Jacob’s WYS Racing

Title: Jacob’s WYS Racing
Author: Jacob "Armaedes" Taylor
Date: Aug 28, 2001 Rating: 4.5

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Cards:

‘Locations (7)

Home One Docking Bay

Kessel

Tatooine

Tatooine Cantina

Tatooine Docking Bay 94

Tatooine Mos Espa Docking Bay

Tatooine Podrace Arena

Characters (16)

Chewbacca, Protector

Dash Rendar

Han With Heavy Blaster Pistol x2

Lando With Blaster Pistol

Luke With Lightsaber x3

Melas

Mirax Terrik

Phylo Gandish

Talon Karrde

Theron Nett

WED-9-M1 ’Bantha’ Droid

Wedge Antilles

Yotts Oren

Starships (5)

Millenium Falcon

Outrider

Pulsar Skate

Red 10

Red Squadron 1

Effects (6)

Bacta Tank

Battle Plan & Draw Their Fire

Insurrection & Aim High

Menace Fades

Squadron Assignments

Your Insight Serves You Well & Staging Areas

Interrupts (19)

A Jedi’s Resilience x2

A Step Backward x3

All Wings Report In & Darklighter Spin

Neck And Neck

Podrace Prep

Power Pivot

Rebel Artillery

Run Luke, Run

Too Close For Comfort x2

Tunnel Vision x3

We Wish To Board At Once x3

Weapons (2)

X-wing Laser Cannon x2

Admiral’s Orders (1)

I’ll Take The Leader

Epic Events (2)

Boonta Eve Podrace

I Did It

Podracers (1)

Anakin’s Podracer

Objective (1)

Watch Your Step / This Place Can Be A Little Rough ‘

Strategy: ‘

Response to Reviews

To Bib Fortuna As I said in my strategy section, Luke with Lightsaber is far superior to Jedi Luke in this type of deck. As for Murr Danod, he isn’t a pilot, so that’s why I don’t use him - not as versatile.

To Third Angel There are many top players still using Watch Your Step. This objective is a lot like Hunt Down - Decipher keeps putting out magic bullet cards for it, and it still remains a strong objective. Giving me 3 stars and saying ”WYS is gone” is ridiculous - didn’t Bastian Winkelhaus just win the European Open with a WYS deck?

To yodas dad Add Qui-Gon? Have you even read the objective? There is no way I would ever include a deploy 12 character - hence Bacta Tank instead of the deploy 11 Ben Kenobi. As for dueling defense, I have Run, Luke Run and two copies of A Jedi’s Resilience - dueling won’t touch me. I hate to be rude, but I can’t believe people like you are allowed to review decks. Maybe decktech should require 2000 tech points before you can review instead of just 1560 . . . .

End Response to Reviews

This deck has been playtested and refined for several weeks now, until it has reached its present form. The original version had Noble Sacrifice and Gold Squadron 1, if that gives you any idea of how far it has come. I would like to take time right now to thank the all the people that helped me out with this deck, either by giving me specific ideas or just strategies I should keep in mind when building it. These people include Brian Hunter, Hayes Hunter, Justin Warren, Kim Caton, and Zane Thorp. These people all directly or indirectly influenced the construction of the deck and helped make it into the beast that it is. With that said, this is how you play the deck.

The Start You will always start the Watch Your Step objective and the podracing interrupt, obviously. Your starting effect will almost always be Insurrection & Aim High. As usual, Dark Deal is the exception to the rule, and against this deck type, you need to start Battle Plan & Draw Their Fire, get Menace Fades in effect as soon as possible, and put an X-wing cannon at their system. If you can do this, you should be able to pull out the victory. Against Hawkin’s Wookiee-Kisser variety, I’m afraid you may lose, but don’t feel bad - everything loses to that deck. On the bright side, Watch Your Step is one of the better decks to use going up against Dark Deal, mostly because your stuff deploys just as cheap as their’s does and gets more battle destinies. You will have to play hard and carefully, but a win is possible if you play aggressively.

