Decipher plays the palace

Decipher Plays the Palace is Cory Herndon's Jabba's Palace feature in The Duelist #28 (August 1998, pages 74–77). Page 77 is the printed Jabba's Palace card list.^[1]

"Et Tu Taka Bu Jabba Now!"
Decipher Plays the Palace by Cory Herndon
Like the prodigal Jedi Luke Skywalker, Decipher returns to the roots of the Star Wars CCG with the release of Jabba's Palace. This set is the first expansion to cover events from Return of the Jedi, and it completely rewrites the Star Wars playbook with dozens of new aliens, "seedable" effects, and treacherous new locations both on and off Tatooine. A few old favorites get persona makeovers (one even receives a metal brassiere), and long-forgotten desert dwellers finally get the respect they deserve.
Bo Shuda
Jabba's Palace introduces several locations that shake up the "classic" look of water-poor Tatooine. Exterior locations now deploy between Jabba's Palace sites and the starport town Mos Eisley. The Palace itself is an exterior Tatooine site that acts as a kind of dark Dagobah—each turn, the dark player may deploy any Jabba's Palace site straight from the reserve deck. The Palace attaches to the interior/exterior Entrance Cavern that leads into the bowels of Jabba's domain.
The Audience Chamber is by far the most influential new location that will shake up the game. This site, available in both light and dark versions, is the centerpiece of several new game effects. The dark version of the site allows you to deploy an alien straight from the reserve deck—this will usually be Jabba himself, but can also be handy for getting your "Steve" Boba Fett into play when you need him most. Many new and old unique aliens give bonuses to their generic kin while at the Audience Chamber, such as the new non-unique Ithorians that receive power and forfeit +2 from Momaw "Hammerhead" Momaw Nadon. The Hutt also holds the leases for his own Droid Workshop, his Dungeon, and, of course, the Rancor Pit (complete with Rancor), but if you want to talk to the master of the Palace you'd better be in the Chamber.
Artoo, I Have a Bad Feeling about This
The Empire and the Rebellion take a back seat this time around—Jabba's Palace is all about aliens. The Hutt himself, Jabba Tesilijic Tiure, is arguably the most useful dark character since Vader. He's no dark Jedi, but his influence provides phenomenal benefits to other dark aliens. His deploy cost of six is the same as the Sith Lord, but he deploys for two less force on Tatooine. Four ability seems about right for an old Jedi hunter like Jabba and allows him to draw battle destiny alone. While at the Audience Chamber he adds one forfeit to all your other aliens and lets you activate a force any time you drain with an alien character. While he can effectively swing a saber, the Hutt should stick to what he does best: sitting on his big fat tail and being the boss.
Jabba's orders are executed by a bevy of lieutenants and henchbeings and are relayed by his majordomo Bib Fortuna. The tentacle-headed Twi'Lek works as a dark Lobot, preventing opponent's movement and allowing guards to deploy as "reacts" while at any Palace site. The subtly monikered Ephant Mon is not an animal, but he is a huge thorn in the light side—preventing light gamblers, spies, and thieves from deploying or even moving to the same site. Jabba's "weaponsmith," Hermi Odle, resembles a decomposing sausage and can draw any generic blaster as a react.
Several new dark characters aid and improve upon existing aliens. Taym Dren-garen aids Tusken Raiders while at the Audience Chamber, and two new dark Jawas join Dathcha in the sandcrawler. For the first time since the premiere release, decks centered around these species are potent forces to be reckoned with.
Even droids are getting in on the action in the Palace. One of the few non-alien characters in this set, EV-9D9, runs Jabba's Droid Workshop—you may remember seeing Eevie toast the feet of a power droid with hot irons while chewing out Artoo and Threepio. This remarkable droid can actually force drain at a number of locations, but cannot battle or be battled, finally making droid decks practical.
Fearless and Inventive
