Scum Fortress

I think the best way to describe this deck is to discuss how it's evolved over the past month or so. I've always kept the same base though:

x2 Jabba, Xizor, Dengar
x1 IDLYE, Hunters

I feel like this is a pretty defensive base. Aside from the Scum trademark of having tons of tactics, every pod in this base has something that contributes to the theme of capturing your opponents board. I prefer Xizor over Spice Trade because I feel that Masterful as a whole is a much more multi-faceted pod. Shadows of the Empire is very much appreciated against crucial LS objectives and in the absence of a Twist, double Prince's Scheme is an acceptable replacement.

The first (pre-FAQ) variation added Slave Trade for utilities and Greedo for an extra Captured to recur and a few 2-drop Bounty Hunters. But as much as I hate to say it, the errata on His High Exaltedness was well-deserved. I never played the aggro archetype that worked off recurring Spice Blitz/Visions, but being able to recur a Captured every turn and continuously prevent your opponent from building a board is nuts. After the FAQ, I realized how garbage the rest of Greedo's pod was and he got the axe.

In any incarnation of the deck resources are crucial. It's really critical that you get either Jabba or Xizor T1. If you run x2 of both of their pods, you'll consistently get a 2-resource objective on your opening flop that will allow for this to occur.

Now it's time to tackle the issue of resource enhancements. I was running into the issue of having tons of 2/1s in the deck and I don't like having a majority of my resources to be 2/1 because they're tempo killers. If I have a choice of playing either a 2/1 or Jabba/Xizor, you can imagine what decision I'd take.

In order to solve this, I tried to up the amount of 1/1s in the next incarnation by replacing Greedo with another IDLYE. This was definitely the most conservative incarnation of the deck; resources weren't an issue and also there was total emphasis on capturing my opponent's board.

This incarnation had poor offense. I know the whole point of a Fortress deck is to play defensively, but you still need a way to tick up the dial and close games. In order to fill this gap, I looked to one of my favorite Scum pods.

In addition to having high edge, Hunter's Flight comes with a resource, a 2-resource objective and two mains with two bombs each. I know I mentioned I didn't like having an overabundance of 2/1s, but if I have six 2-resource objectives in the deck, I can consistently count on getting two of them on the opening flop. This means I can play both a 2/1 and Jabba T1.

There's also some additional trickery with Pilot Boba. He's a massive unit that can be discounted fairly easily with both Den of Thieves and Jabba. If you have both of them out, he's the cost of an Energy Spider. If you really need to capture a unit, you can also pilot him on a Headhunter. If you have Bail Out, you can sack the Headhunter and get him out onto the board as a unit.

In my opinion, this is the most fleshed-out iteration and it has been fantastic in practice. Jabba, Xizor, Snoova and all of the capture shenanigans provide a very strong defensive wall and you have plenty of 2-bomb units with the Headhunters, Boba, Slave I and Ponda Baba. It's also very easy to seed captured cards for Dengar to make him a threat that can adapt to any board situation.

I feel like this loadout will last me a long time, but there are some changes that could be made. Some people may question the lack of Hutt's Menagerie in this deck. While it is a great pod that's a mainstay of a variety of Scum decks, I felt like the deck was fine on defense and that pod didn't offer a resource or capture mechanic. If you feel that pod is necessary, I could see sacking IDLYE.

Another option in place of IDLYE for me is a pretty uncommon pod: the Best that Credits can Buy. One event I end up recurring a lot with Jabba's objective is Show of Force. The temporary surge I can get with that event is usually enough to swing the game in my favor. Credits trades in capture mechanics with doubling down on the offensive Black Sun synergy with another Headhunter, a double-strike event and a Target. I'm not that excited about Virago, but he can cause enhancements to fall off and we all know how deadly Tarkin is with that same effect.

A more significant change I may do is sack one Hunter's Flight and IDLYE to experiment with the new Droid pod. Dropping down to five 2-resource objectives means I'll have lower probability of getting two 2-resource objectives on the flop, but I get a strong mix of offense, defense and capture mechanics from that pod.

If you got this far, thanks for reading! Modifying this deck has been a real challenge for me over the past month or so, but I'm very pleased with where I ended up. I hope you enjoy the deck!