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Back in June, Qi'ra Data Vault started to trample through the meta before Legends of the Force even released. Since then, it's continued dominating left and right with very few changes from the new set. Qi'Ra has been up and down in the meta for quite some time, teasing control players with her ability to protect her units and the potential for a Grit flavored smackdown. While control isn't as dominant as it was in the JTL season, it's hard to deny how far Qi'ra has come since her initial release in SHD.
Deck: Qi'ra Data Vault | Star Wars Unlimited
LEADER:
BASE:
1x Data Vault
GROUND UNITS:
3x Doctor Pershing - Experimenting With Life
3x Lom Pyke - Dealer in Truths
3x Terentatek
3x Anakin Skyler - Champion of Mortis
3x Darth Vader - Twilight of the Apprentice
3x Darth Vader - Commanding the First Legion
SPACE UNITS:
3x Inferno Four - Unforgetting
3x Avenger - Hunting Star Destroyer
EVENTS:
3x Resupply
3x Takedown
3x Vigilance
Command Vigilance Villainy has been a long-standing meta contender since the beginning of the game with many ups and downs. It was hard for this trio to stand up to anything Cunning but it appears to have risen in popularity now. Like any good control deck, our goal is to meet our opponents action-for-action and squeeze out every drop of efficiency we can with more resources, removal on bodies, or both.
Most of that comes from early units like Death Trooper, Phase-III Dark Trooper, Lom Pyke - Dealer in Truths, and everyone's favorite red shirt Superlaser Technician. These first 3 units set us up for advantageous trades while the Superlaser Tech provides a possible trade for a bump to our resources. Pyke Sentinel and Perimeter AT-RT provide us with early protection to set up trades into our benefits and encouraging our opponent to rush headfirst into a wall. We can't leave our space arena empty these days, so we also fill Inferno Four - Unforgetting to help us find our contextual cards to sort out our matchup - and then we turn to removal like Overwhelming Barrage and Takedown to deal with other space units as they pop up.
Avenger - Hunting Star Destroyer helps us own the late game by clearing the enemy arenas. We lead up to that with some of our new cards from Legends of the Force like Anakin Skywalker - Champion of Mortis. We're not running any heroic aspect cards, so we'll never trigger both of his abilities but even hitting one instance of removal on a unit of his size will be good enough to help us along the way.
Our other new addition is Darth Vader - Twilight of the Apprentice who can help protect one of our own units we need to keep around, much like Lom Pyke and Qi'ra herself. However, this Vader also allows free removal on attack that pairs so well with Lom Pyke. Continuing to give Shield tokens to enemy units with Lom Pyke allows Vader to swing into base for a whopping 5 damage AND get rid of your chosen rival. Terentatek is normally a great sideboard card to switch in against the many Force package decks going around - but with Data Vault we need to find extra cards and Force is so prevalent in the meta now it's worth playing.
This is similarly true for Superlaser Blast. We're running so many units that this board wipe should be in our sideboard against decks running wider than us - but let's keep a few in the main deck anyways, especially against decks that run wide in the space arena.
This deck looks similar to the current Kylo Data Vault John Tatta ran recently though he's running fewer units in general and only Avengers in space. Despite that the Kylo deck runs more aggressively, trying to get a Voltron with Kylo Ren - We're Not Done Yet instead of controlling the field and chipping away at the enemy base when the opportunity strikes.
Qi'ra is great at keeping her key pieces alive, and there's even moments where she can deal some damage herself. But the key for her is creating windows of opportunity by out-performing your opponent, thinking through each action to get the advantage, and holding your opponent at bay for long enough to deal more damage than them.
If you're looking for an efficient deck that might go to time, look no further than Qi'ra Data Vault.
