Imperial Hospitality (Vegas DPC Dark Deck)

Title: Imperial Hospitality (Vegas DPC Dark Deck)
Author: Adam "adrock" Montgomery
Date: May 3, 2001 Rating: 4.5


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Cards:

‘DARK SIDE - IMPERIAL HOSPITALITY

a.k.a. “Overall Tractor, Overall Beam”

Starting (5)

Fondor

Prepared Defenses

Mobilization Points

Imperial Arrest Order

Oppressive Enforcement

Locations (6)

Death Star II Docking Bay

Executor Docking Bay

Endor

Kashyyyk

Kessel

Sullust

Characters (13)

Grand Admiral Thrawn

Admiral Piett

Admiral Chiraneau x2

Admiral Ozzel

Captain Lennox

Captain Godherdt

Lieutenant Cabbel

Commander Merrejk

Officer Evax

Warrant Officer M’Kae

Arica

U-3PO

Starships (10)

Executor

Chimaera x2

Tyrant

Death Squadron Star Destroyer x3

Bossk In Hounds Tooth

IG-88 In IG-2000

Zuckuss In Mist Hunter

Devices (3)

Tractor Beam x3

Interrupts (15)

In Range x3

Our First Catch Of The Day x2

Flawless Marksmanship

They’ve Shut Down The Main Reactor x2

I Can’t Shake Him

Imperial Command x5

Point Man

Effects (6)

There’ll Be Hell To Pay x2

Lateral Damage x2

Something Special Planned For Them

Secret Plans

Admirals Orders (2)

We’re In Attack Position Now x2 ‘

Strategy: ‘

UPDATE - 5/21/2001

To Andrew ”MasterYoda13” Howard I’m guessing the number in your nick represents your age. I’ve never had problems with SAC, nor have I had problems with activation. I activate at least ten on my second turn in every game, assuming my opponent doesn’t give me any. SAC can be tricky, but doesn’t pose a major threat. The raw power is still enough to win, and like I said in my strategy, if SAC is big in your area, use the TINT/OE combo card. They’ll run out of Senses eventually and you’ll still have everything needed to win. Also, if you don’t want to play with two Chimaeras, fine… I already adressed this in my strat, but since you obviously can’t read, I’ll say it again I think it’s important enough to use two, and if you don’t want to, I’d suggest using the Vengeance because of it’s higher destiny. Use any other ship you want to though.

UPDATE - 5/10/2001

To Edmund Thanks for the constructive review. You bring up some very good points, so allow me to respond

Set For Stun - I used to play with the combo version to combat MWYHL Test 1 decks, but I took it out because of the low destiny. I may add the old school version since the destiny is better, but I hate to lose the Control aspect of the combo. Anyway, good suggestion, however, I’ll probably capture everyone I need to in space, so it probably won’t help me much there.

Dark Waters - Man, I really want to use this card, but that destiny sucks. If it were at least a three, I’d have two copies in there, no question. The first version of this deck actually had two, but in one game I never got either of them in my hand and drew them for destiny twice. Not cool.

Dominator instead of Tyrant - What for? Tyrant adds one to TB draws, and Lennox adds three to power. Dominator would be okay if I was playing with Rendilli, but otherwise it has no real use. But thanks for the ideas.

UPDATE - 5/7/2001

To Martin Falke First of all, ”Draw Their Fire and Beggar” is five words, not one, but I won’t hold that against you since Nazis obviously can’t count. Secondly, what’s your point? I’ve already beaten your deck multiple times, and it’s not that great. Sure it has caused me anywhere from 40 to 60 battle damage, but I still won in all of those games. Raw power + huge forfeit = I win. You can clear my system if you want to, but I’m coming back next turn with more ships and tractor beams, and you can’t do a thing about it because your Beggar is lost. After that I just drain you out because you can’t play ships from your lost pile. Blow me, Adolf.

UPDATE - 5/4/2001

To AgentSD My ship selection is not ”gay”. I prefer IG-88 in this particular deck because it works better for beating someone down. He adds a destiny, which is huge since it’s such a high-destiny deck. Slave 1 gives me no real advantage… I initate all the battles here, and Iggy takes better advantage of that.

A couple reviews are deducting points for my ”weird start”. Well, what else should I start with? I already explained that I don’t want to start with an objective because it dilutes the deck. If I wanted to start SYCFA or Endor Ops, I’d have to make room for three or four more cards, and I just don’t have the room for that. Plus I’d be giving my opponent extra places to deploy to and drain me. It just doesn’t make sense… Starting Fondor is great because it’s one less system I have to pull out with Merrejk, and I run absolutely no risk of having it get stuck in my force pile. I’m activating tons of force as it is… starting with anything else will hurt the deck, and I love seeing the look on people’s faces when I bust out Fondor as my starting location They have no idea what to do, and I think that alone gives me a mental head start.

