Battle Log #46 - Winning a JTL Sealed League 🦭
Plus: a look back at my predictions on JTL limited. How wrong was I?
Week 6
Greetings, devoted readers. This week’s entry will be all about my favorite format, limited! Over the past month, 24 San Diego locals have been playing in a Jump to Lightspeed sealed league, and I was able to take it down in the final 16-player tournament a couple of weeks ago. I’ll tell you about the league, my match-ups, and the tournament below. Plus, I wanted to take advantage of the topic to also review some of my draft/limited predictions and see what I got wrong, what I got right, and what I completely overlooked.
The Seal League 🦭
San Diego locals (and all stars) Blake and Parker started this league back in Set 3. If you’ve been following the blog for some time, you may recall I mentioned the league in passing. I wanted to cover it in more detail but as with most new things, there were some growing pains. The original league was 12 weeks and required a full box to build from (i.e. two packs per week). Also, trading was initially proposed, with the intention of allowing people to trade good cards with each other, but it devolved into people trading for playsets or beyond of key commons and uncommons. That may sound counter to power level, but if you’ve played limited in this game you’d understand that the heart and soul of a good limited deck are not the Rares+, but rather the C/UC. For Season 2, they revamped the league and made it significantly better. Only 4 weeks (still adding 2 packs per week), no trading, and a final tournament with seeding based on the league matches. While the seeding doesn’t really mean much due to the limited rounds prior, the tournament itself does give everyone a final shot at the end.
To the uninformed, the name “Seal League” has a funny story. Back in Season 1, the person hired to engrave “San Diego Sealed League” on the trophy accidentally engraved “Seal League” instead. So, now we get to use the cute seal emoji :)
The Deck
Based on my opening pool from a pre-release kit, I had considered the following three decks going into Week 1 of the league.
p.s. I don’t have that much foresight, but I did build these decks on SWUDB to discuss with some friends which of the three seemed the strongest. That’s the only reason I have them much longer after the fact.
I knew I wanted to play red having opened two Shoot Down in my pool, along with Twin Laser Turret. I also felt this early that red was an inherently strong color as most ways to handle units is in combat damage and then finishing them off with damage-based removal. Boba Fett leader is very strong in the format, and I feel the fact that he’s not in the booster packs is a testament to how strong he is. The ships in the 4+ cost ranged seemed somewhat mediocre, however. I did open a Vader unit, which was good for both Boba and the Vader deck, but Vader himself struggles into a world of TLT and damage-based removal. I also felt like the sequence of Red Five, Orbiting K-Wing, into one of two Black Squadron Scout Wing meant Luke flip would be a real threat. Also, having Tantive IV in my pool was a very real reason to stay in hero.
Week 1 loss vs Poe Green 1-2 - this is the only match that I recall specific details about because of how tight and fun the game was. It ended up coming down to Game 3 getting blocked by a Raddus, which always has sentinel due to Poe having the Resistance trait. My opponent Alex, who made Top 4, also had a They Hate That Ship, I gotta say his pool was pretty gross!
Even though I had lost my Week 1 game, I still believed that Luke Yellow was the best deck considering my pool. I had a couple good cards that would be nice to play in a Rose deck but I hadn’t opened her yet.
Week 2 adds:
X-34 Landspeeder - Playable 2 drop and potential lane dodge vehicle for Luke
Shadowed Hover Tank - Beefy ground sentinel on 4
Jedi Light Cruiser - Just another bomb
Frisk - Another +3 power pilot upgrade with a very relevant ability
Skyway Cloud Car - Can bounce tokens on defeat? Also another ground vehicle
Week 2 Win vs Boba Yellow (?) 2 - 0 - I don’t recall what my opponent Tommy was playing on Week 2, but it must have just come down to controlling the space arena and flipping Luke on something big.
Week 3 adds:
Stay on Target - excellent pump spell
Ahsoka Tano - Another quasi-exhaust
Red Squadron Y-Wing - One of the best 2 drops for hero red
Determined Recruit - Like Frisk but slightly worse, still solid
Black Squadron Scout Wing - Luke’s favorite ship (outside of Red Five), such a good turn 5 play + take initiative line.
Week 3 Win vs Rio Red (2 - 0) - Longtime reader Chris and I played our game after the Denver PQ and I was able to use my removal to clear space threats and out-race Rio. The games felt rather one-sided when I wouldn’t allow any space setup.
Week 4 adds: I finally opened both Rio and Rose but I felt like my Luke Yellow deck was really solid as it was.