While it might seem that the dark side receives the Sarlaac's share of scum and villainy, the good guys get nearly as many characters as their opponents. Tamtel Skreej is a new "spy" version of Lando that can pull Undercover straight from the reserve deck. Princess Leia (that's Leia number three for those keeping score) has the same basic stats as her Cloud City predecessor, but deploys as a captive. In addition to being far and away the best-looking card in the set, the Princess allows the light side to retrieve five force when she's released—not as difficult as it seems. This set also offers the first new persona for a droid, Artoo. C-3PO's counterpart still bears a dual destiny number like the original, but now the light player may choose between one and six rather than two and five. He also gains more benefits from Hero Of A Thousand Devices and other R2-unit cards.
Several more aliens round out the light side, most notably musicians. Led by a big-eared muppet named Max Rebo, Jabba's house band grants numerous benefits to other musicians. Max himself lowers the deploy cost of other musicians by one and raises their forfeit by three. Droopy McCool, Rebo's lead jizz wailer, gains immunity to attrition less than the total number of other musicians on the table, as do others of his Kitonak species. Droopy can also handle the desert as well as the Jawas and Sand People. The lovely (if short-lived) Twi'Lek named Oola is a counter to the dark side's M'iiyoom Onith, letting you look at your opponent's hand and return unique males to the used pile.
The canniest new musician may well be the drop-dead babe called Jess. This charming chanteuse retrieves one force whenever you deploy a musician to the same site. With Reflection on Leia and a skiff-load of musicians for Jess and the Kitonaks, the light side can make a very effective stand at the Palace.
Other light aliens improve upon existing cards. Three powerful new Jawas will send players back to their binders, as will cards like Moisture Farmers of Tatooine (Local 253) representative Ardon "Vapor" Crell. "Vapor" deploys for free on Tatooine and adds to force drain and immunity to attrition when present with a Vaporator. The Seekers from A New Hope deploy for free to the same site as the diminutive, anteater-like Attark. This two-power, two-ability alien also lets Seekers move for free and ignore any targets present. No more sending your Tarkin Seeker out on the prowl only to have the bad guys shove a generic pilot in its path.
Maneuvered Effects
Although half of this set consists of characters, the best new cards in Jabba's Palace are not characters at all—they're interrupts. Twi'lek Advisor (dark) and The Signal (light) are examples of the only new card type introduced in this set: used or starting interrupts. In their used forms, both Twi'Lek Advisor and The Signal allow you to search your reserve deck for an effect to immediately draw into your hand. That's handy. The "starting" part is where it gets interesting, though. Decipher borrows a trick from the Star Trek CCG, allowing players to essentially "seed" one effect after starting locations are shown. This simple action completely overhauls the game. Finally, entire decks can be constructed around one central theme without fear of bum draws or painful discards ruining your plans by forcing you to lose your central card. Players can also stop wasting as much as a tenth of their decks protecting that card.
Naturally, several "theme effects" in this set are designed to be used from the get-go, including the bounty hunter-oriented All Wrapped Up—bounty hunters may capture any character forfeited from battle by the light side, just like that. Scum And Villainy may well prove stronger than the vaunted Walker Garrison and Dark Deal decks. One of many new dark cards that enhance force retrieval for the forces of evil, S&V deploys to the Audience Chamber and subtracts one from the deploy cost of all your aliens and ships when aliens and independent starship pilots provide all of your ability on the table. Even better, you can retrieve two force every time you battle!
Resistance (dark) and Ultimatum (light) play off the new "battleground" location distinction. Battlegrounds are locations where both sides have force icons and no deployment or battle restrictions are present, and these cards will prevent characters from "holing up" at a hard-to-reach location. Den Of Thieves (and its light-side counterpart, Bargaining Table) further validates decks based around non-unique aliens like Jawas; these characters can be placed from your hand onto the effect for free to cancel any force drain. The aliens can then deploy directly from that effect, both protecting them from cards like Scanning Crew and keeping your hand size from growing too large. Sandwhirl comes in both light and dark versions as well. A variation on the Ice Storm from Hoth, this mobile effect moves across the Tatooine desert causing everyone but Kitonaks, Jawas, and Tusken Raiders to go missing. All of the aforementioned cards are tremendously useful against non-alien decks—the minute Obi-Wan, Vader, or even Boba Fett go alien hunting, drop a Sandwhirl on their heads and they won't be bothering you for a while.
