Jacob’s Profit aka Big Trouble

Title: Jacob’s Profit aka Big Trouble
Author: Jacob "Armaedes" Taylor
Date: Apr 25, 2002 Rating: 4.5

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Cards:

‘Locations (7)

Jabba’s Palace Audience Chamber

Tatooine Jabba’s Palace

Tatooine Mos Espa Docking Bay

Tatooine Docking Bay 94

Hoth Echo Docking Bay

Home One Docking Bay

Coruscant Jedi Council Chamber

Characters (17)

Ben Kenobi x3

Chewie, Enraged x2

Han with Heavy Blaster Pistol x2

Lando Calrissian, Scoundrel x2

Leia, Rebel Princess x2

Master Luke x3

Qui-Gon Jinn x2

Threepio with his Parts Showing

Effects (7)

An Unusual Amount Of Fear

Another Pathetic Lifeform

Goo Nee Tay x2

Insurrection & Aim High

Mantellian Savrip

Sai?torr Kal Fas

Interrupts (24)

Alter & Friendly Fire

Blaster Deflection

Clash Of Sabers

Dodge

Don’t Underestimate Our Chances

Fallen Portal

Heading For The Medical Frigate

Jedi Presence x2

Narrow Escape

Rebel Barrier

Run Luke, Run x2

Sense & Recoil In Fear x3

Sorry About The Mess & Blaster Proficiency x2

Speak With The Jedi Council x2

Tunnel Vision x3

Were You Looking For Me?

Weapons (4)

Anakin’s Lightsaber

Luke’s Lightsaber

Obi-Wan’s Lightsaber

Qui-Gon’s Lightsaber

Objective (1)

You Can Either Profit By This / Or Be Destroyed

Defensive Shields (10)

A Close Race

A Tragedy Has Occured

Battle Plan

Do, Or Do Not

Don?t Do That Again

He Can Go About His Business

Only Jedi Carry That Weapon

Ounee Ta

Wise Advice

Your Insight Serves You Well ‘

Strategy: ‘

Response to reviews Some of you are concerned about the dark side starting Mara Jade or SupaFett in the chamber. First of all, let’s be realistic; what decent player still uses Jade? None, those card slots are used for Maul with Saber. As for SupaFett, no one on earth wants to use two of their first-activation force just to keep him alive.

People are also concerned about the MKOS matchup. If they bunker up in the Audience Chamber, they are doing no damage to me and I can beat down on the guys they try to move out to drain. If they don’t bunker up in the chamber, I free Han early as planned and hit them back with direct damage from my immune-to-Bad-Feeling mains. Sense and the grabber handle None Shall Pass.

End response to reviews

Ultra super mad props to Justin ”hoostino” Warren, who turned this deck into even more of a beatstick by convincing me to add Don’t Underestimate Our Chances and Jedi Presence.

When the new virtual card Sai’torr Kal Fas came out my first thought was ”Great, another card to make combat even worse than it already is.” My second thought, though, was ”Man, Profit is going to be a real beat stick now.” It really is.

This deck has been around for a while. Before the virtual cards came out, I was using almost this same deck, except there was Gift Of The Mentor x3 to pull out the sabers. With Sai’torr Kal Fas in the deck, that helped me free up some card slots and also add some much-needed speed to the deck. The original version also played Tunnel Vision x5, which I still suggest and would be playing myself if I could find something else in the deck I could live without. As it is, the deck is still blisteringly fast, and does a lot of damage in a hurry.

The Start

You will always start the Profit objective and use Heading For The Medical Frigate to start Another Pathetic Lifeform, Insurrection & Aim High and Sai’torr Kal Fas (it should be clear by now that I’m using the virtual version of the card, not the crappy Premiere effect). This deck is really cheap; if your opponent gives you one force (and barring Bad Feeling Have I being on the table) you can put anything in your deck on the table turn one.

Early Game

Obviously, Master Luke is the best card to get if your opponent starts two aliens; use his gametext to bounce one, hack another with your saber, draw destiny and clear the site (possibly surviving a battle destiny draw if your opponent was able to make one). If you get a card like Clash Of Sabers or Sorry About The Mess & Blaster Proficiency in your opening hand, it can get ugly for the dark side in a hurry. The locations come out quickly with the help of Insurrection & Aim High and Speak With The Jedi Council, not that you need much generation to get going anyway. Make sure you check your deck with Insurrection before you deploy, so you can make sure the saber you want is in the deck. Once Threepio hits the table (with Tunnel Visions and Were You Looking For Me it doesn’t take long) you should be able to get whatever cards you need, both by using Threepio’s gametext and by verifying your deck every turn.

