Hunt Down done RIGHT aka A Dead Jedi Hath No Honor

Title: Hunt Down done RIGHT aka A Dead Jedi Hath No Honor
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Sep 8, 2000 Rating: 5.0

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Cards:

‘Objective (1) Hunt Down and Destroy the Jedi/Their Fire Has Gone Out of the Universe

Other Purple Card (1) Epic Duel

Locations (7) Executor Meditation Chamber Executor Holotheatre Executor Docking Bay Rendili Coruscant Docking Bay Death Star Docking Bay Cloud City Docking Bay

Characters (16) Lord Vader x2 Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith x2 EPP Vader Grand Moff Tarkin x2 Mara Jade Emperor Palpatine Janus Greejatus Sim Aloo Dr. Evazan DS-61-2 Admiral Ozzel R2-Q2 Ephant Mon

Starships (5) Zuckuss in Mist Hunter Bossk in Hounds Tooth Boba Fett in Slave I Chimaera Executor

Weapons (3) Vader’s Lightsaber x2 Mara Jade’s Lightsaber

Vehicles (1) Blizzard 2

Interrupts (12) The Circle Is Now Complete Vader’s Obsession Focused Attack Prepared Defenses Twilek Advisor Masterful Move You Are Beaten Alter x3 Sniper Monnok

Effects (14) Visage of the Emperor x2 Imperial Arrest Order Mobilization Points Imperial Decree Bad Feeling Have I Battle Order Secret Plans There’ll Be Hell To Pay Oppressive Enforcement You Cannot Hide Forever Disarmed Search & Destroy Security Precautions

’

Strategy: ‘

Editor’s Note DS-61-2 has been removed in favor of Captain Sarkli.

Editor’s Note #2 does anyone else think I should use ig-88 over evazan? I think evazan’s game text is just too useful. plus he is a 2-ability pilot. and I have no other bounty hunters for iggy to add destiny with. But I’ll certainly consider it if others agree with him. To jedipadawan I use the DS docking bay over the Endor one so that vader can’t get lost in the wilderness. If I need the ”planet site” for decree, I can use the Coruscant DB. To Cradossk I know the R2-Q2 looks suspect, but give it a try, and you’ll see what I mean. ;) And finally, to Twigg If you’ve got a personal problem with me, then how about you STOP reviewing my decks, and start sending me hate mail instead? it would be much more honorable of you.

Editor’s Note #3 While I post decks in the interest of getting useful suggestions, here is something I’ve decided I’m sure about I’m not going to consider using more duels. I’ve been using 1 obsession and 1 circle since the objective was first printed, and that is definitely the way I like it. If using 2 of each is more your style, then by all means, do it. But I will stick to 1. I think Brahma Bull may have a point. I wait until late to duel, to make sure I will win. And at that point, the Focused attack may not be needed. The only reason I play the Focus is to make sure I can still get both my draws if they glance me. So, I’ll think about the Focused Attack. I would definitely like to fit in the Unexpected Interruption that someone else mentioned. I’ve used that card in Hunt Down several times before. I would just have to decide what I would want to take out to fit it back in…

Editor’s Note #4 As it turns out, most of you guys were right. After doing some playtesting, it’s true QMC DOES suck. And cannot beat this deck. My bad )

Editor’s Note #5 I’m sure it goes without saying that the card ”No Escape” will be added to this deck once JPSD becomes legal. Most likely card to come out? One of the 3 alters, since Honor is one of the main reasons the third alter was there in the first place.

Ah yes, Hunt Down. One of the more venerable deck designs in the Dark Side’s distinguished history. So why, pray tell, are there no Hunt Down decks in the DS top 5? and no ralltir either? It’s a crying shame, I tell ya. We gotta do something. So here goes

I must admit, when DSII came out, I saw the Honor, I saw Your Insight Serves You Well, I looked at the Visage, and I said ”hmmm…uh-oh”. Same as everyone else. But, as many are starting to notice, Hunt Down can, in fact, remain dominant in a post DSII environment. It just takes a few subtle adjustments….First of all, you gotta play a good number of Vaders. gone are the days of the patient flip. Vader needs to come down early. Second, alters are no longer optional. alters in hunt down used to be cute, a nifty bonus, if you could fit them in. no longer. and, like many other dark side decks, Hunt down needed to take advantage of Mobilization Points, to get some extra activation, which would in turn free up some slots to allow for these other cards Okay, here’s your starting stuff. The objective and the Epic duel (naturally), the Med. Chamber and the Holotheatre, with Visage (naturally), Prepared Defenses, IAO and Mob. Points. The 3rd starting effect varies GREATLY. I start Secret Plans against test to 5, you CAN’T afford to be without it when they flip. I start Battle Order against LS ops. Start decree against EBO. Against most other decks, start You Cannot Hide Forever. Oookay, just like any other mob. points deck, grab rendili (or the executor if you’ve already got rendili) and a 1/0 docking bay on turn 1. if you’ve got someone you want to drop to the docking bay, cool. if not, no big deal. Hunt Down is never lacking in activation for long anymore. on turn 2, you’ll usually deploy one of the battleground docking bays, and Vader, to flip. turn 3, the other 1/0 docking bay, and turn 4, the other battleground, with which to satisfy the ”3 battlegrounds” requirement of Honor, if you haven’t managed to alter it yet.

