Balance is Found on Tatooine

Title: Balance is Found on Tatooine
Author: Paul "Paul" Maholick
Date: Feb 14, 2000 Rating: 4.0

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Cards:

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

Characters (18) B’omarr Monk x2 Ben Kenobi x2 Boussh Chewie With Blaster Rifle Figrin D’an Han With Heavy Blaster Pistol x2 Harc Seff Jeroen Webb Leia With Blaster Rifle Master Luke x2 Orrimaarko R-3PO (Ar-Threepio) Tawss Khaa Wedge Antilles

Starships (5) Gold Leader In Gold 1 Lando In Millennium Falcon Red Leader In Red 1 Spiral Tantive IV

Interrupts (18) Alter Careful Planning (SI) Don’t Forget The Droids x2 Don’t Get Cocky Gift Of The Mentor Grimtaash Nabrun Leids Rebel Barrier x2 Sense x3 Smoke Screen Sorry About The Mess The Signal x2 Transmission Terminated

Effects (10) Bacta Tank Battle Plan Mechanical Failure Order To Engage Tatooine Celebration The Planet That It’s Farthest From Traffic Control What Are You Trying to Push on Us Wise Advice

Weapons (2) Anakin’s Lightsaber Obi-Wan’s Lightsaber ‘

Strategy: ‘

Locations – normal start is Obi’s Hut and Mos Eisley. Most other ground locations are included for their ability to convert DS starting locations with your SI. Although 8 locations is a bit lean, I prefer to start Mos Eisley to get the shuffle up and running quickly. If you feel it necessary, you can replace TJP with Tosche, as TJP is not as popular a DS starting location as it once was.

Characters – Pretty straightforward group. I choose one Boussh and one EPP Leia, because I like Boussh’s ability as a spy and she can enable me to go to Operative planets and drain if need be. Figran is included as if you only win with him once, he pays for himself in terms of cards. He also forfeits for 4, which is nice, especially if he is in a ship. Harc is here as a pilot and can be used to shut down drains at Obi’s Hut, as Obi’s Hut almost always requires defending at some point. The monks are here to add to the drains, which helps against –1 objectives and ISB. R-3P0 is anti-spy and can be used in the shuffle to deal double if you have the opportunity.

Starships – the basic five here. Even though I include Bacta Tank, I have not included the Redemption, however you can change that if you like. The Spiral and Tantive both have room for 3 pilots, which nicely accommodates EPP Han, Leia and Chewie if necessary.

Interrupts - For SAC I went with three sense and one alter, because the only three effects I see from the DS that I can alter are Lateral Damage, Bad Feeling Have I, and Den of Thieves. The other good ones are all immune. The senses are more valuable in my opinion. Also with Wise Advice and a grappler, you have a shot at winning any SAC war if you can grab their sense or alter. Numbers defense is Don’t Forget the Droids. Beatdown is here in the form of Smoke Screen for Vader/Tarkin or Walkers and Don’t Get Cocky and Gift of the Mentor. Grimtaash helps against swarms, which are still around in my area. Nabrun is just to get Ben off of Tatooine if necessary. Sorry About the Mess is anti-spy or beatdown and Tranmission Terminated helps against Visage. The Barriers work nicely with Order to Engage or to discourage beatdown of your Monks. The Signal, of course fetches your effects.

Effects – Bacta Tank combined with Ben saves a lot of mains. Battle Plan is anti-ops as is the Tatooine system and The Planet it is Farthest From. Mech. Failure helps against walkers, as walkers almost always come to Tatooine. Order to Engage can be nice direct damage, and helps against Ops and such. Tatooine Celebration is not the focal point of the deck, but can be useful if the DS is ground heavy. Traffic Control helps me reuse cards like DFTD and TT for destiny draws. The last two effects are anti-SAC as descrbed above.

The two sticks around out the deck.

Strategy Sections

Vs. Ops – start Battle Plan instead of another location. Try to battle them to stall long enough to get Tattoine and TPIFF in place, then hit them with the Monk drains and Shuffle. Or if you like Artoo and a Gift can be added for more anti-op hate, but I have not seen DS ops for some time in my area

Vs. Hunt Down – for Visage you have two spies and one TT. There are no anti-dueling interrupts as dueling Hunt Down is not played very often, at least near me. If it is popular where you are, give Ben his stick and hope for high destiny, or try to sense Focused Attack or the Dueling card. Other than that, just try to drain with Monks and shuffle. Retreive for lost Visage cards with Figran and Celebration if possible. If necessary, you can add the anti-dueling hate.

Ominous Rumors – Set up Ben and Luke Monk drains and attack the DS with the EPP’s in space. Order to Engage will keep the DS running from the EPP laden ship for more damage.

Big Blue – Keep the shuffle alive and Harc to help with the draining. Mech. Failure can be a game winner. Otherwise keep after them with high destiny draws and Ben Kenobi with forfeit fodder.

ECC Objective – Harc again really helps here. If they throw out the Prison, use your spies for big beatdown. It may be important to get Ben to Bespin and the EPP’s to space to prevent Occupation. Then use Twass and the Monks to shuffle if you can. Order to Engage can be a big help.

EJP Objective – Convert their sites and beatdown on the ground. You should be able to choke their activation and use your cheap Ben to dominate Tatooine.

Important Balance Note - Adaptability

If you feel the need to modify the deck, I suggest the removal of the Rebel Barriers and Order to Engage. It is a side strategy and can give you three card slots to work with if you need them. Some things to consider adding if they are popular in your area are Dueling Defense, Shocking Info, Artoo and a Gift, Endor Celebration, or destiny adders for beatdown. You can also add the Redemption and change the locations a bit if you want to emphasize the Celebration aspect.

Overall, the deck is flexible enough to counter a large percentage of deck, but committing characters to the right locations is the key. Playtest it a few times beforehand if you are thinking about using something like this at a tournament. ‘