The following is from my interview with Paul Heaver. These are just excerpts; If you are interested in the entire interview, please find the links at the end of this article.
For the latest episode of our podcast, I got to sit down with Paul Heaver. Paul is a three-time World Champion for Fantasy Flight Games’ X-Wing Miniatures Game. For those who don’t know, X-Wing is the longest running Star Wars tabletop game (and is a hoot to boot!).
Paul has started competing in Star Wars: Unlimited. At his first big event, SCG Con in Richmond, he placed in the top 16 with a Han Vigilance deck. So, while a CCG and a miniatures game may seem very different, there are a lot of transferable skills and experience that he brings to the table. You can’t compete at the highest levels of a prominent game without picking something up, right? I’ve listed a quick summary from our talk below:
On Getting Into Star Wars: Unlimited
A friend introduced Paul to the game, calling it the best card game ever. Paul decided to give it a go competitively. While he enjoys the game, he prefers just buying or borrowing cards as needed rather than opening packs as he isn’t as much into the “chase” or collecting aspects of the game.
Competitive Experience
Paul sees similaries in prep work and tournament experience between X-Wing and Unlimited, like using a team, testing matchups, etc. The Meta in Unlimited shifts very quickly week-to-week compared to his past experiences. He built the Han Vigilance deck specifically to beat Sabine and mill control decks by out-healing and out-milling them.
Playing Style
Paul plays to win and will use whatever top deck seems best, regardless of faction. He said that he struggles with Limited formats versus Constructed/Premier. He did let us know that having a committed testing team is crucial for preparing at the highest levels.
Looking Ahead
Paul expects the meta to stabilize more in the final 6 weeks before the next set releases. He is interested to see if any fast aggressive Villainy decks get pushed in future sets.
The above points do a good job scratching the surface, but if you are at all interested in competitive play for Unlimited, or just like hearing from someone who is experienced with Championship-level play, I would recommend not missing this one. You can listen on your favorite podcast apps (https://swuharvest.podbean.com/e/episode-6-the-champ-is-here-doo-bwana-bwaa/) or watch us on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlVZ-tVrPCg).
Thank you again to Paul for joining us, and to everyone who watches/listens, likes, comments, subscribes, and reviews the podcast. It is helpful to us as we can see how best to provide valuable or fun stuff to everyone, and it helps get the word out. Until next time!
Denis Medri
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