The Training of a Padawan
Store Championship season has finally started here in Texas and my first chance to play is coming this weekend. Today I want to go through the Luke/Rey deck that I'll be using at Team Covenant.
This deck has the tools I want, the playstyle I want, and it sped up right along with the rest of the meta giving it a solid chance in the current pool of tier 1 decks.
I've been tweaking this one for a couple of weeks now and the more I played the more the list refined and removed some of the slower and less utility options. Check out the decklist and my thoughts below.
CHARACTER
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2x Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight (Awakenings #35)
1x Rey, Force Prodigy (Awakenings #38)
BATTLEFIELD
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Secret Facility, Scarif (Spirit of Rebellion #159)
UPGRADE
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1x Luke Skywalker's Lightsaber (Awakenings #41)
2x One With The Force (Awakenings #42)
2x Rey's Staff (Awakenings #44)
2x Handcrafted Light Bow (Spirit of Rebellion #39)
2x Force Speed (Spirit of Rebellion #55)
2x Makashi Training (Spirit of Rebellion #56)
2x Vibroknife (Spirit of Rebellion #57)
EVENT
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2x Force Misdirection (Awakenings #116)
2x Riposte (Awakenings #121)
2x Deflect (Awakenings #145)
1x Block (Awakenings #153)
1x Dodge (Awakenings #155)
2x Caution (Spirit of Rebellion #100)
2x Guard (Spirit of Rebellion #103)
2x My Ally Is The Force (Spirit of Rebellion #105)
2x Synchronicity (Spirit of Rebellion #106)
1x High Ground (Spirit of Rebellion #128)
I've had a lot of success with this deck so far. As I mentioned it's fast, I can keep up with the fastest of em including Baby Vader/Kylo and Poe/Maz. This deck has had a lot of success across all decks I've had a chance to test it against. That's due to two very significant reasons, cheaper upgrades and damage events.
1). The Upgrades.
Spirit of Rebellion brought us more 2 cost upgrades. This is very significant because you can now get some very solid upgrades on the board with only turn resources. This let me drop It Binds All Things, and lets me get more out of Rey's ability even outside of the ambush from Vibroknife.
This deck needs Rey's Staff, Vibroknife, Force Speed, or Makashi Training out turn one if at all possible. The best start is of course Vibroknife and Force Speed to chain all of your actions together. Once you have built some baseline up on Rey I'll start holding onto the higher cost upgrades to swap out. One With The Force once again really helps with the late game, especially against the burst that tier 1 decks have across the board.
I'll talk more about Handcrafted Light Bow in the events section, but this was a recent change from the Lightsaber. I find it to be a slightly more versatile pick than Lightsaber because of it's choices on special. The ability to do 3 damage that can't be removed by Block is very significant, and removing shields is always a good thing. The main downside is the chance for a slower turn with the two ranged damage, but a little ranged does help the deck against big Block turns once again.
2). Events
What I love about Blue these days is the ability to mesh aggro and control into their toolset. Hero got some very impressive control cards in Caution and Guard, and High Ground can be a fantastic removal card when this deck is moving fast. Overall it is a pretty standard removal package, with things like Force Misdirection to help against those nasty Palpatine rolls when there isn't damage showing, and the melee mirror.
The deck really shines though because your upgrades are not the only things that are helping you deal more damage. Synchronicity, Riposte, and My Ally Is The Force really help this deck feel dynamic and gives you a lot of tools to keep damage flowing.
Riposte got a lot stronger thanks to the addition of Caution, and I use it for an extra three damage quite often. If I lose the race to claim the battlefield I'll often use both cards to turn a bad Rey roll into a solid Luke roll without any interference.
Synchronicity is an interesting card. I was not sold on the consistency of this card until a friend insisted I give it a try, and he was completely right. I thought for sure I'd never get to play the card, but it is very common for this card to be active by simply rolling out both characters and a couple upgrades. It has an odd added benefit, of giving me 2 damage and actually baiting out some removal from my opponent. By playing synchronicity I may be leaving quite a bit of damage on the table, and as long as I don't get hit by Block these are the perfect turns for my opponent to play Isolation, Electroshock, and the like.
One of the main reasons I want to bait out removal is the fantastic My Ally Is The Force Event. This event wins games. The two dice results it wants to be resolved with are of course Luke's 3 melee side, and Light Bow's special. Light Bow shines with this card and far and away surpasses Lightsaber as the target for this event. Being able to have a second source of 6 damage or even 8 if they start with full shields, makes Light Bow my go to 3 cost upgrade now.
While getting 6 damage off one dice is huge, this card also opens up an interesting prospect of resolving Speed's dice into 3 actions, or 4 if you resolve Speed as well. This can let you close out games, or go for some Hail Mary rerolls to close the game out.
Closing
Luke/Rey was one of my favorite decks to play in Awakenings. It was far slower then, getting value off of cards like It Binds All Things and had some trouble filling the upgrades with meaningful choices. Spirit really changed this deck, made it more dynamic, and gave it the baseline upgrades it needed to have some real staying power.
The draw from Luke, the extra action from Rey, the cheap upgrades, and the control and burn nature of the events make this deck very active. I love the playstyle this deck brings, and with so many important and heavy hitting cards it is tough for any deck to play around it all.
Luke/Rey may not have solidified it's tier 1 status once again, but it is on it's way. If you are tired of running Poe/Maz, Baby Vader/Kylo, and Vader/Raider, give this deck a try.