Early Game The deck is very reactive, meaning you should go to where your opponent is. As a result, sometimes the only characters you deploy before you win the podrace are hit and run EPPs. With three copies of Luke with Lightsaber and two copies of A Jedi’s Resilience, surgical strikes with Luke work out very well, and with the average destiny of this deck being very high, Luke usually manages to take out two or three characters at a site before he goes back into your hand, courtesy of A Jedi’s Resilience. If your opponent is playing quickly, you are able to play just as quickly with your low deploy, and you shouldn’t have to play any interrupts out of your lost pile before you win the race. This is good, because you can retrieve those high-destiny interrupts back into your deck, and track them up for more surgical strikes with Luke. The exception to this, of course, is Tunnel Vision. Don’t be afraid to play this every time you activate, because since podracing starts only one effect, the three Tunnel Visions and three We Wish To Board At Once are your way of making up for this by getting those other effects out quickly. The original pre-Coruscant incarnation of the deck had three copies of Your Insight Serves You Well, which worked out better because not only is it untouched by grabbers, but it is also free, which can be huge in the early game. If I knew I would never go against a podracing deck, I would probably switch one of the We Wish To Board At Once for a copy of Your Insight Serves You Well, but against a dedicated racing deck, WWTBAO will give you the advantage. Just judge your meta, and if you think you can get away with fewer podrace-based cards, put in a copy of Insight to get Squadron Assignments or Menace Fades more quickly. The one copy of Insight that is in there is also usually used to pull out an effect. I used the combo because if I get a good draw and don’t need to trade it for another effect, the generation +1 at docking bays is good. It is definitely not essential to the deck though, so don’t be afraid to ditch it for something more important once you make sure you aren’t going against Scanning Crew or numbers.

Depending on what effect you started, you will usually get Squadron Assignments first, followed by Battle Plan & Draw Their Fire. Of course, this varies depending on what deck you go against, but for most decktypes these two effects are the most important to get out quickly. I have actually gone entire games without Squadron Assignments hitting the table, not because I couldn’t get it out of my deck, but just because I didn’t need it. Don’t ever think that you need to have matching pilots on board their ships. The immunity is nice, but Talon Karrde can fire the X-wing cannon from aboard Red 10 just as easily as Theron Nett can.

Mid Game Win the podrace and put I Did It into play. I Did It could be one of the coolest cards in the game, and if you use it well, you can really mess your opponent up. I Did It means no Imperial Barrier and no Ghhhk. It also means no interrupts during battle period, which means no Imperial Command to limit your destiny. This is huge, because it means if you play right, you will always have at least two battle destiny in every battle. Set up a few guys on Tatooine to drain, and put some ships at Tatooine and Kessel if that seems appropriate. Use the rest of your force to go to the opponent and mess up their strategy. Against a heavy drain deck, set up Menace Fades and Battle Plan & Draw Their Fire, and make them pay three for their small drains. Use your ships to make sure they never satisfy Battle Plan and you will win the game.

Late Game Place Boonta Eve Podrace out of play to get your differential higher. Use Rebel Artillery for some direct damage to add on to your sizable drains. This deck goes fast and right for the opponent, so there usually isn’t much of a late game to speak of. Shake your opponent’s hand, count your cards and go report your win.

Card Choices Tatooine I don’t think it makes much difference which one you use. In my area, I use the Coruscant version, more as a defensive tactic than anything else. Big Blue is popular around here, and I don’t want them getting a power +1 for all of their ships. If Big Blue isn’t so common where you are, Premiere Tatooine can work to your advantage if you get a few ships up there, as having a +2 or +3 power can actually make quite a bit of difference.

WED-9-M1 ’Bantha’ Droid I haven’t seen Lateral Damage in quite a while, but the fact of the matter is that a well-placed Lateral Damage on the Outrider can really ruin your game. I have also used the droid to get my numbers total up when I couldn’t get Insight out right away.

