Rebel Strike Team done RIGHT ver 2 0
Title: Rebel Strike Team done RIGHT ver 2 0
Author: Brian "HuntaWarya" Hunter
Date: Jul 16, 2001
Rating: 4.5
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Cards:
’ Objective (1)
Rebel Strike Team/Garrison Destroyed
Locations (6)
Endor
Rebel Landing Site
Bunker
Back Door
Hidden Forest Trail
Chief Chirpa’s Hut
Characters (20)
General Madine
General Solo
General Calrissian
Nien Numb
Dash Rendar
Wedge Antilles, Red Squadron Leader
Keir Santage
Colonel Cracken
Lt. Blount
Orrimaarko
Corran Horn
Wuta
Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight x2
Epp Obi-Wan
Corporal Kensaric
Sergeant Brooks Carlson
Chewie of Kashyyyk
Corporal Midge
Daughter of Skywalker
Starships (6)
Gold Squadron 1
Outrider
Red Squadron 1
Red Squadron 7
Tala 1
Tala 2
Interrupts (10)
Heading for the Medical Frigate
Throw Me Another Charge x2
Out of Nowhere/Houjix
The Signal
Rebel barrier
Weapon Levitation
A Few Manuevers
Run, Luke, Run
Clash of Sabers
Effects (11)
Squadron Assignments
Strike Planning
The Shield is Down
Close Air Support
Menace Fades
Battle Plan
Do or Do Not/Wise Advice
Bacta Tank
Your Insight Serves You Well
Honor of the Jedi
What Was It?
Podracer (1)
Anakin’s Podracer
Epic Event (1)
Deactivate the Shield Generator
Weapons (4)
X-wing Laser Cannon
Explosive Charge x2
Anakin’s Lightsaber
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Strategy: ‘
As you may well know, old-skool RST decks were always better off flipping by spreading scouts out over Endor, rather than by trying to blow the bunker. The deck took a few turns to set up as it was, and spending additional force to pull out cards like the epic event, the bunker, the back door, and so on just made it so that by the time you were ready to invade the bunker, any good dark side mains deck would have had all the time in the world to assemble the correct cards to stop you. There was no good way to blow the shield against a dedicated ground deck, so the whole process just wasn’t worth it. BUT NOW, the new helper card for RST changes everything. You now get to retrieve 8 when you blow the bunker, and force the opponent to pitch their hand into used pile. The effect also gives you extra generation from your Endor sites, allowing you to set up faster than before. Better yet, it lets you pull the back door from reserve for free, rather than waiting for Wuta to get it out. All of this had made blowing up the bunker not only more beneficial, but also much more probable, since you give the dark side less time to stop you.
Early game
Default starting effects are strike planning, the shield is down, and squadron assignments. If you are in desperate need of sense/alter defense, you could start DODN/WA in place of Squadron Assignments, and rely on YISYW and the Signal to get it out ASAP. (assuming you are not lucky enough to get it in opening draw anyway) If you are desperate for odds/scanning crew/visage defense, you could conceivably start YISYW. Before activating, go ahead and grab Madine and Calrissian with strike planning. If you already had either of them, get Solo as well. In the majority of games, you will deploy to the landing site on turn 1. Madine pulls Chewie, Chewie pulls Wuta. Wuta will ultimately grab the hidden forest trail and chief chirpa’s hut for you. Meanwhile, your objective lets you get the bunker and the epic event, and the helper effect pulls the back door. After Madine gets Chewie out, you will probably want to put Kensaric down next. He does an excellent job of preventing any early attacks at the landing site. Strike Planning + Squadron Assignments guarantees that the falcon will hit the table every game. But you should not deploy any one ship alone in the early game. Always bring two, (particularly if you are not holding the barrier) or Zuckuss in Mist Hunter + Lateral Damage could be a real pain. Fortify your ground position first, before deploying to the system. By this time, you will probably have drawn a pair or two of matching ships/pilots, so that with help from squadron assignments you can deploy en masse when you initially take to the air. If you really want to use squad @#$% early, then you can deploy to the system, and land at the rebel landing site for free, then take off again later.
Mid-Game
Get the Bunker out, with Deactivate the Shield generator deployed on it. With two charges and two copies of TMAC, you should easily have a charge or two in hand as well. You can either deploy one of your spies to the bunker, along with the charges, and then deploy backup/move in backup, or if all your spies are needed elsewhere, then you can just move into the bunker, and deploy the charges on your next turn. Sergeant Brooks Carlson is excellent for reaching the bunker from even two sites away, and you should also not forget that you can move directly to the bunker from the back door, regardless of where it is. Fend off the dark side in the bunker as needed. With 20 characters, and adding battle destiny every time you initiate there, (plus the help from battle interrupts such as weapon lev or clash of sabers, etc), you should be able to claim control of the bunker eventually. Blow the bunker, flip your objective, retrieve some force, make them lose some force, relocate your bunker squad to the back door, and make them ditch their hand. You can now spread with impunity for a turn.
