Devonator’s Black Sun

Title: Devonator’s Black Sun
Author: Devon "Devonator" Clark
Date: Dec 6, 2001 Rating: 4.5

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Cards:

‘Starting (9)

Agents of Black Sun/Vengeance of the Dark Prince

(SE) Coruscant

Coruscant Imperial City

Prince Xizor

Prepared Defenses

Imperial Arrest Order & Secret Plans

Wipe Them Out, All of Them

Crush the Rebellion

Fear Is My Ally

Defensive Shields (10)

There is No Try

A Useless Gesture

You’ve Never Won A Race

We’ll Let Fate Decide

Allegations of Corruption

Do They Have A Code Clearance

Come Here You Big Coward

Battle Order

You Cannot Hide Forever

Fanfare

Locations (5)

(SE) Coruscant Docking Bay

Executor Docking Bay

Death Star 2 Docking Bay

Cloud City Docking Bay

Blockade Flagship Bridge

Characters (19)

Emperor Palpatine x5

Prince Xizor

Guri x2

4-LOM w/ Concussion Rifle x2

IG-88 w/ Riot Gun

Boba Fett, Bounty Hunter

Dengar w/ Blaster Carbine x2

Vigo x2

Bane Malar

Djas Puhr

Grotto Werribe

Starships (5)

Zuckuss in Mist Hunter x2

Bossk in Hound’s Tooth

Boba Fett in Slave One

Stinger

Effects (7)

No Escape

Lateral Damage

Presence of the Force x2

First Strike

Bad Feeling Have I

Broken Concentration

Interrupts (15)

We Must Accelerate Our Plans x4

Force Lightning x2

Projective Telepathy x2

Sniper & Dark Strike

Control & Set For Stun

Ghhhk & Those Rebels Won’t Escape Us

Evader & Monnok

I Have You Now

Jabba’s Through With You

Imperial Barrier ‘

Strategy: ‘

PLEASE READ BEFORE REVIEWING

First, I would like to give props to the original creator of Dark Surgeon (Alex Tennet) off of which this deck is based.

Dark Surgeon is arguably the best DS deck ever built. As such, you might wonder why people don’t play it anymore. Well, first, not many people have access to 5+ Palpatines. Second, the deck’s success centers around gaining an activation advantage over your opponent, and it does this with the help of Mobilization Points. Therefore, Don’t Do That Again is a Dark Surgeon magic bullet. However, I still believe that the deck is strong . . . especially in the new environment. I believe that you can force choke and gain the activation advantage without relying on Mobilization Points. How? By using more sites and We Must Accelerate Our Plans. But won’t that water down the deck? A little. So, will the deck ever be the same? No Then why play it? Because I believe that it can be comparable. And if you don’t believe me, take a look.

First, if you’re unfamiliar with Dark Surgeon, let me enlighten you. The deck is a high speed, high pressure, high damage, force choke deck. The LS player pays extra for EVERYTHING. They pay extra for characters, extra for drains, extra for battles, extra for interrupts, and they pay extra for retrieval, too. Where does the force come from? It’s all theirs, my friend, because aside from 1 force icon, you don’t have to give your opponent anything. So, when they’re paying 5 to drain at ONE site, they rarely have the 7 to 10 force to flip me back with Luke . . . much less an extra 1 to 3 to battle. Under these kinds of force constraints, how can your opponent win? The easy answer is that they can’t. And as long as you remember the tricks that your objective affords you–uber-tracking, direct damage, and added attrition–there’s no way that any LS deck can stand against you. So, let’s take a look . . .

BLACK SUN’S BAG OF TRICKS

I’m paraphrasing everything below, so if I misquote, I apologize. However, I assure you that I will not misrepresent any of the abilities that the 7-Side of Black Sun affords you.

