Welcome to the first installment of the Deck
Vault. After Ketricel's departure from the IDC Playtesting Chair
position and the IDC itself, it appears I have some huge shoes to
fill. And hopefully this new article series will be a step in the
right direction. When I sat down to think about something to write
for this article, I turned to my past deck archive. But first, let
me give a little background behind my deck archives.
When the TCG first came out, I was able to
talk our local gaming store into holding weekly sanctioned tournaments.
With my wife's acceptance of the game, I was able to attend almost
every tournament from 2003 to 2005. With each tournament and each
TCG expansion, I kept track of my deck designs, ideas, and combos.
Constantly changing to counter-act the latest meta-game, flipping
back through my archive brought back alot of great memories. Let
me finish my archive description by saying that, just like the game
itself, I can lay no claim to all of these deck ideas and combos.
They're a combination of three years of great memories playing the
TCG.
So, with that background in mind, throughout
this new article series, I plan on revealing some of my past decks,
ideas and combos. Perhaps they can help you or give you ideas that
you can use in your online tournament play. This particular deck
was one of my personal Dark Side deck favorite's. It has some roots
based in the WOTC article, "Lando
Lock Down" by Davion Dare, but with a few extra twists.
It's fairly consistent in pulling off the necessary combos to win
- making your opponent have no Force on first turn; having Lando
(C) intercept all Character arena attacks and gaining build while
doing it; controlling the Ground arena by not allowing your opponent
to attack; retaliating attacks over and over again in the Space
arena.
I might also mention that in this article (and
subsequent Deck Vault articles), I will be describing deck strategies
from my own perspective. In that sense, I claim no specific strategies
as my own, but an accumulation of various deck ideas. So here we
go.
Totals:
14 Character
13 Ground
15 Space
8 Battle
6 Mission
4 Location
0 Equipment 60 Total Cards
Download this deck and other
deck articles for LackeyCCG here.
Character:
(14)
3x Admiral Firmus Piett (C)
3x Jabba the Hutt (C)
1x Lando Calrissian (A)
1x Lando Calrissian (B)
3x Lando Calrissian (C)
1x Lando Calrissian (E)
2x Watto (B)
If you read the above linked article, it may
have refreshed your memory on the original strategy of this deck.
But, my modifications changed it around and made it more solid (in
my opinion).
I would say initially that Lando (C) is the
key to this deck. But without any of the three main Characters,
your Character arena would be lost. Jabba (C) grants your
Character's intercept, which allows you to intercept to Lando
(C) and Discard a unit -> Prevent all damage to Lando
and Gain 2 build points. Piett (C) gives each of your
Space units free intercept. This will be discussed in more detail
when we get to the Space units.
The Lando stack in this deck is like a Swiss
Army knife. Each has a unique and specific use. Lando (A)
is a Swiss Army knife by it's own right and has some very useful
damage removal/draw engine/unit recycling abilities. Lando (B)'s
main purpose in this deck is to get out Forests of Endor.
Put Lando (B) down in your build zone at the end of your setup (with
a counter on him) so you can deploy him during your first build
step and get Forests out. This kicks off your Force Drain engine.
Lando (C) should be deployed during setup if you have him
in your hand. This card is central to the deck. When your opponent
attacks (any Character), intercept with Lando (C) (assuming Jabba
(C) is out). Discard an asteroid (the bigger the better) to prevent
any damage from that attack and gain 2 build points (per prevention).
Also, because the "Prevent all damage..." and "You
gain 2 build..." are seperate sentences, Lando doesn't have
to be attacked to generate the build. Discard a unit -> Gain
2 build. But the ability can only be used once per turn if Lando
is not preventing damage. Lando (E) is the cream filling
of the Character arena. Once you gain control of the Character arena
(or your opponent gives up on it), move (E) to the top and start
building up your Ground arena. You should have several Bespin units
in your hand from this deck's excellent draw engine.
Watto (B) is here for one reason. To
recycle Asteroids. The Asteroids are key to Lando's damage prevention
and to the unit interception/retaliate in the Space arena. If you
can spare the build point, use him to bring back the Big Asteroid.
Then the prevention cycle can start again.
Ground: (13)
3x Bespin Cloud Car Squad
4x Bespin Twin-Pod Cloud Car
3x Cloud City Wing Guard
3x Jawa Sandcrawler
The three Bespin units in this deck are pretty
straight foward. They each are fairly cheap, they each have Accuracy
and they each have the added bonus of making your opponent decide
whether spend Force to tap the unit. Usually, tapping your unit
is a bad thing. But coupled with Forests of Endor, your opponent
now has to also pay 2 Force to damage your unit as well. With first
round Carbon Freeze, your opponent will be able to deal zero
damage in the Ground arena.
This deck also contains the requisite Jawa
Sandcrawler. One thing to note when discarding your required
two cards is to discard Asteroids if you have them in your hand.
They'll recycle when a bigger Asteroid is discarded from the arena.
