100000101 Shadows of the Empire V 2.1
100000101 Shadows of the Empire V 2.1 is a Dark constructed list published on Game Players Network.
Deck info
- Player: 100000101
- Published: 13 August 2003 (Game Players Network)
- GPN category: Standard
- Format: Premiere - Original VS3
- Side: Dark
- Starting Card: Agents Of Black Sun
- Strategy: Agents Of Black Sun
- GEMP Importable deck: Download (omits Greedo (V) (Virtual Set 3), Ket Maliss (V) (Virtual Set 3), Oo-ta Goo-ta, Solo? (V) (Virtual Set 3): not in GEMP)
Introduction
The dark prince has many weapons, and his vengeance is to be feared.
Decklist
|
Objective Character
Device
Weapon |
Starship
Location
Effect
Interrupt |
Strategy
Before I begin the strategy, I want to point out that this is version 2.1 of this deck, so there are some changes from version 2.0. Let me elaborate. First of all, U-3PO was substituted for Labria (V) and Undercover (V) since the droid gives you the same benefits, but he only takes up one card slot. Second, I managed to trade for a Vigo, a Jodo Kast, and a 4-LOM With Concussion Rifle, so I added them in along with Ponda Boba's Holdout Blaster for Jodo Kast to use. Finally, at Shewski's suggestion, I got rid of the Bounty idea, and instead added Oo-ta Goo-ta, Solo? (V) to provide a nasty little surprise for my opponent.
This deck is designed to play an interactive game. You should take opportunities for beatdowns when you can, and capturing characters is always a plus for two reasons. First of all, it increases your drains with IT-O (V), and secondly, they can’t deploy another copy of the character. That being said, given a few captured characters and the use of Force drain modifiers, this deck can outdrain all but the best of avoidance decks. Anyway, here’s how the deck works.
Ket Maliss (V) and L,L,L (V) are both necessary starting effects (for their ability to pull locations). As for your third effect, I usually start All Wrapped Up, but you could just as easily start Colo Claw Fish or Combat Response, depending on what your opponent is playing. I wouldn’t start No Escape, since you don’t get the retrieval from it and there are better startable effects to play until you know that your opponent is indeed playing Honor Of The Jedi.
On your first turn, before activating, pull Greedo with Ket Maliss (V). Then, activate and use L,L,L (V) and Ket Maliss (V) to search for locations. You will probably want to grab the Coruscant: Docking Bay and Tatooine: Jabba’s Palace (which will, in turn, allow you to grab Jabba’s Palace: Audience Chamber). The other three locations can be grabbed with L,L,L (V) (Cantina), Ket Maliss (V) (other docking bay), and Jabba’s Palace (the Dungeon) on your next turn. Deploy Greedo (and another character if you have enough Force) to the Coruscant: Docking Bay. Once you move Xizor to join the other alien(s), you can flip your Objective and put back a card with its text. End of turn 1.
On your second and subsequent turns, re-enforce and move Xizor over to the Cantina and set up a nice, steady drain. The drain of 2 plus the Force loss from your Objective should be enough to draw them out into the open. If they don’t fall into the beatdown trap immediately, set up your Black Sun agents at a few other key sites such as the Audience Chamber (you should have Scum and Villainy set up by then) and the Tatooine docking bay to drain and cause direct damage with Search And Destroy. Alternatively, if they give you the opportunity, beat down on your opponent’s characters at their sites. Just make sure you have a way to get your agents back to Jabba’s Palace so that they can retrieve Force with Bounty and the dungeon’s game text. Also, if possible, deploy Guri to Xizor’s site so he can’t be the victim of EPP hit and run. After that, the only thing you have to fear is Jar Jar Banks. The clumsy gungan along with a tracked 7 could ruin your day. Luckily for you, you can retrieve the dark prince in a number of ways (i.e. Scum And Villainy, Bounty, or dungeon retrieval), and get him back to the table with the amazing Force Pile manipulation of IG-88 (V).
In the late game (or if it turns into a drain war), use IT-O (V) to boost your drains through the roof. Between Force drains and Search And Destroy, you should have the game.
Ok, now, as in all of my deck postings, let’s look at what happens when you are blissfully playing away and your opponent pulls out something you weren’t expecting or doesn’t do what you want them to. In other words, here are some suggestions when Murphy’s Law happens to you. (Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time.) Let’s assume your opponent won’t come to you and, worse still, won’t deploy any characters to battlegrounds. You have several options. You can use Labria (V) or Elis Helrot to surprise them, and you can try to out-damage them with your objective and Search And Destroy. If you get the worst-case scenario, and they stick entirely to space, chances are you’re playing against Hidden Base. In that case, see the matchups section below.
