Wrinkles Rule
Title: Wrinkles Rule
Author: Luca "Luca/Tzizvvt" Costanzo
Date: Apr 4, 2002
Rating: 4.5
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Cards:
‘BHBM
Throne Room
Insignificant Rebellion
Your Destiny
Fear Is My Ally
IAO/Secret Plans
CTR
Mob Points
Prepared Defences
DII DB
@#$%ship DB
Executor DB
@#$%ship Bridge
Carida
(2) Emperor Palpatine
(3) Vader with Stick
(2) Maul with Stick
(2) Janus (with Destiny Rig)
(2) 4-LOM with Gun
IG with Gun
Dr E/Ponda Baba
Stormtrooper Garrison
Prince Xizor
Thrawn
Chiraneau
(2) Chimaera
(2) ZiMH
Bad Feeling Have I
TPM
No Escape
(3) Command
(3) Sense
(2) We Must Accelerate Our Plans
(2) Force Lightning
(2) I Have You Now
Alter
Young Fool
Evader/Monnok
Operational As Planned
They’re Still Coming Through
Sniper/Dark Strike
Control/Set For Stun
Force Field
Endor Occupation/Masterful Move
Kintan Strider ‘
Strategy: ‘
======================Response to Reviews===================
Sachmo raised some interesting points
Getting stuck with Luke This only happens if you are an idiot. In case I wasn’t explicit enough, I am using EPP Vader so that I don’t get stuck with Luke unless I want him. Maybe I mumbled on too much about crossing- it happens once in a blue moon, but sometimes it’s worth doing. Sachmo also mentioned decks without docking bays- QMC being the ideal example. Against QMC you will drop Emperor to one of their sites with some jank like force field/STG/Xizor to protect him from EPP Luke. If they come at him with EPP Luke, they get beaten down. If they don’t, you dump janus with him and start draining while beating down on whatever they set up with. If they do kill emperor with luke, pull your second one (by the time this happens you will have picked up something to protect him with). The only time you will pick up Luke is on the odd occasion where you’ve got something like Luke sitting with a scrub and you drop vader on him, pick up luke and beat the living tar out of the scrub. Ok, you lose one force every turn, but in order to keep that up they have to avoid vader, which means that he will drain eacht turn. It’s an even tradeoff- except that you’ve had the beatdown on the scrub.
Ships not cutting it Yeah, well, I knew that I’d get something like this. Sachmo has told agreed that my ships are the best in the game … but not only are they not good enough, but he has no suggestions for what to improve. It is true that sometimes they will not cut it- eg. If your opponent has Wedge, Cannon, Red Squadron Scrub and outrider all at bespin. How many ships do people play? Most WYS and QMC use about 5. Hidden base flip may use up to 7ish (if they’re matching). Ok. Three of them are at one system … so you set up at Carida (to avoid battle plan and give you the handy-dandy bonus of getting your STG back) and cancel the relevant celebration with MM combo. Most of the time, however, you will drop a ship and draw two tracked destinies, which will kick your opponent out of space. Sachmo also mentioned that Zuckuss getting shot down by a cannon is all ’part of their plan’ … but I have mentioned it and how to deal with it, so isn’t it also part of my plan?
You can see this deck deal with both of these problems in my game vs rod’s WYS in the TR I mentioned at the bottom of the page.
Nowhere to go if your opponent only has twixes You go to the Flagship Docking Bay (it’s a battleground) and set up with Janus to drain for 2 a turn there. If they are playing only twixes then this is extremely advantageous to you because it will be the only battleground and you control when it gets deployed, so you can wait until you get something that is very hard to beat down (Emperor, Janus, STG/Maul+Evazan/IG etc.) set up at one of your non-bg docking bays to move them over.
SAC being crap Ok, so I have too much SAC in the case of MWYHL and not enough in the case of my opponent having SAC … which is it? Against MWYHL and WYS, as I mentioned in my strategy, you have only lost 4 cards. You are far from ’screwed’. But what if your opponent has SAC? Well, firstly, they need Jedi out to SAC, which can take time while you get Emperor off the bat. This means that your SAC will be unchallenged in the first couple of turns when your opponent might play interrupts such as AWRI, Speak with JCC and Tunnel Vision to set up. Secondly, 3 sense will seldom get grimtaashed as the combo can be sensed as well as the simple fact that you mostly won’t have 2 in your hand (true, some people start with Scrambled Transmission, in which case the worst that will happen is losing 2 Sense). A light deck that can out-SAC me will be playing, maybe 5 sense. This means that they are vulnerable to Evader/Monnok, which I can pull with CTR and is immune to sense. This is just a case of you needing to play carefully. Also, I really resent the implication that my SAC package is weak. At least I have something to deal with SAC- most decks don’t and I don’t hear people getting stuck into them for that. I have 5 cards that will cancel sense, which is 5 more than if I didn’t have a SAC package. At least with 5 SAC my interrupts aren’t (as) vulnerable to my opponent’s SAC.
