Chu’s Xwing Swarm
Title: Chu’s Xwing Swarm
Author: Jonathan "jonnychu" Chu
Date: Oct 15, 2000
Rating: 4.5
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Cards:
‘Locations [9] Rendezvous Point (start) Endor x2 Kessel x2 (use as HB indicator) Yavin 4 Sullust Corulag Forest
Characters [4] Obiwan EPP Luke EPP Boussh TK-422
Effects [14] Projection of a Skywalker x2 Rebel Fleet S-Foils Wise Advice [start] Do Or Do Not [start] Your Insights Serve You Well [start] Honor of the Jedi What’re you Trying to Push? x2 Haven Legendary Starfighter Civil Disorder Order To Engage
Interrupts [14] The Signal x3 All-Wings Report In x2 Organized Attack x4 Heading for the Medical Frigate [start] It Could Be Worse Rebel Barrier x2 Power Pivot
Weapons [1] X-wing Laser Cannon
Other [2] Hidden Base Concentrate All Fire
Starships [16] Xwing x14 Lando In Millenium Falcon Red Leader in Red 1 ‘
Strategy: ‘
1/24/2001 Update
I would just like to say that ”Sigmar” is a complete idiot, also.
Why are people so big on TIEs beating Xwings? I have never lost to a TIE deck with this. Not even TIEs running interceptors. You sit on Wakeelmui with enough power and protection in your hand, so he either comes down with everything and you run or cancel or he comes down with not enough and you hammer him and legendary wins. It is pretty straightforward.
Try making the deck and playing it before you give an unworthy review.
1/23/2001 Update
I would just like to say that ”waid” is a complete idiot.
end update
1/6/2001 Update
Damn it has been a long time since I have updated this, including JPSD which changes a lot of things. And RII is sure to change more, although… actually it probably doesn’t.
The deck had, since Worlds, undergone some heavy revisions. Here they are
-No Escape beat the hell outta Honor and so I needed something more for Hunt Down decks. Out Projection of a Skywalker x2. In Transmission Terminated x2. These are crucial, as Hunt Down is a beating and a half, and surprisingly not many pack Holonet Transmissions. Projections were also seeing limited usage in games; I found most games people stuck on Cloud City or Death Star docking bays for drains. Pretty frustrating.
-I decided I needed more ground-blocking drains, especially for MKOS. Damn, MKOS is everything short of auto-win against HBX. Hutt Influence is a wrecker, but it does nothing for undercover spies. Boussh and TK were already in here, but I thought two more undercover spies couldn’t hurt. So In Momaw and Bothan Spy, and Undercover x2. Out This was tough. The deck is so tight I looked for extraneous stuff. It Could Be Worse was padding and I ejected it. Haven was a bit tougher. Grabbers were also padding and saw limited use in a lot of games so they left. This effectively helped the average destiny of not only the deck, but for inserts. Why Bothan and not Artoo? Artoo was my first choice but he got Lightninged, Trampled, Snipered, you name it. He got abused. Bothan had a little better shot (but not by much). Also cheaper. Why not Lando with VibroAxe? I thought about him for Bubo protection, but he was just too damn expensive, especially if the opponent was not playing a Tatooine-based deck. 6 force for a blocked drain is a little hefty.
-The planet structure also needed to be changed. For MKOS, I needed more power faster. In Kiffex. Out Sullust. Sullust just wasn’t doing it for me, and with the exclusion of Haven, it was almost utterly useless. Also without Sullust, the parsec numbers were more polar; only Yavin provided DS with a middle jump. Since I sit my Xwings solely at Kessel and Endor (or Kiffex if necessary), this provides a tough dilemma for DS where to probe? He can’t hop around as easily as before. Also In Bothauwai, Out Corulag. I like Bothauwai more; the drain can be -2 instead of -1. I am trying to put Coruscant in as an extra planet for the needed drain against MKOS, but I don’t want to pull another planet for it because it raises the probability of probing on the first try.
