ISB that WINS

Title: ISB that WINS
Author: Luca "Luca/Tzizvvt" Costanzo
Date: Nov 28, 2000 Rating: 4.5

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Cards:

‘ISB Coruscant Square Points IAO Prepared Defenses Another Effect To Taste

Rendili Executor DB Coruscant DB Coruscant Yavin IV DB Hoth DB Imperial Holotable

Darth Vader, Dark Lord Of The Sith Darth Vader With Lightsaber GMT Commander Igar IG-88 With Riot Gun 4-LOM With Concussion Rifle (2) Janus Greejatus Barquin D’an Mii’yoom Onith Admiral Ozzel Veers 5D6-RA-7 Chall Bekan Outer Rim Scout Commander Merrejk Officer Evax Captain Jonus Colonel Wulf Yularen Corporal Oberk Lieutenant Pol Treidum

Executor (accept no substitutes) Chimaera Bossk In Hound’s Tooth Zuckuss In Mist Hunter Dominator

Blizzard 1 Blizzard 2 Tempest 1

CHYBC Decree Battle Order You Cannot Hide Forever Search And Destroy Security Precautions There’ll Be Hell To Pay First Strike Oppressive Enforcement Visage of the Emperor

Monnok Alter Trample Twi’lek Advisor Imperial Command (2) Masterful Move (2) Operational As Planned ‘

Strategy: ‘

** RESPONSE TO REVIEWERS **

Mikey P Yes, heavy SA is probably fairly bad for this, but the thing is that the card that wins you the game is Empire’s Sinister Agents, which is affected by neither ) You will eventually grapple Sense, and Janus Greejatus will make your sole Alter the most annoying one in the game. The interrupts are not really that essential- they are the best of the best, but having your Trample or IC grappled won’t lose you the game. Looking at your opponent, however, they will have about 10 SA cards, which are effectively dead. At least, that’s what I reckon )

To Tessek CPA and blackgecko Yes, Nevar Yalnal is cool, but just doesn’t do enough. Half of the time, you don’t actually have agents PRESENT, though. I did think about playing it, but decided it was too specific. blackgecko- Ephant Mon is not such a bad idea. I could start Power of The Hutt and then chuck him at the square to prevent Blount from ever deploying to Coruscant. The Problem with this is that that wastes SE #3, which is crucial when you get OE or Battle Order. Blount is fine- he will die, so I think that it’s probably fine how it is.

I’m glad to see that the people who have reviewed this were thinking creatively Good to see

** Back to strat **

Before DSII, the most powerful dark side deck was undoubtedly Stuart Jones’ ’Tight-Arse ISB’. With the release of DSII, people seem to have shied away from ISB merely because of the presence of Blount. What people seen not to realise that ISB (and indeed dark in general) has gained three extremely powerful cards in Mobilisation Points, Prepared Defences and Janus Greejatus. The other DSII cards included are just the icing on the cake. One scrub will not stop this deck- it’s a machine

Start with Coruscant Imperial Square, ISB Ops, Mobilisation Points, Prepared Defences, Imperial Arrest Order and another suitable effect to taste. Pull Rendili first turn unless you have Merrejk in your starting hand. Masterful Move for the Holotable ASAP. Put some scrubs at the docking bays to set up some generation. As the game progresses, get out Janus to do some serious tracking with the Masterful Moves and Operational As Planneds, as well as sorting out what cards you want. Set up some dinky Barquin D’an/Rendili/First Strike retrieval to augment ISB retrieval. Basically, you should be able to win any war of attrition with your recurring forfeit 5-7 scrubs, who are immune to weapons because they sit inside ships and walkers. Late game, you will be activating an arseload of surplus force, so plonk down Mii’yoom Onith and that should be game. ISB + Decree + Retrieval means that your opponent should do pretty much 0 damage to you.

What about Blount?

Blount? You mean the guy that gets killed by every single weapon and Trample? Seriously, though, Blount is awesome. Definitely one of my top LS DSII picks- I seem to add him into almost every LS deck I build. Blount has prompted me to try starting with the Imperial Square more often, to allow ease of trampling when Blount deploys to Coruscant. Yes, I do still have a Coruscant in there, this is because, even if Blount goes to space, you can just do some impressive rigging with Janus and beat the living crap out of him. The only real problem is landing claw, but if your capital gets clawed and has Blount attached, just move it to Rendili. If they follow, you flip. If they don’t, you deploy Zuckuss with 4-LOM and some scrubs to beatdown on Blount. It can be tricky, but it really shouldn’t even make you flinch.

