Not many people use Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine cards in their decks (besides Emperor Palpatine (D)). After all, these units tend to be slow and expensive, while Darth Vader units are fast and extremely powerful. However, players should be advised that there are other Darth Sidious units even better than Emperor Palpatine (D). One such unit is Darth Sidious (E).

Darth Sidious (E) is a Dark Side character unit with 40 speed, 6 power, 5 health, Pay 3 Force--> Evade 2, and a damage counter placing ability, all for 6 build. The key here is the damage counter placing ability. At the mere cost of 3 Force and tapping and putting 1 damage counter on Darth Sidious (E), one can place 3 damage counters on any Character or Ground unit. This ability makes Darth Sidious (E) a worthwhile investment. If you ever have any problems with a Stealth unit, a Rebel Armored Freerunner, or Yoda (J), this unit can get rid of it. More importantly, though, is that this unit can dispatch your opponent's R2-D2 (J) before they can move it to their Luke's X-Wing (E), possibly destroying this deadly combo.

There are a multitude of cards one can use along with Darth Sidious (E). One such card is Imperial Misdirection. With this card, you can protect your Darth Sidious (E) and you are given another opportunity to use his damage counter placing ability. Another card that can be beneficial is Guri (A). If Guri (A) manages to discard one of your opponent's units, you can give Darth Sidious (E) "Pay 2 Force--> Untap this unit". Now, you can not only use Darth Sidious (E)'s ability, but you can also have him attack in the character arena, only for 5 force.

And there are many other possibilities for this unit. Darth Sidious (E) is not only one of my favorite units, but it is also one of the most powerful. So, when your building your new Dark Side deck, consider using Darth Sidious (E); you'll be glad you did.

Very few cards have truly had a profound effect on the Meta in the same manner Hotwire has. After looking at all the current decks being played it has become clear that Hotwire isn't just a preference for many players it has become an essential card in their decks. It is very likely that two opponents will go up against each other both running Hotwire!

The SWTCG has produced many powerful Battle cards, ranging from Discuss it in Committee to A Bigger Fish. These cards, used at the opportune moment, can break the game for your opponent and ensure a swift victory for you! However, Hotwire changes this. With the ability to disrupt any Battle card at the mere cost of two Force, your opponents have to think twice before they invest four Force on Break of the Attack. Moreover, you can Enhance Hotwire (for an additional two Force) and discard your opponent's Location in the Ground arena. This Enhanced ability can prove to be very useful when your opponent is playing Forests of Endor or Cloud City Battleground.

There is an obvious card strategy to use in conjunction with Hotwire; Cloud City Battleground. This Location effectively reduces the cost of disrupting a Battle card to zero Force. Whatever you chose to do, Hotwire is one of the best cards in the game, and I would be remiss not to suggest that players add at least 3 copies of this card in their decks.

It has been interesting seeing how decks have evolved since the release of the Battle of Endor expansion. For the first couple of weeks, the decks seemed to be constantly changing. Unfortunately, now whenever I play against a Light Side deck, it is always a Luke's X-Wing (E) pilot deck. It's sad, as there are so many other cards out there, so many other Light Side deck strategies that have yet to see the light of day. One such strategy involves this week's card of the week, Millennium Falcon (M).

The Millennium Falcon (M) is a Light Side space unit with 50 speed, 5 power, 5 health, Accuracy 1, Stun 2, all for 7 build. This Millennium Falcon also allows it to have two pilots. However, what makes this unit special is that it gets Shields 1 for each pilot on it. With this ability, this unit has the potential to control the Space arena!

Now, here is the deck combo that I use in my deck. You use Ric Olié (A) and Nien Nunb (A) to pilot a twice stacked Millennium Falcon (M). Now, you have a unit with 90 speed, 9 power, 6 health, Accuracy 3, Stun 2, Shields 2, and Lucky 2, only for 15 build (just one more than the ideal Luke's X-Wing (E) pilot situation)! In two turns, any Death Star II stack will be gone, and even if units can survive this onslaught, they'll have -4 power and Lucky 2 to contend with. There are some problems with this strategy, though. Countermeasures has always been the problem with Falcon Pilot decks, as in this case, it would be doing 9 damage to itself. Stealth units, though not as used in the Space arena as they are in the Ground arena, can also be troublesome for your Millennium Falcon (M) duel-Pilot stack. Piece of Junk can also become problematic for this strategy.

This is just one of the many "lost" strategies that have been out shined by Luke's X-Wing (E). However, as Luke's X-Wing (E)'s continued existence in the Meta is currently under IDC scrutiny, it would be a good idea for us all to start considering alternative deck strategies, such as this one.

Back when Revenge of the Sith was released, it was very clear that the new Darth Vader (R) was the most versatile unit, and multiple copies of this card can be seen in all the Dark Side decks of Gencon 2005's top three finishers. Many other great Vader’s, such as Darth Vader (K) and Darth Vader (C), took a backseat to give way to Darth Vader (R). However, with the release of Battle of Endor, many things changed, and it became clear that the great Darth Vader (R) was not as useful as he was before. A "new" Vader was needed, one that would fill the void left by Darth Vader (R), and that unit was Darth Vader (S).

Darth Vader (S) is a Dark Side character with 50 speed, 7 power, 7 health, Armor, "Pay 2 force -> Evade 2, and Pay 3 Force -> Choose any Character unit. Put 3 damage counters on that unit. Play only when this unit attacks", all for the hefty price of 11 build, which was probably why this unit didn't see much play when he was first released. However, what has given this unit a newfound popularity is his Armor, high speed, power, and health, and his damage counter placing ability. The new Jedi available to the Light Side all have good evasion abilities at their disposal, good rolls won't defeat these Jedi, but Darth Vader (S) can! Because he can place 3 damage counters on any character unit, Light Side powerhouses like Luke Skywalker (S) and Yoda (J) won't survive an onslaught from Darth Vader (S).

Darth Vader (S) is one of the best, if not the best, Dark Side Character unit, and I would advise all Dark Side players to put copies of him in their decks.