-What else? In Grimtaash, Hyper Escape. Out Endor, Concentrate All Fire. CAF was a tough call but I haven’t seen many admiral’s orders that actually hurt the deck (Fighters Coming In). Who really plays that card? So I ganked it because I figured I could track that 5 if I needed to shoot Dengar, and Hyper Escape is a nifty little toy for Order To Engage and for spread-and-drain. It is also some protection if Blast Door Controls ever hit. Grimtaash may seem like fluff but it is vital. Everyone and their mom will draw like crazy for their ships. Set ’em back a turn or 2. It can also be a game breaker, or draw out their SAC to be tracked again next turn and for a loss of 3 cards.
What will RII change for this deck?
Well, Wise/DODN will definitely be in for the two separate cards. One extra card slot Fill it in with whatever you like. Battle Plan is good, like Martian suggested; it goes a long way toward beating operatives. I don’t really like it because it also sets you back, since you will most likely not occupy the ground part of it until the end (or not at all vs dueling). Strike Planning maybe to help you early. Another X-wing gun, perhaps. Oh wait. Definitely put in It’s A Hit. That card is great for cancelling drains (Endor, most likely), or for retrieving an X-wing, or for cancelling Counter Assault Counter Assault can lose a game for you. Trust me (and Twigg). Wow. Or else put Haven back in because it’s so good.
I don’t suggest putting in junk like Home One. Dude, that card is fine but not in this deck. It takes a whole turn to put that lummox out and he gets Lateral Damaged before you can even blink. I never ever have the force to waste on it. Big ships just aren’t needed in this deck.
Here are some ideas I have been toying with -Exchanging Forest tech for a random.site, like a Tatooine site like Jundland Wastes or Cantina and Y4 for Tatooine. That way you can still get the power bonus from Xwings, and you have a nifty drain site. Also if you did this you could swap out Obi EPP for Ben, who is pretty good. I never really deployed the forest until the end of the game or at earliest, middle, so this would up the damage you could do.
-Starting Insurrection and fishing out Yavin 4 Docking Bay instead of Forest (Insurrection after RII opens up that extra card slot). You could fit in Incom Corp and suddenly your Xwings are that much cooler. I think you might have to fortify ground, but you could do this as a late game strategy also, similar to forest tech, especially if your opponent has been nibbling away at your stuff in space and suddenly he feels its safe to leave Bossk with three Xwings (if he’s sure you have no more). Maybe. It is an interesting idea.
Well, that’s it. MKOS is a tough battle. At one point the deck had Bo Shuda and Melas/Tawss to sit in the Audience Chamber. They left pretty quick, but it was pretty funny watching the opponent’s jaw drop when Bo Shuda hit the table. Since everyone plays with Point Man anyway, the combo isn’t very good. It still takes away a drain site and gets around Ephant Mon… hmm. Depends on the popularity of Scum in your area, I guess.
Thanks for reading D-mail me with questions or suggestions and I will respond.
JC
—End 1/6 update
–Update 1/5 Response to reviews
Thanks for all the good feedback. I have incorporated some stuff and will be posting it soon.
johyowza I am not really scared about the Executor if they pull it. That just means they lose their Executor sites when it comes down. )
el-diablo hmm… MKOS definitely is a beating. The deck was designed for pre-JPSD, but it has been doing well in the current environment too. MKOS is not popular at all around here (Albany) but I do have some stuff for it… I don’t know if it’s enough, but it seems to do OK. Mosep/Gailid is definitely a beating.
—end update 1/5
[In response to several of the comments
Nitemare The deck definitely has its holes. Then again, which deck doesn’t? In the scenario you listed, when the guy (probably playing Ralltiir) flips, probes, and runs, or if ghhhks if he gets beatdown, then he’s a champ and it hurts. However, three things (1) This is why Kessel is my base. He’ll have to get around Barrier to avoid the beatdown. And he can’t just sit there with an immune-to-battle-damage ship beating down my ships. (2) Most ROPs decks don’t play Ghhhk (at least the ones I’ve seen). If they do, I have nothing for them. (3) Even if he’s flipped, if I’m not I can still drain at Kessel for 1. Hidden Base says opponent loses no more than 1 force from your force drains at systems etc. So I’m actually draining for 3, then its reduced to one. Unless I’m mistaken (and I would look like an ass), then I’ll be draining for 3, it’s reduced -1 due to ROPs text, and then Hidden Base kicks in so you’ll lose one. I’ll check up on this one. I don’t like to flip if I don’t have to. Especially against Ralltiir, when they can get around the pay 1 to draw 1 text by searching for whatever they need. Between 2 projections and one of my two spies, and Fleet, I can block their drains fine without flipping. I am content to drain just for 1 at Kessel because I figure I can outlast them and hit them with some good direct damage. See below for response to Yarna. I agree that the deck has seen its prime, and when JPOTSD becomes official No Escape will eat through this deck.
