Still new to SW here, and in that "I'm going to find a way to make the fringe stuff work." For a while that was Navy, and now it's the true fringe and everyone favorite whipping boy, Scum.

I've tried a few approaches with limited success. A lot of this, obviously, seems to be related to the utility of capturing cards. On paper and in an ideal setup, it looks pretty sweet. The reality rarely holds up.

So I'm starting to shift away from the idea of getting any benefit from capturing. The combos are just too hard to pull off, and too unreliable. If it happens, it happens, but I'm not considering it as a benefit. Instead, I'm starting to look at capturing as a highly disruptive mechanic with the sole purpose of taking cards away from your opponent.

I've found this takes pressure off sets that might otherwise be pretty average - like Carbonite Transport - and lets you focus on things that are good in themselves, like tricky ways to capture strongly-stacked characters.

Thoughts?

I cannot speak for others but in my personal experience I use the Capture mechanic to mess with my opponent rather than rely on it winning me any games.

My current Scum & Villainy deck is made to toss out as many 2 or less cost Units out as a protective wall between my Objectives and my opponent while controlling the Force. While I do have several ways to Capture cards within my deck, the most reliable way is from the Objective "The Tatooine Crash". While it may be a reliable form of Capture, I am not 100% guaranteed to see that Objective every game. The only combos I really use are 1. paying a reduced cost for Weequays or 2. removing damage from Feeding the Pit. I use both when I can, otherwise I don't bother trying to play Weequays and chuck them in an Edge Battle.

The forms of Capture I have in my deck:

1x Boba Fett (Only 1 copy because I feel compelled to include Boba Fett. I often use him to just control the Force.)

1x Get Me Solo! (Can be handy sometimes or fizzle out. I don't use it unless I have the resource open anyway.)

3x Bounty (Very useful to place on an opponent's heavy hitters. It forces him to either let the card get captured or dump cards into an Edge Battle.)

1x Captured (Hope that your opponent has no way to cancel Events at the time you use this.)

2x The Tatooine Crash (My favorite way to Capture cards as it is simple to remember and you take the cards straight from the deck.)

2x Utinni! (Your opponent didn't need that extra resource anyway. Conversely, 2 Force Icons for Edge Battles.)

2x Bossk (Great Reaction if your opponent doesn't have a copy of Over My Dead Body in his hand.)

Most LS decks focus on combos. If you use capture wisely to screw up their decks synergy it will work greatly.

G-Golem has highlighed some great ones above. Utinni is a wonderful card, you may pay two to steal 1 resource from an opponent but a stolen resource early in the game is deadly.

Teaming up Zuckuss or Tatooine Crash with Imperial Vader's event can be a really great way to rid yourself of a nasty rebel assault.

Another fun one is Bossk, if you team him up with Dark Trooper Project or Lucrative Contract you can get him back the next turn (or one of the scum ways to remove tokens).

If you build a Scum deck around tactics and unit damage, then think of capture as another form of removal the deckbuilding becomes a lot more fluid and reasonable. If you focus too much on capture combos you'll fall into the trap.

Finally got a chance to run this tonight, it did surprisingly well:

2x Findsman's Intuition

2x Trandoshan Terror

2x Jabba's Reach

2x Hunt Them Down

2x Lucrative Contract

Zuckuss was awesome - my opponent had a rough draw with no units in hand first turn, I dropped Zuckuss and proceeded to lock him down completely. A few Bounty combos with Jabba captured several Freeholders, and pulled another from the deck. Second game was lost, but it was close.

I'm thinking of swapping Hunt Them Down for Jabba's Orders. I actually hate losing the Khiraxz - they proved surprisingly good, if expensive... But I felt it needed more resources, and the Weequay are more reliable hitters than Dengar.

Definitely going to have to keep working with this. Even if it's not the most hypercompetitive deck, I love all the tricks and manipulation possibilities.

I have said this before, but S & V need an alternative win condition. They do not care about moving the dial. If FFG could tie that into capturing cards, it would make them more viable.

I have said this before, but S & V need an alternative win condition. They do not care about moving the dial. If FFG could tie that into capturing cards, it would make them more viable.

They are viable enough to use. The trouble I've noticed people seem to have with them is most Scum and Villainy Units have very few Blast Damage, so going offensive is a bit more difficult with them. Because of that, Scum gets you an even slower win than Sith. Even the most defensive Sith Control decks eventually go aggressive when they have the chance. Therefore, in a tournament setting, you risk going to time when playing a Scum deck or you also risk taking a modified loss if you can't destroy an Objective or two when you're going to win.

Scum and Villainy can spend the game defending and controlling the Force similar to Sith Control decks. The difference being that Sith Control could end the game a little quicker by destroying a couple Objectives. Scum is a slow deck and most people do not want to run the risk of going to time or losing due to not destroying any Objectives in a tournament setting.

I myself have played a decent amount of Scum & Villainy as Mono-Affiliation and I much prefer it that way. Focus less on aggression until you need to, spend your turns tossing out tons of defense and controlling the Force. I can usually manage to destroy at least 1 Light Side Objective when playing Scum.

Like many have stated before, focusing on an Objective being drawn or the Capture mechanic winning you games is not the most consistent nor the most assured way to win as Scum and Villainy. I much prefer to play out Units with Unit Damage and Tactics Icons to lock down and damage opposing Units. Control the play area with defense and Tactics, then focus on destroying Objectives.

Introducing a new win condition that is solely for the Scum and Villainy Affiliation is a bit ridiculous. What about the Sith cards that allow you to Capture cards? Would those alter the Death Star Dial as well? Why would only 1 Affiliation get a secondary win condition?

Let's suppose we try something like you suggest. Let's say Capturing directly affects the Death Star Dial. Would the Rescue of cards directly affect the dial as well? To what degree would Capture affect the dial? Would running a deck entirely focused on Capture actually be viable even if Capture did affect the dial?

I believe the the game would be imbalanced. Example: Turn 1 I have the Tatooine Crash and Capture a single card under it. The Dial advances. I commit my Jabba to the Force. Dial is at 2 on the first turn of the game. Light Side first turn they have a Blockade Runner, 2x Across the Anoat Sector out, and a Target of Opportunity in hand. Jabba cannot defend because of the Blockade Runner's constant effect and the Objective is destroyed and the card Rescued.

Would the dial then go down to 1, to 0, or stay at 2? It seems like the game would be a bit back and forth if it went down to 1. It would break the idea of the Death Star Dial being the game timer if the dial went down to 0, so that makes little sense. How about if it stayed at 2? Then Capture would be an additional way for the Dark Side to advance the dial faster, meaning it is that much easier to win as a Dark Side player.

I think there is no need for additional win conditions for any of the game's Affiliations. How it is, the goal is the same for Scum, Imperial, and Sith but the means to get there is different. The same thing goes for Light Side Affiliations. Rebels, Jedi and Smugglers have different ways to reach the same goal.

This is actually pretty thematic as well. You would think not because Smugglers and Scum are "neutral" types, but even in the films, the Scum &Villainy side with Darth Vader and the Empire. Smugglers and Spies end up helping the Rebellion and the Jedi. They all have their own methods of getting things done but on either side they are helping the total of 2 causes: 1, the victory of evil or 2 the victory of good.