Locations
Something strange happened in July. The game in our corner of the universe celebrated the largest competition to date in Las Vegas. Competitors around the world flew to play against other like-minded cutthroat players. For other games this is normal, and for us it'll be normal in a few years after Star Wars Unlimited cements itself and now that Fantasy Flight Games seems to be focused on releasing and supporting this game. Maybe this is wishful thinking on my part but SWU seems to have a higher level of success than other games in its legacy. But the Galactic Championship isn't the part I find strange.
Filip Szkudlarek came into Vegas with a deck I'd only heard of before. A handful of folks at my locals had tried it out, but none of them clamped onto it in the way we see Sabine, Qi'Ra, Quinlan, or even Cad. Mother Talzin Red was something of a myth for my local group and we knew it was making appearances but it wasn't until that week I understood how good it was doing. Now, I didn't go to Galactics in Vegas so I wasn't in panic, but I did get some of my locals together to better understand the deck. Then, Filip won it all with this strange Aggression Vigilance brew.
Deck: Talzin Cliffs | SWU | Filip Szkudlarek
Leader:
1x Mother Talzin - Power Through Magick
Base:
Ground Units
2x Anakin Skywalker - Champion of Mortis
2x Ki-Adi-Mundi - Composed and Confident
2x The Son - Embodiment of Darkness
3x Darth Tyranus - Servant of Sidious
3x Director Krennic - On the Verge of Greatness
3x Grand Inquistor - You're Right to Be Afraid
3x Karis - We Don't Like Strangers
Space Units:
2x Devastator - Hunting the Rebellion
Events:
3x Force Throw
Upgrades:
Sideboard:
3x Cham Syndulla - Rallying Ryloth
2x Ki-Adi-Mundi - We Must Push On
1x Anakin Skywalker - Champion of Mortis
1x Devastator - Hunting the Rebellion
2x Krayt Dragon
The Force package here is straightforward enough. Strangled Cliffs turns 28 of our units into Force tokens and Acolyte of the Beyond does a little more to turn our engine on. The expertise of the deck comes in with timing and that's when to play (and further, when to utilize) our Force effects to optimize our benefits. Talzin's Assassin and Karis both provide removal with the Force token which should keep our opponent on their toes. On the other hand we can use the Force with Jedi in Hiding to create some card advantage. However, we don't need to create the token with the intention of always using it - and that's how we keep our opponent uncertain even further.
Darth Tyranus - Servant of Sidious gains Ambush while you have the Force and like many of his other iterations he comes in Shielded so he can take out a ground unit without hurting himself. One of our win conditions, though, relies on us keeping the Force and keeping The Son - Embodiment of Darkness alive so all our units hit harder. With as many Force packages we see in the meta right now it's clear Purge Trooper belongs in the main deck - but it's also clearly the first thing to swap out against certain decks making room for heavy hitters like Krayt Dragon or Planetary Bombardment if your opponent is running heavy in the space arena.
Even without utilizing our Force token we have Power of the Dark Side, Force Lightning, and Anakin Skywalker - Champion of Mortis to push even more removal. However, Talzin Cliffs suffers in the last half of the competitive season with the suspension of Force Throw. Ultimately, this deck still competes at a high level without the card but not a lot can catch up to the 1-cost discard and removal 2-for-1 of Force Throw.
Having the debuff (possibly removal itself) built into our leader in concert with all the other debuffs and damage is what makes this deck punch above its weight class. After an attack it can feel demoralizing to leave a unit at 1 HP - but with Talzin you're just one action away from finishing it off. Even defensively giving a unit you expect to attack your base -1/-1 means 1 fewer damage.
Most of our units are ground units, which makes us a bad matchup against Vader Yellow and a few other decks in the competitive scene that attempt to overwhelm the space arena. Usually we can keep that damage at bay with all the removal on our units and Talzin herself but Vader Yellow swings enough to be a problem. However, we're not defenseless since we run Devastator - Hunting the Rebellion. That might seem lacking, but when most of your cheap units come with built in debuffs it can survive as long as you're timing your plays correctly. Remember the key to this deck is timing your effects and your Force token usage to optimize removal so you can make way for free and clear hits.
Hopefully there's still room for Filip's creation in the coming season and beyond with the release of Secrets of Power. It's gonna be interesting to see just how badly the Force Throw suspension hits decks like this - and maybe Talzin was one of the last straws for FFG to pull trigger. If you're making some changes and heading into the season with a Talzin deck, best of luck and may the Force be with you.
