Star Wars the Card Game - not dead yet

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/1/10/promise-of-power-1/

This recent article on the Fantasy Flight Games site said that Promise of Power is the final release for the Star Wars card game.

"Promise of Power is the final Force Pack of the Alliances cycle, marking the climactic conclusion of the cycle. With ten new objective sets (two copies each of five distinct sets), this Force Pack continues to reward players for melding affiliations together in a single deck. Promise of Power also introduces plenty of characters from Star Wars Rebels, bringing a new version of Ezra Bridger, Cikatro Vizago, and more Inquisitors into the game.
In addition to being the final Force Pack of the Alliances cycle, Promise of Power marks the completion of Star Wars: The Card Game. Over the past five years, Star Wars: The Card Game has seen five deluxe expansions and six cycles of Force Packs, ranging from the Battle of Hoth, through the pilots of the Rogue Squadron cycle, the forest battles of the Endor cycle, and the most recent changes of the Opposition and Alliances cycle. With the conclusion of the Alliances cycle, the game will be complete, and the Star Wars World Championships in May will be the final Organized Play World Championship for the game"

There isn't much I want to say on the end of the game, as I feel this video from the Fully Operational YouTube channel says it better (hosted by the 2017 UK Nationals runner-up)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V80euCwSWc8

However, as long as we have a player base in Plymouth, I intend on continuing to run events. Now it's a "complete" game, there won't be surprise swings in the card pool. It exists as a game that hadn't reached a consensus best deck. I feel this is due to a combination of having to build/play both a Light Side and a Dark Side deck, and also to the unique Pod building system which stops you just making your deck 100% the best cards. I hope we get much more play, especially as players finish off their sets.

So, with that being said, our most recent event was this past Saturday. I'm going to talk about the decks I played.

The Dark Side - Death Star Assembly

Let's start with the weaker deck.

• Imperial Navy affiliation
• 2 x Technological Terror
• 2 x Death and Despayre
• 2 x Deploy the Fleet
• 2 x Victory or Death
• 1 x Repair and Refurbish
• 1 x Moon Blockade

I consider it weaker simply as there some sub-optimal choices in the deck. This is due to me currently having several decks built, and the pods I'd potentially want being in other decks. It's built to a simple theme. Construct the Death Star and smash the Rebellion from the galaxy.

Objectives - Four of my sets produce 2 resources, and a further two can be damaged to reduce the cost of Capital Ships. Repair and Refurbish helps mitigate that damage and slow down the enemy assault. Victory or Death keeps opposing units from controlling the Force, as this deck wants to be the aggressor. Finally, Moon Blockade brings us the Executor.

Units - Thirty of the cards are Units, of which eleven are Resource generators. We want the heavy hitters coming down as soon as possible, although we risk flooding on resources occasionally. There is a fair spread of Edge enabled icons amongst them, mostly Tactics, for when they are forced to join the fight. The Death Star Engineer is crucial, as it's action helps me stop the opponent from locking down my ships with their Tactics.
Five of the units are Officers. They are mostly chuds, although sometimes I have the spare Resources for the Imperial Officer to speed up the Dial, and Chiraneau's ability to shut down the text on opposing Objectives can come up clutch.
Twelve Star Destroyers. No Tactics here, just plenty of Blast and Gun to smash through the opponent's defences and Objectives. Thuderflare does contribute some healing to my side while moving that damage over to the opponent, and the Devastator helps increase the Dial. The Executor can finish off a damaged Objective, which is usually a surprise to the opponent.
Finally, two copies of the Death Star itself. If that manages to hit the table, it's usually game over during that turn or the next.

Enhancements - Eleven Enhancements, eight of which generate Resources. Six Control Rooms can lead to problems if they start clogging up the hand, but they can always be used to bluff in Edge battles.

Events - Three Events. One Jamming Protocol, which can stop a key Event, and two Admiral's Orders. Reducing the cost of a Capital Ship by 2 often lets me deploy two in a turn, and start the offence.

Fate  - Six Fate cards. None of them are particularly spectacular but included because they are in the Pods. Heat of Battle is always a nice surprise though, and Echoes is always solid.


