Grace’s Grotesque ISB
Title: Grace’s Grotesque ISB
Author: Joshua "Stormcrow" Grace
Date: Oct 9, 2001
Rating: 4.5
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Cards:
‘Starting (6)
ISB Operations
Prepared Defenses
Imperial Arrest Order/Secret Plans
There Is No Try/Oppressive Enforcement
Wipe Them Out, All of Them
Coruscant (special ed.)
Locations (16)
Tatooine x3 (take your pick or mix & match)
Tusken Canyon
Jabba’s Palace
Audience Chamber
Lower Passages
Cantina
Desert Heart
Judland Wastes
Lars Moisture Farm
Tatooine Desert
DB x2
Tatooine DB 94
Mos Espa DB
Starships (4)
Chimaera
Death Squadron Star Destroyer x3
Characters (21)
Probe Droid x10 (ok, I’d use Outer Rim Scouts here if I had 10, or even more than 1)
Admiral Ozzel
Commander Merrejk
Arica
5d6-RA-7
Chall Bekan
Officer Evax
Captain Jonus
Navy Trooper Vesden
Lt Pol Treidum
Corporal Oberk
Daroe
Red (13)
Masterful Move x3
Ghhk x3
Sunsdown x3
Twi’lek Advisor
There’ll Be Hell to Pay
Tatooine Occupation
Abyssin Ornament ‘
Strategy: ‘
This deck will essentially play the same game against every opponent, meaning this deck might be entertaining for one tournament, but don’t subject your playgroup to it for more than one tournament. Please.
You start your hand with 8 cards. You activate, deploy a docking bay and all the sites from your hand and draw up. Do this for a couple of turns, and soon you will have a number of ISB agents, the Tatooine system in play, Sunsdown and a Masterful Move or a Ghhhk. Use Masterful Move to get a Ghhhk if you don’t have one in your hand. Then, dump all your ISB agents on Tatooine. Use Arica to block a large force drain, or use 5D6 to modify your opponent’s force drains.
Twi’lek? The first Twi’lek is for Sunsdown if you don’t have it. The second is for Tatooine Occupation. Get the grabber only if you really feel it’s worth spending your 3 force.
The only cards you have to pay for are you Masterful Moves and your Star Destroyers. Try to get one of those into your hand in your first few turns. That way, you can beat Battle Plan. You won’t win many battles in space, but with all the forfeit value of your free pilots (and 1 force to shuttle them up), you should be able to keep ability in space long enough for Occupation to wreak its havok.
Centerpiece of the deck? That would be Wipe Them Out, All of Them. All you need to do is occupy a battleground site (one of 13), and you can activate 1 force each of your opponent’s turns. If they throw out Draw Their Fire, wait until after battle has been initiated to activate your force, then use it to play your Ghhhk.
Use Abyssin Ornament if you have 6+ Probe Droids (or Outer Rim Scouts, for you richer folk…) on the table OR if you have lost your 3 Ghhhks.
This deck has the potential to drain for more than 20 and to do another 5-10 direct damage through Occupation.
Menace Fades? So what. Drain for one at each of the X-many sites you control, and do direct damage at all the sites you occupy. That’s still quite a bit.
The deck works because players hoping to beat the deck into submission need to maneuver their characters on the ground (Imperial Arrest Order), and you can block movement with both the Tatooine Desert and the Desert Heart. You will lose a number of battles, but what the forfeit value of your characters won’t cover, the Ghhhks will.
Meta/Card choices
Probe Droids. I’d use Outer Rim Scouts if I owned more than 1. They get to cause damage from Occupation where Probe Droids don’t. Still, the 5 forfeit of the droids makes them better in space (again, I don’t intend to win the battles), and the retrieval potential is more important than the extra Occupation damage.
Lt. Pol Treidum. He can cancel Undercover. High forfeit. That’s about it. You got another Outer Rim Scout? Go for it.
Navy Trooper Vesden. He can win Odds for you. That’s good. If you see Odds often, put another one or two of him in the deck. If you don’t, substitute another Outer Rim Scout for him.
3 Ghhhk, 3 Masterful Move. 3 Ghhhks are essential. Don’t leave home without them. 3 Masterful Moves help a bit to get bye Grimtaashes and to recycle destiny 6’s. If you see lots of Grimtaashes in your area, consider removing a Masterful Move and the grabber for 2 copies of the destiny 5 Used Interrupt which lets you place a card in the used pile… I forget its name at the moment.
Grabber. Not necessarily essential. In my area, I see a lot of stuff worth grabbing. Could be swapped for another Occupation or Abyssin. Otherwise, could be swapped for You Cannot Hide Forever if Odds are played frequently in your area or for whatever utility card you think is more important.
People have played decks quite like this before. I just thought I’d post this version since Wipe Them Out, All of Them has made the deck viable once more. Score it lower for originality if you think you must (though I hardly see the point when there are about 20 Senate decks, 15 Watto decks and 10 Hunt Down decks posted every day), but you can’t really argue with the effectiveness of the deck.
Oh, yeah… WYS? Dead in the water. They give you the system. That’s 3 cards you can lose without regret. Drop a spaceport docking bay on Kessel and 5D6 there. Draw for a Star Destroyer or two, dump spies at 10 sites or so, Arica in the Cantina, play Occupation, lose 15 forfeit in pilots each turn, drop 15 forfeit more… You win.
Joshua “Stormcrow” Grace ‘