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The Invasion is Underway
By Nathanael Tripp

Hello again to everyone out there. It has been a long time since I last wrote an article for the IDC, but it sure does feel good to be back. As everyone knows, we saw the release of Invasion of Naboo only a few days ago and with it came 180 new cards for us to devour. A few of my favorites include Trade Franchise, Darth Maul (G), and Plea to the Senate. All of these cards can provide a huge benefit to you while giving your opponent fits. But of those three cards, none of them sparked my interest quite as much as Queen Amidala (K). Her passive ability to prevent 1 damage to all your Naboo units can be a huge advantage in the long run, and a way to easily save your units each attack. I haven’t had as much chance as I would like to play testing this deck, but from what I have been able to do it seems like it can take quite a beating. Everyone is probably more interested in seeing the deck than hearing me talk on, so without further ado I give you my latest creation:

 
 
The Invasion is Underway
 
     
       
     
       
     
 

      Totals:
14 Character
14 Ground
14 Space
10 Battle
4 Mission
6 Location
0 Equipment
62 Total Cards
 
     
 

 

   
   
   
   

Character: (14)
4x Naboo Defender
3x Captain Panaka (A)
3x Queen Amidala (K)
2x Queen Amidala (J)
2x Ric Olie (B)

From the limited testing I have done with this deck I have found that against a similar swarm deck such as Trade Federation or Creatures it holds up exceptionally well because it automatically prevents 1 damage as long as Queen Amidala (K) is in play. Add in the fact that Captain Panaka (A) gives retaliate and Stun which adds in even more defensive power to this deck. The main problem I have found with the deck thus far is that Character is very fragile. The Naboo Defender’s will help soak up a bit of damage, but when it comes down to it if my opponent is playing Maul or Vader I pretty much am using my Characters as nothing more than stat boost cards because they lack the offensive punch to hold down the arena.

   
   
   
   

Ground: (14)
4x Fambaa Shield Beast
4x Gungan Battle Wagon
4x Kaadu Scount
2x Gungan Grand Army

Ground can get pretty ridiculous with four Fambaa Shield Beasts in play giving all my other Ground units Shields. This is the main reason I went with some of the older Gungan units for my Ground arena, because they get the bonus from Captain Panaka (A) and Queen Amidala (J) while still being able to get the huge defensive boost of the Fambaa. I could have gone with a little more unconventional Naboo (non-gungan) Ground arena, but really the amount of punch this setup has can get pretty insane.

   
   
   
   

Space: (14)
4x Naboo Resistance Fighter
4x Naboo Defense Fighter
2x Bravo Five (A)
2x Bravo One (A)
2x Bravo Squadron (A)

Space is by far my favorite arena and if my opponent isn’t careful it can be their worst nightmare. Naboo Defense Fighter’s are the backbone to my Space arena. If I am able to get 2-3 of these out along with Captain Panaka (A) each time my opponent attacks in Space I get to roll Retaliate dice for each unit I am able to intercept with. Bravo Squadron (A)is another efficient defensive unit as it can give all my Space units “Pay 0 Force -> Evade 1” or if I have to push on the offense a nice Accuracy 1 boost.

   
   
   
   

Battle: (10)
4x Yoda’s Intervention
3x Stall
3x Trap Door!

The Battle, Mission, and Locations for the deck were pretty obvious choices. I had to have some ability to survive in Character so pretty much all the Battle cards will be used to keep my units there alive. Although if need be Stall can stop a huge attack that would devastate any arena. As if I need to even mention the power of Trap Door! again after all the deck articles I have written with it in there.

Mission: (4)
4x Wedding of Destiny

Wedding of Destiny is a rather odd choice, since the deck isn’t very Force dependent I decided to skip over Meditate in order for the extra card because this deck lacks any innate card draw so this is the only way I have to fuel my hand size.

Location: (6)
3x Theed Palace Plaza
3x Blockaded Naboo

When we get to Locations it is pretty obvious that Theed Palace Plaza is a monster Location for any Naboo deck out there. Since I can have two in play (Ground/Character) I should be able to consistently get the full effect from this Location as long as I am able to draw it. Blockaded Naboo is really only in the deck as a preventative measure, most DS decks will be packing this card so I am going to need to get rid of it ASAP and what better way to do that than playing one of my own. This isn’t a Force denial Light Side deck, although those are looking really good currently, just the little added drain on the Dark Side player can go a long way.

   
   
   
   

Conclusion:
That's all folks. In all honesty, I think that this 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@gmail.com, contact me on AIM where my screen name is Ketricel, or follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Ketricel.

Thoughts or comments? Visit the message board thread for this article here.
   
   
About the Author
Nathanael has been a player since May 2002 and is currently taking time off from the IDC and Playtesting for personal reasons. He has written a number of articles for Wizards of the Coast and has been very active with the SWTCG Hope of the Jedi tournament. Nathanael Tripp has also been a member of both the Wizards and Rebelbasers forums since January of 2002, posting under the name Ketricel.
   
     
         
 
 
 


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