Underestimating decks/players in my area sucking I don’t know where thhe underestimating decks comes from. Doesn’t every strategy detail how to WIN against decks? Do I underestimate decks because my strat tells you how to win? As for players in my area sucking, I suppose there are a few that suck, yes. The thing is that I playtest with the best in our region (one three times worlds competitor, top 8 twice and top 12 once and one winner of multiple states and continentals events). Any region has players that suck, but that doesn’t stop good decks and players from coming out of them.
Is it just me, or were half of those points obvious and the other half already in my strategy? Still, thanks for the review (and the fact that you obviously put some effort into it), Sachmo.
Well, Sachmo had some valid points. These next two are idiots
Third Angel said that OOC will take all of my EPPS. With 3 sense and Allegations Shield I am probably better protected than any other person around. If they have that many OOCs that they can guarantee killing characters then it’s time to grab and monnok Also, Kintan Strider is a just action and quite often you will Kintan Strider your first EPP back, so it won’t be in the lost pile to get placed OOP.
The Mad Maia said that LSC beats this. Well, I don’t know how to explain it much better than I did in the strat section … this deck is one of the best to combat LSC out there. You will activate 7-8 first turn, 3-5 of which will be spent on emperor. You will then draw the remaining 2-5. You should search for Evader/Monnok before you activate. You will have about 11 cards in hand- and a damned good chance that at least one of them has a stick attached. Opponent goes and deploys Qui-Gon and Stick first turn and stacks a combat card. They might be able to draw one. This leaves them with about 6 cards in hand. Let’s presume that they stack a combat card in my turn, so they were lucky enough to have two sevens in their starting hand. Let’s also presume that they were lucky enough to have a dodge in the 5 cards remaining. There is a much greater chance that, in your 11 cards, you will have a sense. Drop, say, Vader with Stick. Force Lightning (now, most people know this, but I feel it needs to be pointed out) can be played to subtract 4 from Qui-Gon’s defence value. Pick a fight. They dodge, you sense. Cut Qui-Gon and let’s say, conservatively, that they lose 1 force and recycle their combat cards. You draw up to 12 and they have 3-4 cards for turn two. With 4 cards in hand, the best they can do is drop Qui-Gon and draw up like 2 cards … and then you’ve got 12 cards worth of beats to unload on him And this is quite likely to happen. If LSC is really, really popular in your area you might like to take something out for a Ghhk combo to have another card to cancel dodge with so that you’ve got 4 cancellers to about 3 dodges. I hope that cleared up that matchup.
Gen- What’s happened to you lately? This decent player who’s started going around giving harsh reviews. EPP Vader will cut it (if you’ll pardon the pun) against Qui-Gon. In the LSC matchup I’ve already explained it. This is not a ”mob points” deck. Let’s say that the absolute worst happens and your opponent, playing, say, profit, starts with the DDTA effect. Ok. You pull 2 docking bays and get 2 off that, the bridge and the emperor. Sooner or later you will track Carida around. It’s not such a big problem. VS Qui-Gon with EPP vader … umm … I’m guessing you already know how to track. Even if you haven’t tracked, play your commands to pull your admirals and check when you drop a docking bay- the destiny is fairly decent. And if you have to wait a turn? Boo-hoo. You wait a turn and cop, what, a drain for two? Well, that’s game (sarcasm, people, sarcasm) As for this deck being slow, first turn emperor is what makes it fast. Everything else could be, i suppose, very loosely termed ’slow,’ but that’s because it’s a reactive deck.
Peachykeen- yeah, I’d love to fit in fett, but there’s no room and he’s just to expensive (goo nee tay + camp do bad things to him).
Light Senate matchup Yes, I didn’t address this. It hasn’t actually been that popular in my area (yes, people are stupid P), but all of the senate decks that I have seen have been different. The only real advice that I can offer is to not be stupid and spread out (although I don’t see there being too many sites to spread to). Use your SAC to the max- I think that premiere alter has been errattaed to target political effects Basically, you just drain with, ideally, Palpatine, Janus and STG until they come at you, then you beat THEM down if they are stupid and leave their political effects stacked. Zuckuss can be key- a lot of these decks tend to just have HCF for space. Use monnok to work out what the hell’s going on if you’ve already worked out that they don’t have revs.
