TIE Scout

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Info

Title	TIE Scout
Side	Dark
Type	Starship — Starfighter (Tie Sr)
Set	Premiere Limited
Rarity	C2
Uniqueness	Unrestricted
Destiny	4
Power	1
Deploy	2
Forfeit	3
Maneuver	1
Hyperspeed	5
Icons	Starship Nav Computer Pilot
card_uid	1_305
Version	printed
Printings	Premiere Limited (1995, black border) — this page Premiere Unlimited (1995/96, white border) — same art and text Japanese Takara Premiere

TIE Scout is a Dark Starship (Starfighter) from Premiere Limited.

Card Text

May add 1 pilot and 1 passenger, or 2 passengers. Permanent pilot aboard provides ability of 1.

Lore

Limited production, light reconnaissance starship. Minimal armor and weapons. Long-range sensor and communications array. Scouts for Rebel activity.

Strategy

By Johan de Jong

Here we have a card that is, in my humble opinion, both underused and underestimated. It has several reasons, of which the first should be quite obvious if you have been seeing my previous Card Extra submissions. This TIE variant has destiny 4, which makes even the mighty Son Of Skywalker tremble. Two of these for weapon destiny with Vader's Lightsaber and you even slice Yoda. This card will NOT lower your average destiny in your deck (unless you have a really interesting deck to start with) and is more likely to increase the average number.

The TIE Scout has Power 1 and Maneuver 1. Judging from the numbers, it is not a battle-worthy vessel. However, it is equipped with a hyperdrive, giving it Hyperspeed 5! Not too many starships in the Imperial Fleet get around that fast. To make matters even worse for the Rebellion, this TIE Scout is a TIE variant, which means a Dark Maneuvers card can be played on it. Even in the most basic form a TIE Scout would become Power 2, Maneuver 3, Hyperspeed 7. Can you say: "From Coruscant to Tatooine in one turn."? Aboard the TIE Scout are a permanent pilot of ability 1 and an astromech icon. This seems pretty basic too, but wait! We may add 1 pilot and 1 passenger, or 2 passengers. Put in an R2-Q2 and you get P2, M2, H6 for your TIE Scout. And you were wondering why the Dark Side had this type of astromech droid?

This is it ! With an R2-Q2 aboard the TIE Scout, you still have room for one more pilot. If you make this an ability 3 pilot, you get a battle destiny. If you choose a pilot like Danz Borin, which adds 3 to power of any starship he pilots, you get a Power 4 starship. Better yet, add a Fusion Generator Supply Tank to this ship for an extra +1 to all three vital stats and then upgrade with pilots and passengers. On the even brighter side, you get this ship for a Deploy of 2, which in itself seems high for a P1, M1 starship, but if you look at the other possibilities, like hyperspeed and extra capacity, this is actually low. To make the best even better, the Forfeit value is 3. It is always better to have a higher forfeit than deploy.

An interesting way to use the TIE Scout, is as a character transport ship. Until Lambda Class shuttles (like Tyderium) start to appear, this is the fastest ship to get up to 2 passengers from one system to another. Especially if the 'passengers' can handle themselves really well in starship combat (like Darth Vader & Grand Moff Tarkin together), you should not get too much trouble with this new way of using a TIE Scout. Besides, with the right pilots and other modifications, even a TIE Scout can effectively Tallon Roll the living daylights out of any Rebel Starfighter fleet. For the extra protection you might even add an Enhanced TIE Laser (which brings another destiny 5 card into your deck) to scare off any low-maneuver starfighters like Y-Wings.

In short, maybe not the strongest TIE variant, but certainly the most versatile and most able to accept enhancements and modifications to bring it up to standards with anything (except maybe Vader's Custom TIE with the dark lord of the Sith aboard).

Strong Points :

• Destiny 4. Gotta love it.

• Common. Both money and availability-wise a good choice.

• Versatility is high. With all the things you can add, you might get the right vessel for just about any situation.

• Good Deploy/Forfeit ratio. Especially if you look at all the other options to expand on its capabilities.

• Hyperspeed plenty. You follow those pesky X-Wings anywhere.

Weak Points :

• 'TIEs are fragile' syndrome. No special immunities, low maneuver doesn't help a lot. Low starting Power.

• The most striking weak point is this : the TIE Scout cannot land at non-docking bay exterior sites. You would expect something like this to be possible from a ship that is built to be sent into unknown space, scan uncharted planets, land there and take samples, explore planets, etc. Maybe something for a house rule or something like that, but as the TIE Scout is now, unable to land anywhere but at docking bays. This is a weak point.

Combos : * TIE Scout + Fusion Generator Supply Tanks + R2-Q2 = Power 3, Maneuver 3, Hyperspeed 7 starfighter with room for one pilot.

• TIE Scout + Darth Vader + Grand Moff Tarkin = Power 4, Maneuver 1, Hyperspeed 5 and the Vader/Tarkin combo in one.

• TIE Scout + Imperial Pilot + 'stolen' Rebel Flight Suit = Power 3, Maneuver 3, Hyperspeed 5 and battle destiny when not able to otherwise.

• Upgraded TIE Scout + Tallon Roll = just as powerful as any TIE in a Tallon Roll encounter.

• TIE Scout + I've Lost Artoo!!! = Make room for a real astromech and still add a pilot and passenger.

The most incredible combo I've seen (I did this and it worked more than once for me) in the field :

• TIE Scout + Imperial Pilot + 'stolen' Rebel Flight Suit + Fusion Generator Supply Tanks + R2-Q2 + 'stolen' Astromech Translator = Power 5, Maneuver 5, Hyperspeed 7 starfighter which gets one battle destiny when not able to otherwise and is immune to attrition <6. Though a bit heavy on the amount of needed cards, it is very, very difficult to get rid of once it is in play, and with cards like Reegesk, Cloud City Sabacc or Swilla Corey, getting these Light Side devices should be a possibility.

Combos

• TIE Scout + I've Lost Artoo!!! Make room for a real astromech and still add a pilot and passenger.

Pulled by

• All Power To Weapons
• Commander Brandei
• Early Warning Network
• Short Range Fighters

Characteristics

• Imperial (starship)

Underlying card for

• Bestoon Legacy
• Meson Martinet

See Also

Sources

• Premiere Dark Side card list at Decipher.com (archive, 11 June 2002)
• Star Wars CCG cardlists index at Decipher.com (archive, 25 December 2008)
• Complete Card List (Decipher PDF, archive 28 September 2007) — Dark Starship: TIE Scout, Premiere, C2

References