Admiral Ackbar & Wedge Antilles were still standing in the Geonosis Arena after killing San Hill, the last of the 3 major character they dispensed with, and Roman conceded instead of fighting it out with the 2 Super Battle Droids. It was quite a comeback, with Ackbar & Wedge overcoming a 2-to-1 advantage over a couple of turns that I was pretty sure would lead to their demise. Nearing the end of San’s deck, I announced that I would win because I knew I had CONSPIRACY coming up again, plus the big defense card to set it up. But, San couldn’t pull the cards, Wedge finished off a heavily wounded Snoke using I’M ON THE LEADER and Ackbar & Wedge teamed up to finish off San with an A9 CONCENTRATE ALL FIREPOWER.
This was a little bit older, more powerful version of Ackbar and less powerful version of The Mandalorian, with Baby Yoda only having 5 HP. All 4 decks struggled with their draws. Mando got Baby Yoda cards at the worst time — the middle. You get them early and you use them, or you get them late which means you get all the Mando cards early. Baby Yoda did nothing but get killed, and though Mando had a pretty solid offensive showing, he never got either of his BESKAR ARMOR cards. I controlled Snoke and at for a while into the game, I drew nothing but special cards, with no defense whatsoever for either character, but my opponents didn’t have the offense to take advantage, so it worked out ok for Snoke, who did quite a bit of direct damage. At some point they started attacking, quickly eliminating both of Snoke’s guards and deliver a lot of damage to him, making him easy to finish off later when he did have some defense. San Hill might have won the game had he drawn his big defense card, or anything at all for Wat early in the game, but then again, Ackbar would have won a lot sooner had Wedge ever drawn his ATTACK RUN card.
Deck thoughts
Ackbar: Umondy had already pointed out that the Ackbar deck was a little overpowered, with 2x A9 and 3x A7 when Wedge is still alive. I had already revised it to 2x A8 and 1x A7 and 2x A6 and after playing with the old version, I think all of those changes are warranted. He didn’t even get ATTACK RUN, which could have done a lot of damage, and still hit me hard many times. That stated, this is a fun deck with good quotes and enough tricks to win, I’m very happy with how this one has rounded into slightly less powerful shape. Maybe ATTACK RUN needs to come down to A6 and he’s then just king of the A6s, with up to 5 of them, but up to 2x A8 with Wedge’s assistance. It would be fine with me if they’re Tier 3B but I don’t even think they are, more like 3A.
Mando: Again, I had already revised Mando, in this case to a little more powerful version, before playing this game, and the game reinforced those changes. Baby Yoda with 5 HP just doesn’t cut the mustard. I’ve upped him to 8 HP, which should help a lot, and given Mando just a tad more pop, taking his A8 to A9. Maybe it should be A10 even, as he can struggle a bit with damage output, though it’s by design since he has good defense, but it’s not that good when Baby Yoda has only 5 HP. I may err on the side of making him too good because everyone wants to play with a fun, capable Mando.
San & Wat: They had a bad game, with Wat not doing anything before getting killed and never getting San’s big defense card, though the Super Battle Droids were effective enough. And, as it should be, it meant San struggled without Wat, but also could have pulled off the victory had things played out just a little differently. That CONSPIRACY card is scary, and gives him that chance to win that every major needs. I like this deck quite a bit and think it’s at the right level of power.
Snoke: This is the deck I was most worried about, but his effective game eased my worry. He might be a tad on the weak side but at the same time, he dealt 9 direct damage to Mando in one turn, and he never really got anything out of his strong guards. He used MIND STRIP to keep Mando’s hand size down, then in one turn, 2x DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR dealt the massive damage. That’s a nasty combo, borderline overpowered, and you add in FORCE THROW and he can do a lot of damage. He had both DRAIN POWER cards in his deck but never found a good situation to use them. I think that’s how it will be with that card — it’s more the threat of it than its actual effect, but that’s ok. Then he just kind of plods around with a Green deck but so what else do you really want to see him do? My guess is very few people will play this deck anyways, especially with that trilogy sort of fading from canon, but I enjoy the challenge of making each deck unique and capable, and this Snoke deck passed the test for me.
Also, if you haven’t seen it, I’ve got a new draft out for The Jedi Exile. Let me know what you think!
