Mains and Mo-Fo s

Title: Mains and Mo-Fo s
Author: Paul "Paul" Maholick
Date: Mar 10, 2000 Rating: 4.0

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Cards:

‘Objective (1) Hidden Base/Systems Will Slip Through Your Fingers

Locations (8) Bothawui x2 Corulag Kashyyyk Kessel Kiffex Rendezvous Point Tatooine

Characters (19) Biggs Darklighter BoShek Captain Han Solo x2 Chewie With Blaster Rifle Derek ‘Hobbie’ Kilivan Harc Seff Jeroen Webb Lando With Blaster Pistol Leia With Blaster Rifle x2 Luke With Lightsaber Melas Momaw Nadon Obi-Wan With Lightsaber Orrimaarko R2-D2 (Artoo-Detoo) Tawss Khaa Wedge Antilles

Starships (10) Gold Leader In Gold 1 Millennium Falcon x2 Red Leader In Red 1 Red Squadron X-wing x3 Redemption Spiral Tantive IV

Interrupts (7) Don’t Forget The Droids x2 Grimtaash The Signal x3 Transmission Terminated

Effects (13) Bacta Tank Battle Plan Do, Or Do Not Draw Their Fire Insurrection Legendary Starfighter The Planet That It’s Farthest From Traffic Control Undercover x3 What’re You Tryin’ To Push On Us? Wise Advice

Weapons (2) X-wing Laser Cannon x2 ‘

Strategy: ‘

The deck uses the basic Hidden Base format, so activation should not be a problem, just keep in mind the force you are giving away. Power in the deck is generated from the Super Falcon and endurance is created through the Redemption / Bacta Tank combo. You can go to the ground if necessary, but the deck is at home in space. Spies help to ensure you win the drain race. General start is Insurrection or Do or Do Not if you know SAC is coming. Do not flip unless the drains on the ground are going to wipe you out. Lets look at the deck.

Systems were chosen based on the following Bothawui, when controlled, protects your spies from Hutt Smooch, which is becoming increasingly popular and with spies on the table, it will be hard for the DS to drain here. Corulag is just a force generating system, you can only get drained for one here, and bridges the gap between parsecs 6-8 and Kiffex. Kashyyyk is here for its GT, deploy Capt. Han. And Chewie here for –2, DS needs ability 6 for destiny. Kessel and Kiffex for draining vs –1 objectives. I did not go with Coruscant because of the potential for beatdown there, but if –1 objectives are popular where you are consider adding it. Tatooine is where you set up your TPIFF vs. Ops for other force drain bonus strategy.

Characters are very straightforward and quite flexible.

First the spies. I have three and went with the following, R2 because he can not be trampled, Momaw because he is destiny 3 and can snare Bubo if the DS is stupid and Jereon Webb because he is a pilot. I like R2 for the destiny and GT plus his immunity to Bubo and trample, but he can not cancel Visage by himself. He could easily be a Bothan Spy if you prefer. The spies go in and block the early drains as you set up your systems. Try to keep them away from Walkers or weapons if possible, even if it means canceling a smaller drain. I would much rather block a drain of 1 for six turns than a drain of 2 for one turn.

The flight crew is as follows, Biggs is here for his forfeit as is Hobbie, plus Hobbie gets a boost on the ground with Biggs. Boshek and Melas are ability 4 pilots, helping to stick it to Zuckuss in Mist Hunter. Harc Seff is pilot who can really help if you can fortify a position on the ground, great vs. the Dark Deal Objective. Wedge rounds out the group, because, well you can’t have a LS space deck without Wedge. Jereon Webb can also be counted in this group, if his spy abilities are not needed elsewhere his destiny reducing gametext can be helpful. All these guys have huge forfeits with Insurrection on the table. Use them to keep your ships in space. With the Bacta / Redemption combo going the DS will be hard pressed to hold a system you need to defend. And of course Captain Han is here with the Falcon to head up the space attack.

The blaster brigade, of Leia, Lando and Chewie can all pilot if necessary. EPP Leia should be used to enable the Super Falcon, but can take to the ground if necesary. Chewie is best on the ground, away from Choke Vaders and Walkers if you can, but pilots +3 on the Falcon. Lando is solid either way, and can convert DS Lando if sabacc shows its face and is good for a surprise beatdown if Lobot can be disposed of somehow.

The ground crew is Luke, Obi, Orrimaarko, and Twass Ka. Luke can really go either way, but that saber is a waste in space. Obi is another big stick waiting to strike. Orrimaarko’s game text can be damaging and he is a solid ability four as well. Twass is premiere Luke with less forfeit but can retrieve force and gets big with all those ability 4 aliens running around these days. The ground crew should be called in when your spies have failed and you have to do it the hard way. Or when the spies force your opponent to spread out, leaving them susceptible to beatdown.