TJ Hey that forest tech was stolen from you from 99 worlds. I remember your Tatooine x3 thing. What the hell were you thinking? ) 4Lom and IG in Zuckuss isn’t that much of a threat IMHO, because they’re a total 13 deploy (counting Zuckuss in Mist as deploy 5 due to Scum and with total power 4. That pretty much sucks ass. Even with your three destinies your power will suck compared to mine. About SAC Sensing Organized is fine. It’s nonunique, so I can play another one if I have one in my hand, and due to Wise/DODN it’s basically a 4 card swing. I prefer Wise/DODN over Controls because 3 controls don’t do it often nowadays – there are a lot of people that pack silly amounts of SAC. With Wise/DODN, if someone Alters a Projection, I get it right back a few turns down the road or it’s a trackable 5. Plus it’s free damage with me having to do absolutely nothing. Hopefully I’ll play the deck right and avoid situations where I’ll need that crucial Barrier or Organized. Basically everytime they sense/alter something, I’m happy because that’s thrice less I have to drain them at Endor for one.
LTBORG More than one weapon sounds nice. I would like to fit in another weapon. Maybe take out a grabber… Pilot characters are fine but part of the sweetness of playing a lot of nothing is you don’t have to worry about a lot of junk. No Responsibility/Much Anger if you have no guys in space (just be careful on the ground). With Xwings, you get more power for the same (or cheaper) deploy as a pilot. True it will make it less susceptible to Monnok but whatever. Everything is a tradeoff. I originally had Home One in this deck. I took it out after playing the deck about 10 times. It sucked. I don’t activate all that much force and whenever I deployed it it justed wasted a turn. Plus without Home One or other capitals, (1) Imperial Barrier becomes diluted in strength, and (2) Lateral Damage is less effective. I would rather spend 4 force to move 4 XWings around than 1 for the Home One and be restricted by hyperspeed, as well as making it a target for Lateral Damage. Oh yeah, and the 12 deploy cost.
To everyone regarding why no Yarna for Monnok Yarna would only be good for protecting my X-wings. I never hold X-wings in high amounts in my hand. I heard Jim Sells got Imperial Supplied/Monnoked first turn for a loss of 7 X-Wings. That should never happen and Yarna would do nothing for that anyways. Yarna would not protect any Organizeds or Barriers or anything. Since the way the deck plays is X-wings go down to the Rendezvous Point the turn after they’re drawn, they’re never in your hand very often. You can’t really appreciate how little Monnok does against this deck until you play it a few times. You’ll notice you don’t ever really hold many doubles. Some tips (1) Once you draw 2 X-wings, stop. (use your judgement, of course) (2) At the end of the opponent’s turn (especially early in the game), once he draws up to 2 cards, Organized lost if you have it. Especially if you have two in your hand. Then you dump 3+ Xwings during your turn. Why 2 cards? You don’t have to worry about Operational As Planned, Monnok. The deck is really tight and the inclusion of Yarna just to protect the X-wings that don’t last in my hand very long just didn’t seem worth it to me.
Thanks for your comments.]
This deck may look like a pile. In actuality, it performs like a machine
[Strategy]
The beauty of this deck is its simplicity in design. While many LS decks nowadays rely on (1) multiple twix locations, or (2) docking bay/staging area tech for force activation, Xwings use neither. Instead, it slowly pulls its systems out one by one until you are ready to flip. What’s sweet about this is that not only do you pull all but two of your 0 destinies out of your deck; your early movement and deploy is all free (from Rendezvous to Endor) so essentially all the force you activate each turn is force you use to draw or play interrupts.
