Ket's Deck Clinic #13
by Nathanael Tripp

In my Deck Clinic #7 article back on November 3rd, 2006, I mentioned how interesting the Gungan theme was for the Ground Arena. What happens though if you take this to an extreme and make an entire deck around Gungans?

There is one obvious problem from the get go, no Gungans in Space. This means your theme is already lacking in one arena. But what if you incorporate a very closely related theme to Gungans by adding in Naboo units as well? This allows you access to some pretty good Space units and additional options in Ground and Character; as well as providing a little more synergy. Let's breakdown this synergy and see just how well these planet-sharing buddies do together, and just how devastating they can truly be.

First off, let's take a look at what I consider to actually be the weakest arena for this deck, Character. The reason I say this is because most of your units are utility units. They are costed for their abilities, not for their stats, which means that they are generally slow or underpowered. However, this becomes a null issue when you consider just how strong their abilities are in the grander scheme of things. Also, with the help of Locations and Battle cards, this weakness can become even less.

Everyone's favorite Star Wars personality makes an appearance in this deck in the form of three versions of Jar Jar Binks. While most people dislike this character (me included), he does have some very good cards. All of his versions have Lucky; although the (A) version doesn't use the keyword, and the (C) version comes loaded with two pretty powerful abilities. Also, stacking Jar Jar gives you a pretty impressive 60/5/5 for only five build.

But just having Jar Jar will not give you the boost you need and that is why you must rely on his buddies Captain Tarpals and Boss Nass. Tarpals is great because his ability is not arena specific and grants all Gungans Accuracy 1. This becomes huge when you consider just how many Gungan units you can have out at one time. Boss Nass' ability is just as critical because it helps reduce the cost of all your Gungans which really helps with the bigger units such as the Grand Army and Kaadu Squad. The additional power he grants is just more icing on our already delicious cake. Captain Panaka is the lynch pin in combining the Gungan and Naboo theme's. He not only grants all Naboo units Stun 2, but he also gives each Retaliate 2 which is huge beyond words. This makes even the smallest unit a force to be reckoned with. Now your opponent will have to worry with not only your attacks, but also your Retaliate.

The last units in this deck are more of a "filler" then necessary for the deck. Padme can help with drawing and force gain as well as gaining the Naboo bonuses. She is also a decent fighter in a pinch, but she could easily be replaced with any other characters. The same goes for Boba Fett (H), but his Hidden Cost can be very useful, especially when your opponent drops a Darth Vader (R) into the arena. Here is the basic look of the character arena:

Character: (14)
1x Jar Jar Binks (A)
1x Jar Jar Binks (B)
1x Jar Jar Binks (C)
1x Padme Amidala (B)
1x Padme Amidala (G)
1x Padme Amidala (H)
1x Boba Fett (H)
2x Boss Nass (A)
2x Captain Tarpals (A)
3x Captain Panaka (A)

Ground is where the theme of this deck really starts to take off. You have access to some highly synergistic cards and some very effective defensive techniques. The only problem is figuring out a way to choose which units you want to use. Let's start with one of the best defensive units in the game, the Fambaa Shield Beast.

Boy, does the word beast ever describe this unit effectively. Granting Shields to all your Gungan Ground units is awesome, and being non-unique means you can grant them multiple instances of Shields. Just think how hard it would be for most Dark Side decks to crack a unit with Shields two, three, or even four. The Fambaa Shield Beast is a must run and four of them are also a good idea.

Our next floppy eared friend is the Gungan Battle Wagon. This works similar to the Geonosian Picador in that it grants +1 power to your Gungan Ground units. Additionally, it gives them a Critical Hit bonus against Droids. Patrol Mode Vulture Droid giving you problems? Get out a Battle Wagon or three and you will make short work of it. This is an excellent card, especially with the amount of Droids or low Health units most Dark Side decks run.

