Hello there! Long time lurker, first time poster.

I have literally NO ONE around me in my circle of influence right now who would be interested in playing Star Wars LCG with me to help me get "up to par." My Local Meta Games shop has weekly tournaments, but I'm probably pretty woefully inadequate and out-of-my-league at this point because I don't really even know how to form a killer deck, nor have I actually played a single game yet. I DO, however, really want to play regularly and build up to being able to go "toe-to-toe" with some of the local players. With this in mind, I'd like to have some ideas on my DS deck. Let me know what I'm doing well, what I can correct, or even if I'm horribly going the wrong direction so far. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

So, here's my deck so far:

2x Fall of the Jedi

2x The Emporer's Web

2x The Ultimate Power

2x Death and Despayre

2x The Killing Cold

Let me know your thoughts, along with what affiliation would be my best bet. Thanks a bunch!

it's solid- sith are really strong and no one has that much experience or much of a card advantage- If you are worried about just joining a local game night -don't be. There are some bad eggs but I've been playing since before the Agot CCG came out (actually my first cards were brand new M:tG ice age cards, I'm old) and for every one "yes a noob, I will Pwn!" there are 10 "yes a fellow player, I will do everything to keep them playing, let them get good then pwn!" You are in on the ground floor- $60-75 gets you as many copies of every card that you will ever need. $15 a month keeps you up to date. http://www.cardgamedb.com has pocasts and articles you can play online with Octgn. Just play and play with those guys they have a month or 2 on you at best- they are probably ok guys and worse case you lose and learn

Thanks, Logan… truth be told, I haven't really played much of anything since the Star Wars CCG and got turned off by the massive additions to rules with each expansion and the sheer amount of money that one had to shell out to stay competitive with the best cards. That (to me) seems to be fixed with the Living Card Game… Fantasy Flight seems to be doing a good job with that so far.

You have some pretty big hitters in the deck, but my fear would be getting many of them out at once can be problematic. Your average costing unit is expensive - I am guessing around 3 (maybe a little higher). This means that playing more than one unit a turn to keep up with LS decks might be tough.

FWIW, I build a similar deck without the Killing Cold when the game first was released. It played alright, until I got pretty good at LS Rebel Assault style decks. They will chew this deck up.

Adam, what objectives would you switch out? What would you add instead?

If you need more cheap defensive guys you could try taking out 1 copy of the Ultimate Power and putting in Shadows on the Ice. With 3 Hoth objectives you'll be starting with at least one in the majority of your games and one resource wampas are great. Also Succumb to the Cold can be a back-breaking card.

The biggest issue the OP will have with this deck is getting out those big hitters. It's 5 for Vader, and 6 for Palps and Devastator, and you're going to want them all out to make sure the deck is winning.

What I would do with this deck in terms of playing it, would be to try and get the usual Sith deck setup with Vader and Palpatine on the board, but swap one out for Devastator in terms of priority if your opponent is going into Jedi, because they can't Mind Trick Devastator, and likely won't have Rebel Assault to chip it out directly.

At that point, your only concern to Devastator, Vader, and Palpatine would be Luke and Han, which you can sort of neutralize temporarily with the Icetromper to bump them back out and then they'll have to put the damage on that character or a Guardian. Free Force Chokes can help finish them off. Of course, if they DO go Rebels, then your Icetrompers are basically useless.

One issue with this deck is the large amount of high-resource-costing cards. Between 2x Vader, Palpatine, Devastator, Superlaser Blast, and Force Lightning, you're going to be blowing through those resources each turn and not having any left for flexibility.

Another combo you should try and pull off is putting Devastator on the board, committed to the Force, and then continue to hold the Force to bump the dial up by 2 each of your Balance phases. When you do draw into that Superlaser Blast, play it, then make sure you have an extra resource to pay for Devastator's ability that bumps the dial up another 1 point, and if you're really set up well in terms of resources on the board, use the Imperial Officer's ability to do the same.

Just remember that you're not swimming in offensive Dark Side gold like you would be in a Fighter deck with Tallon Rolls and all those Blast icons. Just play it mostly like an archetypal Sith deck should be played; hold the Force, stall, bump the dial up 2 on each of your turns and win.

Unfortunately, unlike a pure Sith deck, you're lacking a few of the money control cards that help ensure you can stall for the win. Check out the Cruel Interrogations Objective set to see what I mean;

1)The Objective lets you capture a random card from your opponent when it deploys, including the start of the game. Even more interesting when you can lead with 2 copies. It's hit and miss though; sometimes you draw into their Han, sometimes you draw into a terrible card.

2)Interrogation; play this card in the Action window after your opponent draws up to their Reserve value in the Draw Phase and take their best card. If Vader is on the table, you get to cause 1 damage to one of their units. If Emperor's Web is on the table, this card gets potentially cheaper.

