Jacob’s MLITL aka Live For The Swarm

Title: Jacob’s MLITL aka Live For The Swarm
Author: Jacob "Armaedes" Taylor
Date: Jan 30, 2002 Rating: 4.5

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Cards:

‘Locations (7)

Coruscant

Coruscant Galactic Senate

Endor

Kashyyyk

Kiffex

Naboo

Wakeelmui

Characters (14)

Coruscant Guard

Darth Maul with Lightsaber x2

Darth Vader with Lightsaber

Dr. Evazan & Ponda Baba

Keder The Black

Lott Dodd x2

Orn Free Ta

Passel Argente

Tikkes x2

Toonbuck Toora

Yeb Yeb Adem&þ

Starships (13)

Dreadnaught-Class Heavy Cruiser x3

The Emperor’s Shield

The Emperor’s Sword

TIE Interceptor x8

Effects (10)

Ability, Ability, Ability

Crush The Rebellion

Dreaded Imperial Starfleet

Fear Is My Ally

Imperial Decree

Motion Supported

Sienar Fleet Systems x2

This Is Outrageous

Your Cannot Hide Forever & Mobilization Points

Interrupts (12)

All Power To Weapons x2

Evader & Monnok

Ghhhk & Those Rebels Won’t Escape Us x2

Imperial Artillery

Omni Box & It’s Worse

Prepared Defenses

Short-range Fighters x2

Squabbling Delegates x2

Weapons (3)

SFS L-s9.3 Laser Cannons x3

Objective (1)

My Lord, Is That Legal / I Will Make It Legal

Defensive Shields (10)

A Useless Gesture

Allegations Of Corruption

Battle Order

Come Here You Big Coward

Do They Have A Code Clearance?

Fanfare

Oppressive Enforcement

Secret Plans

There Is No Try

You’ve Never Won A Race? ‘

Strategy: ‘

Deck Update Apparently I am crediting the wrong people with this deck. I have been told by a couple of players (but mostly Brian Hunter) that the original TIE Senate idea is from John Hawkins. I have no ideas if this is true, because the only version I based mine on was Hardpack’s, and later Hayes’, so if Hawkins is indeed responsible for this decktype, props to him - I believe in giving credit where credit is due. And with that said . . .

End Deck Update

Response To Reviews

Some of you are concerned that I won’t be able to satisfy Battle Order if my opponent doesn’t give me a battleground site. As long as they AREN’T draining for free, I don’t really care if I’m not. It’s when they start satisfying Battle Order and I can’t that I would get concerned. Most decks give away a site to me though. You generate enough to pay for your drains anyway, draining for free is just a nice touch if the game gets close.

To Legolas_ Thanks dude, I’m a dummy, RST does kill your hand. The strategy section has been updated appropriately.

To deadbody Podracing in my area isn’t started - everyone that does race does ”hidden” podracing (even light side players - yeah, I know, crazy), and as a result they don’t even play I Did It That’s just a meta choice, if you are really concerned about racing I suggest finding a way to add in Sebulba’s Racer anyway, because this deck typically occupies several battlegrounds by the time a race would be over.

End Response To Reviews

As always, this deck is not my sole creation - this time the helping hand came from Mr. Hayes Hunter. When my friend Justin Warren got back from Freedomcon, he told me about this great monkey TIE Senate deck that Hayes had been playing. I thought that sounded like a pretty good idea, so I made my own version based on the one found on Hardpack’s decktech page (props to him). I thought his deck had a few weaknesses, so I fixed it to be more my style and then sent the decklist to Hayes. He sent his back to me, and it turns out that our decks were about ten cards different from each other. The only thing I changed in here is that I used to be playing all the undercover spies, but now I just play Keder and I made room for a small ground force so that I can satisfy Battle Order. Normally I generate enough to pay for Battle Order all game, but if it’s a close match I will need to be able to drain for free, so the ground force I have in here is just to hold one site. I originally wanted to play this deck so that I could have something that could beat Lightsaber Combat. This deck definitely shreds LSC, but luckily it also plays well against other decks.

The Start It should go without saying that you start the objective and the Galactic Senate. The system I start is Coruscant (obviously the new version) because if I go against Light Senate, the power pluses at the Senate will help me out. I want to say right now that this deck is NOT designed to handle Light Senate. I don’t know if it can handle senate or not, because I have never, in all the games I’ve played, gone against it. I hear it’s becoming a more popular deck, but until I see it myself I’m not gonna change this deck by putting in political interrupts and stuff. I only use the Senators I need, and so a really dedicated light senate deck could actually kick you out of your site. Like I said, I’ve never played against it, but I think your drains in space will still be enough to win the game even without the help of your senators. I could be wrong, and I’m sure if I am someone will point it out in their review. With that said, you will use Prepared Defenses to start Imperial Decree, Crush The Rebellion, and You Cannot Hide Forever & Mobilization Points. It would probably also be good to start Fear Is My Ally.