Neck And Neck This card, coupled with Insurrection & Aim High, is some mega tech that will win you games (props to Justin Warren for this one). If you and your opponent get below 10 cards, play this on your turn. You retrieve 4, and since they don’t have any force courtesy of I Did It, Aim High prevents them from retrieving any. If you can pull this off twice in one game (once from hand, once from lost pile), that additional 8 cards can really turn the tide. The effect that it has on podracing is cool, too.

Rebel Artillery With two X-wing cannons in the deck, this card is great. I don’t play two of them because one of two things will happen with it; either your opponent will grab it, and it won’t do you any good, or you will play it every control phase, drawing it up with Mirax every turn. An unreducable point of damage every turn, and its secondary effect is just as good when you shoot Zuckuss out of the sky.

Phylo Gandish Before Coruscant, this was a second Melas. She accomplishes the same task as Melas, which is a defense against Maul, and her gametext is also awesome if your opponent is playing docking bays (Brangus comes to mind). She’s not a smuggler, but she goes down free to a docking bay and gives your smugglers a little bit of immunity. One of my favorite character combos is Talon Karrde, Phylo Gandish and Chewbacca, Protector at the same location. Two battle destiny, and Chewie is a defense value of 7, immune to attrition < 4, and forfeits for 12. Awe-inspiring.

Bacta Tank Smugglers have a low deploy and a high forfeit, but little or no immunity. Bacta Tank means that same forfeit ten Wedge Antilles or Chewbacca will be back every turn. With Wedge in space, you can wear down any space force, even if they have more power than you. Draw your two destiny, take something out to attrition, and put Wedge on the Bacta Tank for ten, twelve if Talon Karrde is around. Next turn, put him right back for a total of four force. Awesome.

Battle Plan & First Strike It was a tough call using the combo instead of the individual cards. It’s always nice to get a two-card swing just for initiating a battle, and Aim High means it costs them an additional force to initiate a battle if they want to use it against you. Basically, it just came down to a matter of needing the card space. First Strike is still a viable card for the deck if you don’t have the combo.

Run Luke, Run Should be a staple of all decks. Watch Your Step lets you play it twice, cancelling a duel or just moving Luke over the Han’s site to get another battle destiny or two.

Home One Docking Bay A point of generation that doesn’t give your opponent any icons, and also a defense against the Much Anger In Him / Responsibility Of Command combo (they can’t follow you there).

All Wings Report In & Darklighter Spin A great card in a deck that need Squadron Assignments, but doesn’t start it. If you manage to get Mirax on the table early, you can use her to draw this card every turn, and get all of your ships into your hand in just a matter of a few turns, making Squadron Assignments unnecessary. Just wait until you draw up the characters, then put them down on their matching ship from your hand.

Tunnel Vision I don’t like having a lot of destiny 1 cards floating around. Characters are bad enough, and even though the combo has more uses, I don’t like the destiny of it.

Why don’t you have any defense against Visage? I originally had Honor of the Jedi in the deck, but decided that since No Escape is so prevalent, I would use Visage against the opponent instead. The podrace gives you a 12-card head start on Visage damage. Just make sure that if you have Luke on the table, you also have a Run Luke, Run in hand and you can use their own card to wear them down.

Why don’t you have any grabbers? They won’t be able to play any of the good battle interrupts on my turn thanks to I Did It anyway. I know the new grabber from Coruscant only costs one force to use, but I just think cards like that aren’t necessary for Watch Your Step. If you really think you need a grabber, take out something (I don’t know what, maybe Rebel Artillery) and put one in.

Why do you use Luke with Lightsaber instead of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight? It was a tough decision using Luke with Lightsaber, but I think this works out better. Although Jedi Knight Luke has a higher destiny, he also has more staying power. Now before you tell me this is an advantage, let me just say that hit-and-run Luke is the way to go. With A Jedi’s Resilience in the deck, Luke with Saber is just about indestructible. Granted he is a destiny of 1, but the other high destinies (including the destiny 6 A Jedi’s Resilience) make up for it. Being able to use Luke as a suicide character is huge.

