Top 4 FL $5K - Michael Carlock

A Guide

This deck performed quite well into the PPG $5K in Kissimmee, FL on April 21st, 2024. This deck finished 6-2 in Swiss, making the Top 16 Cut in 8th place. This would go on to beat John Tatta's Sabine Green 2-1 in Round 1 and beat Richard Douglass's Sabine Green 2-1 in Round 2. Ultimately, I lost to Andrew Cox's Boba Green 0-2. Final standings from PPG put me in 4th place out of 143 players.

The Basics - Face is the Place.

Sabine is all about getting in damage, and part of that means having bodies on the board to get it done. We've taken this a step further by keeping the curve incredibly low, and running 20 (17) potential turn 1 drops (SpecForce really only feels to good to play when you can drop 2 or 1 with an R2).

There are many other deck techs, videos, and articles expressing the general strategy of playing Sabine Command - so I won't go into too much detail in this description. Tl;DR -- If your opponent isn't threatening lethal, chances are you should be attacking their base and getting in damage.

What makes this list different?

If you're familiar with how Sabine plays, you'll likely be surprised to see only 1 copy of Rebel Assault. Why only 1 in the Main Deck? It's a bad answer, but simply I often struggle to get off the full value of RA during games. Often my opponents are correctly removing (especially, Rebel) units off the board. In some ways this choice is being respectful of the likelihood my opponent isn't leaving units up --- but the real answer is I often lose when I have "pumps" in hand without units on board. I found more consistent personal success with Heroic Sacrifice in my locals, with a large amount of control players. FWIW, Blue Vader is played by Georgethehulk himself, and it really can't be disrespected. Perhaps ironically, I only played a single Green Vader during the duration of the tournament (as the true control players ended up on the other side of the bracket, while the 3 Sabine Commands had to all play each other).

R2-D2. I've been up on R2 as a mainstay in Hero Aggro since before launch, and I've regretted every scenario where I've removed him. He's a 4 health body (a key break point in most T1-2 plays by players), he only costs 1, he's a Rebel and a target for ALL pumps in the deck, he annoys Greedo, he helps curve out the deck allowing for often 2 unit drop turns, etc. Your opponents will hate removing him via their proper removal, and he's cycling through your deck every attack. Pro tip: the answer here is if it's not For a Cause, K-2SO, or a needed pump: it goes to the bottom of the deck. There's a reason this little dude caused so much havoc for the Empire, and he deserves legitimate consideration in EVERY Hero Aggro deck. The only question is whether you want 2 or 3.

General Dodonna. He may as well have Sentinel. He messes with your opponent's math, including Takedown, Tarkintown, and just general board state trades. The real decision here is replacing 3x Echo Base Defenders for the Gen Dod, and ultimately I think this decision came in clutch for the tournament. Why x3 copies of the General? The real answer is an examination of where higher level Sabine players were trending --- main decking 2x Bright Hopes. This is a great call as you often sideboard 2x in most games, but I decided to run into this tournament with a theory that my opponents would over commit to defending or beating me in Space via Star Vipers, Seven Fleet Defenders, and Bright Hopes. If they over commit, dropping General Dodonna turns the math of owning Ground into a lethal advantage in most games.

Rebel Pathfinder. I just really like consistency of hitting turn 1 drops, especially when they have the advantage of 1-shotting Cartel Smuggler and Iden via pump damage. He often sneaks through aggro players still running Echo Base Defender or just other Sentinel units generally played. The number is flexible here.

Sideboard

The other Rebel Assault is hiding here. 3x Disabling Fang Fighter is here to mess with Entrenched and the offchance an opponent runs Traitorous or various lightsabers. Bright Hope does added work into Aggro (typically you remove the hedges for Control for these and add in the other Rebel Assault).

Zeb is ONLY here for the Sabine mirror. I only got value out of him once during the entire tournament - and arguably for the most important game for me of the tournament (Game 3 against Richard Douglass' excellent piloting of Sabine Command). Assuming your opponent isn't on General Dodonna, Zeb can 1-shot Sabine leader and K-2SO unit and outright blow the game out in your favor.

Wrap-up

I ended up being incorrect in the number of Control players I would match into during this tournament, but I managed to perform well in most Game 1s regardless of some of these 'odder' choices in the Main Deck. If you're overly reliant on winning your games with Rebel Assault, you will NOT enjoy this list. Hopefully this little guide gave you some insight. Cheers!