Mid Game

Your direct damage should now be up and running. If your opponent leaves you alone, as some will do, you can cause a whole lot of damage between saber-enhanced drains and Profit damage. If your opponent comes after you, you have quite a few evasion cards in here to keep you alive to retaliate. Set up your characters in whatever kind of combination makes sense (I usually put Ben with Han to make sure Han has a better chance of living). The goal of the deck obviously is to get a specific card combo going, consisting of Don’t Underestimate Our Chances, Jedi Presence and Run Luke, Run. If you get any of your exclusion cards in there like Clash or Blaster Proficiency, it makes it even worse, and if they attack Lando that battle could end the game. If they Ghhhk, you cleared the site and are free to do big drains and direct damage on your turn, and if they don’t Ghhhk, they are going to lose a lot of cards. Example I have Ben Kenobi protecting Han in the Audience Chamber and Master Luke with Lando is next door draining with his saber. They want to kill Han and flip my objective back (and don’t want to mess with Luke and Lando), so they drop down Maul, Boba Fett, Bounty Hunter and Dr. Evazan & Ponda Baba onto Ben and Han. They battle, I play the tripler, Run Luke, Run. Blaster Deflection stops the saber swing, then I Clash Of Sabers Maul (or hit him and play Blaster Proficiency), Bounce Fett using Luke’s gametext, and hit Dr. E with my other saber. Let’s say we both draw a 3 for destiny, so it’s my power of 20 versus their power of 6. That’s Dr. E and 42 cards. Game over. It gets even sicker if I can pull off Jedi Presence. This may sound crazy, but it’s really easy to set up with Tunnel Vision and Threepio. There is a small SAC package in here to protect you from things like Dark Strike, You Are Beaten, etc. to ensure that you don’t get beaten on. I play the anti-SAC defensive shields just in case my opponent is playing more SAC than me.

Late Game

Spread on Tatooine to maximize your damage once you have some evasion cards in your hand (and maybe a Sense or two to protect them). In general, you will let your opponent do their own thing while you set up your own drains and direct damage. They will almost inevitably come attack your Ben/Han site, and when they do you pop the tripler, Run Luke, Run, exclude some guys, Jedi Presence, Luke’s text, and pretty soon the dark side is losing a lot of cards. You can get over 10 points a turn in direct damage if they leave you alone, which is more than most dark decks can do on their own, so just play cautious and protect your mains while your opponent tosses cards into their lost pile.

Card Choices

Blaster Deflection This card is great for keeping Ben Kenobi alive, or Qui-Gon if you need to, and Threepio can get it back for you every turn so I only need to play one of them.

Clash Of Sabers I realize a lot of people don’t like this card because Crush The Rebellion is so popular. And you’re right, if they start Crush, you should just ditch this card to a drain. But if they don’t start Crush (as many decks are starting to do) then it can be a game-winner, especially when Vader and Bounty Hunter Fett pay you a visit. Fett adds a lot of destiny - as long as he’s not alone. This, in conjunction with Sorry About The Mess & Blaster Proficiency and Luke’s text, makes it easy to exclude characters from a battle so you can cause even more overflow when they come try to fight you.

Mantellian Savrip I play this over Houjix because in playtesting I noticed that a lot of decks were omitting the Masterful Move combo. This makes Savrip awesome, with all my high-forfeit mains. Even if they are playing the combo, you grab and Sense and your Savrip is okay.

Tunnel Vision With Threepio on the table, you can go through your deck in a hurry, and Tunnel Visions make it even easier to set up your combo. The regular version over the combo because it has significantly better destiny, and I can’t think of any reason I would need Control in here.

Why no space? I think Profit, along with lightsaber combat, is one of the few light decks that can get away with no space. Against a space deck, you just flip early and hit them back with drains and Profit damage. No big deal. The Ultimatum shield will keep their drains limited to two, which you can easily survive.

Brief Matchups

Hunt Down And Destroy The Jedi A lot of people think Hunt Down is a bad matchup for Profit. The reason is that Hunt Down is so fast. But in my case, my deck is every bit as fast, and maybe faster, than Hunt Down. You both lose to Visage, and you will have the advantage because you play more interrupts than Hunt Down and therefore Visage hurts you less. Most Hunt Downs these days aren’t playing many aliens they can start in the chamber anyway (who’s going to start Boba Fett, Bounty Hunter) so it’s not as hard as some people think. With your high destiny and multiple sabers, you can really clean some sites, just remember to track for your SAC and use your evasion wisely.

