I actually think that the Sith pod looks pretty bad. I like Anger, and Force Push wouldn't be bad, but beyond that the cards just aren't worth playing.

Rob Martin said:

Ugnaught looks like it might be 2 of 6 with the two Z-95s being 3 and 4. Otherwise I think you nailed it.

Am I the only one who thinks the Action-series transport looks like another old toy from the 1980s? I think that is based on one of the old carrying cases for figures…that pipe thing at the top reminds me of a handle so much. And, when you hit someone with it, a character pops out, LOL!

dbmeboy said:

I do think a lot of it is overcosted, and its a shame you cant push uniques. I kinda like the objective and the unit though. It helps you control the force better and stave off the "ok well since you defended Ill commit my tauntaun/etc to the force so at least the dial doesnt go up", which has value as well. The Prophet is nice since he wont junk up you hand, and gives you a small derp defender for cheap. The Anzati are pretty controversial; it likely guarantees a lockdown on a 1-2units but also is expensive and easy to kill (Heat anyone?).

All that said, I dont currently think the pod is good enough to displace any existing Sith stuff, just that as a set it may have its uses. Honestly, I wish that some sith stuff would come out that discouraged using Darth/Emp/Counsel in literally every Sith build. It really feels like you have 4 slots to play with when building Sith, which is pretty uninspiring.

Anyone else amused that, despite the flavor text, the Z-95 Headhunters are both better than, and more expensive than, X-Wings?

I'm thinking of replacing Imperial Command in my Star Destroy navy deck with either The Hunt for Solo, or Defense Protocols, or maybe the black squadron sith pack . Some tougher mid cost ships would be nice, especially ones that aren't edge dependand. And ugnaught is a little bit of resource acceleration, and Carbonite Chamber Activation could be really awesome against some decks. I'm actually leaning towards the sith blacksquadron pack right now. I would be running all the black squadron tie fighters, and have some decent meta against red 5, and a lot more offense(Target of Opportunity and blast icons) and things to use talon roll or Blacksquadron Pilot on (10 tie fighers total instead of just 6). I'm actually kicking myself for not thinking of this before the regionals I played in last weekend. I guess that's what I get for switching to an untested darkside deck at the last minute (still made top 8, though, before my capitial ship deck decided to give me nothing but the weenie officers for 3 turns).

I might make a second vehicle deck with all the scum and villany packs, plus defense protocols and kuat reinforcements. Talon Roll on the Z-95 could be good.

I really like the Jedi Pack. I'm probably going to remake my Jedi Attachments deck, minus Han Solo now. Han Solo in a jedi deck always irked me. Maybe replace old ben's spirit with the obi wan pack, it will require testing to decide.

Smuggler set is interesting. I'm thinking maybe Han Solo, regenade Squadron, Evacuation, Prep for Battle, Hit and Run and the neutral hoth objective that produces two and stops unopposed damage on hoth objectives. It should slow down Navy Agro Vehicle decks some. Might replace Han Solo and the Hit and run when other Smuggler Vehicle stuff comes out.

The Navy pack looks good. I've got a proto deck swimming around in my head with Killing cold, Dark Time, the Neutral Hoth that produces 2, Recon mission, Defense Protocol, and maybe Kuat Reinforcements or Imperial Command(or mabye a second sith pack, not sure what). Probably imperial command now that I think about it. More resource accelaration and weenies to sacrifice to killing cold/get in unopposed when needed is probably best.

The sith pack seems great for sith control, with card draw, cheap units that can equip vaders saber in a pinch, help with the force struggles, a good sith action card, a strange enhancement character removal card (sacrifice trumps any protection those pesky jedi or Han Solo has, it's not an event card for counterspells, and I can't think of any ligtht side enhancement removal), and a card with 3 force pips that I'm probably never going to play, unless desperate. Maybe if the lightside is tapped out, and I can bury something important with tactics, but 3 force icons is worth the card being mostly dead otherwise. The question is what to take out for it. Probably Cruel Interogations, leaving Vader, Emperor, Council, Serve, and maybe Killing Cold or Imperial Command. Probably Imperial Command, or maybe Death and Despayre. I think Devastator might win out over storm troopers in my mind, plus a way to first turn vader.

