ISB The new use for Probe Droids
Title: ISB The new use for Probe Droids
Author: Chris "Crimson 1" Harrison
Date: Dec 2, 2001
Rating: 4.5
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Cards:
‘Starting (6)
ISB Operations/Empire’s Sinister Agents
Coruscant (SE)
Prepared Defenses
Imperial Arrest Order & Secret Plans
Imperial Decree
You Cannot Hide Forever & Mobilization Points
Characters (24)
5D6-RA-7
Bane Malar
Captain Piett x2
Djas Puhr
Dr. Evazan & Ponda Baba
Grand Admiral Thrawn
Grotto Werribee
Janus Greejatus
Nute Gunray
Prince Xizor
Probe Droid x12
Sim Aloo
Locations (6)
Coruscant Docking Bay (SE)
Death Star II Docking Bay
Endor Landing Platform (Docking Bay)
Hoth Echo Docking Bay
Kuat
Yavin 4 Docking Bay
Starships (4)
Stalker x2
Thunderflare
Tyrant
Effects (10)
Forced Servitude x2
Kuat Drive Yards
Reactor Terminal
Security Precautions
Sunsdown
Undercover x4
Interupts (10)
Abyssin Ornament x2
Ghhhk x2
Holonet Transmision x2
Probe Telemetry x2
Twi’lek Advisor x2
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Strategy: ‘
There is a reason why there is a probe droid picture on the back of ISB Ops. It’s because it works so well.
First of all, I’ll start with the character selection. Probe Droids can do a lot of things. They can battle, force drain and go undercover. They can also help look at your opponent’s hand. Knowing what’s coming can help a lot in a game. Did I mention they also have Forfeit of 5? There are also many effects that work well with probe droids. (See effects section) All this for only 2 force. You can also retrieve them with ISB Ops.
Unfortunately though, probe droids can’t draw destiny. That’s where the other characters come in. Every Character except for Piett and the droids can draw destiny. Also, seven of your characters have some sort of immunity to attrition, which means they can survive another day in a battle. 5D6-RA-7 is a must for all ISB decks. He allows you to get that crucial Force Drain -1 at those sites you opponent has built up without much threat of being killed because he can’t be battled. Combine this with Imperial Decree and all of your opponents Drain bonuses are canceled along with the -1 from Empire’s Sinister Agents (ESA). As soon as you can, Get Piett using Holonet Transmission and get him down with some protection. This will allow you to get your Probe Droids out from the reserve deck. If opponent uses docking bays (which most people do), get Grotto to one of them along with some Probe droids and get a drain of +2, +3 with ESA. Use your other characters game texts when needed like Janus’s Restock ability and Sim’s ability to look at your opponents top card. Also don’t forget Bane’s Mind read ability.
The Kuat and Kuat Drive Yards are in there to help Get you star destroyers to control Kuat and Coruscant and Get Imperial Decree going. Pull Kuat Using Mob points and get it going. You can also grab control of the Yavin and Hoth docking bays to get Decree going. You’ll notice that all the sights are docking bays. This is so you can grab the one you need when you need it using Imp. Arrest order. Also, You’ll notice that your sites give you 8 force while giving only 3 to your opponent. This can be big in the early game.
The Effects do there part to reduce the damage from you opponent. Forced servitude allows you to use your probe droids forfeit value of 5 when lost from hand or life force. This can be used to soak up damage fast. Oh yea, did I forget to mention you could retrieve the probe droids? Undercover stops your opponent’s drains and Reactor terminal allows you to dump cards from your hand back to the deck. Security Precautions punishes the opponent for playing hidden base. Sunsdown allows you to deploy the ISB agents free. Late in the game, use Abyssin Ornament to retrieve. Use Probe Telemetry to make opponent looses the non-unique cards permanently. This works great against those X-Wing Swarms. If you get in a battle and loose by a lot, use ghhk to cancel that battle damage.
All you do is play smart and you will come out victorious.
Now time for the verse screen…
Vs. Hidden Base
Get ISB Flipped and use Kuat drive yards to get your SD’s out. Then Start probing. Use Security Precautions and Probe Telemetry to devastate your opponent. The drains will probably cause many of those X-Wings to be lost then Probe Telemetry to place them out of play, away from your opponents retrieval engine. You will probably win by 15-20.
Other than that I haven’t played many decks so I can’t tell you how it will work out. I know this deck could use some improvement by using Defensive Shields and Dark Jedi but I just can’t get any of them. This is what I have and that’s all I can do for know. Any Advise would be appreciated. Have fun and rate nice. Thank you.
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