On Saturday the 12th of December we held our Christmas Extravaganza Tournament with a host of awesome prizes ranging from a printed set of FA cards to a Parker Simpson Grogu playmat. For the tournament we had 34 players from across the globe sign up and participate. Let’s just say that the tournament didn’t exactly run as smoothly as usual due to TTT (the online platform in which results and pairings are determined) going down for a few hours. LandoWonka and I scurried around like mad men compiling the results of the first three rounds into FFG’s Tome to continue the tournament after a break.

Today on echobase I will be doing a write up on the deck that I piloted to 5th place after 6 rounds of swiss. Here are the results and top 8 from the tournament’s initial Swiss rounds;

Here’s as good a slot as any to let you all know that every week, typically on a Tuesday evening (19:30GMT) we host tournaments through our discord channel. You can join our discord at the link below:

Starting in the new year we will have our own exclusive echobase promos as prizes to reward players for joining in the fun on a Tuesday evening, made and printed by the inimitable Twin Suns Gaming. We will be spoiling a few of the promos throughout the article!

Let’s get started on the deck analysis starting with the characters (and promos!)

Character Line-up

The idea of a Custom Bandolier Jedi started back in the days of the Convergence meta with most people teaming Satine & Mace Windu with the plot Built to Last. It’s a deck archetype I’ve always liked, however it does play quite slowly and it takes a relatively large number of rounds to build up your character. Luke Skywalker FHD needs no introduction about his ability to stick around and stay on the table for a few rounds. In between his 15 health and PA he’s the perfect target to get loaded up with equipment with the help of Custom Bandolier.

Why Han Solo over Satine? Well, this one’s up for debate and will come down to your own personal preference: Satine comes elite; she’ll make you good money, offer focus sides and re-roll a die on activation. Han Solo for this build is single die. He is typically played elite because his points cost to health/die sides are ridiculously above curve. What I wanted from a yellow character with this build is a character that could be versatile: deal decent damage, make money, disrupt an opponent. Enter Han Solo. With Vader / Taron running wild he also acts as a decent 12 health Death Field/indirect meat shield.

Worth noting that the starting health for this deck is 27hp. That’s not including Luke’s PA to take 2 shields each round! The health pool of this deck is unrivaled in two wide builds, typically 27hp is the health generated from a 3 wide start.

Custom Bandolier / Equipment

The Custom Bandolier serves a few purposes: it lets you carry additional equipment upgrades which in turn allows you to heal and hopefully get maximum value with Bacta Therapy; and it also leads you into one of your win conditions of striking for big damage with the aptly named Fatal Blow play.

I’m not packing the most extravagant of equipments in my build: Republic Jedi Armor is a really decent 2 drop that gains Luke a shield on play and also gives +1 health. The die sides are decent: shields, focus and a resource. BD-1 is the superstar in the list; healing for 2 each round if it doesn’t get mitigated. Bounty Hunter Mask is the flex spot in the equipment list. It started an internal debate between myself and echo7 as to whether or not it holds value and should be included. I included them because: it’s a 0 cost upgrade that adds towards Bacta and Fatal Blow values; and for the additional +1 health. I’m glad I did include them as they have saved Luke a few times with that +1 additional health.

Worth noting that this approach to building up Luke does have a silver bullet: Prescient Leap. A Prescient Leap can be used next action to discard your Bandolier forcing you back down to 3 upgrades.

Upgrades and abilities;

Nothing unusual or surprising about the blue upgrade suit. It’s worth saying that this deck does not rely on the Custom Bandolier to get the job done. A loaded up Luke with 3 upgrades can absolutely get the job done for you.

Jedi Lightsaber is an absolute auto-include when running Jedi: 2 shields on play is prime for turning on Luke’s PA to deal damage. The Jedi Lightsaber die is pretty bad, you’ll want to get this out of the way to overwrite into the Niman Mastery or a Cal Kestis’ Lightsaber when you find the spare resource.

Cal Kestis’ Lightsaber is an absolute monster upgrade. Sure, it’s packing a few paysides and a mighty +3 modified melee side, but the fact you can get 2 of this die into the pool can make the difference in pushing through damage.

Niman Mastery, Anakin’s Lightsaber and Yoda’s lightsaber need no further discussion, each serve a purpose and Niman is absolutely the most played (and valued) card currently in the game.

Events & Tricks

My favourite card from A Renewed Hope’s Faltering Allegiance set is Apt Lesson. We’ve seen previously how powerful it can be in other Luke builds: playing Apt Lesson – flipping to the 3 melee side and playing Draw Closer from your discard pile. This deck works on the same premise with the exception of looking for a different move, Fatal Blow. A built up Bandolier Luke could see you hitting for 10+ damage mid to late game. This is literally an additional win condition, mid to late game; if you’ve drawn into Apt Lesson hit them hard even if you roll double blanks. But be wary of your resource management as you’ll need to be sitting on 3 resources to pull this off.

Luke absolutely needs Apt Lesson, I’m sure by now you’ve all tested with Luke and all he ever gives you is the shield, blank and focus side. Worth noting that in a pinch you can play Apt Lesson into a Fluid Riposte from your discard pile. Additionally worth noting that if you have not been successful in drawing the Bandolier to get the equipments loaded up, Fatal Blow can still hit for 6.

Bacta Therapy is synonymous with Palpatine – Unlimited Power. Rightly so as it was designed and made with him in mind; to keep him on the table and give him a chance to live into the late game. The same premise works here too with Luke. Luke is a high health character with access to seemingly endless shields, but he’s hardly unstoppable. You’ll need to play these to survive and close out the game.

The List

Mitigation suite is pretty straight forward. I decided on only running a single Disciplined Mind due to the inevitable Taron / Vader match-up and being unable to touch Taron’s die if I drew into it.

Between the Battlefield and Merchant Freighters you’ll have the money required each round, only on occasion do I find myself hunting for resources on my dice. Typically when in need I go hunting for the money on Han‘s die.

Tournament match-ups;

Round 1 – Lucas – IG-88/Dengar – Win
Round 2 – Royalsbk – Taron / Vader – Loss
Round 3 – Olly – Anakin(TR) Kashyyyk Warrior / Valorous Tribe – Win
Round 4 – Vika – Taron / Vader – Loss
Round 5 – Chris69 – Triple Trandoshans – Win
Round 6 – Jrak – Dooku / Pong Krell / Lightsaber Mastery – Win

In summary the deck performed well for the tournament; I lost my quarter finals match to Royalsbk playing Taron Vader in a Best of three; 2-1. Unfortunately I was not the guy to take down the tetrad of Taron/Vader decks at the top of the table; I think for best results we should all pester HonestlySarcastc to come up with that build, whatever the lineup may be.