While most people will tell you that bounty hunters are making a comeback in today’s SWCCG environment, you might wonder, "Why Agents Of Black Sun instead of Court?" Let me take a minute to explain a few of the reasons I prefer this objective. The first and biggest reason is that the flip side of the objective is better. It has extensive card manipulation abilities, attrition adding, card cycling, and direct damage all packed into one powerful card. The only downside is that it might be easier to flip back, but all you have to do is capture Luke and keep Xizor protected. Second, the release of Virtual Set 5 and Location, Location, Location (V) means that Scum And Villainy can be added to virtually any alien-based deck. It used to be that only Court players could get the bonuses of this powerful effect, but no more; the ability to pull locations, locations, locations makes it feasible. Finally, the destiny manipulation achievable with this objective is amazing. Between Colo Claw Fish and Vengeance Of The Dark Prince, you should always have just the right numbers to capture that character or to beat that Jedi’s immunity to attrition.
Next, let me explain a few cards or combos that are either important or not immediately apparent.
IG-88 (V) – Far superior to his original version. The assassin droid got a much-needed boost from virtual set 5. When he escorts a captive, he is defense value 9 (with Ket Maliss (V) and Desilijic Tattoo (V) on table), forfeit 9, usually has immunity, and functions as a walking Tunnel Vision. For efficiency and usefulness, this little guy just can’t be beat, and he gets even better when equipped with his neural inhibitor (also virtual, of course).
Hypo – Some may ask, "Why Hypo; is it worth the card slot?" I believe it is. First of all, in a deck like this one, the average destiny is somewhat lower than I would ordinarily like due to all of the destiny 1 bounty hunters. Thus, Hypo’s destiny of 5 is always nice. Secondly, it adds 1 to Force drain, and everyone knows that drain modifiers are always handy. Third, while most people likely ignore the text on the second half of the card, asking a yes-or-no question on crucial turns can really give you a lot of information about your opponent’s hand. Some good questions to ask might be: Do you have any characters in your hand? Do you have any cards that add battle destinies in your hand? Do you have more than one copy of a card in your hand? These are just a few examples. Yes-or-no questions help to ensure that you don’t get surprised by what your opponent is holding in his hand. If used correctly against an opponent with a small hand, Hypo can give you almost as much useful information as Scanning Crew.
Elis Helrot – Elis is always useful for that unexpected beatdown on a lone character or the ability to bring in emergency re-enforcements when needed. Since you can know what destinies are on the top of your deck, you can make sure that you can always use Elis at a low cost to you. Combine this with IG-88’s card pulling ability, and you will almost always have character transport when and where you need it.
Bossk’s Mortar Gun and Dengar’s Modified Riot Gun – I address these two together because they serve the same purpose: easily getting rid of characters before the power segment of battle. Ever had a Jedi Luke bothering you, or a surprise screaming Lando dropped on you? Combined with the destiny manipulation of your objective, these two allow you to capture or destroy almost any character you want before they get to add power or battle destinies. Unfortunately, they both suffer the same drawback: they are expensive to deploy and use. Fortunately, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem since you will be activating 13+ Force every turn from your locations alone.
Jabba’s Through With You – Always a good addition to a bounty hunter deck that uses some weapons. What could be better than first capturing your opponent’s character, and then adding a battle destiny?
Also, as a side note, the reason for both Twi’lek Advisor and We Must Accelerate Our Plans is twofold. First, I don’t have two more WMAOP. More importantly, however, if one gets grabbed, I can still play the other one to pull my important effects.
Finally, I want to examine some of the matchups you may face, and how to deal with them. I don’t have enough space to cover all of the varied Light Side deck types, but hopefully, I can shed some light on the more common or more troublesome ones.
Hidden Base – This has the potential to be the toughest deck you can face simply because your opponent will typically stick to space, and they can cancel and/or limit your drains. You should start Combat Response instead of All Wrapped Up (however, it might be good to get All Wrapped Up out ASAP because you want to be able to capture the few characters they may deploy). Use your four starships for one or two concerted attacks, and then focus on draining and running to systems they don’t occupy. They will be faced with the dilemma of either flipping early so they can limit the places you can run to, or playing enough systems to make it difficult to find their base. As Qui-Gon said to Watto: “Either way, you win.” If they flip early, try to probe their base. If they wait to flip, you have more systems to run to, and it will take them longer to get set up. If things get too dicey in space, you can always run to Coruscant and land your ships, or you can forfeit them. Between Desilijic Tattoo (V) and the virtual versions of bounty hunters and ships, you should have plenty of forfeit to cover battle damage. Meanwhile, try to outdrain/outdamage them on the ground with Search And Destroy, your objective text, and Force drain modifiers. If you can get one or two captives, get IT-O (V) out ASAP to add to drains. Remember that, until they flip, they are limited in the amount of damage they can do to you.
