GG - St Louis Regional Top Cut (4-1, 4th in Swiss) 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is the Crime Lord/Blizzard deck I piloted to a 4-1 finish in Swiss and a tragic early exit in top cut for the St Louis Regional Tournament 1/22/22. My matches went as follows:

Round 1 vs Pre Vizsla Hondo, piloted by Darth Cluny (elder) This one was very close, and I honestly got pretty lucky to steal a win here. I took 15 damage round 1, electing not to spend any resources on removal and instead focus on getting my Crime Lord money and dice online. Pre Vizsla got hit with Crime Lord in round 2, and I was able to hang on by a thread in the following round, with Gideon dead and Garindan with 3 health remaining. I got the Crime Lord die into the pool with 5 resources but no source of focus, and only one card in hand for rerolls. I rolled the special side on my only reroll to win the game. 1-0

Round 2 vs Boba Fett Fennec Closing In, piloted by Mid Rim Gunner A lopsided match that saw my start with a perfect no-mulligan draw of Crime Lord, 2x Trick, Mastermind, and Desperate Measures. Boba Fett met his doom at the end of round 1, and Fennec followed shortly after, with minimal damage sustained. 2-0

Round 3 vs Bo Katan Rex TMTNE, piloted by Mike Wagner Another squash match, this one likely a result of my opponent's unfamiliarity with my deck and his abysmal second round draw (4 weapons and a Black Market Connection). The game lasted 2 rounds, with both his characters getting iced by Crime Lord in short order. To add insult to injury, Bo Katan rolled 2 shields on her TMTNE rollout. 3-0

Round 4 vs Jyn Han Intelligence Operation, piloted by Malacious Mawloc No surprises for either of us here, since Mawloc and I roomed together, and he helped me optimize my 30. This one was a total disaster. Jyn rolled absurd amounts of damage, and my Gideon dice got removed via Headstrong in round 1, rendering my ramp attempts dead on arrival. I could never get off the mat. 3-1

Round 4 vs Jyn Han Intelligence Operation, piloted by Norman This was the most intense match of the tournament for me, and mistakes were made on both sides of the table. I mulliganed 5 cards and failed to draw either Crime Lord or Blizzard. I absorbed 11 damage round 1 while scrambling to amass resources, and with his final action before claiming, Norman used Jyn's power action to discard my detected card, which allowed me to draw a card with Garindan - and the card was Crime Lord. I was then able to resolve and fix my dice to secure a dead Jyn at the conclusion of round 1. But that wasn't the end. The game ended up being a total dogfight, with both of us getting down to the final 2 or 3 cards of our decks. I ultimately was able to play Blizzard from my hand and deal lethal damage to Han. 4-1

Top Cut Round 1 vs 6-Die Hero (Senator Version), piloted by Vontz I'd never beaten Vontz before, and this wasn't to be the day that I would. Though game 1 was close, Vontz came up with a masterful read, removing a resource die to prevent me from possibly playing Blizzard from hand, despite not knowing for sure whether or not I held it (spoiler: I had it). I couldn't get any traction in Game 2, and Vontz continued his march to the Final. 0-2

The tournament was a major success, and it was tons of fun for all of us to meet and roll dice with all the players we see on TTS and Discord. I'm quite pleased with the performance of this deck, and though it still has some nightmarishly bad matchups, it plays well into enough decks to be viable, and there's really nothing quite like feeding a character to the Rancor at the end of the first round.