Vibro Mania (v 3 0)
Title: Vibro Mania (v 3 0)
Author: Justin "Nitsuj" Stratton
Date: Feb 8, 2000
Rating: 3.5
--------------------------------
Cards:
‘Locations (8) Coruscant Cloud City Downtown Plaza Cloud City Port Town District Dagobah Cave Endor Back Door Jabba’s Palace Audience Chamber Tatooine Cantina Tatooine Jabba’s Palace
Characters (24) Bane Malar Boba Fett With Blaster Rifle Boelo Chall Bekan Darth Vader, Dark Lord Of The Sith Dengar Dr. Evazan Jabba J’Quille Kithaba Outer Rim Scout x 3 Ponda Baba Pote Snitkin Skrilling x 8 Wuher
Starships (3) Bossk In Hound’s Tooth Jabba’s Space Cruiser Zuckuss In Mist Hunter
Interrupts (12) Combat Readiness Elis Helrot Imperial Barrier Jabba’s Through With You Main Course (foil, yeah baby) Monnok x 2 Shocking Revelation Twi’lek Advisor x 3 Wounded Wookiee
Effects (8) Come Here You Big Coward Den Of Thieves Failure At The Cave First Strike Scum And Villainy Resistance Security Precautions There’ll Be Hell To Pay
Devices (1) Droid Detector
Weapons (4) Disruptor Pistol Vibro-Ax x 3 ‘
Strategy: ‘
Greetings. Just wanted to let you all see the second version of my copyright pending Vibro Mania. As you are aware, I chose to build a deck around Vibro Ax. At first, I thought this was going to be a lost cause (consider my attempt to build a deck around Gammorrean Guards).
However, upon closer inspection you can see the potency of this card. It comes two fold
1) High Power Warriors make it easy to exclude Obi-Wan or EPP’s. 2) High Destiny makes it a sure thing to exclude Obi-Wan or EPP’s.
If you exclude a character from a battle, slam the other characters there, force your opponent to forfeit some of them, your opponent is left with the Ax victim sitting in a much less secure position next turn.
After playing this deck about a dozen or so times against a wide variety of decks, I have come to some conclusions. 1) It can beat Mains N’ Toys easy. 2) It can keep up with Hidden Base if it must. 3) I am confident enough in my ability to play this deck to take it to a tournie.
Where oh where is that ax of mine? -or- Locations make a deck.
I decided that a Scum and Villainy strategy would be best. One, I had to play with Alien Warriors. Two, the lower deploy thanks to S&V makes the expensive Ax a little less painful. I also decided I wanted to have drainage that could still exist regardless of Great Warrior. So, I added the two/two sites, Backdoor and Downtown Plaza. I also noticed how useful that deploy -1 and power + 1 bonus was at the Port Town District, so that was a must. I finally decided that the safe Coruscant and Dagobah Cave were musts to round out my activation.
I know what you are wondering. Why no Court of the Vile Gangster? I have decided that I really don’t need it. At the moment LS Tatooine Ground is huge in my area, so the mini-visage does no good. As far as independent starship pulling, I have seldom had a problem getting ships when I need them. Maybe its just luck, but I have found that if I can hold out until I get Zuckuss in Mist Hunter and Bossk in Hound’s Tooth I can usually wrestle control from someone at any system. Finally, the 3 card slots it would take up just don’t seem worth it right now.
‘I didn’t know if it was a stratocaster or a telecaster’ -or- Ax wielding maniacs
Now that my locations were coming together, I needed an army. Some of the Aliens were just obvious, Bane Malar and Kithaba just rock with the Ax, they seem to have a natural advantage with it. Ponda Baba could wield an ax as good as the next guy when he was with Dr. Evazan. Dengar is an I exclude you automatically when facing against a swarm. So, there is the reason why I am not using the new Dengar, the old Dengar is 10 times better at using an ax. J’Quille has a built in mini ax so to speak. But the ultimate useful soldier was the plain ‘ol Skrilling. They have a power of 5 when wielding an Ax and Pote is hanging out at the chamber. Also they have a destiny of four which helps the Ax. The rest of the Aliens just round it out, by either making deploy cheaper, or in the case of Wuher, protecting against my arch enemy A Gift.