The downside to this method of activation as opposed to either of the above is that your opponent is activating a ton off your cards. This version of the deck doesn’t run Strike Planning, so Dark Side will get a quick two force off your Endor. This doesn’t prove to be a problem, however, as once the DS has amassed enough force in his hand to wreck you at your planet (Endor), you will be sitting there with at least 5 or 6 Xwings, and anyone who would challenge that will be readily surprised. The upside is you don’t really have to ever worry about being drained at your locations since you will own space.
Basically each turn you dump any Xwings in hand at the Rendezvous Point and move them to Endor. Fish out your Rebel Fleet early with The Signal; with Do Or Do Not and Wise Advice protection, that card will allow you one free blocked force drain for as long as you have xwings. Set up S-Foils next if possible; Projections if your opponent is trying to rush damage on the ground. Insights should be kept the entire game as is, unless you need to get out Honor fast or you need a tracked 5 later in the game before you retrieve with All-Wings. Organized Attack should be played lost early to get those Xwings from your deck onto the table, and to prevent Monnok from doing a lot of damage.
Kessel should be deployed last, or when your opponent is activating so much force (and has lost so much), 2 more won’t help his tracking ability any more. Flip if necessary. Some games you lock him down on the ground between Projections, spies and Fleet so much you don’t even have to. Others you win in one battle in space. When you flip, be wary of Security Precautions. Try to save force for It Could Be Worse to minimize if he probes correctly. Between the above cards and cancelling two drains, a decent lockdown and drain potential, direct damage cards and unSACable retrieval, this deck provides many favorable matchups and is almost an auto-win against most ground-based decks.
Here is a detailed explanation of most the cards in the deck, in order as written above
*Endor x2 If someone converts your Endor first turn or something goofy, you really need the deploy -1 game text. So you reconvert it. Also good for an alternate HB indicator.
*Kessel as Hidden Base Despite being the first planet probed most of the time, Kessel needs to be your hidden base for the following reason for anti-ROPs. Kessel is the only planet I can drain at against ROPs – it is a drain for 2 the entire game. If it’s not your hidden base, all the ROPs player needs to do is lay out Sec Prec, put the Executor or any ISD with a few pilots and probe Kessel. His no battle damage clause in Sec Prec will wreck you However if it’s correct you soak up the damage (or ICBW it) and proceed to win the game in the next battle, as you will have all your Xwings at Kessel anyway (or most of them, the rest being at Yavin 4)
*Yavin 4 You put the forest here and your guy on the ground gets a power bonus, your ships in space get the benefit of Haven if need be. Double whammy
*Sullust Possible Haven beatdown location. It converts their Sullust, which would be bad for you if they cancelled your Haven. Clint Hays exchanged this card for Bothauwai in his Day 2 deck.
*Forest You’ll need a location for one of your EPPs to satisfy Search and Destroy often. Honor will set back your opponent several turns, but once he gets his three ground battlegrounds (since when he comes to space, you beat him down or make him pay to Order to Engage), you will be in a world of hurt. By then you should have been able to go through your deck with the Hidden Base game text or an interrupt that lets you search, and drawn for this card because you need it. You drop it at Yavin 4 and suddenly Hunt Down is re-flipped, Search and Destroy does nothing and your opponent is looking at a power 10+ Obiwan with a forfeit=0 weapon and immunity to attrition. Very nice. I only play one copy because frankly, you don’t need two.
*Luke EPP I play this over Jedi Luke because he’s huge against BHBM for hit and run, and also good for forest tech. You don’t really need the 6 destiny anyway since once your Xwings are on the table (by turn 4) the average destiny in this deck jumps to about 4.5 anyway.
*Honor of the Jedi This is what makes this deck more of a machine than ever before. It slows down Visage damage, Search and Destroy damage, Court damage, etc, all in one card you can search for. It is also unalterable once your Xwings sit at Endor, and they will by turn 2. It buys you time to set up your spies, your Fleet, your Projections, your Forest tech, your Power Pivot tech, etc etc. Because of the extra turns it gives you to live, you win in the end game.
