When the ST Hits the Fan
Title: When the ST Hits the Fan
Author: Ryan "heinekin" Hase
Date: Jun 19, 2000
Rating: 4.0
--------------------------------
Cards:
‘Objective (1) Ralltiir Operations/ In The Hands Of The Empire
Locations (13) Ralltiir Swamp Forest Jungle Spaceport Prefect’s Office Hoth Wampa Cave Hoth Ice Plains CC Downtown Plaza Dagobah Cave Death Star Coruscant Khasyyyk Endor
Characters (16) Darth Vader Grand Moff Tarkin At-ST Pilot x3 DS-61-2 DS-61-3 DS-61-4 Lt. Cabbel Lt. Watts Lt. Arnet Lt. Comm. Ardan Officer Evax Admiral Ozzel Major Marquand Navy Trooper Vesden
Starships (5) Dreadnaught Bossk In Hound’s Tooth Boba Fett in Slave 1 Zuckus in Four-Banger (he’s slow as hell, all the X-Wings shoot him down) Dengar in Punishing One
Vehicles (7) Tempest 1 Blizzard 2 Blizzard Scout 1 Tempest Scout 1 Tempest Scout 2 Tempest Scout 5 Tempest Scout 6
Effects (11) Bad Feeling Have I (starting effect) Come Here You Big Coward. Imperial Arrest Order Imperial Decree There Is No Try Search and Destroy Reactor Terminal Security Precautions Ice Storm Battle Order Secret Plans
Interrupts (7) Shut Him Up or Shut Him Down Masterful Move Twi’lek Advisor Trample x2 Overload Monnok ‘
Strategy: ‘
Ral Ops has always been powerful but with the growing poularity of EBO, I figured how to make this deck take it to school. I took the run of the mill Ral Ops deck and gave it a minor overhaul. Take it from the top. There are more locations that are common in an average Ral Ops deck. The numerous twix sites help activation, but the hoth sites serve double purpose. The 7th marker will allow you to enforce decree on an EBO deck easily. The deck needs this huge activation to dominate everywhere. Aside from the chicken walkers, I also tossed into the two big guns to do some squishing. Spaceport Prefect office is so that you have a free scomp link if for Vesden if you don’t feel like deploying a walker to give him a link. Replace it with the desert if you feel the urge to do so.
The character squad is pretty much standard. Only thing worth pointing out is Arden, he’s awesome in the deck. Otherwise it’s standard. Ships are run of the mill, nothin special… Dreadnaught can be critical against a HB or dagobah X-Wing deck to avoid those laser cannons, but I have another surprise for those anyways. Get around to that one later…
The effects kind of troubled me. Starting out with Bad Feeling pretty much insures that you won’t be battled any time soon on Ralltiir- be ever weary of those evil eloms If for some crazy ass reason eloms ARE popular in your meta, add Bubo and maybe even a dragonsnake. Secret Plans is a must with all the retrieval goin on out there nowadays. Ice storm is in there to insure that you can inforce decree. This one single card will help you kill an EBO deck dead for sure.
The interrupts are pretty simple. Shut him up cancels a few nice effects but it’s mostly to get rid of bacta tank. Masterful move kills sav and get the monnok, trample squishes spies, chewie, or just any other random ability 2 rebel freak. Overload is a defence against X-Wing laser cannons. Although it is a lost interrupt and I only pack two, this can be the difference in a game. Drawing a 4 or less, which is pretty easy in this deck, will disarm any X-Wing of it’s gun and Zuckus can kick some ass. If you’re good at tracking then you can follow a 0 around and maybe get rid of Ben Kenobi with stick no problem.
The deck is very diverse and takes out every and anything. The only deck that was possibly questionable was EBO but I made sure to take that out no problem. Here’s a quick rundown of your possible competition
EBO Flip your objective and grab the decree. If they’re playing a wuss version of the deck, then just sit at the wampa cave and the 4th marker to enforce the decree. After the minus one draining, they can drain for a maximum of 3. That’s being generous too. If they do come out with mains to beat you off of the 4th marker, then search for ice storm when the squad arrives. Then when they come to you at the 4th marker, lay down the ice storm and kiss those mains goodbye. (your guy should be in a walker hopefully.) With no drain bonuses and drain -1 everywhere, chip away at em with Search and Destroy and drains on ralltiir. An easy game.
Profit They get to flip on turn one, bah. Try to flip fast and gun over to Tatooine. If Ben Kenobi is at a site, it will be hard to take control of. Just let them have that one site and spread out everywhere else. You can reduce the drain damage to 0 and lose 1 only to the objective game text. Drains in the sky will help the iwn right along. If he does decide to spread out then use your objective benefits to your advantage and knock off the mains with attrition.
Hidden Base Most hidden base decks will be able to shut down ground drains, but chip away on Ralltiir. Keep in mind that once you replace his Coruscant, he can drain you for 3 at most. (two at Kessel and one at Kiffex.) After you flip grab Search and Destroy and chip away at him until he deploys. Security Precautions makes for an easy probe and painful probe job.
Dagobah X-Wings Slightly more annoying, but again it’s all about Search and Destroy. Since these come out slower, you’ll have no problems out draining them, especially with them draining -1 and you being able to replace their coruscant
RTP So they’re gonna place all those unique guys out of play? well crap, that almost does something here. Get out secret plans to stop people from running death star plans. If they’re undercover then just toss a walker at one of the docking bays and when the dude comes by carrying the plans, squish em with trample. This game is an easy one to win.
Yavin IV Mains Most of these decks wait for you to come out, so deploy fast and flip. They’ll have a hard time taking over ralltiir at deploy +4 per main. If they do try something, just beat em off your planet and drain em to death in the sky. Should be a textbook game.
Operatives That’s funny. Enforce the decree and the objective makes their total drain potential on the renegade planet a scary 0. whew. You might also change your starting effect to Battle Order to make sure you have enough time to set up.
The deck is pretty much all around solid and if for some crazy ass reason you DO lose then shame on you, at least it won’t be by much. ;-) Thoughts are much appreciated. Thanks ‘