The Spider Monkey’s Occupation Bonaza
Title: The Spider Monkey’s Occupation Bonaza
Author: Michael "choker" Sorrell
Date: Jul 31, 2001
Rating: 4.0
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Cards:
‘THE START
The Card That Gives Me All The Stuff/I Don’t Care About the Rest
CC Upper Walkway
Secret Plans
Prepared Defenses
I’m Sorry
Crush the Rebellion
You Cannot Hide Forever
CHARACTERS
Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith x3
Darth Maul x2
Emperor Palpatine x4
Janus x2
Mara Jade x2
Guri
Dengar w/ Blaster Carbine
IG-88
Thrawn
Chiraneau
SHIPS
Fett in Slave One
Zuckuss in Mist Hunter
Chimaera x2
INTERRUPTS
I Have You Now x2
Force Lightning x2
Weapon Levitation x2
Sense x4
Alter x2
Imperial Command x3
Set For Stun/Control
Evader/Monnok
Omni Box/It’s Worse
Sniper & Dark Strike
EFFECTS
CC Occupation
Dark Deal
Grabber
No Escape
Search and Destroy
LOCATIONS
CC West Gallery
CC Downtown Plaza
Bespin
Bespin CC
WEAPONS
Vader’s Saber
Mara’s Saber
Maul’s Saber ‘
Strategy: ‘
Yes…typo in the title. Should be an ”N” in Bonanza. Thanks for the painful reminder ”World Champ”.
BEFORE REVIEWING…Keep in mind that this is a PRE-CORUSCANT deck that is one of the most solid deck element around for the dark side. In making this deck I sought to create a dark deck that didn’t depend on any one card, hence making a very well-rounded deck. I just had success with it in a tourney last week, and I hope you might have some success with this before the release of Coruscant.
The logi c behind the deck is simple. First turn, pull your two battlegrounds using I’m Sorry, and then pull Bespin using your objective (if Bespin is not there pull BespinCC for activation). On my first turn I usually draw one or two cards and leave a few. Second turn, grab something with your objective then deploy two dark jedi to two separate CC battlegrounds, preferably sticking the Emperor to the Downtown Plaza with Janus. Before the end of your turn Weapon Lev. you fairly large used pile and try to get at least one of your jedis with their matching saber. Now you are pretty set. If the LS comes down on you with Ben or Luke, which seem to be just about the only characters played these days, use I Have You Now to add a destiny (or two when battling Luke). You should break the LS’s immunity, and it’s doubtful that they will break yours (but if they do, there’s multiple copies of the characters in the deck). On your subsequent turns you main goal is use your Imperial Commands to get your Admirals in your hand. Stick one of the small ”EPP ships” to Bespin along with occupation if you have it early, but if possible it’s better to set up the occupation to be guarded by the loaded Chimaera. Nothing will touch her when you have the use of Imperial Commands to add or subtract destiny from your opponents.
I mean…just go from there. The game is pretty much played like this
1) Occupy your two battlegrounds.
2) Get Occupation out
3) Load up on Bespin to protect Occupation
4) Fortify your ground sites
5) If the opponent is playing non-interactive crap, set up Dark Deal if feasible (why not play the card if its rewards are incredible and it takes only one card slot)
The card selection in this deck gives the DS so many options. You have a good SAC package w/ a Grabber to end SAC wars on your turns. Cancel some of the opponents interrupts, play yours. REMEMBER…Crush limits the oppoent to two destiny draws on mobile sites (i.e. Cloud City), and it allows you to manipulate the opponent’s hand with Monnok, which can be brutal against WYS palace raiders or heavy harvesting decks (w/ lots of mulitples). Just play the deck based on what your opponent’s playing
Here are some match-ups to keep in mind.
Vs. WYS Space
Set up your characters on the ground with their sabers. Most WYS decks will shy away from weapons considering all their characters have low defense values. Set up you occupation. You should have no trouble handling the Kessel drain with the Chimaera and the Imperial Commands (and Guri). If this WYS can’t draw multiple destinies, it loses. So use Guri wisely Your direct damage element should overwhelm them.
Vs. WYS Palace Raider/Harvesting
The harvesting decks aren’t real big in my area. If they are add in a Something Special Planned For Them. Again, these WYS do not inflict a lot of damage…they just retrieve A LOT of force. Get set up early and hold on late game. The key is hitting your opponent hard in a couple of battles, and maintaining presence at Bespin. It doesn’t much matter how much the opponent can retrieve when they are losing upwards of 8 force during your control phase. Remember, also, Maul can be a real asset in space.
Vs. Dagobah Training
So what. They cancel your force drain bonuses. These decks are heavy on Jedi, guaranteeing you some multiple destiny battles, and these decks are just too slow. Occupation will simply negate jedi test 1 cause your damage to the opponent will be too much for LS to do their typical, ”I’ll do absolutely nothing for the first 10 turns of the game.” If the LS is testing all the way to 6…that’s an auto-win. No Projections of a Skywalker for you on my mobile sites
Vs. QMC
This match-up will be by far the toughest. This deck is not played by the better players in my area, so I usually have no trouble beating the QMCs around me cause the platform is just too slow. I get SO much activation that Occupation is set up on turn three. Play Set for Stun on Numb when they come down to try and shoot you down. Haha. I’ve done that so many times, and just creamed the LS on my next turn. Sense their annoying interrupts that let them jump all around CC (you should get at least one good beatdown using a sense), which are played way too often in these decks. LS relies on their intterupts in these decks, and coincidently, you can Sense nearly all of them You usually will win. The only time you might lose is against a really good player.
Vs. Haye’s Brilliant Pile
Well, they are certainly not going to deprive ou of activation, consireing you can take all your sites out of your deck. No revolutions for them either since you have a pullable evader that is IMMUNE to sense. The big thing in this game is you have a space package that will go unchallenged. Just place all your characters on two different sites and ride out their futile attacks. Force drains, occupation, and their inability to deprive you of force should stifle this deck.
Well, this deck is not easy to play, but it’s not real difficult. You need to know how to do some basic tracking cause the destiny in here isn’t great (it’s not bad either though). There’s a lot of high destiny trackable cards that make your weapons awesome, and the SAC package should pose a big threat to most LS decks.
Have fun and enjoy the power of occupation while you can (before August 8th) PLay this deck right, and you should have some success. It did real well at Origins. Until next time…
Michael ”the Spider Monkey” Sorrell ‘