- Decklist:
- General Gameplan:
- Sideboarding
- Dick Trip Syndrome:
- Sabine: Unfavored
- Qi’ra: Slightly Favored
- Han2/Blue: Favored
- Rey Blue
- Rey Red
- Bossk Blue: Unknown
- Han Yellow: unknown
- Emperor Palpatine:Slightly Favored
- Anakin Blue: unknown
- Cad Bane/Tarkintown: Slightly Favored
- Jango/Tarkintown
This write-up is intended to help me decide about playing Bossk/ECL at the upcoming Planetary Qualifiers. To accomplish that I am trying to consolidate my thoughts on matchups, boarding strategies, as well as the other factors. This deck is utilizing Chrono’s build for Bossk/ECL.
Decklist:
Updated: 2024-11-26
General Gameplan:
This deck has the tools to be extremely explosive. Untapping a Toro or Punishing one especially in conjunction with doubling a bounty with Bossk means that you can close a game out in very short order. The ramp is intended to support this strategy and not be the inherent focus of the deck, if that distinction makes sense. While double ramp is cute, if you don’t immediately follow it up with multiple high-end threats you probably were better off with other paths. Although this version has some level of high cost clubs to bludgeon your opponent with, it isn’t the level that many dedicated ramp decks take it to.
One of the biggest tools you have is just being threatening. At this stage everyone is aware of what Toro can do, which will make your opponent take certain actions to mitigate your potential. It is possible to use that to your advantage as you can often predict what their action sequence will be. Alternatively, if they don’t respect what you are doing, you get to go nuts.
Sideboarding
The sideboarding indicated below is just a general guideline. Personally I believe in significantly firmer sideboarding strategies, but the reality is that I have gotten way less SB games in than I would like and sometimes there are adaptations to be made given a specific opponent’s list.
Dick Trip Syndrome:
Bossk has some awkward hands and topdecks. As a result, there is a sizable % of games that you will lose through no fault of your own. Bossk tends to trip on his own dick and no matter how far ahead you are, or how unlosable a matchup is, there is always a chance to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Sabine: Unfavored
Bossk is the control
While the matchup is allegedly 50%, my experience has been that this is around 40%, possibly worse. This of course assumes that the Sabine pilot expects the lines you have. If they aren’t prepared you can gain significant advantages and take games that you ordinarily should not have. By the same token, they have plenty of “oops I win hands” and you can just as easily lose. The world has changed with the rise of Jango and the (apparent) loss of Darksaber so this needs to be reevaluated.
ECL at the earliest opportunity. Even on an x wing. A wing leader play is borderline catastrophic. Chrono stated previously that this is what you are looking for:
- Ground unit (for early ecl)
- Air unit (for early ecl)
- A way to stuff the flip (force choke, saber, ramp + ob etc)
- A little energon and a lot of luck after that
Your goal is to eat their guy and live to eat another, or around sabine flip turn hopefully turn the corner and go face. Fallen lightsaber on Toro can stuff the Sabine flip or just represent an enormous amount of damage. The big hurdle is minimizing the poe/ecl play. Lightsaber or not, your ground team is not safe and you have to assume that they die on turn 4 (resource 5). Do what you can to represent lethal that turn or the turn after, the game is ending soon.
Sideboard
+Confiscate
+Top Target
+timely intervention
-Maul (7)
-Kit Fisto
-Ruthless Raider
I am looking at this similar to the Sabine mirror. Wrecker gets boarded out because the game is decided by that point. It is possible that you may need some Mauls just to trample for extra damage or to remove something. Raiders similarly could provide burn/removal and are an airborne threat. I used to board Jangos out frequently as well so that is another option.
I am undecided about Timely for this matchup. It’s 5 cards before timely, 7 after so it is a big change. However if we look at this matchup like the Sabine mirror as mentioned it can be important to use Timely as a removal spell.
Qi’ra: Slightly Favored
Bossk is the beatdown
This matchup lives on the back of three things:
- Ramp
- Ruthless Raider
- Stuffing the Qi’ra Flip
You want to ramp to both try to get ahead (if they don’t ramp) as well as ensuring that you don’t fall behind (if they do ramp). Being ahead on resources allows you to apply pressure in a way that they typically struggle to answer. Additionally, pings from Bossk somewhat negates their leader power pre-flip. Post flip your entire plan is to not get blown out by Overwhelming Barrage. If they OB you and your board is empty the game may as well be over. If you can Force Hoke, play your own barrage, or just eliminate the Qi’Ra (or whatever board they possess) to ensure you can keep attacking the next turn you are in significantly better shape.