Space:
(15)
2x Big Asteroid
1x IG-2000 (A)
3x Medium Asteroid
1x Modified YV-330 (A)
3x Small Asteroid
1x Vader's TIE Fighter (A)
4x Yinchorri Fighter
The Space arena is alot of fun to play, IF
you have the pieces in place. Piett (C)must be in
the Character arena for this all to work. You must also have an
Asteroid (preferably a Big Asteroid) and at least two Yinchorri
Fighter's in the arena. I have gotten all four Yinchorri's out
first turn before.
When your opponent attacks, per Piett's text,
each of your Space units gets Intercept. Intercept first with a
Yinchorri and then Retaliate 2. Intercept with the next Yinchorri
and repeat again. When you're out of Yinchorri's, Intercept last
with an Asteroid. If the Asteroid is discarded, deploy two of the
next size for free. This repeats with each attack your opponent
makes.
IG-2000 (A), Modified YV-330 (A),
and Vader's TIE (A) are in the deck for some extra fighting
power and each have excellent defenses to keep around (if you're
out of Asteroids to intercept with).
Battle cards are pretty straight foward. My
favorite strategy with Dark Sacrifice is to discard a Big
Asteroid (worth 6 build), replace/deploy two Medium Asteroid's,
and then give all my Space units +6 power. (Note: only the units
that were deployed at the time of the discard get +6 power. The
two Medium Asteroid's do not.)
Mission: (6)
3x Carbon Freeze
3x Splinter the Republic
Carbon Freeze is an "extra"
Force drain source in this deck. A first round play is usually deadly.
Splinter the Republic lets you draw out the Lando's you need.
Location: (4)
2x Jabba's Palace
2x Forests of Endor
Jabba's Palace is excellent in this
deck. Almost every unit in this deck is Neutral and therefor benefits
from this card. Forests of Endor, as mentioned above, is
a must in this deck and should be deployed first round if possible.
IDEAL
SETUP
(Assuming
a 30 build setup)
11 build
4 build
12 build
BUILD
ZONE AFTER SETUP
- with 3 build
HAND
AFTER SETUP
FIRST
BUILD STEP
(Assume
a Build roll of 3 +1 for all three arena bonus = 4 Build)
Deploy Lando B on top of Lando C for 1 build. Search for
a Forests of Endor, put it in your Build zone with 3 Build
counters on it. Now put one more Build on it and deploy
it. (2 Build left)
Deploy Lando E on top of Lando B for 1
build. Tap Lando E, show the Bespin Cloud Car Squad and
put it in your Build zone with 4 build on it. Now deploy
it to the Ground arena. (1 Build left)
Now move Lando C to the top of the stack
for 1 Build. (0 Build left)
Deploy Jabba C for 0 build plus 2 Force
(since you had 3 build on him). Now your Intercept engine
is in place. (0 Build left)
You can tap the Sandcrawler for cards during your Build
step at any time.
Your Ground is somewhat protected by the
Forest of Endor. Make your opponent choose his defeat -
pay Force to tap or pay Force to do damage.
AFTER
FIRST BUILD STEP
Intercept with Lando C, discard an Asteroid
and Gain 2 build for each attack as described in the article
above.
You will soon be gaining 2-6 Build per
turn. Watch out for unpreventable attack units or damage
cards and always have a secondary Lando C built in the
Build zone.
Attack!!!
Eventually, with the draw engine and the
build engine, you will be able to deploy more Ground units
here and protect them with the Forests of Endor.
At the beginning of the Build step, before
an attack is declared, Pay your last 2 Force and play Dark
Sacrifice. Discard your Big Asteroid and deploy two Medium
Asteroids. Your two Yinchorri fighters now get +6 power
(this includes Retaliate). Your Medium Asteroids do not
gain this effect as they were deployed after the Battle
card was played.
Now, use the Intercept/Retaliate method
described above.
Well, that's the deck in a nutshell. If you
have a similar deck you used to play, or have some ideas on a different
strategy or just want to comment about the article, let me know
in the forums.
Thoughts or comments? Visit
the message board thread for this article here.
About the Author
Brian Weeks (aka Skywlkr) has been playing the Star Wars TCG since
its introduction at Celebration 2 in 2002. After playing the demo
game and introducing it to RedneckJedi and Darthwalls, Team 'Dude
Where's My Card' was created. He competed in three qualifiers, yet
the closest he ever ranked was eighth. As a member on Rebelbasers,
SWDuelist and a writer for the now defunct Diehard Online, he has
tried to promote the game through information and interaction.
He is married, has a three year old son, is an architect, has been
the Treasurer and Newsletter Editor for five years for JediOKC (an Oklahoma
City based Star Wars Fan Club), was the IDC Card Development Chairperson
for Fall of the Republic and is now the IDC Public
Affairs Chairperson. Despite all that, he still has time to introduce
the game to new players…KEEP THE GAME ALIVE!
The
IDC is a player-elected body representing the Star Wars Trading Card
Game community. Neither this website, nor the information contained
herein is in any way produced for a profit to the IDC or any of its
members. The expansions created by the IDC are not available for sale
online nor in any store. The card images are free to download, print
and play.
Character:
(14)
Space:
(15)
Battle:
(8)
- with 3 build
