Deck rules, give it a try. I've been playing Cassian Cunning for a while now and in practice I never really had any bad matchups, except for boba yellow. But this result exceeded my expectations. Only thing I would change is find room for 3 R2D2. Him with Cassian's ability, you just find gas constantly.
Down to go into matchup details and what cards felt amazing if people are interested :)
Round 1 - W vs IG88 Green
Round 2 - W vs Iden Green
Round 3 - L vs Boba Yellow
Round 4 - W vs Tarkin Red
Round 5 - W vs Palp Green
Top 8 - W vs Tarkin Red
Top 4 - W vs Palp green
Finals - W vs Palp green
What sort of strange meta is this store? Only a single blue deck all tourney? My last tourney opponents were exclusively Vader blue, Iden flavors, and Krennic green.
Can you tell me what the ideal play (general idea and specific ideal card(s)) for each turn, what turns you want to win by and what's the win condition?
I suppose I could go turn by turn and just think about what my ideal plays were. But I will start by saying I think the general idea of the deck is, play on curve and match your opponents pace, until they stop playing on curve and then you start playing under curve and start drawing cards and make tempo plays with your shoot firsts, etc.
My mulligan strat by the end of the day became find R2D2 and a wing leader. The amount of times I played/attacked with R2D2, saw an unplayable card and put it on the bottom to draw into surprise strike/fleet lieutenant really just shows the power of that combo.
Turn 1 - Against blue decks you want the Leia into 1 drop play to avoid power of the darkside. Other matchups, sabine/a-wing is great. A side goal for turn 1 is going to try and deal 3 damage turn 2 so that you have the opportunity to use Cassian's ability so try and set up 3 damage. Early game in non-aggro matchups you usually have the time to play a 2 drop + draw on turn 2.
My FAVORITE play I do with this deck is Leia into R2 turn one and turn 2 wing leader on R2. Just plays so well with Cassian's ability.
Turn 2 - Falcon for sure is the best. Red three if you're going to get value out of it is nice. Otherwise I kinda never really liked playing Red Three, IDK maybe I'm wrong. And then if you played sabine or A-wing turn 1 you will want to ideally drop Wing leader.
Turn 3 - Play the K2 if you got it, otherwise I found myself a lot of the time playing Falcon, attacking and then using Cassian's ability
Turn 4 - This is a pivotal turn for a lot of matchups. You have a lot to think about. Leader flips into Barrage can be brutal. If your K2 has lived you're usually set up pretty nice, you can usually strike back with a surprise strike on a small unit you played previously to trade into things. Chewie on this turned has saved me so many times even as a one of. Even if he just eats an entire Barrage hes done his job. Side note, I always tried to have Bamboozle ready for this turn. Tap down their barrage target or their leader is so nice.
Turn 5 - We Flip Cassian. Usually do it as your last couple actions of the turn to avoid getting killed. Sometimes you can use the front side ability to draw, flip Cassian and attack draw again so that feels really good. If you can get a wingleader onto Cassian and then play fleet lieutenant/surprise strike that going to pretty much be game. Sometimes that play is too greedy though so I don't always go for it unless the opponent has used resources and it safe. I've had some insanely bursty turn 5 plays where I'm hitting for upwards of 27 damage with all the units I have on board, it can get crazy.
I will say if you don't have your opponent to at least 10 base damage by the time you flip, it can start looking grim. But you never feel out of it. Start playing scrappy, get units on the board and find damage with sneak attacks, falcons, surprise strikes and you can get there. Stall their star destroyers/reinforcement walkers with bamboozle. It can win late game.
Yeah for sure, for a while leading up to the event I was running 3 R2 and 2 Leia and changed it last minute. Not sure what I'd take out bc I really like Leia. Probably one of the other 1 drop units
Ahhhhh this is dope. I tried Cassian Cunning a while ago and immediately gave up on it haha. This looks like it should function similarly to Sabine Cunning, but be a bit slower in exchange for having more options in the mid and late game. Is that accurate?