So i was thinking about the rebel swarm builds, with vhls protecting each other force choking your storm trooper to kill that Y wing does not work to well. I also think that with out board wipe its just impossible to hold back the swarm.

Here is my Prototype deck: Lazer Beams

x2 Defencive Protocals

x2 A Dark time for the rebellion

x2 Motti

x2 Death and Despyre

x2 Vader

This gives me 6 Fate cards for Tie Attack Squad Targeted Strike, Vader can get targeted if he has his saber, and Between Protocals and Dark time you could potentially be throwing out 3 points of dmg every draw/refresh phase if you dont get your damage objectives you could stack yourself for extra resources and pump out some extra units or your big guys early.

Two force chokes for killing Mr.Tonton or the frisky twiliek the way i see it, sith control got nothing new to handle the even stronger rebel zerg and sith cant guarentee securing the force vrs jedi even when they are controling there big guys. So i feel like Navy with excessive amounts of targeted damage is a new and interesting path to take. It was a tough call VAder > Emp - because emp gives you resources too but 5 resources is very easy for this deck and i really want the extra edge cards because no one seems to ever see them coming.

Magni

@Magni

Agreed about the Emp, besides, if you need more resources, you could always swap out one D&D for a Deploy the Fleet (LOVE Death Squadron Command).

I'm liking the synergy with the new Scum pod and Imperial Navy.

I'm also liking the Bulk Transporter to get Battlefield Engineers out. More love for Echo Caverns, Heavy Blaster Emplacements, and Wedge enhancements.

With only 2 force chokes, I'm not sure you're getting very much use out of Vader unless you also drag his lightsaber. With the emperor pack you get a beat stick, resource acceleration, protect character that stops you storm troopers getting killed with rebel assault, and 4 great control cards. I think you get a lot more bang for your buck than with Fall of the Jedi.

If you want to get the most use out of the tie fighter squadron in defense protocols, pair it up with recon mission and black squadron assault. That's 7 fate cards, 3 of them twists of fate, out of three packs.

My version of the navy fighter deck would be 2 black squadron, 2 kuat, 2 defense protocols, 2 hunt for han, and 2 looking for droids, smuggler faction. Maybe try and sneak in recon mission somewhere. I'm usually totally against 3 color decks, but the only cards that need sith resources are vaders tie and I'm on the leader, if I remember correctly. I think Looking For Droids is solid without need it for resource match, but it definitly can help with that too.

This deck would maximize the number of fighters to use talon roll with. Not sure if that's an important thing, but it should be fun to test.

I really like the idea of using the smuggler pack to protect y-wings in rebel vehicle swarm, but I'm not sure how to fit it in. If you aren't running Home 1 instead of Red 5 you only have 2 y-wings, and I don't see any other place to make the cut.

ZombieTonyBlair said:

There are going to be variants of the rebel deck

Option A Protect Home 1

Home 1 x2

Red two x2

Rogue 3 x2

Prep for B x2

Prep for E x2

You lose the Echo Base shenanigans but gain Home 1 and the Repair droid which will be pretty good with Home 1 and the Protectors. This deck gives you three serious threats in Home 1, Red 2 and Rogue 3. This is probably one of the better decks for Red Two to be in because Home 1 can help it ready faster. An early Prep for Battle means they will be on some onesided engagements unless they have tactics but if you have shields you can slow the tactic lock down.

Option B - Big Rebel vehicles

Renegade Squad x2

Home 1 x2

Red 2 x2

Rogue 3 x2

Prep for Evac x2

You lose the shielding so tactics are scarier. You have another big threat in the Renegade Squadron and you get Echo Caverns to have fun with, but you dont have any characters to slow down Palpatine with the Caverns either. Sith control will be a tough nut to crack.

Option C - Smuggling Leia

Leia x2

Red two x2

Rogue 3 x2

Renegade Squad x2

Mission Brifiing x2

This one probably has the best game agains the Sith, even though it looks like it doesnt. You have the most ways of abusing the Caverns with this deck and Palpatine is far less a threat. This deck does well agains the Navy as well because of the Caverns as well.

