Sabine Slayer

Sabine Slayer Iden:

Sabine: Sabine wins by fast damage and having her board state snowball into amazing end game cards. Playing against her, Turns 1,2 and 3 are so vital and you must play smart in order to prevent Sabine having 2 units to your 1.

Iden: We have chosen Iden over Krennic as we want a leader with an impact when they hit the board. Not only does Iden’s game text get better she has the ability to 2 or 3 for 1 due to her shield and 4/4 stat line.

Game Plan: Like any deck versing Sabine you need to shut down her early game by thinking ahead and not allowing the early game tempo to Snowball.

The Early game:

Don’t just think about your turn 1 play but what Sabine can play Turn 1 and what your turn 2 play is. Whether you are going first or second should change your decision making. The above is why having more than 1 turn 1 option in your hand is vital. If going second keeping both a ground 2 drop and space 2 drop is optimal as you should respond to the lane Sabine opened up in (unless you can safely drop a ground unit knowing you can deal with the space lane with cards in hand). Thinking ahead in this early game is just so vital, so many times I have seen Sabine run away with games due to a single 5HP unit, an open space lane or lack of adaptation on the opponent’s behalf.

The Turn 1 options:

Probe Droid: Amazing 3/2 that clears all Sabine's T1 ground units with an added bonus of seeing our opponent's hand.

Death Star Trooper: Our solid 3/1 which again clears all Sabine's T1 ground units but is a lower priority than Probe Droid.

Inferno 4: Our space lane answer with a simple scry bonus.

Sequences:

Probe Droid into Governor - early game you are most likely naming Wing Leader or Fleet Lieutenant.

Unable to Probe: Going second: If your opponent went ground arena, I would recommend naming Fleet Lieutenant as it provides action economy and tempo for the opponent.

If your opponent went space arena, I would name Wing Leader as imo there is nothing worse than a Sabine A-Wing/Wing Leader sequence turn 1-2.

Going first: If you have gone first I would name Wing Leader. Imo the only reason not to is if you specifically have an answer or stall tactic in hand to deal with a 4HP or 5HP space unit.

Sabine has many dangerous cards you could name in the dark(Surprise Strike, Heroic, K2) but shutting down the early game tempo is more important IMO. These other cards are powerful but don’t provide Sabine the starting set up that snowball into end game success.

Inferno followed by Entrenched - Great way to solve the lack of 3 attack and also kiboshes any combos involving that annoying A-Wing. Entrenched is such a great card with many options. I am not going to write an essay on this card but in short it boosts sentinels, main players like Meeko and also protects that open lane that we drew no units or removal for. Overall such a versatile card and requires some out of the box thinking and knowledge of Sabine game play to be optimized.

The Iden Deck:

The units in this deck have all been blessed with the vital 3 attack break point except for a select few due to their purpose or lack of options.

Regional Governor: In the deck for her mischievous game text and sticky 4HP.

Cloud City Wing Guard: For the sentinel and sticky 4HP.

System Patrol Craft: Our CCWG of the space lane.

Snow trooper Lieutenant: is self explanatory.

Inferno 4 is due to lack of 3 attack space units but can clear out a 2/3 in two attacks which will have to do.

Card Selection:

Del Meeko: A side from the 3 attack Del's earns his keep complimenting Iden's restore and making the opponent pay some tax for powerful cards like Surprise Strike and Shoot First.

General Veers: Psuedo sentinel providing a boost which results in card advantage by enabling 2 for 1s with your units.

Cell Block Guard: 3/3 sentinel for stall which protects units like Governor, Meeko and Veers.

Academy Defense Walker: If the game plan has gone to plan will will likely have a few damaged units around which is just an added bonus. ADW also acts our back up plan win con while providing the coveted Sentinel if we are still attempting to stabilize.

Disabling Fang Fighter: The stats. The 3/2 is vital to slow the space lane down, DFF either trades with their ships or clears them and survives. The added bonus of upgrade removal is just gravy.

Imperial Interceptor: Our 2 for 1 space hero. Such a great card in this match up, he comes out clears a unit and then trades into one.

Force Choke: Optimally used to DOA Sabine or a Wing leadered Chump.

Open Fire: I find this removal usually ends up cleaning up some space unit or Ezra.

Take Down: This is our jack of all trades removal which acts as a more expensive Choke or Open Fire depending on the game state.

In hope you enjoyed the write up now it is time to enjoy the slay!