Ket's Deck Clinic #1
By Nathanael Tripp

Welcome all to the first installment of Ket's Deck Clinic. In this article we will take decks made by you - the SWTCG community - and see how we can make them either more competitive, fun, or just plain wacky. First off we are going to take a look at a deck submitted by Corjay; lets see what he has to say about his deck.

"The original concept was Shielded Intercept and Retaliate for tiny units with a little Force Denial as extra protection. I've now adjusted it to be Evaded (Character), Armored (Ground), and Shielded (Space) Intercept and Retaliate for tiny units." - Corjay

Download this deck and other deck articles for LackeyCCG here.

What the deck does right:
First off let's look at how this deck is intended to run. We see in the Character arena smaller evading units. Dark Woman (A) is one of the best units LS has for the Character arena; she is very versatile and doesn't put too much of a hurting on your Force. GH-7's are insanely good, especially in multiples and with intercept support, so you can dictate where damage goes. Finis Valorum (B) is one of my favorite utility units and he really makes up for the initial cost of playing him if you can keep him alive.

Ground is pretty solid with Jabba's Guards protecting Bespin units. This seems like a very popular strategy currently, but at times it can leave you hanging with the massive Force gain the Dark Side can generate. So the crazily efficient Bespin units tend to become a liability.

I'm not going to go into Space or Battle card selection right now, because I have a very different view than Corjay about how to set Space and Battle up. But never fret; we will go into this later.

The Mission selection seems pretty solid. In my opinion, Explore the Swamps is one of the best search cards in the game to date, and should be included in any deck that is planning on running Locations. Podrace seems a little clunky, but it could be just what the deck needs to get a mid-turn Force boost going into Character. Hopefully with a few minor tweaks in Ground we will be able to assure that we get the most use out of Podrace.

The Location choice is pretty standard, although I generally tend to shy away from Forests of Endor. Not because it isn't a good card, but mainly because it is really expensive. You need to get it out first turn to really see a lot of good come from it. This is a questionable choice, but a good one either way.

The Equipment choice for the deck is really solid, and all the Ground units can benefit from it. The Space units can also get a boost as well if needed.

What the deck does wrong and what can we change to fix it:
Let's work our way through the deck again and see if we can point out a few card selections that are either "wrong" for the deck, or that could be better. I have never been a fan of Qui-Gon (C). Pay 2 -> Evade 1 just doesn't cut it in my opinion. Jek Porkins (A) may not be the right choice here. He is rather costly and the bonus he grants isn't that imperative, there could be a better card choice if you are wanting to give a Space unit Retaliate. You could use Blast It!, as you already are, or use units with built-in Retaliate. Instead you could run Yoda (J) who has built in damage prevention with Lucky. Also the under rated Ann and Tann Gella (A) would be a perfect fit for this deck as it strips your opponent of power, and allows you to grant Lucky 2 to a unit of your choice. Also Obi-Wan Kenobi (Q) is just plain amazing. He not only has Hidden Cost 3, but he comes packed with some really nice stats and Pay 2 -> Evade 2, which fits this decks theme perfectly.

Ground while solid could use a few changes. Mainly in taking out the Bespin units; at this stage in the metagame I don't see them being as much of a benefit as they used to be. There are some very good units with Armor available to the Light Side, the only problem is that they are generally very slow. But with the Intercept/Retaliate ability of Jabba's Guards this should be alleviated to an extent. However as mentioned above, it doesn't help with Podrace to have slower units. Thus this puts us in a bind… so we need to find a good balance between defense and speed on our units. That's where Anakin's Podracer (A) comes in. Packing an insane 80 speed, Pay 1-> Evade 1, and Lucky 1 this little unit can be quite a problem. The next unit is an oldie but a goodie. The AT-TE Troop Transport has a solid speed of 50 and decent stats, but what makes it worth running is Shields 1. I know Ground was supposed to be Armor based, but what would be better than a unit that has Shields and Armor? The AT-AP is an iffy choice in my opinion. It could be better but I think it fits the theme.

Space is where the deck falters the most. There are some VERY good units that seem to have been overlooked such as the Marauder Class Corvette. It has free Retaliate and Intercept, so getting two or three of these out and every attack your opponent makes will see six to nine dice being rolled right back at him. Also to keep with the Shield strategy in Space you don't get much better than Modified YV-330 (A). Stinger (A) is a good unit, but its WAY too expensive for this deck. The new Jedi Interceptor fits the role that Stinger (A) left behind rather nicely. Also a pair of Luke's X-Wings should round out Space rather nicely.

The Battle card selection gets a little slippery. Right now Blast It! is a very themed card for the deck, and it works really well. But really when it comes down to it, how powerful is a one turn Retaliate effect that you have to pay for each time you use it? I would rather run prevention or a "fog" type effect such as Discuss it in Committee. This would fit very well with the defensive play style this deck is taking. Running Disrupting Stike and Thwart is a horrible idea. Both cards are limited to when they can be played. Dismiss is a much more efficient card as it allows you both the cards abilities in one. Foil is good and keeps the deck safe from a few of the more unsavory Dark Missions running around.

The Mission selection is very strong, I love Explore the Swamps. And I really wanted to keep Podrace, but it just seemed like too big of a risk. I think that Meditate is a much safer choice. Plus it is a guarantee that you will always get the benefits.

So this is what the deck looks like after a few changes:

Download this deck and other deck articles for LackeyCCG here.

The new version of the deck tries to keep the original spirit of the deck, and I think it does so quite well. Hopefully the process I went through to create this deck was of a benefit to you and if I did this right you may have even learned a little something.

As always if you have an interesting or quirky deck, one that utilises a forgotten subtype or 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.

Don't worry about polishing the deck too much before you post - the thing I'm most interested in is a novel idea, a hook for the deck to revolve on.

Until next time May the Force be with you.

Thoughts or comments? Visit the message board thread for this article here.

About the Author
Nathanael has been a player since May 2002 and is currently the Playtesting Chairperson and a member of the IDC Board. He has written a number of articles for Wizards of the Coast and has been very active with the SWTCG Hope of the Jedi tournament. Nathanael Tripp has been a member of both the Wizards and Rebelbasers forums since January of 2002, posting under the name Ketricel.