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I didn’t attend November World’s this year, but I did swing by the Radisson Friday night to say hello to people. I had my cards all packed up, but Josh had his boxes so he, Brad, Kiramode and I sat down and grabbed random decks, made sure they didn’t overlap and played a match of 2v2 against each other. It was a blast. I had forgotten how much I love this game and community.
Ethan and I had lunch on Saturday and afterwards were brainstorming ideas for fun alternative formats. Part of what made the 2v2 match so brilliant (apart from being on a team with Brad which was just a hoot) was that the decks weren’t tuned for 2v2 so the games played pretty close. I always like it when games play somewhere in the middle. I had all my cards packed up, back in their binders and that’s when Ethan came up with the idea and we refined it: SW Draft Collective Edition!
Unfortunately, Ethan couldn’t stick around into the evening to see his brainchild play out, but when Thrones was done and people had finished eating Josh, Danny, Tyler and I sat down to try this madness. My cards are split into 6 binders in order of release date. There is some overlap of cycles in the first couple binders, the Hoth and echoes sets are split, but each binder is roughly one box and one cycle.
The plan: Have players randomly grab a binder each and set the remaining two to the side between the two players opposite each other. This forms a hexagon. Players then open the binders and grab any one LS and any one DS pod they want to start the formation of a deck. Once this is done players would rotate the binders one position to the right. The binders at the edges or the hexagon would rotate in and 2 binders would rotate out. Simultaneously the players would rotate the decks they had started one player to the left!
Then players would look at the pods they had gotten and pick and one LS and DS pod in their new binder to add to the deck. Deck construction rules had to be followed so once a player had picked an X-affiliation only card nobody could add an affiliation that would contradict that. Same goes for the restricted list. The idea was the decks had to be “playableâ€.
Once we did this 10 times we put the decks out all on the table with the pods showing and randomly selected a player to have first choice of LS or DS deck. Once the 4th person picked a deck we reversed the order ala Settlers of Catan for the 2nd pick. Then we played.
Execution: the idea that you’re not drafting your deck but have your thumb on the scale of everyone’s deck is what made this format particularly interesting. You can’t make the deck too good or someone else will draft it and crush you. Can’t make the deck too bad or you might wind up having to play it. As Danny said “You have to make decks that ONLY YOU can playâ€. And as arrogant SW players we of course all thought we could do this.
It was hilarious passing to Danny around pack 4 he cried out “why do I have to sit after Mick?! I have to fix all his mistakes!†No. No, mistakes here. All those inclusions are by design!
It was interesting watching resource counts in the decks and trying to make sure that the decks were all still functionable as decks. Also sometimes decks needed to have their power level brought up, other times they needed to come down. Around the 8th pick there was a concern at the table that the DS decks were turning out to be stronger than the LS decks so there were definitely some choices made to try to balance out the sides.
Unfortunately, we were only able to get 2 rounds in at which point it was around 2am. It would be fun to do a full round robin. Danny and I ended 3-1 with Josh and Tyler 1-1. But with a final round it could theoretically end a 4 way tie, so who knows what the strongest of these decks are! Personally I’d put my money on Danny, because his sith scum deck was sick and he also got to play his beloved Leia Cracken deck as LS. If we had gotten to finish I’d like to think he would have taken it all meaning that Edge of Darkness Lobot had won a “World’sâ€.