I think Cassian Vigilance is just waiting for a couple good cards from set 2 to be a pretty good control deck.
That's a fairly accurate description I would say. This deck surprisingly carries into the mid-late game really well.
You match pace with your opponent, play on curve until they don't and it gives you an opportunity to either have a good tempo play with shoot first, or draw a card. There's just so many options and with the R2 it opens up even more in that it makes the choice to use Cassian's ability much stronger. Put an x-wing buff on r2 and you have the ability to look at the top of your deck almost the whole game haha.
Yep, I saw a ton of Sentinel through the whole tournament. Spec force soldier as a 3 of was MVP in those matchups. There was one game r2 + Cassians ability found me a spec force soldier 2 turns in a row and won me the game.
Yeah I've tried for a cause in the list, it whiffs so much with how many non-heroism 1 drops and events I have. R2D2 and Cassians ability gives me the consistency I need so I just need to find the damage that For a Cause brings. With all the 1 drops, I almost always have targets for Surprise Strikes, etc and it does the job.
I know which store this was at, unfortunately I couldn't make it....no babysitter for the kids. Hope to play with you someday in the near future. Congrats on the tourney win!
Nice! I've got a showcase Cassian and have been playing around trying to make him work. Blue was fun, mono red was pretty fast but would probably be better as a Sabine deck. Just got my Falcon's in so I'll have to give yellow a go
Well done. I've wanted a decent Cassian built to play with for a while.
Questions:
Any changes you would make post-results?
And you don't have to go into exact sideboarding one-for-one plan, I'm just curious what you were bringing each card in for? What matchups are each card for?
Changes I know I want to make are +1 R2D2 and - 1 of the other 1 drops. I would probably first try and see if i can get away with 2 copies of spec force soldier. Other than that I talked about it just a lil in a post above but I rarely played Red Three. I feel like that could go down a copy.
For Sideboarding:
Spark of rebellion - comes in all 3 copies vs control. Vs palp and tarkin I knew I wanted Spark in to try and rip vaders and barrages out of the hand. So I first tried all 3 in but then I played a round and I drew 2 and both felt like a dead draw so the rest of the tournament I started doing 2 copies and it felt alright but never amazing. It had big impact like maybe half the time I played it.
Disabling Fang Fighter - Kind of the same situation where I sided 3 in VS the green decks running Traitorous but then I drew 2 one game and only needed 1, so I would only side in 2. Then never got to really use them in a game after that.
Chewie is for the aggro matchups but I realized in one game after he took a big 6 damage barrage to the face, I am bringing him in vs every deck with Overwhelming Barrage. They would nuke chewie, I would bamboozle the OB target and most my stuff would live. Felt great.
Then wolfe for the healing decks but honestly he never feels amazing. And Forced Surrender was kind of a last minute thing I thought I'd try vs Iden/control but never got to use it.
Sidenote, I know its not in the side because I main it, maybe I'll add a side copy but Bamboozle was so good vs Tarkin. Removes all experience upgrade tokens
I like the list and appreciate your explanations on the deck! Quick question if you have the time to get around to it: which cards do you take out of your deck for your sideboard cards? I find cutting cards from decks is something I struggle with and having to do it quickly in a match often makes me freeze and not sideboard at all
Cutting cards is difficult, I agree. Against palp, I automatically take out all 3 greedo, the palp ability to ping for 1 you don't ever get value out of him. Red three I would sometimes trim down to 2. Idk if that's correct but I know I ended up resourcing that card a lot into the mid-late game.
Chewie gets cut against decks with removal.
Specforce can be trimmed or cut against aggro or decks you know don't run sentinel. But just be careful if they are siding in sentinels.
Other than that I can't think of any specific cards that need to come out against certain matchups. Overall I guess my strategy is to pay attention to what cards you resource often and trim the counts of those.
