Finalist at SWU SEC Store Showdown at Game Chest Irvine
2025/02/07: Minor deck list update again.
My TCGPlayer link to support: https://partner.tcgplayer.com/LumiMouse
Table of Contents
2/07 - Store Showdown at Game Chest Irvine
The store’s linktree if you want to join their Discord: https://linktr.ee/thegamechest
Format: 3 or 4 Bo1 pre-sided Swiss rounds (in reality, it was 3 rounds), Top Cut of 4, 12 players;
https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/397800
Swiss rounds: Alyssa and I both went 2-1, but Alyssa lost her first round.
Top Cut rounds: I made finals.
My prizing: 5 regular packs + the participation stuff (First Light promo, 1 regular pack, and OP packs). They did give out extra OP packs and raffled out some stuff.
I brought my camera gear, but I didn’t record. I figured that people wouldn’t be that interested in gameplays of this deck again. I actually did prepare to bring a different homebrew deck, but some of the core cards were lent out to a friend and they couldn’t make it to this event at the last minute, so I did a fallback to this deck.
Deck - SHD Han ECL
Basically the same deck from the 1/31 FAD Store Showdown, with a few minor changes:
- 1 SOR R2-D2
- 1 Outflank
+ 1 JTL Poe Dameron
+ 1 Kelleran Beq
Playing into the local meta, I’m further reducing the anti-Cad tech after seeing no Cad decks at the FAD Store Showdown. Though there was a Cad Tarkintown deck at this event, we didn’t get paired up.
My Matchups
Round 1: Vs Thrawn Yellow 1-0
Going into this matchup, I was expecting the deck to be similar to what I’ve seen at Pasadena SEC PQ.
I think I started off with the initiative. Below is what I recall:
Turn 1: I played LOF Grogu. They played Nightsister Warrior.
Turn 2: I healed to kill their unit with LOF Grogu. They triggered their Thrawn leader ability to draw two. They passed. I cheated out an K-2SO. They played Unrefusable Offer.
Turn 3: I attacked with K-2SO. They played Arrest on K-2SO and replayed it onto their side via the bounty. I cheated out Queen Amidala. They attacked into my LOF Grogu with their K-2SO. I healed my Queen Amidala to damage their K-2SO with LOF Grogu. They played JTL Director Krennic. I claimed. K-2SO gets defeated via bounty effect, and they chose for me to discard a card.
Board state: They had JTL Director Krennic. I had LOF Grogu, Queen Amidala, and two spy tokens.
Turn 4: I cheated out Crucible, giving an experience to each of my other friendly units. They played Legacy Run. I knew what was going to happen the following turn, but nothing I can do to stop it now. I don’t really remember where their Krennic attacked. I just focused on attacking their base.
Turn 5: They traded their Legacy Run into my Crucible, double triggering with Thrawn leader effect. It basically wiped my board, leaving only Queen Amidala left.
It seemed as if they were on the verge of stabilizing. But later on, they seemed to have bad draws, as they played JTL Chimaera without any effects to trigger.
In the post-match discussion, I told them that going into this matchup, I was expecting this deck to be similar to the Pasadena PQ list (I told them that they didn’t need to confirm or deny it). They said that it was similar.
Sideboarding iirc:
- 1 Cham Syndulla
- 2 General’s Blade
+ 3 Bright Hope
Round 2: Vs SHD Han Blue Force 0-1
I felt that the match wasn’t too close iirc. Chirrut be annoying.
Sideboarding iirc:
- 1 Cham Syndulla
- 1 Blue Leader
+ 2 Modded Cohort
Round 3: Vs Qi’ra Data Vault 1-0
They ramped on curve and I actually drew into Cham Syndulla the following turn, but I ended up playing it at like the resource 7 turn just because I had stronger plays beforehand. I wanted to put as much pressure as I could before they can deploy leader into Overwhelming Barrage.
They did the Timely Intervention + LOF Darth Vader combo.
There was one little mishap where they Qi’ra deployed, resolved its effect, and then tried to plot out a SEC Cad Bane to defeat my damaged Queen Amidala. I interjected that they would’ve needed to show their plot card(s) first, because it would’ve change my line of my play of choosing whether to apply Queen Amidala’s effect or not. I retrospectively applied it (sacrificing a spy token to prevent Qi’ra’s damage effect) and their SEC Cad Bane defeated a spy token instead.
Sideboarding iirc:
- 2 General’s Blade
+ 2 Cham Syndulla
Top Cut of 4
Round 1: Vs Qi’ra Data Vault 1-0 (same player as Round 3)
I think this match played out a little bit better for my opponent compared to our Swiss round match.
They did the Timely Intervention + LOF Darth Vader combo again.
In the post-match discussion, they were telling me how I didn’t play any Fleet Lieutenant during our Swiss match, so they weren’t expecting it. They said that if they knew about it, they would’ve been more diligent about removing my units.
Sideboarding iirc:
- 2 General’s Blade
- 3 Grogu
+ 2 Cham Syndulla
+ 3 Bright Hope
Round 2: SHD Han Blue Force 0-1 (same player as Round 2)
There were some tough resourcing decisions in this game. During a regroup phase, I was deciding whether to stay at 6 or go up to 7 resources. My ECL was already used, and I had a Timely Intervention in the resource row. My hand was Wrecker, K-2SO, and Karis Nemik. I knew that I really wanted to go up to the 8 resource mark so I can smuggle out Timely Intervention + Wrecker, but if I resourced this turn, I felt that my turn would be a bit lackluster in terms of putting pressure. So I stayed at that resource mark. I’m still not sure if that was a mistake or not in hindsight.
I definitely misplayed where I brainfarted on where to allocate the two damage from Red Five’s “on-attack.” The game got pretty close, they were at around 22 damage by the end of the game.
During the post-match discussion, I told my opponent that I didn’t like this matchup. They told me that they also didn’t like the matchup for them. Internally, I was like “oh lols.”
Tangent: At the start of the game, I told them that I would wait to see if they decide to keep their hand or mulligan before deciding for my hand. They asked why. I responded that they had initiative.
During a regroup phase, I told them I would wait to see if they resource or not before I decide to resource or not. They asked why. I responded that they were the active player.
There is strategic value to be gained knowing if they decide to mulligan or not and if they resource or not as the non-active player. I usually am strict with following the mulligan rules. I’m only strict with the resourcing rules when I feel that they start becoming more relevant, usually later in the game, given that players are almost always going to resourcing in the early game.
Similarly, when I play against known strong players, after sideboarding, I usually would preemptively state my sideboard size. The size of the sideboard is open information. In lower stake events (basically store showdown and below), against other players, I usually specify the exact number of changed cards, such as “I did four in, four out.” Sometimes my opponent responds in kind, sometimes not (I just assume their sideboard size remains unchanged), I don’t really mind for lower stake events.
Sideboarding iirc:
- 1 Cham Syndulla
- 1 Blue Leader
+ 2 Modded Cohort
Conclusion
I think I did as expected based on my matchups.
Getting info about the event itself was a bit challenging outside of being part of their Discord. I called the store twice beforehand and they weren’t able to tell me what the format was without the TO (they assumed it would be Bo3, but we learned that it was actually pre-sided Bo1 when we arrived to the event). After talking to the TO, they said they were wanting to improve the communication channel.