The light side does receive a few effects all its own. A natural choice for a starting effect is I Must Be Allowed To Speak, which allows any Luke to deploy to a Jabba's Palace site (Son Of Skywalker springs to mind). Once he's deployed, this card then moves onto Luke to make him immune to attrition on Tatooine. Period. A Gift is an insidious immediate effect that can make any droid an instant Undercover spy, but also hurts your opponent's battle destiny draws and force drains when he or she uses an alien. Bo Shuda deploys to the Audience Chamber to prevent battles or drains at that location, protecting the light side from the treachery of Jabba's court.
Every Star Wars expansion has rewritten the face of the game, and Jabba's Palace certainly continues the tradition: bounty hunting is now a dreadfully effective play style for the dark side; droids are more powerful then ever; and there's even a non-Imperial vehicle capable of floating side-by-side with the great Blizzard Walkers—Jabba's Sail Barge. Decipher always seems to delight in finding new uses for "binder fodder" in its games, and never before has an expansion made such effective use of cards that most players haven't looked at in years. The Star Wars CCG at long last has the epic feel of the entire trilogy well in hand. ■
Cory Herndon is overjoyed to finally see Star Wars cards based on his favorite aliens, Klaatu, Barada, and Neckie.
Cheaper by the Dozen
Jabba keeps his friends close and his enemies chained to his neck. With such a bounty of characters in this set, one review can't hope to cover them all—especially all the new non-unique aliens introduced in Jabba's Palace. Here are ten new species with intriguing special abilities.
Light Side
Kitonaks
These aliens—only three of which can be in play at a time—are all musicians, making them a must for your Jess 'n' Leia retrieval deck. They are also immune to Sandwhirl and gain immunity to attrition less than the total number of musicians on the table.
Yarkoras
These Joe Camel-lookalikes are all scouts (a handy skill in the new landspeed-draining Tatooine: Desert locations) and can help break the cover of an opponent's Undercover spy.
Sic-Sixes
This nonhumanoid-in-the-extreme race is known for spinning intricate webs that can entangle starships. Thus, each Sic-Six subtracts two forfeit from each opponent's pilot. More importantly, Nabrun Leids and Elis Helrot are prevented from moving to the same or adjacent site as a Sic-Six.
B'omarr Monks
With ability of four, B'omarr Monks are ideal for defensive battles (the only kind in which they can participate) in which ability is hard to come by. As the former tenants of Jabba's Palace, they equalize force icons for each side wherever they are present and cancel the dark side's Jabba's Palace game text. Stick one in the Audience Chamber and force your opponent to actually draw his or her Jabba.
Grans
These three-eyed pacifists allow you to retrieve force whenever your opponent initiates battle at the same site, and if it is the same site, that force can be drawn directly into your hand! (One of them, the half-mad bounty hunter Ree-Yees, works for the bad guys.)
Dark Side
Gamorrean Guards
Like the lore says, these guys are big, strong, and dumber than a bag of gaffi sticks. Combined with their sergeant, Ortugg, they are overwhelmingly powerful in battle. Fittingly, you can sacrifice a Guard to cancel any creature attack (Squeeeeee!).
Aqualish
The rest of Ponda Baba's warlike family can initiate battle for free and cumulatively add to the number of locations needed to cancel Dark Deal. You really don't have any choice, Lando.
Chevin
The elephantine Chevin (Ephant Mon is one) may "throw themselves on the grenade" to cancel all remaining attrition against you when they're in a battle with an alien leader. Wouldn't want to clean that up.
Quarren
The "squid heads" are Imperial collaborators that allow you to easily deploy Imperials to Jabba's Palace. And they have nifty tentacles on their mouths.
Skrillings
These scavengers can steal weapons and devices from just-forfeited enemies. With Tusken Scavengers, they can also steal vehicles. Gimme that saber, Obi-Wan, I don't think you'll be needing it.
Jabba's Palace Card List
Light Side

