Set Your Course For Endor

Title: Set Your Course For Endor
Author: David "Wedge659" Marincic
Date: Aug 21, 2000 Rating: 4.5

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Cards:

‘Starting (8) Set Your Course For Alderaan/The Ultimate Power In The Universe Death Star Death Star Docking Bay 327 Alderaan Prepared Defenses Mobilization Points Oppressive Enforcement Secret Plans

Locations (9) Coruscant Docking Bay Death Star Docking Control Room 327 Endor x2 Endor Back Door Endor Dark Forest Endor Forest Clearing Endor Landing Platform (Docking Bay) Executor Docking Bay

Characters (15) Admiral Chiraneau Admiral Ozzel Admiral Piett Captain Godherdt Commander Igar Commander Merrejk Dr. Evazon General Tagge General Veers Grand Moff Tarkin x2 Lord Vader x2 Mara Jade, The Emperor’s Hand x2

Starships (6) Boba Fett In Slave I Bossk In Hound’s Tooth Dengar In Punishing One Executor The Emperor’s Shield Zuckuss In Mist Hunter

Vehicles (2) Blizzard 2 Tempest 1

Weapons (2) Mara Jade’s Lightsaber Vader’s Lightsaber

Effects (10) Battle Order Come Here You Big Coward First Strike Lateral Damage Reactor Terminal Presence Of The Force x2 Resistance Something Special Planned For Them There’ll Be Hell To Pay

Interrupts (6) Imperial Command x3 Trample Twi’lek Advisor

Admiral’s Orders (2) We’re In Attack Position Now x2’

Strategy: ‘

NOTE That should be Twi’lek Advisor x2, not just one

RESPONSE TO REVIEWS Alrighty, several of you have mentioned pulling an Endor for an Imperial Command. I like the idea, although since I don’t own a 4th Imperial Command that kinda puts a damper on things for now ) The card can’t pull Merrejk, though, that’s one of the reasons I still had 2 Endors.

The Chimaera instead of The Emperor’s Shield is a wonderful idea, but once again I don’t own it so I hadn’t really thought of it, but it’s painfully obvious looking at the decklist now, thanks for pointing that out

The mini-SAC package is a cool idea, I may try and work it in and see how it does, although the first problem will be figuring out what the hell to take out…

Against testing, basically the idea is to get set up FAST. The reason why I use Presences instead of further drain enhancers is Test 1. Honor won’t do a damn thing to stop the AO once I have 3 bg’s, and the deck is fast, so you just need to get as much damage in early as you can and prepare for the onslaught that will come your way when they pass Test 5. By that point you’ll have whittled away a fair amount and they probably won’t be able to or will be slowed down to retrieve. If you get the chance, grab It Could Be Worse…that should end a lot of headaches pretty quick

AND NOW BACK TO THE STRATEGY…

PLEASE READ THE STRATEGY BEFORE REVIEWING

Note If you are playing against EBO, start Resistance instead of Secret Plans. Against Ops, Battle Order instead of Secret Plans (and you may just want to hit your opponent for playing Ops, while you’re at it )

This deck takes advantage of the ridiculous activation you can get with Mobilization Points. Right away, I want to answer a question I’ve gotten a lot just from playing this; why don’t I start Endor Ops? There are two reasons. The first reason is speed. By starting SYCFA, I can pull the Control Room and get most if not all of my docking bays out first turn almost every time, much quicker than IAO. The second reason is versatility. The front of my obj (and you won’t be seeing any of the flipside, by the way) stops Revolution completely and prevents me from taking battle damage at Death Star sites (this can come in VERY handy). OK, with that covered, on to the strategy

Basically, your first turn will be to search for the Control Room, drop a character there, and pull out as many docking bays as possible, then move that character to Docking Bay 327 for 2 extra Force on turn 2. If you didn’t draw Executor, get it with Mobilization Points. Get the Endor system in play as quickly as possible; this is fairly easy because you have 7 cards that can directly or indirectly get it into play. One of the Imperial Commands can grab Piett, who in turn can use his once per game to get Merrejk, who deploys Endor, or you could just draw for the system. Obviously, it’s best to just draw the system or use Merrejk’s ability to get it, but the other options are there as well and it’s good to be aware of them. The beauty of the deck is that it’s so easy to set up. Executor will already be in your hand from the beginning and you’ll activate a TON of Force, then it’s just a question of getting Endor out with the Big Ship o’ Fun garrisoning it and getting Chiraneau piloting (again, Command can fetch him for you). On the ground, you have some excellent drain sites and a good mix of powerful characters. Ideally, you’ll get a couple Endor sites (other than the docking bay, of course) covered with your characters and the system well-protected by the Executor & Co. Once that’s accomplished, We’re In Attack Position Now can be devastating…if your opponent doesn’t run AO’s, it’s an occupation that he can’t cancel. You should have no trouble occupying 3 battlegrounds for Resistance/Honor Of The Jedi. Also, remember that even though you can’t Force drain or take battle damage on the Death Star, the Docking Bay 327 is still a battleground, so it’s a good, no-risk way to get the third battle ground covered early. Once you’re all set up, it’s simply a question of reacting to what your opponent does.