Why the Holotable?

To tell you the truth, I didn’t feel that the generation was great, but I didn’t want to add a bunch of twixes because I wanted to keep the destiny fairly high. With Honor, less and less people are playing Transmission Terminated. The problem is that, with the resurgence of Hunt Down and No Escape, we are starting to see a shift towards it. Four force loss is not a big deal, though. Just retrieve two agents and gamble twice. If your opponent beats the crap out of your Monnok with a Projection of a Skywalker, deploy First Strike and beat the crap out of it with a Visage, or just deploy CHYBC (Holotable is no longer a battleground).

Veers? Are you serious? Is that a typo?

No, there is actually a Veers in here. The sole reason being that he is a general for the purposes of Imperial Command. In longer games, if your opponent plonks ’da crew in front of your guys and drops an Order To Engage, you can house them with IC. Also works with Igar.

No Reactor Terminal?

You guys all know Janus = God Seriously, though, Janus is a faster rig, and allows you to get to more important cards.

You bastard You copied Stuart Jones’ deck

Not much I can say to that ) Stuart and I often play against each other in tournaments, and he always plays the strongest decks. It’s a good theory ) This deck is very different from his pre-DSII original, but it is still only the logical extension.

Enough waffling on- onto the matchups

Vs. Mains and Toys

This is probably the most popular light deck in Melbourne currently. What can I say, perhaps we’re all just too nostalgic Use Oppressive Enforcement as Effect #3. Basically, there is nothing they can do. You have all the answers. A walker with fodder on it will have more staying power than their mains. Throw in the big guns- Igar, Vader, Tarkin and the droids and you should see their guys rapidly decline. Grapple Sense. The Visage is in there for my favourite (note British spelling- I am an Aussie ) trick- Trample/Choke Obi-Wan or Jedi Luke. Say go. Use Janus. Do it again. If they hang around, do it again during your turn. As mentioned above, if they gather the crew together, you can use IC with Veers, or just avoid them. If they’re on Cloud City, find your Decree, plonk the droid on CC (or a whole stack of guys with the big guns), retrieve the Dominator to cover the lonesome drain of 1 that they will get from the Lower Corridor and then win. Shouldn’t be a hard game.

Vs. EBO

There are two main types of EBO at the moment Suicide EBO (see Hunter’s deck) or a slower, probably more mains oriented, variant. Regardless of which, start with Battle Order as Effect #3. Just go ahead and pull Rendili. You will need it for generation, your opponent will have enough systems to drain at anyway, and there’s no point grabbing it later than first turn. Set up Decree ASAP using walkers at the two outermost Hoth sites. Don’t be a chump and convert their docking bay. As soon as you’re ready, deploy Search and Destroy. Crush whatever comes to fight your guys- it won’t be hard. Between Battle Order and Decree, you shouldn’t suffer from too many drains. Plonk down guys on ships to fight off the X-Wings, but for crying out loud- keep track of your opponent’s hand It can be tough, and it looks to basically come down to a) your early generation setup and b) how long it takes to find Decree. With two Janus Greejatuses and a Twi’lek, you stand a decent chance. Of course, that’s more for Hunter’s deck than a slower variant. If you play the slower one, just treat it as M&T that you need Decree against.

Vs. Profit

Start with Oppressive Enforcement as effect #3 and Coruscant instead of the square. Don’t be a complete idiot and start with aliens. The aliens here will not stand up to Profit. May be slightly tough, depending on how fast you get started. The problem with Profit is that it doesn’t get good generation set up naturally. The Profit decks I have seen recently have all used Docking Bays and Staging areas. By paying attention to the ’… and spies’ clause on your objective ) you should be able to cut down their generation. Throw a crew into the Audience Chamber. If Han stays there, you kill him. If he goes outside, he gets Trampled. It’s lose-lose. Even if they do flip, Profit will probably only hit you for one or MAXIMUM two a turn. You can retrieve that with Rendili, ISB and Barquin D’an. One last note always take Fallen Portal into consideration.

