The tournament is upon us! Huge shoutout to everyone who took the time to build and submit a deck that featured zero legendary and uncommon cards. Greg and I are really excited to sleeve up four of them and battle it out, with the two finalist decks receiving Quarterly Kit promo cards generously donated by Gameshop of Destiny.
Before I announce the four randomly drawn semifinalists, I wanted to first list out all of the character teams that were entered. Here they are, in no particular order:
- Submitted Character Teams
eDooku3 / eKylo2- Cody / Clone Trooper / Clone Trooper / Clone Trooper
- Grievous3 / Battle Droid / Battle Droid / Battle Droid / Battle Droid
- eDengar / eAsajj
- ePalpatine2 / Battle Droid / Battle Droid
- eHan2 / Clone Trooper / Clone Trooper
- eBossNass / Gungan Warrior / Gungan Warrior / Gungan Warrior
- eLeia3 / Jedi Temple Guard / Jedi Temple Guard
- eHondo / eKit Fisto
- Wicket / Rey3 / Force Mystic
- eRose / eSatine / eEzra2 / AoN
- eL3-37 / Wedge / Rebel Engineer
- eDengar / eAsajj
- Piett / FOST / FOST / FOST
- eAayla / eSatine / Rose
- eSavage / Executioner / Marauder
- eJar Jar / Boss Nass / Gungan Warrior / Gungan Warrior
- eTalzin / eIG-88
- ePalpatine2 / Battle Droid / Battle Droid
- ePiett / Mando / Mando
- eLor San Tekka / eBail / Anakin
- eTalzin / Mando / Mando
- eAayla / eRose / Anakin
- ePryce / Quarren Tracker / Dark Mystic
- Jar Jar / Palace Guard / Ezra3 / Clawdite
- eK2-SO / Marauder / Marauder
- eTalzin / eDooku2
- eAayla / eRose / Anakin
- Grievous3 / Messenger / Commando Droid / Commando Droid
- ePoe2 / eHondo
- eAayla / eWedge
eDooku3 / eKylo2Some quick stats from our list:
- 31 decks from 14 different players.
- 28 unique character teams (3 repeated)
- 17 Hero decks and 14 Villain.
- Most popular character: Aayla Secura (4 decks)
- Most popular battlefield: Bendu’s Lair (Not a surprise. In hindsight, I should have set the 10-dice limit to include everything outside of characters, lol.)
Greg came over Wednesday night, and we randomly drew four decks from our master list and then randomly assigned them into a bracket. I will be piloting the first and third decks while Greg will pilot the second and fourth. Our two semifinal matches will pit 1 vs. 2 and then 3 vs 4, with the two winning decks competing in the championship. So without any further delay, let’s meet our semifinalists! Here’s Deck 1:
eL3-37/Wedge/Rebel Engineer
Submitted by Matt H., piloted by Brian.
The first deck out of the hopper is a hero vehicles deck submitted by Matt H! It’s a call-back to the Across the Galaxy days, using L3-37 and the Engineer to mod up vehicles. Wedge Antilles provides some additional damage pressure with his own die and his Power Action ability to turn a vehicle die to any side.
The 10 dice are split between five vehicles and five upgrade mods, so I’ll need to mulligan hard for a vehicle in Turn 1. The three vehicles Matt did include are all heavy hitters, so hopefully I can find some extra resources to get something down fast and start mod-ing up. I like Matt’s event suite. Although it’s light on removal, it does have some damage pump and the red healing suite of First Aid and Field Medic.
I love playing vehicle decks, so I’m grateful this one fell to me. I was crossing my fingers to not run into Desperate Measures, and luckily enough my semifinals opponent isn’t running yellow villain. Let’s meet Deck 2!
ePalpatine2/Battle Droid/Battle Droid
Submitted by Patrick B., piloted by Greg.
Legacies Palp in the house! Greg and I have never put this version of Palpatine on the table, so this is pretty exciting. The character team was actually submitted by two individuals, but it was Patrick B.’s that came up in our randomizer.
I like the upgrades and redeploy weapons here, but — as the opponent to this deck — I think I’ll be more nervous if Greg gets down one of those Separatist Landing Crafts. I really don’t want any additional battle droids showing up the dance.
As you might expect, the event suite is running quite a bit of expensive events (2+ resources), hoping to take full advantage of Palpatine’s Power Action. That PA gives you a discount on events based on how many different damage symbols are in your pool. His Battle Droid companions are sporting two different damage symbols on their dice, making it more likely to get greater value.
Initially, I thought two copies of Law and Order would be dead against my vehicle deck, but then I realized that mods are still upgrades, so I’ll need to be wary of that. On to the second half of the bracket!
eTalzin/eDooku2
Submitted by Jordan K., piloted by Brian.
Talzin/Dooku is probably the closest thing to a former meta deck we have here. Jordan K. (from H-town!) submitted this list, and it mostly adheres to the odd-costed card strategy of a normal Talzin deck, but it’s also obviously missing out on some of those killer blue legendaries and uncommon cards.
As strong as this duo seems based on the character pairing and their respective inherent abilities, this deck may have an uphill climb. As you’ll soon see, Talzin/Dooku is the only two-character team in the bracket, and as such it starts with the lowest health total. That said, I really like Jordan’s eclectic collection of events and upgrades here. There are some beefy three-cost weapons, and the ability for both characters to fix dice upon activation should allow for some big swings each round.
Alright, three down, one to go. Let’s meet out last challenger deck in Jank Madness!
eAayla/eRose/Anakin
Submitted by Matt B., piloted by Greg.
That’s right — it’s another vehicle deck, by another Matt! Matt B. submitted this rainbow, five-dice vehicle deck, which happens to be a completely different take on vehicles than the Wedge deck presented earlier. There’s actually no overlap between characters or vehicles between these two decks. Very cool!
I’ve played a bunch of Rose in the past, so I know money shouldn’t be an issue for Greg here. Having additional funds available makes Matt’s inclusion of two Hired Muscles and two V-Wings super sneaky. Modified HWK-290 was one of my favorite cards in a Rose deck, so I’m happy to see it here (but absolutely happy to have to play against it.)
Aayla Secura is the lone jedi to make out tournament, but I suspect she will make her presence felt. Aayla brings some damage and additional focus with her dice, but also gives the deck access to twelve blue events.
Will it be enough to get past Talzin/Dooku and into the finals? We’ll find out Saturday!
The Field is Set
So there you have it, the four decks randomly selected to be part of our Jank Madness tournament. Major congrats to Patrick, Jordan, Matt, and Matt for making it into the bracket. Good luck to each of your decks!
Thank you to everyone who submitted deck ideas to this janky little tournament! This wouldn’t have happened without your support. I can honestly say that Greg and I will very likely be sleeving up many more of these in the coming months.
As for the tournament itself, Greg and I will be playing the semifinals on Saturday night, February 29th. As each match is best-of-three, we may hold off on playing the finals until later next week. I will be updating our matches via Twitter on Saturday night, so please follow me over there if you’d like live results.
