Pasadena PQ Champion 10/6

Hello! This is the version of Sabine ECL that I took to the Pasadena, CA PQ on 10/6. I was fortunate to come away as the winner and be the first Sabine player to win a PQ! I'm sure this looks almost identical to most other Sabine lists you see, as in my opinion about 40 cards main deck are mandatory. So you don't really have a lot of room for experimentation. I pretty much just took what I liked from two other popular lists and combined them to create this one that I thought would do well into the SoCal meta. I will explain the reasoning behind the choices for some of the other "optional" cards in the deck and sideboard.

For the Pasadena PQ I was expecting a LOT of Sabine and Boba. So I wanted to be prepared for the mirror and have some anti-Boba tech as that is the matchup that a lot of Sabine players fear. In the weeks leading up to the PQ I tested a lot of games with 3 Sundari, and 3 Bright Hopes main deck to completely counter Boba. I had to cut Medal Ceremony to fit those in, and this worked extremely well. The matchup wasn't an auto win, but it felt very even. However, after making those changes I started losing more games to control and blue hero decks so a few days before the PQ I brought the Medal Ceremonies back in and ended up on this final version.

Here is the reasoning behind the optional card choices:

2x R2-D2 - Against Boba there is one card that you NEED to have in your hand by the Boba flip turn and that is Poe Dameron. Some games you just get unlucky and you can't find him. R2 is there to help dig for him. He is also a great wing leader target as a lot of decks have a hard time removing a 3/6.

2x Rebel Pathfinder - This is the flex spot at the 2 drop position. Some people like x-wing, but I like the pathfinder as he is great at dealing with Crafty smugglers in boba decks and village protectors in blue hero. Against a lot of other decks this is the worst 2 drop and gets resourced.

2x Fighters for Freedom - I decided to go with 2x FFF main deck, and 2x Sundari sideboard. The sundari's are great against Boba and in the mirror, but I didn't want to go all in on countering those decks since I have the Bright Hopes main deck already. FFF is great into control and blue hero. It kills the pesky shielded sentinels, pings extra damage which can add up, and attacks past the most annoying control card for Sabine: Childsen.

2x Bright Hope - This was one of the MVPs of the deck for my meta. As I said I was expecting a lot of mirrors and Bobas. This card is good in the mirror, and great into boba. I was also expecting a decent amount of Bossk which was correct as there was 8 Bossk Blue. Out of my 10 matches I was happy to have Bright hope in 8 of them. In my top 4 match against a Bossk Blue in game one I managed use both my Bright Hope's to bounce 2 units with bounties over the course of the game to counter what my opponent was trying to do. Bright hope has a floor of being just a decent card, and a ceiling of being incredible.

Sideboard:

2x Timely Intervention - One of the most controversial decisions was to put TI in the sideboard. Most people like it in the main deck, but I like it in the SB. While it is a good card I found that it gives a lot more flexibility in the SB because for the different matchups that I was bringing it in for I was taking out a different card for each matchup. For Boba Yellow I take out medal ceremonies, for Rey Red I take out darksabers, and for Bossk Blue I take out wing leader. All those cards that I'm taking out for TI I want in the main deck so TI in the SB makes a lot of sense to me.

2x Sundari Peacekeeper - Great card, but as I said above I just wanted to hedge my deck for control by having FFF main deck. Sundari's came in against aggro and Boba.

2x Adelphi Patrol Wing - Another great card that a lot of people have main deck. I couldn't figure out a way to fit both Bright Hope and Adelphi main deck and I really wanted Bright Hope's in the main so Adelphi went to the side. Another card like Timely Intervention where I was bringing it into the main deck often but taking out different cards for it depending on the matchup.

If you made it this far through that wall of text I applaud you. Thank you for reading and good luck in your next event!

-Balloonhands