[Jerry] Top 8 at Las Vegas Planetary Qualifier
Jerry's Perspective: Las Vegas Planetary Qualifier Deck & Experience
tl;dr: Alyssa made Finalist, Jerry got eliminated in the first round of Top Cut. https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/167647
This post will be from Jerry's perspective. Alyssa’s perspective post can be found here:
![[Alyssa’s Perspective] Making Finalist at Las Vegas Planetary Qualifier](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3ukU!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F111b548d-f412-41a7-a82b-d70159b056b8_1600x1066.jpeg)
Las Vegas PQ experience feedback post of issues/weird rulings we’ve witnessed/heard:
Table of Contents
Some Pics and prizing
Knight & Day Games Drive pics folder - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QE-nCT0NjOxFlL9N9XVHn1ZTmDf3jPpv (they had a photographer at the event)
The night before the PQ event
We arrived on Friday 10/11 and we/I spontaneously decided to attend Knight & Day Games’ Friday’s locals in an attempt to get some last minute practice in and scope out the local competition - https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/167623.
It was $10 entry, 1 OP pack from each set and 1 regular pack as entry, pack-per-win, Bo3 format. There were 10 players total, 6 of which were from California. Two of the locals were more casual players, and the other two locals players participated in the next day’s PQ event (I think). I brought three decks in total to Las Vegas: Sabine Yellow, Bossk Blue, and Boba1 Tarkintown. Not wanting to reveal my intended deck (Boba1 Tarkintown) for tomorrow, I brought out my Bossk Blue. We ended up just playing three rounds as some players dropped after Round 2 and the rest of us wanted to go home early. Alyssa (played against two Han2 Blue) and I (played against Rey Tarkintown and Boba1 Green) both went 2-0 and played against each other in the last round. From our packs, we pulled a Rey and a Foil Krayt Dragon.
Let’s talk about the deck
https://swudb.com/deck/peUzIIxv
Context/refresher on my prior Top 8 Pasadena PQ deck list: https://substack.com/inbox/post/150320627#%C2%A7lets-talk-about-the-deck
Changes in the main deck
-1 Death Star Stormtrooper
-1 Sneak Attack
-1 Bazine Netal
-1 Lurking TIE Phantom
+1 Force Choke
+2 Boba Fett
+1 Unrefusable Offer
Reasoning: I wanted the deck to be better suited vs Sabine ECL. After playtesting against Alyssa’s Bright Hopes, I wanted the deck to have a bigger ground presence, so that’s why the +2 Boba Fett and +1 Force Choke. Sneak Attack and Lurking TIE Phantom is only good vs midrange/control, so one copy of each came out of the main. Bazine was a flex card and my list was too tight, so it got cut. With the expectation of more Boba Red in the meta and people putting in Sneak Attacks in their main deck, Unrefusable Offer was an experiment meant to counter their Sneak Attack + unit play.
[Hindsight comment: I’ve only pulled off Unrefusable Offer once, and it was against Alyssa in Top Cut.]
Changes in the sideboard
-1 Disabling Fang Fighter
-2 Kylo Ren
+1 Force Choke
+1 Lurking TIE Phantom
+1 Cunning
Reasoning: Kylo Ren was only played once in Pasadena PQ and it got nullified by a No Good To Me Dead, so out it went. Cunning was another card meant to counter the mirror as it can bounce/exhaust Ruthless Raider or exhaust Fett’s Firespray in a base race situation.
Basically the same sideboard thought process as Pasadena PQ deck list: https://jerrylshen.substack.com/i/150320627/sideboard-thought-process
Matchups
Boba1 Green (30 hp) 2-0
This was one of my feared matchups due to early Crumb + Ma Klounkee potential, but my opponent didn’t have it. Fast games. I did whiff a Turn 3 Triple Dark Raid in one of the games.
Han2 Blue 2-0
First game, my opponent basically played 3 Concords back to back, so that was super rough, but I eventually got through them. Second game, my opponent had initiative and Baze, but forgot/didn’t realize my Wolffe has Saboteur, so I was able to hit base with it while also denying any heals that turn.
I think it was either this match where I whiffed another Turn3 Triple Dark Raid or in the Sabine ECL match. But yeah, looks like I had cut one too many vehicles out compared to my Pasadena PQ list.
