Soooo I won a Regional in DFW 6/2

I will update this post with a link to the report once the FF forums are less retarded.

I played:

Jedi
2xA Hero's Journey
2xIn You Must Go
2xForgotten Heroes
1xThe Secret of Yavin 4
1xA Message From Beyond
2xSelf Preservation

Navy
2xFall of the Jedi
2xCounsel of the Sith
2xEmperor's Web
1xImperial Command
2xKilling Cold
1xShadows on the Ice

Tournament was very well run, had a good time.  My playgroup dominated the tournament, 3/4 of top 4 were from Madness, and 4th spot was only missed on tie-breakers.

Yay me!

Resurrecting My Blog

Yes, going to post more here now.  Sorry for the lapse.  I am probably not going to continue the reviews, and just focus on decks etc. I may do reviews of new stuff, but I wouldnt count on it, since they take FOREVER to type up.

Retards?

Is it just me or are people horrible at understanding card games? Team Covenant makes me want to puke with their lack of understanding. Rebels are Awesome-sauce rofl rofl!

Seriously? Any decent DS deck can beat that shit. Into the ground. If you dont win 90+% of the time as DS right now, you have failed at Star Wars the Card Game. And it looks like it will continue. Rebels get a minor boost in desolation, but otherwise its all DS imo. Maybe once the hoth thing is fleshed out more we will see LS winning more, but I wouldnt count on it until Smugglers and Spies get their love in edge.

Desolation next week?

A little birdy told me to expect Force Pack 1 - Desolation of Hoth to be on sale next week. Can't wait!

Analyzing the Core Set - Sith - Fall of the Jedi

So going to jump to the Dark Side for a bit and review the Sith Objective Sets.  Light Side was getting boring no?

So Sith, the strongest faction out of the gate in the Core set in my opinion.  What makes them the best? Their simplicity.  Sith are about one thing: Killing and locking down your units, To supplement this, they also have some of the best card draw/deck manipulation in the game.  They are extremely efficient at both and can constantly put you in a bind.  A lot of people would argue they are kind of slow, which I think is total BS.  Espos really help them with this.  Even the Rebel vehicle blitz deck cant stand up to a few cheap guys supplemented by espos turn 1, especially if one of them is the Royal Guard.  To top it off they have really good force icon values, so good luck winning edge battles against them.

Onto the sets...

Objective Set 19 - Fall of the Jedi

Objective:
The first instance of the DS being able to quickly manipulate their deck to find the cards they need.  Standard 5/1 stats and the react basically means that even if you only play 1-2 cards a turn you can still see 3-4 new cards using this and the rulebook effect to pitch stuff.  While this ability is not all that strong on its own, it will mean when you need something, you can find it in a turn or two.  It also means that playing one guy and having no battles occur will not stymie your hand.  Really great for finding characters and those Sith events when you need them.

Darth Vader
The big man himself.  5 for 4(!) capacity, 2 combat icons, a blast icon, and an edge blast icon is one hell of a stat line.  Combine this with Elite, 4 force icons, and his react and this guys is a real beatstick.  The React is soooo annoying, compounding how powerful the Sith events already are. Important to mention that his react can target non-characters so you can do silly tricks to kill off those pesky Y-Wings with it.  Very commonly, you will play him, abuse his react while he holds down the force struggle and use him as a fat defender until you have broken the LS and are forcing the game end. Very strong character thats not easily removed.

Sith Apprentice
Gee, where have I seen this stat line before?  Pretty boring overall, but gives you a nice 2 cost guy that can attack or defend relatively well.

Vader's Lightsaber
One of the few Sith Enhancements.  So let me get this straight - makes Vader able to kill any LS unit except the Redemption? Check.  Compounds the killy power of Sith by keeping you down once they have a grip of the game when on Vader? Check. Costs only 1 resource? Check.  Has 2 force icons? Check.  Yea ok... Sith are terrible /sarcasm.  While not a great card in and of itself, on Vader it makes him one of the scariest units in the game, as if he wasn't bad enough.

