Chinese Acrobats

Title: Chinese Acrobats
Author: Luca "Luca/Tzizvvt" Costanzo
Date: Sep 16, 2000 Rating: 4.5

--------------------------------

Cards:

‘Objective (1) Hidden Base/Can’t Probe If It’s Not Flipped (Starting)

Locations (9) Indicator (Starting) Rendezvous Point (Starting) Tatooine Tibrin Alderaan Endor Aquaris Chandrilla Swamp

Ships (7) Gold Squadron 1 (DSII Falcon, if I got the name wrong) Falcon Home One Spiral Artoo in Ship Red Squadron 1 Liberty

Guys (15) Gen Lando 2 Luke w/ knife 2 Obi w/ knife Han w/ gun Cpt. Han Boushh Leia w/ gun Lt. Blount Melas Tawss Khaa Wedge Numb Nuts Figrin

Interrupts (12) 4 Tunnel Signal A Few Manoeuvres Grimtaash Put That Down On The Edge Rebel Barrier The Bith Shuffle HFTMF (Starting)

Effects (14) Wise Advice (SE) Strike Planning (SE) Squadron @#$%ignments (SE) Insight Traffic Control Bacta Tank Mantellian Savrip 2 WAYTTPOU Goo Nee Tay Honor OMDH Battle Plan Order To Engage

Other stuff (2) Landing Claw I’ll Take The Leader ‘

Strategy: ‘

** UPDATE **

Look for Rogue 1 and KFC to be in there soon, also Premiere Luke may be replacing a stick Luke. Our Friend Tawss Khaa may be departing soon. Note None of this is certain.

** End UPDATE **

** Update #2 **

To the guy who thinks that 7 ships = you lose to ties. Mini-Falcon = Power 8 + 2 destiny (let’s say a 5 and a 3). Total 16.

5 interceptors = Power 15. Result You win by 1.

5 interceptors + APTW = 25. Result You savrip Ben and grapple APTW.

5 interceptors + APTW + I’ll Take The Leader = Power 15. Result Stack APTW, win by 1.

Let’s take a look at what’s happening elsewhere, meanwhile. Ships at wakeelmui = deploy + 1 or 2 ties (deploy 15 for 5 interceptors doesn’t strike me as great). Guys at docking bay = they’re paying to drain. OMDH = You retrieve all the damage they can afford to deal you so far.

As for needing more signals, with this deck you activate heaps and you have 4 Tunnel Visions and Tibrin I’m almost thinking of taking out the Signal. I do admit, there should probably be an alter in there, but I’m not sure what to take out. I don’t like the idea of playing narrow cards in this, but Alter is definately the 61st card. If you feel it’s necessary, take out Tawss Khaa.

To the guy who pointed out that liberty/savrip doesn’t work Thanks, I wasn’t aware of that. I’d probably still play Liberty, though, but this does raise the possibility of replacing it with Tantive IV.

** End UPDATE **

Basically, you play the same as the old school Falke deck, or throne room mains except that Squadron @#$%ignments/Strike Planning allows you to start faster, and give away less force early game. Start with Strike Planning, Squadron @#$%ignments and usually Wise Advice. First turn, you can search for General Calrissian and grab Falcon with him to Endor. Second turn, depending on your opponent, you can move the Falcon over to Aquaris to try and activate heaps next turn. Get your systems out as you see fit, then Tunnel Vision for what you need to win. This is a reactive deck, so I really can’t say more about the mid-game than that, as it depends on your opponent. Late game, put the claw on the Falcon and chase around their ships, killing all of them if possible. When they have no ships, flip and retrieve everything.

