I was finally able to find time to write about the current meta decks with the set Spirit of Rebellion and I am starting straight away with one, I have the most experience with and which is currently proclaimed to be the best deck on meta. Elite Poe and elite Maz. I managed to get to top 8 on European Championship and win (eventhough small) Store Championship with this deck. However I placed “only” on 13th place from 32 on Czech Nationals with score 3-3 with this deck, so it is clearly beatable. Decklist is available again on the SW Destiny database: LINK.
CHARACTERS:
The combination of characters is quite optimal – you have 4 character dice for 29 points and an access to red and yellow cards. Main character is obvious – Poe Dameron. His two ranged sides are good by themself, but the whole deck is built on his special ability. You can discard a card from your hand to resolve any of its die sides and in case that it was a vehicle, you can play its full cost to play it from the discard pile. There is significant amount of legitimate throwables to this special ability in the deck, but I will write more about them later. Poe´s die further has a side with 1 disrupt, which is pretty useless and finally a side with 1 resource, which is not bad, but you have easier and cheaper dice to resolve for resource than this one. He has 12 health points, which is above average value and it should mean, that Poe stays on the table for a while. Which is unfortunately not always true. Current meta is heavily oriented on burst damage and you can experience Poe´s death in round 1 which is unfortunate and killing Poe in round 2 is not a rare event.
Second crew-member is Maz Kanata. She helps you with access to really strong yellow cards, but she also increases the consistency of the deck and its tempo. Two sides with a focus are most welcome, but also other sides of her die are good, maybe with exception of shields. Shields are currently not so helpful with the Vibroknives all around. Her disadvantage is however her low amount of health points. Only 8 HP means, that you should be really afraid of losing her in round 1.
UPGRADES:
A lot of people play this deck almost naked throwing everything to Poe´s special, which is terrible mistake. As I have already written above, it is not hard to lose one of your characters very early so you have to set up your game and prepare yourself for mid and late game. There is several ways how to do it, but the main should be via upgrades.
Fast Hands are somehow obligatory in this deck, they allow you to resolve Poe´s special before your opponent removes it and they also gives your potection again Its a Trap. I saw few people playing Fast Hands on Maz, which really makes no sense.
Now lets talk about the rest, which is not so obvious. You can get Maz’s Goggles for one resource, which opens a lot of things. Another two focus sides further improve your consistency. One of the focus is double, which is even better. Next two sides are resource. A lot of people say you do not need them in the deck, but the opposite is true. You need them to build up your team. And finally a superb special side. It allows you to see your opponent´s hand, which is good by itself, but than you can discard any event. This card takes place especially against blue villain decks, where you have to discard No Mercy and Rise Again from hand of your opponent.
Another upgrade which is necessity in this deck is Cunning. In the absolutely worst case scenario, it adds you a possibility to resolve Poe´s special on third die. I do not think you would be able to really resolve all three of them as you will not have enough cards to throw, but your opponent now has to mitigate three dice instead of two, and that is the reason why Cunning is always good. To top of that, it is really crucial card to negate a lot of cards in opponent´s decks. Possibly the best target for Cunning is Mind Probe, but there is a lot of others like the rest of the force powers, Rocket Launcher, Darth Vader – Dark Apprentice, Rebel Commando etc. and it also helps you a lot in mirror.
Three cost upgrades are more obvious. DL-44 is perfect weapon for Maz Kanata, who becomes a crazy dangerous target with them, consistently shooting for 3 or more damage per turn. For the very same reason is Rocket Launcher actually better than Black One. Also the consistency of damage on Rocket Launcher die means, that you should play this card on Poe in case your opponent is targeting Maz first, so you have little bit more consistent setup when Maz goes down. In any case, you should play at least on of these 3 cost upgrades on table. Third upgrade for three resources is Thermal Detonator, the best throwable in most cases and you almost never play it on table, maybe with some exceptional occasions against eUnkar/FN/Trooper.
SUPPORTS:
As already mentioned, you need more sources of damage than Poe´s dice for late game. Thanks to Poe you can pretty effectively get vehicles on table, but I do not recommend this. Vehicles slow down your turn and opens your dice further to mitigation.
One of the supports you however want to play is Planetary Uprising. This card is really dangerous in fast decks even despite the fact, that is slows you down in round you play it and opens a turn for your opponent to take initiative and claim. Still it is very strong card just because its damage are inevitable and you can claim late game as your first action if this could win you a game.
