Solar Eclipse
Title: Solar Eclipse
Author: John "Parn12" Digiovanni
Date: Feb 23, 2001
Rating: 4.5
--------------------------------
Cards:
‘Starting (8)
ABS/VDP
Coruscant Imperial City
Coruscant
Prince Xizor
Prepared Defenses
All Wraped Up
Imperial Arrest Order
Mobilization Points
Locations (7)
Coruscant Docking Bay
Executor Docking Bay
Tatooine Docking Bay 94
Cloud City East Platform
Jabba’s Palace Dungeon
Cloud City Security Tower
Wakeelmui
Characters (18)
Judo Kast x2
Ree-Yees
Vigo x3
Prince Xizor
Bossk With Mortar Gun
Boba Fett
Boba Fett With Blaster Rifle
Dengar With Blaster Carbine
The Emperor x2
IG-88 With Riot Gun
Guri
Snoova
4-LOM With Concussion Rifle
Djas Puhr
Vehicles (3)
Blizzard 1
Tempest Scout 1
Tempest Scout 2
Interrupts (14)
Sonic Bombardment x2
Hidden Weapons x3
Double Back x2
Operational As Planned x2
Force Lightning x2
Twi’Lek Advisor
Abyssin Ornament
Trample
Effects (7)
Search And Destroy
Presence Of The Force x2
Bounty x2
Secret Plans
Death Mark
Weapons (3)
Boba Fett’s Blaster Rifle
Virbo-Ax
Mandalorian Armor ‘
Strategy: ‘
A fun deck packed with tricks… do not dare rate this deck without reading up on it first, give me at least that respect if nothing else.
Early game activation is where its at, the more you have the more you deploy… a simple fact. You start off with 5 force, no matter what, and give up 0, that has to be the most benificial start Decipher has come up with to date. Always run IAO and Mob. Points, All Wrapped up is a logical choice based on my area… you may need to run something else a little more crucial to your area based on what is played a lot (You Cannot Hide Forever, TINT/OE, whatever), but numbers and SAC are few and far between here so I start a more useful effect.
Anyways, to start things up, go for the db’s… who didn’t see that coming? Try to get Coruscant db first, as you can slide Xizor over there 1st turn and activate another 2 force. Then it is just a matter of massing a crew to go wreck your opponent.
I purposefully left out space in this deck. I’ve played against 1 HB deck over the past few months, and it was a non-flip one at that, so that eliminates the dire need to have at least enough to probe… and there’s enough other things in the deck to deal with WYS drains at Kessel.
There are a few odd card choices in the deck, the first is probably the Bounty. Yes, this card is hopelessly useless if I can’t draw my prisons, but even then it is pretty awesome alone. Snoova drops for -3 there, Bossk with gun is actually useful now, and then the retrieval potiental. And to solve the problem of getting those blasted prisons out, I tossed in a couple of Sonic Bombardments… an awesome card in its own respect. Use it to get the prisons out if you need to, otherwise run any captives you come up with over to the prison and abuse them good.
Battles are pretty straight up too, of course using VOTDP text to maximize losses, but also tossing in character removal to help things along a bit. Bossk and Iggy each, when used correctly (tracking), can eliminate a character by capturing them (Bossk is wonderful against Jedi Luke), sneaky addition of a Trample can deal with pesky spies or just remove another character from his fighting force, Snoova with Ax is just too good, Hidden Weapons is a sweet removal card as well. So there should be no lack of captives going around, between immediate capturing and loading up the rest of your bounty hunters after the battle with All Wrapped Up. Use your brain when pondering who to eliminate first from a battle.
Now capturing is not a problem with this set-up, but there’s got to be something to do with all these people floating around with your hunters. If it happens to be an alien, give your opponent a huge headache with the lost text on Sonic Bombardment (if you have an alien captive at a prison, opponent must lose 3 force), track them both through your deck and nail him big constantly (pretty much every turn if you can retrieve them good). This damage is just horrid, hope he’s packing a grabber, and didn’t waste it on something crappy like a Trample, Force Lightning, or Operational As Planned. Go for the Tatooine prison if you can, as this can maximize your damage to your opponent with Sonic Bombardment, then retrieve 2 for delivering a captive, then more if you got a bounty on him.
