2004 World Championship Day 2 Reid Smith DS Carbon Chamber Testing

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2004 World Championship Day 2 Reid Smith DS Carbon Chamber Testing was the Dark Side constructed list played by Reid Smith at 2004 World Championship (Day 2); the list below is as posted on DeckTech by R. "Voice of Law" Smith (2005-02-08).[1]

Note: "FINAL" version posted Feb 2005 after several events (Ohio money tournament, Origins 2004, Worlds 2004 Day 2); not stated card-for-card for Worlds 2004.[1]

Deck info

Decklist

Lines that could not be matched to a card page are printed as written.

Objective

Character

Effect

Interrupt

Location

Starship

Not identified

  • green card
  • the gemme-peror

Original post

Effect WarZ FINAL

  • Author: R. "Voice of Law" Smith
  • Published: February 8, 2005
  • Rating: 4.65
  • Description: THE best dark deck....of 2004

Strategy

this deck is the best ugly deck you will ever see. i am posting it mostly for posterity, because in the current meta it gives away too much with the new starting effects to be very good. if you read this deck please review it, it was my dark deck of choice for last year and i thought of everything i could to make it better so i'd like to see if anyone has any ideas that i didnt come up with.

first, let me regale you with a history lesson. in the fall of 2003 i beheld the power of throne room and pondered: was there a dark deck that could beat it? rebel planners v had just come out and hidden base was also a viable lightside option, and i found building a dark deck that could compete consistently with both of those light decks to be quite the daunting assignment. after discussing this with some other players, i got a decklist that intrigued me from kevin elia. "it beats hb and trm" he told me. that deck started the same way this deck does, with the free executor and lando/han deprivation, but played something insane like 5 emperor palpatines and 3 emperor's personal shuttles, and a bunch of other stuff i didnt like. what i DID like was the idea of flagship (v) coming out of my deck, and all the different combinations of cards i could pull. so i overhauled kevin's decklist and came up with something close to what you see here. i wielded it at the "ohio money tournament" in late december of that year to an undefeated finish and a cool cash prize of 200-some dollars. But that event had flown under most of the big-name players' radar's, so I wasn't sure if the deck had performed well because it was strong or because it had not faced very stiff competition.

still, i stuck with it through the casual (and local tournament) games i played in the winter and spring of 2004, and when origins rolled around that year, i could find no dark deck i was more comfortable with and confident in than it. my confidence paid off as i used it in that tournament to win four of four games (three in the swiss, one in the semifinals). the competition i faced in that tournament was much more fierce, and after my satisfying second-place finish (and nearly $300 in prize money), i was more confident in the deck than ever.

so i used it also at day two of worlds last year, where it was handed its first tournament loss, against the lightside deck i had discovered was its truest weakness: dantooine base! still, 3-1 at worlds day 2 is an acceptable record, and my light had performed flawlessly, so i finished third that day. inexplicably i shunned my old standby in favor of an unstable agents of the black sun deck on day 3. that deck lost two of its three games as i relied on my lightside deck to earn me second place. i certainly second-guessed my decision to shelve this deck in favor of something untested.

overall with the deck i notched a 16-1 tournament record and nearly $1000 in prize money.

the list itself is very tight. very few card changes were made over the year; most in an effort to improve the deck's destiny. people have suggested so many different things to me, from zuckuss in mist hunter to the cloud city docking bay and occupation to epp vader to (of course) ig-88 (v). but none of them were worthwhile, many lowered the destiny of the deck, and most just took the deck away from what it needs to do to win. which is this:

===How To Play

against all decks but trm: pull executor, pull lando, activate at least 4, pull audience chamber, pull bespin system, pull free executor effect, deploy executor, deploy lando as pilot (if you have enough force). next turn pull flagship, pull some admirals, pull some ships, pull naboo and set up there too. put presence of the force on bespin and cheerio somewhere and drain for 3 and 3. pull despair v and put some guys on the ground. take jabba's prize over to the carbonite chamber and drain for 3 there too. meanwhile you occupy for battle plan and resistance. send maul with i have you now wherever he is needed most. win

this deck is so friggin solid because A) it gives you the same powerful setup every game and B) it allows you to dig for whatever one or two cards that will help the most to disarm your opponent's strategy. of the 60 cards in this deck, an astounding 47 have another card that can pull it.

as with most decks, there are a ton of subtle tricks in this deck. here are some of them:

--control bespin system + despair at carbonite chamber with the prize = deploy +2 to ALL lightside characters going there

--never forget the free executor effect's secondary gametext

--opponent trying to drain you at audience chamber? use its text to pull arica to block the drain OR dr evazan to go along with the maul in your hand

--lando v's text on table from the start of the game, every game...is so f'in good

--THE emperor. is a fuggin house. him + lando + you cannot hide forever = destiny 5 zaps qui-gon!!? HUGE

--WMAOP. everyone who has ever seen me play this card in this deck has questioned its place in a deck that starts with a card that pulls any and all effects. but it's soooo good. originally i put them in there as defense against captive pursuit, which cancels special delivery, and sabotage v, which can kill the green card. if that were to happen i could play wmaop to get no escape then deploy no escape to take the key lost card back into hand. and if that key lost card somehow got buried first i still have the wmaops to fall back on and help me get my effects. plus its still the same old wmaop, it still gets me the bridge, it still recycles for free, and it can oftentimes help the deck set up even FASTER when used to supplement special delivery.

--no escape. take top card of lost pile into hand pretty much during any deploy phase i want by getting this card out of my deck with special delivery. you have no idea how many darth maul with lightsabers this card has lifted out of the lost pile.