Force Choke
Nice, an event so good they had to limit you to 1 per turn so Vader couldnt wipe out the LS board the minute he hit the table. Doing 1 point of damage may seem pretty unexciting until you realize most characters have between 1 and 3 hit points.  So at worst, you kill a weenie or finish off a medium/large unit.  At best you combo this with a 2 dmg strike to kill something fat.  Clearly better when Vader is on the table since you can kill a single 2 capacity guy or two 1 capacity guys (hurr card advantage). Also really good for poking protect characters so they cant protect anymore or removing those annoying shield tokens.  Its limited to characters only which is kind of annoying, but not necessarily enemy characters.  So Y-Wings beware, Vader will choke his own men (or himself!) to kill you if hes desperate.

Heat of Battle
Duplicated on both sides.  Except this one is better because DS has a whole theme about killing LS units.  See above. Weee I kill your guys before the battle even starts.  I guess I win when that happens right? Also helps you win edge in the off chance the LS isnt wiped out. Yay for duality!

As a Whole:
So in case you missed it, Sith have a theme of killing LS characters =P.  And they are extremely good at it.  This set is pretty much mandatory if you are going straight Sith, and can be ok as a splash.  Really no dead cards here, closest one is Vader's Saber and even that will pain train enough LS guys its worth having.  Obviously. the whole set gets better the more Sith cards you play and can only get stronger as more cards are released.  The LS has a hard time winning the game when they have no units /shockedface.

Decks - My DS Guantlet

Going to list the decks I currently need my LS deck to beat, since I consider them to be the best DS has to offer.  I will go more into detail on this later and in reviews.  There are obviously some variants to the below, but this is my take.  The Straight Sith deck is my preferred DS deck, which I don't think the LS can consistently beat in any form, but they are all nasty in their own way.

Deck 1

Affiliation:
Sith

Objectives:
2xFall of the Jedi
2xThe Emperor's Web
2xThe Heart of the Empire
2xCouncil of the Sith
1xReconnaissance Mission
1xCorporate Exploitation

Cards:
2xEmperor Palpatine
2xDarth Vader
2xCoruscant Defense Fleet
2xHuman Replica Droid
2xEmperor's Royal Guard
2xSith Apprentice
4xKuati Security Team
2xAdvisor to the Emperor
5xEspo Trooper

6xSith Library
2xVader's Lightsaber

2xThere is No Escape
2xForce Lightning
2xForce Stasis
2xDark Precognition
4xForce Choke

3xHeat of Battle
1xTarget of Opportunity
3xTwist of Fate

Deck 2

Affiliation:
Imperial Navy

Objectives:
2xThe Endor Gambit
2xDeath and Despayre
2xImperial Command
2xTaking them Prisoner
1xReconnaissance Mission
1xCorporate Exploitation

Cards:
2xDevastator
4xAT-ST
2xAdmiral Motti
2xHuman Replica Droid
4xHeavy Stormtrooper Squad
2xAT-ST Commander
2xImperial Officer
4xDeath Star Trooper
2xDuty Officer
5xEspo Trooper

2xOrbital Bombardment
2xControl Room
2xDefense Upgrade
2xAft Armor Plating

2xTrooper Charge
2xDetained
2xTear This Ship Apart

3xHeat of Battle
3xTarget of Opportunity
1xTwist of Fate

Deck 3:
Affiliation:
Sith

Objectives:
2xThe Endor Gambit
2xDeath and Despayre
2xImperial Command
2xThe Emperor's Web
1xReconnaissance Mission
1xCorporate Exploitation

Cards:
2xEmperor Palpatine
2xDevastator
4xAT-ST
2xAdmiral Motti
2xHuman Replica Droid
2xEmperor's Royal Guard
4xHeavy Stormtrooper Squad
2xAT-ST Commander
2xImperial Officer
2xDuty Officer
5xEspo Trooper

2xOrbital Bombardment
2xControl Room
2xSith Library
2xDefense Upgrade
2xAft Armor Plating

2xForce Choke
2xForce Lightning

3xHeat of Battle
3xTarget of Opportunity
1xTwist of Fate

Notice anything?  I'll give you a hint: The DS Neutrals are silly good and all three decks get MASSIVE card advantage.  Sith from their objectives, Navy from their people.