The other large complication is Supreme Leader Snoke. If you look at the deck a humongous chunk of it just immediately dies to Snoke and you will have a tough time removing him. This is where Kylo can put in a lot of work. This was previously the Emperor Palpatine slot, so unfortunately he doesn’t survive the encounter but you can buff him to cleanly remove Snoke and hopefully keep the offense going.
Remember to present enough of a threat to justify a Superlaser Blast, but ensure you can immediately play 2 threats so you don’t get locked out by Avenger. Guild Target can be really handy as a free ping but also burn to allow an ambush to push damage it might not otherwise (e.g. into Snoke).
I don’t find that you need to ECL early in this matchup unless it sets up something powerful. This could be eating something with Price on it to ramp and untap a Punishing One and do other stuff, but otherwise you can then threaten things like Guild target on Snoke + ping + ECL Jango to remove it.
Personally I find the 30 health versions to be notably more difficult than the ECL versions.
Sideboard
+Palpatine’s Return
+kylo
-Daring Raid
-Jango(?)
-Guild Target(?)
Han2/Blue: Favored
Bossk is the beatdown
Due to your pings they have to play fair. If they cheat something out, congrats on your free win. However if they don’t blunder into the on board trick you need to be careful. You are still the beatdown in this matchup and similar to Qi’Ra I find that these are the most important things:
- Ramp
- Ruthless Raider
- Dodging discard
You need to map your turns such that you aren’t just going to have your entire hand annihilated by Pillage into Force Throw or vice versa. Commission can help dig you out of a hole, but you have to balance pressuring them and keeping stuff back for either pitching to Force Throw or just simply to preserve cards in hand. This can influence your attacks as eliminating a K-2SO will potentially lead to losing 4 cards in hand.
Force trait units need to be removed when possibly to help prevent force throw. There are times where you need to just play as though they don’t have it because it is unavoidable, but do your best to not get trapped. Similarly, be aware of their removal options. Assuming something similar to the KTOD version there is a fair amount. Karabast and Open Fire are the cheap(er) options, but Fell the Dragon can threaten your bigger plays and Takedown will of course clean up.
The largest issue is closing the game before Luke flips the game in their favor. You have to either win by then or win shortly thereafter. Luke is very difficult to remove, kills pretty much everything you’ve got, and also digs them out of a hole. Leverage their general weakness in space if possible.
ECL wise I try to get it to land on a Jango targeting a bounty carrier, both for the card draw and the chip damage. Sometimes it is even on Ruthless Raider to clear our Concord Dawn Interceptors.
Sometimes you can sneak a Kylo’s Tie into play via discard.
Sideboard
Rey Blue
Notes: Ramp + maul to stuff rey flip. RR
Village people = problems
Bad matchup? Luke is an issue. Sentinels are an issue
Rey Red
Notes: less problematic than rey/blue. Less powerful heals. Need to dodge pillage/force throw
Bossk Blue: Unknown
Bossk/ECL is the aggro
SLT >>> Price. Don’t row SLT → PotDS protection
Keep force chokes for pershing/childsen?
Han Yellow: unknown
Answer to T1 falcon?
Emperor Palpatine:Slightly Favored
Bossk is the beatdown
This matchup needs further testing. You need to be able to ramp at least once and pressure as much as possible, ideally through space so favor Punishing One. try to minimize Overwhelming Barrage turns as well as prevent them from drawing too many cards as the Palpatine deck can brick.
Naturally you need to be wary of the flip turn. Keeping a Maul(7) healthy by redirecting damage may be a bad idea depending on your ability to remove it after being stolen or how your board position looks. However, it is a good trick to keep in your pocket if you have spare Dengars laying around. Be cautious of when you play Maul, Ruthless Raider, or other large units. Bait the flip if possible then immediately follow-up with said units to try and close the game. Remember that once they hit 7+ resource they have access to Cad Bane, their own Maul, Reinforcement Walker, or even Devastator. All of these can close the door fast so you must be in a position to close the game. Timely or an ECL with Ruthless Raider can allow you to push damage through Devastator if required.
Anakin Blue: unknown
This matchup needs to be tested further. Kit Fisto was an addition to try and respond to Anakin through obi-wan and/or village people.
Cad Bane/Tarkintown: Slightly Favored
SLT = ping protection
Ramp is very important
Need to be in the beatdown role
Generally speaking, you want to flood the board to minimize the impact of their pings. Things like Toro or Punishing one can absorb multiple pings without necessarily being in danger. Sometimes they will “oops” and NTA2OT into something obnoxious and I do not believe there is much you can do about it. Getting to your raiders ahead of theirs as well as dropping Mauls early is very important to stay ahead in the damage race.
Jango/Tarkintown
This appears to be favorable, needs more testing.
Random('s) Thoughts 