Kiramode’s Picks
Affiliation: Rebel (3rd pick)
Planning the Rescue
Fleeing the Empire
Behind Enemy Lines
Resourceful Survivors
Questionable Contacts
The Last Warrior
Spirit of Rebellion
Calling in Favors
Impersonating a Diety
Defense of Cloud City
Affiliation: Scum (6th pick)
Double Crossing Droid
Lady’s Lesson
All Out Brawl
I Don’t Like You Either
Agent of the Emperor
Reawakening
Encounter at Stygeon Prime
Council of the Sith
Rogue Archaeology
Corporate Exploitation
Mick’s Picks
Affiliation: Rebel (2nd pick)
Running the Trench
Planning the Rescue
Pushing Back the Empire
Haunting the Empire
Alderaan’s Promise
Mission to Talay
Hero’s Journey
Twilight of the Apprentice
Watchers in the Wasteland
Daughter of Tanaab
Affiliation: Scum (7th pick)
Double Crossing Droid
Droid Droid Revolution
Shadowed Surveillance
Nar Shaddaa Drift
Dark Counsel
Emperor’s Cabal
Emperor’s Shadow
Emperor’s Hand
Serve the Emperor
Ghosts of the Dark Side
Tyler’s Picks
Affiliation: Smuggler (4/5th pick)
On the Run
Asteroid Sanctuary
Renegade Squadron Mobilization
Last Defense of Hoth
Smuggler’s Gambit
Haunting the Empire
Lost Commander
Forward Reconnaissance
Turning the Tide
Green Squadron Deployment
Affiliation: Navy (4/5th pick)
Technological Terror
Repair and Refurbish
Capital Support
Kuat Reinforcements
Protect the Generator
Black Squadron Formation
Emperor’s Sword
Emperor’s Shadow
Agent of the Emperor
Shadows of Dathomir
Josh’s Picks
Affiliation: Smuggler (1st pick)
Renegade Squadron Mobilization
The Last Warrior
Spirit of Rebellion
Lost Commander
Commando Raid
Commando Operations
Rogue Squadron Assault
Draw Their Fire
Mission to Talay
Hope of Rebellion
Affiliation: Scum (8th pick)
Heart of Cold
Lucrative Contract
Heartless Tactics
Schemes and Intrigue
Hunter’s Flight
Jabba’s Reach
Jabba’s Orders
Rogue Archeaology
The Investigation
Across the Jundland Wastes
Random Thoughts on My Decks
I can’t even really do this section for the draft tournament. It’s too big. I was too involved in the construction of all the decks. Suffice to say I STRONGLY recommend this format for people who have a group of players looking for something fresh to do with their collections.
Also while there was nothing in the rules about needing to make highlander decks that’s just what organically happened this time. I think people wanted to be creative with their choices. Same thing about not seeing any May the Force Be With You in the lists. Just didn’t happen because “yawnâ€.
Plays of the Day
Tyler had the Ghost committed to the force with Green Squadron Deployment out.
Josh played Pilot Boba on a Jawa Trading Crawler to capture Tyler’s Ghost. Get there!!
In what would be my last turn with the dial at 5 and 1 objective down I stole Tyler’s only blocker by playing Join Me, attacked with the Emperor’s Shuttle to take an objective, attacked with Iggy-B with illegal modifications and a swoop to suck his Col Serra into combat, kill it and take the 2nd objective. Then sell the swoop to untap Iggy-B to take out the 3rd objective. Seeing that this was going to happen and the damage had to come out perfectly Tyler used Echo Caverns to move a bomb from the Shuttle to the Swoop which I cancelled with Executive Override.
In Kiramode’s game against Josh he just needed one attack to go through anywhere so he initiated until he could win edge somewhere. Then he pulled a Bo Rifle out of discard and put it on his Cloud City Wing Guard to strike as a participating unit for 2 blast and 2 guns. Then sacced Core Leia to My Only Hope to strike again with the Wing Guard for Game. Get there!!
The draft format was a blast and I highly recommend it. I need to resort all my cards now, but I will be doing that soon so we can draft again!
Puzzler
As a puzzler I leave you one of the decks lists I got to influence with 3 inclusion instead of just 2. Can you pick the 3 objective sets that I contributed to this list?
Affiliation: Scum (Clearly the best DS list)
Double Crossing Droid
Lady’s Lesson
All Out Brawl
I Don’t Like You Either
Agent of the Emperor
Reawakening
Encounter at Stygeon Prime
Council of the Sith
Rogue Archaeology
Corporate Exploitation
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