Late Game
After blowing the bunker and retrieving 8, you may still have a few cards in your lost pile. these could either be from early drains, or possibly a few scouts you lost in early battles. if it is the latter, you can now retrieve them with your objective. Use Corporal Midge and your lightsaber (if available) to really drain for a ton on endor. Draining for 8 or 9 a turn is not at all unreasonable for this deck. You’ve got several high-ability scouts for Midge to work with (Solo, Leia, Luke, Orrimaarko, enough for all 3 battleground sites, plus a spare) Maintain control of the endor system to enforce menace fades and battle plan which will minimalize your late game force loss. With Tala 1 or 2 at the system, and Close Air Support on the table, there is no such thing as a losing battle for you on the ground. you’ve pulled all your locations and characters from reserve, so when you draw those 3 destiny each battle, your power totals will be absurd. Your opponent will almost surely not attempt to battle you on endor, but if they do, you can laugh all the way to victory.
Reasons Why This Deck Is MUCH Better Than The Racing Version
1) More characters. This means that you will have much better odds of cleaning the dark side out of the bunker against any sort of true dark mains & toys deck.
2) More ships. Gives you a better shot against any big blue deck. Also allows you to utilize menace fades and battle plan, which gives you a huge advantage against any sort of lopsided ground drain decks (e.g. speed deal, ISB docking bay drain, or HD racing with no ships) Battle Plan could also be a game-clincher against a TIE swarm deck, once you eliminate any and all of their ground forces. (Just stay away from those tie cannons Corran Horn and AFM can be life savers there) Also lets you keep control of the system so that you can still stay on the 7-side if you can’t blow the bunker for some reason (more on this in #3)
3) More sites. Allows you to flip your objective without blowing the bunker in emergency situations. The traditional ”boomrace rst” deck is incapable of flipping without blowing the bunker.
4) No risk of losing your own damn podrace. RST racing decks usually use a few racing interrupts to give them an edge. But high destiny Hunt Down racing decks, or Brangus decks that repeatedly use podracer collision, could easily result in a loss at the races for RST (which has very high destiny late game, but mediocre destiny in the early game)
5) You get to start 3 effects Including the very important card The Shield is Down, which boosts your activation from turn ONE. So not only will you derive the benefits of that card earlier than is possible for a racing RST deck, but you also have not watered-down your efficiency by playing with several useless duplicate copies of it. When you need to draw a card that does something, you will draw a card that does something, instead of another worthless copy of your helper effect, or A step Backward.
Questions Answered
Why Keir Santage? Keir cancels battle destiny when combined with Wedge. his ship can carry the very useful x-wing cannon, and he makes Wedge’s ship deploy -2 to same location. very nice.
Why only 2 charges? That is really all you need. if you play more than that, you’re just asking for them to get monnoked. With 2 of them, and two TMAC, one tracked destiny is all you should need to blow the bunker every time. I have even blown the bunker with NO charges before. (Drew 2 tracked 6’s for destiny, and used TMAC to add one to my total, making 13, and KABOOM)
Why Anakin’s saber? So the Daughter of Skywalker can use it if Luke is dead, or hiding in your reserve deck.
Why weapon levitation? This card is hugely versatile in this deck. You can pull an explosive charge from your used pile, or the x-wing cannon, or the saber. Or you can steal a saber from Mara Jade/Vader. Or you can cancel you are beaten. And it’s an easily recyclable 4.
Why Run Luke Run and What was it instead of courage or glancing blow? I’d rather cancel duels than take my chances at trying to win them. Run Luke Run also has excellent destiny and can be used as an offensive or defensive weapon in a battle (since there are plenty of adjacent sites for him to come from) The card ”What was it?” has several disadvantages. It cannot be used to cancel vader’s obsession used against epp luke, or to cancel the circle is now complete when used against Obi-Wan, Padawan Learner. Furthermore, it cannot be used if you don’t have an adjacent site for your Jedi to run to (as is often the case in any ”docking bay wars” game.) But in this deck, the only obi-wan is epp, the only lukes are Jedi Lukes, and there are always plenty of adjacent sites to move to. So what Was It is ideal here. You should also not forget that this card could bail you out against a duel initiated by Darth Maul.
Why no Insertion Planning? Several people asked this when I posted the first version of this deck. This card is simply unnecessary. Any really early battles will usually take place at the landing site, where you have plenty of forfeit fodder (that you can retrieve later after flipping) Any mid-game battles will take place in the bunker (where you cannot use this card anyway, because it only works at exterior sites) and any late-game battles will take place under the cover of Close Air Support, when your opponent would have to be out of his mind to challenge you. I have tried the card in playtesting rather extensively, and it just isn’t of much use.
As is the case with the first version of this deck, version 2.0 has posted a flawless tournament record in sanctioned play. With a little skill, practice, and luck, it will do the same for you. Enjoy.
Brian Hunter ‘