Also, SAC has never given me a problem because most people don’t expect In Range or OFCOTD, so you can play Imperial Command to get rid of their Senses. And feel free to start with the TINT/OE combo… they’ll run out of Senses eventually and you WILL start capturing ships. I just don’t see much SAC anymore in my area.

END UPDATE

Well, this is the deck I decided to take to the Vegas DPC, partly because I knew I’d have fun with it, but also because it was undefeated up until that point, having played against a wide variety of decks. It only lost once (by seven) at the DPC, based solely on a dumb mistake I made (see my report), and Ira Babb took this deck to Texas states and placed 5th. He did lose with it once, but that’s because he didn’t take my advice and add a Point Man… he lost by one to an Asteroid Sanctuary deck ;)

Strategy is basically the same no matter what you go up against, but against WYS I usually start with Something Special Planned For Them instead of Oppressive Enforcement. I don’t play with the combo TINT/OE for two reasons First of all, old school OE adds one to the destiny of all my Star Destroyers, and secondly, if I start with SSPFT instead of OE, the destiny number of the combo is too low to have floating around in my deck.

So why Tractor Beams? Simply put, they allow the DS to absolutely DOMINATE space Most LS ships are insanely easy to capture, and In Range lets you do so during the weapons phase of a battle, so they’re immediately gone. And if they don’t have a pilot character aboard, the ship becomes yours to use immediately I went over most of this in my Tournament Report, but in case you missed it, I’ll go over it again. Most LS ships have a defense value of four, so capturing them with In Range (which also adds two to your destiny draw if that ship is unique) is incredibly easy. Simple example Dash and Wedge piloting the Outrider. The bane of most dark side space decks. Neither pilots add anything to the Outrider’s maneuver of four, so with a Tractor Beam and In Range, you can target it during the weapons phase of a battle and capture it with a draw of only three. Of course this isn’t automatic (it’s very, VERY close though), but with Our First Catch Of The Day, you can add another two to your destiny after you draw it, meaning that all you need is a draw of one to capture basically any ship in the galaxy. The only exceptions that pose any serious threat are Captain Han on the Falcon, General Calrissian on Gold Squadron 1, and Wedge (ANH or DSII) on either persona of Red 2. Even then, In Range and OFCOTD only require a draw of three, and both of them are used, destiny six interrupts.

But the most important interrupt in the deck is They’ve Shut Down The Main Reactor. I have yet to play this card in a game and have my opponent have any idea what it does, so here’s the text

”If you have a piloted capital starship armed with a starship weapon or equipped with a tractor beam, use 2 Force to target an opponent’s starship present. Until end of your next turn, target cannot move and its pilots may not apply ability toward drawing battle destiny.”

This card is just a beating. All you have to do is wait for your opponent to come to space, and after you chase them around with your massive space fleet, play this to keep them from moving or using ability to draw destiny. It’s like Gravity Shadow, but it’s used, destiny four, and no destiny draw is required. BEATING. I’ve used this card to cause over 40 battle damage to an unsuspecting opponent on more than one occasion, and it isn’t at all uncommon to end a game on turn five with it. Admiral Chiraneau makes it tough for the LS to win without coming to space, so if they do, TSDTMR will allow you to end the game right there.

So now that you know how that works, let’s bust some strategy…

Turn One - I generally get two ships, a random Admiral, a system, a Tractor Beam, Imperial Command, and either In Range or OFCOTD in my opening draw. Not always, but usually that or something close to it. Before you activate, use Mobilization Points to pull the Executor from your reserve deck. Then deploy the Executor Docking Bay with IAO and drop Piett there for two force. If you should happen to draw him in your opening hand, you can use Imperial Command to get a different Admiral, usually Ozzel since he deploys for free and subtracts one from the deploy cost of your capitals. Pull Merrejk with Piett’s text (or an AO if you already have him), and drop him with Piett to start pulling systems. I usually get Kessel first, but if you’re playing against WYS, wait until they drop Kessel and convert it. This turn is pretty much like clockwork… I’ve never not been able to do the things outlined above on my first turn.

After that, all you need to do is start dropping cheap ships, starting with the Executor (deploy -5 at Fondor) and backed up with some DSSDs (deploy -3 to same location as the Executor with Ozzel piloting). Move your characters from the DB to the bridge, and you’ve got yourself quite a space fleet already. If you don’t have the Executor with a Tractor Beam and three pilots and another Star Destroyer with a couple pilots draining for three at a system by turn three, something is seriously wrong with you. It’s pretty self-explanatory… spread out with a Tractor Beam at each system and drain them to death. With Chiraneau, your drains will be massive. At only three systems, you can hit them for nine force. If they try to take you out in space, capture ships and shut down Main Reactors. The beauty of this deck is that, if they even attempt to occupy a system, you generally win.