Sabine ECL 2-0
I had an answer for Sabine leader for both games, pretty straightforward games.
Rey Tarkintown 2-0 (Top 4)
First game was pretty straightforward.
Second game was a base race. Opponent had the Rey leader, Moisture Farmer with two experience tokens, and a Luke for a total of eight restores.
I had a Ruthless Raider and a small space unit, like Cartel Spacer. With the amount of heals he had on board, I had to finish the game this turn and do about fourteen damage to overcome his heals.
He spent his whole eight resources to play a Redemption (sentinel) and decided to not heal. I had seven resources and a Waylay, Daring Raid, and Triple Dark Raid in hand and was off by six damage even if I Waylay’d their Redemption. I was considering Waylaying Luke, but decided to YOLO it with the Triple Dark Raid route to try to pull a Ruthless Raider (Fett’s Firespray only does five damage) and I just had enough resources for that with the Boba resource effect.
So, I Waylay’d Redemption, Boba refresh one resource effect (seven->five resources left). He started hitting me with his ground units. I attacked with the small space unit. He attacked me with another ground unit. I TDR’d and pulled a Ruthless Raider (five->one resource left). He attacked me with his last ground unit. I showed my Daring Raid in hand to show that I had lethal (2x Ruthless Raider + 1x Daring Raid for the perfect 10 dmg lethal).
In our post-match discussion, we talked about if he healed with Redemption, then I would have Waylay’d his Luke and I would probably still live next turn. But that’s a different game at that point.
That was pretty tense, but I was pretty proud to overcome his board state with 8 total restores, as I had to calculate how much damage I was off, figure out what my possible out was, then calculate if I had sufficient resources for such play.
Boba1 Tarkintown 2-0
Don’t really remember the first game, except that I saw him play a Cunning, so I was on the lookout for that in the next game.
Second game, I had two ISB Agents, which allowed me to efficiently kill his 3/1 unit and kill a space unit with Tarkintown, but I didn’t really have Turn 2 play with a two/three cost unit as follow-up. When my opponent played an ISB Agent, he revealed a Power of the Dark Side. Internally, I was like “wtf lol.” But I didn’t really fear it throughout the game as our decks had too many small units to make it worth it.
Sabine ECL 0-2
Didn’t draw into my answers vs Sabine leader flip.
On Turn 4 of the second game, he ECL’d Poe cleared my Death Star Stormtrooper and Kylo’s TIE Silencer. He wins with the first action next turn. He had 10 health remaining on base, and I only had 9 dmg via Sneak attack + Fett’s Firespray & Boba leader. Sad.
Bossk ECL 1-2 (Top 4)
I think he had Overwhelming Barrage every game paired with his leader to clear a lot of my stuff.
In the third game, I would’ve won the base race on board, but he Chaos of War’d me (he had no hand, I had 1 card) for lethal. His deck was pretty different from what I was expecting, as it was very aggro focused with Guild Target and Outland TIE Vanguard. It was really annoying when I had a 3/2 space unit start and he had a bounty start, which allowed him to ping off my unit the following turn.
With my 5-2 Swiss record, I squeezed into Top Cut as the only 5-2 record person.
Top Cut:
Sabine ECL 1-2 (vs Alyssa)
Unfortunately, due to the bracketing pairings, we’re matched against each other. On the flip side, it guarantees that one of us will make Top 4.
After this point, I was basically giving any notable updates/pics relating to Alyssa’s matches in the CBG Discord. I did end up calling the judge twice during this Top Cut timeframe: once when Alyssa’s opponent tried to give her the initiative after already resourced, and another time when it was brought to my attention of a player was wearing sunglasses throughout the event (see here for more details).
Conclusion
I think I felt more pressure going into this event than the Pasadena PQ, because I felt that I needed to “defend” my Pasadena’s Top 8 PQ title and not to scrub out early. I once again dodged the Boba1 Yellow matchup. Very draw dependent in the Sabine matchups. Super unfortunate Swiss record with Alyssa and I facing each other in the first round in Top Cut. But I’m also super proud that she made it to Finalist.
Super cool to see lots of familiar California faces at the event (I only knew of the CBG crew and some from our SWU circle going prior). After the event concluded at around 11PM, several of us went to a KBBQ.
