“I thought the battle was going to take place far from here. This is too close” Nute Gunray says, as the Naboo prepare to retake the palace. He is uneasy, he doesn’t like being so close to the battle. However, he also knows that this victory could end the Naboo crisis. He has an army of Trade Federation Droids at his command. The army would be more than enough to defeat whatever the Naboo could muster. Then, he would have the queen right where he wanted her and force her to sign the treaty to legalise the invasion. The Jedi would be dealt with by Darth Maul, if they survived the onslaught from his droids. Nute Gunray was still concerned with the location of the battle, but he was confident as well. Victory would be his.

Welcome to the third set of spoilers for the IDC’s fifth expansion, the Invasion of Naboo.

First, we have Nute Gunray (E)

Nute Gunray (E) was a difficult card to create, because we wanted a card that was useable, yet didn’t overshadow Nute Gunray (C). This was a difficult line, due to the power of Nute Gunray (C), we also had to make sure the new card wasn’t too powerful. With the latest version, I believe the IDC have managed to achieve it. While the Nute Gunray (C) version could be used to fund your swarm and to protect himself from your opponent’s characters, the latest version can be used to fight the more troubling units. Trade Federation decks need methods to take out powerful units, units who can easily defend with Lucky, Parry and Armor. Nute Gunray (E) provides the perfect method to fight. For 1 build point, you can deal damage that can shake your opponent’s battle plan, and get around your opponent’s defences in order to deal damage you wouldn’t achieve by attacking conventionally. Stack Nute Gunray (C) beneath Nute Gunray (E) and then Nute Gunray can deal 2 damage. You can then swap Nute Gunray (E) with his (C) version, and start churning out your units, at Nute Gunray (C)’s cheaper cost.

Any Trade Federation card works well with Nute Gunray (E). Patrol Mode Vulture Droid would be useful, with the ability to deal 4 damage. Many of the smaller Trade Federation units will be useful for placing one last piece of damage on that annoying unit. However, using Nute Gunray (E) means you cannot use Accuracy, Critical Hit or other effects for that attack. Nute Gunray (E) also doesn’t work as well with some of the older Droideka, who you could give a power boost at the start of the Character battle step

Nute Gunray (E) can work with any Trade Federation card, and perfectly complements his predecessor.

Next, we have one of my favourite Invasion of Naboo cards, Droid Ranks.

Droid Ranks is one of my favourite cards because the idea is original, but represents the idea of a droid army. Battle droids have a lot in common, so when they need to refill a regiment of droids, they can just disband another group and add them on. This card works well with many cards, and is the perfect way to heal some of your more powerful units. When you need to defend one of your larger units, like a Patrol Mode Vulture Droid, this card comes to your rescue. Destroy some of your unneeded units, and Patrol Mode Vulture Droid is back to high health. After all of that work your opponent spent trying to destroy the card, to see it return from near death will definitely annoy your opponent. The versatility of this card is great, as it works in any arena. This card is perfect for swarm decks, which can produce so many units, losing one to protect an important card is worth sacrificing a unit for, especially considering how cheap cards are in swarm decks.

I look forward to seeing the new Trade Federation decks that will be built with the release of Invasion of Naboo.

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