Bring Him Before Me Most BHBM decks now are BHBM sevens, so they won’t start two aliens because they want to save their characters for beat downs. Stack your guys all at the same site, so EPP Maul doesn’t ruin your day early. Wait a few turns before you flip if you have to, they won’t be able to do any damage to you until you put out characters, and if they deploy first to Tatooine you can beat down their guys pretty easily since your guys are so cheap. Once you flip, keep your forces concentrated to avoid stacking cards on Insignificant Rebellion. When lone EPP Maul comes out to clear a site, the tripler can end the game instantly, especially if you manage to hit Maul with a saber (not hard with the high destiny in here). If you’re sure they aren’t doing dueling, give them Luke when it seems appropriate and between all your direct damage and them losing to their own objective, you should come out on top.

Big Blue of any kind If there’s one thing most people can agree on, it’s that Big Blue is the best matchup for Profit. Their couple of undercover spies (assuming SATM can’t get them) won’t stop your direct damage, and your Ultimatum shield will keep any space drains under control. Unless you REALLY need the force, always pay for your drains in the early game because Big Blue can’t handle early damage as well as other decks. A very winnable matchup, but not much fun to play as it’s mostly a drain race.

No Money, No Parts, No Deal Since you are both based on Tatooine, you can drop your guys for dirt cheap to their locations. When you take over the Junkyard, it plays into the rest of your deck; you are draining and doing Profit damage. Once you get set up and get an evasion card or two in your hand, you can usually afford to pay the two instead of losing two. A fun matchup, and not too difficult.

Agents Of The Black Sun Unless they are playing the Tatooine docking bay, they will have trouble staying flipped since you have three Lukes at your disposal. That’s really all I can say about this matchup, it was never that popular to begin with and without Mobilization Points it’s really weak, so I’ve never gone against it.

Walker Garrison This is probably the hardest matchup of all. Ultimatum and Sense will keep their Walker Garrison-enhanced drains under control, but they do more direct damage than you do and you can’t effectively go to their sites to battle them, so I’m afraid you may lose this one. Sometimes you will get lucky and they will drop an EPP to one of your sites (as with the newest Walker Garrison that won 2nd place at Yavin 4 Regionals) and then you will have something to do some overflow to. Few in my area play Walker Garrison, so I’m not too worried about it, but watch out for it if you ever play this deck, it requires a lot of concentration to have a chance of winning.

Dark Deal Trooper speed deal isn’t even a deck anymore thanks to the Battle Plan shield, so most likely you will be facing off against a mains version of the deck. You can do damage a lot faster than them while they are setting up, so it’s possible they will lose some key cards to your drains. Since they will probably be leaving you alone on Tatooine, spread yourself thin to max out your damage (you can get up to over fifteen a turn if they don’t try to stop you) while you will easily occupy the three battlegrounds for Ultimatum to essentially make their drains only +1. This will be a close differential, but you will win, I have never lost to Dark Deal using any deck.

Dark Senate It’s impossible to effectively meta against Senate because there’s so many variations of it right now. The best advice I can give you is to play as though you are going against any other mains platform and keep your forces concentrated and your evasion handy. Even canceling one drain a turn the direct damage will still eat them alive. This is an even matchup, so if you are the better player you will win, but the deck won’t play itself.

Dark Side Combat This is the matchup that you are all going to say I will lose to, I can feel it. First of all, this is another deck that doesn’t see much play around here because light side combat is so popular. Because that is the case, this deck has only faced off against this matchup one time, and Profit won by two cards. The opponent had a first-turn Choke Vader with Lightsaber and a Presence of the Force on the 3/2 Naboo site. If someone can get a start like that, and then still lose, it means that Profit can handle them if you play smart (he was a pretty decent player, 1700-something). I’m sure you’ll disagree, but just remember that there are only two characters in this deck that can’t drain, and they can still protect your other mains while they do Profit damage, and they can still beat if your opponent decides to hit-and-run. If you want to track some destiny and go for the duel, be my guest (Threepio makes it easy) but you won’t need to, the direct damage and saber-enhanced drains of non-Jedi Master Luke and Leia will win the game for you, and if they put out a couple of guys to battle you and you have your combo together . . .

That should cover most of the more popular matchups. If you have any specific questions, feel free to dmail me. You have a good chance against most decks, and it plays very similar to lightsaber combat, except you do more damage, so give it a try and see if you think it’s time for a Profit resurgence.

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