3)Interrogation Droid can make them discard a random card, and it comes with a Tactics icon to help defend if the Light Side is trying to bait out your units in small 1-2 unit engagements. Against things like Y-Wings, you can pressure them to win Edge for the extra blast icon, and win or lose, your Droid will live and you get to put a Focus token on the ship. If they win, you put a second one on, and that ship is out for two turns, freeing you up to kill something else with Vader's direct damage.

4)Intimidated helps you keep Luke from refreshing on both turns to attack and defend, and makes it harder for your opponent's committed Elites to strike and clear the Focus on their next turn.

5)ISB Interrogators are a cheap 1 cost chump blocker/attack, BUT they do provide shielding, so you can send them on an engagement with Palpatine, put the shield on Palps so if they try and block with a Tactics character to win Edge and stop Palpatine, you can cancel their ability to put a Focus token on Palps AND put the Edge pressure on them.

Honestly, a Sith-heavy deck works best when you can take the Force and bump the dial 2 a turn and stop the Light Side from doing anything. When you start to dilute it out with too much Navy, you put yourself in a win-big-or-lose-big situation. If you can draw into your Devastator/Imperial Officer/Superlaser Blast cards AND have the resources to get them all safely out in a couple of turns under cover, then you can probably push out the win, but otherwise you're going to be missing some clutch tools to mess with your opponent's offensive efforts and you may get blown up pretty quick.

For the Killing Cold card, at least that set gives you a Twist of Fate to ensure those critical Edge battles go your way, and Fear is great to slap on a Yoda or wait until Obi-Wan/Luke commits to the Force and lay that on them. They'll be stuck with the Force card on them, trapping it to the card, and if you can keep the Focus pressure on, then you should get the dial going, but again, there are some good Focus token tools in Cruel Interrogations, and the built-in capture cards help get those big guys potentially out of your hair for the game.

Bottom line: I would consider dropping Ultimate Power/Death and Despayre and sub in Imperial Command, if only for Motti who will help clear Focus off your key units like Palpatine and Vader. Remember, Motti's ability doesn't require him to be ready, so you can use him for his resources, or tempt your opponent into Focus'ing him to cut off your supply, but they probably won't because he can clear his own token off with his ability. The Orbital Bombardment in that set also might come in handy if you have a turn where you have a total unopposed rushdown of your opponent's board to score an Objective or two with all your units gaining a Blast icon, and like Death and Despayre, it's a 2 Resource Objective, so your cash flow can still get the boost.

Also, if you want to swap out both Imperial Objectives, consider Cruel Interrogations as your other choice for a replacement, so maybe your final deck will look like;

Fall of the Jedi

The Emperor's Web

Cruel Interrogations

The Killing Cold

Imperial Command

(lead with Imperial Navy Affiliation)

With this load-out, a lot of your Objectives will be crushing if you can use them in pairs at the start of the game;

Fall x2 will help you cycle your deck as quick as possible for those Vaders and Palpatines

Web x2 makes your Force Lightning cost 1 and all your other Sith Events play for free on that first Event of the turn. Remember, that's EACH turn, so yours and your opponent's. Use that Interrogation for free on their turn at the end of their Draw Phase, and use your Force Lightning for 1 on your turn after Palps or an Interrogation Droid puts Focus on their big mains in a conflict. Heck, even if you didn't play any Sith events on their turn and save that Force Lightning for their conflict phase, but only keep that one Sith resource open, they need to gamble on whether that Lightning is happening when they go to do that unopposed engagement your're baiting.

Just remember, it's THE FIRST SITH EVENT YOU PLAY THAT TURN, so if you go "Force Choke" then "Force Lightning", you're paying 3 in the end, because Force Choke was your first Sith event, which is 0 cost, reduced by 2, which is still 0, then Force Lightning comes out at full price. Don't ever forget this if you've got Web (or 2 Webs) on the table. Order of Operations, much like in high school math, is your friend in this game.

Interrogations x2 could lead to a really lucky opening where your opponent gets a money starting hand and you take 1/3 of it right away before they can stop you. If luck is on your side, you could get those annoying cards like Luke, Han, Obi-Wan, Rebel Assault, etc out of play right away. It can be really swingy that way.

Imperial Command x2 can give you resources to get Vader and Palps out early, but leaves you tight on playing multiple low-cost Sith cards since you're going to only have the one Sith Objective in play to provide resource match. I would use this one only at your own risk, because you won't have the Emperor's Advisor from the Counsel of the Sith set to provide that extra resource, and Sith Libraries are neutral.

In reality, you can net deck all you want, but play experience is going to teach you so much more than we ever could hope to. In the meantime, check out the Smuggler's Den podcast on cardgamedb.com. It's pretty educational and will help you learn from the mistakes of others in a gameplay sense, so you won't feel so intimidated going into a tournament or league, or even just playing with the so-called "veterans" of a 3 month old card game.

I honestly much prefer Cruel Interrogations to flip up later in the game than at the beginning. That way I at least get a turn where I can have my opponent down a card for the edge battle if I want to attack.

PippenTom81 said:

You could add in a Shadows on the Ice if you would like for one of the sets that does not provide any extra resources …