Ex Nihilo

Title: Ex Nihilo
Author: Norman "Norman" Horn
Date: Mar 1, 2001 Rating: 4.5

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Cards:

‘Objective

Watch Your Step

Locations (5)

Kessel

Tatooine

Tatooine Cantina

Tatooine Docking Bay 94

Home 1 DB

Characters (16)

3x Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight

Luke Skywalker, Rebel Scout

2x Captain Han Solo

2x Dash Rendar

2x Leia with Blaster Rifle

Mirax Terrik

WED-9M1 Bantha Droid

Chewbacca, Protector

Wedge Antilles

Lando with Blaster

Melas

Weapons (2)

2x Luke’s Lightsaber

Starships (4)

2x Millenium Falcon

Outrider

Pulsar Skate

Effects (10)

Insurrection

Staging Areas

Squadron Assignments

Menace Fades

2x What’re You Trying to Push on Us

Bacta Tank

2x Mantellian Savrip

Legendary Starfighter

Interrupts (20)

Heading for the Medical Frigate

3x Control & Tunnel Vision

4x On the Edge

2x I Know

2x Weapon Levitation

The Signal

Effective Repairs (will save your life, guaranteed)

2x A Few Maneuvers

Throw Me Another Charge

The Bith Shuffle & Desperate Reach

2x Out of Commission & Transmission Terminated

Admiral’s Orders (2)

2x I’ll Take The Leader ‘

Strategy: ‘

UPDATE (RESPONSE) I realized that somebody might think of mentioning no Tatooine Celebration or Run Luke Run. The thing is, Tatooine Celebration won’t do all that much considering I’m only going to be potentially occupying one site, so theoretically I may not even be able to deploy it (it does require 2 to deploy, right?). Not including RLR’s were a meta choice because I didn’t expect to touch Hunt Down decks. Even then, I wouldn’t worry much about it considering the very high destinies in this deck. Yeah, if they get 4-Lom, Tarkin, Focused Attack, Obsession, Vader, Saber, all in a battle, they might turn him, but when is that going to happen all at once? Not too often. Anyway, dude, good comments.

UPDATE (RESPONSE TO REVIEW) Ok Mr. IHateAlbany1, I ask for good comments and good reviews, if you can’t manage to give me any helpful hints then give me a higher rating. If you CANNOT tell me why it’s wrong then rate it better. Don’t rate things bad without REASONS people

UPDATE Whoops, sorry about the html stuff, I cut and pasted from Word.

The point of this deck is to take control of space and to survive on the ground using Luke, miscellaneous other characters, Bacta Tank, and the ever-old-skool Savrip Mantellian Savrip will be key to winning against decks such as Scum and Hunt Down. The ability to retrieve for insane amounts with On the Edge and the ability to play interrupts from the lost pile make this deck even harder to deal with. This deck originally had Kessel Run retrieval, but I decided that it would most definitely be better to go for the smaller, more consitent, easier retrieval hence the edges.

You’re most definitely going to ask, “WHY the Savrips?? Won’t Masterful Move give you grief?” Yes, and no. Yes, it can cancel it, but I’m going to grab it first if I can. And even if they do cancel it once, I have TWO Savrips PLUS AN EFFECTIVE REPAIRS ER can be played TWICE if you get it in your hand, use it, then PLAY IT AGAIN from your lost pile to get the canceled Savrip AGAIN With the Signals and Tunnel Visions, you shouldn’t have a problem. I NEVER HAD SAVRIP CANCELED BY MASTERFUL MOVE DURING THE ENTIRE DPC

You’ll probably say, “Your deck is such a pile” Well, you’re wrong, it wins against a lot of decks. It can even beat a majority of Scum decks. It lost two games at the DPC were for these reasons 1) Luke was captured by Hidden Weapons on the third turn versus a MKOS deck; 2) During the second game I couldn’t draw a high destiny to save my life, plus I couldn’t get any retrieval going. Bad formula.

KEEP IN MIND that generally speaking, Luke is going to be left alone at a site. With Savrip, Weapon Levitation, and Bacta Tank you should do ok against sabers and Snoova’s Ax. Your other characters are optional to put down.

Early Game

Pull Kessel and H1DB. It’s great to drop Luke to the H1DB early for the extra activation and minus 3 deployment. Try to find Luke’s Saber, a Savrip, and enough cards to deploy an ample space fleet at Kessel. Use TV early on especially against Scum, because they are giving you a decent amount of extra force. Grab an early Masterful Move.

Mid-Game

First and foremost you need to flip. Set up drains at Kessel and the Cantina and wait for them to deploy before you attack. Watch out for Masterful Moves and grab them. If they come at your lone Cap Han and Falcon play I Know and watch them squirm… Use the Bantha Droid if Lateral Damages give you grief. Start your retreival cycle but watch out for grabbers and Something Special. Don’t draw a ton, because you want to keep your hand less vulnerable to Monnok and to save force for Secret Plans. Setting up Menace Fades is key here.