System Shock - finally a cheap upgrade removal event
Piercing Shot - 3 for 3 isn’t the best exchange but it’s good in this format
Death Space Skirmisher - really solid tempo unit
Week 4 Win vs Vader Red (2 - 0) - My opponent Michael’s deck wasn’t bad but I feel like the Luke ability prevents the opponent from setting up a TIE swarm.
Final adds pre-tournament:
Orbiting K-Wing - Solid saboteur ship for Luke to pilot
Twin Laser Turret - yes, another one! Might be one of the best red cards in limited.
Stay on Target - Another copy of this pump spell
Captain Tarkin - pretty beefy ground unit that pumps all your ships, solid second copy.
Black Squadron Scout Wing
Millennium Falcon - pretty good but sadly doesn’t work well with Luke.
Final deck
I was tempted to go up to 40 cards but I felt like playing only good cards in the main deck and leaving it at 30 would be best for consistency. However, I compromised and went to 35 after I couldn’t figure out what to cut. My top end wasn’t that great but I felt like flipping Luke onto a 4 or 5 drop could probably get me there. The deck had a good number of damage events, namely EMP, 2 Shoot Down, and 2 Piercing Shot. Plus, with Luke’s piloted ability I could kill most units somewhat easily. Some of the last adds were the extra copies of Swarming Vulture Droid since I needed a few more 2s. I also had 3.5 exhaust effects: EMP, Evasive Maneuver, Death Space Skirmisher, and the 0.5 in Ahsoka Tano (since you can’t guarantee it). I had Barrel Roll in the Sideboard and if I was to play again I’d find a way to slot it into the main since it’s so good against pilot-leader space battles for tempo.
My sideboard was a little weird, but I had:
Barrel Roll - tempo plays
Stay on Target - racing scenarios
Kimogila - not sure why but I felt I may need another 4 drop in certain cases. Plus the indirect is kinda nice against TIEs
Skyway Cloud Car - Also for token shenanigans
Jedi Light Cruiser - if I played against a late-game deck having more bombs would be useful
Out the Airlock - admittedly a very experimental pick, I never actually played it
This was a single elimination tournament, and my matches were as follows:
Round 1 Win vs Boba Yellow (2 - 1) - This was against long time friend Jim, who had a really great start in game 2 to establish board dominance on the space arena. Game 3 I was able to remove every ship he played in the first three rounds, even killing a Razor Crest with Piercing Shot + EMP.
Round 2 Win vs Rose Red (2 - 1) - Carson played a tight game, forcing me to flip Luke on the ground in two of the three games. He had some good upgrades like Biggs, Trace, and Paige but I had well timed Frisk and System Shock to clear them.
Round 3 Win vs Vader Red (2 - 0) - We made Top 4 and I faced the Season 1 Champ Tyler. I had watched him play his last game out and he had a gross board of Clone Combat Squadron with a million TIE fighters. Luckily Luke has a pretty good matchup into Vader by using the ability to pop TIEs. Much of this round came down to exhausting his Vader-piloted units in both games. I recall that the second game I had two Black Squadron Scout wings and multiple pilots and upgrades in space to hit for 7 to base twice in a row.
Round 4 Win vs Boba Yellow (2 - 0) - Marcus and I had reached the finals, and this is actually Marcus’ second finals showing! I felt like I drew my shoot downs and TLTs at the right time, making Luke very hard to kill. I don’t recall if Marcus had any space sentinels either, maybe a single Contracted Jumpmaster? I think at one point Marcus had flipped Boba onto a Shadowed Hover Tank that I exhausted with EMP and then used Piercing + Luke’s on attack to defeat it.
Overall I went 15-4 with Luke Yellow in the league. My pool was strong but I do think Luke is inherently powerful due to his big stats and very relevant on attack ability. If you can flip him on Red Five, you can deal 5 damage to anything on attack, allowing you to clear a ton of threats while also pushing damage. This is a nice segue to my next segment, how would I change my limited card ratings after a month of play?
A Second Look at JTL Limited
If you missed it, I wrote a series of six articles during pre-release week talking about how I would rate each card in the context of JTL limited. You can check out the first article below:
I don’t have the time to go over every individual card but I will briefly discussed a revised leader rating, cards I over-rated (i.e., gave an A when it should be less), and cards I under-rated.
