Images courtesy of Fantasy Flight Games
The Richmond Regional Qualifier was the first large Star Wars Unlimited (SWU) event after the suspension announcement, and it’s the first huge event after quite a few smaller competitions. Let me say, it did not disappoint. 598 people showed up to battle it out in a wide open meta. That’s a huge field for people to compete for the crown. The Top 64, Top 32, Top 16, and Top 8 were all diverse. Let’s break down the results.
Day One of the Richmond SWU Regional Qualifier
Richmond was the largest of the four RQs so far, with around 30% more attendees in Richmond compared to Denver and Liverpool, and it edged out Milan by 52 people (almost 10%). My initial thought was “Richmond is on the East Coast so it’s easier to travel to.” Then I remembered it’s not easy to fly into Richmond and I-95 and I-64 are nightmares to drive on (for people not from the US, those are two major highways that run north/south and east/west respectively). So, it could’ve been the suspensions and possibility of any tier-one deck taking down the whole thing attracted more players.
The Day One field had 30 of 70 (RIP BobaSOR and JangoSHD) available leaders to trying to take down Richmond like General Grant did in 1865. The top three represented leaders were Sabine, Quinlan, and Cad Bane. What shocked me was that those only accounted for ten, nine, and seven percent, respectively. That’s crazy when considering that Jango Fett was pushing over a quarter of the representation at some of the other SQs. We could see after eight rounds on the first day, the Top 64 spots were earned, and there were some spicy decks.
First, the shout out of Day One goes to George Hudson, aka Georgethehulk on melee.gg. He took a Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith and Data Vault on a 7-1 tear to pull the 6th spot going into Day Two. I hope you enjoy your showcase when you get it, George.
Second, we had two Darth Vader, Victor Squadron leaders; one Kazuda Xiono, Best Pilot In The Galaxy; one Poe Dameron, I Can Fly Anything; and one Boba Fett, Any Methods Necessary to make it into the Top 64. Almost 7.5% of the leaders in the Top 64 were Jump to Lightspeed (JTL) leaders, but I expect that number to go up slightly as the season progresses. JTL is still relatively new to compared to the experience of playing the older set leaders.
Third, props to players taking leaders like Mace Windu, Count Dooku, and Kylo Ren and bashing into the Top 64. It’s proof that the skills of the player that can take “non-tier one” leaders to the top of the large tournaments. Great job!
Day Two of the Richmond SWU Regional Qualifier
The Top 64 was beautifully diverse. My top five takeaways:
- Surprisingly (to me, some people were calling this on Reddit), the most represented leader going into Day Two in the top 64 was Quinlan Vos, Sticking the Landing. He covered down on 11 of the top 64. I knew Quinlan was one of the top leaders, but I wasn’t expecting him to take the lion’s share.
- More surprising, Qi’Ra, I Alone Survived took the second spot for representation with nine spots in the top 64. I’ll be honest, I don’t think many people predicted that, but I’m happy to see a new contender. They all used a Command base, with one using Energy Conversion Lab, and one using a common 30 HP base, as opposed to the seven others that used Data Vault.
- Sabine ECL is one of two leaders that took eight spots in the Top 64 to tie in third place. I’ll get into how this deck performed later.
- Han Solo, Audacious Smuggler took the other eight spots in the top 64. This shows FFG made a good decision in suspending DJ. They knew the deck was powerful, but knew it would be too powerful if they didn’t do anything. Han Solo, Worth The Risk took an additional two spots in the top 64. So if you want to use some fuzzy math then you can say our favorite scruffy looking nerf herder took over 15% of the top 64.
- Cad Bane, He Who Needs No Introduction took seven of the top 64 spots. However, six of those ran Tarkintown and one ran a common Command base. This shows he’s a threat to the meta and people have to account for him moving forward.
