Ask Artie!

Go to SWCCGPC.com to look up tournaments, and you can post to see if anyone lives near you.

 

http://tournaments.decipher.com can also be used to locate nearby tournaments.

 

Thanks, I think i have found a tourney scene....they play on tuesday nights in Seattle. I may finally get to play another person.

 

I was in Seattle for a weekend about a year ago. 3 straight days of non-stop LOTR and SW gaming. It was a blast.

 

*bump*

 

Thanks for this thread. The basic stuff about what is available and such was a GREAT help for me.

My friend and his buddy play, so now I am getting into it.

Ive already sent off for 3 sub 30 dollar booster boxes (Premiere, A New Hope, and Revised Hoth) and printed out the rulebook from Decipher's site.

Ill make sure to pick up Anthology 2 and 3 next time I get some spare scratch, if nothing else just for the card boxes and the Glossary!

I have a couple of pre play questions though. Answer them at your leisure.
(I skipped through the middle pages of this thread, so if one of my questions is in there, just let me know and I will go back and look.)

1: Jabba's Palace. This set seems to go for the cheapest of any booster boxes, usually around 18 bucks or so. Is it THAT bad, or was it just overprinted?

2: Booster Boxes. Should 1 box of a set be enough for the casual non tourney play I will be engaging in?

3: Like I said, I picked up a booster box of Premiere, Hoth Revised, and A New Hope. Most likely if I enjoy the game I will pick up ONE more booster box of 1 expansion, price depending. (Nothing over 30 dollars.) What is your recommendation?

4: Starter Decks. There are a couple different sets of these out there. Given the fact these days you have to buy boxes, is it worth my time picking any up? Are the cards random in the boosters or not? I wouldn't mind getting Death Star 2, but booster boxes for it are quite pricey. The starter deck boxes I remember seeing are MUCH cheaper. Like 30 bucks cheaper.

Ok.. thats enough questions for now..

Thanks for the thread and your time in answering my stupid newbie questions.

 

1: Jabba's Palace. This set seems to go for the cheapest of any booster boxes, usually around 18 bucks or so. Is it THAT bad, or was it just overprinted?

Both. JP had maybe 5 good cards in the set, and some of them weren't even rare. Plus, you would get JP packs in a lot of the forthcoming boutique products.

2: Booster Boxes. Should 1 box of a set be enough for the casual non tourney play I will be engaging in?

Probably, although you may want two boxes of the larger sets, Premiere and Special Edition. You may also want two boxes of Coruscant, because there are a lot of good cards in there. Extra boxes of Reflections 2 and 3 couldn't hurt either.

3: Like I said, I picked up a booster box of Premiere, Hoth Revised, and A New Hope. Most likely if I enjoy the game I will pick up ONE more booster box of 1 expansion, price depending. (Nothing over 30 dollars.) What is your recommendation?

You probably don't need to bother with extra boxes of the smaller sets, unless you happen to be missing a lot of the cards you want.

4: Starter Decks. There are a couple different sets of these out there. Given the fact these days you have to buy boxes, is it worth my time picking any up? Are the cards random in the boosters or not? I wouldn't mind getting Death Star 2, but booster boxes for it are quite pricey. The starter deck boxes I remember seeing are MUCH cheaper. Like 30 bucks cheaper.

You shouldn't bother with any of the starter decks. The Premiere starters are basically larger packs; nothing special about them. The SE starters have some fixed cards, but they are available in some of the Reflections packs. Death Star II starters have exclusive Piett and Ackbar cards, but they're available as foils in Reflections 2.

 

1: Jabba's Palace. This set seems to go for the cheapest of any booster boxes, usually around 18 bucks or so. Is it THAT bad, or was it just overprinted?

Bib's right.

2: Booster Boxes. Should 1 box of a set be enough for the casual non tourney play I will be engaging in?

Absolutely. The boxes you've already picked up are fine for casual play.

3: Like I said, I picked up a booster box of Premiere, Hoth Revised, and A New Hope. Most likely if I enjoy the game I will pick up ONE more booster box of 1 expansion, price depending. (Nothing over 30 dollars.) What is your recommendation?

If you can find it, look for a box of Enhanced Premiere or Enhanced Jabba's Palace. Either would be a good choice. Other than that, I think I've seen some Reflections boxes for under $30, that would also be a good choice.

4: Starter Decks. There are a couple different sets of these out there. Given the fact these days you have to buy boxes, is it worth my time picking any up? Are the cards random in the boosters or not? I wouldn't mind getting Death Star 2, but booster boxes for it are quite pricey. The starter deck boxes I remember seeing are MUCH cheaper. Like 30 bucks cheaper.

I agree with Bib, except for one thing. I would pick up one or two of each Light Side and Dark Side Death Star II starter deck. First of all, it's a cheap and easy way to pick up nice versions of Han and Chewie, Ackbar and Piett and Tempest 1. Second, it has a couple of "starting interrupts" which you'll like, plus Squadron Assignments and Combat Response will really help with all the pilots and ships you bought with Premiere and A New Hope.

Since each DSII starter deck is completely fixed, don't get a whole starter deck BOX if you can help it, just one or two of each deck would be fine.

 

Thanks for the info.

