Surgeon
Title: Surgeon
Author: Heraclio "Morgoth" Sanchez
Date: Apr 9, 2001
Rating: 4.5
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Cards:
‘Start (8)
Set Your Course For Surgery/
Death Star
DS dbay
Alderaan
Prep. Def.
Oppressive Enforcement (please read strategy for this)
Mob. Points
Planetary Subjugation
Locations (9)
Wakeelmui
Kiffex
Corulag
Sullust
Endor
DS Detention block control room.
DS dbay x3
Characters (5)
Brangus Glee x3
EPP Vader
U3PO
Starships (17)
Dreadnaught x4
Scimtar Squad. TIE x3
TIE Bomber x8
Shield
Sword
Weapons (3)
Proton Bombs x2
Concussion Missiles
Aldmiral Orders (1)
Battle Deployment
Effects (6)
Sienar Fleet Systems x2
Grabber
Dreaded Imperial Starfleet
Secret Plans
Battle Order
Interrupts (11)
Put All Sections On Alert x2
Twilek Advisor
All power to Weapons x3
Overload x2
I Can´t Shake Him
Point Man
Tarkin´s Orders
’
Strategy: ‘
*** Update 1 ***
Pull one Overload for Short Range Figthers
*** End update 1 ***
Strategy Section
Please read this to the end. Constructive criticism wellcome.
I´ll try to explain every single point in this deck. Here´s why and why not for any card included and lots of excluded ones.
This deck combines some of the most devastating strategies for dark side. It´s basically a TIEs deck with some twists. It uses Bombers instead of Interceptors and the Brangus engine. In addition some tricks were included for better balance and unexpected damage.
I know some players in Decktech say TIEs are cheese and others think the Brangus engine it´s not worth. It´s OK for me but decks win by efficiency and both strategies and undoubtedly efficient.
I assume all of you know how TIE decks work. This one works pretty similar to the others but uses bombers instead of interceptors. Why? Here are some reasons.
Interceptors
More power than bombers.
Better weapons vs starfighters.
Bombers
Huge destiny flexibility (see below) from 0 to 7
Weapons vs starfighters AND capitals.
Collapsing sites.
Interceptors are pretty straight forward. Huge power and starfighter machine gun. Bombers are not. You´ve got less power so must be careful vs swarm decks but their flexibility and loads of dirty tricks make them more effective (and funnier too).
Brangus provides you with a secondary retrieval engine and a selective one. This is very important since you can use one card multiple times. You may think that you can get this with any other retrieval engine but the true power of Brangus is that you retrieve it directly to your hand. Thanks to Brangus I´ve been able to mae four sucidal runs with just one Vader during the same game or playing overload many times or deploying+batlling+killing+retrieving the same Emp. Shield three turns in a row and retrieving three cards per turn.
For any further explanation about TIEs or Brangus check out Raphael Asselin´s Bomber deck and Bastian Winkelhaus´ Brangus Glee Superstar. Props to them for their great ideas and inspiration.
Now let´s see what makes this deck different
Start classic start but for one thing. I don´t use the TINT/OE combe because I find more useful getting a +1 destiny for my dreadnaughts than the TINT thing (no one plays SAC these days).
Locations standard system selection plus Corulag. Corulag is NOT gay. It´s not for draining, but connects low parsec systems (Death Star, Alderaan, Wakeelmui and Kiffex) with high ones (Sullust and Endor), remember your Dreads have low hyperspeed. You´ve got good draining power and flexibility to move wherever your opponent is.
DS Detention block control room is for activation. I prefer this vs War Room or any other because it´s not affected by flipping WYS and has no force drain bonuses for LS.
Big One I playtested Big One for recirculating my TIEs and get unlimited retrieval. Vs space decks it´s not worth since you get the same effect battling. Vs ground decks you don´t need huge deployment so there was no real use for it.
Characters Brangus engine is powerful and you need it as fast as possible. Three is the right number. You can get him fast enough and have some for replacement if Brangus dies. EPP Vader is awesome for suicidal attacks. Combined with huge weapon destiny and Overload (killing one character and then battle a lone scrub) can make your opponent pay a high price if he spreads. A second Vader is not worth of the slot. Use Brangus and retrieve Vader for multiple suicide runs.U3PO is there to block any drain that cannot be collapsed or hit by Vader. I prefer U3PO to Arica because you don´t get a beatdown if opponent breaks its cover.
Merrejk. Sure Merrejk is a great character. Heavy playtesting has shown me he is only effective if you get him fast. You have to ways to do this getting Piett and then searching Merrejk or packing three Merreks. None of this is acceptable for this deck. I´ve even tried packing him and undercover but it resulted too card intensive.
