Small Colony Big Hits

Title: Small Colony Big Hits
Author: Jason "Skytalker" Tomko
Date: Jul 15, 2001 Rating: 4.0

Cards:

‘Starting (7)

Quiet Mining Colony/ Independent Operation

Bespin

Cloud City Guest Quarters

Heading For The Medical Frigate

Insurrection

Squadron Assignment

Keeping The Empire Out Forever

Locations (5)

Cloud City Carbonite Chamber

Cloud City Core Tunnel

Cloud City Incinerator

Cloud City North Corridor

Cloud City Platform 327 (Docking Bay)

Characters (28)

Captain Han Solo

Leia With Blaster Rifle

Luke Skywalker

Obi-Wan With Lightsaber

Wedge Antilles, Leader of Rogue Squadron

Chewbacca

BoShek

Bron Burs

Caldera Righim

Deneb Both

Dash Rendar

Grugnak

Figrin D’an

Kal’Falnl C’ndros

Lando With Blaster Pistol x 2

Lobot

Melas

Mirax Terrik

Pucumir Thryss x 3

Sergeant Doallyn

Shmi Skywalker

Tawss Khaa

Yoxgit

Threepio With His Parts Showing

Qui-Gon Jinn

Starships (4)

Artoo-Detoo In Red 5

Millenium Falcon

Ourtrider

Red Squadron 1

Vehicles (4)

Lift Tube x 4

Interrupts (5)

Blast The Door, Kid x 2

Don’t Underestimate Our Chances

I’ve Got A Bad Feeling About This

Somersault

Effects (6)

Bacta Tank

Cloud City Celebration x 2

Goo Nee Tay

Traffic Control x 2

’

Strategy: ‘

    Generally, the point of this deck is to attempt to get a strong drain going after a few turns while also retrieving some Force in the process.  It sounds like the deck that everyone is trying to say they have, right?  However, because of Pucumir Thryss, you can get the high drains; Cloud City Celebration gets you the retrieval; because of Keeping The Empire Out Forever, you can search your Force Pile for the cards you need.


There are 8 pilot/ship combo cards that deal with space Luke/Artoo in Red 5, Wedge/Red Squadron 1, Dash/Outrider, Captain Han/Falcon.  Hopefully, you will draw one of these cards in your opening hand.  If you do, you should use Squadron Assignments to get the matching pilot/ship out.  If you do not have enough Force for the first turn (Han/Falcon is the only one that really requires a lot of Force), save up the Force (there is rarely a good reason to wait more than the second turn).  If you do not have one of the eight, find one.  Also, try to get out a few more sites in the first turn or two so that you can flip your objective early and to get some extra Force.  Once you occupy the system, deploy aliens to two adjacent sites, and you will flip Quiet Mining Colony because of Keeping The Empire Out Forever.  The objective will never flip back.  Remember that you can always flip Quiet Mining Colony the normal way, but that will be advantageous if you deploy Lando.  After  you deploy your aliens, move them together unless they are safe by themselves (such as both being able to draw destiny, having Lobot in your hand, etc.).


That’s the basic start-up.  It usually goes pretty smoothly up through there.  Now you have to concentrate on "setting" up your game.  There are three things you need to get done.  First, you must gain control of multiple Cloud City locations, while having Pucumir out, so that you can really hurt your opponent with drains.  Remember to not spread to thin.  It is best to get at least one Lift Tube out with some strong characters so that you don’t have to worry about being hammered at one location.  Cards like Blast The Door Kid can also help you protect sites that you are weak at.  Remember, because of the locations that are in this deck, the only place that you have to worry about AT-AT’s and such is the Docking Bay (if your opponent is playing with walkers, you may consider not even deploying this site).  The second thing that you have to do is to secure your control in space.  DO NOT just leave one pilot/ship there, even if you think your opponent’s space power is weak.  It is crucial that you control Bespin.  If you want, you can replace Insurrection with Launching The Assault and place Home One in the deck, allowing you to grab the Home One from your deck before your opponent’s first turn is over.  The third thing that must be done ties into the first two Cloud City Celebration.  This card is destructive against most decks as many will find it very hard to hurt you more than you can retrieve per turn (there are 6 sites to retrieve from, remember).  And because of the draining power, your opponent’s main chance is to hurt you more, which of course is hard when you are retrieving four cards or so per turn.  Cloud City Celebration requires control (or occupation at least) of both Cloud City sites (to retrieve from) and Bespin (required so that it is not cancelled), so do not neglect either or it may easily cost you the game.