Decks - LS no Secrets Jedi

This is the deck I am currently running as my primary LS deck.  I currently consider Jedi-based LS decks to be superior to Rebel or mixed ones, because they can control more aspects of the game much more easily.  I'll get into this a bit more when I do the Reviews for Rebels, but I think Rebels struggle way too much with winning Edge Battles and contesting the Force Struggle because of a complete lack of force icons for the most part and absolutely no other built-in support for these parts of the game.

Jedi, on the other hand, have lots of tricks, force icons, and most of the really powerful characters readily available to them, making them much more well rounded.  The biggest issue facing the LS in the core set is overcoming the massive amount of card advantage the DS gets and winning early edge battles.  If you can't do this, you will get swarmed and will be put on the defensive.  It is particularly important that you kill a few of the DS's units he puts out in the first few turns, which is why, in my opinion, targeted strike is pivotal.  Having it early will mean your opponent will have no choice but to defend (since he will lose guys either way).

So to the deck.  This is my current experimental deck.  Has a lot of the LS staples but has opted for Last Minute Rescue over The Secret of Yavin 4 for a few reasons.  First, LMR has much better force icons spread over multiple cards, which helps immensely with early edge battles.  Since my intent is to force my opponent to fight me early in the game, I have to win edge battles to put the hurt on.  The next reason is because there is less detriment to the deck.  Secret of Yavin gives you 2 shielding guys per set (so 4) and no other guys.  This is a detriment to the ability of the deck to threaten without getting a fatty.  LMR on the other hand, gives you the Redemption, which is pretty big on its own, and it and the Engineer gives you a similar capability as the Guardians.Pairing that with Return of the Jedi and Force Rejvenation and I think overall its a stronger build.

Affiliation:
Smugglers and Spies

Objectives:
2xA Hero's Journey
2xForgotten Heroes
2xIn You Must Go
2xLast Minute Rescue
2xQuestionable Contacts

Cards:
2xObi-Wan Kenobi
2xRedemption
2xLuke Skywalker
2xHan Solo
2xYoda
2xJedi in Hiding
2xBeliever in the Old Ways
2xCorellian Engineer
2xTwi'lek Smuggler
2xTwi'lek Loyalist

2xTrust in Your Feelings
2xShi-Cho Training
2xJedi Lightsaber
4xDagobah Training Ground
2xCloud City Casino

2xReturn of the Jedi
2xForce Rejuvenation
2xJedi Mind Trick
2xCounter-Stroke
2xSwindled
2xCrossfire
2xEmergency Repairs
2xOur Most Desperate Hour

2xHeat of Battle

So obviously you avoid having to start with Questionable Contacts if you can.  Your best objective start is some combo of Hero's Journey, Forgotten Heroes and In You Must Go, preferrably 1 of each.

Your best opening hand will have a resource and either Luke or Han.  If my first draw doesnt contain Luke or Han I will mulligan to try and get one.  In a perfect world youd have Han and either Obi or Yoda, so you can easily with edge after dropping him, but a couple 3s will also suffice.  You have to kill off early people or you will get swarmed.  If Han/Luke make it past their first attacks, digging for a buddy is what you want to do.  Obviously the best one is Redemption, since it is a threat to objectives and keeps your guys putting pressue on, but Returning an edged Obi can also be really big.  If they die, then hopefully you can follow up with another or Return of the Jedi or something.  If you can't you have to go defensive and try to win a defended battle or punch your way through.

This is why its soo tough to win as LS.  You have to put on early pressure but you can't afford to lose a battle on the attack since the ensuing battle will likely have you losing all your guys,

You also cannot afford to try and play defensively early either.  If you dont have a strong showing in the first 2 turns, you will see yourself being faced with 3-4 weenies and some kind of beaters from the DS to your (maybe) 2 big guys by turn 2.  The DS will drown you in small guys and try to make you lose a battle on the attack by camping the struggle.  This strategy is why Sith is soo hard to beat, they can do all these things relatively easily.

Feedback appreciated!