Goggled Glory - NO R3

Title: Goggled Glory - NO R3
Author: Dennis "Denethor" Jeffris
Date: Oct 22, 2001 Rating: 4.5


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Cards:

‘Starting (6)

Watch Your Step/This Place Can Be A Little Rough

Tatooine (Coruscant version)

Tatooine Cantina

Tatooine Docking Bay 94

The Signal (explained later)

Squadron Assignments

Locations (1)

Kessel

Characters (18)

Dash Rendar x3

Mirax Terrik

Phylo Gandish x2

Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight x3

Wedge Antilles

Theron Nett

Captain Han Solo x2

Threepio With His Parts Showing x2

Melas x3

Starships (8)

Outrider x3

Pulsar Skate

Millenium Falcon

Artoo-Detoo In Red 5

Red Squadron 1

Red 10

Interrupts (20)

Off The Edge

Control & Tunnel Vision x2

Transmission Terminated

Out Of Commission & Transmission Terminated

Houjix & Out Of Nowhere

Visored Vision x4

Perimeter Scan

All Wings Report In & Darklighter Spin x2

Run Luke, Run

We’re Doomed Free Ride & Endor Celebration

Blast The Door, Kid x2

Path of Least Resistence & Revealed x2

Effects (3)

Battle Plan & Draw Their Fire

Polarized Negative Power Coupling

Menace Fades

Crazy Crap (4)

Luke’s Lightsaber

X-Wing Laser Cannons

I’ll Take The Leader x2 ‘

Strategy: ‘

—The OFF THE EDGE is supposed to be ON THE EDGE. Sorry for the mixup—

First off, you’re probably wondering why I start The Signal. It’s for several reasons

The only other effect that is safe to start is Menace Fades. Battle Plan (I don’t have the combo card, by the way - exchange as necessary) is not a safe card to start because you usually don’t have anything on the ground for a turn or 2, but you almost always get someone (Dash optimally) to Kessel first turn, so you can drain next turn. Hence, I don’t want to spend 3 force to drain. My activation in early-game is limited, so I need all I can get.

And the biggest reason I start The Signal… is to flip, then use it to pull out Polarized Negative Power Coupling. Since I can’t start it w/ HFTMF, I use the Signal. The only effect I need out at start is Squadron Assignments. So I play the Signal. Then, when I flip, play Signal from your lost pile to pull out Polarized Negative Power Coupling. Note that Alter will not work on Polarized, because of the objective. Then the hurting starts.

You also may be wondering as to why I have so many duplicate characters. Well, these are the best characters for the deck. You’ll see why later (if not, PLEASE D-mail me).

My basic strategy is to hold the Cantina and Kessel, and that’s all. Both of these add up to a whopping 5 drain a turn, and that sets up rather quickly. Doing this will keep Battle Plan as well as Menace Fades satisfied. Since the new Defensive Shield card ”A Useless Gesture” will make it more difficult to keep a solid hold on both places, this is what I have devised

In this game, you will want to keep the smuggler limit under 3 at all times. Although this looks like it would devastate this deck, it is easier to avoid than you think. First off, to flip, you must occupy 2 locations with smugglers. To do this, deploy Dash and the Outrider to Kessel (since you will have 6 chances to deploy them in the beginning, it will be no problem). Deploy Luke and possibly his lightsaber to the Cantina. Then, as soon as you can, deploy another smuggler to Tatooine (try to keep Melas in your hand for Maul protection), to satisfy the objective. Then move that smuggler at Tatooine to Kessel. Now you have less than 3 smugglers on table. Also, try to get Phylo into the Cantina for backup. It’s not much, but she’ll do. Always keep Melas in your hand for space protection against Maul… ALWAYS. Also, the best combination in space is the Outrider and the Falcon with their pilots. That’s 3 battle destiny with reducing their power. Nice. Again, your smuggler limit is less than 3. Notice that I have multiples of all the beefy characters. This is to help against TIE cannons and to speed up the deck, since it is usually this team of people that will stay there. Also, beware of You Are Beaten. This is why I put 2 Blast The Door, Kids in here. If Vader wants to beat the crap out of your poor Phylo, cancel the battle.

