Rebel Strike Team done RIGHT
Title: Rebel Strike Team done RIGHT
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Sep 5, 2000
Rating: 4.5
--------------------------------
Cards:
‘Objective (1) Rebel Strike Team/Garrison Destroyed
Locations (7) Rendezvous Point Chief Chirpa’s Hut Hidden Forest Trail Dense Forest Back Door Endor Rebel Landing Site
Characters (23) General Solo General Crix Madine General Calrissian Nien Numb Major Panno Corporal Midge H’nemthe Wuta Chewbacca of Kashyyyk Tycho Celchu Sergeant Brooks Carlson Wedge Antilles, Red Squadron Leader Colonel Cracken Lt. Blount Corporal Kensaric Orrimaarko EPP Leia Daughter of Skywalker EPP Luke Luke Sywalker, Jedi Knight EPP Obi-Wan x2 KalFalnl Cndros
Starships (6) Gold Squadron 1 Red Squadron 1 Green Squadron 3 Tala 1 Tala 2 Spiral
Interrupts (7) Heading for the Medical Frigate Rebel Barrier Out of Nowhere The Signal Weapon Levitation Houjix I Know
Effects (15) Close Air Support x2 Do or Do Not Wise Advice What’re You Trying to Push On Us? Squadron Assignments Strike Planning Your Insight Serves You Well Honor of the Jedi Battle Plan Menace Fades Uncontrollable Fury Bacta Tank Projection of a Skywalker x2
Weapons (1) Anakin’s Lightsaber ‘
Strategy: ‘
In response to some reviews Yes, you’re probably right, Jon. a second Madine might be a good “just in case” decision. Lots of people touting the Insertion Planning, but I think if you play the deck a few times, you’ll find you don’t experience many battles. Early game, they don’t fight you because your forces are ridiculously concentrated. Once you spread, they’d prefer not to fight due to the Close Air Support. So they normally stick to their own game plan, drain at their own locations. However, that is personal preference, and you are more than welcome to try using Insertion Planning and let me know how it works out. I am NOT closed-minded to suggestions. As far as the “ego” thing The “wait…I am” thing IS intended as a joke. People who know me can attest that I don’t really get “holier than thou” about my rating. If I did, then I wouldn’t be here looking for some constructive reviews. However, as one of the other reviewers pointed out, even if I WAS a big jerk about being #1, that isn’t really a reason to give the deck a lower rating… By the way, the cards I would most like to fit into the deck right now are #1 Insurrection (for Elis protection and forfeit bonus) and #2 I’ll take the Leader (to defend against ties a bit, and improve immunity on my starfighters). And yup, KFC may be the first card cut to allow for these improvements…..Thanks for all your help, guys, and if you’ve got something you’d like a review on, just dmail me, to make sure I won’t miss it. Cya )
Okay, first of all, this deck is undefeated in tournament play. I would never bother to submit a deck if I had lost a game with it. This deck was originally designed to counteract Ralltir, but performs much better than I expected against the other DS decks I see these days, so I decided its a “keeper”.
First key to doing Rebel Strike Team RIGHT don’t try to blow up the bunker I applied all my might toward trying to blow up the bunker when I was testing another version of this deck, and it just CAN’T be done against a solid player, if they decide it won’t. Blowing up the bunker makes them lose 8 and keeps your objective on the 7 side for good, but it just IS NOT worth the card slots, or the hassle. The other player who I noticed picked up on this truth right away was steven lewis, who posted another RST deck that doesn’t contain the Epic Event. His deck looks like it would be tough as nails, and this decklist includes all the improvements I was able to come up with.
General tips for playing the deck Always start Squad. Ass. and Strike Planning. The other effect may vary. YISYW, if you think you need insert protection, scanning crew protection, or want that Honor ASAP. Menace Fades or Battle Plan against a one-dimensional speed drainer, or perhaps Do or Do Not, if you know you’ll face down Sense/alter. If you get any one of the three generals in your draw, go get the other two If you get none, then grab Madine, and let the flow of the game dictate whether you need Solo or Calrissian sooner. You do NOT have to deploy the Falcon with Lando on turn one. you’re usually better off dropping Madine on turn one, along with any other scout, and then fetching Kensaric to make sure your opponent has to pay through the nose if they want to make an early visit. The H’nemnthe serves the same purpose, and the two in combination just gets silly. Concentrate ALL your characters on the landing site for the first turns, just to be sure that the dark side won’t even DREAM of fighting you at the landing site. additionally, you can drop ALL your ships at Endor. Use Madine to get Chewie. use Chewie to get Wuta. use Wuta to get your sites. Use Madine to get Carlson and Midge and Panno. Once you’ve got enough scouts to flip in one turn, spread. The flip side prevents your drains from being reduced, and Midge makes sure your drains are not to be ignored. your objective also grants you retrieval. retrieve the rebels you’ve lost in battle, then go get them again with Madine. All too easy. The centerpiece of this deck is Close Air Support, which makes battling you on the ground pure suicide. Fancy this jedi luke, all by his lonesome at the Dense forest, packing daddy’s saber. Power 8. Immune <7. Drains for 3. If they battle, you add one destiny to power, and then draw two battle destiny in addition. say what? who wants to fight that? nobody I know.
