Friday, June 15th, 2007
  
   

Skywlkr's Deck Vault #3
by Brian Weeks

Here's another one of my favorite tournament decks. Since I've been receiving requests for some Dark side decks, I thought I would ablige once again. This Force drain deck was one of my staple tournament decks in the months leading up to the "indefinite hold" announcement by WOTC. The frustration you would see on your opponents face due to their lack of Force and their inability to prevent your attacking damage was priceless. So, on to the deck.

Power...Ultimate Power
 
   
 
   
 

      Totals:
14 Character
13 Ground
12 Space
8 Battle
7 Mission
7 Location
0 Equipment
61 Total Cards

Download this deck and other deck articles for LackeyCCG here.

    
         
   

Character: (14)
1x Darth Sidious (A)
3x Darth Sidious (D)
1x Darth Sidious (E)
1x Darth Vader (L)
3x Darth Vader (N)
1x Darth Vader (O)
3x Elite Guardian
1x San Hill

The key to this deck is to totally eliminate your opponent's Force. . . all of it. This goal is achieved in several ways. In the Character arena, this goal is achieved through Darth Sidious (D) and Darth Vader (N). Both require your opponent to pay Force to achieve their goals. Sidious (D) causes your opponent's activated abilities to cost 2 more Force to play. Vader (N) causes your opponent's Battle cards to cost 2 more Force to play as well. These abilities alone crank up the Force denial engine that will defeat most non-Force Gain Light side decks.

The Elite Guardians are in the deck to help Intercept and Retaliate attacks against Sidious and Vader. Both have fairly week Evades and the Guardians will help save your Force.

San Hill is there to gain you Build. Simple enough.

First turn setup, you must get Sidious (D) and Vader (N) out in order for the Force Drain engine to work.

    
   
   
   

Ground: (13)
3x Bespin Cloud Car Squad
4x Bespin Twin-Pod Cloud Car
3x Jawa Sandcrawler
3x Patrol Mode Vulture Droid

The Bespin units are pretty much a sure thing in the Ground arena if the Force Drain engine takes off. Your opponent can't tap them without Force and this gives them free reign.

The Patrol Mode Vulture Droid provides the heavy backup for the arena. Straight foward attacking here.

And, of course, the requesite Jawa Sandcrawlers are present to help you draw the Character's to stack and the Missions to deny your opponent Force.

    
   
   
   

Space: (12)
3x Droid Missiles
2x Endor Imperial Fleet
3x TIE Fighter Squad
4x TIE Interceptor

Space is pretty straight foward as well. Droid Missiles help deal out direct damage if necessary.

Endor Imperial Fleet is not only there for some heavy firepower, but is also deployable with Hidden Cost, therefore using some of that Force you're accumulating.

TIE Fighter Squad and TIE Interceptor's are just there for attacking.

    
   
   
   

Battle: (8)
3x High-Speed Dodge
3x Jedi Piloting
2x Force Dodge

These Battle cards are pretty straight foward. Prevention is the name of the game here. And with Cloud City Battleground, you're using less Force than you would with the Evade abilities.

Mission: (7)
4x Capture Obi-Wan
3x Search for the Rebels

A Capture Obi-Wan or two must be played first round. MUST. Your opponent needs to have 2 or less Force for this deck to kick in.

Search for the Rebels is another favorite of mine. Light side thrives off of their locations. And you must keep them from getting any out. This is the card to do that. I usually like to play one of these first turn as well.

Location: (7)
2x Cloud City Battleground
3x Meditation Chamber
2x Occupied Coruscant

Every one of these location cards are there to help you gain Force. Period.

    
   
   
   

So let's take a look at how it all sets up.

IDEAL SETUP
(Assuming a 30 build setup)


17 build

  


7 build

  


6 build
 
 
BUILD ZONE AFTER SETUP

Nothing
 
 
HAND AFTER SETUP (And Drawing 1 Card)

 
 
FIRST BUILD STEP
 

(Assume a Build roll of 3 +1 for all three arena bonus = 4 Build)
Tap San Hill (A) for 2 Build

Total Build = 6 Build

  



San Hill (A) is tapped.

  



You can tap the Sandcrawler for cards during your Build step at any time.

Deploy Bespin Twin-Pod Cloud Car (4 Build left)

 

 

- Play Capture Obi-Wan (2 Build Left, 6 Force Total)

- Play Cloud City Battleground (1 Build Left)

- Place Endor Imperial Fleet in your Build zone with 1Build (0 Build Left)

  
 
 
AFTER FIRST BUILD STEP



Attack with the Dark Lords and continue to stack them in subsequent turns.

  



You can tap the Sandcrawler for cards during your Build step at any time.

You can play these units or retreat. It just depends on your opponents arena. You have Battle cards to prevent damage, so the choice is up to you.

But, you might also realize that your opponent may not have any Force left to tap your Bespin units.

  

You can play these units or retreat. It just depends on your opponents arena. You have Battle cards to prevent damage, so the choice is up to you.
     
   
   
   
   

Well, that's it. Test it out and see if this deck can't give you Ultimate Power. This deck is really flexible to combat whatever arena your opponent isn't strong in. The "Ideal Setup" above is just one of many inital setups that can win you the game. 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!

    
     
         
 
 
 


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