Blue Hunt Down with an ECC Punch
Title: Blue Hunt Down with an ECC Punch
Author: Paul "Paul" Maholick
Date: Jan 3, 2000
Rating: 4.0
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Cards:
‘Objective (1) Hunt Down And Destroy The Jedi/Their Fire Has Gone Out Of The Universe
Locations (10) Cloud City Downtown Plaza Cloud City East Platform (Docking Bay) Cloud City Port Town District Coruscant Death Star Endor Endor Back Door Executor Holotheatre Executor Meditation Chamber Kashyyyk
Characters (16) 4-LOM With Concussion Rifle Admiral Ozzel Commander Igar Darth Vader With Lightsaber Darth Vader x2 Darth Vader, Dark Lord Of The Sith x2 DS-61-2 Grand Moff Tarkin IG-88 With Riot Gun Lieutenant Arnet Lieutenant Cabbel Officer Evax U-3PO (Yoo-Threepio) Zuckuss
Vehicles (3) Blizzard 2 Dune Walker Tempest 1
Starships (6) Boba Fett in Slave I Bossk In Hounds Tooth Death Squadron Star Destroyer Dengar In Punishing One Devastator Dreadnaught-Class Heavy Cruiser
Interrupts (9) Evader Torture x2 Trample x2 Twi’lek Advisor x3 You Are Beaten
Effects ( 13) A Bright Center To The Universe Battle Order Come Here You Big Coward Crush The Rebellion First Strike Imperial Arrest Order Lateral Damage Reactor Terminal Secret Plans Security Precautions There’ll Be Hell To Pay Visage Of The Emperor x2
Weapons (2) Vader’s Lightsaber x2 ‘
Strategy: ‘
As the summary says, this deck is a Hayes style Hunt Down that uses the extra punch of the new ECC characters to eliminate Luke and Obi to help ensure Visage damage. Normal start is IAO to ensure high forfeit Imperials and a docking bay to which you can deploy Vader on the first turn. Lets look at the cards.
The ten locations provide enough battleground draining sites on which you can set up your walkers as well as some good force activation from the Death Star and Coruscant. Endor and Kashyyyk can also be good places to drain in space as well. The CC locations are ideal for Vader as Crush the Rebellion keeps multiple destinies and Clash of Sabers in check. You characters will not be subject to Lost in the Wilderness here either. Also the docking bay is included to make sure Vader has a place to go on the first turn.
Characters are a mix of high forfeit weenie Imperials for IAO and power characters. You have your Vaders, and Tarkin for that combo. The ECC droids show up here as well, with Zuckuss to add a destiny. Igar works with Tempest 1 or the Dune walker and U-3P0 just blocks a drain.
Three walkers are included to protect your high forfeit guys from EPP’s. Also they are required to make trample work. The starships are good for probing with Boba in Slave 1 and the Death Squadron Star Destroyer. Dengar makes in possible to hurt the Falcon, Bossk is in for obvious reasons and the Dreadnaught and Devastator both have ability 2 pilots to go with the weenie Imperials.
As for interrupts, I chose to include only one Evader. I did not know what to take out for another one. So Out of Comission could hurt. I figure that if a see a force choke start, I can start Crush and use the one Evader one time before it is grappled. Hopefully that will buy me enough time to get out some more locations to beat the choke. Tortures are for numbers. The tramples are for spies because Bubo doesn’t go to CC, but they can be used offensively as well, especially against Ops. Twi’lek is used to get the effects I need, and You Are Beaten in just plain evil.
I pack a lot of effects, maybe too many. A Bright Center and Battle Order are anti-Ops. CHYBC is a must in Hunt Down Deck. Crush gets my Evader and increases my safety at CC. First Strike helps against things like Arconas and the Narrow Escape/ Lift Tube Escape style avoidance decks I am seeing these days. IAO is the backbone of the deck. Lateral Damage can be a game winner in space and a bit of a surprise in a Hunt Down deck. I am the type of guy who packs Reactor Terminal, so there it is. If anyone wants to help me beat my addiction to this card, please mail me. But I do like setting up destinies with the Tortures and extra Visage. Secret plans is self explanatory as is Security Precautions. There is a grappler there for annoying interrupts and 2 Visages to hopefully help prolong the damage.
Two Vader’s sticks help with draining and beatdown.
Here are some weaknesses that the player should be aware of with this deck.
1) No Landing Claw protection – I have found that the players that use Landing Claw also use Yoxgit and defend him well, or put him as a passenger on the clawed ship. When they do this neither Those Rebels Won’t Escape Us or Homing Beacon is effective. The only truly effective counter is IJASKAW, and I chose not to go that route, even though it would help against undercover spies as well. Maybe it should be added. 2) MWYHL – might be tight if you can not get your draining sites going. Broken Concentration could be added, but in my experience, once you get CHYBC down with Secret Plans you can beat MWYHL. Maybe I am wrong on this one, let me know. 3) Lack of some counters – no Monnok or Masterful Move here, nor is there a Holonet Transmission or Sense/Alter. The deck can still do damage without Visage through drains, but the lack of a Monnok means that a non-unique drain canceling cards (Rebel Fleet, Bargaining Table) can do well against this deck. 4) The deck is a bit slower than Hayes’ version, as I do not pack the PoTF’s that he does. It was a trade off with the Tramples, which of course are used because I try to keep on CC and therefore can not use Bubo effectively. Could be that I need to give up on using Crush and just go back to Endor for drains and risk beatdown again.
Here is how the deck stacks up with popular LS decks.
MWYHL – as mentioned above, this will be tight. Get out your draining sites and get to work. Get out CHYBC and Secret Plans to hurt retrieval. Try to keep Visage going and drain with walkers and ships to avoid Surprise Assault.
Ops – Start Battle Order as they give you a battleground to which you can deploy. Get out Bright Center with Death Star or Coruscant to kill the bonuses. Then set up some drains of you own, with Visage you should win the race.
HB – Get out Boba and the Death Squadron to probe. Set up drains on the ground and beatdown if possible with Lateral Damage.
Mains and Toys – Use Vader to hammer the mains. The ECC squad helps out here quite a bit. Use trample if you can. If they use Tosche Station, get down there to cancel the gametext.
Mining Colony – The infinite loop deck has not shown up here yet, so I do not know how this deck does against that. Otherwise try to keep control of Bespin and treat the remainder like Mains and Toys.
Not sure what else is out there of the LS right now, but the power of the deck, along with Visage and drain potential should be the keys to beating any deck.
Let me know what you think, I am always looking to improve and learn. ‘