Son of Vader- Butt Wrinkles? I’m 17 years old. You have admitted that this deck has power, yet you say that a good player will be able to handle it. Are you implying that I’m crap? Yes, this deck is far from tech. No, that doesn’t make it suck.
217- Hey, look everybody - it’s an idiot. Why do I need another effect? Just to have another one to accelerate for? You play as many effects as you need. This deck only NEEDS three. Sure, every deck could benefit from playing the anti-operative POOP retrieve one deck, and first strike could be nice every now and then … and Security Precautions is destiny 5 for +1 generation too … my point is that I don’t term these absolutely necessary to win. Anyhow, the number of senses V effects is something that you would have to decide based on meta. If you want me to add something, tell me what to take out. And as far as wrinkles not ruling … who cares? He’s destiny six, deploys cheap, immune to attrition, makes janus cheap, has a high D value, adds destiny w/ STG and fries people to boot. What’s not to like?
Allright, this next review really pissed me off.
drewman1- you are a complete f#@king idiot. Not only were all your arguments taken directly from everyone else’s reviews, but you provided no constructive suggestions and even said that my two ships are the best in the game … yet they are not good enough? I admit that X-wing cannons will kill zuckuss. Everyone knows this, yet everyone still plays zuckuss. Is everyone wrong? So what if he gets shot down? He’s still probed/battled, I’ve lost one force (the ZIMH itself) and they’ve lost one card (the cannon by deploying it) and I haven’t taken battle damage. Power Pivot? Heard of sense? Even if they were playing step (which your example was not) I’d still have 17 in forfeit and be able to play command to draw 3 battle destiny, you yutz. You lose a ship… deploy another one, idiot. Yoda EVENTUALLY combatting … that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. If he’s EVENTUALLY combatting, I’ve already got a rig so that I only lose 2 force and there’s a Yoda sitting around waiting to be @#$% slapped by whatever dark jedi with a stick happens to put his hand up first.
All of you seem to not believe that this deck can handle combat … still. Hopefully this report extract will help set things straight
So I look at my starting hand and saw Imperial Command, Force Lightning x2, Flagship DB, Evader/Monnok and some other crap. Terrible, but Emperor from reserve should help to balance things out. Derek drew a 5 and a 6 for the podrace. I activated my 8 and deployed a docking bay … no Emperor. Maybe giving away lots of force against BHBM is tech? Ok, so that’s game, I figured. I drew up a few and played Monnok and Masterful Move because my force pile was also crap and I wanted to deploy Emperor -2 from reserve. Derek had Qui-Gon, JM as well as EPP Han, EPP Leia and some random cards. Derek deployed Qui-Gon and drew 1.
Ok, I took this as my chance and deployed Emperor. I drew up a few, and it wasn’t really possible for all of my deck to be crap, so I picked up a Maul with Stick, Phantom Menace and some other stuff. Derek came down with EPP Han and EPP Leia against Emperor and deployed Goo Nee Tay. No blind 7s to shoot him, I played I Have You Now and drew a 2 and a 1. Gr-reat Derek drew some medium destinies and I lost 7. Qui-Gon came over and smacked Emperor around for 4. Ouch 11 force on the third turn
Note that at this point, I’ve practically lost the podrace, started with a pathetic hand, missed my first turn cheap emperor and lost 11 force, with 6 to come from the race
Derek drew two fives for race destiny. I deployed Maul with Stick, TPM and picked a fight. Dodge. Sense. Cut Leia to used, Force Lightning Qui-Gon then cut him up and it’s about 15 or so, lose everything and stack. I lost the podrace, but used CHYBC to stop Derek from retrieving … end of my fourth turn or so and we each had about 25 cards in our lost piles
Oh yeah, another advantage of being able to come out strong with the dark jedi is that CHYBC is often a good option to stop race retrieval, if that isn’t bleeding obvious.
After the early-early game, Derek’s hand was a bit depleted, so he drew up a few while I drained and deployed Zuckuss in Mist Hunter with Admiral Chiraneau on board to Carida.
Again, choke, choke, choke.
