Interview with Jordan (Sawse), Richmond $4k Winner with Double Blue Iden! (Star Wars Unlimited TCG)

In this video, I interview Jordan (Sawse), the winner of the Richmond $4k event played on May 4th! He used a very unusual deck -- double Vigilance Iden -- and we discuss how his build evolved from a red Iden build that he had tested with me earlier, what his matches were like on the day, and more!
You can check out my introductory articles at The Fifth Trooper blog over here:
General Introduction: thefifthtrooper.com/an-introd...
Deckbuilding and Aspects: thefifthtrooper.com/star-wars...
Initiative and Actions: thefifthtrooper.com/star-wars...
Who's the Beatdown: SWU Edition: thefifthtrooper.com/whos-the-...
Draft and Sealed Play: thefifthtrooper.com/star-wars...
Improving Your Efficiency: thefifthtrooper.com/improving...
Drafting Spark of Rebellion Common Leaders: thefifthtrooper.com/drafting-...
NOTE: This is an unofficial fan video. I intend no infringement; if FFG or Disney requests I am happy to remove this footage. Star Wars is the property of Lucasfilm/Disney, Star Wars: Unlimited is a Fantasy Flight Games production.

[@jgjohn02]

Thanks for going over restock. It helps to understand not just what card does but also why it works in situations.

[@TowerNumberNine]

Happy to help out!

[@kevingarcia6153]

Very informative. These interviews get better each time. 👍 Great work.

[@TowerNumberNine]

Thanks - I’ve enjoyed these interviews and hope to do more in the future!

[@obsidiantain]

Great, thank you!

[@DarthStalkers]

I lost to iden blue on the weekend playing Palpatine green. I found it’s needed to have Relentless in the sideboard ready for these guys. Once I brought that out iden just couldn’t recover

[@LanceBryantGrigg]

I have a deck very similar to this; i cut it with green though and go a bit more mid range. This is a very strong deck.

[@jppyswb9172]

Great content, thank you for your work!

[@TowerNumberNine]

Happy to help!

[@justinschmelzel8806]

Love that double blue did well. Definitely good reasons to run double blue. Lot of games come down to matchups and timing/ luck. Now I just gotta find the meta Luke is for. Or just enjoy the hard fought victories against most matchups.

[@Beattza]

Great video much appreciated!

[@TowerNumberNine]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@maordahan2257]

I tried this deck for around 20 games on karabast and it SLAYS, My weakest matches were against cassian (especially yellow cassian) but overall handled most of the games with relative ease but not too much (playing casual, no one tried really hard or anything like that) But when the other player know what you are trying to so (a lot of people didn't know the deck at all) it gets a lot harder to feel confident at any point... So far it's my favorite deck (im a judge so sadly i won't experience actual competitive, prize carrying matches, so i wouldn't know how it feels in the most competitive environment. Luckily i enjoy casual and colleting just as much)

[@money0318]

Count Dooku is interesting in the SB, in which match ups will we want to bring him in? And Devotion?

[@heroldthiele]

Great video, thanks! Do you happen to have a link for that deck?

[@darthrindi4680]

Is there a link to swudb for this list? Great video!

[@Harbison85]

Where are the videos of the feature matches? I couldn’t find them on Twitch

[@SawseTV]

They aren't up yet, but they will be on Next-Gen Gaming SC's youtube.

[@kawbabbitt]

Davis, did you end up winning the showdown at Gamelandia? I was one of the Leia Red's in top 4. Just curious how the last match went. Thanks for all the content!

[@TowerNumberNine]

Yes, I did! My opponent got the first round but I won the other two to take the event -- I'll have more information on this in a future video!

[@MeepleonFire]

Thanks for the video! This deck is awfull against aggro and midrange too. A 6/6 childsen at 4 drop is awfull. We didn't really find the solution in tournament. Even against control it's very strong cause he main 2 restock and 3 search your feelings. What are the options against it? I've tried power failure with my Sabine but you loose a lot of tempo, and it heals way too much, I even took a superlaser blast.

[@MrNbkelly]

Did you mean to say that aggro and midrange are awful against this deck due to childsen?

[@TowerNumberNine]

I think double red Sabine has a better chance than other aggro decks due to Aggression and Tarkintown allowing you to take out Childsen easily, but I think it still seems potentially rough with all the healing!

[@MeepleonFire]

@@MrNbkelly yeah !

[@MeepleonFire]

@@TowerNumberNine the problem is that aggression is all you gonna play this round with Sabine. I think that's all he's asking for. I didnt test it but bamboozle for free seems like the good option as you can deal with a 2/2 childsen with Sabine leader and still play a 4 drop.

[@Snooperzzz]

I play Palpatine and I wreck everything except control decks like this. What is the best sideboard or gameplan for this deck?

[@jccouture13]

Multiple restocks 2-3. Relentless x3. Your own sparks of rebellion, maybe The Emperor's Legion.

