Where are those Droideka?! Zenek's old Dark Side deck

Hey, Everybody/(RedneckJedi)!

Yeah, SOMEONE's still lingering around this poor forum and I thought it's been WAY too long since I've contributed, SO without further ado...

WAY back around the "Jedi Gaurdians" set, I had put the finishing touches on what was to remain the final version of my Dark Side deck. (retired.) I DO remember that at least one of the people at the tournaments I attended mentioned that I make "weird" decks...and you know what? I probably do. I look at things diferently from others, and made my deck accordingly. After the kard listing, I'll go through and explain my odd choices, you know you want to know... Here's the specs for you:

Mission:
Target the Senator x2

Battle:
Hero's Dodge x4
Preemptive Shot x2
Weapon Response x3
Surge of Power x3

Space:
Sith Infiltrator (A)
Devastator (A)
Droid Starfighter DFS-4CT x2
Droid Starfighter DFS-1VR x4
Geonosian Fighter x4
Geonosian Defense fighter x4
Geonosian Fighter Escort x4

Ground:
Zam's Airspeeder (A)
Reek x3
Battle Droid Assault Squad x4
Geonosian Squad x4
Destroyer Droid Squad x4
Destroyer Droid Team x4

Character:
Poggle the Lesser (A)
Protocol Battle Droid (A)
Aurra Sing (A) (B)
Darth Maul (A) (B) (C) (D)
Zam Wesell (A) (B) (C) (D)
Destroyer Droid, P Series x4
Destroyer Droid, W Series x4

(Only ONE of each unique unit on this deck, so no x1's, ok?)

Different, eh?
This deck represents what MAY have happened if Darth Maul survived into the Clone Wars, and Aurra Sing had a bigger part as well, and Zam lived longer! Mission wise Target's just a cool kard, sue me.
The Battle Kards, if you rember these old-arse kards, require very little Force, making it all the much easier for Force gobblers like Maul to get some extra abilites, and the exploding Droid Star Fighter to get a TON of extra power on its way out.

Space isn't played TOO seriously here, with mostly Geonosian units and Droid Starfighters to back them up, they can do a fair amount of damage on their own, and with cheap power increaces, and suicides they can cripple most Light Side space units. Devastator and Sith Infiltrator are hanging arround for support in case I get the upper hand.

Ground is where I really get my groove started. OK, Zam's Air speeder is mostly for atmosphere, but the rest of the team rocks. Destroyer Droids, while expensive, are hardy and resilient, with Battle Droid and Geonosian support, Critical Hits are bound to happen. It was funny watching my foes attach my tough as nails Droidekas and get themselves clipped my Critical hits from "weak" units! Reek are cool, and help sift through the deck. and they are cool....

Characters were ALWAYS my favorite! For my "weird" deck, screw Vader, Tyrannus, and Sidious. Darth Maul kicked Yoda's arse arround many times, even while others complained he was too "expensive", bah! "C" version was my favorite, because it left Jedi defenseless while I hacked them away with such power! Poor Zam was SO under appreciated, with her high speed, power, Critical hits, and Accuracy...I just HAD to give her a spot in my deck, and that's right, ALL 4 versions are present. I can remember one time she killed a full health Yoda in ONE hit. (stacked of course!) Aurra Sing was a cool support unit, and helped fill the deck quite nicely. Poggle and Protocol BD helped to mess with people's heads, and people actually paid the 4 force to do itin! Pogglewas a nice support as well, Tappety tap tap! Storm Troopers, my arse. Destroyer Droids are the way to go! Versitile, Shielded, and naturally powerful, these guys rocked. Dark Side wins ties, eh? Oh, your Shaak Ti's only at 40 speed? Droideka is also! +2 power and set for kill.

Well, what do you think fellas? I hope you enjoy, and I can't wait for RedneckJedi's comments as well. Here's an interresting thought to leave on...

