Deck ID: 9809

Author: Quan "CuePhoenix" Mueller

Title: Skywalker Sevens Battle Training

Side: Light

Date Published: 2000-08-23

Description:
While fully training Luke to Jedi Test 5, battle with Enhanced mains, Super Falcon, and floating sevens. After completing Test 5 (with a seven), a non-traditional retrieval engine is used to prolong the game and enhance the damage done by battling.

Rating:
4.5

Cards:

'Objective
Mind What You Have Learned / Save You It Can

Locations (10)
Coruscant
Kessel
Cloud City Carbonite Chamber
Cloud City Downtown Plaza
Dagobah (Starting)
Dagobah Bog Clearing
Dagobah Yoda's Hut
Dagobah Jungle
Dagobah Swamp
Dagobah Training Area

Characters (17)
Yoda
Luke with Lightsaber
Captain Han Solo x 2
Leia with Blaster Rifle x 2
Pucumir Thryss
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Obi-Wan With Lightsaber
Chewie with Blaster Rifle
Lando with Blaster Pistol
Kal'Falnl C'ndros
Orrimaarko
Wedge Antilles
Dutch
Red Leader
Biggs Darklighter

Starships (5)
Millennium Falcon x 2
Gold Squardron Y-Wing x 2
Artoo-Detoo in Red 5

Weapons & Devices (2)
Obi-Wan's Lightsaber
Electrobinoculars

Effects (7)
Traffic Control
Demotion
Wise Advice (possible Starting)
Insurrection (possible Starting)
Battle Plan (possible Starting)
Bacta Tank
Yoda's Hope

Interrupts (13)
Whaaaaaaaaaoooow
Strangle
Star Destroyer
The Signal (Starting Interrupt)
I Know
Punch It
Surprise Assault x 2
Noble Sacrifice x 2
Off The Edge x 2
On The Edge

Jedi Tests (5)
Great Warrior
A Jedi's Strength
Domain Of Evil
Size Matters Not
It Is The Future You See'

Strategy: '

This deck is a major modification of an earlier deck I designed called Daughter Battle Training (it will soon be removed from DeckTech as it recieved a 2.5 star rating). The premise is similar (battling is STILL a major part), however, I added in the potential of those great 7 destiny cards, as well as deciding to train Luke instead of Leia. This deck was built pre-DSII. Details of the basic parts of the strategy are below.

Training
=======================
This is pretty standard fare - just train Luke With Lightsaber (enhanced with Yoda, Yoda's Hope, and if you started with it, Wise Advice) to Test 5 and try to rig a 7 for Test 5 if you can (there are 4 7-destinies in the deck).

Battling & Draining
=======================
This deck has A LOT of battling power. A total of 15 non-training characters, 2 copies of the Super Falcon (Cap. Han, Leia w/BR, M. Falcon), 3 characters with built-in weapons, a total of 4 ships that can hold passengers (attition fodder) or pilots, and 4 forfeit 5/6 (7/8 with Insurrection) ability 2 pilots, gives ground and space strength. (Note Artoo-Detoo in Red 5 is primarily intended to be a floating 7-destiny, although he can be used in extreme cases as a starfighter).

The Super Falcon can be used to narc or take out serious starships or occupy drain systems (I Know and Punch It help by adding multiple destinies...), while the other ships main purpose is to hold drain systems (Kessel and Coruscant). Groundwise, the ground troop should occupy the 2 CC locations (which both have drains of 2) and get Pucumir out who adds 1 to all CC drains. The theory is to control 1 or 2 of the drain locations (site or systems) and occupy a battleground (system or site) - thus Battle Plan/Order will not hurt you and you'll be draining for 3+ a turn (which is competitive since you canceled the opponent's drain bonuses after Test 1). Leaving you with more than one uncontested drain location is suicidal for the Dark side as you will be draining for 5+ a turn I have won a few games to this fact alone

Post-flip, the battling is insane. Kal'Falnl C'ndros now effectively CANCELS opponent's destinies. Super Falcon has a battle destiny/attrition of 14 All the character weapons can kill ANYONE on the ground. Default battle destiny/attrition ANYWHERE is 7 (enough to kill large characters even if buffered by a small character for attrition). And the Surprise Assaults can easily force the opponent to lose 15+ force (this can effectively shut down the opponent's force drains and is NASTY if the opponent is using biker scouts on vehicles to control sites).

