Raveling’s Agents In The Court

Title: Raveling’s Agents In The Court
Author: Michael "Gilliatt" Raveling
Date: Nov 19, 2000 Rating: 4.5

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Cards:

‘Here is my Agents in the Court Deck. While I didn’t win any big tourneys with it, it did go undefeated this weekend and was pretty darn strong. Starting(8) Agents in the Court/No Love Uh-Oh Insurrection (Optional Third- I will discuss the options down below) Yarna-D’al Gargan Tatooine Huutt Trade Route Jabba’s Palace Audience Chamber Heading For the Medical Frigate

Locations(7) TatooineCantina Tatooine Jabba’s Palace Jabba’s Palace Antechamber Tattoine Obi’s Hut Home 1 Dock Bay Hoth Dock Bay Tattoine Dock Bay

Characters(30) Lando w Vibro-Ax X 2 Elom X 13 Hnemthe X 2 Tanus Spijek X 3 Herc Seff Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight Geezum Figrin Dan Rennek Kal’Falnl Cndros Arliel Chous Artoo Tessek Wioslea

Effects(9) Seeking an Audience Bargaining table X 2 Do or Do Not A Gift Underworld Contacts Ounee Ta Aim High Bo Shuda

Interrupts(7) Wind Chimes X 3 You WIll Take Me Too Jabba Now X 4 ‘

Strategy: ‘

Initial strategy For your 3rd starting effect you need to look at what the opponent is playing. Versus HuntDown or BHBM you start Do or Do Not otherwise you start Aim High. Most darkside decks try to have some retrieval in them and Aim High can really hurt that. Plus Scum and Villiany and Tie decks are really popular in my area right now so Aim High hurts them. On your first turn just pull the Home 1 Docking bay and wait. Don’t rush into anything. You don’t want to get Bo Shuda too early because you want to use the Audience Chamber to help flip your objective. I usually wait till I have a nice force of guys before I try to flip my objective but versus Tie decks you want to go kinda quick. Second turn pull Hoth Docking bay. Third turn pull Tatooine Docking Bay. Now you have 3 Tattoine battlegrounds deployed and you can flip your objective. You still might not want to if you don’t have enough forces. If you have trouble getting started then just deploy to the Audience Chamber where you are safer because of Uh Oh. Don’t pull Bo Shuda till you either are being killed in the Audience Chamber or you are sure you can win without the drain there. Some games I can drain at the Audience Chamber throughout and some I have to get Bo Shuda deployed there or I will die. Versus Scum you probably need Bo Shuda deployed so get it out as soon as you have an alien. If you don’t they might convert your Audience Chamber and you won’t be able to get Bo Shuda when you want it.

Alien choice with You Will Take Me To Jabba Now This involves some forethought and I am afraid I cannot tell you what pattern the aliens should be taken in. Sometimes you will want to set Figrin Dan up at the Audience Chamber with Bo Shuda so that he can retrieve in peace. Other games you will want firepower and you will get Lando w/Vibro-Ax. Still you might be in a drain race and need Tessek. As the game develops you will have to choose which type of Alien you need. Don’t forget about Rennek.

Match-Ups Most match up section on Decktech boast how the deck can beat any deck type. I aint gonna do that.

Versus BHBM. You start Do or Do Not so that when they use Sense/Alter it hurts. You also know they are playing with Imperials and your Eloms are going to be at their full power.

Versus Hunt Down. You aren’t playing with any Skywalkers or Jedi except Jedi Luke so you don’t need to fear Epic Duel or anything. You also know they are playing Imperials and that your Eloms are at full power. Start Do or Do Not.

Versus Scum. Start Aim High. YOu have some powerful weapons to win this game. You get the Audience chamber to convert their starting location and then you have Underworld Contacts to keep it converted. Save 2 force so that they can never flip it back to their side. You also have Artoo and you have a chance of getting him to the Audience Chamber before Ephant Mon can stop him. Don’t deploy Bo Shuda right away though. Wait and see how the game develops. Sometimes a Scum player will deploy Jabba by himself to the Audience Chamber and then you can Take Me To Jabba and get Lando w Vibro to slaughter them. If nothing happens in the first few turns then get Bo Shuda and put some wimps down there.

Versus SYCFA or Ties. Start Aim High. You have bigger drains and more retrieval. It is going to be a drain race. The only thing you have to worry about is Vader. He might come to smack you up. Remember Underworld Contacts protects your drains from being cancelled.

Versus Big Blue and Space. Start Do or Do Not. This is a drain race and you will probably have to battle on the ground.

Questions??? Why 4 You Will Take Me To Jabba Now’s? I use four so that I have some nice recycling 5’s in my reserve and I can get out the aliens I need when I need them. I don’t need to include multiple Geezum’s and Tessek’s because of these cards.