Here’s explanation of a few other cards Bacta Tank Good in virtually any LS deck, but particularly effective here. your ships are tough to kill, but occasionally a pilot will bite it. put him on the tank, and quit whining. Also good for KalFal (duh) Projection Slows down the drains from ralltir and jabba’s palace, while you patiently stockpile characters at the landing site. Panno 4 extra activation=cool. Rendezvous Point A 2/0 location, for one thing. your ships deploy here for peanuts, and move to Endor for free. Anakin’s saber Usable on either of the leias, and also a favorite of Jedi Luke. Weapon Levitation This card is STILL amazing. Saber in your used pile? get it. Vader or Mara making you unhappy? swipe the stick. They trying to put a beatdown with You Are Beaten? cancel it. trying to cancel the fury? stop ‘em. one of the best utility cards EVER, and a recyclable 4 at worst. Tycho Celchu Seems to be a rogue squadron pilot, making him Wedge’s best buddy. Also seems to be a spy. I Know yay I know Fancy this General solo sits alone at a site. Sim Aloo drops by to kick him in the groin. Suddenly, the Daughter comes roaring out of the reserve deck, Anakin’s saber in hand. Sim Aloo gets gutted, and his battle destiny gets cancelled (since the Daughter seems to be a scout). So lets see, just HOW MUCH battle damage is that? Gosh, I sure hope Close Air Support isn’t out….mwa ha ha
Okay, quick synopsis of some matchups
vs. Endor ops/ominous rumors Cancelling the ominous rumors is child’s play. you can even invade the bunker (3 spies + a back door) Your Endor system goes on top, so that means you still get to move there free, and don’t have to pay deploy +1. Close Air Support will make David Jon, Lord Vader, Commander igar, and the rest of the ground crew look silly. This deck can beat endor ops blindfolded.
vs. Ralltir Well, this deck was built specifically to combat Ralltir. 3 spies to get to the ralltir system, all of them pilots. and guess what? 2 of em are scouts. madine gets the pilot, and then squadron assignments gets the ship. Use Projection to slow their drains, and Do or do Not/grabber/wise advice to slow their Alters. Ignore Ralltir in the early game, flip em back later. can’t seem to flip em back? oh well, out drain them anyway, since their objective no longer makes your drains -1. is it being overseen personally? not a problem. the menace fades, does it not? Heck, you can even use Close Air support while you battle on Ralltir yowza
vs. Court Honor helps against their objective, since you won’t want to go to tatooine early. in fact, you may not need to go at all. with menace fades in effect, your drains will beat Gailid’s, and your retrieval helps too. Not even scum and villainy makes it worth the battle damage they’ll suffer when fighting against the close air support. This game seems to be even easier than the first two.
vs. Dark Deal. Keep them out of space (but let them have the cloud sector) and let the Battle Plan give them fits. Menace Fades will keep their drains to a reasonable level, but there is no good way for them to keep YOURS to a reasonable level….if they start the casino, grab calrissian early, and keep him breathing at all costs. if worst comes to worst, try to find your grabber to stop the sabaac, but it shouldn’t come to that. still not a tough game yet.
vs. BHBM. What? Who? Where? If the first line of the flip side of my objective tells ME to lose force for the rest of the game, its time to read the next objective. I’ve never lost a tournament game to BHBM with ANY light side deck, and NO close calls, either. I won’t bother with a matchup analysis against BHBM, because I’m sure everyone knows how to beat BHBM, regardless of what LS strategy they are using. NEXT
Now for the tougher matches
vs. SYCFA/SFS. Gotta keep em off their docking bay. Deploy there EARLY to keep the Emperor from coming. If he’s already there, you HAVE to cut him. not easy, but not optional. YISYW might help you here. If you can keep them off the battleground site, Battle Plan can slow them down considerably. Still, you’ll have to play smart. you’ll both drain a lot, you’ve both got retrieval. The only way to beat them easily is if they deploy Wakeelmui prematurely. You’ve got plenty of spies to come STRAIGHT to Wakeelmui, and Madine to help you go get them. If you can take that system early, their ties will cost beaucoup force, and they may struggle for a while to take it back, particularly if “someone” is cancelling their battle destiny. The grabber can help against All Power to Weapons, but be careful, because even if they only get to play it a couple of times, it can still be painful.
The other tough match
vs. Hunt Down. The good news is that neither Tie Swarm nor Hunt Down is popular in my area. Which is why this deck is so good for the local meta. Hunt Down will be another game where you have to play smart. Obviously, use the Honor to stop the Visage. if they manage to occupy 3 battlegrounds, use one of your plentiful spies to take the holotheatre. DON’T SPREAD OUT until Vader hits the table. they usually can’t resist the temptation to drop him early, especially while Honor is making Visage a light side card. Once he’s down, stay the hell out of his way. Drain in space, drain on the ground, use some retrieval, but let vader have his site. use menace fades to counteract their sabers, but let vader have his site. Keep Jedi Luke in your hand. Use the other luke and the obi-wans for suicide runs whenever he tries to hold a site OTHER than Vader’s. Oh, and here’s another tip, Let vader have his site. Kensaric can usually persuade your opponent to drop Vader and Tarkin next door, rather than right on your head. If not, burn your barrier. don’t worry about needing it later, you need it THEN. After the barrier, run away, and use the fury if you can. This deck can certainly beat Hunt Down, but I would suggest…that you let Vader have his site. If Hunt Down is real popular where you are, and you really want to drop your mains, and not let vader have his site, then you could add the duel defense package. But me, I just prefer to let vader have his site. did I mention that already? ;)
Okay, there you have it. The deck is pretty solid against just about anything, and better yet, this deck is a BLAST to use. If you’re tired of monotony, give this one a try. It is truly fun to play with, and its hidden strength may surprise you. Thanks for reading.
Brian Hunter
’