Deck ID: 21545

Author: Ryan "Shadow 13" French

Title: The Age of Aquaris Hidden Base v2 0

Side: Light

Date Published: 2002-02-18

Description:
A flipping HB space deck with quite a few major changes from the last posting. Check out the updated strategy section. Great drain potential, plus some damage, a little retrieval, and a whole lot of TECH

Rating:
4.5

Cards:

'Starting(8)

An Unusual Amount Of Fear

-Shields

-Battle Plan

-Dont’ Do That Again

-both SAC Shields

-A Close Race

-A Tragedy Has Occured

-Aim High

-Ounee Ta

-Ultimatum

-Another Pathetic Lifeform

Hidden Base/Slippery Systems

Rendezvous Point

(Hidden Base Indicator)

Heading For the med frigate

Menace Fades

Squadron Assignments

Chasm


Locations(7)

Coruscant

Aquaris

Ord Mantell

Roche

Kessel

Big One

Big One Asteroid Cave


Characters(14)

Qui-Gon With Lightsaber

Obi-Wan With Lightsaber

Luke With Lightsaber

Han With Blaster

Leia With Blaster

Chewie, Enraged

Lando Calrissian, Scoundrel

Corran Horn

Dash Rendar

Leebo

Theron Nett

Admiral Ackbar

Wedge Antilles, RSL

Kin Kian


Ships(8)

Han, Chewie & The Falcon

Outrider

Home One

Red Squad 1

R2-D2 in Red 5

Red 10

Gray Squadron 1

Spiral


Weapons(2)

X-Wing Laser Cannons x2


Interrupts(15)

OOC & TT

A Jedi’s Resilience x2

We Wish To Board At Once

Rebel Barrier

Quite A Mercenary

It’s A Hit

It Could Be Worse

Houjix & Out Of Nowhere x2

Rapid Fire

All Wings Report In & Darklighter Spin

Organized Attack

Power Pivot

Life Debt


Effects(5)

Strikeforce

Projection of a Skywalker

Legendary Starfighter

Kessel Run

Rycar’s Run


AO(1)

Concentrate All Fire


'

Strategy: '

Simple space drain/power deck. you are able to pull your one battleground site, the Asteroid Cave, so control it as long as you can, hopefully with houjix and A Jedi’s Resilience in your hand just in case your opponent lands a beatdown. once you have a foot in this site, get Battle Plan on the table, because you should be generating enough force to cover your major force drains anyway, backed up by Strikeforce. and when you flip, it really hurts your opponent to pay 9 to drain 1...


Space Don’t let the opponent live long enough to probe more than a few systems, but you’ll win even after losing the objective. always deploy Kessel last. Kessel Run from Aquaris or even Coruscant if your opponent is out of space, make it early if you’ve got Leebo out, otherwise wait until you really need it...same with Rycar’s Run. these two help out with retrieval, but they’re basically in to give Leebo some punch through direct damage. wait until you need the drain cancelers to flip, and when objective’s flipped, don’t forget to make the opponent use Force to draw...


if Security Precautions hits the table, draw till you get It’s A Hit and It Could Be Worse, then be ready to stop that force loss. it helps to have your anti-sense sheild out when this happens, so at least if it gets sensed your opponent has to lose some force too. this is very important, unless you’re absolutely sure your opponent doesn’t have Security Precautions, don’t use these two cards for anything else.


some people think non-uniques work better in this kind of deck. well they’re wrong IMHO. let’s think objectively. two non-unique xwings 4 deploy, 8 forfeit, 2 ability, 6 power, you have to actually draw both to get them both out. Red 10 and Theron Nett 4 deploy (2 to Ord Mantell), 9 forfeit, 2 ability + immune < 4, 5 power + a destiny to power, you only have to draw one to get the other out with Squad Assigns, plus drain +1 at Ord Mantell. sure with non-uniques you can do nifty retrieval, but they are incredibly weak and rely on cards like Hyper Escape and Organized Attack to win. Uniques can stand alone at a system and hold their own in battles. i prefer uniques.


i really cut the weapons down on this deck, i used to have 4 cannons and more support interrupts for them, but i finally realized i just wasn’t using them. everyone’s strategy against HB is the same wait it out, then probe the most likely system. i wasn’t fighting many battles, and when i was, the cannons weren’t helping much. So I dropped most of them for some tech cards to fight what i think is one of the toughest matchups Hunt Down and Dark Side LSC, with its uncancellable force drains. so i added OOC&TT and Chasm as protection against multiple Mauls and Vaders, Projection to stop annoying ground drains, and a Rebel Barrier to help stop the beatdown/probe ships. they think they can deploy to my system, probe, and run away? i don’t think so.