Versus Specific Decktypes

Hidden Mains - This is always a fun match-up. Every game I’ve played against this deck goes the same way… they can’t outdrain you on the ground, so they try to satisfy Menace Fades by occupying a system. All you have to do after that is consolidate your fleet at that system, then play TSDTMR when they try to move away. Senses suck, but your TSDTMR goes to the used, and it won’t take long before you finally get one through if you keep chasing them around. Just drop your spies at their sites and save force to move them around. Generally an auto-win because they rarely have enough space to contend with your ships, and I’ve found that most Hidden Mains players can’t help but deploy a couple ships to an unoccupied system, thinking they’re safe. They’re not…

Watch Your Step - Usually an easy win, but it’s the one thing I lost to at the DPC. My mistake was that I tried to get my beats in too fast. I shut down the Outrider’s main reactor and Dash subtracted nine from my Executor. He had to lose ten, but I should’ve waited for him to deploy another ship so I could’ve captured the outrider and beat up on a more vulnerable target. Anyway, just take over Tatooine and outdrain them. There’s no way in hell they can drain for more on the ground, and most WYS decks only play with 3-6 ships, all of which can be easily captured.

Nazi Watch Your Step - This is tough… I beat it at the DPC, but you kind of have to concentrate your forces at once system while they plan their attack to make it difficult for them to get their beatdown in. If they do, you can usually forfeit stuff from the system to cover it, and come back at them with Beams and TSDTMR next turn. If it becomes a problem, I’d add a Guri or even Crush and a Monnok/Evader to keep their hand size down. It’s tough for them to draw all the elements of a beatdown when you keep putting cards from hand in their used pile.

MWYHL - I don’t see how this could possibly pose a threat… they’ll screw your force drain bonuses over, but you should still outdrain them. If they actually get to test five and try to hit you in space with massive destiny sevens, just capture whichever ship Luke is on. That’s game.

Agents In The Court - I’ve never actually played this, but it’s probably the toughest matchup, oddly enough. Most decks like this don’t play with any space, so there won’t be any beatdowns, and they’ll probably cancel tons of your drains and retrieve a lot more of them back. Even so, you should win this one. Just spread out ASAP and drain for 12 a turn.

Profit - Also a tricky game, assuming they never try to come to space. A good profit deck that frees Han to retrieve some of your early drains and causes a good chunk of force loss by draining, with the objective, and I Hope She’s All Right will probably beat you. Fortunately, most people won’t know that you don’t have any ground cards and they might not spread out as quickly. It’s a close game, but can be won. And it’s almost an auto-win if they don’t play with IHSAR. Your spies will help if you can draw them fast enough.

Missing Cards and Explanations

Why no Guri?

Good question… she deploys for so damn much and Imperial Command serves the same purpose, so the only reason to play with her is because of Nazi WYS since you won’t be able to play IC in battles. If you’re worried about that deck (I overcame 60 battle damage against it and won without her), drop Cabbel or Evax and put her in.

No Objective? Are you crazy??

No… I’m not. I just feel like it dilutes the deck. There’s no reason to use one because you’ll just end up starting with a bunch of superfluous cards. Three force is generally more than enough to get you going when you’re activating 10-13 force on turn two.

Point Man?

I don’t really need this to cancel OTE because I’m always going to battle in space, and it’s not actually there for Asteroid Sanctuary either, although it would certainly help against that deck. The actual reason is to cancel Demotion. Not that I think it would ever happen, but if someone demoted Chiraneau and started outdraining me on the ground, I’d be pretty pissed.

Two Chimaera’s? What the hell for??

I just think it’s a really important ship. The immunity to attrition is huge, and I’d hate to never draw it. Plus I hate putting my man Thrawn on any other ship ) If you want to use something else, go right ahead.

Why Death Squadron Star Destroyers?

Two reasons Mainly because of the immunity to attrition, which becomes < 6 once the Admiral’s Order gets out, but also because the destiny is three with OE on the table, and that’s the magic number in this deck. Most ships only take a draw of three to capture, so I prefer using higher-destiny ships. Vengeance would be nice for this reason if you want to take out a Chimaera. Oh, and it deploys so cheaply with

Well, I guess that’s it… the most important thing to remember with this deck is that you’ll have fun playing with it no matter what, and it can beat most competitive decks out there. Feel free to d-mail me with any questions or suggestions.

Adam

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