LS Tatooine Rumble v 3 0

Title: LS Tatooine Rumble v 3 0
Author: Leonard "Master Yoda" Mitchell
Date: Jan 25, 2000 Rating: 4.0

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Cards:

‘Locations (8) Tatooine x2 Jabba’s Palace Audience Chamber Tatooine Cantina Tatooine Jabba’s Palace Tatooine Jundland Wastes Tatooine Mos Eisley Tatooine Obi-Wan’s Hut

Characters (16) Harc Seff Melas Tawss Khaa Ben Kenobi x3 Chewie With Blaster Rifle Han With Heavy Blaster Pistol x2 Jeroen Webb Leia With Blaster Rifle x2 Luke With Lightsaber x2 Orrimaarko Wedge Antilles

Vehicles (1) Air-2 Racing Swoop

Starships (6) Redemption Spiral Tantive IV Gold Leader In Gold 1 Lando In Millennium Falcon Red Leader In Red 1

Interrupts (17) Sorry About The Mess x2 Transmission Terminated x2 Careful Planning The Signal x2 Nabrun Leids x3 Rebel Barrier x2 Sense x3 Shocking Information x2

Effects (10) Bacta Tank Battle Plan Disarmed x2 Order To Engage Tatooine Celebration Ultimatum Wise Advice What’re You Tryin’ To Push On Us? Mechanical Failure

Weapons (2) Obi-Wan’s Lightsaber x2 ‘

Strategy: ‘

(UPDATE This deck helped me take a 3rd place finish in Greensboro, NC and a 1st place finish in Roanoke, VA this past weekend.)

Weak. Underpowered. No good. Blah, blah, blah. Everybody is giving the LS a really hard time right now. Well, I’m tired of building decks that hide, so this is built to go toe-to-toe with the Dark Side. You fight on Tatooine, therefore you own Tatooine. This deck was originally conceived to combat the upcoming popularity of COTVG and the coolness of all the new DS characters will guns, but it has proven to go way beyond that. I’m quite pleased as to how the deck is evolving, so I’d like to share it with you. If you’ve already read my EXTENSIVE strategy notes, then I’ll put all of the new stuff up at top. Each new strategy paragraph will then be denoted with a star (***). If you haven’t reviewed the deck before, I encourage you to read the strategy all the way through. It really gives you a good idea into what I am thinking. If you’ve been kind enough to give me help on the previous versions, please feel free to let me know what you think again. The deck is good, and I think you’ll like it.

Ok, all of these DS characters with weapons running around really hurts the LS. The idea of this deck is to eliminate the nasty ECC 4-LOM and IG-88, Mara Jade, and Bossk with Mortar Gun. This is done through Rebel Barriers, swoops, and Nabrun Leids setting up the Disarmeds and SATM. And then once all of their good characters are gone, just use swoops and Order To Engage to make them lose more Force while you set up for a big battle.

***Speaking of Nabruns, I guess this would be as good a time as any to tell you what has changed. First off, the number of Nabruns has not. I got quite a bit of feedback trying to persuade me to take out a Nabrun or just drop them all together, but I don’t know if the players are seeing the point of them. By having three, it gives you the opportunity to pull one off before the necessary counter is played (usually IAO; sometimes it might be TRWEU, but that’s one less to cancel my reacting Spiral, or what-have-you). Now, here is another thing that I’m not sure everybody is realizing the Nabruns are not for beatdown. They are simply to get Ben off Tatooine if necessary. Why? Because Ben is awesome When he’s combined with the Tank and the high destiny in this deck, the Dark Side finds itself in pain. Sure, beatdown is nice, but it’s not required. That’s why IAO doesn’t do a thing. It doesn’t stop Nabruns (except to interior sites, but I’ll reiterate the fact that no DS deck will play only interior sites; TDIGWATT decks just can’t pass up the Downtown Plaza or the Docking Bay with IAO), it only delays it to the move phase. And if Ben is on their planet, then the deck is doing its job ) And Nabrunning during the move phase is just as good at setting up a Order to Engage Force loss as is moving over. I guess I probably should have pointed that out sooner too.