Leaders
My previous ratings were as follows:
I would revise my ratings as follows:
A - Vader, Boba, Luke, Rio
A- - Rose
B+ Vonreg
B - Asajj
B- - Wedge, Poe, Kazuda
C+ - Ackbar, Thrawn, Han
C - Lando, Phasma, Piett,
D - Holdo
F - Trench
Rio and Luke are both excellent pilot leaders, +5 HP is no joke! Rose is certainly strong but she requires more setup than the former two, in my opinion, hence the drop in rating. I moved Vonreg up a couple tiers as he provides a better stat boost than Poe and a somewhat easier to use ability than Wedge. I do think Asajj on a ship is powerful but she isn’t already in a strong color, which definitely hurts her a bit. Kaz is probably the one that moved up the highest, if only because he can aggro out pretty effectively against slower non-pilot decks out there. Still, I’d consider him and Poe to be the worst of the pilot leaders.
Of the non-pilot leaders, Rose is clearly the strongest, but I was a bit too quick to downplay Thrawn and Ackbar. Thrawn is probably harder to build for but given that blue isn’t the most appealing color in draft, I think you’ll find that blue might be semi-open in a lot of pods. I’ve played Ackbar a couple of times and I think he offers a very fun token-based style that feels rather rewarding to play. His ability can be used to stall out big piloted units in the late game and building a strong fleet of X-Wings in the early game. I like him a lot with Green but drafting Yularen in blue is very powerful. (This gives me an idea for some future articles: my favorite way to draft X leader… 🤔).
Vigilance
Over-rated
Interceptor Ace: This pilot is fine but 3 drop for both unit and upgrade make this very awkward to play in practice.
Banshee - a 5 drop 4/5 isn’t the best. It’s best use might be in a vader blue deck to set up for the deploy on 6? Would definitely be hard to kill but it doesn’t really seem a great card after getting some experience.
You’re All Clear Kid - Don’t get me wrong, this card is good, but A+ was over-ambitious. I’d definitely rate it a solid B+ instead. Shoot Down is just a better “3HP” kill spell.
Astromech Pilot - Again, this is a fine card but very useless as a ground unit, also rather niche in terms of decks you want it in. The cost is also a bit awkward in practice.
Direct Hit - this might be a bit of a hot take, but I think this card isn’t worthy of an A+ ranking. It is definitely strong, but you’d have to play this onto a non-leader voltron ship to have a big impact. B+ for sure.
No Glory, Only Results - Similar to Direct Hit. Sure, it’s removal, but the hard removal cards in this set aren’t super effective and it’s better to use the damage-based methods.
Under-rated
Covering the Wing - I think this card should have been an A. Shields are pretty strong with so much damage-based removal and unit combat going on. Plus you get a 2/2 as well. I’d bump this up from B+ to an A.
Ghost - Really powerful unit, probably the only playable blue legendary? Slapping a pilot on this gives you a sick space sentinel that also hits for a ton. B → A
Command
Over-rated
Captain Phasma - 5 drop 5/6 is strong but in a world of big pilot leaders where the 5 drop turn is important to set up and prepare for the 6 cost flip. I would still play her but dropping from A → B seems fair. A big factor of this drop is that her ability will mostly be useless since it only buffs First Order units.
Dorsal Turret - I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with this card. I still think it’s very good but it requires a very specific sequencing and board-state to have it do anything. Feels very playable in a token heavy deck like Ackbar or Vader, but harder to play elsewhere. A → B-
Eject - I think this is a fine card but in practice it’s probably very difficult to play for effect. I do think it’s probably better as a defensive card against the more aggressive pilot leaders, as you can use it to move their pilot to the ground and exhaust them, saving you a lot of damage and drawing you a card. A → B-
Under-rated
Resistance Blue Squadron - I had this at C+ because I felt like you needed to get a ton of value out of it (i.e., 3+ damage) but even hitting something for 1 or 2 can be useful to get things in range of other removal or trading. C+ → B
Dogfight - Initially a C-, I think this card enables some sneaky situations where you can feint not having anything and then using it to trade with a unit your opponent thought they’d get one last attack with. It’s still hard to play, sort of like dorsal turret, but I think it’s fine as a 1 of in your 30 card deck. C- → B-
Tandem Assault - Pump spells are strong and green has this one, which not only pumps the ground attack but also compresses two attacks into a single action. You can legitimately win damage races with this one card. C → B
Focus Fire - I recall thinking this needed to get a lot of value, similar to Resistance Blue Squadron, but again, just using it as a damage spell for even 3 or 4 damage can be enough to stabilize a board. C+ → B
Aggression
Over-rated
Stay on Target - I like this card but punch it exists and you get the same +2 for one less. This one draws you a card, which is probably fine for the extra resource but sometimes the math doesn’t math. I’d still play both in a deck, however. A → B
Devastator - Probably is the most playable of the big villain star destroyers but it just comes out so late, the game might be over by then. A → B-
Darth Vader - 3 drop 3/3 upgrade is fine, but I can’t in good conscience put him and Luke - Are You Still With Me? - in the same league. Sure, Luke only grants +2 HP but you get double use out of him by moving to the ground while Vader just gets eaten by System Shock.