Retrieval
=======================
This deck has 3 methods of retrieval training, deployment, and interrupt. Training retrieval is based on the objective - train Luke to Test 5 and retrieve 10 force. Deployment retrieval is based on Noble Sacrifice. Deploy those forfiet 5/6 ability 2 unique Rebels and when the opponent deploys a character of power 2, Noble Sac. a Rebel for 5/6 force retrieval (7/8 with Insurrection out).

Finally, interrupt retrieval is done with Off The Edge x 2 and On The Edge. This is the killer. After you complete Test 5 and get a 7-destiny, target one of your 1-destiny characters (all/most of the powerful ground characters are) on CC (which you should try HARD to set up), play Off The Edge, and retrieve 6 force. Play On The Edge, target anyone, guess 6 (draw the automatic 7 due to training) and retieve 6 force. As you can see, you can get a nasty regen cycle going with these 3 interrupts Even without the cycle (a DSII card places retrieval interrupts out of play), I was able to retrieve 18 force by playing each of the interrupts post-flip. Note that although post-flip retrieval with these interrupts is awesome, Off The Edge is not too shabby pre-flip as well - there are 4 7-destinies in the deck, and several 5-destinies as well.

Seven Surprises
=======================
This deck's main surprise is the 4 7-destinies floating around. Even pre-flip, the destinies are high, with several 7 and 5-destinies in the deck. The enhanced characters with weapons have often shot/sabered Vadar and Mara at crucial times. Note also the odd usefulness of the chosen 7-destinies. Whaaaaaaaaaoooow can save your characters from begin eaten by Rancors and the like (and thus prevent you opponent from retrieving via Court decks), Star Destroyer gives a gauranteed 7-destiny if a SD comes to battle you, and Strangle can once in a while, save a character who has been captured. Artoo-Detoo in Red 5 can even be used as a starfighter if you're in a tough spot...

Starting Effects
=======================
There are 3 starting effects you can choose to deploy with The Signal (Starting Interrupt) Wise Advice, Insurrection, and Battle Plan. Wise Advice should be used if you notice that they have a fast draining deck - you need all the help you can get to finish test 1 before they drain you to death Or it should be used if you're paranoid about having your interrupts and crucial effects such as Bacta, Traffic Control and Demotion being canceled by Alter/Sense. Battle Plan should be used if their deck looks unbalanced - it can save you from some well-defended drains by ground or space (but not both) focused decks. And lastly, Insurrection should be played if you feel that having those forfiet 7/8 rebels for attrition fodder on ships or as Noble Sac. is more important than the Wise Advice training bonus or Battle Plan forcing high-cost drains.

Cards to Alter
=======================
Given the last section, it's clear that Heading For The Medical Frigate would be an ideal replacement for The Signal - since all my starting effect options are immune for the game and free deploy. And I'd probably replace the Gold Squadron Y-Wings with the Spiral and the Redemption (I don't have any of the big Mon-Cals, which have deployment restrictions). The Redemption plus Bacta plus high forfiet Rebels is a NASTY space damage preventer. Also, I'd exchange Wedge for DSII Wedge who would cancel battle destiny if with another Red Pilot - given that, I'd replace Gold Leader with Derek "Hobbie" Klivian. Squadron Assignments might also be a good card as it would help get the Super Falcon out. I have also noticed that the average destiny drops significantly when I have the destiny adder interrupts in my hand - mainly due to the massive ammounts of high power characters in the deck - and I'm not quite sure how to remedy this...

Please give me some advice on what cards to add/replace, your thoughts on my retrieval engine, and how I might be able to enhance the battling portion of the deck - thanks ahead of time'