Profit – Start Bane Malar and Boba Fett, Bounty Hunter to the audience chamber. That way, if they deploy some powerful character there to beat you down, Bane Malar can mindscan them, and Fett will add two battle destinies. Re-enforce the audience chamber, as that is likely to be the main front of battle, and keep Xizor at the Cantina (out of the action). This should be an interactive match, and the fact that you can capture characters and retrieve should give you the upper hand. Once you capture most of their main characters, the game should be yours.
There Is Good In Him – Don’t capture Luke because you will always be losing to their objective then. Instead, beat him down wherever he makes an appearance. If your opponent is smart, they will be playing with multiples of Luke, and you will probably have to dispatch him several times. Just because you can’t capture the famous Jedi Knight, however, doesn’t mean you can’t take other prisoners. Use IT-O (V) and other cards that focus on captives to full advantage.
Throne Room Mains – While appropriately placed Revolutions can hurt any deck, this one is less susceptible to that version of Force choke than some others. This is because of your 1/1 docking bays, your Cantina, and your Audience Chamber, all of which give Force to both players. As a result, your normally-massive activation shouldn’t be reduced by too much. Just like against Profit, capture their mains, and they won’t be able to do much to you.
Local Uprising (V) – Remember that All Wrapped Up can capture a character even if they are forfieted from inside a vehicle. Be careful with beatdowns when they put the sheilds down; remember that Elis doesn't work once the shields go back up. If they play Ice storm, keep in mind that their captured characters at that site are also missing (which is almost as good as being captured). Above all, don’t let them get a round of T-47 Battle Formation drains off as that much damage can seriously impair you.
Mind What You Have Learned – Get No Escape and Search And Destroy out ASAP. If you’re lucky, they will be training Luke, preventing them from flipping your objective back for a full 7 or 8 turns. Use the time before they complete test 5 to your best advantage because, once they finish that Jedi Test, they will probably have some nasty tricks up their sleeve. Also, be prepared for hit-and-run strikes against your characters. Make sure to have enough characters at a site so that at least one bounty hunter will survive to capture their characters. If you can work to deny them the characters (by capturing them) to engineer beatdowns against you late in the game, so much the better. Also, a note: Scum And Villainy may not be all that useful in this matchup, since their hit-and-run characters probably won’t stick around long enough for you to initiate battle against them.
Lightsaber Combat – If you have the anti-combat shield, use it. (Personally, I don’t have it, but I wish I did.) Beat down on and capture their Jedi, then Elis off of Naboo before they can kill your bounty hunters and release the captives. Once you have captured their principal characters, your drains/damage should be too much for your opponent to handle.
Well, that’s about it for the strategy, and I apologize if I was overly long-winded. If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know when you give a rating. I’ll be glad to respond to any and all ratings.
- Responses******
Shewski - Once again, thanks for the review. I think I may make the CCF/First Srike change after all since my retrieval is lessened without Bounty. As for Jabba's Through With You, I think I'll stick with what I have. The removal of CCF means that I probably won't be using Bossk's Mortar Gun; I don't want to take the risk that it will hit one of my characters. Thus, with the weapon count down to only four, I should only need two of Jabba's Through With You. On the other hand, the suggestion about Hidden Weapons is an excellent one. I should have seen it before. Also, I'll consider taking out one Twi'lek Advisor, but I'll have to playtest some more to find out if it works. Finally, I prefer having two Elis Helrots in the deck for a couple of reasons. First, Insurrection doesn't see as much play (at least in my area) as IAO. Second, having two of them is nice because if one gets Sensed (which happened at the last tournament I attended) or lost to a force drain, I can still use the other one. The bottom line is, though, that, any more, people don't expect Elis, and it can provide a nasty surprise. If they do play Insurrection, Elis becomes destiny 4 Force drain fodder.
See also
Sources
- Shadows of the Empire V 2.1 (Wayback, 20051102154456)
- GPN Star Wars Decks page 19 (Wayback, 20050430203312)