8D8 — Character-Droid — R

A Gift — Immediate Effect — U

Arc Welder — Device — U

Ardon 'Vapor' Crell — Character-Alien — R

Artoo — Character-Droid — R

Artoo, I Have A Bad Feeling About This — Lost Interrupt — U

Attark — Character-Alien — R

Aved Luun — Character-Alien — R

B'omarr Monk — Character-Alien — C

Baragwin — Character-Alien — C

Bargaining Table — Effect — U

BG-J38 — Character-Droid — R

Blaster Deflection — Used or Lost Interrupt — R

Bo Shuda — Effect — U

Chadra-Fan — Character-Alien — C

Choke — Lost Interrupt — C

Corellian Retort — Used or Lost Interrupt — U

Devaronian — Character-Alien — C

Don't Forget The Droids — Used or Lost Interrupt — C

Droopy McCool — Character-Alien — R

Dune Sea Sabacc — Used Interrupt — U

Elom — Character-Alien — C

Fallen Portal — Used Interrupt — U

Florn Lamproid — Character-Alien — C

Garon Nas Tal — Character-Alien — R

Geezum — Character-Alien — R

Ghoel — Character-Alien — R

Gran — Character-Alien — C

H'nemthe — Character-Alien — C

Hidden Compartment — Device — U

Holoprojector — Device — U

I Must Be Allowed To Speak — Effect — R

Ishi Tib — Character-Alien — C

Ithorian — Character-Alien — C

Jabba's Palace Sabacc — Lost Interrupt — U

Jabba's Palace: Audience Chamber — Location-Site — U

Jabba's Palace: Entrance Cavern — Location-Site — U

Jedi Mind Trick — Used or Lost Interrupt — R

Jess — Character-Alien — R

Kalit — Character-Alien — R

Ke Chu Ke Kukuta? — Used Interrupt — C

Kiffex — Location-System — R

Kirdo III — Location-System — R

Kitonak — Character-Alien — C

Klatooinian Revolutionary — Character-Alien — C

Laudica — Character-Alien — R

Leslomy Tacema — Character-Alien — R

Life Debt — Lost Interrupt — R

Loje Nella — Character-Alien — R

Mandalorian Mishap — Used Interrupt — U

Max Rebo — Character-Alien — R

Mos Eisley Blaster — Character Weapon — C

Nar Shaddaa Wind Chimes — Used Interrupt — U

Oola — Character-Alien — R

Ortolan — Character-Alien — C

Palejo Reshad — Character-Alien — R

Princess Leia Organa — Character-Rebel — R

Projection Of A Skywalker — Effect — U

Pucumir Thryss — Character-Alien — R

R'kik D'nec, Hero Of The Dune Sea — Character-Alien — R

Rayc Ryjerd — Character-Alien — R

Rennek — Character-Alien — R

Revealed — Lost Interrupt — U

Saelt-Marae — Character-Alien — R

Sandwhirl — Mobile Effect — U

Sergeant Doallyn — Character-Alien — R

Shasa Tiel — Character-Alien — R

Sic-Six — Character-Alien — C

Skiff — Transport Vehicle — C

Skull — Used Interrupt — U

Snivvian — Character-Alien — C

Someone Who Loves You — Used Interrupt — U

Strangle — Lost Interrupt — R

Tamtel Skreej — Character-Alien — R

Tanus Spijek — Character-Alien — R

Tatooine: Desert — Location-Site — C

Tatooine: Hutt Canyon — Location-Site — U

Tessek — Character-Alien — R

The Signal — Used or Starting Interrupt — C

Tibrin — Location-System — C

Ultimatum — Effect — U

Unfriendly Fire — Used Interrupt — R

Vibro-Ax — Character Weapon — C

Vul Tazaene — Character-Alien — R

Weapon Levitation — Lost Interrupt — U

Worrt — Creature — U

Yarkora — Character-Alien — C

Yarna d'al' Gargan — Effect — U

You Will Take Me To Jabba Now — Used Interrupt — C

Yoxgit — Character-Alien — R

Dark Side

Abyssin — Character-Alien — C

Abyssin Ornament — Used Interrupt — U

All Wrapped Up — Effect — U

Amanaman — Character-Alien — R

Amanin — Character-Alien — C

Antipersonnel Laser Cannon — Vehicle Weapon — U