Derek came back a few more times with Qui-Gon to combat Maul, but I had a fairly shoddy rig (Janus, where were you?) to keep Maul alive and then beat on Qui-Gon for some. Derek drew a few, I drained and when Derek had lost everything that he wanted to from hand I played Uncertain Is The Future (sense) to ditch our hands. Derek combated Maul with an Obi-Wan, who was then killed for the game.
Does that clear things up? This was a game where my starting hand was crap AND I GOT NO FIRST TURN EMPEROR … AND I STILL WON. Before you say anything, yes, this was actually against a good player- but he admitted that there was not much he could do. This deck just raped him.
Turin- STG can work in space with Thrawn. Bob is OK, but I kinda don’t want to pay 7 for him and then 8 for vader if goo is out. SAC … well, 3-1-1 has proven itself to be the perfect breakdown for me- everyone who’s played SAC will have their own favourite breakdown.
========================End Responses=====================
Ok, folks, there it is. I think it’s more or less self-explanatory. I wanted to try the old-skool Quebec-style Bring Him. It’s mains. It has SAC. It can track. It can beat. It can cross (although it doesn’t rely on it). It gets Emperor first turn. I want to write more, but there’s not much more to it. It’s solid.
In the last tournament I played this deck in it beat Lightsaber Combat, Hidden Mains and WYS. It also beat Profit in playtesting. QMC, for some reason, is the only real matchup that I didn’t get to test it in that weekend.
Ummm…
Characters
Might seem like a lot. Might seem like a few. Cream of the crop and they get the job done. Xizor is in there ’cause his text stops EPP Luke from drawing destiny, which means that if you put him with Emperor early your opponent would be stupid to throw Luke at him (he’d probably be pretty stupid if Xizor wasn’t there, but whatever). 4-LOM is as much for space as ground. Stormtrooper Garrison is the only card that could, perhaps, be considered a surprise. Here’s how it works. STG + Emperor 2 destinies, high power, no cuttage of Emperor, get STG back with Carida. All that and it’s destiny 4 and adds to drains What’s not to like No Fett? Goo Nee Tay makes him a bit expensive and the Dark Jedi seem to get the job done. Speaking of Dark Jedi, why not proper mains instead of EPPs? Card efficiency. Light EPPs are all the rage and I don’t see the need to play a character that will make me lose 2 cards when it dies instead of one. Contrary to popular belief, no, you do not need vader to stick around to pick up Luke. If you want to duel, EPP can grab Luke and drag him to the throne room as well as any other. With this deck you will want to set up Palpy controlling a site and back it up a bit then go after your opponent on his sites. Having a Lord Vader stuck at some docking bay makes you a lot less flexible.
Ships
They’re (arguably) the two best in the game.
Effects
TPM is a 7 so that you can cross Luke if you need to. It also helps a bit against LSC. Others are pretty obvious.
Starting
Nope, no surprises here, either. I’ve got proper Mob Points so you can activate more and play YCHF from sideboard … switch it for the combo if you really want. DDTA? Ok, so your opponent starts DDTA. No early Carida. Cry a bit if you think it will help. This deck has to have solid space, so it seems ridiculous not to play something as absurdly powerful as Carida/Mob Pts/STG combo. Carida will still turn up and STG is still good without Carida.
Locations
@#$%ship DB so no Lost In The Wilderness. All docking bays have high transit for opponent because I’m a tightarse and against something like WYS or Hidden Mains you can run around, but they can’t. You generate a fair bit (especially if you get your Mob Points working) and you don’t give up much. In a worst-case scenario, you will activate about 10, but this is fine because your opponent won’t be activating much more than that.
Interrupts
Ahh, yes, the part of a deck that sets it apart from the pack. Nothing special here. Wait It’s a good deck, keep reading. They’re all solid. Command because it makes space solid. Force Lightning/Young Fool for whatever tries to annoy Emperor, but especially for Luke if you decide you don’t want to convert him. SAC is strong. I’m seeing less and less WYS around here and it’s insane against everything else, what with Emperor first turn and all. 3/1/1 is a decent breakdown, given that SAC is pretty much dead and there are all these shields floating around. Kintan Strider … well … read it. Dark Jedi’s Resilience, but you can also use it to get back those important characters that I only have one copy of. You can also set up a pretty good rig with these interrupts.
Basic points
*Emperor first turn to wherever he will win you the game from (usually opponent’s site).
*Don’t worry too much about crossing. You could do it, you could not … just see how the game pans out.
*Aggressive with Emperor, reactive with everything else.
*Track, track, track (duh).