*Grabbers These are two of the cards Clint exchanged also for some other stuff in his Day 2 deck. I play these because they make playing against Monkey TIEs an auto-win when you grab his Ghhhk and/or All Power. Also helps immensely against Brangus Glee. Also against Sabacc decks (quirky but whatever). Always great in the late game to grab whatever high destiny they’re trying to recirculate. Grabbers are such great utility cards, and since I start with Wise Advice, why not?
*Haven Protect those X-wings in space. Cheaper deploy is fine, too.
*Legendary Starfighter and Civil Disorder These cards win games. Civil is huge against everything late game. It’s biggest against ROPs deploy some scrub to a useless site, deploy to space where you’ll get hammered or lose 2 force. This is true for every dark deck short of a pure TIE deck. Legendary is just great for direct damage.
*Order To Engage Obviously fits into this deck. Protection from SAC through Wise/DODN is huge. If he comes to space and you’re out of X-Wings in your hand or on the Fleet for the beatdown, you just move them around and make him lose 3 force for not wanting to battle (and lose).
*Rebel Barrier He deploys. You barrier. He can’t move. You deploy the Xwings en-masse and win.
*Power Pivot Nowadays it’s not uncommon to see a fully loaded Executor (or in its Flagship variant) sitting alone at a system, the opponent confident he owns it. Then you win.
*Concentrate All Fire Nobody plays Fighter’s Coming In (Starships without pilot char’s are power -2 each). This gives you protection against those who do. Also gives you an extra shot against Dengar in Punishing One.
Now for specific strategy against decktypes
*vs ROPs You set up as normal. It’ll be easy to stop his ground drains of 1 between Projections/spies/Fleet/flip side. So this limits how he can win to battle damage with the bonus on his flip side, and Search and Destroy. S&D does nothing for him once you establish the forest, and until you do it’s not too painful to suck up 1 each turn per person. It will take him a little bit to set that up securely, anyway. His +X battle damage does nothing against immune to attrition X-Wings and EPPs on the ground. Civil Disorder will eventually give you the game, and if he ever comes to space you shoot down his starfighters and win on battle damage or Legendary or Order. I have never lost this matchup, although the games can be close.
You can also go to Ralltiir early to prevent the quick flip. I don’t advise this as the loss of even a few X-wings can slow you down a lot more than it will slow him. You need all your ships as possible to hold the Forest at Yavin 4 and your Kessel drain.
*vs BHBM This is an auto-win. BHBM usually holds one or two ground sites and has enough firepower in space to knock around most light side decks. Not this one You play smart with EPP Luke and knock around his guys, then feed him to Vader when you’re ready. That’s 1 a turn until you win. You cancel/block up to 7 drains. What he can he do about that? SAC hurts him a ton in the long run. He has nothing to cancel/modify your little pings for one that will grind away at him until he only has a handful of force to use. He comes to space and you win. Order/Civil give you the game. BHBM has nothing for this deck.
*vs Hunt Down This can be close. I will split up the strategy into the two popular variants of HD.
1) Dueling One great aspect of this deck is it normally creates about 10 dead cards in the opponent’s deck (see below). Against dueling, this increases to about 25. All the dueling cards and all the dueling support (Unexpected, Janus, high destinies) are utterly useless against a deck with no guys. You merely hold your two EPPs until you see the dueling cards go. His own Visage will punish him early as Honor protects you. Civil Disorder is a beating against this deck. Search and Destroy and Visage can apply the pressure mid-game once he gets around Honor, but like before, he needs 3 battleground sites to do this because anything in space will get hammered. Especially in a dueling deck, when most of the card support goes toward the dueling and not toward holding a system against a swarm of guys. As in the case of BHBM, he can’t modify your little drains so they will eventually do him in, combined with small direct damage and monster retrieval.
