Article 5- Competitive Tournament Decks – SYCFA – by Chris Gogolen (Please note, this deck/article has not been updated since the Players Committee’s reset of all Virtual Cards)
Over the first few articles, I’ve provided some details about the mechanics of the game, the current state of the game, and some basic deck building tips regarding force generation. I also suggested that the best way to get back in the swing of things was to head out to a local tournament. In order to do that, you are going to need some decks to play. The next few articles will provide you with options for both Light and Dark decks. These decks have a limited number of moving parts, which makes them more straightforward and easier to play. These decks will include Virtual cards, and I will try to limit the number of cards from Episode 1 sets or Reflections 2/3. I will also offer viable substitutions for any that are included in the deck list.
We’ll start with Dark side first. The deck I most recommend to inexperienced players is a Set Your Course for Alderaan deck using the virtual Commence Primary Ignition. This is a very competitive tournament deck, that has a very simple approach and works through many of the basic game mechanics.
Here is the decklist:
Starting Cards- 10
1. Knowledge & Defense-v
2. Set your course for Alderaan (SYCFA)
3. Death Star
4. Death Star: Docking Bay 327
5. Alderaan
6. Prepared Defenses
7. A million voices crying out (Tatooine expansion)
8. Kuat Drive Yards- V
9. Imperial Stockpile (virtualized from Imperial Supply)
10. Laser Cannon Battery (Coruscant expansion- if you don’t have one, replace this with Ion Cannon, and start Dreaded Imperial Starfleet instead of Imperial Stockpile, or take this out completely along with the Relentless Pursuits and replace with cards from the list at the end)
Characters- 9
11. Admiral Motti- v
12. Grand Admiral Thrawn
13. Lord Sidious x3 (virtualized from Emperor’s Power)
14. Lord Sidious
15. Lord Sidious
16. Darth Maul with Lightsaber x2 (if you don’t own him, replace with Darth Vader with Lightsaber x2)
17. Darth Maul with Lightsaber
18. Garindan(V)
19. U-3po
Locations: 5
20. Death Star War Room-v
21. Death Star Central Core- v
22. Corulag
23. Nal Hutta
24. Kiffex
Effects: 9
25. Dreaded Imperial Starfleet- v
26. Something Special Planned for them –v
27. The Phanton Menace (Coruscant card, goes with Darth Maul, if you don’t have this replace with something from the list at the end)
28. Image of the Dark Lord- v
29. Protocol Failure- (virtualized from Blasted Droid)
30. Imperial Propaganda- v x2 (if you don’t own these, replace 1 with He is not ready & Imperial Propaganda, a virtual card made from He is not ready, a Dagobah expansion card or Imperial Decree-V and then replace the other with something from the list at the end)
31. Imperial Propaganda- v
32. Tarkin Doctrine (virtualized from Fear will keep them in line)
33. Lateral Damage
Starships: 9
34. Judicator x2 (if you don’t own 2, replace 1 with any other unique star destroyer)
35. Judicator
36. Conquest- V
37. Tyrant
38. Thunderflare
39. Devastator-v
40. Victory (virtualized from Victory class Star Destroyer)
41. Vengeance
42. Accuser- v
Weapons: 1
43. Superlaser
Epic Events: 1
44. Commence Primary Ignition-v
Admiral’s Order: 2
45. Intensify the Forward Battery
46. Intensify the Forward Battery
Interrupts: 14
47. Tie Sentry Ships- v
48. Tie Sentry Ships- v
49. Cold Feet- v
50. Relentless Pursuit
51. Relentless Pursuit
52. Operational as planned – v
53. Operational as planned – v
54. Force Field
55. Imperial Barrier
56. Imperial Barrier
57. Stunning Leader
58. Masterful Move
59. Imperial Command
60. Imbalance & Kintan Strider (virtual from Imbalance)- does several useful things, like helping keep U-3po alive or penalizing them for retrieving force.
