On 10 February, the Entourage Gaming weekly event was won by the improbable sounding line-up of eWullffwarro/eLumpawaroo/(eTarfful), combined with my favourite battlefield, Mortis.

Sure, wookiees have been strong for a while, with wookiee decks coming runner-up in 3 events in the Faltering Allegiances season, but this is the first time they’ve taken the top spot. They got a lot of love in FFG‘s final set, Covert Missions, with a plot (Valorous Tribe), a support (Wookiee Protection), two events (Fling and Wookiee Rage) and even an upgrade (Fortitude). In fact, I’d go so far as to say it was my favourite theme in that set. But it just wasn’t quite enough to pull them to the top of the meta.

Redemption however has brought us 4 new wookiees: Burryaga Agaburry (a Jedi Wookiee from The High Republic), a red Chewbacca, Wullffwarro (who appeared in Rebels) and Lumpawaroo (who is canon, thanks to the Aftermath book series, but whose appearances in the Star Wars Holiday Special are not).

I find the blue and red wookiees or Redemption fun, but sadly (and I mean sadly) a little underwhelming for their cost. The yellow ones however are pretty epic:
Wullffwarro‘s ability to bring in any other wookiee is a deck-builder’s dream. Hitting yourself for a lot of indirect is a fair price to pay, and can even be beneficial for those wookiees with the +1 bonus to their damage sides when they have 6 or more damage.
Lumpawaroo is an absolute steal for 10 points, and his ability to hit back when dealt damage, plus the general lack of odd numbered direct damage sides in the Destiny meta, equates to around 5 damage in a game (or more if you can generate some shields), meaning that for 10 points elite you’re getting an unprecedented 14 health swing on the opponent.

Anyway, over to WookieeSteve, the deck’s architect and pilot:

Does this feel like a lump?
I have been playing Star Wars Destiny since the Awakenings set, and while I didn’t play much in 2020 after FFG’s announcement that they were not continuing the game, I always kept an eye on what the community was doing.

As the cards from Redemption began to be spoiled I found myself being drawn back in.  So many cool new cards, so many new ideas.  I had 7 new decks on the SWDB after the first few hours.  Then I came across a card that changed the rules of deckbuilding and allowed opportunities I never dreamed possible: Wullffwarro.  I could take this wookiee at 16 points for a single die and 13 health.  This left me with 14 points to play with, plus I could bring in any other wookiee in the game regardless of affiliation to add to my team, and there are a lot of new wookiees.

My first idea was to pair Wullffwarro with eTarfful and bring in the new Chewbacca at 17 points.  Chewbacca brings a lot to the table and the idea of starting Tarfful with 6 damage on him to immediately boost his dice was very appealing.   Starting the game dealing 17 indirect damage to myself, while somewhat manageable, left my team just a little too vulnerable for my liking. There was no place to move damage with Chewy’s ability with everyone on the team starting with so much damage.

I then looked at a deck using Wullffwarro with 2 Vengeful Wookiees and bringing in Chewbacca [echo7: an idea also explored by ParkerSimpson and Chimaera, and published here]. This way I can start both Vengeful Wookiees at 6 damage each able to remove 1 dice each, every turn for free.  Insane!  Unfortunately while the Vengeful Wookies did exactly what they were supposed to do, starting them at 3 health left them just too easy to kill and once they started dying the deck lost all of its value.  Starting with 3 dice myself also made it too easy for my opponent to control my dice and take over the game.  I had big plans to use Our Situation Is Desperate to start the game with 2 characters at 3 or less health.  But this is where I learned that with this build I was only including yellow characters on my team and thus could only include yellow cards in my deck.  The red is being brought in after setup.  I was unfazed and continued to experiment with different builds.  What if I tried an elite Wullffwarro?  With only 10 points left, what are my options?  This is when I discovered Lumpawaroo and this lineup:

This deck has a lot going for it starting with a 6 die start.  These are not just any dice either when we account for Tarfful starting with 6 dmg on him, then 6 on Wullffwarro and 2 on Lumpawaroo. Every single (non-blank) die side is 2 or more with the exception of the 1 resource side on each of the dice.  This deck puts immense pressure on your opponent consistently starting on round 1.

I often win the roll and almost always choose my opponent’s battlefield to deny them the shields. One thing to consider is that you deal the indirect damage to yourself after setup which means after shields are applied.  This means you cannot start 6 damage on Tarfful and then protect him with shields.  Tarfful is very vulnerable and it can be difficult to protect him so our priority is to resolve his dice before he dies, hopefully on round 2.