The deck itself attempts to play in a similar fashion to a Ramp strategy in Magic. Make cards that generate Resources, to make large attackers, to smash the opponent's Objectives. You want to commit something to the Force in the first turn, to make the opponent work for it, but otherwise, you want to be on the attack as much as possible. Accelerating the turning of the Dial via Objective destruction, plus the reaction of the Devastator and Imperial Officer close the game out quickly.

It can start to falter if the opponent seizes the initiative as it lacks most, if not all, of the traditional control elements you see from Imperial Navy. You also lose if you draw all the Resources and none of the Star Destroyers, as that gives your opponent time to put you on the back foot. It's a blast to play though, and nothing quite feels like counting out 12 Resources to deploy the Death Star, and then reading it's text to your opponent.

On the day, across the three rounds, it flooded in the first round against Jedi, pulled off a close win against a Smugglers deck featuring Blockade Runner rush and finally managed to keep a Jedi deck on the back foot long enough to deploy the Death Star as a finisher.

The Light Side - Ewok Swarm

This deck has been both fun, and surprisingly strong.

• Jedi Affiliation
• 2 x Sacrifice at Endor
• 2 x Native Blessings
• 1 x Lost in the Forest
• 2 x Warriors of the Forest
• 1 x Tribe of the Trees
• 1 x Courage of the Tribes
• 1 x Tribal Support

I built it originally as a joke because one of the local players HATES Ewoks. Then it started winning games in record time, the joke became serious. The recent release of Native Blessings has solidified the deck in my opinion.

Objectives - All were chosen to maximise the amount of Ewoks in the deck. However, Tribe of the Trees shuts down popular cards like Force Choke. The number of times I had to remind opponents that they couldn't target the Ewoks was quite funny. The real star is Warriors of the Forest though, as the additional Edge enabled Blast icons helps the swarm tear through Objectives.

Units - Twenty-six units. One C-3PO and the rest are Ewoks. Ambushers are cheap. Hunters draw cards. Allys help win Edge battles. Scouts are the key though, stopping the opponents best defender from joining the Engagement. Especially good in the early turns. Very key to taking out an Objective on the first turn. Hordes provide muscle, and the named Ewoks give various utility.

Enhancements - Seven Enhancements. Most are simply Edge fodder, as if Warriors of the Forest is out, you want to have those Icons active. Forest Awareness can give a key Ewok Elite though, and Bright Tree Village makes spare Ewoks better in the Edge stack.

Events - Ten Events. All have their uses, although again you shouldn't be afraid to just pitch them to win Edge battles. Feast of Honor is the STAR card though. It lets you flood the board with Ewoks in one turn. If the opponent makes one Main character to defend in their first turn, and you have Warriors of the Forest out, you can use this to deploy 4 Ewoks in your first turn. If one of them is a Scout, then your opponent can't defend and you destroy the Objective of your choice turn one. It's very easy to follow this up with a Horde on the second turn too.

Missions - Two Missions. Its two copies of Repel the Invaders, which is situational. I rarely want to play this as a mission, as there are rarely good targets for its Reaction, assuming you can get through, although it doesn't generate any Resources. So, like many of the non-Ewok cards, it's home is the Edge Stack.

Fate - Five Fate cards. Two copies of Secret Objective,  to keep the opponent on their toes. I can see a scenario where the ability is good, but mostly it has 3 Force pips. Three copies of Battle of Endor should be 4 Force pip cards, as all the Objectives have the Endor trait.

It's a swarm deck. Fill the board with Ewoks, send them all at one Objective, hopefully denying some defence, destroy it and repeat until 3 are destroyed. It plays fast, doesn't care about defending and doesn't care about the Force. It can, with the right cards, destroy 1 Objective a turn across its first three turns leading to a very fast win.

If your opponent gets a good amount of defenders out quickly, or you stumble, then the game can become unwinnable just as quickly. Force Storm is not your friend. Play smart and you can recover from the board wipe though. It's a struggle, but always play it out. You never know how you might overwhelm them, as Force Storm isn't cheap to use.

On the day, in the first round I managed the 3 turn kill, in the second round I faltered and the opponent managed to stabilise before I could get the third Objective. In the third round, the quick kill happened again. 4 Ewoks and a Feast of Honor is the best possible start.

It was a four-player event, and I came second due to tiebreakers. Everyone had fun, and we will keep playing. It's love of Star Wars that unites us as players, and since the game is good we will play long past the official end of its lifespan.