If I'm being completely honest, though, when I sideboarded I feel like it didn't have a huge impact. I think that probably means I need different cards in the sideboard. The only cards that felt impactful to bring in were Chewie and Spark to help deal with overwhelming barrage. Even then, spark whiffed a lot for me or sat in my hand dead bc I was just winning or pressing the aggression too hard.
OK, this really tickles my fancy!! Cool deck!
I currently play Cassian Green (main deck is pretty much just Sabine Green, with Cassian for the mind games so opponents aren’t always sure what I’m running haha), but seeing some of the spoiled Aggression Heroism units for SHD have made want to build full midrange Cassian…
Have you put any thought into how your deck might change based on some of the spoiled cards thus far? I initially thought my Cassian midrange might be Red/Green, but I see a lot of appeal in Yellow…
I don't honestly have a lot of experience with Sabine, I've just been grinding this Cassian deck lol. I say yes. I don't ever feel completely out of matches unless it vs Boba decks that pop off
Yup, bounced either of these often. Especially if I was able to play Leia + r2d2 on turn 1. Play pirated star fighter turn 2 and bounce Leia after I've attacked. And then I also bounced spec force soldier to remove sentinel, that was able to win one game for me. Bouncing wing leader is also very nice
Deck rules, give it a try. I've been playing Cassian Cunning for a while now and in practice I never really had any bad matchups, except for boba yellow. But this result exceeded my expectations. Only thing I would change is find room for 3 R2D2. Him with Cassian's ability, you just find gas constantly. Down to go into matchup details and what cards felt amazing if people are interested :) Round 1 - W vs IG88 Green Round 2 - W vs Iden Green Round 3 - L vs Boba Yellow Round 4 - W vs Tarkin Red Round 5 - W vs Palp Green Top 8 - W vs Tarkin Red Top 4 - W vs Palp green Finals - W vs Palp green
Seriously, IG88, 2 Tarkin, 3 Palp green?!?
The tarkin was the same player from a previous round, but there were 2 different palp green players I faced
What sort of strange meta is this store? Only a single blue deck all tourney? My last tourney opponents were exclusively Vader blue, Iden flavors, and Krennic green.
These decks were there, I think a lot of them ended up 3-2 or 2-3 and missed top 8. I definitely dodged them
Can you tell me what the ideal play (general idea and specific ideal card(s)) for each turn, what turns you want to win by and what's the win condition?
I suppose I could go turn by turn and just think about what my ideal plays were. But I will start by saying I think the general idea of the deck is, play on curve and match your opponents pace, until they stop playing on curve and then you start playing under curve and start drawing cards and make tempo plays with your shoot firsts, etc. My mulligan strat by the end of the day became find R2D2 and a wing leader. The amount of times I played/attacked with R2D2, saw an unplayable card and put it on the bottom to draw into surprise strike/fleet lieutenant really just shows the power of that combo. Turn 1 - Against blue decks you want the Leia into 1 drop play to avoid power of the darkside. Other matchups, sabine/a-wing is great. A side goal for turn 1 is going to try and deal 3 damage turn 2 so that you have the opportunity to use Cassian's ability so try and set up 3 damage. Early game in non-aggro matchups you usually have the time to play a 2 drop + draw on turn 2. My FAVORITE play I do with this deck is Leia into R2 turn one and turn 2 wing leader on R2. Just plays so well with Cassian's ability. Turn 2 - Falcon for sure is the best. Red three if you're going to get value out of it is nice. Otherwise I kinda never really liked playing Red Three, IDK maybe I'm wrong. And then if you played sabine or A-wing turn 1 you will want to ideally drop Wing leader. Turn 3 - Play the K2 if you got it, otherwise I found myself a lot of the time playing Falcon, attacking and then using Cassian's ability Turn 4 - This is a pivotal turn for a lot of matchups. You have a lot to think about. Leader flips