Deck ID: 6878

Author: Jeremy "jerome" LaMere

Title: ISB - Force Choke

Side: Dark

Date Published: 2000-05-18

Description:
ISB Operations deck that only gives up two force total. Very similar to a deck used by James Lafferty in the 1999 Wildcard, 1999 World Championships Day 1, and 1999 WC Day 2.

Rating:
4.0

Cards:

'Objective
ISB Operations/Empire's Sinister Agents

Locations (9)
Coruscant
Coruscant Imperial Square
Dagobah Cave
Death Star
Death Star War Room
Executor Meditation Chamber
Hoth Defensive Perimeter
Hoth Ice Plains
Hoth Wampa Cave

Characters (14)
5D6-RA-7 (Fivedesix)
Admiral Ozzel
Colonel Wullf Yularen
Commander Igar
Corporal Oberk
Darth Vader With Lightsaber
Darth Vader, Dark Lord Of The Sith
Grand Moff Tarkin
IG-88 With Riot Gun
Lieutenant Renz
Lt. Pol Treidum
Navy Trooper Vesden
Officer Evax
Sergeant Tarl

Vehicles (3)
Blizzard 2
Dune Walker
Tempest 1

Starships (5)
Avenger
Boba Fett in Slave I
Bossk In Hounds Tooth
Devastator
Zuckuss in Mist Hunter

Interrupts (14)
Evader x2
Masterful Move x2
Monnok
Point Man
Shut Him Up Or Shut Him Down
Torture x2
Trample
Twi'lek Advisor x4

Effects (14)
A Bright Center To The Universe
Battle Order
Come Here You Big Coward
Crush The Rebellion
First Strike
Imperial Arrest Order
Oppressive Enforcement
Presence Of The Force
Reactor Terminal
Secret Plans
Security Precautions
There Is No Try
There'll Be Hell To Pay
Undercover '

Strategy: '

Like I said, this deck is very similar to a deck I originally saw used last year by James Lafferty that did very well for him at Decipher Con in the three events listed and eventually used it to get 4th place at the 1999 World Championships.


General Strategy

The deck doesn't give up hardly any force and uses control methods to win the game. The control is set up by activating a lot and setting up a blanket of effects that are harmful to the opponent. The ISB agents just keep coming back for more and more. High destinies are set up through the use of Reactor Terminal and recycling Twi'leks and Masterful Moves.


Deck by Deck Strategy

vs. Throne Room Start
Start with Coruscant and Crush The Rebellion because Revolution can have a devastating effect on this deck. Hold out with the 2rd Evader as long as possible. Use the ISB agent spy ability to get set up at the Farm and control the game from that location. If they are playing TR Numbers, use your Tortures and put Vesden inside a walker to keep him safe. And don't forget, Avenger and Devastator can drain at Coruscant (every extra drain counts).

vs. HB
Start with the Imperial Square and Oppressive Enforcement. Try to determine what kind of HB you are up against ASAP and then get the effects that you need with your 3 other Twi'leks. Track the Defensive Perimeter and set up your solid ground drain at that location or put Presence on some other location if you can't track the DP. Five ships with recyclable forfiet fodder along with Security Precautions should be enough to probe and get rid of a lot of their forces.

vs. Operatives
Start Coruscant and Battle Order. Try to control the Farm ASAP. Battle Order should control the amount of drains and allow you to get setup. Between ISB Ops/ESA and ABCTTU, they should have no drains. Play smart and you should win. If they go above 12 cards, punish them with Monnok. Avoid the Speeder beatdown.

vs. Profit
Start Coruscant and Imperial Arrest Order. The IOA start to prevent the Nabrun beats and increase forfiet values. Flip as soon as possible. This probably the toughest matchup for the deck. Battle, use your walkers to Trample and hide in, choke with Vader, and capture with Iggy. Get key effects and track Point Man because you are going to have to cancel Order To Engage.

Those cover the major deck archtypes that you are going to see.

Also the deck is tight but can easly be modified for your meta. If numbers is big, find room for a Torture. If space swarm or Super Falcon is big, put in Denger In Punishing One. Revo big? Add another Evader. Not too hard to modify. The version posted above is the one that I felt was the most solid versus a wide variety of decks.

Have a good one.

Later,
J


New (5/19/2000)

As far as needing more characters go, once the Objective flips, it is really hard to flip back. So characters just keep on getting recirculated in this deck. However, if were to add a couple more character, the only ones I would really consider are ECC 4-LOM, Mara Jade, or some teched out guy.

Also being able to track destiny is huge with this deck. Iggy can abuse it, DLOTS can abuse it, walkers with Trample can abuse it.

Bentley brings up some good comments. Blast Door Controls is one of those meta choices. It could easily be added into the mix. Also, I don't use Executor because I usually find it sitting in my hand. It is huge, but it just costs a lot. Other ships to consider are Dengar In PO, Dreadnaughts, Vader's Shuttle, and maybe Executor (if you don't mind paying the huge cost).

In respone to pakkratt's review. Nearly every deck you come up against is going to give you a battleground that you can control. Some are harder than others to control, but they do give you one. Even Throne Room gives you two right off the bat, granted they are a little harder to take over, but they are there eventually. A solid HB space deck is about the only deck I can think of that doesn't give you a BG. That is why I included one BG of my own and a Presence so that I can create a BG if need be.


New (5/23/2000)

On Decree I only have two systems or 3 Rebel base locations. Just not a solid foundation to get set up for Decree. With ISB text and ABCTTU (which is a sure thing since I can start with Coruscant) you should have no need for Decree.

pizzaman says to add a few DBs. Why? I don't always start with IAO which means that I am going to have to draw into them, I would rather draw into a twix location rather than a 1/1 DB. Also if I did start with IAO everytime the DBs I would add would be Hoth and Yavin IV DBs so that I could get a very quick flip. '