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Alrighty, updated description for those that want to give this a go--or those who doubt such POWER!!! This is my Cunning Emp deck that I have been playing for the last couple months. Thus far I won 3 small local events and a Store Showdown with 16 (maybe more???) people. I went undefeated in all these events (losing 3 games total in 6 rounds at said Showdown).
As a guy that still plays Magic Arena and loves me some dead card games, I instantly salivated at Sneak Attack--which is oddly akin to a Magic card of the same name. When I draft Cube, if there is a Show and Tell deck that cheats giant threats into play OR a reanimator shell, I am there for it! Alas, with only a single set, there are not many ways to exploit this super amazing card... yet. But that's only where I started with the concept. Really, I wanted to play slowpoke Emperor because of the challenge and how under-represented he was in the meta. And while Emperor has risen in popularity, you don't really see him paired with Cunning.
So first: why Emperor? His deploy ability is absolutely bonkers, even on when you're just stealing a cheaper damaged unit. The ceiling and potential on this ability, the very threat of it, is game-altering to say the least. Being able to claim initiative and steal one of their best units while it is ready is backbreaking. But his regular leader ability is no slouch either. While the cost might seem high, there are plenty of cards that synergize with this spam damage to pick off units and set up the deploy.
First and foremost, we need units that we are okay with defeating. This brings me to a couple of our very best Cunning options: ISB Agent and Greedo. ISB is just so good with Emperor. With the high event count in this build, his ability is very relevant. What's more, we just throw him after the fact to stick another damage and draw a card. One of my very favorite turn 1 plays in this game is ISB then defeat him with Emperor. His ability to cross arenas makes him pretty versatile, especially if the unit you're gonna steal with Emp is in space.
Greedo is another great option, just with inverted stats and a coin flip style defeat ability. It's not uncommon to toss him to Emperor and hope to stick 3 damage, which you could spread across two units (one of which is admittedly in the ground arena--shrug). But a lot of the time you're simply smashing Greedo into things to make them die and hoping you do some more damage on the way to the morgue.
The most obvious unit we want to defeat with Emperor pre-deploy is Superlaser Tech, which speeds up our entire game. This is one of three units we want to Sneak into play--and on turn 1 if possible. We prefer this guy to Resupply because he's a real boy and real boys can be whittled into pointy sticks, but both help us speed up that deploy moment, which often is where the game really solidifies either in our favor or stems the bleeding.
We also like to defeat units with steal with Change of Heart--which is slooooowwwww. This is going to be a 7+ resource play, but, in a pinch, you can take a ready unit with the hopes of smashing into his own buddies. Lastly, we can toss things we Sneak in, though that isn't often the case because it's another resource we might require--unless Emp is deployed, of course.
As mentioned, we have a lot of damage output in this deck--primarily in the form of ambush units, sentinel units, Bossk's passive ability with the high event count, and Overwhelming Barrage. Bossk + Barrage is so grody, but it doesn't happy to often to be fair. Bossk is usually coming down to take out a smaller unit or a straggler. We also have Skiff (another 2 of), though he sometimes doesn't quite stick the landing due to his conditional restriction--which gets easier when we replace Cell Block Guard with Dark Phase Trooper for his greenness! And Vader... I won't bother saying more than this: you have lots of 7 resource big plays that can make knowing when to drop Vader less obvious than one might think.
My very fav play though, and the king supreme of damage is Devastator. Sneak + Devastator on 9 resources is insanely powerful and often enough to seal the game. 1 turn earlier for such a high impact card to be able to inflict so much damage--and likely stall out space--is reason enough to play Sneak.
Barrage can be difficult to use in this build, simply because we are trading so much of our early game units to survive. This is the main reason we play Shoretrooper, who gets all macro as we ramp to increase the damage output. Barrage is a great tool against space heavy aggro nonsense.
Our sentinels are our stars and primary survival strategy. Firstly, they absorb attacks, which buys us time. Secondly, those forced attacks mean damage, which means we can start to use our spam damage to kill stuff and/or stick the necessary damage for Emp's deploy. Yes, Royal Guards are conditional, but even if Yularen/Emp isn't out, they can smash in and survive to an equivalent value. Truth be told, I board in the third Cell Block 9/10 on game 2, but I am fine with only 3 main. Our ability to dig these out with Vader helps--though don't be surprised if you are torn on ISB/Shoretrooper for trickery!
Another tool in our box is exhaust events. No Good To Me Dead is insane. This is another reason we play Cunning. You may have noticed, we have virtually no space units. We don't need them. We will damage them out with Barrage, spam damage, steal them, or tap them down. Asteroid Sanctuary has a similar utility while plopping a shield on our sentinels to make them all the more annoying. These are particularly helpful against big boss leader decks like Chirrut and Luke. I used No Good to me on a first turn Alliance Dispatcher in the Showdown and it was very much a clutch play that game. I consider these cards, ostensibly, healing/tempo cards. The cost to impact ration on these is so high.
We also have more traditional healing to stabilize against aggro. For this we have Yularen--who helps our Royal Guards and Skiffs--and the big boy Reinforcement Walker--one of our three best Sneak targets. Being able to Sneak the latter on turn 7, gain 6 life, and then plow into a ground threat is worth the price of admission. (Yularen will get all the better, as will Skiff, once we get that Dark Phase Trooper!!!).
This deck requires lots of finesse and mental gymnastics. The Store Showdown was challenging, where I felt like I had to make some tough calls like letting a substantial threat stick around to steal, when to Resupply, and especially what to resource early--the answer is almost always your later game threats. While there is quite a bit of specificity in this deck in the form of things like Sneak and Skiff and whatever, know that you can just resource these cards on the fly to best navigate the situation. Pretty much every game I play with this shakes out the same: I try and navigate the early game, ramp where possible, then take over in the mid to late game. Aggro is your hardest matchup, but not because of the early game pressure--we have all the tools to deal with that. It's more their love of space units which moot our sentinels and their ability to sustain threats because of drawing two cards a turn. This means you have to know when to flip the switch and become the aggressor, as they should likely win the longer game with their supernumerous throwaway units.
As far as a sideboard, I don't have a great one. Here is what I took to the showdown:
1x Cell Block Guard--this came in 4/6 matches
1x Skiff -- this came in once and was a maybe; I think this could likely replace Bossk with more command units in the deck
1x Devastator--this came in against Luke and was what made me win the final match
1x Traitorous--this game in 4/6 matches and helped me win against Sabine Green (I even stole a Fangfighter against Leia with it)
3x Relentless--played no control, so never came in
3x Waylay--these are pointless pretty much. I considered putting in against Luke, but it wasn't needed.
That is all! This is the way.