No Disintegrations - Worlds Review

Welcome one and all to another week of the insanity that is No Disintegrations. I have some good news and some bad news for everyone. The good news is that I recently was accepted for a job position, the bad news is that it is going to require me to step back from writing articles and podcasting for a while. That means that this will be my last article for a while, don’t worry though I will still be active on the forums and at local game nights where I am moving (If you want to know where this is feel free to PM me). It has truly been a honor to write for CardgameDB.

This week I wanted to take a step back and go over some things I learned attending my first ever SWLCG Worlds event. Before I dive into that I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone involved in making the Worlds Weekend one of the best gaming experiences I have ever had. FFG went all out to make the entire weekend something to remember and I not only met some amazing people, but I also made some great friends from among the FFG staff. Add to that the amazing members of this forum who I was able to meet and you have a recipe for a great time had by all. I want to give a shout out to just a few of the amazing people I met over the weekend at Worlds; TGO, Jarret, Scotty, Jim, Matt (all 16 of them I met over the weekend haha), Ron, Tiny Grimes, Ben, Tyler, all the Team Covenant guys, and every single person who helped make Worlds so great. If I missed you I am sorry, it was crazy trying to remember everyone AND remember their forum names haha. We actually made a suggestion that you be allowed to put a “User Name” on your badge for next year to make that a bit easier. On to the meat and potatoes of the article.

#1 - Sith = Good

Sure everyone knew that already, but it was painfully apparent how powerful Sith was if you made even a single pass through the tournament hall while people were playing. I would say that a good 90%+ of players were running some combination of Vader/Palpatine/Counsel/Executor. If you look at the top 16 decklists that TGO posted HERE you will notice that only one of those deck lists lacks any of these objectives; that deck is Tyler Stratton’s deck which Tiny and Ben will probably be talking about on their next podcast so I don’t want to spoil what all was in it. But needless to say the utter dominance of Sith was quite astonishing. I heard one player comment that the best objective set for Scum is Emperor’s Web, so even inside of an entire faction one of the “core” Sith objective sets is better than anything they can field. I am sure down the road things might get toned down a bit but for now Sith are the go to faction for starting a Dark Side deck.

#2 - Light Side has Diversity

If you look at the spread of Light Side decks that made the top 16 it is quite impressive. We have Superfriends, Sleuth Scouts, Speeders, Vehicle’s and Matt Wehner’s deck. The Light Side meta right now is a healthy spread of some very good decks. The issue is, is that not all of them have the same quality matchup against Sith decks so by building diversity into your LS decks you force the DS player to know how to play against your particular deck which can help tip the scales in your favor. I was worried going in that all we would see was Super Friends decks running rampant, but happily that was not the case and it looks like LS has the healthiest deck spread of either faction.

#3 - 2v2 is an odd format…

So going in I had a feeling that 2v2 was going to involve a good chunk of time to get a match in; however, at the start of the 2v2 tournament we were allotted 90 minute rounds, by the end they had increased it to 120 minute rounds and even that was cutting it close to get a match done in time. Also the interactions between players was so wacky at times it was almost a bit comical to see how things worked. As a competitive format I don’t know if I like 2v2 because it not only takes forever, but also just the sheer complexity of having to keep track of and remember every little thing. As a casual format though 2v2 is amazing!! There are so many wacky interactions that can happen and weird/fun combos that you are able to pull off that you never know what to expect.

#4 - The FFG Employees are awesome

Over the weekend I was able to meet quite a few FFG employees including CEO’s and heads of departments. They weren’t just running events or overseeing how things were going, they were there to play games and chat with people attending. It was very refreshing to see a company that from the top down wanted not only to make their Championship Weekend top notch, but they also wanted to interact with their player base to see how they enjoyed their time there as well. I also was able to meek Eric Lang (and have him sign a set of alt art Affiliation cards!!!), it was very interesting to sit down and talk with him about his concepts and ideas behind different aspects of the SWLCG and hit take on previous iterations of Star Wars card games. Overall it was a very refreshing view of a company that you can see truly enjoys what it does, so I think the Star Wars license is in good hands.

