Jar Jar Mill 5-1 Trilogy Adepticon GQ 1.0

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• 1.0

This is the list that I took to the Trilogy Galactic Qualifier at Adepticon. Going into the weekend I had done extensive testing locally, and I currently believe that this is one of, if not the best deck in the format. That said, Trilogy as a format is very new, and I feel there is a lot still to be explored.

The first question most people ask me is why I chose Jar Jar Binks - Clumsy Outcast over a second Jedha Partisan, or even Rose - Skilled Mechanic. I tested all three versions, and landed on Jar Jar for a few reasons:

1) There is an extra character die. This is relevant for a few reasons, including for use with Vandalize, and even just having an extra side right off the bat. Every side on Jar Jar's die is useful in this deck in some way.

1a) This is a minor point, but the Jar Jar version also has a slightly higher average battlefield roll (3.66 for Jar Jar, 3.16 for double Partisan). You can ask my testing partners, I was very unsure about Imperial Palace - Coruscant, even the night before the event, since I was slower than most decks, but it is such a huge help to close out games, that every little bit helps. There are exceptions of course. For example, if I went up against someone using Launch Deck - Home One, I would happily use their battlefield, take the shields, and use the claim ability to trigger a mill from my Jedha Partisan.

2) As for why not use Rose - Skilled Mechanic, she is great at making money, but having two yellow characters really helps with keeping Easy Pickings and Entangle online, which are two of the most important cards in the deck. Even without that though, I found that red doesn't really bring much to the table for mill in this format.

3) I saved the most obvious for last, but Jar Jar Binks - Clumsy Outcast's ability is amazing. Rerolls when you want it, mitigation if you need it, and sometimes your opponent just chooses to activate him first, giving you initiative on the round. He's a very cheap, very flexible character, and I think he brings a lot to the deck.

With all that out of the way, let's get to the tournament report! I tend to go overboard on the game breakdowns, so I'm going to do my best to keep this portion short and sweet.

Game 1 - vs. Lon - Kylo Ren - Tormented One / Anakin Skywalker - Conflicted Apprentice

This was my only loss of the day. As someone who made the trip to Adepticon with the hopes of clinching a World's seat, this was rather disappointing, but them's the ropes. I got a little unlucky and also one unfortunate misplay that cost me dearly.

My opponent got out a few early upgrades, and I didn't see Force Meditation, Scrap Heap, or Bespin Wing Guard until rather late, but the real killer was that he called Yellow with Kylo's ability every round. There were three rounds in which he got a 1 in 5 to grab my only yellow card and deal two damage to Yoda, which was painful, although I was able to play around it one round by playing my only yellow card before he activated.

Other than that there was a turn toward the end where I had Scruffy Looking Nerf-Herder in my hand and, even though I had seen one copy of Frighten already, I played Heightened Awareness instead of the Scruffy. Sure enough, he had his second Frighten and killed Yoda through my newly acquired shields. I should have seen that coming, but them's the ropes.

Result: Loss (0-1)

Game 2 - vs. Garritt - Mother Talzin - Nightsister Matriarch / Veteran Stormtrooper / Veteran Stormtrooper

I honestly only remember a few aspects of this game (it was a LONG day). I know that I finished the game with about 8 total health left across my characters, and that I had a decent amount of removal to handle his early damage swings. The biggest play of the game was when he rolled out a 3 side on a trooper, and I didn't have removal for it. I had a feeling that Sudden Impact was coming, so I played a Scruffy Looking Nerf-Herder, called event, and there it was. That one felt good.

Result: Win (1-1)

Game 3 - vs. Jacob - Mother Talzin - Nightsister Matriarch / Veteran Stormtrooper / Veteran Stormtrooper

Unfortunately for my opponent, there isn't much to report in this one. I got Force Meditation out turn one, and had removal for DAYS. His rolls were decent, but when I remove 4 of your dice every round, it's hard to overcome.

Result: Win (2-1)

Game 4 - vs. Gabriel - Yoda - Wizened Master / Jedha Partisan / Jedha Partisan

This was one of the most stressful games I've played in quite some time. I hadn't gotten any practice with the mirror match (everyone in my local meta already hated me for playing mill, nevermind wanting to run it against me), and I was concerned that the double mill from the two Partisans would outpace me. The odd thing was that my opponent wasn't using Espionage. He said he was too afraid of losing an important card.

He started off turn one by putting down a Force Meditation and a Bespin Wing Guard, and I thought I was done for. There were a couple turns that I was able to remove both his Yoda and his Force Meditation die, which helped save me a lot of cards. I was only able to get one resolution of my own Force Meditation before he used Vandalize on it, but a timely Strength Through Weakness caught me back up.

The game came down to him having 1 card in deck (which I milled via , and three cards in hand. I also had three cards in hand. He had also discarded one of my copies of Bespin Wing Guard and milled the other, while he only had one in play. He took one of my cards with the Wing Guard, leaving me with two. I used a Yoda - Wizened Master 2 to flip my two Jar Jar dice to sides. He claimed to get me down to my last card. Now we were both at 1 card and I hadn't activated my Jedha Partisan yet. I rolled him and hit the 1/6 for the win.

Had I not rolled that, he could have just claimed the next round and won. Although I learned after that he wasn't aware of claiming being the tie breaker (he thought it was damage), so he likely wouldn't have claimed anyway. Either way, an insanely intense match, and a lot of fun to play. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!

Result: Win (3-1)

Game 5 - vs. Paul - Mother Talzin - Nightsister Matriarch / Veteran Stormtrooper / Veteran Stormtrooper

At this point I'm beginning to realize this is likely one of my easier matchups. I was able to remove almost every damage he rolled, although his rolls weren't cooperating with him much either.

Result: Win (4-1)

Game 6 - vs. Steven (from Team Covenant) - Zeb Orrelios - The Last Lasat / Yoda - Wizened Master

This was another intensely close (and very stressful) match. The start was nutty for both of us. Turn one I had out Force Meditation and a Scrap Heap and he got a Vibrocutlass onto Zeb....TURN ONE! I thought I was in big trouble at that point.

Turn two he got out a Force Wave that I was able to mitigate one turn with Easy Pickings and remove the following turn with Vandalize. Whenever he was able to, Steve was very smart about playing around Easy Pickings and Vandalize, but unfortunately for him, I drew them at just the right times.

A good example was round three when all he had left was a Yoda 2, and two other sides on the other Yoda and one Zeb die. He thought for a long time about playing around Entangle and decided (in my mind, correctly), that he was far enough behind that he had to take the risk (I had already gone through over half his deck). He focused to the 3 for 1 and the Yoda and, luckily for me, I did have the Entangle to get rid of them.

Despite all of my removal, he was able to kill Yoda - Wizened Master and the Jedha Partisan, getting down to just Jar Jar Binks - Clumsy Outcast. He rolled out his last two activations and was short on damage, but with a 2 showing. Realizing he was short, I played Flank on the focus, and he couldn't get the damage he needed (even after activating Jar Jar).

Another very close, and very fun, game.

Result: Win (5-1)

If you're still reading at this point, I'm impressed. That was a slog of a write up, but I hope you enjoyed it! Despite the disappointing start, it was nice to have success at an event I had put a lot of practice time in for. I feel like this deck is extremely powerful in the Trilogy meta right now, although it leaves little room for error (as was seen in my first matchup).

I highly recommend giving it a try, and if anyone has any questions specific to the deck (rather than a tournament report style), just let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.