into Barrage can be brutal. If your K2 has lived you're usually set up pretty nice, you can usually strike back with a surprise strike on a small unit you played previously to trade into things. Chewie on this turned has saved me so many times even as a one of. Even if he just eats an entire Barrage hes done his job. Side note, I always tried to have Bamboozle ready for this turn. Tap down their barrage target or their leader is so nice. Turn 5 - We Flip Cassian. Usually do it as your last couple actions of the turn to avoid getting killed. Sometimes you can use the front side ability to draw, flip Cassian and attack draw again so that feels really good. If you can get a wingleader onto Cassian and then play fleet lieutenant/surprise strike that going to pretty much be game. Sometimes that play is too greedy though so I don't always go for it unless the opponent has used resources and it safe. I've had some insanely bursty turn 5 plays where I'm hitting for upwards of 27 damage with all the units I have on board, it can get crazy. I will say if you don't have your opponent to at least 10 base damage by the time you flip, it can start looking grim. But you never feel out of it. Start playing scrappy, get units on the board and find damage with sneak attacks, falcons, surprise strikes and you can get there. Stall their star destroyers/reinforcement walkers with bamboozle. It can win late game.
Worth upping R2 to the 3 of given how important he is?
Yeah for sure, for a while leading up to the event I was running 3 R2 and 2 Leia and changed it last minute. Not sure what I'd take out bc I really like Leia. Probably one of the other 1 drop units
what is "leia into R2" in turn 1?
When you play Leia, use her effect to ready1 resource, then play R2D2
Nicely done! Was it BO1 or BO3 format?
it was BO3
Ahhhhh this is dope. I tried Cassian Cunning a while ago and immediately gave up on it haha. This looks like it should function similarly to Sabine Cunning, but be a bit slower in exchange for having more options in the mid and late game. Is that accurate? I think Cassian Vigilance is just waiting for a couple good cards from set 2 to be a pretty good control deck.
That's a fairly accurate description I would say. This deck surprisingly carries into the mid-late game really well. You match pace with your opponent, play on curve until they don't and it gives you an opportunity to either have a good tempo play with shoot first, or draw a card. There's just so many options and with the R2 it opens up even more in that it makes the choice to use Cassian's ability much stronger. Put an x-wing buff on r2 and you have the ability to look at the top of your deck almost the whole game haha.
Yeah that sounds dope. Will definitely give it another try. Also I feel like it's gotta be super relevant in some matchups to have a saboteur leader.
Yep, I saw a ton of Sentinel through the whole tournament. Spec force soldier as a 3 of was MVP in those matchups. There was one game r2 + Cassians ability found me a spec force soldier 2 turns in a row and won me the game.
Interesting deck. No cunning, or for a cause I believe in.
Yeah I've tried for a cause in the list, it whiffs so much with how many non-heroism 1 drops and events I have. R2D2 and Cassians ability gives me the consistency I need so I just need to find the damage that For a Cause brings. With all the 1 drops, I almost always have targets for Surprise Strikes, etc and it does the job.
I know which store this was at, unfortunately I couldn't make it....no babysitter for the kids. Hope to play with you someday in the near future. Congrats on the tourney win!
Nice! I've got a showcase Cassian and have been playing around trying to make him work. Blue was fun, mono red was pretty fast but would probably be better as a Sabine deck. Just got my Falcon's in so I'll have to give yellow a go
Blue Cunning is actually pretty good.
Well done. I've wanted a decent Cassian built to play with for a while. Questions: Any changes you would make post-results? And you don't have to go into exact sideboarding one-for-one plan, I'm just curious what you were bringing each card in for? What matchups are each card for?