Now that you know how to avoid the new shield card

One problem you might see is activation. True, it is a little bit slow in the beginning, but most dark decks nowadays give you enough force to handle yourself well. Also, even with only my starting locations, I activate enough to solidly flip 3rd turn. This means activation at Kessel is now +1. Which helps. Since the smugglers are so cheap, it’s really not a big problem. At least I haven’t had a problem with it…

Let’s explain some card choices

Visored Vision - The BANE of all dark decks. This card devastates almost every single deck. For example, use it to get rid of Vader’s Obsessions. Or use it to get rid of All Power To Weapons. Use it against any single card, it will wreck them. Or just play 2 a turn USED version, ping them for 2-6 a turn. It’s really nasty. Also, keep in mind you can just play them from your lost pile. Also keep in mind that Polarized flips the used pile and really lets you go at it. This card causes an average of 10 force loss per game, even more in an indirect way (making them lose pivotal cards). Try this, you will always play with them. This card should be errated… but it is definetely one of the best cards right now combined with The Signal start and Polarized after flipping. The pinging doesn’t stop for the rest of the game. If they grab it, it doesn’t matter. The drains will kill them off anyways. This is just an added bonus. THIS CARD OWNZ YOU

Transmission Terminated (non-combo) - Anti-This Is Some Rescue. Most Hunt Down decks play with 2 This Is Some Rescues and 1 or 2 Holonet Transmissions. Therefore, if they have 1 Holonet and 2 This Is Some… in their hand, you play OOC/TT and they cancel with This Is Some… You play it again from lost pile, they cancel with the other one. You play TT, they cancel with Holonet. Next turn, play TT from lost pile and you finally get rid of Visage. It’s just better this way.

Houjix & OON - I’m paranoid of massive beatdowns with You Are Beaten, so I pack 1 of these. Also, the OON version helps many times, so keep that in mind.

Perimeter Scan - WHAT THE?? Yes, this card is incredible. It has saved my hide on several occasions. Also, you can see if he’s bluffing or not and spread out to help with the damage (to Tatooine and the Docking bay, then back again).

We’re Doomed - I gotta give credit to the guy who found the power of this card (sorry, I forgot who it was). This card is absolutely incredible. Since I pack 2 Threepios, if the game is getting tight, this card will see lots of play. With the new shield I can expect games to get harder, but I think this deck will still be the most powerful out there (ok, so I’m proud of this deck… don’t knock me for it -P).

Path of Least Resistence - Spies will slow this deck down quite a bit. So why not get rid of them?

Blast the Door Kid - Get out of potential death battles. I really hate those death battles. Can be used, if necessary, with Wedge and Theron to take out a lone wussy troop (who’s with Vader, but he’ll be blasted away from the door).

3 Dashes, 3 Melas, 3 Lukes (I had to borrow 2 of them), 2 Hans, 2 Phylos… - These characters are necessary with the new shield card. If I’m not gonna use any other ones (to avoid sending interrupts to the OOP pile), why not pack more of the same? Chasm (Abyss?) might hurt this, but no one uses that (here at least).

1 Off the Edge - With all those anti-retrieval cards out now, this will be stupid to use multiple copies. 1 will be enough with a 5 or 6 card retrieval. If they don’t play anti-retrieval, play it again

2 Darklighter Spins - Pull out that second ship FAST. You’ll need it. Also, the smack down with a manuever 6 Falcon

How about a few deck matchups for you?

TIEs - Your hardest match. Their cannons will blow you out of the sky too many times to count. Fortunately for you, they don’t pack much ground at all, so you can try to drain them out on the ground (especially if they play with the War Room). However, if you can set it up to beat him down in space with Dash + someone else, always take that chance against a lone TIE or 2. I don’t see many TIE decks anymore, so I’m not too worried. I only lost once out of 3 games with TIEs. Revealed is your best bud here.

Let Them Make The First Move - This shan’t be too hard. True, they will drain for 5 a turn also if played correctly, but they won’t set up as fast as you can. Also, their space package I can already see will be weak, so don’t be afraid in space. Take both systems, it will help. Since they will try to stay on Naboo, Tatooine will be yours for the taking. Try to avoid spreading Phylo and Luke out (unless you have a Blast The Door Kid in hand). Since I see no way of getting more sites out fast, you will out-drain them and Visored them quickly. They also give away too much activation. Only time will tell, but I predict a smooth game.

Scum - HAHAHAHA With the fear of the new Leia, most people won’t play scum. If they do, it may be harder than usual due to the inability to use the smugglers’ multiple destinies on the ground. However, your Luke slicin’ and dicin’ should be their doom. Get Melas to space fast, since Zuckuss can hurt.

Senate - Might be hard. Eat away their interrupts with VV. Try to stay concentrated (like always) and you should be fine. I’ve never played against a really solid one, but again, I don’t think it should be too hard. This deck is well-rounded and sticks to it’s own plan.

Troopers - Now this is one that might cause a few problems. Especially in Speed Deal form. Visored Vision their All Power To Weapons away. Your ships will eat their TIEs alive in the clouds, so make sure you can get in there and get I’ll Take The Leader going. If they can’t control the sector, then they can’t get their deal going. Keep that in mind. Again, have Luke and Phylo chill in the Cantina and avoid trouble with Blast The Door Kid Perimeter Scan helps in this matchup.

There you have it. This deck (from my experience) is the end-all deck f ‘