Late Game

At this point you should have some steady retrieval going and an invulnerable Luke from Weapon Levitation, Luke’s Saber, and Savrip. Keep Luke alive and Menace Fades active and you’ll do fine. Provided that something completely bizarre happens, you should be set up for the win.

Why I picked the cards I did…

Luke, Rebel Scout – I wanted to have him to counter BHBM a little more than I had already. Plus, he’s forfeit 8 (great for Savrip) and isn’t terrible on the ground anyway. You’d much rather be playing a JK Luke on ground, but if you don’t have one this’ll do.

Bantha Droid – While it’s at a docking bay I can cancel lateral damage at the related system. Cool, no destiny draws, no problems. Good addition, but is able to be taken out if necessary.

TWO grabbers – Definitely good, perfect for trapping those recurring Imperial Commands, Abyssin Ornaments, or Hidden Weapons.

Effective Repairs – Have you ever had your Menace Fades buried in your lost pile where you couldn’t even retrieve it? I have…

Throw Me Another Charge – If you’re A Few Maneuvers gets grabbed, this’ll be one of your few remaining cycling sixes. And hey, it can cancel Trooper Assault too.

Matchups…

Court – The easiest of the Scum variants. Just be very, very careful that Hidden Weapons doesn’t capture Luke. Don’t worry about the first few 1-force losses to the mini-visage, but set up your cards the way they come. Try not to go to space without a total ability-7 available (I Know included). Savrip is going to be your life-saver here.

Prodigy – Grab Masterful Move and Put All Sections on Alert. You don’t have to worry about Hidden Weapons as much, so set up ground forces at the Cantina and Tatooine Docking Bay. Go to them at Jabba’s Palace if you can.

SYCFA Scum – I haven’t seen anyone play SYCFA Scum without Brangus so I’ll just gloss over this. Don’t worry too much about their space fleet, but be wary if they start saving force. See if you can get a starship to the Death Star. Even if they come at you, they’ll be stuck there with no drains, leaving you more free at Kessel and Tatooine.

MKOS – The hardest of the Scum matchups. If you get a decent draw and Savrip down in time for their flipping, you should do ok. It’s really cool if you can get Menace Fades working fast against this deck. The only reason I lost to these decks was because of a terrible draw (and no way to get retrieval going) and an early Hidden Weapons that captured Luke. Hmm, maybe I should add a Captive Fury…

Hunt Down – Uhh, yeah, whatever. If you actually play against a Hunt Down deck nowadays, that would be interesting. Don’t be afraid to lose from reserve early, you’ll most likely retrieve it later and there is a lot of redundancy in this deck. Deploy JK Luke and get him to the Cantina alone. Deploy Savrip only if you have the force to play a grabber also. Play OOC-TT to cancel visage. Their space fleet won’t be able to catch up with yours. If worse comes to worse, then you can theoretically use On the Edge to get rid of Luke during a battle (or even before it, if they’ve deployed Tarkin, 4-Lom, and Vader and you expect a duel). Your retrieval should keep you intact.

BHBM – If they deploy Palpatine to the Cantina first turn, deploy your Rebel Scout Luke there from reserve and battle. If you think they’re going to lose Empy (because your destiny was high or something) then you might consider not losing Luke, but if they only have to lose one or two then just lose Luke and deploy him again later. Eventually you’ll want to give him Scout Luke and move Vader away. Concentrate on getting your retrieval going and not losing battles (which, obviously, will kill you). Your Bantha Droid could end up being very big here. Your system setup should be as follows Outrider + Dash + Pulsar Skate + Mirax/Wedge at Tatooine, Falcon + Han + Leia + a waiting I Know at Kessel. This, I believe, maximizes your power potential. If you get your drains going early, you might be able to deal them enough damage that they won’t be able to deploy a whole lot of big things come mid-game. Plus, Savrip should suck up any damage that they do to you. Grab Imperial Command and Masterful Move.

Black Sun – Yeah right, they have no chance versus your superior space fleet and super-man Luke. That is, unless they have Hidden Weapons. If they Hidden Weapons Luke you’ll have an interesting game on your hands. Maybe that Captive Fury is a good idea…

Ralops – Uh-oh , you may have a very very very hard game ahead of you Savrip will be your savior though Get to Ralltir and make an attempt to never let them flip. If they do, oh well. Retrieve like mad. Gee whiz, this might just be an auto-loss, but give it a good effort.

REMEMBER

Wedge Antilles is forfeit monster when flipped. Perfect BactaTank/Savrip fodder. Then retrieve him with Edges and start over.
ALL your smugglers are forfeit + 2 when flipped, so they work EVEN BETTER for savrip.
Masterful Move is bad. So keep those grabbers handy.
The Bantha Droid is nifty, but not essential, you can take him out if you feel that something else is needed.
EFFECTIVE REPAIRS IS AWESOME It will save your life, as it has mine. Get Menace Fades, Legendary Starfighter, and Savrip back – again and again

Anything else I’ve missed? I think most everything here is self-explanatory. It’s a decent deck, it just got some bad breaks at the DPC. But I’m not saying it had the potential to take the DPC either…

Thanks for looking, please rate with real comments.

God bless,

~Norman Horn ‘