Bartender
By Ryan Searby
Friday, February 23rd, 2007

This week we spotlight one of the lesser profile cards for the Scum and Villainy Expansion, the Bartender. At first glace he doesn't look like much. He has low health and a seemingly horrendous Upkeep. However with the right combination of cards, this little unit can be the engine of those elusive completely neutral decks.

Combine Bartender with Prince Xixor (A) and Jabba the Hutt (C); and suddenly you have an almost unstoppable character arena. With Xizor in the arena, you don't have to pay the Bartender's Upkeep, and with the Bartender's ability, you can keep Xizor alive for a very long time.

Intercept attacks with Xizor, all damage done to him is prevented, except for two, then use your Bartender's ability to prevent the rest of the damage. It's as easy as 1-2-3. Try it in your own neutral deck and see how this diamond in the cantina unit card can work for you!

This is by far one of my favorite cards. When I first watched Episode 3 when it was re-released in theaters in the early 90's I was captivated by the sheer scale of the Star Destroyers. Throughout the SWTCG though they really do not see much use. This is mainly because of their high cost, low speed, and inability to stay alive for any length of time. However the Star Destroyer from Rogues and Scoundrels turned a lot of heads when it was released. It still lacks speed but its power and health are vastly above par for a 4 build unit. The only down fall is its upkeep, but this becomes null if you have Darth Vader in the Character arena. Then this little beauty gets Pay 1 Force -> Retaliate 3 which is pretty big for two reasons.

1. Retaliate isn't effected by Armor or Shields.
2. By having retaliate you almost force your opponent to no attack if they have low health units, or risk losing units.

With that in mind many decks can be created around this interaction. By running Darth Vader and Admiral Piett (C) you can have a huge wall of Retaliate staring back at your opponent. Add in Vader's TIE Fighter (C) and you can end it all off with some deflected damage and a unit that can keep coming back turn after turn for only 2 force. You will need to tailor the rest of your deck to supporting this theme though, it is rather force dependent and you have to keep Vader alive otherwise you lose a lot of the strength in the deck. But this card holds out hope for the Imperials in their fight against the Rebels.