I've been thinking about imperial spies for a period now and want to try using them. I think the list starts at:

Agent Blaise 6

Temporary Alliance 1

eClawdite 6

Zillo 1

Both have decent (but low.end) shots and some supporting role. Having the eClawdite allows me to use Data Theft on my opponents Hunter cards and I think it can do well enough. It's very similar in stats and role to Agent Blaise in fact. But where to go from there?

Currently I'm thinking:

eHeavies (they benefit a lot from Hidden from Blaise) 8

eJet Troopers (they are good, and flexible) 7

Captain Terro (a solid unique that can also boost your other troopers) 7

rOfficer 2

That leaves me with 2 point to rummage, but I've also only got 2 spies. I don't think Cross-Training pulls a lot of weight currently, so I've considered going down something and up another clawdite e/r. I do think there are some diminishing returns on the clawdite though. I don't think eISB (or even rISB) are cutting it in todays meta at all - too likely to get one-shotted and they don't do all that much damage anyway. If the regulars had been 5/2 instead of 5/3 I could see adding them for objective running and additional spies.

Could also drop any of the above for Emperor. That might be interesting for multiple Interrogates or just all-round badassness.

Any ideas?

I have actually been experimenting with Imperial spies, and I think it is better to have one of Blaise or Shapeshifter, but not both. You just don't have enough power otherwise. Also, you'd be surprised how much work cross training can do on Jets in an environment where there are a lot of very scary surges for +2 and Pierce 3 out there, and that's before considering the value of a Dodge.

I'm experimenting with:

Palp

2x Jets w/ Cross Training

Temp Alliance

eClawdite

Greedo

2x Officer

Zillo

I have a friend running successfully this list at tournaments, quite some time ago. Idea was to do the spying job limiting cards in opponent's hand while the opponent is busy killing very cheap stuff that is hard to die because of healing and reinforcement.

[6] Blaise
[7] eISB
[6+6] 2x rHeavy
[7] rSnow
[2] rOfficer

[1] Zillo
[1] Cross-Training
[4] 2x Vader's Elite

e Heavies are pretty hard to use on Nal Hutta

Hm. Yeah, seems like the Heavies are shooting a little too short. They have solid health and defense though - and damage if they get within range. I might try TJGs list swapping Greedo + Officer for Blaise - I want to use Blaise! He may not be the best, but I feel he should be the backbone of any Imp spy list. The CC manipulation is cool.

49 minutes ago, brettpkelly said:

e Heavies are pretty hard to use on Nal Hutta

I'm not even sure whether the map was in rotation at the time!

Yes, I would avoid the heavies. They're really hard to use because of their 3 movement points and without targeting computer, can be a real disappointment on offensive rolls. I had a list at Nationals with Blais and cross-trained e-jets. It was super fun and I think could be equally fun with an e-clawdite instead of Blais as they pack more of an offensive punch than Blais when needed.

I've been wanting to try out this list for a while:

E Sentry Droids

E Sentry Droids w/ Cross Training

Blaise

Palpatine

2x R Officer

Zillo

On 1/9/2018 at 4:40 PM, turkishvancat said:

I've been wanting to try out this list for a while:

E Sentry Droids

E Sentry Droids w/ Cross Training

Blaise

Palpatine

2x R Officer

Zillo

I finally got to try this list out tonight. It was fun and the games were close, but I think the additional spy cards were not enough to make up for Blaise's lower health and firepower. It was also hard not having any Jet Troopers to run objectives. I played against 2x E Sentries, 2x E Jet Troopers, 2x Officer, Zillo, Rule by Fear. Palpatine was my MVP, often removing 2 figures from the board on his activation. But my opponent was able to dominate the objectives and leverage their extra health and firepower to come out on top. It'd be interesting to see how it fares against Rebels and Scum, who rely more on their command cards for their effects.

16 hours ago, turkishvancat said:

I finally got to try this list out tonight. It was fun and the games were close, but I think the additional spy cards were not enough to make up for Blaise's lower health and firepower. It was also hard not having any Jet Troopers to run objectives. I played against 2x E Sentries, 2x E Jet Troopers, 2x Officer, Zillo, Rule by Fear. Palpatine was my MVP, often removing 2 figures from the board on his activation. But my opponent was able to dominate the objectives and leverage their extra health and firepower to come out on top. It'd be interesting to see how it fares against Rebels and Scum, who rely more on their command cards for their effects.

Cool report back! I found the same when I used Blais at Nationals. He took a lot of aggro (which could help save your e-jets a little), but other than that I found he wasn't very effective. He felt way too squishy. In fact, in the 4 games I played, I barely used his ability, because I was too busy trying to keep him out of line of sight for fear of getting him picked off for a quick 6 points. Also, there are a lot of people running "celebration" in their command decks, so he's more like 10 pts when he dies.

I don't think the eISB is so bad as to be unusable. I've seen better players than me get some value from them. I think I would pair them with a clawdite and try to start with a few surge tokens

I really like having 3 Spies, and I enjoy double Clawdites in some of my Scum and Imps lists:

• Blaise
• 2x elite Clawdites
• 2x elite Jet Troopers w/ TCs
• 2x regular Officers
• Zillo
• Temp Alliance

I do struggle to get my CC deck to the appropriate balance between Trooper, Leader, Spy, and a dash of Hunter, cards.

Interesting. It's quite possible, that something as "simple" as that would work. Also, agreed on the CC deck. It seems hard to strike a solid balance!

This is what I have right now. i call them my Undercity Commandos:

• Brace for Impact
• Call the Vanguard
• Celebration (debatable)
• Comms Disruption
• Element of Surprise
• Espionage Mastery
• Grenadier (debatable)
• Heightened Reflexed (preferred over Assassinate in a non-all-Hunter list)
• Intelligence Leak
• Negation
• Officer's Training (best new card for Blaise)
• Planning
• Shared Experience
• Take Initiative
• Tools for the Job (debatable)

Card's I've considered but did not include so far have been: Assassinate, Strategic Shift (like another Planning), Armed Escort, Overrun.

I was trying something like this:
Blaise
2x eRiots (1 cross training)
Emperor
eISB
Officer
Zillo/fear

eRiots lets you play reinforcements, so if you can get rid of their cards while burning good attacks on riots, you can generally come out ahead. You have to play super safe with blaise/isbs though, as they die easily. The emperor is super solid, so I can't imagine not playing him in empire now. Generally you'll want to hide ISBs with Blaise, but Riots are very nice to hide as well for effectively +2 damage.

I think my command deck was something like:

Grenadier
Reinforcements x2
Comm Disruption
Intel Leak
Negation
Deathblow
Blitz (surges are amazing in this list)
Then you have 2 points left for whatever else you like the best. I think I took Grizzly Contest for more unmitigated damage.

0s are the usual suspects - planning, surprise, Blaise's card, take init (make sure your officer doesn't ever die), urgency, looking for a fight (for the riots), or whatever else you like.

You could also probably play without Grenadier and instead play more 1 cost utility cards like Brace for Impact, Tough Luck, etc.

This list was fun, though I imagine you'll struggle if they can manage to 1 shot any of your figures. Being mostly short range is also tough, but works better on some maps than others.

I call this list template of Blaise and 2 Spy-Jets "Vader's Highest", and with the newly buffed Dark Lord it's even more fitting.

Blaise

2x eJets with Cross Training

Vader w/ Driven

2x Officer

Zillo

Toss in the usual goodies for Spies; Intelligence Leak, Comms Disruption, Blaise's card

A few Vader cards; Force Rush, Dark Energy, Pummel

...

Profit?