First Place and Second Place at SWU JTL Store Showdown at Magic & Monsters
2025/06/27: This is our last JTL store showdown fr fr. No gameplay videos.
My TCGPlayer link to support: https://partner.tcgplayer.com/LumiMouse
Table of Contents
6/27 - Store Showdown at Magic & Monsters
Format: (pre-sided) Bo1, 4 rounds, no Top Cut, 16 players;
https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/332595
There was a poll on their Discord whether it would be Bo1 or Bo3 (it resulted in a tie). I guess they decided to do the pre-sided Bo1 (I’m not a regular at this store). It was basically a regular weekly (with the pre-sided part) but with the store showdown + binder prizing.
Similar to Krazy Nick’s Games’ Store Showdown, Magic & Monsters also had a messed up store showdown kit where it had more Top 4/Finalist/Champions than Top 8 promo cards.
Alyssa went 3-1, I went 4-0 and we were both #1 and #2 in standings. We each got 1x Champion, 1x Finalist, and 1x Top 4. No clue on the actual packs prizing distribution as the main SWU EO had already left for the day (will need to contact them later).
Deck - Rey Data Vault
This is literally the fellow CBG’r’s Northridge PQ (winner) deck list, with the only change being in the side board, swapping out 1x Arquitens Assault Cruiser for a third copy of Confiscate.
This was also my first time bringing this deck out (my only play testing practice was against Alyssa’s Sabine ECL on the night prior). But I felt comfortable piloting it since I played against it so much. I’ve also played a lot of SOR Luke Skywalker Green back in Set 1, so it’s not like I was that unfamiliar with Green Blue Heroism decks.
My Matchups
Vs Captain Phasma Green 1-0
Pre-siding:
In: 3x Confiscate, 1x Timely Reinforcement (iirc?)
Out: 3x Entrenched (iirc?)
This was my first time playing against Captain Phasma, so wasn’t too sure what to expect aside from the general Green Red good stuff (such as SOR Darth Vader, Maul, SOR Devastator, etc).
Turn 1:
I played Regional Governor, calling out Superlaser Technician.
They played Allegiant General Pryde. I claimed inititative. They Captain Phasma leader pinged.
Turn 2:
I played Resupply.
They played Resupply.
I claimed initiative. Their Allegiant General Pryde attacked my base.
Turn 3:
I played Blue Leader, moved it to the ground and ambushed it into their Allegiant General Pryde.
They deployed their Captain Phasma leader.
I attacked Regional Governor into their base.
They played Captain Phasma unit, buffing their leader.
I claimed initiative. Their Captain Phasma leader attacked my base and triggered its on-attack, pinging my Blue Leader and my base.
Turn 4:
I suicided my Blue Leader into their Captain Phasma leader (in hindsight, maybe I should’ve bumped it into their Captain Phasma unit instead? idk).
They attacked with Captain Phasma unit, buffing their leader.
I played Village Protectors.
They played Precision Fire, attacking their leader into my base, bypassing my Village Protectors.
At this point, I had about 25 damage on my base. I don’t remember what I played afterwards.
At one point, they did play Traitorous on my Village Protectors, but I had a Confiscate ready. Later in the game, they killed one of my Luke Skywalkers via Timely Intervention + Kylo Ren. They later didn’t really have a response for another Luke Skywalker (they did Darth Vader ambush first, but failed to find a TIE Dagger Vanguard).
After the game, my opponent told me how they did had a Superlaser Technician in hand.
Vs Sabine ECL 1-0
Pre-siding:
In: 3x Confiscate, 1x Rival’s Fall
Out: 2x Mon Mothma, 1x Timely Reinforcement, 1x Unity of Purpose
Their turn two was a For A Cause I Believe In, so that’s kind of a rip for them.
Turn 1:
I played Regional Governor, calling out Phoenix Squadron A-Wing.
Opponent played JTL Luke Skywalker.
I claimed initiative, they Sabine leader pinged.
Turn 2:
I played Village Protectors.
I don’t remember the turn sequence, but I ended up getting initiative, they hit their JTL Luke Skywalker into my Village Protectors (popping the shield) and played For A Cause I Believe In.
Turn 3:
I Rey leader experience’d the Regional Governor.
They played Sundari Peacekeeper.
I played Entrenched onto my Regional Governor (I intentionally gave it a Rey experience before the upgrade so it’d have 5 attack power).
They ended up still flipping out their Sabine leader, so I kill it with my Regional Governor.
They later ended up killing my Rey leader with Wrecker, but I think I had too much of a board state and huge base health disparity (I ended the game with 1 damage). After the game, my opponent told me how they did had a Phoenix Squadron A-Wing in hand.
Vs JTL Lando Data Vault 1-0
Pre-siding:
In: Everything, but the 2x Disruption Burst
Out: 3x Entrenched (iirc?)
I had a pretty good idea on how their deck operates after having played several games against a CBG’r who played the same deck. I was expecting our game to go into late game.
Turn 1:
My starting hand contained a SOR Luke Skywalker and SOR Home One. I played Mon Mothma and fetched a Home One (Luke Skywalker was also in there, so it got sent to the bottom). My thinking was that Home One had more flexibility.
They played Battlefield Marine (iirc). I claimed initiative.
Turn 2:
I played Fleet Lieutenant, pumping and trading my Mon Mothma with their Battlefield Marine.
They played Sabine’s Masterpiece. I claimed initiative.
Turn 3:
I played Eager Escort Fighter, trading it with their Sabine’s Masterpiece.
Anddd I don’t really remember what happened on that turn. But I was pretty focused on 1:1 trading in the first few turns.
A really cool play they did was Lando leader effect into Redemption, with max healing and only popping the shield. I traded all four of my X-Wing tokens (one of them was buffed from Rey leader) into it.
At one point, they also played an off-aspect Spark of the Rebellion and sniped a Luke Skwalker (which sucks, because I knew one of them was at the bottom of my deck from Mon Mothma).
Anyways, I later won via Unity of Purpose. They had 3 damage on their base, I had 0 damage. The end board state was me having five units: Rey leader, Village Protector, Tech, and Clone Deserter (iirc), and Home One; them having one or zero unit?
The turn started with them suiciding a unit into my unit (so I was somewhat expecting a Luke Skywalker. I played Unity of Purpose, giving every friendly unit +5/+5. They Luke Skywalker’d and killed off my injured Rey leader. But I had 33 damage on board and they had no other responses to stop it.
Vs Sabine ECL (Alyssa) 1-0
Same pre-siding as Round 2.
Her turn two was also a For A Cause I Believe In, so that’s kind of a rip.
I ended up winning, but this match didn’t really matter as one of us was guaranteed to be first place.
Though, in hindsight of the other players’ tie-breakers, I think the losing player would also be guaranteed 2nd place? Alyssa had worse tie-breakers going into this match than me, so she was more at risk of dropping out of the 2nd place than me.
Conclusion
This is our last store showdown of this set fr fr, so pretty cool that “we” won it.
I do appreciate the store allowing the banking of JTL packs for LOF packs since about 2025/05/09. We’ve only been to this store this set once prior for a weekly, because they were giving away JTL marketing materials (think posters, the standees, etc.) and Alyssa really wanted them.
Another cool thing: while we were waiting for the event to start, a SWU player came up to us asking if one of us was LumiMouse. I raised my hand saying that I was. They said how they saw Alyssa filming at the Northridge PQ. It’s pretty neat to get recognized :D.