Gungan Catapults haven't seen much use since TPM, mainly because of their low speed. In an all Gungan deck though they fit in perfectly; gaining not only Shields, the Power bonus, cost reduction, but also Retaliate. With the added power from the Battle Wagon and Boss Nass, the Catapult could be attacking twice with 7 Power for no Force cost.

The last two units are your beat down units. The Kaadu Squad is a solid unit, packing 50 Speed and some nice stats. Its cost is a little high, but with Boss Nass this shouldn't be too much of a problem. Lastly, there is a lone copy of the Gungan Grand Army. This is more of a thematic card in the deck and could easily be swapped out for something else. Realize though, that the Overkill does come in handy against Dark Side swarm decks, namely Trade Federation. What would benefit this deck the most is more card drawing, so if desired, you could cut the Grand Army and a Kaadu Squad for a pair of Jawa Sandcrawlers.

Ground: (14)
1x Gungan Grand Army
3x Gungan Kaadu Squad
3x Gungan Battle Wagon
3x Gungan Catapult
4x Fambaa Shield Beast

Space gets really interesting when you start looking at some of the options that the Naboo sub-type offers. The best Space unit has to be the Bravo N-1 Starfighter; this little guy is a beast. Add in Retaliate and Stun to this economical fighter and he becomes a true powerhouse in this deck.

While the N-1 Starfighter lacks the Health and Critical Hit of his big brother, he makes up for it with his extra Speed. With 60 Speed you should be able to attack before all but the fastest Dark Side units.

One of the most ingenious tricks that the Naboo have is being able to return cards from your discard pile to hand. The Naboo Star Skiff, when deployed, lets you return a Starfighter card to your hand. This means you can pitch your Starfighters to discard effects, bring out a Star Skiff and get them back. The Senatorial Cruiser works in a similar way, searching out your deck for a Character card and putting one build point on it. This not only helps with draw consistency, but it helps lower the cost of the deck by helping generate build.

The last two units again are a thematic choice for the deck. Padme's Yacht while a good unit could easily be replaced with Luke's X-Wing or any other unit without effecting how the deck plays.

Space: (14)
1x Padme's Yacht (A)
1x Padme's Yacht (B)
2x Naboo Star Skiff
2x Senatorial Cruiser
4x Bravo N-1 Starfighter
4x N-1 Starfighter

I am going to discuss the Battle, Mission, and Locations for this deck all in one section. Mainly because a lot of the card choices are fairly standard. Again we have a deck made by me running Trap Door, Discuss, and Dismiss… nothing new there. However the importance of these three cards cannot be over emphasized. They are just too good not to add to most decks.

Your mission cards do one thing, draw cards. Meditate is the best card in my opinion for card drawing and force gain for Light Side. It is a perfect balance. Explore the Swamps is probably the BEST search card of all time. Not only does it let you get any Location out of your deck, but it also puts three build counters on it. This means you can search out and build almost every Location Light Side has to offer.

Speaking of Locations we have two superb ones in this deck. First off is Lar's Homestead, this is just a spectacular location. It is a global cost reduction for all your units, with the only restriction being that they cost five build or less. In this deck there are only eight cards that do not benefit from this, and four of those cards get their cost reduced by Boss Nass. Lastly, we have the Swamps of Naboo. Any and all non-Naboo units will suffer from this Locations' -10 Speed penalty, but this is the perfect bonus to make your slow Naboo and Gungan units a deadly threat. These must be some really tricky swamps if they slow your opponents Space units down too… hehe. Also by gaining a speed advantage you get more use out of the Stun granted by Captain Panaka.

Battle: (8)

2x Dismiss
3x Discuss it in Committee
3x Trap Door!

Mission: (6)
2x Explore the Swamps
4x Meditate

Location: (4)
2x Lar's Homestead
2x Swamps of Naboo

That's all folks. In all honesty I think that his deck has some great potential and could easily be one of the more formidable decks in the current meta-game. What this deck lacks in pure brute force, it easily makes up for in little tricks that when added together could spell doom for your opponent. 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.