Grace’s Throne Room (SAC is back) No R3

Title: Grace’s Throne Room (SAC is back) No R3
Author: Joshua "Stormcrow" Grace
Date: Oct 16, 2001 Rating: 4.0


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Cards:

‘Starting (4)

Yavin IV Throne Room

Careful Planning

Farm

Swamp

Creatures (2)

Nudj x2

Locations (6)

Jedi Council Chamber

Rendez-vous Point

Echo Command Center

Yoda’s Hut

Home One War Room

Kessel

Characters (12)

Luke w/Saber

Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight x2

Qui-Gon Jinn x2

Leia w/Blaster x2

Captain Han Solo

Taws Khaa

Melas

Coran Horn

R-3P0

Weapons (2)

Anakin’s Saber

Qui-Gon Jinn’s Saber

Ship (1)

Millenium Falcon

Red (33)

Battle Plan/Draw Their Fire

Too Close For Comfort

Your Insight Serves You Well

Nabrun Leids

Advantage

Honor of the Jedi

Lightsaber Proficiency

Bacta Tank

Traffic Control

What’re You Trying to Push?

Revolution x4

Sense x5

Alter x2

Smoke Screen x2

Goo Nee Tay x2

Weapon Levitation x2

It Could Be Worse x2

OOC/TT x2

We Wish to Board at Once x2 ‘

Strategy: ‘

**SOME RESPONSES TO EARLY COMMENTS 1. No Obi because he’s just asking to be Epic Dueled. JK Luke stands a chance, but is better off hiding or Sensing duel cards (track a low destiny, followed by two high destinies). Qui-Gon can’t be Epic Dueled, and, as a result, he’s the go-to man against Hunt Down. Obi wouldn’t really add a lot to the deck.

  1. What about Crush the Rebellion and Evader? Well, that’s the original reason for the grabber. If you want to squander the grabber when you see your opponent play Crush, that’s your problem.

  2. Why use What’re You Tryin’ to Push on Us? instead of the new grabber? No real reason. Probably a good card to switch, really. I just forgot about the existence of the Coruscant version.

  3. Will No Escape kill this deck? Not even remotely. So what if they activate 2 extra force? It’s not that big a deal. The sites remain non-battlegrounds as long as the Nudj’s are there, and HotJedi still doubles to block force drains.

  4. Are SYCFA ties an auto-win against this? Again, not even close. It’s a more difficult challenge, but that’s part of what meta-gaming is all about–making a deck that’s better against the decks you fear more, and sacrificing a touch of performance against less frightening deck types. Battle Plan makes things very hard for Tie decks. It always has. It likely always will. Your opponent has no chance to hold a battleground against you and will likely deploy an early Emperor or someone that you can kill for Advantage. Meanwhile, you can Alter Seinar Fleet and Grab Twi’lek or We Must Accelerate. It Could Be Worse against a drain each turn, and the drain race will probably go in your face since you can afford to pay for each drain. If this is a popular deck type in your area, well, then you want to find a slot for I’ll Report the Leader and maybe Don’t Do That Again. Maybe even the Tantive. But it’s not that worrisome.**

This is an unbeaten, classic Force Choke deck. With Revolutions, Goo Nee Tay and Twix sites, the object of the game is to set up a large force activation edge for you and then battle selectively. In each battle, you should be able to have an edge simply because your opponent shouldn’t be able to pay for enough to hurt you.

For those unfamiliar with the Throne Room / Careful Planning start, you use Careful Planning to pull the Farm and the Swamp. You go first and use the Swamp’s game text to look for a Nudj. Deploy the Nudj to cancel your opponent’s force icon, there. Move the Nudj to the Farm so that the next turn you deploy another Nudj to the Swamp.

Card choices

Too Close for Comfort–Don’t bother pretending this has anything to do with the podrace. This is to punish your opponent’s low activation. After your opponent saves 2 turns for 8 force to play Vader (or something like that), and pays one to battle, play this. Are they going to wait 3 turns? Fine, let them. Still play this. Every force you make your opponent pay is going to count in this game.

We Wish to Board at Once–Like The Signal with the added advantage of being able to pull Too Close for Comfort.

2 Leias and 1 Han–Leia’s better on the ground. Space is for late game or in the rare occassion your opponent is playing space and leaves himself vulnerable somewhere. Or, as I found out, to beat up on Ties and prevent Dark Deal.

Bacta Tank–Don’t leave home without it. With the activation of this deck, use the tank as much as possible.

R3P0–The only retrieval in this deck is Taws Khaa. So it’s more efficient to keep R3P0 with your opponent’s undercover spies than to play the 2 or 3 Sorry About the Messes that you would need as spy protection.

Weapon Levitation x2–Great card in this deck. With the continued popularity of Hunt Down (meaning Vader’s saber) and the activation of this deck (meaning the chance to look through a large used pile), this is truly a dual-use card.

Qui-Gonn Jinn–The Master He can’t be Epic Dueled. He’s immune to attrition. He’s the SAC machine. He adds an icon. What can’t he do for this deck? He can’t pilot the Falcon, but that’s okay because you’d be nuts to waste him on the Falcon.

It Could Be Worse x2–Primarily to stop Podrace damage, but can be used for anything. With 5 Senses to block It’s Worse, it should be fine to play.

Match-ups

The deck was designed to beat Hunt-Down, BHBM, Watto and Senate decks.

Against Watto decks, early presence at either Mos Espa or the Junkyard will make life difficult for your opponent.

Senate decks usually start Maul’s Hut, and once that’s Revo’d, they’re in serious trouble.

Hunt Down podracing is especially vulnerable to the force choke, even after No Escape. All their characters are ability >3 and punished by Goo Nee Tay.

BHBM allows you to play Luke w/Saber immediately or on the 2nd turn–your choice. Revos and Goo Nee Tay will tear apart your opponent.

Against other decks, the force choke still hurts, but rely more upon your own generation. Be sure to get out the Tank. Be cautious in space. This is primarily a ground-drainer, which is okay, because most dark side decks stick on the ground.

This deck has weaknesses against decks that aren’t played these days, but against the current meta, this deck is a beast.

Even SYCFA ties will have trouble simply because of Battle Plan / Draw Their Fire. Qui-Gon sets up camp at the Death Star DB and your other characters take over the rest of the battlegrounds leaving your opponent no safe place to hide. Against Brangus, the grabber will shut down Brangus’ retrieval engine.

Scum will suffer if you get to Jabba’s Palace early, blocking their access to the rest of their sites. Remember Scum isn’t immune to Alter, either.

That’s pretty much it. Enjoy.

Joshua ”Stormcrow” Grace ‘