Option D Mobilize Home 1

Mobilize the Squadrons x2

Rogue 3 x2

Red 2 x2

Prep for Battle x2

Fleeing the Empire x2

I am not a fan of this option. You get x4 Rebel Assault if you are in to that sort of thing.

The Rebel decks will boil down to this.

A. Home 1

B. Prep for battle/fleeing the empire

C. Speeder/Hoth

All of them will splash Smugglers for either Renegade Squadron or Prep for Evac.

Your mobalize home 1 deck doesn't have home 1 in it.

I guess you're right, Leia might be the weak point in the vehicle deck. Her pack just gives you so many tricks, and the objective make a lot of shields. I'll try my home 1 deck with Evac instead of Fleeing and see how it runs.

I wasn't very impressed with the Protect Y-Wings. It may have been because I played them against a Tactics heavy deck though. Still, I tossed them to Yavin to play better stuff most of the time. I think will probably play this as I have been having pretty good sucess with it so far.

2x Mobilize the Squadrons

2x The Defense of Yavin 4

2x Hoth Operations

2x The Rebel Fleet

1x Draw Their Fire

1x Preparation for Battle

I like the Jedi pod has some good tricks and Soresu Training is awesome. I didn't have a ton of sucess with the Goatl Outcast but I didn't dislike them. I played this deck with it. I think I had Luke, 2 Guardians, 1 Jedi in Hiding and 1 Goatl all with 1-2 enhancements on them. My oppenent ripped both my Yodas and Obi Wans early with Interrogation. I didn't feel like I was missing Han. I also played against a similar deck with no Yodas and Ancient Monuments instead. Was not easy controlling the force, and mind tricks, lightsaber deflections and it binds all things worked very well against what I kept thinking was good defense.

2x A Heroes Journey

2x In You Must Go

2x Forgotten Heroes

1x The Secret of Yavin 4

1x Message from Beyond

2x Self Preservation

I didn't play with the Sith or S&V pods but I played against them and both were not very good. I played with the Navy pod but it was in a pretty bad deck as I didnt feel like tearing apart a different deck to make something more playable. I only got to play the Colonel but made a mistake and forgot he isnt elite and comitted him to the force instead of playing my vader and comitting him. Pretty much cost me the game as I couldn't recover after that.

i agree emperor is more bang for the buck, and the black squad is great for dmg but i want the fate cards, and the targeted strike and the force icons more then i want the glass dmg that black squad offers. The point of the deck is to supress your oponent with the lazer beams then push through with all your sweet units. Heat of battle is just sweet and two defencive protocals is know to just shut games down. With navys new ability to put out even more damage and the fact that you can do 2 damage to the LS objectives turn 1 is pretty sweet.

Its supress then push through Sith cant hold off rebels white bread navy cant hold of anything. This is deck built for lots of sideline damage the same way the jedi deck works.

Magni

Most excited about the S&S OS, that's going to be a great addition to my vehicle deck. Gonna be hard to fit in, though.

The sith one isn't bad, but I don't think I'd run more than one. Probably replace my cruel interrogations with it.

The Vehicle protectors were pretty good for me last night. I had three of them in play with a repair droid and kept everything alive until I was ready for Home 1 to die because he was focused out anyway.

I really preffered this deck:

x2 Prep for Battle

x2 Prep for Evac

x2 Rebel Fleet

x2 Defense of Yavin 4

x2 Hoth Ops

The only prolem I have with this version is Rebel Fleet, it is far and away the worst objective the Rebels can run, but the rest of the pod is really good.

Personally I think Preparation for Battle and Secrets of Yavin 4 are the best pods in both those decks.

Gandorf said:

That's the vehicle deck I came up with too. I played a very similar version, with leia instead of the new smuggler pack, last weekend at a regional tourniment. It worked really well, but you're right about the rebel fleet objective. In top 8, on the tie breaker game, I lost two objectives, and both flipped Rebel Fleet. It was awful.

TGO said:

I know prep and secrets ate both great but way too many times i end up with 3-4 guardians/aac out and nothing worth protecting. I havent gotten to test a ton with only one but the few games that i did i was much happier with how things played.