***Also too, I feel the Transmission Terminateds should stay. I know some players don’t particularly care for them (including my good friend $cott Anderson), but why? It’s too easily cancelled? By what? Sense and Holonet Transmission. Ok, against a HD deck they will have a tough time Sensing my TT because they have to draw a 1 or a 0. And against HD Ben or Luke should always be at a battleground early, so the obj will stay on the zero side. I’ll take those odds. And if they’re playing HT, then I’m going to say right now that I don’t do the ‘I’ll play this, then you play this, then I cancel that…’ discussion. So people say spies are better. More versatile. Whatever. Well, yes and no. Yes, they are more versatile. They can invade the Endor Bunker or they can double as forfeit fodder. But I’ll tell you what I’ll take TT as a way to cancel Visage over a spy any day. Why? First of all, its nearly foolproof. Spies only tend to work once. You drop and cancel, then a good player will play CHYBC. Oops, their goes your drain. Yes, you do have your Shuffle, but what if it’s not up yet? And now you have to deploy back-up for your spy or risk a huge beatdown next turn. Those are characters that I can use elsewhere. Also too, Ephant Mon has a habit of coming down so the spies can’t come back. Or how about when the DS deploys a guy there to protect the Visage. How are you going to control the site without devoting a group of characters? And don’t forget that TT can kill Visage before you even have to lose any Force if you get it in your opening hand. Anyway, that’s why I feel the TTs stay. Oh yeah, and the 5 destiny of a TT will kill Vader with attrition. Can you say that about the 3 destiny of the highest spy with ability?

**Many people gave the solid advice of dropping a Ben and adding another EPP Leia, so that was done. Thanks Some thought that a Master Luke should go in for an EPP Luke, but I decided not to go with that because EPP Luke is far more versatile. Master Luke is really cool, but his anti-alien gt isn’t always relevant and including him also means the need to include Anakin’s stick which means another card slot. Lando w/ Gun was replaced in favor of Lando in Falcon. Why? Well, for one it’s Tallon Roll proof now (I’ve needed that twice, including at the Grand Slam, so those decks are still out there), and I also decided to go with a Tatooine Celebration side theme. This little ship is great because it adds another powerful ship to defend Tatooine instead of me having to wait for a pilot for the Falcon. A Mechanical Failure was added to topple walkers, and Battle Plan was introduced to give the opposing player a little bit of an incentive to control a battleground site and system. Besides, this card alone can win soooo many games. It’s great with this deck because you’ll have both guys on the ground and ships at the system. I ended up swapping it in for a swoop because I found that sometimes I would spend alot of time in the Cantina and two swoops just seemed too much. Now one swoop seems just right and I didn’t hurt the destiny of the deck either. Also too, I made room to include Wise Advice so that I could have a little backup for my Senses. There was a quick note for a Landing Claw, but I don’t see the need to add it right now because *everybody is prepared for it. It’s just a risk I’d rather not take. And speaking of being prepared, you’ll notice that there are no dueling cards in here. Why? Well, as it says in the strategy down below, the metagame doesn’t call for them right now. It’s simply a meta call. If dueling is big where you are, then simply add them. It’s 100% your call. But I’ll tell you what, I do like the destinies in the deck for the purpose of dueling. Also too, some people thought that A Gift should be in the deck, but I don’t know. At first I didn’t want to because any good player will have a couple ways to deal with it, and the fact that Imperials are still way popular. A Gift against any good player will take quite a bit to get through and the deck just doesn’t have the room for it.

***The one last thing that I need to mention is that I added Tatooine Celebration. (I said it before, but only briefly.) The Celebration rocks because it’s super easy to set up with the Cantina Shuffle and Force retrieval is just so nice. Therefore, I added another Tatooine system. Not only does this allow for an earlier Celebration, but it allows you to set up a sweet Tank/Redemption shuttling down of characters a whole lot sooner. Thanks to all who suggested this.

The normal start for the deck will be Obi’s Hut and Mos Eisley with Careful Planning. TatJP is in the deck to convert a DS player’s own version, as is the JPAC. The LS has the luxury of going second, so you can see what your opponents starting interrupt is. The ability to convert your opponent’s JPAC is HUGE right now because so many decks are relying on getting out Mara or Jabba first turn. This little mental setback goes a long way because the DS player will think it’s so important to get set up. Besides, the LS GT makes it so much easier to cancel Scum & Villany, a card we’re going to ge seeing a lot of again. And S&V can really be a pain. The Cantina is in so for a good drain, walker protection, sandwhirl protection, and CHYBC protection. The fun little shuffle allows the LS player to occupy the two necessary battlegrounds during the control phase in order to drain at the non-battle ground sites (thanks to $cott Anderson for pointing this out to me). Plus, the drain of 4 (with Obi’s saber) while only having to protect 1 site is great. But the shuffle also allows for you to do more cool stuff during your control phase, such as Drain, shuffle, Sorry About the Mess, then drain again. TJW can convert the bothersome DS version, and it’s a quick drain of two as well. Finally, the Tat. systems are in the deck for Force generation, to satisfy a possible Battle Order/Battle Plan, and to get characters off Tatooine and into space if necessary. Also too, the system is the lynchpin for the Tatooine Celebration, so it’s key.