Early Game
The first turn or two you will set yourself up in the Senate, primarily with Lott Dodd and Tikkes. Sometimes that’s all you need. Against certain decks you will deploy certain other senators to get an advantage (and against Watch Your Step you will deploy the Coruscant Guard) but don’t overdeploy yourself - those senators are better used on your political effects. Just look at what your opponent is doing, and decide what you need to put out to beat him. If they start the Don’t Do That Again effect, put a TIE at Coruscant to pull out Wakeelmui. With Lott Dodd, you should be able to get one of your two Sienar Fleet Systems out soon.

Mid Game With Tikkes in the senate, and a TIE at each system, you should be getting INSANE activation. You can literally activate your whole deck on the third or fourth turn of the game. Since you can do this, you can track easily and early, and that makes your cannons gold. It also makes Lott Dodd the man, since you can pretty much get whatever card you want out of your deck. Lott can pull out your systems, whatever effects you think you may need, characters if you need them, anything you feel like having. What’s even better than that though, is that he lets you see if you need to draw cards or not - this will help you get your sytems and TIEs out quickly, and All Power To Weapons and Short-range Fighters speeds up the deck a little bit more. The trouble opponents have with this deck is that they are unsure which interrupt to grab. Since most decks are relying on one grabber (the shield), they have trouble deciding which one to take away from you. Do they grab Squabbling Delegates, to slow down how fast you set up in the senate? Do they grab Short Range Fighters, to slow your space down? Do they grab All Power To Weapons, to stop you from abusing your TIEs? Or do they grab your Monnok? That’s right, I said Monnok, because with Sienar Fleet retrieval, you are getting this card back every turn. That is the entire reason I start Crush The Rebellion, in fact - once your activation gets crazy, you play Monnok lost, retrieve it by deploying a TIE, and then play it again next turn. Having this kind of hand control on your opponent is devastating, as they can’t draw up as much as they would like, and you always know what they are holding. You always put one TIE at each system unless you are beating down on the opponent. This is why it’s important to not draw up all of your TIEs after you check your force pile with Lott Dodd - rely on your All Power To Weapons to pull your TIEs when you need them for beatings. Before going to space you should try to get a Ghhhk in your hand (not hard to do) so if they battle you and you don’t have a cannon, you won’t get destroyed utterly. The cannons are the foundation of space, and I really wish I could work in the card Firepower to keep them on the table. Since your Interceptors fire twice, and since your destiny and ability to track is so good, you should never even get to the point where you draw battle destiny. That is why I don’t include Rune Haako or the political effects that affect battle destiny draws - if your opponent comes to space, you drop an Interceptor with a cannon and take them out. If they give you a site to put your ground force at for satisfying Battle Order, that’s great - pile all your guys there (you have enough generation to do this in one turn) and drain for free. If your opponent doesn’t give you a viable battleground site to use (they probably won’t in LSC) that’s fine, because you aren’t going to let them satisfy it either.

Late Game
Stack senators to get your drains really high. Use Keder, Dreaded Imperial Starfleet and your political effect to cancel drains. Retrieve force with Short Range Fighters and Squabbling Delegates. You can drain for a disgusting amount with this deck (nine a turn, not counting your bonuses from using the political effect and any systems your opponent may put out for you to take over), and you can retrieve almost as much back. Aim High is never a problem because, as I may have said previously, you generate an obscene amount of force. In general, your cannons will own space against just about everything. It doesn’t matter if your opponent is drawing thirty-seven battle destiny, if you draw one of your numerous high destiny for your cannon, they’re going down. And if they play A Few Manuevers and ruin your day . . . well, that’s why there’s two Ghhhks in the deck (and you should retrieve them back frequently).

There shouldn’t be any surprise cards in here, it’s what happens when a standard senate deck meets a standard TIE deck. Despite this, it’s a very surprising deck and catches many people off guard.

Card Choices Imperial Artillery Imperial Artillery is one of the easiest ways to track a high destiny. These artillery cards really are my favorites, and with three cannons it works great in this deck. The main reason for it though is that an Imperial Artillery is an easy-to-track card that can hit Captain Han in the Falcon with A Few Manuevers played on it. If they have Captain Han AND Corran Horn in the Falcon AND they have A Few Maneuvers in their hand (you saw it when you played Monnok this turn, right?), then don’t battle them, you dummy Let them have their drain of X, and just cancel it with Dreaded Imperial Starfleet or the political effect.

Omni Box & It’s Worse It’s ridiculous how many people are still playing It Could Be Worse without a way to cancel It’s Worse. With Tikkes boosting your generation, this card can end games, and at worse (no pun intended) it’s a recyclable five that pisses off people trying to edge.

Imperial Decree This should be a no-brainer, but I just thought I would clear up a common misconception in this strategy section before people start rating me Imperial Decree does not require battlegrounds of any kind. All it requires is a site and two systems. The Galactic Senate is a site, and if I can’t hold two systems I should just draw up anyway.