Battle-wise, this deck does pretty well mainly because of the large mass of characters that it contains.  The destinies are not great, but several good destinies are mixed in enough.  Use the "trick" cards (Somersault, Blast The Door Kid, etc.) to gain an edge.  If played correctly, these cards should be retrieved back quickly, and when activated, can be brought right back to your hand.  Few mains are played because this deck benefits aliens and independent starships only.  Therefore, though a few power cards are important for the Darths and other strong Dark characters, for every non-alien main that is not in there, that is one more character that will not have immunity to attrition or prevent modification/cancellation of drains (very good for Ralltir Ops, Imperial Decree, Undercover spies, etc.).  And don’t forget Keeping The Empire Out Forever says you can search your Force Pile once per turn; it doesn’t say once during your turn or when during the turn.

Of course, the cards in this deck have been chosen for a specific reason. Howevever, many of them can be replaced with other cards, especially the aliens, and still allow the deck to achieve the same general effect. Most of the cards have pretty obvious reasons for being in, but there are several cards that may not be obvious of why they are placed in here. It is a waste of time to go through EVERY card, but I will attempt to explain some that I believe may be questionable

Insurrection It seems like a pointless card, considering my objective lets me search for docking bays and I only have one Rebel with ability < 3 (Chewbacca). It, of course, is in there for its other text Elis Helrot protection. Since all sites are not exterior in this deck (except for the Docking Bay), Elis Helrot is almost useless, and since it has to be used during their move phase anyway, they won’t be running from my attack force during my battle phase or surprising me with a Vader and Tarkin that have already been deployed. If you don’t have to worry about Elis Helrot, Insurrection can be replaced with Wise Advise & Do Or Do Not, Battle Plan, or Launching The Assault (add in the Home One).

Luke Skywalker Why this Luke? He’s got bad destiny, low stats, and it may seem pointless to not atleast use Jedi Luke or Luke with Lightsaber. However, this Luke deploys free on Artoo in Red 5 and adds 2 to maneuver of Red 5 (mainly useful if opponent is using the powerful TIE Interceptor cannons). Also, this Luke gets me an additional Force every turn.

Chewbacca Once again, why not Chewie with Blaster? This Chewbacca is an alien and has much better deploy. If you look at the destinies in this deck, Chewie’s with Blaster (without his destiny + 1) isn’t going to be hitting many characters worth hitting. Of course, Chewie with Blaster DOES have benefits, such as +3 to power of freighters and an extra battle destiny with Threepio. It generally just comes down to a matter of preference.

Shmi Skywalker/ Threepio With His Parts Showing These cards are weak on their own. Everyone knows what their gametext can do, so I’m not going to preach about it (pretty much, in the middle of a battle, put a destiny from your hand on top of your Reserve deck by using both of Threepio’s texts). This is somewhat important to THIS deck, however, as the average destiny isn’t great but you will frequently have a Lift Tube to spare, which may easily be the only way to take down a Dark Jedi.

Blast The Door Kid This protects you from powerful characters that surprise a smaller group on Cloud City. Since all Cloud City sites are interior, you can use this at any one of your locations. These also tie in with I’ve Got A Bad Feeling About This and Don’t Underestimate Our Chances.

I’ve Got A Bad Feeling About This/ Don’t Underestimate Our Chances These cards, way back from premiere, are frequently seen in beginners decks because it can be very hard to have less power than your opponent or to make your opponent battle you and to still get descent wins. However, these cards are meant to be used in combo with Blast The Door Kid Your opponent usually feels pretty safe with Vader, Tarkin, and Cabbel at a site. He may battle you; he may just park his characters there and drain you. Either way, use Blast The Door Kid and increase the damage. It really stings; do this a few times and its almost impossible for your opponent to recover, especially if you are retrieving from Cloud City Celebration. Keep in mind, once your opponent sees you use Don’t Underestimate Our Chances, they’ll be careful about battling you in such a way, but dodging I’ve Got A Bad Feeling About This is a lot tougher since you initiate the battle. Not only do you hurt your opponent, but they will be more likely to clump their characters together a little more, which allows you and your unmodified drains and retrieval to easily conquer. Just watch out for Ghhhk.

Traffic Control Why two? I’m always asked this question. Its generally this I feel Traffic Control is very important as it allows you to “syphon” through your deck without worrying about drawing too many cards. Even when you can search your Force Pile, this can still be a useful ability. Double Traffic Controls allows this to be done quicker, give you a small amount of protection from Alter, and you don’t have to worry about being in trouble if you lose one from a drain and are unable to get it back.

Thank you for taking the time to evaluate my deck. If you have questions, feel free to include them in your response and I will try to answer them. I am open and thankful to any suggestions that you may have (including a name for the deck).

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