Han Solo Commands Falcon and Home One deck (Tall&Tempo&Aggro for Ambushing) v1

I know that Han Solo isn’t the coolest of the bunch, but I got Falcon & Home One from my first box and decided to tinker it with. Another box, the same legendaries… It was set in stone from now on that yellow/green with him will be my main deck for this set.

Now I’d like to introduce this deck to you! I was playtesting it on Force Table whole weekend and would love some feedback because I’ll be playing with friends in few days:)

ROUND 1-4 PLAY AND BASIC IDEA BEHIND THIS DECK

Han’s skill let you play 3R cards on round 1 so I wanted to make most use of it. Solo also combos with Falcon: you pay for it with the temp resource you need to burn anyway at refresh phase (don’t worry about the lost initiative; plan accordingly!). You aim to play one best card a round so there are only few 2Rs (and they have a use later!) and NO 1R cards in deck - that’s by design. You don’t have cards to spare to play two in one round, period. Ideal play is sth like this:

• Round 1: 4 cards in hand and 2R-> Han’s skill, Falcon for 3R and 3 hits on the base.
• Round 2: 3 cards and 3R -> Falcon hits again > Han’s skill > Strafing Gunship for 4R.
• Round 3: only 2 cards! and 4R -> Falcon hits, here you don’t use Han’s skill and play 2nd Strafing for 4R
• Round 4: back to 3/4 cards (Falcon dead or goes back to hand), you now have 5R and here’s where the fun begins!
• R4 cont.: use Han for 1st temp resource, ready him, attack with him (2nd temp res!) and… play Han-Unit (costs 7R)

And yes, you leave ground open for 3 rounds and it IS tempting in Round 3 to go all-in and use Han’s skill third time (to play Chewbacca for 5R and to leave Falcon on the table for R4), but it’s a trap! That’s the crucial part of the match for Han because now he’s most vulnerable. And if you drop to just 1 card in hand, then you’re one Spark of the Rebellion or bad draw from losing. But if you won’t get cocky here, you are set for what comes next.

ROUND 5 AND WINNING CONDITION

You have many different cards to respond to your enemy actions. If you didn’t burn to quickly through the deck, now you may be even comfortable to play two cheaper cards in one round and go for sentinels if there’s a crowd. But what you should be looking for are your best 5-6R cards. Sometimes it’s even valid play to go with 5R card when there are 6 or 7R available to you and just taking initiative. If the start was good, now you can be picky.

• 1x 5R Traitorous to grab 3R units with buffs
• 3x 5R Chewbacca with Sentinel that readies after being hit
• 3x 5R Agent Kallus, 5/4/4 with Ambush (and possibly draw a card!)
• 3x 6R Lando 6/6/5 with Saboteur for shielded units
• 3x 6R Rogue Squadron Skirmisher, 6/4/6 with Ambush
• 3x 6R Merc Company 6/5/5 with Ambush AND Overwhelm (!)

And what’s great about Han-unit is that he shoots first so you can KO for example Leia without losing health via Ambush. But if you won’t be able to use him R4, it’s not the end of the world, because your 5-6R cards are also quite good. You can also stall with bringing your hero out to Round 5 and then, with basic 6 resources, just go with skill combo straight for Home One! But what you need to remember is hitting-the-base!

AND WHY 30 HP BASE FOR YOU AND NO ECL?

Don’t get distracted from your goal. Sometimes it’s best to tank hits on your base because it has 30HP. Yes, without skill! Of course I tried FCL, but since all your 5-6R heavy hitters have ambush anyway (beside Lando), then what’s the point? And your Ambushes are what is clearing the table from enemy units so you can focus on hitting-the-base with attacks only where it really hurts. In the endgame there are also some shenanigans that let you hit-the-base before the round end:

• Just play Falcons (they enters ready and hit for 3; switch exhausted for readied if needed)
• Use Sneak Attack (Home One hits with 7 with Restore 2 and… brings discarded Falcon back! that’s 10 hits)
• or just use Change of Heart (2x) or Traitorous (1x) but only with ready units and/or sentinels!

Always think how to hit-the-base first, even it it means that your’s will be hit to, especially in matchups against 25 HP. Try to attack base right away, so your units will die by giving some damage in return and then... another one of your heavy hitters will finish your enemies of with thier Ambush. Just try to survive at least one round each unit and hide behind your sentinels if possible.

WHAT CAN GO WRONG AND WHAT TO DO THEN?

Of course not all draws will be ideal but for the first draw you have exactly R1 14 cards in deck and you need just one! (in a mill.. er, fifty). If you get just one of them, then maybe don’t mulligan (a 6x4R+ redraw is a disaster!). Look for 3-4-4 (with Falcon) or 2-3-4 (without one) sets for first three rounds and do not form attachments to any higher numbers, you’ll probably discard them anyway - but there are many 5-6’s in deck. At first look for:

• 3x Falcon for 3R - the best R1 play, but need burning
• 3x Battlefield Marine for 2R so without burning
• 3x Echo Base Defender for 3R but with a Sentinel
• 3x Ezra for 3R gives later free card to play or manages deck
• 2x Spark of Rebellion, 2R - check enemy’s hand and discard 1

One of them is all you need (You’re my only hope is also 3R, but it is risky!) and there are of course cards that help you respond to the table state. Few of them have also double function - helping you not only attack and ambush enemies or protect your own men, but also draw more cards (you love them cards!). There are also trying to mitigate really bad draws and to stabilize your card situation, giving you more cards to burn with Han’s skill. Keep you eye on:

• 3x Bright Hope 4/2/6 let you take wounded unit from table to play/burn it later
• 3x Rogue Sq Skirmisher (6/4/6) let you take to hand dead Battlefield Marines (to burn!)
• 3x Lando let you take up to two resources to hand. You burned Home One or Han on R1? Great!
• 2x Home One let you play 3R Heroism cards (Marine, EBD, Ezra and Falcon!) from Discard pile. For free!
• And there are 3x Strafing Gunships 4/3/4 that won’t give you cards, but that can attack both arenas

It is crucial for you to manage what you have in your resources at any given moment (I aim for no duplicates to leave options open for Lando) and carefully choose what cards you burn into the discard pile. You should aim to have there at least one Battlefield Marine, one Falcon and one Echo Base Defender there to get them back later. That one discarded Falcon after you play Home One could win you the game!

COUNTING CARDS (LIKE A TRUE GABLER)

And since Han is a gambler lore-wise there are of course few lore-accurate cards for him that maybe are not always reliable, but can help you get out from a tight spot. Ezra is the only unit who can tell you what to expect from your deck, so most of the times you just need to count in your head what went out and what not from deck. Remember, there are two capital ship-sized traps there for you.

• 2x Don’t Get Cocky lets you directly hit a unit, but count your Home Ones carefully or it will be a bust!
• 2x You’re my only Hope let you play another cards but works best if you have 5 HP on base or less
• 1x U-Wing let you play Han-unit, two sentinels, Falcon + Bright Hope, Chewie + Marine etc.

So without further ado - what do you guys and gals think? It’s not a Casino Han, but maybe somebody here runs a similar Han Solo Command deck, that plays fast - or at least tried it? I would appreciate if you could poke holes in my la grande plan to rule the galaxy far, far away and could give me some suggestions what to put in my side deck! That is one thing that I didn’t yet thought about: what to swap and for what in different matchups.