Card Choices

Aquaris - great force generation, and its just a hope skip and a jump from Roche and Coruscant, completing the spaceline but being too difficult for Star Destroyers to move to Coruscant to stop your drains. Plus it gives you chance to sing "This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius...the Age of Aquariuuuuuu-uuuus...Aquaaaaaarr-iiiii-uuuuuuussss" take advantage of that.


Legendary Starfighter - this card wins games, that’s it. all you have to do is win a battle where they lose a starship, it’s not hard. Hard to get this on the SuperFalcon or Red 5, but worth it.


Chasm - I don’t play with any copies of unique cards that deploy to the table, so this is perfect for me. it really kicks against Hunt Downs, BHBMs, and LSCs that use multiple "suicide" Mauls and Vaders. And it stays on the table, unlike Grimtaash.


Menace Fades - this card beats decks, no two ways about it. the LS has such an easy time canceling force drain bonuses with this card that its a wonder DS decks have force drain bonuses at all.


Strikeforce - this card beats LSC with multiple Ebb of Battles by denying any force drain canceling. when i force drain, i mean it.


Kin Kian - add to a force drain. currently the only DS decks that cancel force drain bonuses are ISB ground pound or Big Blue. My deck takes on Big Blue head on, ISB ground is a little harder to get around, but i out drain them anyway.


Artoo-Detoo in Red 5 and no Farmboy Luke - yeah, no farmboy Luke, he finally had to come out because i needed more groundpower. Red 5 is still an awesome destiny, and a great ship for Corran Horn to pilot and play Darklighter Spin with...battle destiny of 8 right there.


Theron Nett/Ord Mantell - He’s a smuggler for Kessel Run in case you misplace the Outrider’s pilots, plus he adds to force drains at that system. plus, the ECC/EJP bounty hunter ships aren’t bounty hunters, so the game text from this system doesn’t help the opponent unless they get the occasional 4LOM aboard ZiMH.


Quite a Mercenary - with the Asteroid Cave as your only site for canceling Menace Fades, you can bet that ground pound decks are going to try to Elis in. This provides a nasty surprise.


Matchups

This Dark Deal - Take control of Bespin Cloud City as soon as it comes out and don’t give it up. Make sure you get your cannons there, and don’t let up. Conversely, if they get Dark Deal going before you can take the sector away, drop your guys at the Asteroid Cave and Menace Fades their drains away to nothing. Save up for an assault on the Executor at Bespin, with Power Pivot and the Outrider and everything else you’ve got, and take it from them late game. You have the tools to beat this deck.


LSC - They won’t have many ships, so drop Battle Plan, hold your barrier, and spread. Get Projection on the Core and Menace Fades their lightsabers and you should be able to outdrain them easily. Search and Destroy is easily satisfied by guys at the Asteroid Cave. there’s two houjix’s in here in case they come to your cave.


BHBM/HD - This is a tough match because its hard to give away any ground character with this deck. BHBM, give them Luke anyway, and stay away from battles you can’t win. stop their force drain bonuses, but reinforce that Asteroid Cave and hold QAMercenary because you can bet they’ll try to Elis in. with smart playing, they won’t have a chance to turn Luke and you’ll beat them on drains and damage. oh and grab Sith Fury (duh). HD, you’ve got Jedi, but drop them at the Cave and hold QAM and Vader’ll have to go back to his hand to come get you. Jedi’s Resilience is beautiful in this matchup.


TIEs/Big Blue - I actually have never faced a TIE deck in tournament play, but i hear they’re nasty. your cannons and organized attack will be invaluable in this game. if they try to use Imperial Decree against you, smash their ground site with all your mains because chances are they won’t have anything to help.


ISB Ground - I’ve seen this deck get 90+ power in a ground battle...not pretty. That’s why you’ve got Houjix combo and Quite a Mercenary. keep them from invading your Asteroid Cave with Elis or from destroying your game with battle damage.


with the proper setup, you’ll drain 3 at kessel, 3 at coruscant, 2 at ord mantell with Red 10 and 2 wherever you put Gray Squad 1....total of 10, plus legendary starfighter and Leebo for 14 optimum total force loss every turn, which is nothing to sneeze at. once you flip, they shouldn’t live long enough to do any serious probing. cut in the retrieval, which is at least 4 from Kessel Run and 2 from Rycar’s Run, and this is works out pretty well.


thanks for checking this out...



Ryan French

Rebel Strike Team founder

http//www.decktech.net/43 '