The characters in the deck revolve around the power of Ben Kenobi and his unbeatable ability to revive high forfeit characters. The ideal tag-team of Ben and EPP Luke gets more nasty when you combine a swoop. Forfeiting Luke will almost always cover your attrition (unless he’s forfeit zero by being hit by a weapon, and in that case the deck isn’t doing the job it’s supposed to), so the swoop should always stay. All of the other characters are pretty obvious choices EPPs provide more weapons to Disarm people with and provide more weapons that can take advantage of the easily trackable high destiny of this deck. You know, the beauty of having all of these weapons allows you to see almost everything when it comes up for weapon destiny. Once you see something you want (or maybe just a high destiny to SATM Vader), you can begin to track with ease. Anyway, Harc Seff is in because he’s the man against all ground decks. His armor of 3 is decent, but he really shines against Ops or TDIGWATT because all you have to do is take control of a middle site and sit there cancelling the DS drains. Melas is a good pilot who can help out with the ability requirement that Zuckuss enforces. Taws Khaa is cool because she deploys for only three and gets big (power 6) around Mara, Jabba, Puhr, and all of these other aliens we are going to see again. J. Webb is your versatile spy/pilot, and Wedge provide good Bacta Tank fodder as well as other additional benefits. The start of Obi’s Hut allows Ben to get out quick and move over to JP and fight Mara, Sense things, or Nabrun off to where the fight is before Imperial Arrest Order comes into play. The beauty of playing swoops is that IAO won’t even hurt this deck because you can set it up so that you will always have characters in front of them for the battle phase on your turn. And if your opponent is playing indoors, then you won’t have walkers to fear.

The benefits of the swoops have already been discussed, and they are just killer when it comes down to the endgame with OTE out. Whenever the DS tries to run away, the LS can just follow and make the DS lose more Force the next turn. Swoops are hugely effective against any deck with a couple exterior sites (some HD, most BH, all Ops, and all ROps). A CC deck will give you trouble, but that’s only one semi-ineffective cards; besides, some TDIGWATT decks play Dark Deal with Big Blue, so in that case it means the deck has exterior sites. Also too, swoops will prevent the nasty Always Thinking With Your Stomach from being played against Ben/Luke.

The starships are your standard compliment of cards. Redemption is in there for the Bacta Tank and the nice combo of shuttling down your ‘patients’ from the Tatooine system.

As for the interrupts, most are based around setting up an unfair fight in favor of the LS. Sorry About The Mess works with the Rebel Barriers, swoop, and Nabrun Leids to further eliminate characters of your choice. Transmission Terminated is anti-Visage and a good destiny boost. If DS is playing Hunt Down with Sense/Alter go ahead and still try to TT Visage because the +4 to each draw should protect you (HDADTJ should always be on the front side against this deck because Ben/Luke should always be at a battleground site). You will notice no anti-dueling cards because it is a metagame choice and the fact that it won’t be too hard to avoid Vader with the swoops and the Nabruns (although many HD decks do start with IAO). The Signals grab effects and can double as a starting interrupt just in case you decide not to play Careful Planning for whatever reason. Probably the biggest card to get will be the Bacta Tank because getting that out early is great. Three Senses are mostly for protection of your interrupts and effects (especially the Tank and OTE), but they can also be used for disruption. Senses are getting bigger now with all of the BH cards coming back (Hidden Weapons, Jabba’s Through With You, Human Shield, etc.) No Alters are included because aside from Lateral Damage and Presence of the Force, all of the good DS effects are immune to Alter. S&V will be a bother, but that’s what your version of JPAC is for. Again it’s just a metagame call. It’s true that Lat. Damage can win the DS the game, but not if the LS plays smart. Two Shocking Infos and 3 Senses provide your manipulator defense (and the Shocks are easy to track).

The effects are all really self-explanatory, so I won’t go into them. Bacta Tank is huge right now with most DS decks packing no Alters and nothing more than a Shut Him Up Shut Him Down (which you have a Sense for) if even that. Disarmeds make life difficult for most, and don’t be afraid to welcome Mara to Tatooine with a friendly little Barrier/Disarmed combo. Order to Engage is so awesome, I just can’t say enough about it. Ultimatum is in because I didn’t have room for two Don’t Forget the Droids and the six destinies would screw up my Sense draws. Besides, Ultimatum is nice against Ominous Rumors decks too. Beggar used to be in the deck, but it got pulled. Anyway, here’s some friendly advice don’t rely on your Nabruns to win you the game. Use them soley when it’s safe and you’ll be a much happier player. If the opponent plays Those Rebels Won’t Escape Us or Tarkin’s Orders, just Sense. The Oota Goota is what you need to worry about. Obviously the Celebration is great and Battle Plan just fits the deck to a ‘T.’ Wise Advice helps back up my Senses and provide defense against DS SAC.

Obi’s saber = duh

Thanks so much for reviewing the deck and please give me whatever feedback you can. All is appreciated. Thanks ‘