Only 1 Tessek??? He is a good card but he is also a wimp and only destiny 1 to boot. That just isn’t right. I can’t justify putting multiple copies of a 1 destiny wimp into my deck. Use those Take Me To Jabba’s to get him out.

Why so many Eloms??? In your opening hand you should have plenty of them to work with. It won’t take long for you to set up your objective with this many characters and you will use all of the Eloms in here. You can lose 1 to retrive on your control phase. You can cancel a force drain at the Bargaining Table. And you will battle with them.

Why 3 Tanus Spijeck??? I have found that 3 of a rep is enough to kinda protect against Monnok while insuring that you can play one at the right time. Three of this guy gives you 3 destiny cancels which is pretty darn good. Use him wisely. Don’t deploy him without using him for your objective first, unless playing against Hunt Down. He is a spy so you can use him to cancel Visage.

No ships??? What is the most popular dark side space right now? Ties, right? Well you can out drain a tie deck and out retrieve it. You get an alien a turn, figrin dan, and Wind Chimes. Plus you start with Aim High so you get the upper hand. If they are just using Kashyyk and Kiffex with Bounty Hunter ships that is a drain of 4 that you can use Bargaining Table and your Elom Retrieval to get around. Then you Figrin Dan on your turn and all you really lost is an Elom to the Bargaining Table. I have forfeited my entire space package to concentrate on ground.

Is this objective really that powerful??? Heck yeah. Look at the other side. You get an extra destiny to power, with this deck it is usually a 4 or 5. You get to cancel a destiny when you are battling lots or cancel a drain when you are in a drain race. You get to retrieve an alien every turn. Plus Eloms are power 4 with an imperial and power 5 when Tanus is at the Audience chamber. Plus you can set up the Audience Chamber as your own private little Hoth Shield with Bo Shuda and plop down Tessek, Figrin Dan, and company.

What about Dengar and Dr Evazan??? While Dengar with carbine and Dr. Evazan together pose a significant threat to any deck with tons of wimps this deck should be able to handle them. You should always have enough forces together so that you can draw destiny even when 2 guys are dead. If you draw a battle destiny of 4 then Dengar and Dr. E both have to take a dirt nap. That means the opponent only really gets one turn to do the Dengar and Dr E combo on you. Two Eloms dead for both Dengar and Dr. E? That is ok.

Why do you use Insurrection and those 2 crappy docking bays??? I have found that this deck tends to have low activation. Eloms deploy for three most of the time and that is expensive. Having those two docking bays gives you force early on and doesn’t give the opponent any big drains on you.

Why not add Seth Potkin??? This guys ability to grab an alien from reserve is cool. He can get Tanus and Geezum. But he is a wimp with power of 1. I decided not to go with him because 3 Tanus is enough to draw one when you need and Geezum needs to survive to use his game text. Geezum hardly does that anyway. Even though I subscribe to the wimps are powerful school of thought, Seth equates to too many wimps in this deck even for me.

Aren’t Eloms automatically bad against decks that only use aliens??? No. While Eloms don’t get their power bonus they still draw high battle destiny on average. Plus with this objective you get another destiny to add to power. So with 2 Eloms at a site with a flipped objective you have power 1 + power 1 + destiny of 4 + destiny of 4. Which equates to power 10. That is the same as Chewie and Han together.

Why not go with speeders or reacting vehicles??? I am always scared of Sense/Alter. If you are counting on something reacting in order to save you, you are taking a big gamble. I like to know that my forces are safe when they are out. I know Eloms can get Trampled, Sabered, Choked, Clashed,and Force Lightninged when they aren’t in vehicles. But when you have 4 or 5 of them at a site you are going to be relatively safe. Plus know what you are getting into before you get into it. If your opponent has Choke Vader, Vader’s Saber, Tempest 1, and Mara Jade at a site, then don’t think 3 Eloms are going to win that battle. Choose your fights carefully. Speeders are destiny 2 which sucks and you need manuevering flaps to make them powerful and then you have to worry about their ability of 1. Too card intensive, where 2 Eloms gives you 8 power with a destiny draw for 6 force and with 4 destiny on each card. I like that.

Tips Remember what Underworld Contacts says. They can’t cancel your Tatooine Drains. Remember to show your rep. Out of the eight tournament games I have played with this deck, I remembered to show my rep once. Remember that Reps that are sitting on your objective are not on the table in terms of uniqueness. You can have all 3 sitting on there and then deploy one somewhere. Remember to retrieve your Elom. I forgot this more times than I can even remember. Remember the dark side can’t use TatooineJabba’s Palace game text unless they control Hutt Trade Route. Remember the deploy bonuses Hnemthe and Uh Oh give those pesky Imperials. First you are going to make them deploy for huge and then you are going to use Eloms on them. That hurts.

Good Luck

-Michael Raveling

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