Of course the rest is simple, drain off of Coruscant with Vigos and POTF, do some damage with Xizor and Palpy, or team them up to boost your attrition up another 2 (easily accomplished considering the capturing power).
Specific Card Explination
Mandalorian Armor Gives immunity, +2 power, and can play Hidden Weapons… what more reason do you need?
Fett’s Gun Fun on Judo, good on Fett if you want to retrieve more (CC Fett makes captives +5 forfeit, which makes a bounty retrieve forfeit +3). Also it can blast a lot of stuff.
Death Mark Go to Kessel, Dash, I’ll drop this on a Coruscant site and drive you nuts. This card is awesome, and it WILL be played against WYS.
Abyssian Ornament Destiny 5, Vigo fetcher, and a possible retrieval of a couple, provided you’d want to track up a low destiny with Vigos.
Djas Puhr Not the best character, but good potiential. I commonly like to play Mandalorian Armor on him, making him pretty much a tank on the ground. Also, does he consider Palpy’s icon for his power bonus? Just a question I wanted to ask.
Ree-Yees Good deploy vs. stats, plus he can magically make a 3 into a destiny 6, that is HUGE.
Wakeelmui No sense in giving my opponent an icon when I’m running no space, but a shame not to at least use Mob. Points for another icon while I can. +1 movement to there, for a silly drain of 1. And who knows, maybe he’ll think I’m playing some stupid hunter deck playing unique ties… it could happen
Anyways, this deck is a riot to play… and has tournament potiential, but also has the potiential to drive your opponent mad once he sees all his characters getting locked up. Play at your own risk, lol. And remember, a captured character is so much better than a lost character… he can’t be played again
A couple of matchups before I go
WYS Light deck culprit #1. Yep, light side is getting a little one-track minded here. Granted it is probably the single strongest deck around. If he’s running a Kessel drain deck, just stuff it and get on with life, there are ways to irritate him back. Once he goes for the Cantina drain come in to lay the smack down in a place ripe with characters to capture (many aliens to boot). You’ll make his activation difficult, and he will dent yours a lot too when he flips. Pretty much, if you do it right, all he’ll have all game is a Kessel drain. Harvest is easily eliminated by snagging Owen and Beru, Tat Celebration goes when you chase him off or just take all his guys off to prison. Just beware Master Luke, Hidden Weapons and Bossk typically take care of him well. And a Bounty at Bossk’s site is just wicked against this deck, as WYS smugglers run 1-3 destiny, and 2-4 destiny draws are rampant in this deck. Eliminate his multi-destiny draws and you should win easily.
MWYHL Presence of a Skywalker and Test 1 hurt big, definitely POTF the CC DB, maybe the Executor one too, he can’t POS there. Expect to see Luke, and plan on having trouble pretty much all game (if he runs through test 3). This deck is particularly popular anymore, and can be problematic, but typically they run heavy doubles+ of mains… so if you can steal them all he should crumble.
TIGIH Snag Luke at your own risk, as it will more than likely flip your objective, but it will also make you lose 2 every of your turns. Scout Swarms are handled just like smuggers, Bossk and Iggy will give them headaches… also Ewok Sentries (or unique ones) are wonderful Sonic Bombardment bait, go for Wuta if he’s scout swarming on Endor. Shouldn’t have many problems out of this deck if you half way know what you’re doing. I haven’t seen a TIGIH-Speeder deck, and don’t expect to see one in this area, so I did not bother to plan for it.
HB Flip Pain in the bum is all this is. Hopefully direct damage will do the trick, but the drain elimination can hurt too. Just get to the ground and go. I’ve not seen one of these in a long time, and hopefully WYS will keep them from coming back around too.
HB Non-Flip (battle) Expect to see a lot of your people die, but capture where you can. Snagging mains should be your goal, as it severely hurts his character pool. KFC is handled by capturing too, giving you that alien again. His Bacta Tank should be useless if you can immediately capture his characters. If it is a celebration deck (okay, that is OLD), just chase him off his planet.
TRM See HB Non-Flip… don’t expect a lot of force, and beware of those accursed Fallen Portals.
This deck is fun to play, really fun, especially when you can take out 3 or more of his characters with normally pathetic destiny draws and kill a handful of characters with attrition off of a draw of 3. ‘