[@brandonabrams312]

I wonder what could make the Han matchup better. The main issue being that Han lists are all mid to late game threats and he has no problem recurring small bodies or flooding the board off of one card. Del Meeko lets you stave off a U wing reinforcement, but it is criminally bad vs battlefield marine, greedo and traitorous. Regional governor on the other hand, if landed turn one, would prevent an opponent from playing a given card from hand and U wing and can take a hit on turn 2. If Han tries to ramp turn 1, you can attempt to call out whatever card he's trying to play. Namely resupply at that point I think. Cuz if they drop any 3 drop unit, you'll just kill it. Then on turn 3 you could kill something with vigilance and give her a shield to further slow things down. But it gets really tricky, the han player can just spark of rebelion you at any point, making childsen worse or giving himself an opening to double ramp into a 7 drop. The ultimate goal with the MU should be to get to avenger with enough health and cards left to survive the onslaught of dudes. Theoretically, you can do this but it becomes a bluffing and betting game. If you let your shields down, they can break through your control, but if you hold your cards, they can wait you out and take over later. If bendu were just better, this wouldn't be a problem either lol. If he could survive a han solo unit by having 8 hp, you could just start off the next round by putting a vigilance shield on him and killing the han. U wing wouldn't even be that scary. You could swing into a unit, and then have 2 removals waiting to go.

[@brandonabrams312]

Yeah, I think the Governor is worth testing. I think trying to ramp turn 1 vs it would be a major blow out since the han player would essentially be restricted to two cards per turn. If they falcon, you can ignore it. Worst case scenario with that is that they draw a card off of the bright hope. Ezra and echo base defender would be tricky. But if you have power, because there's actually no way they have the initiative, you continue to blow them out. Otherwise, you probably have to trench the governor. This can be bad if Ezra attacks base Potentially disastrous if he hits waylay, Spark of rebellion etc. From there, you just have to slow han down. Which is where things kind of fall apart. You can't entrench han to stop him from ramping, you can't 1 shot him with any events besides maybe power. You can splash for no good to me dead which will stop him. You can play a second regional governor to 50/50 his 7 drop (or better if you probe droid before he deploys.) The question is, how much is it worth to sideboard for this MU?

[@jordiselma7260]

Great content, I started playing the game with a Iden red deck as I didn't want to spend too much money. I come from Magic and I feel comfortable with control, finally, many people in my store were going to play Sabine and she was the total counter. My English isn't the best in the world, but I have a question that I don't think has been addressed. Palpatine. Yellow Palpatine. I think he has a harder control by being able to keep your few creatures and make you sacrifice them. Added to the 8/8 ship that counters the first spell, it can get tough. Help and/or advice? Best regards.

[@TowerNumberNine]

Not to speak for Sawse, but I believe that against yellow Palpatine you would likely be playing for the mill. Superlaser Blast can be a great counter to Palpatine, defeating both him and the unit he stole, and yellow Palpatine is unlikely to be running the mill package, which means one could potentially hold back Restock and use it to "waste" Relentless's ability and allow a more powerful event to be played. That said, that's just some theory, I haven't played the matchup myself -- hope it might prove helpful though!

[@jordiselma7260]

Thank you very much for the advice. It would be great to see both of you playing some matches or even those of your teammate playing with the deck in the tournament. Do you know where I can find them?

[@jordiselma7260]

Won my 25 persons showdown 😅. (4-0) Into 1-1 in the final. Amazing deck

[@TowerNumberNine]

@@jordiselma7260 Congrats on the win!

[@brandonabrams312]

God it sucks that Bendu's ability doesn't read as "on play and at the star of the action phase" I think it would change the build quite a bit as you could Follow up the play with a cheaper card late in the game. Instead, if he gets waylayed, you can't then drop a free entrenched or a 1 cost make an opening. Probably wouldn't be too useful in the control mirror since there's less you can deal with for cheap.

[@galinskas22]

Couldn't he just play Iden Yellow for just a single penalty on Spark of Rebellion? Bounty Hunter Crew would be cheaper too. I mean, double blue just for the Vigilance?

[@jayroberts2782]

In my opinion, being able to play Vigilance on 4 is much better in the several matchups you want to see it (Sabine, Leia, Vader etc.) than paying 2 for Spark of Rebellion in the ONLY matchup you really want to play it, especially when you probably don't want to play it early in the game anyway.

[@TowerNumberNine]

That is an option, but I think that Vigilance is a "more core" card than Spark or Bounty Hunter Crew, so having the bigger discount there might make more sense!

[@SawseTV]

Spark was only good in a single matchup, and bounty hunter crew while good in two matchups, the cost isn't prohibitive as the game goes very late anyway. Vigilance is good in all three of the matchups I was targeting. If you were to play blue/yellow, it would probably be Boba Blue, which is also starting to become a thing.

[@galinskas22]

@@SawseTV Boba Blue! Even the deck's name sounds good! Would like to try that!