Only two other supports are remaining in deck. First is U-Wing. Resolving its damage (either 3 to 1 character or 2 to all) is obvious, but sometimes you can find shields or focus more useful. Finally there we have Millennium Falcon. Most of the opponents are expecting 4 damage, which is still the best side on its die. But there are situations, when you resolve 3 discard (i.e. when you know your opponent has Palpatine on table and Force Illusions in hand) or even the special, because you have Hyperspace Jump in your deck.
EVENTS:
EVents are probably most difficult part of this deck. Because your deck is already aggressive, you do not need any other cards supporting your damage output, with one exception: Hit and Run. It is still valuable despite the fact, that Poe dies first and the card is useless afterwards. And even with Fast Hands it still has its use. It further improves your protection of dice on table as you can resolve them more effectively and there is good play combo with Throne Room. You activate Poe and claim, so you resolve a special on Poe no matter what you rolled plus your Planetary Uprising further increases your damage.
Lets start with defensive cards – removals. Most probably the best multiple dice removal is Defensive Position. You can take all dice with value 2 or more and it helps you mainly against Palpatine and Vader. Be aware, that this card does not save you against specials and also you have to keep the control of battlefield, which is not easy as it seems. Second multiple dice removal is Hyperspace Jump. It ends the turn for both players and also you can switch the battlefield to Throne Room. This is crucial for the deck, as you usually do not win initiative roll. Well timed Hyperspace Jump wins games and its only downside is expensive cost. Also do not forget on fact, that after errata this card is removed from the game after resolving, so you can not play it repeatedly (but you still can play it via Falcon from discard if you just discarded the event previously).
Situation with single die removal is worse. Electroshock is not what it used to be, as there is currently quite a lot of 3+ dice you need to remove and a lot of dice are resolved immediately. Loth-Cat and Mouse on the other hand requires you to have your own dice in the pool and you will usually loose Poe´s die, which is not valuable trade. Aside of this, red nor yellow offers any good removal, most of them requires your own dice to be removed or have some other bad condition.
You can play HP boost cards instead of removal, as this works in similar way usually. Field Medic heals 2 HP for 1 resource, which is on Electroshock comparable level. Most of the players also use Dug-In, but I did not find it good in meta full of unblockable damage and you need to control battlefield again.
Finally I think you should alaways have Friend in Low Places in your deck. Its ability is similar to Maz’s Goggles, but this time you can remove only event with cost 1 or less. Still you can hit a removal in opponent´s hand or something like Its a Trap. And you still see his hand which means that you can optimize your game.
BATTLEFIELD:
There are only two battlefield which makes sense. Emperor´s Throne Room and Frozen Wastes. Both of them serves different purpose, but as the game advanced and people learned to play against Poe/Maz, I think only one makes sense now in high skill environment.
Frozen Wastes are great choice as they really improve defense of your deck, which is your weak point. Also your opponent can not use the Wastes much, as your dice are lying on table only first turn. Also as players of Wastes mention, you do not need any further consistency in the deck, as Maz is consistent enough by herself. And this is the point. If your opponent knows, that there is no possibility to play on ETR, he can just kill Maz quickly and consistency of your deck is gone. Without her and ETR, the deck falls apart and slows down.
So Emperor’s Throne Room offers you a consistent game even in case that Maz is down and further to that, it forces your opponent to kill Poe first. Which means you have more time to prepare your surviving Maz to the stage, when she is able to deal 3-5 damage per turn consistently and can win a game by herself.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Poe/Maz is currently most discussed deck in topics regarding erratas and bans. It is definitely a deck in Tier 1 rank and most probably also the strongest one. Its value is hidden in consistency and full control of your game and deck. Also it requires only mediocre skills to play, so average players can do well with it on tournaments. Finally when you do not know, how to play against it, the defeat is usually quick and definitelly not close.
There is however few things, you should always do when playing agaist Best Crew and most people forget about them. First – you never want to play on ETR. It is not so difficult to win initiative roll, but due to Hyperspace Jump you just have to play your own New Orders to get out of it asap when the battlefield switches. Second – deck has a lot of damage but usually only AoE. Its not easy to kill fast 12+ health characters and that is also a reason, why Palpatine is so good against it. Also shields and other ways of blocking helps massively. Finally – this deck is fragile. It has only 20 health points and it lacks dice removal, which means games against it are always quick. You have to push your luck on the beginning. Despite all of this Poe/Maz is not easy opponent and you can not expect it beeing nerfed in current meta too much. So become prepared. I will follow with other decks in next week.
The Guild 