I have been strongly considering taking out Vader and putting in Mara Jade. She could pull an ax at will, and wouldn’t suspend Scum and Villainy. However, Vader is usually just a goon that I send out at the beginning of the game to take care of a problem on another planet. The jury is still out on this one, let me know what you think.
Bare Bones Ax Delivery -or- My small space presence
I have a very humble space presence right now. I didn’t want to cancel Scum and Villainy with imperial ships, so I added a few Bounty Hunter ships for Hidden Base Probing. I have played against Hidden Base a few times, and here is what I have to report. First of all, play with patience, and lots of it. Just get out your 2/2 sites and set up steady drains. Deploy your Coruscant on top of theirs to cut that drain to 1. Then play Jabba’s Cruiser, Jabba, and an ORS to Kessel, probe, and then block a drain, initiating a battle every turn they stay there and retrieving three force. If they leave, follow them. When they spread out, bang on them with Zuckuss in Mist Hunter, and Bossk in Hound’s Tooth at the system of your choice (one where they get no destiny). Towards end game, when their force is getting small, start probing where you think they have the hidden base.
Standard Interrupt Package -or- I think my clear shields are permantly melded onto these cards
I added the standard Monnok x 2, Imperial Barrier to surprise the battle happy opponent. Finally, I rely on Elis Helrot to transport my goons. Insurrection is no worry, because the Elis is in here primarily for transporting. I also decided to add Wounded Wookiee at Iceman’s suggestion, along with Jabba’s Through With You and Main Course to supplement my battles. These 3 cards can go a long way to giving a battle deck a little more teeth. Finally, Shocking Revelation is there for the occassional Manipulator, but ultimately it makes for a handy destiny stacker
Counter-Strategies -or- ‘Just as I brought my guitar crashing on their heads…’
First of all, there are a couple things that really hurt my deck. Houjix, because I plan on eliminating a few characters in a battle with my Ax’s, and banging up the lone guy. A Houjix spoils my fun, so I plan on using First Strike to try to deal with it. Light Side players tend not to be so paranoid about losing the ability to Houjix as compared to the Dark Side player, so I plan on taking advantage of that. The other thing I worry about is A Gift. That is why I have the Droid Detector in here also. Hopefully between that and Wuher, I can keep droids out of the audience chamber.
Hidden Base
As explained earlier, I think that after playtesting and practice I have developed a strong method to deal with Hidden Base. Just make sure you Combat Readiness the Cantina, so you can get some early force drainage in the game.
Mind What You Have Learned
This deck type has been popular around here. I am hoping that Failure at the Cave will help a bit. As will Come Here You Big Coward. Great Warrior really doesn’t hurt too much, because of the 2/2 sites. However, Jedi Test 2 and beyond can be painful. Hopefully, Failure at the cave can be an adequate defense. Its all in the timing. Many tests can only play on certain sites, and a failure at the cave is a double edged sword, because not only does my opponent have to walk there to cancel it, but he must walk back to the test
Numbers
As you may notice, this version has removed the tortures for resistance. First of all, occupying three battlegrounds is easy. Secondly, with my Skrillings, I can keep my destiny high while I wait for the Resistance to come my way. If I know for certain it is Numbers I am playing against, I will start Resistance.
Profit
This is the real reason for Careful Planning, this will allow me to convert their audience chamber at the beginning of the game, giving me a force advantage. I have been putting a lot of thought into putting a few Point Man’s in the deck to deal with Order To Engage, because I CANNOT lose the audience chamber and I don’t want to swallow that 3 card loss. Any suggestions?
Summary
Vibro Ax might be a bit expensive, but it is awesome. I have excluded Ben Kenobi 4 times in one game, it makes it difficult for the Lightside player to battle knowing their best character will be dodging my Axes. That is what this is all about ultimately, hasseling the opponent into making mistakes and choosing lousy battles.
Basically, I am all about trying to get a lousy card to work, and the real purpose of my deck postings is just to share my thoughts with you. I know it won’t win any World Championships, but you may be surprised as to how well it can do. Thanks for your time, hope you enjoyed reading all this as much as I did writing it. ‘