The fleet itself is only 9 different ships. 2 copies of the Falcon ensure a fast arrival of the “fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.” Three Red Squad X-Wings are ability two and along with Red Leader in Red 1 can use the dreaded X-Wing Cannon, bane of Bounty Hunter ships everywhere. Tantive 4 and Spiral are solid ability two ships, perfect for the flight crew to pilot. Gold Leader in Gold 1 also makes the cut for his destiny drawing ability and additional pilot slot. Redemption keeps those pilots coming back for further duty. The fleet is not huge, so sack the pilots before the ships to keep the cannons in play.

Interrupts are sparse, with Don’t Forget the Droids for numbers defense. Grimtaash is here more for intelligence gathering or hand reduction than anything else. The used version is great with a flipped hidden base, as they pay one to draw back the stuff you just sent to their used pile. The Signal helps get you combo’s up and running and is a solid destiny five in an average destiny deck. Transmission Terminated is in for Visage, always nice to counter it without giving up one of my spies.

Effects are very important to the deck. So both Do or Do Not and Wise Advice are here to protect them. The Bacta Tank is critical to a war of attrition. Do not deploy it without Do or Do Not on the table. At least make them pay to kill it. Battle Plan hurts Ops and other one dimensional decks, as you can most likely hold at least one battleground site. Draw Their Fire is here to retrieve those lost pilots. You can make the following happen. You battle, retrieve one and put someone in the Tank to cover the damage. They battle back next turn, sac another pilot. You battle again, retrieve pilot you lost in the last battle and replace the pilot from the Tank. Then lather, rinse, and repeat. No one dies. Insurrection makes your flight crew huge and prevent Elis beatdown if you have to venture to the ground. Legendary Starfighter is a great source of direct damage when on the Falcon. Try to set this up if at all possible, it can be a game winner. The Planet It’s Farthest From hurts Ops and other force drain bonus strategies, can be great with the Super Falcon at Bespin and another force holding at Tatooine vs Dark Deal. Undercovers? Spies gotta have ‘em, and they are destiny five if you don’t need them. The grappler is here to catch SAC and maybe scanning crew if necessary. It can also grab trample, so if they miss the first time, they will not get another shot with that card.

Finally the X-Wing Laser Cannons hurt Zuckuss and if lucky other BH ships as well. Plus three is a great modifier and immediately lost is a beautiful thing.

Here is how the deck matches up versus popular DS decks.

Big Blue – you are playing the LS version of big blue. They have big weenies, you have big weenies, but your weenies go to the tank, theirs die. They have Lateral Damage, you have the Super Falcon. Be careful and keep your second copies of the Super Falcon ready to go if the first group goes down to Lateral Damage. Win the war of attrition, then worry about draining. Use Legendary Starfighter to add to the hurting. Use your spies to make their investments in big blue worthless.

Hunt Down with Duel – lose Luke and Ben to force drains, and cancel Visage. No need to invite trouble as there is no duel defense, but you have two spies and one TT to kill Visage. Watch out where you put Leia, because she can’t battle with the objective flipped, i.e. no Super Falcon.

Hunt Down without Duel – same as a Big Blue deck, but you may be able keep Luke or Obi coming back for more with the tank.

Ralltiir Ops - Block their drains of one with your spies, but watch out for trample. If you can hold the system and one Ralltiir site you will win the game. Use the Redemption and Bacta Tank to save an EPP Luke or Obi. They come out of the tank for free, then shuttle them down for more punishment, soon you will wear them down. Set up drains at Kessel and Kiffex if possible and Legendary Starfighter would be great too.

Vanilla Ops - start Battle Plan and then get Tatooine and TPIFF. Drain at Kessel and Kiffex, use your spies and you should prevail. You can even harass them on their planet with EPP’s if you like.

Court – let spies pay the court costs. If one is captured and eaten, at least it was not main and will hurt much less. Otherwise keep draining in space, and canceling their drains and all should be well. However keep Tatooine occupation in mind. These decks like to use BH ships, so get those cannons ready. Only go down to Tatooine for beatdown, with no interrupt defense Hidden Weapons and such will ruin your day.

Dark Deal – pick a CC site and hold it. Get Harc down there and Lando if you can. Then keep the Super Falcon at either Bespin or the clouds to prevent a flip or cause a flip back to the zero side. Watch out for bounty hunters.

Ties – tough match, try to get Legendary Starfighter out to keep the damage on. Use your cannons to knock the ties out of the sky, grapple All Power to Weapons when you see it. Use your Bacta Tank to increase your staying power.

Rumors – just like big blue, but try to deliver beatdown at the bunker if possible.

ISB Drop and Drain – Battle Plan and ability 4 aliens along with ground forces should do the trick.

ISB Decree – like big blue, use Legendary to keep them hurting. ‘