Combat the dark side Garion´s way

Title: Combat the dark side Garion´s way
Author: Fernando "Garion" Medalón
Date: Feb 8, 2002 Rating: 4.5


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Cards:

‘STARTING (9)

An Unusual Amount Of Fear

We’ll Handle This / Duel Of Fates

Inner Strength

Naboo Theed Palace Generator Core

Naboo Theed Palace Generator

Heading For The Medical Frigate

Another Pathetic Lifeform

Colo Claw Fish

Your Insight Serves You Well (against RalOps start Ounee Ta)

STARSHIPS (3)

Artoo-Detoo In Red 5

Han, Chewie And The Falcon x2

CHARACTERS (16)

Qui-Gon Jinn, Jedi Master x2

Mace Windu, Jedi Master

Yoda, Master Of The Force x3

Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Knight x2

Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight x2

Leia, Rebel Princess x2

Lando Calrissian, Scoundrel x2

Padme Nabarrie

Threepio With His Parts Showing

WEAPONS AND DEVICES (7)

Bionic Hand

Intruder Missile x2

Qui-Gon´s Lightsaber (dest 5)

Obi-Wan´s Lightsaber (dest 2)

Luke´s Lightsaber

Anakin´s Lightsaber

INTERRUPTS (21)

Rebel Artillery x2

Star Destroyer x2

Run Luke Run x2

A Jedi’s Resilience x2

Throw Me Another Charge

Mindful Of The Future

Gift Of The Mentor

We Wish To Board At Once

Jedi Escape x2

Were You Looking For Me?

Are You Brain Dead? x2

Endor Celebration

Weapon Levitation

Rebel Barrier

On The Edge

EFFECTS (3)

Weapon Of A Fallen Mentor

Honor Of The Jedi

Ounee Ta (or YISYW if play against RalOps)

LOCATIONS (1)

Naboo Theed Palace Throne Room

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Strategy: ‘

PLEASE READ THE STRATEGY SECTION BEFORE YOU REVIEW THE DECK. THANKS IN ADVANCE.

When I first looked at this objective my first thought was that giving 4 force to the DS in his first turn was a sure way of losing the game. Well, I was absolutely wrong.

It’s true that with those 4 force DS can start his strategy earlier, but it’s also true that with this deck you start draining really soon (usually 2 in your second turn), so things are quite equal. This is the deck I’ve been playing with since early 2002 and it’s by the time 16-2 in tournaments.

The character selection is absolutely enough to deal with any ground deck, the weak point of the deck is space, but with 2 Han, Chewie and The Falcon you have a good chance against most of the DS decks (at least in my own meta).

First of all lets have a see at the destinies of the deck (I don’t include the cards you usually start with as you can not draw them as destiny during the game)

0s – 1

1s – 7

2s – 4

3s – 4

4s – 7

5s – 12

6s – 8

7s – 8

So this makes a destiny media of 4.30 and that’s really huge in any deck. Even more, you can use several high destiny cards to search for other with lower destinies.

Now lets have a look at some card choices.

  • Another Pathetic Lifeform this card helps a lot in this deck. One of the weak points of the deck is that if your opponent gives you very little force you will find out that you don’t have enough force to deploy, move, draw some and even save some force to play interrupts in battles your opponent initiate (If he plays First Strike of course). With this card you can activate 1 force during opponents turns (I recommend during op activate phase) so, you can play those interrupts or even save it as an extra force for your next turn.

  • 3 Yodas??? Yep, that’s right I play 3 of them, it’s a Jedi Master, can deploy first turn (really cheap), has a great destiny of 4, has a good forfeit value, and you can play Are You Brain Dead? with him.

  • Mace Windu? Again a cool character for this deck; sometimes you need extra help on Naboo, so he can be a great resource, and has a great text against Maul. You can also play Are You Brain Dead? with this guy.

  • Gift Of The Mentor good card with good destiny. You may use it to add destinies or to search for your low destiny sabers like Luke´s or Anakin´s ones.

  • Jedi Escape one of the greatest deck in the current meta is Hunt Down, and I’m really afraid of duels. This card can deal with any duel with a good destiny so I think is the better anti-duel card you can pack.

  • Are you Brain Dead? the lost part of this card is sooooooo great that I don’t know why not every combat deck pack at least 2 of them (I only play 2, but I am thinking in packing another one).

  • Endor Celebration well this card is here just because in my meta nearly EVERY deck plays Occupation (Tatooine, Hoth, Cloud City…) so I think packing it is a great help as your space is not very heavy and sometimes not enough to cancel occupations.

  • Ounee Ta why the effect and not the shield? I hate RalOps and you can start this with HFTMF and the –3 deploy to any of your characters is better than a –2 just for rebels, isn’t it?. If you don’t play against RalOps, you have a nice tech with this; if you have just lose a good card because of a drain or battle damage (or whatever) just deploy Ounee Ta and take it into hand again.

  • Naboo Theed Palace Throne Room why this site and no Jedi Chamber like many other combat decks plays? Because I play Ultimatum shield and you need a third battleground site you can easy control and this is the best one. And you have another site to drain at.

Defensive Shields Ultimatum, A tragedy Has Occurred, Only Jedis Carry That Weapon, A Close Race, Your Ship?, Aim High, Wise Advice, Do Or Do Not, Let’s Keep A Little Optimism Here, Don’t Do That Again.

Why not playing enhanced characters like Obi w/saber or Luke w/saber? Because for this deck type characters without built-in weapons are better. Qui-Gon Jedi Master is great because opponent lose double force when you win combat. Luke, JN has destiny 6 (though he has a big deploy cost you can afford it) and Obi-wan JN is better for combat, Leia can cancel 2 opponent drains the better way ever dreamed, and no enhanced Lando is better than Scoundrel for this deck, you don’t have to care about maintain cost because most of the times you will forfeit him to attrition.

How I play this deck

Ok, you all know my starting cards so I will only explain my first turns.

First turn You will always draw a Jedi in your starting hand so deploy it. If you have more than one, and Yoda is there, deploy him so you can draw a little. This way you can activate that extra force in your opponents turn.

Second turn drain for 2 and deploy another Jedi to the other site so your next drain will be of 4.

Third turn and next well, this deck is quite always the same, you deploy Jedis and keep Leia and Lando in your hand just in case you need to make a beat down. With this two guys you have power 9, ability 7 (important if your opponent have Xizor where you want to beat down), high forfeit and 2 destinies, all for a quite low deploy cost of 9.

Match-Ups

There are really few decks that people use in tournaments so I will only comment some of them (the most popular in my meta).

Vs Hunt Down this is nearly always an auto-win for you. Place YISYW in lost pile to search for Honor (if it is not in your starting hand). Deploy Honor, deploy Jedi, op lose one force each turn and you will lose nothing for some time. If opponent deploy Vader, Emperor or Maul to your sites combat them and win. If the deploy them at his sites, cool, he won´t be able to drain.

Vs TDIGWATT bad match up because with your 4 additional force in his first turn he will be able to start the deal most surely in his second turn and always in his third. Make some beat downs with Leia and Lando in ground and with falcon in space. Try to search for celebration so you can cancel his own occupation and try to win the drain race.

Vs Tatooine decks your drains cannot be cancelled when you drain with a Jedi, so you will be able to out drain DS most of the times. These decks usually don’t play heavy space so you might be able to deal with them making smart beatdowns with falcon.

Ok, that’s all, any suggestions will be really welcomed. Thanks for reading and reviewing.

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