The Great White Dark Side - Expert Level Deck Mark Ponting, Jedi Council Member 06/23/00

With the introduction of Battle of Naboo, Effects and game text added a new dimension to this elegant game. There were certain Dark Side decks that people picked up and tried almost immediately; Darth Maul decks, renovated Tank decks, and Podracer decks to name but a few. The card that came from Battle of Naboo that caught my eye was the new Aurra Sing. So, I traded for a few copies of Aurra Sing's Blaster Rifle and plotted away to create a deck that was a little different.

What resulted from this session in the deck lab was a frankensteinian monster that took on a life of its own. The deck did not change over several tournaments and currently has a 17/4 record.

Average Destiny: 4.4

With cards from Menace of Darth Maul (DM), The Jedi Council (JC) and Battle of Naboo (BN).

	RED		ORANGE
75/BN - Aurra Sing: Mercenary x4 75/DM - Aurra Sing: Bounty Hunter x2 91/BN - Aqualish: Galactic Senator x2 84/BN - OOM-9: Battle Droid Commander 105/DM - Neimoidian: Trade Federation Pilot		108/DM - Aurra Sings Blaster Rifle x3 118/JC - Thermal Detonator x2 120/DM - Blaster Rifle x5
	BLUE		YELLOW
77/BN - Nute Gunray, Neimoidian Despot x2 78/BN - Rune Haako, Neimoidian Deputy x2 88/JC - Aks Moe Senator x3 89/JC - Horox Ryder: Senator x3		120/JC - I Object! 127/DM - Opee Sea Killer x2 129/DM - Sandstorm 130/JC - Vote Of No Confidence x4 131/BN - Sando Aqua Monster x2
	GREEN		PURPLE
81/JC - Lott Dodd, Neimoidian Senator x2 87/DM - Passel Argente: Senator x2 90/BN - Toonbuck Toora: Senator x2 90/JC - Edcel Bar Gane: Roona Senator x2 91/DM - Sith Probe Droid Spy Drone x2		135/JC - Tatooine Podrace Arena 136/BN - Naboo Theed Palace 136/JC - Coruscant Galactic Senate x2 137/BN - Droid Control Ship x3 139/DM - Droid Starfighter x3

how it works:
There were many factors that led to this deck's design. Let's start with the characters.

Red Dot: Obviously, Aurra Sing is the deck's main focus, so she's awarded 6 valuable card slots. (I'd like to have all the new Aurra, but that's not possible. You might want to consider switching in more of the new Aurra.) For the other 4 spots, OOM-9 provides you an all 'round powerful character, with good destiny and low damage. Why a Neimodian just for the destiny and low deploy, and two Aqualish? I'll get to that in a moment. In the typically low destiny red card slot, this deck keeps all card destinies 3 or better.

Blue Dot: The deck's other aspect is quite obvious here, with six senators. Rune and Nute are both enhanced with game text to help handle those pesky Queen decks....it's remarkably efficient and usually awards a free planet, moving you one step closer to the second planet needed for victory. Those destiny 6 numbers in the corner are a little incentive also. With 3 each of Horox and Aks Moe, high destinies are maintained.

Green Dot: There's no doubt what this deck is up to. 8 of the 10 cards are Senators, giving me a total of 16 senators (2 red, 6 blue and 8 green). The non-senators here are Probe droids; high destiny, low deploy and low damage. What more could you want?

So, now you know the strategy behind this deck's character selection. I'm a firm believer that you build your decks to win two planets. Mine are obviously Coruscant and Tatooine. I carry a battle card for each planet, and have 2 copies of the Galactic Senate, where my bonuses are paramount. I don't need multiple copies of the Pod Race Arena since many Light Side decks already carry it for me, and my Aurra's are either power 6 anywhere on Tatooine, or, when armed with her gun, are power 8 regardless (sometimes power 9!).

I go a little low on the transports since I am generally dumping my hand continuously until I have what I need. I decided on this route due to the low destinies introduced by Aurra's Blaster Rifle.

This deck's strategic advantages:
First, it is very cheap to deploy. When Sando Aqua Monster is down, I can deploy several characters and weapons in a single turn. The damage is also fairly low, and yet the power remains remarkably high. Aurra, armed and at her location, can take out any Jedi with little trouble. At other locations, she has a fighting chance due to the overall destiny of the deck:
3 destiny 1's
3 destiny 2's
9 destiny 3's
15 destiny 4's
12 destiny 5's
18 destiny 6's

This gives you an average destiny of 4.4 with 3/4 of the deck consisting of destiny 4 or more.

Finally, you can see that the Battle Cards are geared to make my senators a force to be feared on any planet, by the inclusion of four Vote Of No Confidence cards. They're easy to use, as half the characters can use them. With Thermal Detonators included in the deck just for my senators, this makes many of them power 8, with a good chance of pulling a 6 for destiny (just under 33%). This can put them at power 14 on any planet. At the Galactic Senate, you can see that this raises to 16, matching the best that the Jedi Council's lightsaber-armed Qui Gon can do. By no means bad. Aurra at the senate with her gun can be power 12 plus destiny with a Vote battle card.

Is this deck unbeatable? No.. it can be beaten, but it does give you something a little more fun to play than a Tank deck.

Check out other recent Young Jedi deck designs.