Ket's Deck Clinic #15
by Nathanael Tripp
(Additional Comments by Brian Weeks)

For the longest time I have been dying to make a deck using Jedi Temple. But the only viable Character that took full effect of its bonus was a whinny little farm boy from Tatooine. Sure you could use Yoda, Obi-Wan or Anakin but they just didn't have the search effects that Luke did. All this has changed with one simple card from the Fall of the Republic expansion. Let's take a look at the new evolution of the Jedi Temple Deck.

(Considering that Nathanael provided this deck article to Public Affiars in the early development stages of Battle of Endor, I thought it would be worthy to add comments relevant to the upcoming expansion. I especially wanted to add comments giving an alternate opinion on the "whinny little farm boy from Tatooine. The Battle of Endor expansion will obviously be adding some Luke Skywalker cards to the game, and this deck, with a little modification, could work very well with Luke. Let's read on.)

Character: (16)
1x Anakin Skywalker (A)
1x Anakin Skywalker (B)
1x Anakin Skywalker (C)
1x Anakin Skywalker (D)
1x Anakin Skywalker (E)
1x Anakin Skywalker (F)
1x Anakin Skywalker (H)
1x Anakin Skywalker (I)
1x Anakin Skywalker (J)
1x Anakin Skywalker (K)
1x Anakin Skywalker (L)
1x Anakin Skywalker (M)
1x Anakin Skywalker (N)
1x Anakin Skywalker (O)
1x Anakin Skywalker (P)
1x Yoda (G)

When I sat down to work on this deck I tried to pick out the best Character setup possible… then I realized that the best setup included every version of Anakin, all fifteen. In an ideal situation you will have Anakin (N) on top; with the other fourteen version of Anakin under him. That would put Anakin at an amazing 190 Speed, 22 Power, 21 Health all for only 10 build. With the addition of Yoda (G) you can bump it up just a little bit more, be careful though because you can only stack Yoda when you have a Padawan version of Anakin on top of the stack. The beauty of having a huge Anakin out is that he really costs 24 build (without Yoda) so the Dark Side will need at least 14 Force to be able to contest him… while not impossible this is a daunting feat even for the best Dark Side decks.

There are currently eighteen versions of Luke Skywalker with more on the way in the new Battle of Endor expansion. The one I would focus on would be Luke (I). Luke (I) has the ability "Pay 2 Force -> Evade X, where X is the number of cards in Luke's stack." Stacked with the above scenario (like Anakin), Luke would be able to evade 15 hits of damage per attack. And, this version of Luke is a Padawan, so take Yoda (G) along for the ride.

Ground: (13)
2x Anakin's Podracer (A)
3x Jawa Sandcrawler
4x Coruscant Shuttle
4x Elite Jedi Squad

What good would 16 Anakin's be if you didn't have a way to get them? That's where Coruscant Shuttle and Jawa Sandcrawler come in. They allow you to either draw more cards or search for needed cards. The bonus of Coruscant Shuttle is that you can get any Jedi unit, so it lets you support your other arenas as well. The Elite Jedi Squad has been somewhat of an enigma unit for Light Side. It is slow, only having 40 speed, and it has low health. Usually this is something most Light Side decks shy away from. However, the Elite Jedi have seen play in countless decks for two reasons. First, they are like having a free intercept unit. When your opponent sees a unit with Critical Hit 2 staring them down, no matter how big, they generally will attack it first. Secondly, is the above mentioned Critical Hit 2. This is a huge ability on such a cheap unit. And I for one can attest that these guys are killer. I have been on the receiving end of a few beatings from an Elite Jedi Squad or two… or three. Lastly, we have Anakin's Podracer (A), not only is this a great card in and of itself, but it also has a little bit of a thematic aspect in this deck.

I like the Ground setup here considering the Jedi theme.

Space: (12)
1x Anakin's Starfighter (A)
1x Obi-Wan's Starfighter (A)
1x Obi-Wan's Starfighter (B)
1x ETA-2 Squadron (A)
4x Jedi Interceptor
4x Delta Six Jedi Starfighter

Space is a little tricky, as there are two unique ways you could run it. Both offer great versatility and strength. Really it comes down to two options for this deck; swarm or cross arena attacking. What makes swarm so appealing in this deck is the cost reduction granted by Jedi Temple. It affects all Jedi units. So the already cheap Delta Six's and Jedi Interceptor's are even less in this deck. The alternate arena configuration would include the Millennium Falcon (E) and Sonic Charges so that you could clear the Space and Character arenas with a single unit. However running that does not take full benefit of Jedi Temple, thus the reason I setup Space in a more swarm oriented way.

Luke's X-wing (E) from Scum and Villainy has a Rebel Jedi subtype and might be a decent addition to this arena.

Battle: (10)
3x Discuss it in Committee
3x Lightsaber Quick Draw
2x Trap Door!
2x Dismiss

I must be sounding like a broken record by now. It's always the same three Battle cards in every deck… but who am I to screw with a good thing. However, this deck benefits from one other favorite of mine, Lightsaber Quick Draw. LSQD has served me very well, especially in my 3rd place finish at Wizard World Philly last year, winning me at least three games against Trade Fed Swarm. What makes this card so spectacular is that Light Side has so many fast units to reveal for this cards cost, that nine times out of ten you will be rolling dice against every Dark Side unit in the chosen arena.

Mission: (6)
3x Meditate
2x The Chosen One
1x Explore the Swamps

Meditate and Explore the Swamps are two of the best utility cards in the game. The only problem with Explore the Swamp in this deck is that you only have one Character, so it will hurt a little to play it, but the two net build you gain from it tends to alleviate the cost some. Meditate is great in that it not only lets you draw two cards, hopefully more versions of Anakin, but it also gains you two Force which is needed for LSQD and your other Battle cards. The Chosen One is the back bone for a deck running both Anakin and Jedi Temple. It lets you search your deck for three copies of Anakin (or Darth Vader) and put them in your hand, also gaining you one Force in the process. Since you do not have to pay build to stack these if you have Jedi Temple out, in essence you are paying four build to draw three cards of your choice and gain one force… that is a good payoff in my book. With that kind of draw you should have no problems getting Anakin fully stacked in no time.

Location: (5)
3x Jedi Temple
2x Cloud City Battleground

Lastly, we come to the life blood of the deck, Jedi Temple. Without this card in play you not only lose the cost reduction, but you also risk having eleven dead cards in your entire deck because you will not be able to stack Anakin more than four times without Jedi Temple in play. The good thing is that if Jedi Temple leaves play you keep your stack how it is, you are not required to reduce it to four cards. Cloud City Battleground is an excellent card in any deck that is planning on relying on Battle cards, and it fits perfectly in this deck.

All of these cards work great with the deck. But, there may be some cards in the new expansion that may change that. We'll just have to wait and see.

Well I hope this article was informative and helpful, just remember this isn't the end all for this deck, play around with it and tailor it to your play style. You might just find that this deck does wonders for you. As everyone has probably been noticing the last couple of Deck Clinic's have been about decks that I wanted to build or something that sparked my interest. That's because I haven't gotten any decks to review or any ideas from the rabid SWTCG fans…. YOU!! So as always if you have an interesting or quirky deck, one that utilizes a forgotten subtype, an overlooked strategy or interaction, or if you just want to make your deck better please e-mail it to me at ketricel@msn.com. Really…. I'm running out of ideas; please help me by sending in some of yours!!