Store Champs Winner (Tabletop Village)

I took this Sabine Green list to a first place finish at Tabletop Village in Seattle, Washington. The event was ran very well, with 27 participants resulting in 4 rounds of swiss before a cut to top 8. The meta was pretty interesting and I had quite a few hard matchups, so going to post some basic thoughts on Sabine Green and a quick tournament report.

BASIC THOUGHTS:

I was practicing exclusively Sabine Yellow before this event. Was enjoying it for the most part, but I realized that the games I lost in testing all followed a similar play pattern: get slightly behind on board, have very few catchup mechanics, and have many events like Surprise Strike stuck in hand because sticking a unit was difficult. This was most apparent playing against Boba Yellow and Luke Green. I often thought that if I could just attack with ONE unit the turn I played it, I could then maintain claim over the initiative and resume my role as the aggressor. Playing this tournament confirmed everything I was thinking/noticing. ECL has started to really fall off in the meta, but I now can't imagine playing an aggro deck without ECL. Gaining tempo with ECL often nets you 3 to 6 damage if you can attack into an opposing unit without your Ambush target dying, which makes a world of difference in every matchup, even control. I used to be a Sabine Yellow truther, but now I would not recommend playing Sabine Yellow even a little bit.

MATCHUPS:

R1: Chirrut Red (non-Tarkintown) LL

Rough start to the tourney. I basically hadn't played anyone besides my testing partner, nor had I played against Chirrut. G1 was close-ish, but I couldn't kill Chirrut when he deployed, and in general spent too much time trading into units. G2 I mulliganed a hand with no turn 1 play into the following hand: Wing Leader, K2, Zeb, Rebel Assault x3. Couldn't craft a worse hand if I tried, and my next 2 draws were Dodonna and another K2. GG

R2: Grand Inquisitor Blue (non-Security Complex) WW

Not much to say here. Opponents deck honestly wasn't SUPER well tuned, and their draws in g1 and g2 were on the expensive end. They weren't able to curve out super well, and after I ECL'd a Seventh Sister in g2, the match was essentially over.

R3: Chirrut Red (Tarkintown): WW

My opponent this round was quite skilled. Clearly lots of experience with the deck, and I was nervous after losing R1 to Chirrut Red. Fortunately, my draws were quite good. Their t1 Sabine was met with an ECL'd Battlefield Marine both games followed by a Red Leader, and a Dodonna that forced out their Takedown so that my Sabine Leader was safe. Ultimately my opponent was forced to react to my curve while I got to deploy units and get in lots of early chip damage. Flooding the space Arena was the key to victory in g2.

R4: Chirrut Red (non-Tarkintown): WLW

Okay, is this every Chirrut Red in the room? Turns out, it was. After playing against both Tarkintown and non-Tarkintown, I was happy to see my opponent on the latter. Their list was a bit more midrangey, with Vigilance in the main as a hedge against aggro. G2 they were able to take over the space arena early with Restore Arc + Wingleader, and my ground units weren't quite able to race that. G3 the script was flipped, and A-wing into 2 Wing Leaders was too damage for my opponent to deal with. With that win, I was 3-1 and 6th seed going into top 8.

Quarterfinals: Leia Red (Tarkintown) WW

This matchup is where ECL shined the most. G1 my opponent basically never got to untap with a unit in play for the first 2 turns of the game, and by the time Leia flipped they were already dead. G2 was much of the same, I was lucky to not run into their anti-aggro sideboard cards and took over the game with Dodonna helping my team push a lot of damage. Tarkintown is quite good, but it's no ECL

Semifinals: Palp Blue (30 HP) WW

I hadn't tested against too much control before this tournament with Sabine Yellow, though I had some basic heuristics from watching YT videos that translated well to Sabine Green. Take to the space Arena, get damage in when you can, never resource For a Cause I Believe In. While my opponent admitted this was his worst matchup, I didn't feel relieved by that in the moment. Every decision felt important, and the games felt like I won by the skin of my teeth. Ultimately, I was lucky that my OP never saw Childsen in either game, which allowed my Sabine to do a bit more damage than normal. All 3 copies of For a Cause were played in g2 to seal the deal, bringing me to the much scarier end boss of the tournament.

Finals: Boba Yellow (30 HP) WLW

I knew this would be the ultimate test. Boba Yellow has a good matchup into Sabine, being able to play the control role in the first few turns of the game and then push massive damage with Cunning and Surprise Strike later. Both Bobas are over-statted and hard to kill, but playing into the Space Arena doesn't solve my problems either. To be honest, these games were so tough and decision-intense that I don't remember all the details. G1 I was able to push ground damage early and force my OP to play the control role for JUST long enough that they couldn't push a bunch of damage to my base without fear of losing. Important to note that in this matchup I never pinged with Sabine unless my opponent had already claimed initiative, and even then I was forced to count damage a couple turns ahead to see if I could ping because Cunning is SO much damage out of nowhere. G2 I ended up being 2 points short of lethal while at 1 life. Viper Probe Droid is an annoying unit to stare down on turn 1 because it trades with all your t1 ground plays, and I wish I had mulliganed more aggressively for a turn 1 A-Wing. G3 I finally got to start with the initiative, and if I hadn't I would've lost. I had the turn 1 A-Wing into t2 Red Leader, but my opponents ground presence was quickly presenting a faster clock than my space presence. My Sabine flip was met with a No Good to Me Dead, and at this point I felt like I was clinging on to straws. I did some combat math and realized that if my opponent wasn't able to claim initiative after all of his attacks, I would have exact lethal in space with a Red Leader, a beefed up A-Wing, and the Rebel Assault in my hand. Fortunately math is my strong suit, and after I claimed the initiative and my opponent got 1 last attack in with an 8-powered Boba Leader buffed by Cunning, I showed him the Rebel Assault for exactsies and took down the tournament. What a ride.

If you made it this far, thanks, and I hope you enjoyed the write-up. Thanks to all my opponents for being really nice and cool people, and thanks to Tabletop Village for hosting a sweet event. If you have any questions about my particular list, feel free to comment down below. This list is relatively stock, but I have a few changes I'll be testing down the line as we approach the Washington Summercon 5k next month. Thanks again!!