Why don’t you use Beggar? I probably should, and if Televan Coreyy wasn’t so big around here, I probably would. As it is, I will have to rely on I Did It to get their force away from them, and if they use Wipe Them All Out, All Of Them to activate a force on my turn, then they will most likely be using the force they activate to play Ghhhk after they get a couple of destinies drawn on them. In any event, this is far from a beatdown deck, so if they play Ghhhk, it’s all right with me, because it means I cleared them off the site, which is more what this deck is about than inflicting battle damage. I Did It actually ends up helping me more in conjunction with cards like Aim High and Too Close For Comfort.

Why not an On The Edge or two? On The Edge is a great card in Watch Your Step because you can play each one at least twice - and that’s if you dont’ retrieve them back into your life force. Not including them was once again a meta choice, as Do They Have A Code Clearance is a popular card in my playing area. The original version of them had the cards, and they rocked, but Coruscant just makes me rely on podracing retrieval. Which is fine; with the podrace, placing Boonta Eve Podrace out of play, and maybe playing Neck And Neck, that’s 10-18 force I’m retrieving per game. Believe me when I say that is more than enough to get the job done.

Where is the Tatooine Celebration? To be honest, with so many people using Maul in space, it isn’t worth the couple of points of retrieval to me to have to devote one of my ability 4 characters strictly to the Tatooine system. Luke is definitely a waste of space guarding the celebration, as he is needed for hit and runs, and Phylo Gandish isn’t worth shuttling up to a ship just so she can be an ability 4 at the system. That leaves Melas, and with only one copy in the deck, I’m not going to rely on having him at the system all game. This deck is definitely not an ”Establish Yourself on Tatooine” kind of deck - I like the versatility of not having to hold Tatooine all game. Besides, most people now expect the Celebration so much that if they aren’t playing the new Masterful Move & Endor Occupation combo, they are dropping straight to the Tatooine system to stop the Celebration from ever hitting the table. I’d prefer to just let them have Tatooine, retrieve half of that drain back each turn with I Did It, and go do damage somewhere else.

Brief Matchups Hunt Down And Destroy The Jedi I have already covered this a little bit. Use Visage to your advantage, and avoid the duel at all costs. If they do manage to duel Luke, you have high enough destinies to give them a run for their money, but if they have Focused Attack and have tracked some destinies, you’ll just have to eat the force loss. Luckily, your retrieval is fairly good, so make a judgment call on whether you can handle the 15-card loss or if you can get away with giving them Luke. If they are podracing, you should still win the podrace. We Wish To Board At Once and Tunnel Vision will allow you to get your podracing interrupts faster than them, and since you can play your racing interrupts from your lost pile, that will give you all the advantage you need. Your destinies are excellent, so you should have no trouble winning the race if you play smart. Grabbers will hurt you, even though they will most likely have to pay for them since Hunt Down racing usually doesn’t start Oppressive Enforcement, but it still shouldn’t be too much of a hassle to win anyway, with a total of 6 podracing interrupts and 6 more cards that help you get them out. Once you win the race, the game is over, because their own Visage will be eating at them and their offense will have trouble against your multiple destinies. Your drains can get pretty huge, and your inflated forfeit is your best weapon against beatdowns.

Bring Him Before Me With Don’t Do That Again now a threat, this decktype has effectively bitten the proverbial dust. However, you do see a rogue version every now and then. Against this decktype, you should abuse the ability to pull Luke out of your deck and/or lost pile. Hit and run until Vader hits the table. As soon as he does, give Luke to him so as to not take damage from Your Destiny. Then drop down a couple of smugglers to get rid of Vader and get Luke back, then hit and run some more. Contrary to popular belief, you can still use Luke effectively when going against this objective. Your objective stops their Sense and Alter cold, and you should be able to own space with your multiple destinies and big drains, since BHBM isn’t usually designed to handle that kind of attack. When it gets into the late game, you can go ahead and give them Luke for good so they can take some more damage from their own objective. This is a fairly easy matchup and you should win with no problem.

