The Emperor s Birthday Present

Title: The Emperor s Birthday Present
Author: Chris "Lt. Cabbage" Moore
Date: Jul 17, 2001 Rating: 4.5

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Cards:

‘Objectives (1)

This Deal Is Getting Worse All The Time / You don t flip, it doesn t matter

Locations (6)

Bespin

Outer Walkway (start)

Carbonite Chamber

West Gallery

Cloud City docking bay

Death Star II docking bay

Characters (18)

Emperor Palpatine x3

Lord Vader

Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith

Darth Vader with Lightsaber

Darth Maul x2

Mara Jade

Janus Greejatus

Grand Moff Tarkin

Grand Admiral Thrawn

Admiral Ozzel

Admiral Chiraneau

Dr. Evazan & Ponda Baba

Captain Bewill x2

IG-88 with Riot Gun

Effects (12)

Secret Plans (start)

Imperial Arrest Order (start)

I m Sorry (start)

Oppressive & There is No Try (usually start)

Crush the Rebellion

Battle Order

Lateral Damage

There ll Be Hell To Pay

Cloud City Occupation x2

All Too Easy

The Emperor s Prize

Interrupts (15)

Prepared Defences

I Have You Now x2

Imperial Command x3

Weapon Levitation

Force Field

Twilek Advisor

You Are Beaten

Sniper & Dark Strike

Ghhhk & Those Rebels Won t Escape Us

The Circle is Now Complete

Rite of Passage

Shocking Revelation

Starships (5)

Bossk in Hound s Tooth

Zuckuss in Mist Hunter

Flagship Executor

Chimaera

Dreadnaught

Weapons (3)

Vader s Saber

Mara s Saber

Maul s Saber

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Strategy: ‘

This is basically a Cloud City mains deck designed to try and pull off the Emperor s Prize. Now achieving this is obviously not easy, but the deck actually plays well, as it is structured round Dark Jedi and heavy lightsaber usage - these work well anyway. Only Occupation is used, as Dark Deal is far too slow with mains, and requires a number of fighters that will be no match for a Squadron Assignments-based deck in a protracted battle.

First, I should just highlight what needs to be done to achieve the Emperor s Prize. The Emperor and Vader must both be on table, as the utinni effect deploys on the former and targets the latter. Well, that s eminently possible though, due to heavy fighting (which is what the deck does), it s not easy. Then Luke must be frozen. All Too Easy does that, which means that Luke must be hit by a lightsaber in the Carbonite Chamber. This is the trickiest part. Getting a lightsaber is easy enough. Hitting Luke is not that hard, as the destiny in the deck is fairly good and can be improved by Dark Strike or Lord Vader. Shocking Revelation can be constantly recycled to track a 5 and Janus can also fix destiny. Getting Luke in the Chamber is the hard bit. Well, firstly it is the place on Cloud City the Light Side will go first, as it is the only drain two site. If Luke is somewhere else on Cloud City then we need Captain Bewill. Method one is chase Luke into the Chamber with a scary bunch of mains and then slap Bewill down. Luke s trapped there then. Second, Bewill can pull Rite of Passage during your control phase. This destiny 4 used interrupt forces the LS to either move a lone character to an adjacent mobile site of your choice, lose the character or lose two force. Either way, you win o) After all that, if you manage to pull off The Emperor s Prize then the LS loses half its life force. A potentially very hefty reward, and there s no using It Could Be Worse to stop it.

So that s how you pull off The Emperor s Prize. However, as I said, it s not easy. So you have to ask if it s worth including the cards at all. Well the effect itself is destiny 6. Janus can always make use of that. Bewill is a great card for Cloud City, and will half the effectiveness of Path of Least Resistance, so he s not much of a concession. All Too Easy is destiny 5 and a potential game-winner at the most important battleground site in the deck. Including multiple Dark Jedi and Lightsabers can never really hurt. Rite of Passage is the weakest link, but it s not that bad.

Now to how to play the deck. In a friendly go for The Emperor s Prize, it ll be fun. In a tourney (and I have used it to good effect, see my latest report), the deck is fairly reactive, only attempting the effect if the situation arises. You get all your locations out by turn 2, so activation is very high for the early game. You give away a fair amount too, but the DS is in no position to quibble about such things at the moment. Fish out the Admirals with the Imperial Commands, usually starting with Ozzel. Here s a general outline of play against common LS decktypes

Watch Your Step

Firstly, start Crush instead of Oppressive/TINT. Podracing or not, you go for the Cantina. Maul is the ideal man, but any Dark Jedi coupled with I Have You Now is going to cause them problems. Then venture into space. Imperial Commands help here, obviously. Depending on how many ships you have available, either attack their ships or build up at the system they re not at. Set up Occupation if you can, but generally just attack. Iggy, You Are Beaten, Sniper/Dark Strike and All Too Easy gives you tremendous beatdown potential. Secret Plans and the stacker will hinder their retrieval.

Mains

Straight fight on Cloud City so there s no set strategy. They will likely out-activate you, you have Occupation and Bewill to corner them. You have more character removal, with Iggy and All Too Easy (and Crush stopping Clash) but they will likely have SAC. That is one advantage of All Too Easy, though. It can t be sensed.

Rebel Strike Team

Early game concentrate on Cloud City. Stuff like Insertion Planning won t work there, so cards like Force Field and I Have You Now mean you can hold sites with only one decent character in relative safety (don t push it though). Get Occupation going. Later you are going to have to fight them in the bunker (if only to stall them). This is the hard bit. Hold back either Maul or Vader for the bunker and whatever else you can scrounge together. Iggy and Evazan will help enormously. Maul may actually get to use his duelling text here, so keep track of any destiny 6s and get ready to duel if the situation warrants it.

Quite Mining Colony

Obviously this will be another straight fight on Cloud City. Path is an obvious threat but Bewill stops them getting out of hand. Control of Bespin could prove decisive, but this matchup makes doing The Emperor s Prize eminently possible. Probably the toughest matchup, but it isn t common round here, so doesn t really worry me.

Finally, I ll just give reasons for some cards choices

I use Flagship Executor over the original, as I want to keep the destiny up. The lack of attrition can be costly though, use whichever you prefer. Force Field keeps your Dark Jedi alive longer, and can save other characters. Lord Vader is costly on Cloud City, but his saber destiny bonus can be a game breaker if you re going for All Too Easy. Shocking Revelation gives you a constantly recyclable destiny 5, as Secret Plans pulls it out (but you already knew that, of course o)

So there you go. If you d like to see how this deck performed in competition, then read my latest tournament report (although I ve since changed a couple of cards - Iggy and Shocking Rev were an extra Rite and Weapon Lev). It should have gone undefeated, but I made a mistake against a Rebel Strike Team deck (I forgot that Maul in the bunker with no LS character of ability >3 sends the Explosive Charges to the used pile). I made the deck as a bit of fun but it s proved pretty powerful and I hope you like it.

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