Vs. Speeders/Agents In The Court

Start Oppressive Enforcement and Coruscant instead of the Square. Look at their maximum drain. If you throw ISB agents on Tatooine, your opponent will not be able to do significant damage to you. Put a walker with some scrubs on board at the Hutt Trade routes and just crush anything that goes in front of it. Let’s say that they deploy 5 speeders with Flaps in front of your guys. Power 25. Two walkers/walker and Vader will be about 16-ish. Lose two ISB agents and you should be fine. They’ll lose more. Because of the fighting nature of this game, you need to set up drains at Coruscant, Rendili and the Holotable on the side to win easily (ie without timing out). If they are careless, Monnok will win you the game. If they aren’t, you should still be able to win fairly easily. Chadra-Fans and Eloms are easier than Speeders, seeing as you can Choke/Trample them.

Vs. Dagobah Turtle/MWYHL

Start You Cannot Hide Forever. When you’re ready, ditch it for Search And Destroy. Test One will stop ISB Agents and Coruscant from adding to drains. So what? You only drain for 3 (Rendili and Docking Bays) and Search And Destroy for 5 a turn. They will cause you about 0 loss a turn. If an AFA pops, retrieve the Dominator, get back agents and use Barquin D’an. Should take about two turns to recover. Deploy CHYBC and Mii’yoom Onith. These two in combination will win you the game easily. Grapple Visored Vision. Either break cover of the spies with Pol Treidum and Janus, or just Squish them. Be careful not to deploy Vader, as some people will play Uncontrollable Fury.

Vs. Hidden Base/Hidden Base Mains

Just start with Oppressive Enforcement and proceed as normal. Hold back a walker if you see Kirdo III. Put ships and guys at Alderaan/Kessel to beatdown after they retrieve with their Uttini Effects. If they are playing a drain-dedicated version, just deploy Security Precautions and Battle Order.

Vs. Revo

This is probably the worst matchup, depending on how many actual Revos they play, merely because I am not expecting it. Rather than just adding CTR/Evader, this deck is a good argument to just play another Alter. In any case, start with Oppressive Enforcement. If they have a decent S/A package, as well as 4+ Revolutions, they probably have about 10+ cards that are useless against the majority of decks. Because of this, you shouldn’t face it too often at tournaments, because people playing really heavy Revo with S/A will probably just lose to some random guy playing something like SYCFA ties. Nonetheless, it is a very real threat for this deck. Basically, I would just set up as normal. Don’t be afraid to pull Rendili, Rebel Base DBs and the Holotable (immune to Revolution). You will need the generation more. If they are silly enough to go with the traditional Throne Room/Farm/Swamp start, you will be fine because you will just kill the Nudjs. Otherwise, just flip, and you should still be able to win.

Vs. TIGIH

Oh no Luke gets instantly captured so I can’t beat the living crap out of him What will I do? Treat like any other deck, just don’t spread out too thin, and give Luke to Vader. If you get the chance, you can just kill Luke with 4-LOM and/or alien pilots on Walkers, but it really shouldn’t make too much difference. Again, this seems to be a deck that relies on Docking Bays, so you should be able to choke them.

Vs. Ops

Read Imperial Decree. Read Empire’s Sinister Agents. Shake their hand. Seriously, though, you want to be careful not to over-deploy, so that you can try and win by about 45 )

Vs. Anything Else

Phew I thought I covered everything The main thing to remember is that, although you can lock your opponent down, you can also set up an aggressive presence. If in doubt, flip and drain the your opponent. Retrieval and ISB should cut any losses down to a minimum, and you should be able to just win.

Cards I’m not sure about

Well, Hidden Base seems to be fading out as a drain/space beatdown deck in my meta, so I think that you would be justified in taking Security Precautions out. I never seem to use Vader With Lightsaber, so that could go. If TT is popular in your meta, just take the Holotable out. Cards that could go in include Imperial Barrier, more ships or walkers, Crush The Rebellion/Evader, Secret Plans/Shocking Revelation, Presence of the Force and Set For Stun.

Have fun with this deck, it’s amazingly tight ‘