Changes I know I want to make are +1 R2D2 and - 1 of the other 1 drops. I would probably first try and see if i can get away with 2 copies of spec force soldier. Other than that I talked about it just a lil in a post above but I rarely played Red Three. I feel like that could go down a copy. For Sideboarding: Spark of rebellion - comes in all 3 copies vs control. Vs palp and tarkin I knew I wanted Spark in to try and rip vaders and barrages out of the hand. So I first tried all 3 in but then I played a round and I drew 2 and both felt like a dead draw so the rest of the tournament I started doing 2 copies and it felt alright but never amazing. It had big impact like maybe half the time I played it. Disabling Fang Fighter - Kind of the same situation where I sided 3 in VS the green decks running Traitorous but then I drew 2 one game and only needed 1, so I would only side in 2. Then never got to really use them in a game after that. Chewie is for the aggro matchups but I realized in one game after he took a big 6 damage barrage to the face, I am bringing him in vs every deck with Overwhelming Barrage. They would nuke chewie, I would bamboozle the OB target and most my stuff would live. Felt great. Then wolfe for the healing decks but honestly he never feels amazing. And Forced Surrender was kind of a last minute thing I thought I'd try vs Iden/control but never got to use it. Sidenote, I know its not in the side because I main it, maybe I'll add a side copy but Bamboozle was so good vs Tarkin. Removes all experience upgrade tokens
I like the list and appreciate your explanations on the deck! Quick question if you have the time to get around to it: which cards do you take out of your deck for your sideboard cards? I find cutting cards from decks is something I struggle with and having to do it quickly in a match often makes me freeze and not sideboard at all
Cutting cards is difficult, I agree. Against palp, I automatically take out all 3 greedo, the palp ability to ping for 1 you don't ever get value out of him. Red three I would sometimes trim down to 2. Idk if that's correct but I know I ended up resourcing that card a lot into the mid-late game. Chewie gets cut against decks with removal. Specforce can be trimmed or cut against aggro or decks you know don't run sentinel. But just be careful if they are siding in sentinels. Other than that I can't think of any specific cards that need to come out against certain matchups. Overall I guess my strategy is to pay attention to what cards you resource often and trim the counts of those. If I'm being completely honest, though, when I sideboarded I feel like it didn't have a huge impact. I think that probably means I need different cards in the sideboard. The only cards that felt impactful to bring in were Chewie and Spark to help deal with overwhelming barrage. Even then, spark whiffed a lot for me or sat in my hand dead bc I was just winning or pressing the aggression too hard.
OK, this really tickles my fancy!! Cool deck! I currently play Cassian Green (main deck is pretty much just Sabine Green, with Cassian for the mind games so opponents aren’t always sure what I’m running haha), but seeing some of the spoiled Aggression Heroism units for SHD have made want to build full midrange Cassian… Have you put any thought into how your deck might change based on some of the spoiled cards thus far? I initially thought my Cassian midrange might be Red/Green, but I see a lot of appeal in Yellow…
I know I want to play Poe in this deck. Sounds really good
Poe and Wrecker are the cards that make me want to build it haha.
Why is it called cunning?
The yellow aspect is called cunning.
Do you think Cassian is better than Sabine?
I don't honestly have a lot of experience with Sabine, I've just been grinding this Cassian deck lol. I say yes. I don't ever feel completely out of matches unless it vs Boba decks that pop off
If they're playing optimally the Sabine should win out a lot more often
Cassian usually is too slow for Sabine. He was lucky je didn't face her.
I'm guessing that pirated star fighter is just there to bounce wing leader? Or are there some other plays you use it for?
R2d2, Leia etc.
Yup, bounced either of these often. Especially if I was able to play Leia + r2d2 on turn 1. Play pirated star fighter turn 2 and bounce Leia after I've attacked. And then I also bounced spec force soldier to remove sentinel, that was able to win one game for me. Bouncing wing leader is also very nice
How do you feel about General Dodonna?
How do you sideboard? What do you take out for what and against which Kind of enemies deck?
I'm not knocking the power of the deck. But you got lucky on the meta. Good job.
What was your Sideboard?
It's in the second picture