There is a lot of great removal in ARH Standard but a lot of it is also conditional so my first play is generally to roll out Tarfful and immediately resolve any of his dice showing damage.  If he does not roll damage it’s ok, I then take my time to slowly bring out my supports and Wullffwarro ensuring that I take any opportunity to use Lumpy’s guardian.  I also make sure I save any resources for removal as I can not risk losing Tarfful on round 1.

Other than ensuring I have at least one piece of removal on round 1, I am looking for Truce or Kinship to try to get to 3 resources to play one of my 3-drops on round 1.  The best of these is the Syndicate Electrostaff; putting one of these on Lumpy takes his dice from a liability to a massive threat and I have no issue playing the Electrostaff on Lumpy after I have rolled him in.  This will catch a lot of people off guard.  With Tarfful always being the first target Lumpy is pretty safe to receive this upgrade. Vibrosword is a close second to play on round 1 with massive dice sides, redeploy, and 2 characters that trigger all the bonus effects.

I have received questions about the inclusion of the Entourage package and whether it belongs in this deck or not.  While it’s true that you don’t get the most out of an Entourage in this deck and will sometimes find yourself resolving the special for 1 damage, it’s really the Fickle Mercenaries that you want to see, and to a lesser extent the Hired Muscle.  Adding either of these dice on round 1, especially if you have a Rendezvous for the Hired Muscle, will be too much for many opponents to manage.   Another thing to consider is that this deck wants to play all the cards it draws and it also requires several rerolls each turn to maximise its dice, so the ability to add a threat to the board and add a card to my hand (thanks to the Entourage on-play ability) is another reason I believe it is correct to include [echo7: plus, between Lumpy, Wullff, and these supports, you have a lot of disrupt sides, which will make it hard for the opponent to ramp. A reason for which I’d be inclined to include Incendiary Stockpile].

Entourage Gaming Weekly Tournament
Round 1 – Hipo playing  eAnakin eLeia  1-0
Anakin is a scary opponent who will be able to flip very easily against my deck.  My plan was to get as much damage as possible onto him as fast as possible and maybe I can get him before he flips.  After round 1 he has able to get Tarfful to 10 dmg and the claim ensuring he would get to flip first action.  I was able to get 8 damage on to Anakin though as well as get an Entourage down and a Fickle.  Round 2 he used pushing slash on Anakin with Niman, he was able to flip Anakin into Vader and he naturally rolled the 4 for 1 to also kill Lumpy in his first action.  Somehow I was able to roll perfectly and get just enough damage onto Vader to kill him this round.  At this point Wullff was able to finish Leia.

Round 2 – Platform327 playing eIG-88 eZiro the Hutt eUnited  2-0
With this matchup I knew no matter what this game would be over fast and my plan was to try and avoid taking an IG power action if I could.  In this game I made a big mistake where I removed an IG die showing damage with Lumpy showing damage dice in the pool.  He triggered United and if he had rolled damage I would have lost Lumpy without resolving his dice and would not have been able to kill IG when I did.  Fortunately for me he missed the roll and I was not punished.  Once IG went down there wasn’t a way for him to come back.

Round 3 – Gandork playing eVeers eBing  3-0
Veers is generally a favourable matchup for my deck as he is very vulnerable to my damage and starting with no resources makes it difficult for him to have time to manage Tarfful’s dice. Things went according to plan with Veers dying quickly and Bing and the Snowtrooper were not able to keep up with the Wookiees.

Round 4 –  Gringostoso playing eAnakin eLeia  4-0
Another Anakin match so I knew what I was in for.  I considered starting Tarfful at less than 6 damage so that he wouldn’t die so easily but ultimately decided to stick with the game plan.  There was one point later in the game where I rerolled an Entourage special 3 times and it kept coming up special which I eventually resolved for 1 damage.  However I was able to get multiple big upgrades onto Wullff and he closed the game out for me.

I think if I played the deck again I would use a different battlefield. It’s too easy for my opponent to claim and mess with Tarfful‘s health. I also would consider adding Inflict Pain. With Lumpy it’s 3 damage to them and 2 to you, and helps to get him to 6 damage when your opponent doesn’t expect it

I hope you enjoyed reading about this deck and if you are a hardcore SW Destiny player like myself who has been on the sidelines waiting for the dust to settle on this new environment before getting back into the game, let me just say that ARH has done an incredible job designing and developing their first 2 sets and creating a fun diverse environment.

Besides, if you want to win the next world’s you need to start practicing now.
WookieeSteve

---

If you like what we do, please consider becoming a Patreon supporter: https://www.patreon.com/echobasedestiny