Reasons for certain cards I use The Vader mix no more than 2 of each copy gives you pretty good Grimtaash protection, and a total of 5 seems to get me one by turn 3 VERY reliably. The starship mix When I pick my DS ships, I don’t mess around. The 3 bounty hunter ships can’t be argued with, and any one of them draws destiny alone. the imperial ships have pilot capacity + immunity to attrition. These are the best around. Dreadnoughts are cool, but these are better. Vader’s shuttle and DIPO are cool, but these are better. Blizzard 2 Better than Tempest 1 since it has higher destiny. Twilek Advisor Not mandatory, but nice to have, since Hunt down is rather ”effect-intensive” Masterful Move recyclable six. can be used to grab Monnok or visage. Monnok easy win if they lose too many doubles. a used monnok can screw their game plan if they had to draw too much to get what they want. best of all, the lost monnok lets you see their hand, so you can know for sure if they have any duel defense in hand or not. You Are Beaten Makes for easy battle damage sometimes and, uh, cancels the fury, ya know. Oppressive Enforcement Just in case your opponent manages to sense something, it won’t go away for good. also lets your grabber deploy for free, and making your capitals destiny +1 can sometimes mean the difference in a close duel. Sim Aloo adds one destiny with the Emperor. draws destiny alone. high forfeit. makes it difficult for your opponent to set up high destiny for a duel. Disarmed a disarmed jedi doesn’t add one to his duel draws, and cannot play glancing blow. Sniper kills undercover spies, and can also result in horrible beatdowns, under the right circumstances. Janus Greejatus This guy is just amazing. add one to drain with the emperor. helps you track destiny for duels. and can even help your differential. how? count off your masterful move. put away a card with Janus, draw the MM. use it to search for holograms that aren’t there. repeat. OR do the same trick with alter. put away a card with Janus to draw the alter. try to alter something. repeat. I’ve used Janus to increase differential more times than I can count. R2-Q2 Check your destiny during your draw phase, and know for sure if its a good time to duel or not. don’t like the first destiny, but the other two are looking good? play an alter, then duel. Also lets you know how to play the battle if your opponent initiates one on their next turn. you know who to choke/swing at, based on what you know you’ll draw. Ephant Mon Lots of Light Side spies running around these days, especially Blount and Celchu. I’d just as soon not have them coming into the Holotheatre to cancel my visage. Emperor Palpatine Improves activation at the Holotheatre, gives you an extra icon, makes Jade power +2 Captain Sarkli provides the 2 ability you need to draw destiny on Blizzard 2, or the Chimaera. also provides the necessary ability on the Executor. can also pilot the mist hunter. seems to be a spy. has high forfeit, since you start IAO. and is just friggin’ fantastic against LS Ops or TIGIH Explanation of some cards that are NOT included Come Here You Big Coward I’m not going to let them control the executor sites, so I don’t care about preventing them from draining there. I want them OUT, so I can use the visage, so I’m going to KILL them. And secret plans is MUCH better than CHYBC for stopping retrieval. Holonet transmission Not many Transmission Terminateds played these days. Sense Sensing cards like Courage of a Skywalker does NOT work. when I duel, it’s because I KNOW I’ve got high destiny on top. If my opponent plays a courage, and I sense, the sense will FAIL. Alters are cool in Hunt down, senses are not.

