very quickly, but it is an absolute menace in the early game.
Cad Bane, He Who Needs No Introduction is a midrange deck that often runs a Green base. Cad relies on his strong leader ability to ping damage around. The underworld tag is taken advantage of in this deck with cards like Now There Are Two of Them, cheating out large units like Maul, Shadow Collective Visionary. Cad is one of the few decks that has a very strong matchup into Jango, 64.3%. Unfortunately, this deck isn't quite popular enough to have a ton of data on other leaders, but it appears like he doesn't do to well against Quinlan. I look forward to seeing how he performs at other events, as more people will likely be bringing him since he has demonstrated well against Jango.
Conclusions
There are lots more decks that I didn't touch on at all in this article, and I encourage you to go sifting through the data yourself. The introduction and impressive performance of Bossk blue has shaken up the opinions of some folks in whether or not Jango deserves a ban, while others are still saying it is necessary for a healthy meta. What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts, you can find me. The best place to find me is here, or here.
We are expecting FFG to have an announcement on Wednesday April 9th, so be sure to tune in to that or here for updates. We're all looking forward to seeing how the meta will evolve forward as we get more sector qualifier results in.
As always, May the Force be With You.
