This deal just sucks

Title: This deal just sucks
Author: John "Parn12" Digiovanni
Date: Sep 27, 2000 Rating: 3.5

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Cards:

‘Objective (1) This Deal Is Getting Worse All The Time

Locations (8) Cloud City Port Town District (S) Cloud City Security Tower Cloud City Downtown Plaza Cloud City Casino Cloud City East Platform (Docking Bay) Cloud City Lower Corridor Bespin Cloud City Bespin

Characters (17) Ree-Yees Lord Vader 4-LOM With Concussion Rifle Lyn Me x2 IG-88 With Riot Gun Judo Kast Bane Malar Grand Moff Tarkin Lando Calrissian Lobot Barquin D’an OS-72-10 Dengar With Blaster Carbine Mara Jade, The Emperor’s Hand Boba Fett With Blaster Rifle Dr. Evazan

Combat Vehicles (2) Tempest 1 Tempest Scout 6

Starships (8) TIE Interceptor x4 OS-72-1 In Obsidian 1 Bossk In Hound’s Tooth Zuckuss In Mist Hunter Obsidian 10

Interrupts (7) Prepared Defenses (S) All Power To Weapons A Real Hero Trample Jabba’s Through With You I Can’t Shake Him Combat Readiness

Effects (11) Crush The Rebellion (S) Secret Plans (S) Oppressive Enforcement (S) Imperial Arrest Order (S) Presence Of The Force x2 Reactor Terminal Search And Destroy Dark Deal Expand The Empire Cloud City Ocupation

Weapons (6) Mara Jade’s Lightsaber Vader’s Lightsaber SFS L-s9.3 Laser Cannons x3 Dr. Evazan’s Sawed-off Blaster ‘

Strategy: ‘

Okay, I’ve used most of the more well played objectives except for one, well lately at any rate. I’ve not played too much Dark Deal this year, and it seems to be making a bit of a comeback, so here’s my swing at it.

First Okay, who got the bright idea to play with the sabacc? Casino is nice, 2/1 generation, retrieve 2 or 3 for playing that incredibly annoying sabacc game. Perhaps its more a waste of space? Dark side’s supposed to be fast, not crafty. But hey, each to his own, I don’t rate down for opinions. Don’t expect to see that stuff going on in this deck though, won’t happen.

Second Dark Side Lando is a gamble, yep yep, but it can be just as much of a pain as the Light Side one can be to the dark side. There are two ways to get each Lando and Lobot, and make sure you have every intention of deploying them both before dropping Lando. Security Tower pulls Lando, and A Real Hero pulls Lobot, then you could always draw them. Ah well, he’s still a nice character, even if he’s a bit of a pain.

Third Why the Port Town District. Hey, I’ll give the light side a break, we’ll cut even with the icons in the beginning, and there’s been a few games where I’ve only gotten 2 to 3 force on my first turn. But, since most of the deck is stocked with aliens, its text becomes valuable. They deploy -1, and then drain +1 there too… sounds like a good target to expand to me. Plus the lack of force problem is quickly solved.

Okay, enough of my ramblings and defending ideas when I’ve not even had them challenged yet. Let’s take this from the top. In the beginning there was nothing (quite literally for starting this deck, a bunch of effects and 1 icon), and then the objective said… well, something, and then a good player went and searched his deck for Bespin or Bespin Cloud City. While he was searching, he made a shocking discovery, the East Platform was a docking bay and therefore fetchible with Imperial Arrest Order, so, like a good little player, he deployed it too. Wow, seems Lando finally caught up on his power bill, all of a sudden you went from 1 icon to 4. Maybe you got lucky and drew one of the remaining 4 sites, you should have the cloud sector and 2 sites… which means you got a few turns to establish a little control and draw a few cards here and there to get that third site for dark deal. Second turn go for the Bespin system, 2 more icons never hurts. Remember, the Port Town District is your best friend, deploy -1 for aliens and drain +1. Why Lyn Me, well, some of you may be asking that right now, and others are asking why two of her. Hey, I like cheap deploying bounty hunters on cloud city, or elsewhere if I really feel that my opponent needs to be corrected. She deploys Fett for free, and free is free in star wars, sorry Goo Nee Tay. But after Fett hits the table with her, all the other bad guys go for -1 (really good with the Port Town District text), and if you happen to have say Fett, Lyn Me, Dengar With Blaster, and Doctor E… hmm, 8 deploy, 10 power, three shots, and some operated on people. All the better if you can come up with a Jabba’s Through With You. How to control the cloud sector… well, I really have little use for the system, unless I want to brave the space aramada, topped with cruisers. For some reason, my little petty collection of starships prefers the could sector, or even the docking bay. Either way, the TIE Cannons should be able to control the cloud a good bit, especially on a non-unique interceptor (fire that bad boy twice). Try to save up force for this though, as it costs 3 to be very efficient with them. That’s also part of the reason Combat Readiness is in there, 1 extra force during any battle may save your hide. All Power To Weapons, just a gag card, perhaps a battle topper, +2 power and immunity is solid. I Can’t Shake Him, really just a nice destiny draw, easily recycled like Jabba’s Through With You, and can prove to be quite a pain if played to add a destiny, but don’t rely on these two cards all the time to pull you out, as there is only 1 of each. Same with trample, undercover spies are just a pain. Make sure you track with trample, it certainly blows to play it and then miss because you weren’t paying attention (TK-422 and Boussh are a little too popular here, especially in HB). Speaking of HB, S&D, a normal tactic, hurts training too, as well as EBO.

More often than not you can get a pretty good force drain quick, a saber, a pro.. something, anything makes the Port Town District a drain of 3, easily boosted to 4, and then if you get the dark deal out, which hopefully you’ll get it out quick and early, it’ll be a beefy 6.

I really don’t know much to say about deck specific topics, with this one I try to remain focused on one thing draining and deploying quick, regardless of what I give my opponent. So far its worked rather well, but its still in its test stages, and I want to hear what you all think about it. Thanks to you all ahead of time

John ‘