Road to the Crumpet Cup
March has been a great month for in-person Destiny with Prime events in Swindon (UK) and Toronto (Canada). Read on for the first of two articles covering the action.
LandoWonka (echobase) hosted the Swindon event at Firestorm Games and included all the upsides of IRL Destiny: casual games around the edges, tall tales from past competitions, speculation about ARH7, vigorous debate on whether the crumpet exists (in disguise) in the States, and even speculation about why so many beautiful people were queuing outside the Old Town Launderette.
The tournament offered a diverse lineup, with only Qi’ra and Son featured more than once. A few last-minute drops put the field at a solid 8 competitors – 7 locals plus a goofy American who crashed the party – each competing for glory and some gorgeous Son/Daughter/Father promo cards. Moordotz (Stourbridge, UK) and GParfit (Redditch, UK) emerged as finalists after 5 rounds of Swiss to reprise their regular kitchen table showdown.
For a closer look, we’ve invited Moordotz to share what it was like to win the Crumpet Cup.
Getting to Know Moordotz
How and when did you get into SW Destiny?
I started soon after Spirit of Rebellion was released. My friend (Zhil) introduced it as a cool card game I could use to take a break from MTG when I was playing that way too seriously.
In today’s galaxy of TTS, kitchen tables, and local in-person play, “the meta” means lots of different things. How do you define *your* meta?
Normally I just have sporadic time to play with friends on TTS, so my meta is whatever they (normally GParfitt) play on there.
Looking back, what has been your favorite meta?
Unpopular opinion: the Vader Terror to Behold meta. I love aggressive crapshoot decks and the turn 1 Vader’s Saber into Friends in High Places into Vader’s Fist was a dopamine hit and a half!
Other than the results themselves, what was a favorite moment from the tournament?
I’m going to be cheeky and pick 2. My favourite moments were dinner together after the event and the numerous about crumpets – including the difference between edible and “a bit of…”
TTS is great, but Destiny for me has always been the community and getting to catch up with friends and play face to face is always going to be better. It was a pleasure seeing everyone and hanging out after the tournament.
Tournament Strategy & Deck Tech
In the weeks leading up to the tournament, how did you assess the meta? What pairings did you expect to see?
I didn’t think about it too much to be honest. The UK scene tends to be very diverse. The only thing that I absolutely knew to be true was that there would be a mono yellow villain as Echo3 was going to be there, so that’s a given. I was honestly surprised how few heroes were being played: a distinct lack of Aayla and Obi Wan and (thankfully) no mill.
Which deck did you play? Why? What does this deck want to do?
I played a deck Gameslayer shared several weeks ago at an Echobase tournament: Snoke, Soontir Fel, & I Will Watch Your Career with Great Interest.
The deck wants to play Tydirium, get value out of Snoke’s dice, make him a Sith or Apprentice, then use the plot to kill Snoke. Snoke comes back as a shiny support with focus sides to let that your new big, bad Darth Vader focus to special sides and kit up. Then a turn later Snoke returns and you have 43pts of characters on the board!
What were the last cards to make the list? What was card 31 that you wish you could have included?
I’m not the best at deckbuilding (hence the blatant netdeck) but I found Absorb Energy to be a little anaemic. If I could have added 1 card I think I would have wanted another big redeploy to go on Snoke, maybe Light Repeating Blaster?
What do you want to see in your opening hand?
A ramp card, Tydirium, Uncompromising and 2 cheap mitigation cards. In a perfect world you can play the Uncompromising, resolve it twice using Snokes PA, play the Tydirium and trigger the plot turn 1 or 2, redeploying the Uncompromising to Soontir in the process.
Alternatively, against High Stakes decks, an Armored Assault Tank and a ramp card gives you a nasty surprise when you can play and pilot the tank in the same turn.
What are this deck’s best matchups? Which matchups are most challenging for this deck?
The deck does well against slower decks. It doesn’t care too much about mitigation since you have a lot of focus and dice that come in multiple times a turn.
It tends to struggle against aggressive decks who can burn Soontir down before you get the plot off which pretty much shuts down what you are trying to do as you can’t resolve the plot without instantly losing the game.
When you saw you’d be facing Gareth and Son/Tarkin in the finals, what strategy did you think would lead to victory?
Gareth is my usual sparring partner both on TTS and in real life so we have played this matchup (Gareth’s Tarkin/Son list is HERE) quite a bit.
Tarkin provides a real incentive to claim early, since if he uses his PA and discards your Tydirium you are in for a difficult ride.
In the 1st game, I got lucky and won the roll off, slammed Tydirium first action and it was pretty much over. The Son just can’t do enough when Snoke can take all the damage before flipping.
In game 2 with Gareth starting first, I actually ditched Tydirium out of my hand and went for an early Armored Assault Tank. Without a flip in sight, I let Snoke die and relied on Soontir and a tank to shield up and do damage while I waited for Snoke to flip back.
Gareth was a good sport, but it’s a hard match up for a deck that relies on indirect to win when Snoke can just die and come back, undoing a lot of the damage dealt.