Locations

Seeing as I plan on flipping only late game, I haven’t included any big drain systems. Endor is basically a twix battleground, Tibrin is an awesome retrieval engine, Tatooine and Alderaan are both necessary for OMDH and Aquaris and Chandrilla can add considerably to your activation. Your choice of locations enables you to choose how much force you want to give your opponent. If they’re getting plenty, just deploy them all. If they’re not getting much, you can just deploy Endor, Aquaris and Alderaan early game, giving away a grand total of 1, but giving yourself at least 10. The swamp is in there as a battleground site that goes anywhere, and also to aid against ralltiir ops (if they actually flip).

Guys

Knife guys are awesome, the EPPs are versatile, as is Boushh. Figrin D’an is the pimp, he can easily track you 3 cards, as well as retrieve. Blount is a great spy, Wedge is great in his ship. Nien Numb adds a battle destiny, 2 to attrition and doesn’t commit a main. Cpt. Han allows you to play old school super falcon as well as uber Falcon. Melas, combined with General Calrissian will be able to draw destiny in spite of Zuckuss’ ship. Tawss Khaa is iffy, but power 6 vs. Mara Jade and a card back is pretty good for something that’s not a main. Tawss and Melas are also cheap vs. Ralltiir Ops.

Interrupts

Tunnel Vision is the key to this deck. TV allows you access to all of the important cards that you only have one copy of. Deploy a system from reserve and you can see what’s in your force pile to tunnel for. 4 because I a) want one (or several) early and b) exchanging 3 cards a turn for one with Tibrin is just too much if I want to do it all the time. Put That Down stops a weapon in a critical battle, Grimtaash is necessary in the current meta and On The Edge allows you to retrieve and move a rigged destiny to your used pile so that you can draw it on your turn. The other things are just random destiny trackers, but they serve their purpose. TBS stops rigging and can slow down Brangus and A Few Manoeuvres can stop tie guns.

Effects

After much thought, I decided to put in Mantellian Savrip. I think that it’s abusable, you can grapple Alter and MM and then retrieve it. This deck generates enough force to use tank, Goo Nee Tay is anti-manipulation, as well as giving you an early game force choke if you so decide. Two grapplers are a must when you take a look at all the cool dark stuff Alter, Masterful Move, Sense, Imperial Command, Put All Sections On Alert, All Power To Weapons, Force Lightning, Trample, Tallon Roll etc. Everything else is self-explanitory.

Boats

2 Falcons so that you have options, Wedge’s ship because it’s just the bomb. Home One and Spiral are simple. Liberty was, I thought, worth it. You can forfeit it to Savrip from hand and put it in your used pile Luke’s ship is actually quite versatile. You can put Melas or someone on it if you want Luke on the ground. The AO makes it immune to attrition < 4, you can fetch Luke with Squadron @#$%ignments and then land him. A pilot in Artoo in Red 5 can cancel destiny with Wedge, and, besides, a 0 or 7 is always cool. I chose these 4 fighters because they all have high manoeuvre (tie cannon), are good with the AO and are fast enough to do OMDH in one turn.

The Rest

Claw enables you to follow around capital ships with the Falcon and kill them. The AO adds 2 to immunity, adds to your drains at opponent’s docking bays and makes ties power -2 (booyah)

Specifics

Vs. Ralltiir Ops

This should be a cakewalk. Get General Calrissian in matching boat to Ralltiir first turn to slow their flip. Don’t give them any extra force early game if you can help it. Get out Savrip and grapple their cool interrupts. If you can stop them from flipping and then put a couple of guys at one of their sites, you’re cool. Keep away from the desert. If they do flip beat them off the system and either deploy the swamp and flip them back or convert the swamp, fight them, laugh that they can’t react and then flip them back.

Vs. BHBM

Just set up to do your thing and play this one by ear. Grab Imperial Command ASAP- that’s the most important play. Grab Honor as soon as you can. If they spread and drain, use your suicidal, recurring Luke to kill them. Kill the Emperor (if he’s at the throne room) with some spies and Obi-Wan (don’t use Luke because you will want to forfeit the spy and leave Obi-Wan there), then decide wether or not to shackle Luke to Vader and make them loose force. Don’t forget- you’ll need to kill Vader if you give him Luke to be able to retrieve everything.

