A
Pirate's Best Friend
By
Ryan Searby
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Last week,
the IDC gave everyone some insight into the creation of Nym (A),
one of the Expanded Universe (EU) cards from the most recently
released set of Scum and Villainy. This week we’ll delve into
the creative process that brought Nym’s beloved starfighter/bomber,
the Havoc, to life.
The Havoc
was originally designed by a Bith named Jinkins; an engineer who
worked for the Nubian Design Collective a few years prior to the
Battle of Naboo. The Collective dubbed the bomber, (in its prototype
stages), the"Scurrg H-6". They tried to sell the line of bombers
to the Royal Naboo Security Corps Forces, (as an attempt to convince
them to buy other weapons). However, the Naboo, being dedicated
pacifists, rejected the heavily-armed bomber. Funding for the
project soon ran dry. The prototype was put into storage, and
abandoned.
Jinkins, irritated
and annoyed, sought out Nym. The pair eventually broke into the
storage facility, stole the prototype, and renamed it the "Havoc".
Behind
the Scenes
Believe it or not, the Havoc (A) was one of the most difficult
cards for the Card Development Sub-committee (CD) to approve.
The stats of the card (30 Speed, 4 Power, 4 Health) did not change
at all from the original submission. However, the Havoc (A)’s
abilities went through a whirlwind of revisions that lasted right
up until the week of release. Originally, the Havoc (A) had a
Bombard capability of 5 rather than four, to make it the only
card in the game to have Bombard capabilities higher than its
Power. The number was reduced to 4 because CD did not feel they
wanted to provide a unit with such devastating cross-arena power.
On the other hand, they did not want to clip the card’s wings
too severely. So we simply matched the Havoc (A)’s Bombard power
with it’s printed Power.
Tap, put
2 damage counters on Havoc -> Discard one of your opponent’s Locations
from the Ground arena. Play only when Havoc would attack.
The Havoc
(A)’s Location discard ability was much different. This is where
most of the debate for the card really came in. Originally, you
could tap the Havoc (A) to discard the Location and simply not
be able to untap it for a turn as a penalty, similar to the Millennium
Falcon (F)’s Character saving ability. However, there was a strong
call from members in CD that this was too powerful an ability
to be given to either the Light Side, or especially the Dark Side.
Many different suggestions on changes to the ability were made
that ranged from removing the ability completely, to discarding
the Havoc (A) instead of tapping it. However, CD also saw the
need for such a powerful ability in this card to preserve its
playability. As a result, CD found what we felt to be a happy
medium for the card as well as an ability that was representative
of the ship it was created for, and the ability is as you see
it now in its final form.
Wreaking
Havoc
All in all, the Havoc (A) is a wonderful utility card. It should
see significant play especially in LS decks since it is by far
the best Bombard option currently available to the LS, and it
can make DS Bombard decks even stronger or simply help the DS
get rid of that Pesky Forrests of Endor or Clone Landing Platform.
Hopefully, you too will be able to find a way to utilize this
potentially game-changing card to its fullest potential. Team
up Nym (A) with his beloved Havoc (A) in your games and watch
the fireworks begin!
Thoughts
or comments? Visit the message board thread for this article here.
About
the Author
Ryan Searby
has been playing the Star Wars Trading Card Game since January
2005, and a member of the Rebelbasers community since August of
that year. While relatively new to the game, he has been a workgroup
associate for the Card Development sub-committee of the IDC since
its inception. He posts on the Rebelbasers forums as “pocketaces98”.