The Top 8 was really good. One of two of the repeat leaders was Quinlan, and they had to face each other in a mirror match. Ouch. We saw Sabine battle Cad Bane, HanSOR Green battle Qi’Ra (that makes my heart sad a little. I always thought Solo was a great movie), and HanSOR Yellow battle Anakin. That’s incredibly healthy, but I know a lot of people have grumbled about the lack of JTL leaders. I get it, but as I have repeatedly said, people are going to play the decks they’re most familiar with in these big tournaments. Most people come to win, and there just isn’t a lot of time to put in the countless reps that the three previous set leaders have hit.
Just expect this to happen at Galactic Championships in July. That is happening a couple weeks after Legends of the Force is released.
The Semis and Final at Richmond
The Final Four had Sabine vs HanSOR Green, and Quinlan vs Anakin. Massive props to ian7036, who did a massive matrix on the win-rates of the decks. Anakin’s worst matchup was Quinlan at 35.7%, whereas if Anakin got paired against HanSOR Green it would’ve been almost double at 64.5% win-rate. Tough luck, and it showed with HanSOR Green winning 2-0.
However, the opposite match was 50/50 according to the data. Usually the coin-flip match is going to go to the better player, sideboard choices, and sometimes how the cards are drawn. Again, the match ended up being a 2-1 win for Sabine. That checks with a 50/50 match-up. So, the finals were set and we pushed into the finals for the Richmond RQ.
Sabine ECL piloted by William O’Neil and Quinlan TT piloted by MikaelC. Both are accomplished SWU players. Mikael had placed Top 8 in two PQs, and William had placed in the Top 8 in a PQ and topped a SCG Con $1k event. The deck head to head match had Sabine slightly on top with a 58.8% win-rate. As far as JTL cards in the decks, the Sabine ECL was 22% (11/50) and Quinlan TT was 12% (6/50). The final match score was 2-1. Congrats to William!
Sabine maintains the top spot as said in my last article. The deck held down three spots in the Top 16. That matched representation with HanSOR and Quinlan. Again, surprisingly, Qi’Ra was the most represented in the Top 16 with five decks. Round the rest of the Top 16 out with Cad Bane and Anakin and you have your top six decks moving forward.
Final Thoughts and Your Rules Interaction/Clarification
Piett didn’t crack the top 100. Ooof. Many people were very high on him, me included, and it just didn’t pan out in Richmond. Piett was at a 4.2% representation on day one and not a single one hit the Top 64. That’s wild when compared to the second day showing when Qi’Ra was only 3.8% of the field to start and absolutely rolled into Day Two acting like she was the new queen of SWU.
You have Tech, Source of Insight and The Marauder, Shuttling the Bad Batch in play. Your opponent didn’t instantly defeat Tech, so you have the opportunity to Smuggle one of your five friendly resources. One of the resources happens to be a face down Chewbacca, Faithful First Mate. You want to play it as a pilot on your Marauder because you Ambushed and defeated your opponent’s only Space Unit last turn, and now it’s ready and you want to attack their base for seven damage. You exhaust all five of your resources, resource the top card of your deck, and attach Chewie to The Marauder because three (Chewie’s pilot cost) plus two (Tech’s ability) equals five. Your opponent puts their hand up and says “Judge!”
The Judge meanders over and says “You cannot play a unit via Piloting and via Smuggle at the same time, as they are two different alternate costs.” Womp womp. As long as you didn’t look at the top card of your deck when you resourced it, the judge would have you put it back on top. If you did, the judge would insert the card back into the middle of your deck. Last, you’d get a minor inaccurate gameplay warning.
FFG dropped a new article on Legends of the Force. Check it out. The quote, “with 79 different unique units across the entirety of Legends of the Force” has me looking at the price of a Showcase Hunter, Outcast Sergeant.
Until next time, be cool to your fellow players, be cool to your judges, hydrate, eat well, exercise, and wear clean socks. Hit me up anytime on Bluesky @TheFlyingWriter or Reddit at u/TheFlyingWriter.