I saw a game at the a regional last weekend where one guardian of the peace with a lightsaber won the game, because there were two more guardians of the peace on the table to soak up damage. And speeder tanks are one of the best units in the game.

In my opinion, having too many of good units hurts less than not having the good unit when you need it. But the new packs might change that around, with the enhancement that makes jedi toughter and gives them shielding, and the protect from the smuggler y-wings.

Gandorf said:

ZombieTonyBlair said:

I ended up doing something pretty similar in one of my tournament games last weekend (Han was also around, but that's not a ton of blast damage).

So I just noticed how crazy good the new scum and villany pack combos with Boba Fett. It lets him keep striking in a battle until he either dies, or fails to capture a card. With his armor on, he could potentially clear the board of enemy characters.

ZombieTonyBlair said:

Wow, nice, good to know. Hadn't noticed that.

I wish the Z-95s were different. That ability is awful. At least they have some blast in case you want to blow stuff up. How often does a LS player have cads in their hand when it comes time to strike. If you know the Z-95 is going to hit then dump your unit in the edge battle. The incinerator is about not capturing, what? Rarely going to be better to discard then capture. Ugnaut is a resource, its ok. The event is kind of nice but it seems hard to 2 for 1 as most units are 2. Seems wrong that it doesnt hit solo but would be too strong at 4. Fetts pod is bad and so is this one, playing both seems really bad. Hoping they become better with some cards from edge.

Gandorf said:

I generally agree with you, but knowing that Fett can wipe you out with the combo he mentioned is important. We'll see how it shakes out.

I can see multiple times when the Z-95 would be useful. 3 health with black unit damage and blast damage can be useful just on it's own, since it won't be easy to kill it it before it strikes. Having them on the table, or attacking an objective, is going to change the way your opponent plays. I can see a light side player often saving a big bad unique character in their hand that they couldn't play this turn. And some light side decks draw cards during the darkside's turn. A lot of decks can't always play all the units they draw turn one, so a turn two attack with a Z-95 has a good change of capturing something.

Most importantly, the Z-95 seems very useful to draw cards out of an opponents hand, so that they can't be spent on edge battles later. You attack with the Z-95 at an other objective, and they can either defend and focus their unit cards, or they could be down one card in a later edge battle, which is more important. If you play Cruel Interogation, you could potential discard your opponents non unit cards, stacking his hand in your favor. My only beef with Z-95's is that they aren't scum and villany faction, so they don't combo with the objective.

paying 1 to put a focus token on a non vehicle card with cost 3 or less is good. It hits yoda. The possibility of hitting two units is just icing on the cake. and it has 2 force pips.

Cloud city incinterator doesn't seem worth playing often, but it also has 2 force pipps. It will rarely be a dead card because of that. Some times it coudl be useful to discard an awesome unit instead of risk it getting rescued and played again.

Ugnaught isn't the best of cards, but he's a solid 2 drop. His ability will be awesome in some games, and useless in others. I think when more S&V packs come out, that have more vehicles(Slave 1) and droids(IG-88) in them, and ways to capture, he'll be better.

I think the objective is good. Boba fett strikes a whole lot, recovering some of the resources you spend on Boskk, playing Get Me Solo for free, counteracting the tactics lock your opponent was counting on, or just readying a unit that already struck or attacked at an earlier engagement. Also, Han Solo is really powerful, so having extra Han Solo hate is icing on the cake.

These Scum and Villan packs aren't straight up beatsticks like you find in Navy, or full of control burn cards, like Sith. Their power seems to be in be in forcing your opponent into bad situation, having an off the wall tricks that it is very hard to defend against, or very strong combos. Sometimes you have to gamble on some cards, but the payoff can be huge. I saw a game at a recent regional where DS won because he cold called Luke Skywalker with Get Me Solo game 1. His opponent was playing catch up the rest of the game, and since every pod in the DS player's deck has units with tactics in it, the LS was never able to get ahead. It was a decent deck, actually, Boba Fett, Get me Solo, Cruel Interogation, Emperor, and Council of the Sith. 3 people playing the deck made it into top 8.