1) Once per turn, you may place a card from hand on your used pile to view the cards in your force pile–This happens during both turns. Recycle high destiny cards without a Reactor Terminal or Janus. And when you do, take a look at the cards in your force pile. What good does that do you? Well, because you replace unshuffled, it does a world of good. It allows you to know exactly what you’re going to draw at all times. And more importantly, it allows you to know if you need to draw at all. If there are 6 cards in your force pile but you don’t need them. Just don’t draw. Then, next turn, you’ll add your activation to those 6 force. There’s really no way for you to get force choked. Also, if you know all of the cards in your force pile before you use them. You can track just by what cards are in your force pile. If the first card in your force pile is Emperor Palpatine, then the bottom card of your reserve deck after you recirculate will be a destiny 6. This is an incredibly useful form of tracking.

2) During your battle phase, you may look at the top X cards of your Reserve Deck, where X is the number of battlegrounds you occupy–This function allows you to plan your battles. Even if you only occupy one battleground, that one destiny will allow you to know whom to target with a weapon. But that’s easy. This function is useful in so many ways, and most revolve around looking at multiple cards. For example You have Dengar and Xizor at a site, ZiMH at a system, and Palpatine at a site of his own with 4-LOM as protection. You have Set For Stun in your hand. You scan the top 3 cards, and the destinies are a 0 you had forgotten to pull (that sucks), a 6 (that’s good), and a 4 (eh). Your opponent drops EPP Luke next door, and Chewie protector and Scoundrel Calrissian to Xizor’s site (Just go with it . . . they saved a lot of force) to flip you back and fight you. It’s an obvious RLR beatdown, and it looks bleak, especially with that 0 on top of your reserve deck. What are you going to do? Before the battle, your opponent cancels Dengar’s text with Protector Chewie. You activate 1 force with Wipe Them Out thus moving that 0 to the force pile. Your opponent initiates and plays Run Luke Run. You play Set For Stun knowing full well that you’re going to draw a 6. Luke returns to hand flipping you back to the 7-side. Xizor’s game text has kicked in also. Your opponent’s 2 destinies suddenly become no destinies. You draw the 4 (your attrition bonus makes it a 6 but doesn’t add to power). It’s 12 to 12. Your opponent loses Chewie to attrition, but Lando stays. Your opponent refuses to pay the upkeep to avoid a subsequent beating. You, however, lose nobody. With your knowledge of the cards, you’ve just turned a sure-fire beat-down into 2 lost mains and some more force choke for your opponent (they’ve got to save to deploy Luke again). And that’s what makes Black Sun so nasty. You will find so many situations like this with the deck.

3) You may add X to attrition, where X is the number of Black Sun agents in battle–This is pretty straightforward. It kills characters quickly.

4) During your control phase, your opponent loses 1 force for each battleground occupied by either Xizor or Palpatine–Ah, Direct Damage. It’s only 2 force, but it’s so nasty. Put the pressure on fast. With the direct damage and some efficient character deployment, you can easily make your opponent lose 5 force a turn.

Yes, all of the above make for an incredibly effective deck.

Now let’s take a look at . . .

CARD CHOICES

The Start

Wipe Them Out It helps with added activation. It circumvents Beggar, I Did It, Frozen Assets, and Draw Their Fire. It provides for surprise barriers. And when you know there’s a bad destiny on top of your deck, you can simply activate it to get to the next one.

Crush the Rebellion It cancels Clash of Sabers. It pulls Evader & Monnok and I Have You Now. And it manages opposing destinies at your mobile sites.

IAO & SP It allows you to pull Docking Bays for added activation and it force chokes retrieval.

Palpatine x5 Tennet’s design used 6 Palpatines. Well I don’t have 6 Palpatines . . . but I am lucky enough to have 5. And, to be honest, Palpy is the deck. With 5 Palpatines, odds are that you’ll get 1 on the draw. Then, for the highly economical cost of 5 force, you deploy a Power 4, Lightning throwing, Immune to attrition Jedi Master at your opponent’s site, where he will easily drain for 2. And he’s protected by both I Have You Now and Force Lightning; so your opponent will give you some time to back him up. Palpatine single-handedly puts a ton of pressure on your opponent. And he’s a destiny 6.

