No Disintegrations - Redeeming Qualities

Welcome back to No Disintegrations, this week I will finally keep a promise I made before GenCon and write about a deck that TGO concocted in that crazy mind of his. Before we get down to business though I would like to take a minute to thank my local card shop The Dugout for their amazing support and help in trying to build a LCG community in our local area. This past Saturday (9/7/13) we were able to host a SWLCG tournament that had 8 people show up; some driving ~2 hours to make it. Congrats go out to red5ccg/dbmeboy for winning the event and walking away with some really cool prizes!! If any of you guys are ever in the Hickory, NC area please drop me a line and I will be more than happy to meet up at The Dugout. So now on to the actual meat of the article.

TGO shared this deck with me about 3-4 weeks before GenCon and was seriously contemplating running it there. Sadly despite my best efforts at trying to convince him to run it he went with a LS deck that was better suited for the environment and overall a better choice. Despite that, I think this deck is really fun and quirky deck that offers a different play style all while still being competitive enough to win games. So without anymore of my blabbing here is the deck:

Affiliation:
Smugglers and Spies (Core)

Total Objective Sets: (10)

2x A Hero's Journey (Core)
Luke Skywalker (Core)
Twi'lek Loyalist (Core)
Jedi Lightsaber (Core)
Trust Your Feelings (Core)
Dagobah Training Grounds (Core)

1x In You Must Go (Core)
Yoda (Core)
Believer in the Old Ways (Core)
Shii-Cho-Training (Core)
Dagobah Training Grounds (Core)
Counter-stroke (Core)

1x The Secret of Yavin 4 (Core)
C-3PO (Core)
Guardian of Peace (Core)
Guardian of Peace (Core)
Lightsaber Deflection (Core)
Twist of Fate (Core)

2x Last Minute Rescue (Core)
Redemption (Core)
Corellian Engineer (Core)
Return of the Jedi (Core)
Emergency Repair (Core)
Force Rejuvenation (Core)

2x Trust Me (Edge of Darkness)
Lando Calrissian (Edge of Darkness)
Saboteur (Edge of Darkness)
Cloud City Casino (Edge of Darkness)
Sabotage (Edge of Darkness)
Target of Opportunity (Edge of Darkness)

2x Asteroid Sanctuary (Edge of Darkness)
Millennium Falcon (Edge of Darkness)
Cloud City Operative (Edge of Darkness)
Cloud City Guest Quarters (Edge of Darkness)
Bamboozle (Edge of Darkness)
Twist of Fate (Edge of Darkness)

The deck has so many tricks up its sleeves that it is hard to pick a point to start talking about the deck. First off you have the Falcon which causes so many headaches of its own. Being able to bounce characters onto the field is so much fun. Add to that the insanity that Lando brings with his ability to control your opponents ability to attack/defend effectively and you have a two set powerhouse right there. Then you add Luke into the mix and your own offensive capabilities become apparent. To top things off you have Guardians of the Peace around to keep everyone on their feet and able to fight another day. So there you have it a super deck!!

But wait…. that isn’t right you didn’t say anything about Han or Chewy and there is an objective set that I don’t recognize the name of in the deck, what is this…. Last Minute Rescue?!?

That objective set right there is the true crux of what makes this deck unique and fun. The inclusion of the Redemption makes your units that much more frustrating to get rid of. No longer is Force Lightning truly as scary when your Characters go back to hand and then can be played back onto the field via the Falcons ability. And even if they are able to get Luke or Yoda into the discard pile there is still Return of the Jedi to bring them back for another round of punishment. Also Emergency Repair and Force Rejuvenation play an important role in the deck, providing you with ways to stabilize your board once you are able to get your deck combo working.

When it comes down to it, this is a combo deck at its core. Your goal is to get the Redemption into play as early as possible so that you can play Characters out without fear of them being wasted. After you have a way to keep your Characters around the next part of the combo is to get the Falcon online and spewing out Characters turn after turn; you can achieve this without the Falcon as well obviously but the added pressure the Falcon provides is nice. From that point forward it is just overwhelming your opponent with an unkillable hoard of units and a plethora of combat tricks. These tricks come in the form of Lando, Bamboozle, Cloud City Operative, and even a well played Sabotage can provide favorable swings.

The deck is a blast to play, but sadly it is no where near perfect. While it can get into a position where you are able to keep your units on the board and not have to worry about troublesome Events and units your opponent plays it takes a few turns to get that all setup. This means that if your opponent has a strong start and can gain a solid advantage in the first 2-3 turns the game might slip out of reach before you can stabilize. Also this is not a deck that you will necessarily be able to race your opponent with, it is slow and plodding. Against some of the slower Scum builds or more defensive Sith builds this works out to your advantage in the long run as once you setup your combo you are able to maintain and slowly build board presence over your opponent. If on the other hand you are going up against an Imperial Navy deck that can just outpace you, you are in for a rather quick game that may not end in your favor.

Overall I find this a very fun deck to use, and when it works it is absolutely fabulous. In the current environment however it is at best a casual deck, mainly because of how slow it can be to set up and get going.

Pros:
- Hard to kill Characters
- Lots of control aspects
- Event cancellation
- Combat tricks

Cons:
- Slow setup
- Objective damage

Thanks again for checking in for No Disintegrations this week. If you have a deck you would like to have featured in an upcoming No Disintegrations article please feel free to post it below or PM me. As always without each and every one of the valued members here at CardgameDB.com I would be writing to no one so I thank you for your time and may the top deck always be with you!

For more information on The Dugout visit them at:
Website - http://thedugoutcards.blogspot.com/
Facebook - https://www.facebook...heHickoryDugout