On 17 February, the Entourage Gaming weekly was won by eObi-Wan Kenobi – “Rako Hardeen” and eCassian Andor.

This combination left us scratching our heads a little here at echobase. On the face of it, it was a decent 4 die start with ramp thanks to Obi, but it’s still a strange combination since you can’t use Cass’ Power Action, right? Here’s the decklist:

It’s got strong upgrades, many sporting base ranged sides to get some mileage out of Cass‘ modifier sides, and good mitigation (6 zero cost removals, and 4 two for two removals).

However, there were some odd choices too, like double Trash to Treasure, Tactical Superiority and Master of Disguise. Sure, in an ideal world you could use MoD to copy the leader subtype of an opponent’s character to turn on Cassian‘s Power Action. But it also felt like a deck revolving around that very precise play could be inconsistent to say the least.

So we reached out to the deck’s pilot and creator NuteShunsRey for a deck review. He replied in style, and so we present to you, an Interview with the Bounty Hunter Jedi Spy (Leader), Rako Hardeen:

What led to this character combo?
I wanted to maximize Cassian’s PA without compromising the deck with poor yellow intel cards.

Why did you decide to play the deck
To be honest, I just wanted to be a troll and play everyone else’s cards. I also love playing blue upgrades on rogue Obi. The true goal was to get a Death Field or Force Storm on him, but my matchups didn’t present me with the opportunity.

What were your Key Card Choices in building this deck?
Tactical Superiority, Trash to Treasure, Master of Disguise (‘leader’ thief), and Intelligence Operation.

What was your key strategy going into the tournament?
Steal peoples upgrades and either win or go down with style.

What changes would you make to the deck?
So, to my disappointment, I never got the coveted Trash to Treasure / Tactical Superiority combo off. I didn’t see the Tactical Superiorities until mid-late game in all 5 matches and without Jyn’s PA, it was tough to dictate when my opponent would discard upgrades or vehicles for Trash to Treasure. If I wanted to play this a bit more competitively, I would probably not play the 2x Trash to Treasures or my 1x Merchant Freighter as I made money quite easily. I would likely add another upgrade or two and another piece of mitigation. Truce and Instigate were other thoughts as I could use Cassian’s PA to reset IO with ambush, then immediately use the IO action to play an opponent’s card.

What felt like favorable match-ups and what were your unfavorable match-ups?
I felt my most favorable matchups were going into blue hero. I played two matches into blue hero and was able to steal a Niman Mastery for Obi in both matches, which I believe was the key to winning those. Obviously any matchup with a leader was solid to turn on Cassian’s PA (thanks to Master of Disguise), but I love playing blue abilities on a rogue Obi.

I would say the obvious bad matchup was my only loss, which was to Ackbar, but I honestly thought that would be a good matchup (Leader and support/Veteran of War stealing). I had a horrible opening hand, nothing but mitigation and could not detect an event for ramp to save my life. In another match I played into a Dak/Benthic which felt bad with no Leader to copy, but I still got value out of my one steals….which I can’t remember what it was… I think I stole either his Veteran of War (VoW) or his You Are In Command Now to play my own VoW.

How do you feel the deck performed overall?
I thought it performed well above my expectations and my stealing was actually quite minimal, but it was timely when it happened. The most important thing was the deck was a ton of fun to play. I have a similarly styled Thrawn deck I have been playing since then and it is just as fun to play.

Oh, and I have seen many people state they believe this deck to be very reliant on Master of Disguise. This is NOT the case. Using IO multiple times is definitely the ideal situation, but one good steal is really all you need… and I played Trash to Treasure to aid in additional steals should I feel greedy.

Thank you to NuteShunsRey for his interview, and for sharing his fun deck with us. Have fun everyone, and please let us know if anyone tries it out and manages a Death Field steal.