#5 - The food at the FFG Center was RIDICULOUS!!!

So everything I ate at the event center was really good, if you are ever at the center and don’t take use of their in house food service shame on you. They have one of the best grilled cheese sandwiches I have ever had, I think I had 3-4 of them over the course of the event weekend. FFG was genius for adding this to their facility, it not only keeps people in the event center but it also helped speed up events because you didn’t have to have super extended lunch breaks during tournaments.

#6 - The SWLCG player base is top notch

As I mentioned in my introduction I was able to meet so many fantastic people, some of whom I now consider to be very good friends that it was just astonishing. I have been to larger MTG and WoWTCG events, everyone there for the most part seems standoffish and aloof. At the Championship Weekend it was the complete and total opposite. Once an event was finished everyone was standing around talking or playing other games. There was a true sense of camaraderie and an enjoyment of being at the event that was unique among gaming events. Tiny and Ben even taught TGO and I how to finally play AGoT. My hat is off to every single player who was there for making me proud to say I am a member of the LCG community, we have the best group of players across all games that anyone could ever ask for.

So this article was a bit light on hard SWLCG facts, so I thought I would leave you with a deck list that I have been toying around with, it is nothing too exciting just a Hoth/Tusken deck that I have won about 3 games with out of 10, but it sure does spew out a lot of units. Who knows maybe one day it will be good.

Tuskens on Hoth

Affiliation:
Imperial Navy (Core)

Total Objective Sets: (10)

2x Imperial Command (Core)
Admiral Motti (Core)
Duty Officer (Core)
Heavy Stormtrooper Squad (Core)
Heavy Stormtrooper Squad (Core)
Orbital Bombardment (Core)

1x Shadows on the Ice (The Desolation of Hoth)
Wampa (The Desolation of Hoth)
Wampa (The Desolation of Hoth)
Succumb to the Cold! (The Desolation of Hoth)
Succumb to the Cold! (The Desolation of Hoth)
Battle of Hoth (The Desolation of Hoth)

2x The General's Imperative (Assault on Echo Base)
General Veers (Assault on Echo Base)
Blizzard Force AT-ST (Assault on Echo Base)
Blizzard Force AT-ST (Assault on Echo Base)
Turbolaser Battery (Assault on Echo Base)
Battle of Hoth (Assault on Echo Base)

1x Sabotage in the Snow (Assault on Echo Base)
Snowtrooper (Assault on Echo Base)
Snowtrooper Vanguard (Assault on Echo Base)
Forward Command Post (Assault on Echo Base)
Forward Command Post (Assault on Echo Base)
Battle of Hoth (Assault on Echo Base)

2x Unstoppable Advance (The Battle of Hoth)
AT-AT (The Battle of Hoth)
AT-AT (The Battle of Hoth)
AT-AT Assault Formation (The Battle of Hoth)
Orbital Resupply Station (The Battle of Hoth)
Aggressive Assault (The Battle of Hoth)

2x Across the Jundland Wastes (Edge of Darkness)
Bantha (Edge of Darkness)
Tusken Raider (Edge of Darkness)
Tusken Raider (Edge of Darkness)
Tusken Raider (Edge of Darkness)
Gaffi Stick (Edge of Darkness)

Thanks again for checking in for No Disintegrations this week it has been an honor to share my thoughts with everyone over the past year, one day I may get back to writing articles again if the job will allow me. For now though I leave you with my thanks and appreciation for making me feel welcomed! As always without each and every one of the valued members here at CardgameDB.com I would be writing to no one so I thank you for your time and may the top deck always be with you!

Thanks Ketricel, it has been great having you here at CardGameDB and good luck with your future endeavors! We are looking for more Star Wars writers here at CardGameDB, message Darksbane if you are interested.