One of the nicest things about this deck is that so many of the cards can fetch other cards that you need while still being useful in other situations. Imperial Command is one of my absolute favorite cards from D*II. You can grab an admiral or general with it (there are 5 in the deck) or add a destiny in space with an Admiral (or on ground with a General), or you can prevent multiple destinies where your Admiral or General is fighting. This is just incredible. The super Falcon just isn’t gonna work when you cancel their extra destinies, and a lot of the punch provided by EPP beatdown squads is taken away by Command. Plus, if you don’t need to prevent multiple draws, you can add one for yourself. It’s incredibly versatile. In fact, it’s the only reason Tagge is in the deck, because it’s just so deadly on the ground. Vader, Tarkin, and Tagge (or Veers) are certain death to beatdown squads that rely on destiny adders. Tagge and the Command strip away all but one destiny…and Tarkin is there to take that away, too. Evil If this gets grabbed, you just need to make sure only to use it when you need it. If it doesn’t get grabbed, what the hell was your opponent thinking??? Twi’lek Advisor obviously helps you get the effects you need into play. Opponent heading to the Death Star to drain? Grab Come Here You Big Coward. Opponent been Hyper Escaping away from you? Snag Something Special Planned For Them and let Executor stomp them. Piett can get your AO into play quickly or grab Merrejk or Igar, both of which are great cards. Barring a terrible draw, you should have no trouble getting completely set up by about the 4th turn, although if you draw a site or two or, better yet, Endor, it could be reduced to as little as 3 turns (it’s hilarious popping the Executor out on the 2nd turn, you can actually pinpoint the second when your opponent’s heart stops). Of course, if you get a horrible draw or activate the Control Room, you’ll lose a turn or two, so you need to be ready to fight it out.

Now on to the “justification” section (ie why I chose certain cards over others). I put 2 Presence Of The Forces in instead of Expand The Empire or Overseeing It Personally/Palpy because 1.) I don’t own Palpy, and 2.) if your opponent is training or runs Menace Fades, your bonuses don’t mean a thing. Also, Presence can be used to drop in on your opponent’s “safe” sites (as can Mara Jade) and increases your early generation as well as the drains. Just be careful, it can be a double-edged sword. Don’t deploy it unless you can protect the site you deploy it to Captain Godherdt is just awesome. He cancels Landing Claw, adds 3 to power, 1 to armor, and 1 to hyperspeed of the Executor…enough said. Evazon definitely won’t pop out every game, but when he does he’s just evil…your lightsabers are far more effective when he’s around to operate. Lord Vader is the best choice for the deck due to his hefty immunity, high defense value, and immunity to Fury. Plus, he deploys for 6 to Endor or the Executor, so he’s quite reasonable (especially with the activation you get in this deck). If you don’t own Lord Vader, I’d use DLOTS and throw in a You Are Beaten as Fury insurance. The bounty hunter ships are great against EBO decks that try to come after you, Profit/Celebration decks, clouds, etc. The Emperor’s Shield may look out of place, but 3 Force for power 6, ability 3 is nothing to laugh at Plus, it can deploy as a react, so unless your opponent has A-wings or Romas, your vulnerable Executor can suddenly be beefed up big time. I used to run another walker and an extra Trample, but toned it down to combat EBO better (it’s fairly popular around here). Despite having only 2 walkers, I still run a Trample. Why? It’s just that damn good. The same goes for Lateral Damage (evil). The effects should all be fairly obvious, although you only have one grabber so use it wisely.

Of all the decks I’ve ever built, this is by far my favorite. It’s not the most powerful, but the playing style fits me like a glove. It’s fast and racks the damage up incredibly quickly. It’s not uncommon to be hitting your opponent for 8-10 Force per turn after only 5 turns or so, and if Test 1 or Menace Fades isn’t in his deck, he’d better hope he can get to you before it’s too late. This deck is a lot of fun to play and I’ve had quite a bit of success with it. If you’d like to try using this deck, tweak with it; change it to fit your play style a bit. Then you’ll see just how powerful it can be. SYCFA isn’t just for manip ‘