Unpreventable Damage - A Thorn for the Light Side
by Brian Weeks

In the Star Wars: Trading Card Game, the Space arena has almost always been won in favor of the LIght side. The number of Light side unique units far outweighs the number of Dark side unique units. Their stats and abilities have always been better and their ability to prevent damage had created an unbalance. This unbalance is one reason for the recent Restriction of Luke's X-wing (E). Despite this restriction, the LIght side still has the upper hand in Space. There are many ways for the Dark side to combat this, but the best way (in my opinion) is through unpreventable damage. Let's take a look at this strategy and see if we can't discover some cheap, yet effective combos.

There are only two pilots thus far that give an unpreventable damage ability to the unit that they're piloting: Admiral Firmus Piett (D) and Baron Soontir Fel (A). While Fel has been discussed in previous Deck Articles, Piett has been neglected. Let's see what we can do with him to destroy these "Rebel Scum".

For 5 build, you get a very versatile pilot. Piett can pilot three types of ships: a Capital Ship, a Flagship or a Fleet. While many of these sub-types have been created, there are just a few that would suit our needs.

There are only two Flagships thus far in the game, both from the Battle of Endor expansion: Executor (B) and Executor (C). Both are fairly expensive to deploy, do not have any particularly beneficial abilities, and therefore would not be very good for our overall strategy. We want to balance the deploy cost of both Piett and a ship. Since Piett costs 5 build, we want to find a versatile unit that would keep our cost down to 10- 12 total build.

There are only three Fleets in this game so far: Imperial Fleet (13 build), Separatist Fleet (10 build) and Pirate Raiders (6 build). Out of these three, Pirate Raiders has the most potential. 6 Build, 40 Speed, 8 Power and 6 Health with "Upkeep: Discard 1 card from your hand or tap this unit.
Bounty: Remove up to 3 damage counters from one of your Bounty Hunters, Pirates, or Smugglers." for abilities, makes this a pretty decent unit for Piett to pilot. But since it's not Imperial, it can't gain the upreventable damage abillity. So let's keep looking.

There are many Capital Ships in the game, but I picked some that had potential. The Tyrant (A), the Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer and the Victory II-Class Star Destroyer each had decent stats and great abilities, but if I had to choose one for Piett to pilot, I would have to pick the Tyrant (A).

For 12 build, with Piett piloting, the Tyrant (A) would have the stats of 7 Build, 30 Speed, 7Power, 8 Health, "Upkeep: If your opponent controls the Ground arena, tap Tyrant.", "Bounty: Remove all damage counters from Tyrant.", Armor and "When the Space battle step begins, choose one of your Imperial units in the Space arena. Damage from that unit can't be prevented until end of turn." This would make a formidable Capital Ship for taking out those pesky Light side starfighters. You might also consider adding Concussion Missiles, Engine Upgrade or Proton Torpedoes to boost the abilities of this unit.

So, while not the "X-wing Buster" I thought it would become, Piett can still pack a punch to some Light side Space units. Perhaps I'll try to make a deck featuring Piett and reveal it in the weeks to come. Then we'll see what he can do.

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

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!