The deck really doesn’t need many characters to fight efficiently. Vader is practically an army by himself. Consider this scenario, wherein Vader + one other character (not even Tarkin) decimates a horde of LS fools. (and if you play Hunt down for a while, stuff like this WILL happen, no matter HOW stupid it seems. Believe me, I know it’s stupid, but I’ve done this kind of crap too many times to call it a fluke) We’ll say we’re at the CC docking bay. Ds has DVDLOTS (carrying his saber) and Evazan. LS has EPP Luke, EPP obi-wan, EPP Han, ECC Chewie, EPP Leia, Orrimaarko and Figrin D’an. It is the dark side’s control phase. Duel Obi-Wan. The Ls loses Obi from game, and 9 force. (we’ll settle for just one duel, and assume you don’t have the Obsession right now). Disarm Leia and operate with Evazan. Play a sniper, and kill Chewie. Play You are Beaten, targeting Orrimaarko. Move to your battle phase. Initiate a battle. Choke EPP Luke with the Masterful Move you tracked. Swing vader’s lightsaber, hitting Han, and operate with Dr. Evazan. Let us see who the LS currently has participating in the battle. Well, there is Figrin D’an, and….that’s it. Draw the Visage for destiny that you set up with Janus, who is elsewhere. (This one is fantastic. Play a masterful move to go get the visage. use janus to put the visage on the bottom. you’ve got the 6 ready to track to choke Luke with, the 7 ready to draw for destiny, and in between, the destiny to swing your saber, in this case, hitting han) 14 power to 1, lose figrin and 9. 7 LS characters (5 of them mains) against 2 DS characters. LS loses 6 characters and 18 force. Both DS characters remain, awaiting Orrimaarko’s return from the You Are Beaten. big fun, eh?

Okay, it’s been a long one, so I’ll keep the matchups brief.

vs Hidden Base start YCHF, but don’t get the security precautions right away. you aren’t desperate for activation. you’ve got a draw phase, you’ve got a twilek. see what develops. ultimately, you’ll want S&D, Battle Order, and Sec. Prec. use YCHF to get whichever one you can’t seem to find otherwise. The deck has 3 ships with good immunity, (plus zuckuss can fake it sometimes), so when Sec. Prec. cancels the battle damage, you’re able to probe without much fear. they’ll lose too many effects to alters, and the visages WILL get them sooner or later. Due to your objective’s text, the super falcon can’t initiate a battle against you, and neither can luke on R2 in Red 5. all too easy.

vs. EBO. Start Decree. use twilek and YCHF to try and find battle order. s&D + visage will hurt them faster than they think. The Decree just hurts them TOO much. no way out.

vs. TIGIH. deploy your 1/0 docking bays before the battlegrounds. the LS gives you a battleground, and it’s a docking bay too Heck, you even want to go there first turn to knock their activation down by 4. Follow in with Vader (not too tough when you’ve got 5) so you won’t lose force to their objective. by giving you luke, they lose half their capacity to flip you back. this makes leia useless too. if you can duel obi-wan, (or if they aren’t even using him), they are in big trouble. visage and S&D are both great against a speeder/x-wing version. alter the flaps. hell, alter the yarna if you want. if you get sarkli and vader in your opening draw, show em. they may as well concede on the spot. I’ve playtested this match-up a lot (since TIGIH is popular in my area), and there just isn’t much the LS can do.

vs. Profit. Hunt Down is pure ”profit-bane” Profit decks are maybe a TAD uneasy against Ominous rumors decks, since they don’t have ships to slow the space drain, but they figure their early direct damage potential will make the difference. The only 2 decks that Profit will pretty much ALWAYS lose to are 1) tatooine occupation decks that convert both LS starting locations by turn 1, and 2) Hunt Down.

vs. QMC (revised) Actually, QMC sucks Chalk this one up as another ”W”. )

Now for the ”even matchups”

vs. Rebel Strike Team. Well, you should be able to make sure they can’t blow up the Bunker, but you may not be able to take the Endor system away from them. so if you can’t be sure you can flip them back, you have to try and stop them from flipping at all. which means spreading out on endor. vader/tarkin at one place. emperor/sim aloo type stuff somewhere else. and then maybe the walker next to mara jade. obviously this takes time to set up. your opponent will have opportunities to try and hurt you. but mostly with han & chewie. threat of the duel usually keeps luke/obi away. and then leia can’t initiate. so han & chewie will be the stars, along with guys like orrimaarko. tough game. honestly, if your opponent outplays you, they will probably win. the deck will not carry you through the match by itself, like it does against the decks I mentioned earlier.

vs. MWYHL Also not real easy. try to grab It Could Be worse, if possible. Your S&D can’t be altered, which is cool. Protect the Visage, because it is your key to victory. use rendili to get around battle plan. alter the Honor as early as possible. don’t wait to track a low destiny. just take a shot at drawing a low number. and keep on taking shots. they can’t use POAS on your docking bays, so you can allocate all your alters to getting rid of the Honor. If all else fails, occupy the 3 battlegrounds. Just try to deal enough damage to get them down to less than 10 life force by the time they flip, and Secret Plans will give you the W. Not an easy win, but you have the upper hand. this match is a bit easier than the previous one, but you must still play smart.

RST and MWYHL are both going to be good games. the others are relatively easy wins. This Hunt Down deck should be able to help you hand your opponent their ass, game after game. Thanks for reading.

Brian Hunter ‘