"We have them on the run, sir. They're no match for our destroyer droids." -Rune Haako

 

Talk about your "thrilling days of yesteryear"! I'm always anxious to see if players can come up with a competitive deck with Geonosians, and this one was worth giving a technical analysis. I'll just go in your order, Zenek.

Target the Senator was a handy little card to help possibly take out a small, but harmful unit in any arena. However, I can't help but wonder why Jedi Guardians-era deck, doesn't use Homing Missile instead.

Hero's Dodge was one of the most efficient stand-alone damage prevention cards for Characters for quite some time. The cost of 1 Force to prevent 2 damage is good, even for a Jedi unit. Maul benefits greatly from this card, when you may not have the Force necessary to activate his costly Evade, and any Character can use a healthy dose of damage prevention.

When Preemptive Shot was released in the A New Hope set, I liked partnering it up with Well-Aimed Shot (Space version) and Precise Blast (Ground version). For 2 Force, this card granted one of your Characters +4 power... an always helpful attack boost against some of the more powerful and damage-prevention-friendly Light Side Characters present at the time. However, for a much broader scope, I would have selected Strength of Hate. Even though it only grants +3 power, it isn't hindered by a specific arena.

For the time, the -2 power Weapon Response granted could be pretty harmful to your opponent's attacking unit, especially a low-powered one with Critical Hit.

Finally, Surge of Power's 1 Force for +2 power addresses my recommendation for Strength of Hate.

All of these low-cost Battle cards do fit in nicely with conserving Maul's Force-hungry abilities, and going with just 1 or 2 Force helps tremendously.

Sith Infiltrator (A) saw considerable play in the Sith Rising days, but then original trilogy material came along, and this little Dark Side unit saw less and less play. It keeps with the theme, and was pretty efficient for a Dark Side Space unit. Four build for a 50 speed, 4 power, 3 health unit that can be returned to hand instead of discard for 2 Force made for a nasty, recurring unit for the Light Side to have to cope with.

Heh, okay, what is Devastator (A) doing in this deck??? At the time this deck would've been created, Light Side decks were rife with Rebel Starfighters, and this Imperial Capital Ship was one of the best answers to them. It made for a nice Luke's X-wing (B) killer. With +2 power versus Rebel units and Shields, this 8 power beauty really handed it to Light Side space... if you could keep it around long enough.

I really can't say much for Droid Starfighter DFS-4CT. A cheap build of 2 for a 50 speed, 2 power, 1 health unit makes for a good swarm unit, but so it goes with not "playing TOO seriously here." I'd drop it for Droid Starfighter Squadron, just to be a little more "serious".

Ah, but Droid Starfighter DFS-1VR is a droid starfighter of a different color! This unit still sees play today, and it handy in nearly any Dark Side deck. For the same build and stats as the 4CT (-1 power), this one has the ability to "overload" giving itself +5 power at the cost of 1 damage to itself. This is a great way for the Dark Side to inexpensively make the Light Side pay for some of their more costly units. They're almost as good as having a built-in Intercept ability simply for the damage they could do.

The Geonosian Fighter was a handy little unit in the early days of the game. It had good build for the stats and Critical Hit 2 (tough to get with 2 power), but it was still pretty efficient as far as the Dark Side goes.

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I'd just like to start by giving you many thanks for the indepth review of my "oldie" Dark-Side deck. I can tell that you're one of the more intelligent of the people I've met here on the boards, and I admire your commitment to this slowly fading game, those like myself who can't find annother to challenge and would LOVE to come out of retirement really appreciate it! Kudos! (And the color coding for each card was cool too! )

As for the review...one word: EXCELENT. For the most part, you hit the nail on the head on my bizzare deck choices, and I really enjoyed the through technical perspective you had about it.