--lord vader. take him into hand from deck with flagship

--remember that as you are searching with flagship (on your turn AND the opponent's), you are ridding your deck of low destiny cards. you will NEVER draw ozzel, piett, a death squadron star destroyer, etc. for destiny because they will ALWAYS be in your hand (or on table)

finally, against trm you start decree instead of ychf combo. this ensures that you do not get stuck at a huge disadvantage if the trm deck mises a good opening hand. go about your business as usual, being sure to pull sando aqua monster asap to cancel the fish. concentrate on getting set up solidly at your two systems and use your characters to impede their progress as best as you can on the ground. you give them two places where they can drain you for two (because you have to pull the audience chamber to get force); you must use your characters to defend those locations to the best of your ability. you are best off saving the controls to protect two things from sac: A) your masterful move on savrip and B) your lateral damage, which is instrumental in removing the lightside from space as quickly as possible. if you allow their ships to survive (and hence allow them to drain for free) for too long you will lose. if you can avoid getting beat down while steadily applying drain pressure in space and slowing down their drains on the ground, you will win.

some matchup-specific notes:

against profit you really do auto-win. just be sure to start with despair instead of kuat drive yards because you cannot risk activating despair first turn and having your objective placed out of play. the one-a-turn retrieval is just too damn good.

against hidden base your fleet is just as fast and strong as theirs, but you still need security precautions to help make up for the force drains that will be canceled while they are on the 7 side. just do not be a dumbass and let them get legendary down and you will be golden.

against tigih you will have a drain race, and a close one. tigih was the deck that i thought had the best chance of beating this until i playtested it thoroughly and discovered how to manipulate that matchup in the darkside's favor. you pretty much have to set up in space with the bare miminum, i mean nothing but the executor, flagship, one death squadron star destroyer, and cheerio, and of course presence of the force on bespin (even tho it will likely get canceled by clash). without han or lando there is very little that most tigih decks can do to threaten you in space. use flagship to get all your guys out of your deck, and deploy them to the carbonite chamber. bring jabbas prize over and drain there and at the two systems. you must stack every character you get at the carbonite chamber. ignore luke and use any controls you draw to cancel his drain. i tried capturing him but it does not work, it is a waste of resources. devote all of your attention to the carbonite chamber and the despair drain and occupying for battle plan and resistance.

against speeders (now pretty much dead) i always pretty much crushed them in space. i didnt deploy naboo because i didnt want them to have another system to run to to try and satisfy menace fades. i rarely fought on hoth, but would instead use resistance, decree, and the controls to limit the damage i took. once you clear them out of space you win. even better if you can keep them out of space in the first place.

against dantooine base you really do auto-lose, you cannot hope to fight them on the planet, you cannot hope to keep them from flipping, and you cannot hope to compete with power 2498 forfeit 23958 squadrons that add 1 to force drains. its just really gay but fortunately dantooine loses to most other darkside decks and is therefore rarely played.

against qmc do not deploy naboo, throw everything youve got to the system and use despair v to guard against their moving tricks on the ground. do not let them control the drain-canceling site. force will be tight for both sides but with the bridge and the audience chamber you should be able to keep your head above water. i actually feel like i have the advantage when i use this deck against qmc, but i know many players would disagree with that standpoint.

for further info on this deck check out my tournament reports for the ohio money tournament and origins 2004.

here is a review i deleted:

8 stars - By your strat, you give up 4 force and 4 cards in hand. That's huge. Second turn you'll give up some, and each turn after (if you pull an effect an an admiral) you'll give up one. Why would you start Drop (v)?

Also, you can't pull Lateral Damage with SD (v). (+10 tp, Lightsaber)

and my response via d-mail (this should be obvious to anybody who has even half a clue):

gee, thanks for the news flash. i had NO idea i couldnt pull lateral damage with special delivery v! to think i played over 50 games with this deck and never knew that!!!

/sarcasm

seriously. why would you write that in your review? A) i dont say to pull lat dam with spec del and B) i have THREE FCKING WMAOPS in the deck that CAN get the LD.

why would i NOT start drop v? EVERY light deck is playing with thrown back v so those stupid new rules are going to be in effect no matter what. i'd rather have 12 shields and be able to use 4 of them. darrrrr

end response

anyway as i say in the first paragraph of the strategy this deck is pretty much neutered to the point of unplayability by the new starting effects. which is why i'm posting it. if it were still good, i'd still be playing it, and i would not post the decklist on decktech for imbeciles like the above reviewer to see =)

Original card list

As posted on DeckTech
10 - start: drop v (gay) and 12 shields CCT/flip only against profit carbonite chamber security tower jabbas prizzle green card prepared defenses special delivery v kuat drive yards v ychf/mob points against all decks but trm 4 - locations: bespin naboo tat: audience chamber fagship bridge 14 - guys: lando calrissian v epp maul x3 the gemme-peror darth sidious lord vader p-59 dr e and ponda b arica grand admiral thrawn admiral piett admiral ozzy admiral cheerio 5 - ships: executor devastator avenger death squadron star destroyer x2 12 - interrupts: we must accelerate our pants x3 i have you now x2 evader/monnok masterful move (combo or not, depending on my mood) x2 ghhhk control x3 (dagobah) 15 - effects: they must never again leave this city flagship v imperial decree v ability aa v blast door controls presence of the force lateral dammit crush the rebellion despair v we're the bait v the phantom menace no escape sando aqua monster security precautions bad feeling have i

See also

Sources

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Effect WarZ FINAL. Preserved copy: Internet Archive
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