Ket's Deck Clinic #8
By Nathanael Tripp

This week I wanted to do something different. So a couple friends of mine got together and we did a sealed draft using Return of the Jedi cards (mainly because that was all they sold at Wal-Mart). Sealed draft is one of my favorite formats, it is where you take 5 packs and make a 30 card deck. The deck can contain LS or DS cards and any number of them. Here is that card pool that I ended up opening:

** Before reading on after the card pool, try your hand at building a deck to see how close you get to what I ended up running for my deck **

Drafted List

Battle:
1 Close Quarters
1 Decoy
1 Fly Casual
1 Force Lightning
2 High-Speed Dodge
1 Lightsaber Throw
1 Log Trap
1 Surprising Strength
1 Wookiee Hug

Character:
1 C-3P0 (H)
1 Chewbacca (K)
2 Darth Vader (O)
1 Darth Vader (P)
1 Emperor Palpatine (D)
1 Emperor Palpatine (E)
1 Ephant Mon (A)
1 Han Solo (J)
1 Jabba the Hutt (A)
1 Jabba the Hutt (C)
1 Lando Calrissian (I)
1 Luke Skywalker (O)
1 Oola (A)
1 R2-D2 (I)
1 Wicket W. Warrick (A)

Ground:
1 Cantina Bar Mob
2 Death Star Battalion
1 Ewok Artillery
2 Ewok Glider
2 Forest AT-AT
1 Forest AT-ST
1 Jabba’s Sail Barge (A)
2 Royal Guards
1 Skiff

Location:
2 Dune Sea
1 Ewok Village
2 Forests of Endor
1 Free Coruscant
1 Free Endor
1 Occupied Coruscant
1 Rancor Pit
1 Occupied Tatooine

Space:
1 B-Wing
1 Endor Imperial Fleet
2 Imperial-Class Star Destroyer
2 Mon Calamari Cruiser

There are two things you will notice straight away from this card pool. First, my Space is VERY slim, but I have some great units. Shields and Hidden Cost are huge abilities in a limited format and I have both. Second, there are a lot of support cards in the pool of cards I have. This can be good and bad because, while it opens up some neat combo’s, it also limits a little of the raw power my units have. The best way to break down your card pool is first to look at your units by arena, so let’s do that first.

Character Units
The Character arena gives us some awesome units. Emperor Palpatine (D) is somewhat of a question mark in this format. While you lack the Force gain to truly make him a powerhouse, the amount of Force used in this format is low, so your totals can rise quickly. I just don’t feel comfortable using him though; he is too big a risk, so he is the first card I would cut. On the other hand, Darth Vader is stellar in this deck. With two copies of his Hidden Cost version, you are sure to surprise your opponent. Also, you have the Hidden Cost Luke Skywalker which should fit perfectly. Two more Hidden Cost Characters make an appearance in Ephant Mon (A) and Jabba the Hutt (C). Not only is Ephant’s Hidden Cost great, but his ability is also key in a limited format to see what your opponent is playing.

Chewbacca (K) is another one of those great units for a limited format with his powerful Retaliate ability. He is sure to inspire fear whenever he hits play. Han Solo (J) is a good card for his Lucky 3, which should be excellent prevention against most low-powered Characters. The last Character is C-3P0 (K). Draw is very important in limited and C-3P0 fills that spot nicely. While some of the other cards in Character were good, they just didn’t make the cut in this deck.

2 Darth Vader (O)
1 Darth Vader (P)
1 C-3P0 (K)
1 Chewbacca (K)
1 Ephant Mon (A)
1 Han Solo (J)
1 Jabba the Hutt (C)
1 Luke Skywalker (O)

Ground Units
Next we have Ground, which has a few very good cards. The two that stick out the most are Skiff and Jabba’s Sail Barge (A). Skiff is just wicked in that it can totally spoil your opponent’s plans by tapping one of their Characters or making them lose 2 Force. Jabba’s Sail Barge, on the other hand, gives you additional draw power, which is always a bonus.

Ewok Glider should get its bonus against every deck, mainly because there are an abundance of Imperial Ground units in the Return of the Jedi expansion.