Off ebay I just won 2nd and 3rd Anthology boxes, plus Jabba's Palace Sealed Deck and
Official Tournament Sealed Deck boxes all for the dirt cheap price of 19 bucks. (Ive seen online cardshops selling the Anthologies for 10 each and Sealed Deck tourney boxes for around 20 each. Ebay tends to be my good deals or cant find it on a webshop site. Its never my first choice for shopping, more like the last or easiest to scope out stuff..)

I think that should set me up nicely. Heck, 19 bucks is about how much ink and paper would cost if I printed out the Glossary..

Once I get used to the game I am sure I will have more questions.

 

hmm.... i didn't think jabba's palace was that bad of a set.

so artie......... what is your estimation of the total number of sw:ccg players in this nation? and also more specifically, in central and southern illinios?

also..... correct me if i'm wrong. you can forfiet passengers aboard a starship even if they aren't piloting the starship.

 

You may forfeit any card which is participating in battle. Since passengers participate in battle, they are eligible to be forfeited.

 

so artie......... what is your estimation of the total number of sw:ccg players in this nation? and also more specifically, in central and southern illinios?

With regards to your last question, Decipher's tournament website (tournaments.decipher.com) shows two tournaments coming up this month in the state of Illinois: Al Schaefer is running a tournament on the 18th at Beyond Reality in St. Charles, email ltkettch17@yahoo.com for more info; Eric Olson is running a tournament on the 26th at the Orlando Park Civic Center in Orlando Park, email grimnok@yahoo.com for more info. Since I have no knowledge of Illinois geography (that part of my memory banks must have been wiped clean!) I can't tell you if these are "central or southern Illinois".

As for total players in the nation, I can't really say. From a few tournament reports I read on Decktech, no more than 30 people participated in the two Day 1 qualifer events at the SW:CCG world championships this year. Not a very big number. Past world championship events have pulled in almost 10x that many I think.

But this may not be a true indication of a decline in players, or at least may not indicate a proportionate decline in players overall. The ratio of players who play recreationally vs. those who play competitively is probably greater now than it has been in the past. Also, even if the overall activity has declined, there are still pockets of intense activity here and there. Check out these recent reports posted here on TF.N:

http://cgi.theforce.net/theforce/tfn.cgi?storyID=21777
http://cgi.theforce.net/theforce/tfn.cgi?storyID=21834

Andrew Howard, the former Tournaments Advocate for the PC, may have a better idea of the overall level of activity in SW:CCG.

 

i was actually just asking for you to prove your omniscience, wasn't looking for actual fact. i had seen those two tournament but thought they were both in chicago. orlando park sounds like a chicago suburb and i figured st charles was the best chance not to be one. so i actually checked mapquest and found that st charles is a suburb and orlando park is deffinitely down state (any not chicago basically) illinios. i believe i will see myself at that tournament just to view the skill of the competition. if they won't let me just watch i'll make some mean toys and mains deck (since i don't know all the card out there meant to torment objective based decks. it should be fun. i never played a tournament when i was any good, and now that i don't play i might actually enter one. anyway..... thanx for the help.

 

Don't let yourself be intimidated by the tournament scene. Just build the best deck you can, and be confident when you go in, and you should do fine.

 

so does anyone talk ccg strategy on here?

 

More often I do it on the PC site, or GPN. I don't like the format of the Buzz Boards too much on Decktech.

 

well....... i checked this weekend and realised i had made a mistake. i typed orlando park rather than orland park and it turns out that illinios has both. but orland park (the one i wanted) is a suburb of chicago and i'm just not going to travel 3 hrs to get there.

 

ah..... i just that of a question. i'm just positive i used this card correctly since i simply used it as the card was read. anyway....... yavin 4: Jungle, when i revolutionize that site my lone rebel is still power +2 ans immune to attrition. the card no matter what way you read it says,' A rebel alone here battle at power +2 and is immune to attrition. that combo use to be deadly in my hands, at the time i would play luke with anakins saber (he didn't have his own yet) or obi with his. lightsaber profiency and bam! kicking out 3 force drain and that force icon on the opponents side of the board just begged them to bring done the forces. and if they did, lone warrior, krayt dragon howl, and other destiny adders. and then houjix. right there i wipe out half the pack if not all of it there and any extra force loss (if any) is houjixed. ah i love it. i would win complete games from that site alone. though i can't remember what if anything i could do against an undercover spy.

i think i'm going to rebuild that old deck. could anyone give me some ideas for ridding that site of undercover spy (lightside cards only of course, though with opaque sleave maybe my opponent wouldn't notice if i played sniper heck i just realised that lone warrior is a DS card so i guess i use to play something else). other than my old 'mine' deck this was my favorite.

 

i just remembered sorry about the mess. but if you can think of any others that would be good.

 

Revealed, Double Agent, Corran Horn

 

Yavin 4:Jungle hasn't been clarified or errata-ed, so you must be using it right.

R-3PO can hurt DS undercover spies. Problem with this (or with using Corran) is then your Rebel (Luke or Obi) isn't "alone" at the Jungle.

 

i would love to think i was the only one to ever abuse that jungle, makes me proud. but yeah, 'alone' is key to the strategy. thanx for the help.

 

Yeah, I never liked that site.

 

(shameless bump)

 

Quite shameless, in fact.