25 abr 2016

Interview. Tom Melucci. 2015 World Champion














Greetings, followers of both sides of the Force. Here at The Valley we are used to talk about cards, decks, meta and combos, but we must not forget players. We prepare contents, you read and comment them and all os us, at least,  play our favorite game. Today we bring you a jewel. An exclusive interview with the 2015 World Champion. We want to sincerely thank Raxar for helping us contact him, and of course  we thank Champion himself for kindly answer our questions. We introduce you Tom Melucci.


QUESTION: Why did you change your deck just before the Worlds when it was sort of clear that Navy was superior?

ANSWER: There were a few different reasons. In playtesting for Worlds we knew Navy was strong, but it could be beat.  The thing I found that worked best against it was an aggro rush Jedi deck.  With that being the case, and making the assumption that others could come to the same conclusion it felt like Sith with Guri/Zekka tricks had more ability to control an aggro Jedi deck instead of just race it.  Additionally, I’ve always preferred the Sith.

Q: Do you think GA will change the meta or just reinforce Navy? Will Ewoks?

A: I think Navy is going to continue to be an issue, especially with the new cards released since Worlds (Moon Blockade and Endor Entrapment)… GA is going to give Sith a lot of new tools which is great, but I don’t know if it will be enough to overtake Navy’s position currently.

I don’t think Ewoks will really be competitive, but fun for casual play.


Q: Do you have any oddity or “fixed craze” when deckbuilding (like play 11 sets or always add 1 barely used set or a minimum number of TWIST of FATE or something)?

A: Not really.  I prefer to stay at 10 sets, I’ve tried more but it just adds more variance which I don’t like.  In most cases I’d prefer to have 2 Twist of Fate, but I won’t include a set in a deck that doesn’t fit the style just for the Twists.  That’s why my LS had no Twists at Worlds, there was just no room for Secret of Yavin, and I didn’t want to splash for Falcon.


Q: Speaking of TWIST of FATE, and even is a question that depends on the situation and the number of TWIST left in the deck: How do you play it? You tend to play it as soon as there is an edge to win or you prefer to keep it to the decisive ones even if in the meantime you have to assume some damage and draw a card less? 

A: I definitely want to use it the round that I draw it.


Q: What do you think of the level of Smuggler and Spies in the actual meta?

A: I think they are by far the weakest of the 6 factions.  Unfortunately some of their strongest pods (Freeholders, Dash, Gamor) had to be restricted or limited which has really hurt them overall.  I think they can, and will eventually catch back up. 

Q: What do you think of the soon to come Brainiac set?

A: I think it is a design nightmare.  Brainiac is now one of those things that needs to be considered when designing every new card, which is a problem.  Not a fan.



Q: Favorite card and why? Most hated card and why?

A: Favorite Card – This is tough, there are so many great cards. Thinking specifically of more recent cards I really like the design around Guri.  She creates this incredibly tough situation for the Light side.

About the most hated card, I’m going to give you 2 answers here, the thing I hate most based on pure design and the thing I hate most to see (because of my playstyle):

- Most Hated based on design:  Attack Pattern Delta (and Kanan’s objective). Card games in general already have variance but cards like this that give you free units directly into play (both card and resource advantage) are just wrong.  Plus since you don’t have to focus this, you can do it on both players’ turns and there is no risk.  I think these card should have required you to focus it to attempt or just put the card into their hand instead of directly into play.

- Most Hated based on playstyle: Leia Organa + Leia’s Command. For a long time I’ve enjoyed playing Sith, and just building a giant board, controlling the force and winning over time.  This pod was designed excellently, I just hate seeing it.


Q: How do you make your “test runs” for every deck before a major event?

A: I did a lot of testing on Skype but we didn’t have a very structured gauntlet.  I primarily just focused on playing the things I was considering + the things I expected to see. Practicing Navy helped me a lot because I knew it was strong but I hadn’t played much Navy in the past, so learning to play it also helped learn how to play against it.



Q: Which do you think are the strongest and weakest spots of the game?

A: I think the strongest thing about this game is how engagements work.  The different combat icons including edge-enabled, edge battles and then alternating strikes creates a great combat system.

Unfortunately I think the weakest thing about this game is the size of the community. Between few viable options early (stale meta), a sub-par first cycle and many release delays we lost a lot of players.  The game is obviously in a better place now, but I think it will be hard to completely fix the size issues in the community.



Q: Any advice for the new players? And for the veteran ones?

A: I usually suggest the following things to new players: 

- Remember your optional discard.  If you are not planning to play a card that turn, and the card doesn’t have a good edge value, pitch it.

- Remember your triggers.  This is one of the most important skills in this game.

- Learn the card pool. Because of the objective set system when you see one card it should give you information about 5 other cards in your opponents decks.  This information is very valuable, especially knowing which Fate cards are included.

For Veteran players: Understand that mistakes happen and don’t tilt because of it. I’ve seen many times when Veteran players make a mistake, and instead of staying focused and recovering from the mistake, they tilt, continue making more mistakes and lose the game.




TOM MELUCCI
2015 WORLD CHAMPION

  • Fall of the Jedi x2
  • Counsel of the Sith x2
  • The Emperor's web x2
  • Agent of the Emperor x1
  • All out brawl x1
  • Behind the Black _Sun x2

  • A journey to Dagobah x1
  • May the Force be with you x2
  • A hero's trial x2
  • The survivors x2
  • A hero's beginning x2
  • Mysteries of the Rimx1



2 comentarios:

  1. Great interview and great tips. Thank you so much to all who made possible read this material, it's super.

    ResponderEliminar
  2. Excellent work, guys.

    Tom, a pleasure reading this, really helpful ... and not a Brainiac fan, what else? :-)

    Thank you so much to all of you.

    ResponderEliminar