The Forest AT-AT is great for two reasons; the first is its Armor and the second is that it can strip the Armor off any Forest AT-AT’s that your opponent tries to play. Death Star Battalion is another situational unit, needing an Imperial Capital Ship to gain its bonus. (The good news is that we have two Imperial Capital Ships and they are both key to our Space arena.) Our last unit is Royal Guards; Accuracy and Critical Hit all on a three build unit, what more could we ask for.

2 Death Star Battalion
2 Ewok Glider
2 Forest AT-AT
2 Royal Guards
1 Jabba’s Sail Barge (A)
1 Skiff

Space Units
Space is very simple. I used everything I was given. All are effective in their own rights, especially Endor Imperial Fleet and B-Wing. The B-Wing really shines when your opponent is Forced into playing certain cards, and in RotJ there are a lot of Capital Ships, so the B-Wing should receive its bonus more often then not. The only thing I wish about Space was that I had gotten a TIE Interceptor or two; but I think I will settle for my Endor Imperial Fleet hehe.

2 Imperial-Class Star Destroyer
2 Mon Calamari Cruiser
1 B-Wing
1 Endor Imperial Fleet

Battle Cards
My Battle selections killed me… mainly because I was Forced to cut two High-Speed Dodges’. Doing something that crazy is enough to make a grown man weep. But it had to be done since I only had three units that it could be played on. This opens up a few extra card slots for me, though for offensive Battle cards such as Force Lightning and Log Trap.

1 Force Lightning
1 Lightsaber Throw
1 Log Trap
1 Surprising Strength

Locations
Lastly, we come to the Locations, which are amazing. Since the banned/restricted list isn’t in effect for limited formats, Occupied Tatooine is legal (and does it ever work wonders!). While everyone else is decking out after a few turns, I can just keep recycling my units and, more importantly, Battle cards. In one game, I re-used Log Trap three times. Ewok Village is better than Forests of Endor in this format because of the abundance of Endor units that would be able to get through Forests’ effect. Free Coruscant is a neat little build gain card. I wish I had been able to pull two or three, and then build would never have been a problem for me.

1 Ewok Village
1 Free Coruscant
1 Occupied Tatooine

So here is the final deck that I ended up playing to a 5-1 second place finish:

Deck List

Character: (9)
2 Darth Vader (O)
1 Darth Vader (P)
1 C-3P0 (K)
1 Chewbacca (K)
1 Ephant Mon (A)
1 Han Solo (J)
1 Jabba the Hutt (C)
1 Luke Skywalker (O)

Ground: (10)
2 Death Star Battalion
2 Ewok Glider
2 Forest AT-AT
2 Royal Guards
1 Jabba’s Sail Barge (A)
1 Skiff

Space: (6)
2 Imperial Class Star Destroyer
2 Mon Calamari Cruiser
1 B-wing
1 Endor Imperial Fleet

Battle: (4)
1 Force Lightning
1 Lightsaber Throw
1 Log Trap
1 Surprising Strength

Location: (3)
1 Ewok Village
1 Free Coruscant
1 Occupied Tatooine

Total Cards: 32

The deck ran amazingly smooth for me, and the only reason I ended up getting second was because of some insane trickery by my next-to-last opponent. He managed to get three Log Traps and two Lightsaber Throws along with two Occupied Tatooine. Needless to say, he ran me over. Looking back on my deck though, I would have cut Ewok Village; it just never helped how I thought it would, because it seemed that my opponent always had extra Force. Also, after looking back, it would really have been fun to run Emperor Palpatine (D) along with the Force-gain Locations, which could have made for one big Palpatine. I was just worried that my Force wouldn’t be enough to support him. All the Hidden Cost units I was running worked wonders… and pissed a lot of people off at the same time.

As always, if you have an interesting or quirky deck, one that utilizes 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.

Download this deck and other deck articles for LackeyCCG here.

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

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About the Author
Nathanael has been a player since May 2002 and is currently taking time off from the IDC and Playtesting for personal reasons. 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 also been a member of both the Wizards and Rebelbasers forums since January of 2002, posting under the name Ketricel.