Aqualish — Character-Alien — C

Bane Malar — Character-Alien — R

Bantha Fodder — Used Interrupt — C

Barada — Character-Alien — R

Beedo — Character-Alien — R

Bib Fortuna — Character-Alien — R

Bubo — Creature — U

Cane Adiss — Immediate Effect — U

Chevin — Character-Alien — C

CZ-4 — Character-Droid — C

Den Of Thieves — Effect — U

Dengar's Modified Riot Gun — Character Weapon — R

Double Laser Cannon — Vehicle Weapon — R

Dune Sea Sabacc — Used Interrupt — U

Ephant Mon — Character-Alien — R

EV-9D9 — Character-Droid — R

Fozec — Character-Alien — R

Gailid — Character-Alien — R

Gamorrean Ax — Character Weapon — C

Gamorrean Guard — Character-Alien — C

Giran — Character-Alien — R

Herat — Character-Alien — R

Hermi Odle — Character-Alien — R

Hidden Weapons — Used Interrupt — U

Hutt Bounty — Effect — R

Hutt Smooch — Lost Interrupt — U

Information Exchange — Effect — U

J'Quille — Character-Alien — R

Jabba The Hutt — Character-Alien — R

Jabba's Palace Sabacc — Lost Interrupt — U

Jabba's Palace: Audience Chamber — Location-Site — U

Jabba's Palace: Droid Workshop — Location-Site — U

Jabba's Palace: Dungeon — Location-Site — U

Jabba's Palace: Entrance Cavern — Location-Site — U

Jabba's Palace: Rancor Pit — Location-Site — U

Jabba's Sail Barge — Transport Vehicle — R

Jabba's Sail Barge: Passenger Deck — Location-Site — R

Jet Pack — Device — U

Kithaba — Character-Alien — R

Klaatu — Character-Alien — R

Malakili — Character-Alien — R

Mos Eisley Blaster — Character Weapon — C

Murttoc Yine — Character-Alien — R

Nal Hutta — Location-System — R

Nikto — Character-Alien — C

Nizuc Bek — Character-Alien — R

None Shall Pass — Used Interrupt — C

Nysad — Character-Alien — R

Ortugg — Character-Alien — R

Pote Snitkin — Character-Alien — R

Quarren — Character-Alien — C

Quick Reflexes — Effect — C

Rancor — Creature — R

Ree-Yees — Character-Alien — R

Resistance — Effect — U

Salacious Crumb — Character-Alien — R

Sandwhirl — Mobile Effect — U

Scum And Villainy — Effect — R

Skiff — Transport Vehicle — C

Skrilling — Character-Alien — C

Tatooine: Desert — Location-Site — C

Tatooine: Great Pit Of Carkoon — Location-Site — U

Tatooine: Jabba's Palace — Location-Site — U

Taym Dren-garen — Character-Alien — R

Thermal Detonator — Character Weapon — R

Thul Fain — Character-Alien — R

Torture — Used or Lost Interrupt — C

Trandoshan — Character-Alien — C

Trap Door — Used Interrupt — U

Twi'lek Advisor — Used or Starting Interrupt — C

Vedain — Character-Alien — R

Velken Tezeri — Character-Alien — R

Vibro-Ax — Character Weapon — C

Vizam — Character-Alien — R

Weequay Guard — Character-Alien — C

Weequay Hunter — Character-Alien — C

Weequay Marksman — Character-Alien — U

Weequay Skiff Master — Character-Alien — C

Well Guarded — Effect — U

Whiphid — Character-Alien — C

Wittin — Character-Alien — R

Wooof — Character-Alien — R

Wounded Wookiee — Lost Interrupt — U

Yuzzum — Character-Alien — C

External links

The Duelist #28, Internet Archive (Wizards of the Coast, August 1998)

References

↑ Cory Herndon, "Decipher Plays the Palace", The Duelist #28 (August 1998), pp. 74–77. Scan: The Duelist #28, Internet Archive.

[duelist28-1] Cory Herndon, "Decipher Plays the Palace", The Duelist #28 (August 1998), pp. 74–77. Scan: The Duelist #28, Internet Archive.

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Decipher plays the palace

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