Vs. Ties

Sounds tricky, but she’ll be right. Grab Battle Plan ASAP and kick their feeble old man off their docking bay (bonus points use your feeble old man) and keep guys at their sites so he doesn’t come back. If they play the War Room, that’s a drain of 2 for you. Try not to deploy too many systems- they’ll just take them over. In this matchup, put Luke in his ship The AO is an important thing to Tunnel for- power -2 to all their guys is just the bomb. Grapple APTW and you’ll be sitting pretty. AFM will be able to keep the hurt out of their weapons- Luke, Wedge and Lando in ships are manoeuvre 5 anyway, and Captain Han adds 2 to Falcon. Savrip is important because this basically comes down to surviving the first battle. Wedge/Luke in ships can hold a system together, so can Uber Falcon. Home One Leia/Han should be right too. When you’ve grappled APTW, ties will drop like flies to multiple destiny draws. If you can OMDH the first time and nock them off their BG, you’ll win.

Vs. Hunt Down

Start Insight instead of Wise Advice. Grab General and Honor first turn before you activate, put down General in ship and then deploy Honor. Deploy Aquaris and move over next turn. Mid-game, Grimtaash them and see if you can grab some duel cards (prolly as soon as they deploy reactor terminal if they have a big hand). Put Boushh to Vader’s site. Avoid Vader. Pulverise anything else they deploy. It shouldn’t be too hard to smash their other stuff. OMDH and they’ll run out of steam before you do.

Vs. ISB

Blount and proceed as normal. What else are you gonna do? It’s just common sense

Vs. COTVG

Don’t start Insight, Wise Advice will do fine. 1 a turn for the first few turns is ok. You need to put another guy with Lando unless you have Barrier or Spiral ’cause they can grab ships. Mantellian Savrip is huge in this game. Basically, just treat it as normal mains and toys with ships from reserve.

Vs. Endor Ops

D’oh Strike Planning is less impressive -) Probably start Battle Plan instead, as a first turn Falcon isn’t all that impressive here. Besides, you basically have 5 falcons with squadron @#$%ignments (2 falcons, Han, Calrissian and even Nien Numb can grab some form of Falcon/Pilot combo). Grapple Imperial Command. Depending on the deck, you may be able to choke them- you have to play it by ear. Savrip is also more golden than usual vs. Endor Ops. Claw the big ships and beat them down in your own time. Kick them off Endor and stop them occupying a battleground site. If they’re trying to get a fully operational death star or something, just blow it up.

Vs. Brangus Deck

Don’t laugh. It’s an awesome deck. Grapple PASOA as soon as you see it. Bith Shuffle can help because it takes a good player to play this deck and good players track, also, it stops your opponent looping PASOA with docking bay/Brangus Glee. Grab Goo Nee Tay because it screws Mii’yoom Onith as well as making basically all of their guys deploy plus 2.

Vs. Anything Else

Play it by ear and win ) Pretty simple, really.

Try this deck out if you’re looking for versatility that isn’t throne room mains. You need to metagame this deck for your area. If ties are popular, replace one of the Lukes with premiere Luke, play an X-Wing gun and an alter. If Hunt Down is popular, play a Transmission Terminated. Brangus and ISB giving you trouble? Out Of Comission sounds good. SAC making a comeback? Add a control. Ops, ISB, Endor Ops? Menace Fades sounds right up your alley. Bring him before me? Not if he’s lost in the wilderness Basically, this is just a flexible model to build on. Have fun with it

Luca/Tzizvvt Tzizvvt@hotmail.com

Quote of the day

”No, I don’t think we’ll be telling them that.” -That cool NASA monkey from ’The Simpsons’ (I ’spose it’s funnier if you’ve actually seen the episode)

PS. I did this in Word Pad, so hopefully the HTML didn’t stuff up like from Word. ‘