Big Blue of any kind This actually is a tough matchup, and the only one this deck has lost to. I usually drop down at the Cantina and Kessel and go for a fast drain of 5. Be sure to reinforce yourself at Kessel so you don’t get smacked around. It is essential for you to get both the ’Bantha’ Droid and Battle Plan out. Since Big Blue is usually slight on their ground, your forces should be able to keep them from satisfying Battle Plan, and you can use the rest of your guys for space. The Outrider and Power Pivot are your best friends, and Bacta Tank is also a must so you can recycle your high-forfeit guys. You will win the podrace for sure, so use I Did It to the best of your abilities. Tracking is absolutely necessary to drop big ships like the Chimaera and Executor. This is a really tough matchup, but if you play smart and have a good draw, you will pull out the win.

No Money, No Parts, No Deal I’ve only gone against this matchup twice, but I haven’t had much trouble with it. Use Luke with Lightsaber to drop down to the Junkyard and slice up Watto. Bunker up at Mos Espa (your guys are smugglers, so you can actually drain for two there). The versions of these decks I have seen don’t have a lot of space, so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem, and the drain of three at Kessel should help you out. Your multiple destinies, along with Too Close For Comfort and I Did It, can take care of their EPPs with ease. Use your best judgment on whether to lose two force or use two force, although to be honest, most times their objective isn’t even flipped. This has been a pretty easy matchup for me, although Brian Hunter’s version is supposed to be unstoppable, so we’ll see how this objective metas out.

Agents Of The Black Sun With three Lukes and two A Jedi’s Resilience, Luke will always be on the table. Their high destinies can seriously mess you up when they’re firing weapons, but as soon as you win the race, Too Close For Comfort stops that, and will also stop them from capturing Luke via Bounty Hunters with guns or Hidden Weapons. Your multiple destinies are key, since the forfeit of Bounty Hunters isn’t great. With the equivalent of seven Lukes in your deck, this matchup generally isn’t a problem. If they stay at their docking bays, just take the few points of damage and outdrain them at Kessel, Tatooine, the Cantina and your docking bays, courtesy of I’ll Take The Leader. Flip your objective and take away a lot of their activation. Not a really hard matchup.

Walker Garrison This matchup is hard to win. Menace Fades will take care of their drains, but the direct damage is pretty awful. You’ll win the podrace for sure, but I Did It usually doesn’t help much except for the retrieval. Pile up at Hoth to stop Rebel Base Occupation from ever hitting the table. Put your smugglers on Hoth to try to drop some walkers, but watch out for Ice Storm. This matchup is one of the reasons I’m thinking of changing the Tunnel Visions for the combo, even though it’s a lower destiny. A rough matchup, winnable for sure, but only if you don’t make any mistakes.

Dark Deal The only strategy I can give you here is what I already said earlier start Battle Plan & Draw Their Fire, dive for Menace Fades, and get an X-wing cannon to their system as soon as you can. Play reactively, beating them off their locations and trying to inflict some battle damage. I Did It means no Trooper Assault, so that will help out. A very tough matchup, for any deck.

Dark Senate It’s rough only getting one destiny at sites, but you will definitely own space, and therefore a drain of at least 4 (Kessel and Tatooine). You can stockpile your guys at the Cantina, or better yet one of their Naboo sites, but don’t spread too thin. I have even gone head to head with the senators at the Galactic Senate, because you have a big forfeit, and a destiny draw or two will take out at least one, and sometimes two Senators. Put your guys on the tank and bring them back again for more fun. This matchup actually isn’t as tough as some people think, and the reason is, once again, hit and run Luke. A saber swipe and a tracked destiny will drop 2 or 3 characters. A Jedi’s Resilience puts him back into your hand for another attack next time, and I Did It is again the key card that will save you in the end.

That should cover most of the more popular matchups. If you have any specific questions, feel free to dmail me. This deck has the tools to beat anything, and has had a lot of help from some of the biggest names in Star Wars. It can and does go to your opponent’s locations, but is also capable of doing a lot of damage even if your opponent doesn’t give you anything to do. This deck is why podracing should be banned from Watch Your Step - because playing those interrupts from your lost pile is just wrong. Good luck, and have fun ridding the galaxy of those Imperial scum ‘