Ability, Ability, Ability This card is mainly in here to hurt Profit and Lightsaber Combat. You have LOTS of cards with ability (twenty-four different ones, actually) so this card can be a killer against people who sacrifice characters for high destiny.

Why no Zuckuss in Mist Hunter? Zuckuss is a great card, but he is only useful if you are actually going to make it to the destiny-drawing portion of the battle. If your opponent is drawing destiny against you, it’s because you’re about to play a Ghhhk and then pound on them next turn. Otherwise, you’re just dropping a TIE, shooting some guys, and that’s it. A great card, but not in this deck.

Why no Lateral Damage? When I start to see Home One making a comeback, I might just break down and put this card in. Until then, I don’t need it, because everything else viable is a starfighter, and those die quickly to TIE cannons and high-destiny.

Brief Matchups Echo Base Operations I know this is not seeing much play these days, but it’s still pretty big in my area, especially the X-wing version. X-wings won’t be able to stay in space because of your cannons, and you’ll most likely take over whatever systems they deploy. You generate WAY more than they do, and WAY earlier than they do, and that early jump will give you the edge you need to win. Despite popular opinion, TIEs can take X-wings if you get a jump on them.

Hidden Base Flip This plays like EBO, except now they have matching ships. All this means is that when you shoot them down, you kill two cards instead of one. You’ll both be suffering from Battle Order most of the game, but that’s fine because you can still pay for your drains and put out your cheap ships. You don’t even really have to battle them in this game Decree shuts down the Kessel drain, all you have to do is hold on to Kiffex and Naboo and keep pumping up your drains with a random senator and you can’t lose.

Mains of any kind Most likely their space will be something with the Falcon, so try to keep a high destiny on top of your deck for that. You can drain them for a lot, and you can cancel two of their drains a turn (three when Keder comes out). This is really an easy match, and one of the reasons is Ability, Ability, Ability. They can either deploy a character every turn, which doesn’t hurt you in any way and takes a card out of their life force, or they can not deploy more useless characters, and instead take damage from Ability ^ 3. Either way this is a boring game, but a win is a win.

Quiet Mining Colony I concede that this can be a tough matchup. There is no way they are going to hold Bespin, so Menace Fades won’t hurt you. And you can still a couple of drains a turn but the problem is that QMC can get four and sometimes five drains a turn against you on the ground, and they’re all +1 because of Pucumir. If Dreaded Imperial Starfleet and Keder don’t make it out early, you may be in for a drain race. Luckily your retrieval, and the fact that they won’t be playing Celebration, can give you a big advantage.

Watch Your Step Remember when WYS first came out, and everyone was playing Interceptors and cannons to kill of the low-manuever smuggler ships? That should be enough of a strategy against this deck type, but if you want more just remember the WYS mantra - ”If you take the system, you take the game.” Happy hunting.

Rebel Strike Team This is another tough matchup, but not one that is commonly seen anymore. The major advantage you have is your retrieval. You can’t really stop them from blowing the bunker unless you get lucky by assembling your ground force early, so when they make you lose a bunch of force you will have to retrieve soon after, because if you lose a bunch of force at once, that could be ugly. You can try to take the Bunker with your ground force, and if you get that together early enough you might be able to stop them from blowing it in the first place (that sounded bad). Otherwise, you’re going to have to jump to your drains quickly and hope they lose something vital off the top. What they do with their deck after they blow the bunker will determine the outcome. A lot of RST decks are starting to play Home One, which isn’t cool for TIEs at all. If they play starfighters, as most do, you shouldn’t have trouble keeping them out of the sky. If they do manage to take over Endor and get Battle Plan / Menace Fades locked down . . . well, all I have to say is may the force be with you.

Lightsaber Combat I despire Lightsaber Combat. The entire reason I’m even playing this deck is to beat Lightsaber Combat. LSC is HUGE in my area. There are several ways to beat it, but I think this is the best way you drain for more than them and you retrieve whatever they drain you for. Simple, but effective. With this particular deck, you make sure they are paying for Battle Order all game. LSC generally doesn’t generate a lot, so you can get going faster than them. They also cannot handle a lot of big drains, which this deck can certainly deliver. Han, Chewie and the Falcon will be their main space force most likely, so make sure you have the destinies stacked to deal with that. Ability ^3 is an absolute lifesaver in this game, and can really tear them up. You can’t cancel their drains, so don’t even put those cards out, and don’t deploy more than one TIE to each system unless you really need the retrieval, because you’re going to need all the cards you can possibly have. DO NOT OVERDEPLOY Monnok is great in this match, if for no other reason than to see what they’re holding. You have to play carefully to get a decent differential out of this game, but you can win if you play it right. This is not a terribly hard matchup, but don’t underestimate it.

As always, if you have any doubts about this deck feel free to d-mail me. I think I explained all of the finer points, but if you aren’t sure about it build it yourself. I promise it’ll win for you if you know what you’re doing. I’m sure some people will disagree with me, but take it from someone who knows if you ever wanted a way to beat Lightsaber Combat, this is the deck you need to be playing. ‘