Fearless and Inventive - The NPE

Welcome to the third edition of Fearless and Inventive. Last time we worked on a Light Side edge deck, now its time to fall back to the Dark Side. This week we will be trying to slow the Rebellion down with as many negative effects as possible, which in turn will alow us to set up a solid defense, and blow some objectives up along the way.

The whole goal of this deck is going to be using objectives that can give us an advantage over our opponent as soon as they are flipped over. So we are going to be using a lot of "while undamaged" effects, as these are normally the most annoying, and powerful. One of the benefits of using a lot of these "negative effect" objectives is that your opponent will have to spread out his attacks if he wants to shut them all off. First thing we should do then is go over some of the sets that can be considered "negative effects".

Lord Vader's Command - This is one of the objectives that I was very excited about when we first saw it spoiled a year ago and has since sat in my card box collecting dust. For the purposes of this deck however, it fits the bill perfectly. It also, from a lot of playtesting these past couple weeks, seems to be very effective at slowing down one of the more popular decks you will see in the meta, Sleuth Scouts. The objective, while undamaged, hinders some of the more powerful cards you will see in almost any scout deck or vehicle deck in general, Swindled and Rebel Assault. Rebel Assault is a really well costed card at two, but for three it can be most of your resources early on in the game. Swindled for two means that they can really only drop one Sleuth Scout, unless they have Defense of Yavin out, but they are still going to have to discard an additional card, which is good for our card advantage. What is more annoying than having to pay three for a Rebel Assault? Paying three and having the effects canceled. Imperial Suppression is probably the best card in the entire set, and can completely shut down your opponents plans for a turn. The Probe Droids have quickly become a favorite of mine for shutting down the likes of Raise the Stakes. Defending with them forces your opponent to win an edge battle if they want that white objective damage, then when your Probe Droid dies valiantly, he shuts off that pesky objective before unopposed is awarded. Darth Vader gives the Imperials the best force holder they have, and can finish off objectives late game. The set has its uses, but is in no way a 2 of in a deck. We will use one for our purposes.

Imperial Blockade - If increasing the cost of your opponents events is annoying, increasing the cost of their units is even worse. Vehicles may be able to get around this again, because of Defense of Yavin, but they will still be discarding additional cards. Character based decks however take a very large hit. Unless they have a 2 resource objective showing, there is no fear of seeing the likes of Luke, Han, or any 4 cost main unit on turn 1. The set also provides a couple of nice beefy Star Destroyers for defense, or blowing up some objectives late game. Tractor Beam always has nice uses either as an edge card or locking down a pesky vehicle. Needa in a pinch can help with resources, or sit and hold the force.

The General's Imperative - Okay, so this doesn't really hurt your opponent, but having extra cards is always a negative for them. One great bonus contained in this set, are units that can keep these objectives undamaged and running. The Blizzard walkers, while not looking like much, are pretty annoying defenders, and attackers. A lot of times your opponent will throw a chump in for an attack, just to get a damage on your objective to shut it off. Blocking and shielding will make them have to really work at it with some extra edge cards or events. Speaking of edge cards, Battle of Hoth is going to keep this effect around for even longer. General Veers is one of the few characters that are going to make it into the deck with tactics, and can get your walkers and troopers a little better at defending.

A Dark Time for the Rebellion - Free damage. Is there anything more negative than that? Even better, you get the effect even while its damaged! The objective is also Hoth, so Battle of Hoth gets another target to heal. The set comes with a couple of nice little 2 cost defenders for the ever presents Scouts, and one beefy unit in Colonel Starck. This guy is an absolute wrecking ball while attacking. Five black icons while attacking? Scary. More negative effects for your opponent? How about getting unopposed bonus raised to two, just like they do. Heavy Fire is such a great card for finishing off a unit or objective, and your opponent will likely not see it coming.

Vader's Fist - How many of you have had two of these flipped against you at the start of the game? I know I have more than once, and it is definitely an uphill battle. Even having one of these active is aggrevating, adding some of the other effects that we have gone over already, you might want to rage quit. The cards in the set itself are obviously great, more two cost units, another insane defender in the Legion, blast damage for your troopers and healing with another Battle of Hoth. With the amount of tournament level decks running this objective set, there isn't a lot of explaining to do here, card advantage wins games, and this is major card advantage.

The Killing Cold - So your opponent finally gets your Vader's Fist damaged, what are we to do? Heal it of course, or one of the other two Hoth objectives you happen to be playing. Another great synergistic set for the idea of this deck. The Icetrompers can be a great deterrent to keep your opponent away from an objective that you want to keep undamaged. If they are trying to shut off one of your undamaged affects, simply force them out and make them go at an already damaged objective. Preferably a Hoth objective which you can then heal. Speaking of healing, Desolation of Hoth can just crush your opponents spirit, and units. You also get a necessary Twist of Fate, no dark side deck should exist without these.

Repair and Refurbish - While the Killing Cold is great at healing Hoth objectives, it can't heal your other objectives. That's where Repair and Refurbish comes in. Dealing free damage is a negative effect, healing for free is also. This objective has seen a lot of play since Balance of the Force came out, and its primary function works wonders in this deck. Seeing this in your starting objectives is always a great boon.

There are lot more objectives that can be considered for this deck, Defense Protocol, Council of the Sith, Ghosts of the Dark Side to name a few. But these are going to be the ones that will be used in our deck this week. They tend to fit together better and feel more in line with what our goal is. I am going to add in Imperial Command to the decklist, solely on the need for resources, and having more 2 cost defenders with 2 unit damage is always beneficial(3 possible with Veers). So how does the deck shape up? Here it is:

Affiliation: Sith

Objective: (10)
2x Imperial Command (Core 26-1)
1x The Killing Cold (The Desolation of Hoth 40-1)
1x Lord Vader's Command (The Desolation of Hoth 41-1)
1x A Dark Time for the Rebellion (A Dark Time 51-1)
1x The General's Imperative (Assault on Echo Base 56-1)
2x Vader's Fist (The Battle of Hoth 62-1)
1x Imperial Blockade (Edge of Darkness 88-1)
1x Repair and Refurbish (Balance of the Force 95-1)

Looking at the list, there are some really nasty combinations possible for starting objectives. Lord Vader's Command, Imperial Blockade with Repair and Refurbish? Two Vader's Fist and the General's Imperative? The "worst" objective you could see is Imperial Command, and that at least has 2 resources. There was one number that shocked me for the deck in particular, which was 79 force icons. There are also 16 2 cost defenders, which is pretty nice for scouts and blockade runners.

With playtesting, this deck had a pretty good win percentage, probably around 60%. As always, the decks posted here are not necessarily a tier 1 deck, so don't go running to your Store Championship thinking this is going to run over every light side deck all day. The meta has been established for about 8 months due to no new product, but this is a nice, fun deck(for you anyway) to play. Your opponent might have a negative play experience though!

If you can read this, you don't need glasses.