Vader s Court
Title: Vader s Court
Author: Chris "Lt. Cabbage" Moore
Date: Mar 24, 2000
Rating: 3.5
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Cards:
‘Objective (1) Court of the Vile Gangster
Locations (9) Tatooine Great Pit of Carkoon Jabba’s Palace Audience Chamber Jabba’s Palace Dungeon Executor docking bay Coruscant docking bay Kessel Kashyyk Endor Kiffex
Characters (15) Darth Vader x2 Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith Grand Moff Tarkin x2 Jabba the Hutt Mara Jade, the Emperor’s Hand Boelo Dr. Evazan Gailid J’Quille Garindan Fozec U-3PO 4-LOM
Starships (6) Boba Fett in Slave 1 Zuckuss in Mist Hunter Dengar in Punishing One Bossk in Hounds Tooth IG-88 in IG-2000 Executor
Weapons (3) Vader’s Lightsaber x2 Mara Jade’s Lightsaber
Effects (8) Security Precautions Undercover x3 Battle Order Reactor Terminal There’ll be Hell to Pay Bad Feeling Have I
Interrupts (17) Ghhhk Monnok You Are Beaten The Circle is Now Complete Sense x3 Alter x3 Twi’lek Advisor x2 Elis Helrot x2 Imperial Barrier x2 Nevar Yalnal
Creatures (1) Bubo
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Strategy: ‘
This deck basically aims to set up at a couple of space and/or ground locations and then use the Undercover spies to limit damage on the ground.
First, the starting stuff The objective and locations are set, so you just have to choose the effect. The usual starting effect is Bad Feeling Have I. Against Ops the starting effect is Battle Order and against Hidden Base use Security Precautions. All that’s fairly self-explanatory, so I shan’t indulge.
Right at the start of the game, playing the deck is pretty easy. Get out the 1/0 docking bays in the first couple of turns to boost activation. This deck doesn’t need a huge amount of force, so there aren’t any 2/0 sites. You’ll find you’re saving a lot of force so the Executor is still playable.
First turn you want to get a character to a Tatooine site, so Court isn’t damaging you. A first turn Vader is quite common. Using the Audience Chamber to get either Mara or Jabba is the other option.
Once you’re feeling safe enough on the ground (Senses, Barriers and the other interrupts mean Vader’s usually fine on his own) it’s time to pull the ships out of the reserve deck and start draining in space. Against Profit decks just doubly reinforce the Audience Chamber. The space force isn’t huge, so if much resistance is encountered/expected you’ve got to be careful. But a couple of any of the bounty hunter together is a pretty strong force. Watch for X-Wing cannons, though.
The last principal strategy point is the Undercover spies. These guys are you’re only hope against Ops and Ewoks. Battle Order will slow them but you still need to get these guys out to limit the damage.
Lastly, we have a few goodies. Nevar Yalnal goes with all the spies. The Circle has been incredibly useful for me. I’ve Ben Kenobi almost every other game just by getting him without his saber. 4-LOM can be called upon to help if Ben does have a saber. Sense and Alter deal with anything too nasty. There are as many Alters as Sense because the weenie decks that use effects are a bigger threat than Mains decks with interrupts. I’ve not included numbers protection, as I haven’t been troubled by any really. If you want you can always make room for a Resistance.
In summary, the deck is not a vicious all-out attacker. You go for slow, steady control of the game. It’s done well for me.
RESPONSE TO REVIEWS
Thanks for the thumbs up guys I just thought I’d comment on a couple of points that I thought people might bring up. I would normally put in a Dreadnought or 2-ability Star Destroyer over the Executor. But in this deck there are very few pilots. Basically you have the Mains and Fozec and Gailid. The latter two are both ability 1, hence I wanted the Executor’s 3-ability. Also (if you’re really desperate) you can Elis, say, Vader and Tarkin to the docking bay and put them on the Executor’s bridge. It’s only for emergencies, but I have pulled it off before.
The second point is regarding the lack of ships. You’re not really trying to control all the systems with this deck. 1 or 2 is enough, and the spies will sort out the oppponents drains. Against Ops you would spread out more, while against Hidden Base you tread much more carefully and hope Sense and Alter can disrupt the LS enough.
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