David Fogel, Sticking the Landing

Bothan Network member David “Manumitter” Fogel is one of my best friends. He introduced me to SWU from the get-go, was the first person I ever mentioned the idea of Two To Base to, and has been a constant source of helpful playtesting and interesting discussions about the game. And now I am beyond enthused to interview David as the Champion of the PQ at Coliseum of Comics, Kissimmee!

David “Manumitter” Fogel, Champion of the Coliseum of Comics, Kissimmee Jump to Lightspeed PQ.

What made you decide to go with Quinlan for the PQ?

Quinlan TT, plays very well into the current Meta, it’s also the deck I have worked on most since BIATL (the Bothan Invitational) and the Release of Set 4. There really isn’t a deck that Quinlan TT doesn’t have play into and I was able to make a meta call on changes to the deck to situate me well into that week’s meta. There were other decks I considered, but, play what you know is an important factor and that is what I ultimately decided to do.

Did you add any spice to your deck that people might not have been expecting?

Anticipating a space / pilot meta I added Fireball to my deck to help contest the early space arena and answer one-drops aggro space decks play that often only have one attack power letting me get a two-for-one trade with a Fireball or even start the race round two. If space / pilot decks don’t have ships to upgrade it throws them off their plan and people generally don’t expect Quinlan to be able to contest the space arena.

What were some of your more challenging matchups?

L8 Night Gaming’s SoloYG on Luke ECL was by far the toughest match of my day. He did a video on the PQ as well and you should check it out! He is for sure a top aggro player and is always a contender in the top cut at PQs. Our matchup melted my brain trying to find the best lines to answer what he was doing. All of my opponents were great and a pleasure to play against. Three of my swiss opponents made the top cut, so there were a couple re-matches on my way to the victory!

What advice would you give anyone who is grinding and trying to win that next PQ?

Draw Good Cards! But for real, learn your matchups and get practice. The meta shifts every week and decks change cards from week-to-week as well. As a member of the Bothan Network Competitive SWU Team I have the pleasure of having top players on every play style to get quality practice against. Luck will always be a part of a big tournament win, let that be dodging certain matchups, strength of schedule magic for top cut or just drawing the right cards at the right time, but having a plan for every matchup and a deck that plays consistently are required to win.

Do you think Quinlan will be relevant going into the next set?

I have not fully looked at the set 5 spoilers, the set was fully released earlier this week but I would have to think as a Leader with the Force trait in a set that is focused on “The Force,” Quinlan will get new tools and probably stay relevant. Just looking at the art on a lot of the cards I am super excited to see what the meta looks like after release going into Galactics.