Strategy section:
The purpose of this deck is to blow up Alderaan and flip your objective. Once you do, you get force drain bonuses in space where you have star destroyers, and you get to retrieve 3 force each time you deploy a star destroyer. You take no battle damage on the Death star(from your objective on the front side, and the war room’s text once you flip.)
To get around battle plan, you will try and get Lord Sidious to the docking bay, and play defensive cards like Barrier,
Stunning Leader, Garindan, and Force Field to keep him alive. He is completely immune to attrition, and you don’t take battle damage on the Death Star, so they can only get rid of him if they hit him with a weapon. He is Defense value of 7, so they need to draw 8 for total weapon destiny. Also, when you get your Admiral’s order out, if you have a ship at the Death Star system, you add 2 to his defense value, so now they need to draw a 10. Ideally you would have a Star destroyer there by the middle of the game to protect Tarkin Doctrine from being cancelled. Admiral Motti would either be on that ship or in the death star war room, where he is safer. He makes your ships power +2 and increases the immunity to attrition of your ships by 1. Kuat Drive Yards-v makes your Imperial class Star Destroyers able to draw 1 battle destiny if unable to otherwise(so when they are alone), and makes them immune to < 4. So you can spread your ships out, they each get destiny, are immune to less then <4 or 5 attrition, and have good power and forfeit.
Turn 1 you will get out the Central Core with your Objective, and use that site you get the Superlaser out. The Superlaser has to be deployed at Parsec 0, so you can’t start moving towards Alderaan until you get that out. You give yourself 5 force, so go ahead and spend 2 with Kuat to get out a system. Use A Million Voices to take Commence Primary Ignition-v into hand. Then move the Death Star to parsec 1 and draw some cards.
Turn 2 you get at least 8 force. Look for the Death Star War Room, and then in you have a Sidious go ahead and get him in the Docking Bay. Then move the Death Star to Alderaan. If you don’t have Sidious, when you look for the War Room take note of what cards aren’t in your Reserve Deck(because then they must be in your force pile) and then consider drawing some cards. You can also use 2 force to get your 2nd system out for more generation.
Turn 3– CPI is a deploy phase action, so if you missed the War Room pull on turn 2, go ahead and look for it here again before you flip. Then deploy CPI and blow up Alderaan(its automatic). Now your objective flips and you can look for systems for free. Get another system out and deploy a Star Destroyer and retrieve 3 force if you have that many cards in your lost pile already. Your opponent has probably pulled the Aim High shield, so you will be paying to retrieve all game. That is unavoidable.
Rest of Game
Your goal from here on out is to get ships to 2-3 systems and get some drains in, and if you can battle in space then go for it. Each time you forfeit your ships, you will likely just deploy another ship the following turn and then retrieve the ship you just lost. In the meantime you are wearing your opponent down as they don’t have the retrieval that you do.
The destiny in the deck is pretty high, so you should be able to win battles, use Maul to hit characters on the ground, or use CPI to blow up more planets and cause force loss.
Cards to consider adding in to the deck:
Overwhelmed
A Dark Time for the Rebellion-v
Cease Fire(Theed palace card- not included in the main deck because of limited access)
Ghhk
Lightsaber Deficiency-v
They’ve shut down the main reactor
Oh Switch Off
Limited Resources
Control & Set for Stun
Put all sections on Alert(helps against EPPs, Luke or Obi, but it doesn’t do anything against the Episode 1 Jedi )
Conclusion
All in all, this deck is a great beginning deck. It severely limits the potential for you to get a beating from your opponent in 1 battle and end the game, does plenty of damage on its own, has retrieval to help keep you alive longer to play more turns, and has the ability to go initiate some battles at your opponent’s locations. There are some pieces of game text that you need to remember, like the game text on both sides of the Central Core-v, and the flip side of your Objective. The Objective gives you +2 to force drains, but the site limits that bonus to +1 at YOUR systems. If you go take over a system your opponent deployed, you get the +2.
Hope that you have fun trying the deck out at your first event, and I will be posting some more decks in the next couple of articles before I get back into game mechanics and deck building articles.