Matchups
WYS They’ll usually play an interrupt or two before they flip to set up with (All Wings combo, Tunnel Vision), so sense that if you can. Bunk up at the Pub and the Tat system. If they take the Tat system with lots of ships, put a ship to Carida, drain for lots at the Pub and wipe them off the docking bays. If you can get Xizor to the pub, you probably win ’cause you can fry whoever comes with Luke and stop them from getting destinies. Oh yeah, keep a Force Lightning in hand if it’s like Merletto’s ’cause you can’t fry if Emperor loses his immunity (gametext cancelled). You have SAC. Boo-hoo. Control can still win you the game, you can ditch the others (it’s only 4 cards).
QMC Sort of the same as WYS, except that you can Sense the living crap out of their stuff. Path? Grab. Sense. Dodge? Sense. All Wings? Sense. Ok, so they’ll probably pull a shield. Wise Advice is the most common, and that’s fine. Try and play Accelerate to grab Accelerate to get them to grab that. Really, there are too many damned fine interrupts here for one grabber to throw a big enough spanner in the works to lose you the game (Accelerate, Force Lightning, Sense, Command, Endor Celebration … all of these will help). Try and get Emperor to the North Corridor if they deploy it.
Oh yeah, and about those last two. People always seem to bring up the X-wing cannon in these. You have to look at the bigger picture. You give away … 1 force from Carida. QMC gives away, like, 5 or so. WYS gives away 2-5. Ok. They deploy X-wing, Pilot, Cannon, fight and pay 3. Bam goes Zuckuss. You have lost one card. They have committed 3 cards and used about 8. It’s worth it. Chances are that they will then not be able to save. If they do … fine You have ONE more ship that the cannons will be affected by. Chimaera and fight. You’re all going to say POWER PIVOT. Ok … either sense it or play command to add a destiny so that you don’t take too much battle damage (but easily clear the system).
Profit Start Xizor and Dre/Ponda Baba. Deploy Emperor there first turn. Ok, EPP Luke isn’t going to make you lose the game. Fry Han if he gets released; if you can Young Fool him you win. Chimaera+Thrawn+Chiraneau at Carida is a good shot at getting a solid drain in. When the time is right, move to JP with the crew and drain. Should be an easy game.
Lightsaber Combat People will tell me that LSC is an auto-loss for BHBM without thinking about it. Yes, this deck does have a few Dark Jedi. No, it is different to Hunt Down. Against LSC you need to get two Dark Jedi down quickly so that you can beat on whoever combats you. BHBM is better at this than Hunt Down, obviously because of the cheap Emperor from reserve. You will have activated 7-8, so you will be able to draw up a fair few. Chances are that they won’t kill Emperor first turn with combat. Good. Enhanced Dark Jedi, fight, Sense Dodge (you have at least as many senses as they have dodges), Force Lightning used, chop … spillover damage? I think so. Carida/Chiraneau is also huge.
New Theed Palace objective Emperor to Throne Room first turn. Sense Ascension Guns if you want an extra turn to get him backup … I don’t see how they will flip their objective with Emperor/Force Lightning making your weapons constantly hit.
Pile I haven’t seen any Pile decks starting with Goo Nee Tay, so you can dump Emperor first turn for cheap. If you have cool stuff that you can do to keep Emperor alive, drop him to the @#$%ship DB. If not, put him to the DII DB. Don’t Evader until they have at least two revolutions out; if they’re playing revo they will grab and then dump more. Late game you can track Alter around. Play Oppressive Enforcement. If you can get a ship at Carida Mob Points starts to work and all of a sudden you are in control. The most important thing is to play this game cool; don’t do anything rash. You have to remember that whilst Pile may be able to activate a lot and lay a beatdown or just plain throw EPPs at you it doesn’t cause a lot of damage.
That’s about it. I want to give you all some credit for your intelligence, so I’ve tried not to repeat the obvious, but please don’t give me bull@#$% reviews. Eg. don’t say ”Fallen Portal rapes you” ’cause I’ve got 4 cards that cancel it. Another one that I hate is ”Brian Hunter once said that BHBM is crap, so 1 star”. Of course, the all time favourite would have to be ”this loses to lightsaber combat”.
Ta,
Luca
PS. If you actually want to rate this deck on performance, go to my member page (member 600) and read my Melbourne, Oz 06/01/2k2 TR. Yeah, this deck was supposed to be called ”The EMPEROR Strikes Back,” but it’s 2am and I forgot P ‘