2) Beatdown Be more careful. He will probably get around Honor quicker than in the dueling variant. You have more reign to drop your EPPs at the forest though, and once Obi-wan or Luke hits there your opponent will be soaking up Visage damage indefinitely. Hold Yavin 4 and Kessel and then dig in. Between drain blocking and direct damage, you should win. Also jump on him if he makes a mistake with a handful of X-wings and he will be limping away.
*vs Court This is a tough matchup, as Court starts with 2 battlegrounds for Search and Destroy and can easily pull a third. Also Court direct damage hurts you without hurting the opponent. The good thing about this matchup is that space is almost entirely yours. The little bounty hunter ships he can pull with his game text are no match for your power. Hence your drains are basically free. If he comes to space, it’s cool; Barrier his ships and then amass the fleet. Still, the quick jump Court can pull can make this a difficult game. Stick to the basic strategy and you shouldn’t have too much of a problem.
*vs Monkey TIEs I have playtested this deck multiple times against the masters of Monkey TIEs, Steve Lewis and Clint Hays. I think Clint beat me once. You sit on Wakeelmui and make his TIEs expensive. The rest of the Xwings you use to pick him apart here and there. Order to Engage is enormous in this game. Grab his Ghhhk (hehe) and All Power. Forest tech is cool in this game. You can play patiently since there is no direct damage you have to worry about. Legendary will break the game wide open.
*vs TIE interceptors with SFS This would be a tough matchup. You have the advantage in cheap deployment. He has the advantage in power and interceptor gun text is huge. Very tough game, in theory. I haven’t run into this deck very often (at all) and if you do, you do. Go for the ships with guns with your own gun. Play legendary smart. Sit on Wakeelmui and make his interceptors deploy 4; grab his All Power and dig in If X-Wings stand well against most popular decks and fall to one that you don’t see very often… that’s seems like a decent trade-off.
*vs Dark Deal drain You don’t even need to control Bespin to win this. Spies block his ground drains and Fleet and Hidden Base flip side. You have the choice of wrecking the hell outta him at Bespin and cancelling his Occupation or spreading and draining everywhere else. Or you could save some guys to sit on Bespin Cloud City and destroy him when he goes there. This is an easy matchup.
*vs ISB In its Sandwhirl variant, you win because you can block 3 drains and projection others. Civil Disorder is big, as always. Spread and drain when you can and establish forest tech at Yavin 4. This may be close, or you will win big, depending on the dark player’s draw. But since you run unopposed in space, you can play more recklessly than normal. Barrier/Order to Engage is a sweet combo if he packs a ship or two.
In any other variant, add Undercovers, Nevar Yalnals, and any other ground red card to the list below
To end it all, here is a list of popular DS cards many decks run that are utterly useless against your deck
*You Are Beaten *Weapon Levitation (in its lost form) *The Circle Is Now Complete/Vader’s Obsession *Focused Attack *4-Lom with Gun *IG-88 with Gun *the other 4 Vaders in a BHBM/Hunt Down deck *Miyooom Onith (for the most part) *Ability, Ability, Ability *Elis Helrot *U-3p0/any spies *anything anti-Odds *Dr Evazan *Court tech like Hidden Weapons *Set For Stun *Scanning Crew
…the list continues. Snipers and Tramples and stuff are also limited in value.
The deck may look susceptible to Monnok. It is, if it hits early enough. However I was monnoked twice out of three games and never did they get anything; Sokol and Hays were also monnoked during the day, but none yielded more than a pair of Organized attacks. Surprisingly, you empty your hand fast enough.
In tournament play, I went 3-0 at DecipherCon in Day 1 before being disqualified for only having All Wings x1 in my decklist. Clint Hays changed 3 or 4 cards and went 4-0 in Day 2 en route to finishing first place. Matt Sokol also took a version of the deck in Day 2 to finish at 3-1.
On the flip side, two Day 2’ers went 1-2 with the deck each. So it can do as poorly as it can do well. I don’t know the amount of experience they had with the deck, and playing it is more than half the game.
I need to extend props to Joe Gianneti, whose old-school Xwing deck I gleaned the idea from.
Please review this deck and post any comments you’d like
-Jonny Chu
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