Starships nothing new here. Scimtars are great for their great forfeit and they add one to concussion missiles destiny (this is cummulative). I´ve tried packing just three Dreads but it didn´t work well. Death Star Assault Squadron is truly a powerful card but I can´t use it with EPP Vader and daddy with saber has proven more valuable.
Weapons Concussion missiles are great combined with Scimtars. You can get a destiny +4 vs starfighters and +3 vs capitals. My average weapon destiny is huge because Planetary Subjugation so I don´t usually have problems taking any starfighter down.
Proton Bombs Awesome. Pure tech. Control the system and then destroy every interior site. It is a weapon destiny so you may take advantage of Planetary Subjugation. For a practical exercise go to my 04/07/01 Ithor TR.
Aldmiral Orders Battle Deployment fits perfectly on this deck. Not just helps your ships (specially vs swarms) but can be really helpful for Vader.
Effects all of them are quite straight forward. One of my beta versions used Imperial Decree (with Hoth and Yavin systems) but was not really helpful. Collapsing, U3PO, Vader and Tarkin´s Orders are enough cutting ground drains. Space drains? Battle and kill´em all.
Bombing Run it´s fun and you can kick your opponent´s a-s-s but I found that it was cancelled once and once again by Control/Tunnel Vision.
Some may think Battle Order is a double edged sword. It´s not true. If they don´t come to DS Brangus will do the job. If they come just deploy one bomber and retrieve one card. They´ll kill it and send it to used pile. Deploy one bomber and retieve….
Interrupts POSOA goes with Brangus engine. It may also avoid early beatdowns vs Brangus.
All power to weapons, any questions about it?
Overload, huge tech vs characters AND ships. Your bombers are weak vs weapons. Ok, track a 0 destiny (any bomber or DSdb, which is easy) and destroy weapon and starhip. Same with characters, kill those pesky EPPs, ECCs, Mains & Toys and then suicide your Vader killing the rest.
Twilek advisor you need effects, don´t you?
I can´t shake him getting your weapons fast is great. It also adds one battle destiny after firing one. Used 5 destiny interrupt.
Point Man order to engage can hurt you a lot if they deploy some mains on front of Brangus.
Tarkin´s Orders multitool. May cancel a force drain to a related site to a system you control AND cancels a bunch of cards. This card was added after my only FL with this deck when opponent played surprised assault with tracked destinies and kicked my @#$% off. No more.
Ghhkkk/Those Rebels it was included on every beta version of this deck but I found I rarely used it. Brangus does not need it and you usually deploy en masse on space.
Lots of interrupts may be added and be helpful. I just don´t find them better to the ones I pack.
Now for the match-ups
Vs WYS (Palace Riders, Harvest, Celebration) not too difficult. You should overpower him on Tattoine and them collapse Cantina and docking bay killing anyone there. They´re multiple destinies won´t help this time.
Vs WYS (heavy space) tougher match-up. Play wisely and kill them to death. Don´t spread and you´ll win. You can take heavy force drain damage from the beginning due to your huge retrieval. Hit their ground forces with Vader.
Vs Mains & Toys (Hidden Mains, Throne Room, any other version) easy win. They rely on sabers for huge drains = overload. If they come to your DS sites collapse them (don´t worry loosing Brangus, just deploy another one inside a Dreadnaught. Drain them to death.
Vs RTPyou need to collapse your and his DS sites. Collapse anything BUT the prison. If you kill Leia your opponent will deploy another one to Yavin. They will never be able to complete Death Star Plans.
Vs RST This may be a tough match-up since they use exterior sites (which you can´t collapse) but it´s not. Concentrate all you power on Endor and they won´t flip. Once you control Endor drain them to death.
Vs EBO Toughest match-up. Choose battles wisely. Start Battle Order instead OE. When their characters appear overload them and/or pay a visit with Vader. Battle Order and retrieval will give you the edge. If Deadbolt is popular on your area add main course and pull one overload.
Vs HB (space) pretty much like EBO. Battle Order will rip them off. Overload their cannons. Battle Deployment is a must vs swarms.
Vs DBO drain them to death and kill them if they come to space.
Vs MBO Don´t let them flip. They´re ususally too slow for you. If they have any chance of succeding collapse any DS sites so there will be no icons.
Vs Profit I´ve never seen any of these for a long time. If popular in your area add Tattoine system. Collapsing Audience Chamber will head you to victory.
Vs AITC same as Profit.
I cannot think of any other match-ups. I think this deck could be defined by one word resilience. During playtesting I could recover and win after receiving sever damge from force drains or beatdowns.
Thank you very much for reading all the way to the end. Once more give constructive critics. It´s the only way you may help improving this deck. I will also advice you to play the deck. You´ll find it´s full of surprises.
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