Locations SE Coruscant gives away no force icons. All of the DBs are mobile sites (think Crush and Projection of a Skywalker). The Blockade Flagship Bridge is an easily pulled twix. All together, they give you 9 icons while giving away only 1. And that’s before Palpatine or Presence ever hit the table. This deck easily generates 11 force on its own . . . and most LS decks will give you 2+ icons. Then, add to that the fact that you don’t need to draw up when you know what cards are in your force pile, and you have a recipe for a large force pile. Lots of force for you . . . Force Choke for them.

We Must Accelerate Our Plans x4 Somebody somewhere is going to try and tell me that I’ve gone overboard with the WMAOPs. Well, you could be right. However, this deck relies heavily on quick activation and effects. WMAOP pulls the Bridge and is a Twilek Advisor. In my estimation, that makes WMAOP an important card. Therefore, I play 4 of them. You’ll get them fast. Hence you’ll set up fast.

Projective Telepathy It’s Force Choke. Your opponent pays extra to battle or drain. What an incredible card. It’s so good, that I would bank on the fact that it gets grabbed in almost every game.

Presence of the Force Add to your drains. Turn your non-battleground into a battleground so that you can flip. Turn their non-battleground into a battleground so that you can deploy and beatdown. Turn Coruscant into a battleground so that you can satisfy Battle Order . . . You figure it out.

Bad Feeling Have I It’s Force Choke. Mains deploy +2. It doesn’t affect Republic mains, but it still hurts big time. This is a very important card to pull early.

Broken Concentration It’s Force Choke. Make your opponent have 1 less force than they thought they did. (Also, this card can be key to a large differential. At the end of the game, use Broken Concentration to stop your opponent from drawing up as you put cards from your hand back.)

No Escape Some people still play generic sites. And retrieving 1 force into hand can win many games.

First Strike It’s Force Choke. Make your opponent pay for any battle interrupts. Also, it creates damage and retrieval.

Defensive Shields This deck does not NEED Defensive Shields, however if Decipher gives you extra card slots, use them. Your favorite shields will be Battle Order, Allegations, DTHACC, and CHYBC. The rest are there just in case.

Starships With these 5 starships, you can effectively put up a resistance in space. Guri on the Stinger, BiHT, and 4-LOM on ZiMH all add battle destinies. They can easily hold any one system, and that means that you can easily satisfy Battle Order. This deck was never intended to spread in space. Keep your few starships together to pull multiple destinies and you will have no problem applying a beat down in space.

That pretty much does it for card choices.

As for additions that I would like to make, I would like to make two. I would like to take DTHACC and add it into the deck proper (There are 4 shields that I would like to use in any game, but only 3 that I GET to use. You do the math. And God help me if I NEED one of the just in case shields). The other addition I would like to make is a Sense. One Sense, when you are capable of so much tracking, can cancel so many cards. Or at the very least, it will bait a Defensive Shield, thus leaving your opponent with only 2 to use.

Now let’s take a look at some strategic notes.

GENERAL STRATEGY

Early Game Pull your sites. Deploy Palpatine to an opponent’s ground location early for a potential drain of 2. Move Xizor to prepare to flip. Play Bad Feeling Have I and Broken Concentration to start the force choke. You should be able to flip by turn 2 . . . turn 3 at the VERY latest. Once you flip, the fun begins.

Mid Game A Use EVERY aspect of the 7-side’s text. Put high-destiny cards back to examine your force pile. Examine the top cards of your reserve deck. Use the knowledge you gain of where every card is to plan every aspect of your attack. You should never miss a shot. Track and do it all over again. Damage, damage, damage

Mid Game B At some point, your opponent will flip you back to the 0 side. However, you’ve been keeping tabs on where your destinies are, so you know how to kill Luke to get right back to your game plan. Use tracking to set a weapon shot or attrition to kill Luke. After you’ve done that, you’ll break your opponent’s back. Head to the late game.