Under-rated
Special Forces TIE Fighter - My rating of C+ was unfair. This is a perfectly serviceable 2 drop that doesn’t die to EMP when you’re on the play.
Rebellious Hammerhead - This card is expensive but I’ve seen it do good work as a post leader bomb that also can deal some chip damage when played. C → B
Twin Laser Turret - This should clearly be an A, I had previously rated it a B. The downside I had previously docked it for (ability can only damage the units in its arena) seems ridiculous to me now. You play it to have your unit survive combat damage!
System Shock - Should be an A in my opinion, to pick off strong upgrades like TLT, Vader or other pilot units, and even shields.
Piercing Shot - dealing 3 is super nice, as it can kill a variety of units and is one of the few universal damage cards (i.e., can hit anything).
Cunning
Over-rated
Torpedo Barrage - 5 damage is not an insignificant amount, but paying 3 and not further developing your board means you have to play this in the late game, so it doesn’t really fit your curve. A → B-
Under-rated
In Debt to Crimson Dawn - I’m not sure how often you’ll find room for this in our limited deck but the effect is pretty good, as it can delay your opponent’s plays, especially when you play it on their leader. C+ → B-
Black Squadron Scout Wing - Very strong card for Luke, you can just win games with it if you also follow it up with TLT or some other upgrade (R2 pilot). B+ → A
The Mandalorian - This is a format where tempo swings can legit win games. Sure, you’re only getting Determined Recruit worth of stats, but +3 power and tapping a big ship are both very relevant. B- → A
X-34 Landspeeder - One of the few turn 1 ground vehicles (only one?) that doesn’t die to your opponent hoping for that turn 1 shoot down. C+ → B
Death Space Skirmisher - Very solid tempo play while building your board. B → A
Barrel Roll - Are you sensing a theme here? Attack and exhaust all in a single action for 1 resource. This is encroaching A tier for me, but I think B+ is a fair rating. C+ → B+
Villainy, Heroism, Neutral
Over-rated - I don’t believe I over-rated any of these cards but I certainly undervalued some of them…
Under-rated
Shuttle ST-149 - with so many damage effects in the set, this card is really strong. It’s not uncommon to steal an XP or a shield from your opponent. Plus, it’s a transport so this will always be a highly playable card for Rio. C+ → A
Resistance X-Wing - While it’s slow (i.e., has to survive until your next action or next phase), the immediate extra +1/+1 is very strong. I’ve played games against people going Resistance X-Wing turn 1, turn 2 determined recruit to hit base for 6. Kind of wild actually. C+ → B
Dilapidated Ski Speeder - I had initially written this one off because 3 drop 3/4 isn’t exciting but it’s still a fine stat-line, especially when you consider this is a good vehicle for a ground unit.
Evasive Maneuver - This card can win games, sure it’s more expensive than the yellow exhaust effects but stalling out your opponent at 2 drop neutral makes this a prime pick for this format, in my opinion. B- → A
Review
I’m starting to feel like this set’s limited format is rather good, not quite Shadows of the Galaxy level good but still a perfectly fine format. One potential downside is that this format can devolve into base-race scenarios, an obvious advantage to the player that goes first and doesn’t miss on their curve. Still, I think there is a decent amount of inter-play that keeps it interesting. One thing about the format that I have to admit is kind of bad is the disparity between pilot and non-pilot leaders not named Rose. Due to how limited removal is, the 6+ deploy non-pilot leaders can feel at a disadvantage playing against Kaz, Vonreg, Rio, Luke, and Vader. Although Lando has a late deploy, he does present big stats and sentinel to jam an arena. Ackbar, Holdo, Thrawn, and Piett all have to find ways to plan around the opposing pilot-leader flip turns. I personally find this a fun puzzle, but I might imagine some players get bored because limited matches in this set will mostly just be big space unit battles. Even if this is by design, it can end up feeling a bit samey.
Well, that’s all from my end. Thanks for reading! For those of you that prefer Premier, I am ready to start the Yoda grind once again, especially after playing the Denver Top 16 list myself. Endless Legions, anyone?
