statelyraven 2
This is the deck that just missed the break at Portland Regionals. It was my first tournament, so I'm quite happy with the results, though certainly several changes I would make after the experience. My only two losses were to another Poe/Hondo deck, and Yoda/Hondo, both of which I think were in the top 8. In testing, the Docking Bay - Finalizer / Honor Guard cycling and ability to discard and replay C-3PO and Y-Wing worked well, but in the high end games, it was unreliable - it slowed the deck enough that I did not regularly get to claim, backfiring. That said, although many similar decks don't like the supports, Y-Wing and C-3P0 had clutch moments. Two different games were sealed when I was able to resolve an otherwise harmless looking Cunning die as a special with C-3P0.
I took out my second copy of Fast Hands the night before, and regretted it. The deck moves much quicker and gives Hondo's 2 disrupt side a lot of juice when you can potentially hit it at the start of the turn. Cunning is amazing for the deck, giving you sneaky flexibility to do what you need to do, but it really shines along side Poe Dameron's Blaster and Canto Bight Pistol.
I would probably remove Honor Guard and at least 1 Y-Wing. I would add a Hyperspace Jump or trade out one of the Retreats for it, as denying even that one last action would have been helpful.
Vandalize is an MVP, as I know many others have said after the tournament. Easy Pickings also performed very, very well (Thanks to my friend Evan for pushing me on it up to the night before).
The won matches were against:
eBaz/Chewie eYoda/ePadme Tarkin/7th Sister eBala/eTalzin/FOST (Sorry, Evan) eKylo2/Talzin eYoda/eHondo
This deck is very strong against every matchup I have played. I consistently did 8-ish damage turn one, and in several matchups was able to take down a character before they activated or resolved on turn 2 (2x Talzin, 1x 7th Sister). In those cases, it shuts down the main offense or economy of the deck, giving Hondo free reign to extort them to death or freeze their card plays.
Thanks everyone I played with and talked to at the event, was a great intro to the community!