Late Game You’re flipped again. Damage, damage, damage Put cards back to increase your differential. Report your victory.

The strategy is incredibly simple, but the execution is incredibly difficult because it requires so much planning and tracking. But that’s why it’s so effective. Give it a try. You’ll see what I mean. But first, let me run quickly through some match-ups . . .

MATCH-UPS

Vs. Podracing 6 force lost will not kill you. I Did It could. Pull your defensive shield. Let them win the race. You can probably use Come Here You Big Coward and Secret Plans together to ensure that they can’t retrieve. Then just kill their characters and continue your damage to win.

Vs. Profit Place Dengar and Bane Malar in the audience chamber. Deploy Palpatine to Jabba’s Palace and move them out early for a well-protected drain of 2. You should be doing 5+ damage by turn 3. If Profit flips, so be it. With Black Sun’s tracking, Han should never stay on the table for long. Just be wary of Blaster Deflections and SAC.

Vs. MWYHL In the hands of a good player, Jedi Testing can be one of the toughest match-ups in the game . . . but not against Black Sun. Fast Damage, Broken Concentration, and CHYBC mean easy victory.

Vs. QMC QMC is notoriously a slow-starter. Black Sun is a fast starter. That means that you should pull ahead early. Always assume that QMC is about to make a comeback though because QMC has some nasty tricks at its disposal. However, this match-up is STILL not difficult. Why? Because QMC gives away MUCH force. They start you off with 2 icons, and will probably give you 2-3 more. When a LS deck gives you that much force, they’re begging you to pull out the whoopin’ sticks. And you don’t want to let ’em down.

Vs. Lightsaber Combat What was I just saying about LS decks that give you icons? Oh yeah, whoopin’ sticks. You start the game with 8 force. That’s a first turn Palpatine and a first turn Bad Feeling (complements of WMAOP). But still, this deck could give you a little bit of trouble. The key to the match-up is First Strike. Deploy Palpatine to a Naboo site as soon as you get him. Then, your opponent can’t drain or battle where they have a Jedi. If they manage to kill Palpy via combat, he should be the top card of your lost pile. On your turn, initiate a battle, retrieve with First Strike, and track him to draw him again. Once you’ve given Palpatine room to deploy, send him back into the Generator and do it all over again. When you limit your opponent’s damage to you to 2 a turn, while you’re doing 5+, that’s a winning situation. This should not be as difficult a game as you think.

Vs. Rebel Strike Team Here is another deck that likes to give you force. Also, it likes to start quickly . . . only Black Sun starts quicker. Kill Madine early and the game is yours.

Vs. Hidden Base Here’s another deck that likes to give you force. When will those rebels ever learn? Find your starships. Clear a system with your multiple destinies and probe. Start with Kashyyk. It’s always Kashyyk. Once you’ve placed their objective out of play, you should have no problem winning the game thanks to your fast damage. However, Hidden Base is a good objective. It can be a tough game. If you’re really worried about Hidden Base, add Security Precautions for an auto win.

Vs. EBO Monnok, No Escape, Monnok, First Strike, Monnok again. How many X-Wings do you have left? Oh, sorry. Also, you can use your multiple destinies to clear a system. It can be a tough match-up, but your doing fast, fast damage. With a little bit of intelligent planning, you’ll have no problems turning a fast start into a win.

Vs. WYS Probably your toughest match-up. Face it. The deck is good despite A Useless Gesture. Still, pull A Useless Gesture to keep your opponent honest. Deploy Palpatine to the Cantina. That drain of 2 can single-handedly win this game for you. Expect multiple fights in the Cantina. Just remember to keep tracking and keep Luke off of the table, and you should be able to win.

Well, those are all the match-ups I can think of. If you have any questions d-mail me. And Enjoy

Devon “Devonator” Clark

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