Now I'd like to address all the "wha? huh? how in the?"'s that were inevitable, after all, I build weird (usable) decks!
(Anything I don't comment on, congrats! you figured out my battle plan! )

A) Yeah, I found ONE Homing Missle, but I felt strange putting it in a non-Jango deck...
B) Preeemptive Shot was one I liked because my first goal was to secure the character arena...Besides, If I had access to Strength of Hate, I probably would've considered it.
C) Weapon Response was nessesary to deter the massive swarms of X-wings and other light ships form the ANH anf BOY sets, as they all had about 2-3 power and WAY too much critical hit, I thought a little Weapon tampering was in order. (I guess I was more into Space than I thought!)
D) Devastator (A) was indeed in the deck to help ward off those nasty Critical Hitting Rebels, and with my deck representing an alternate timeline, my idea(excuse) was Poggle's insight WON the battle of Geonosis, and a Republic Capitol ship was captured and used against them as the Devastator. Nifty, eh?
E) Droid Starfighter DFS-4CT...Yeah, I mostly used it as bait to lure Light siders from the Ground anyway. I used the Droid Starfighter Squadron ALOT in the deck's early games, but were replaced to put more build toward the other two arenas.
F) Awesomejob summing up the Ground arena, straight forward, and an all outgh charge against the enemy. I almost forgot howmany times I've used Zam's Speeder with Surge of Power, AH the good old days!
F and 1/2 ) Destroyer Droids were annother central theme to my deck. If you notice, At the time, I had the Maximum of Drodeka cards I could have in my deck! I'll bet that there's atleast ONE new one in that TPM set I never got to see...
G) Sun Fac (A) 's problem was that he was a lightsaber/blaster/death magnet. True, he's gonna help ya for one turn, but he's not gonna survive the end of either, I would know: I've tried to make Sun Fac work, but I didn't have much intercept or other means of keeping him alive. Poggle, as you said, can hold his own at least, if need be.
H) Again with the Droideka?! You'd be supprised how annoyed people would get when I throwout ANNOTHER Destroyer Droid P! "Aww MAN! My (insert Jedi here) can't take annother one of those little..."

Yeah, I've always been in the 2nd-4th place range when using that old deck...I'm SURE things have changed as you yourself had said, but for the time, I MADE these underappreciated cards work. If I were arround for the TPM set, I'm SURE Durge (A) would've found a good home in the deck!

Thankyou very much for your time and effort regarding my deck, and the board itself. I wish the TCG would rise again, but then again, I'm oponentless, however I've two simple requests for you:

A: I really liked my deck's true criticism and praise. I put alot of strategy and effort into the deck's creation, and I was wondering if you would be interrested in my posting of my Light Side and Deadly Neutral decks in the comming few weeks? I thought it would be cool for the both of us, if you'd care to rate 2 more...

B: Seccondly, but more importantly, I'd like to add you to my friends list, but I've no bloody clue on how to do that, again if you'd like a new friend, Please help me through whatever I've got to do, thanks!

And that's all Zenek wrote, my poor hands are tired anyway! Can't wait to read form you...again!

-Zenek

 

{Wow, forum upgrade!}
Well, Zenek, I hope my criticism was all taken as constructive, as it was intended to be. Usually, if I don't have something nice to say about something, I just won't say anything at all.

As far as the game's outlook goes, it's really hard to say. I know players of this game have a very difficult time finding opponent's to play face-to-face against. This alone is a good reason to think it's headed downhill. However, to its credit, the game was well-received at Celebration III, the RotS expansion has sold well at retail stores (notably Wal-Mart and Target), and is listed as #4, I think, recently in one of the major card magazines (either Scrye or InQuest). The next expansion, Rise of the Empire, will be out early August and Wizards already has the late-2005 set in the works.

So, there's no telling if "my sad devotion" is justified or not, but I love the game, and will represent it as best I can!

Also, thanks for your kind words about me, personally! It's much appreciated! If you want to add someone as a "friend" here, you click on their username to pull up their profile. Then along the options there's a link labeled something like "Add to your Watch list." That'll do it!