Several weeks back I took a trip down to Bluegrass Magic in Louisville, Ky for my for Star Wars: TCG regional. I don't get to play much in the way of competitive these days so I decided to take a deck I needed to work on to see what could be done. So here is what I ran:
Rebel Alliance
A Legend Begins x2
Command and Control x2
Solidarity of Spirit x2
Green Squadron Deployment x2
Mobilize the Squadron x1
Capital Cover x1
A Legend Begins x2
A Legend Begins give some good edge for the Rebels and a way to possibly control what ends up getting to shoot at me in the engagement. Unfortunately I often pitched Wedge to the edge and the resource is the least efficient but it does do some interesting things for the Alliance. Just not sure if it is enough.
Command and Control x2
In this pod we get a way to increase handsize as long as we can manage to take an objective, a main that decreases the cost of most of the units in the deck and shielding; those two reason are solid choices to play it but it also bring Resupply Depot and another way to mess with edge math in Supporting Fire. Add in some Black Blast with a couple Corvettes I would probably take another another card in place of the second Corvette but it is a solid body. Not sure I would every cut this pod for this type of deck.
Solidarity of Spirit x2
I love and hate this pod, I wish it let the opponent put a unit that costs one less as I have to weigh triggering it every time it comes into play but had to run it in my deck, a free Home One is tempting but I don't want to have to see a free Vader in reply. Now I would play the pod for Home One and the free resource which I can't use it for the the Corvettes but if you want you can play the MC80 from this pod to get a little more mileage out of resources for capital ships. Battle of Endor rounds out the pod on a down note since most cards the deck runs are not Endor so it ends up as 1-2pips for the edge usually.
Green Squadron Deployment x2
So I don't really care about the force with this deck so I never really played the objective and while the seeds is nice I can't see me committing too many units since most are not elite and I can't afford the other side to over focus my ships. I ran it for the resource and The Liberty but it is a non-elite unit that needs to be committed to the force to work. Navy has Gladiators and other ways to manipulate the edge, Sith just has edge numbers beyond what this deck can handle. So I often felt it was overcosted for the current meta, at least for something that will get focused before it can pop a problem unit back into your opponent's hand.
Mobilize the Squadron x1
A quasi-elite objective that help to drop some of the more expensive units or even 2 capital ships on a turn with the proper reductions. Trench Run gave me another way to cherry pick objective with Home One and Rebel Assault gave me a another way to push on the last bit of damage for a unit or objective. Cheap bodies in X-wing and Rookie pilot for rounding out the resources I could spend or for cheap Covering Fore Bodies.
Capital Cover x1
Objective is usually a priority target but it give me a way to try and get the ships to survive so they can strike. Another capital ship in Defiance that can help the survivability for your key ships, MC40 gives you another way to try and survive the engagement and the MC30 is a source of cheap blast. Capital Fire was a card that I never got off but I like the threat of it. Rounding out the pod is protection for another source of shields for the ships.
So after the tournament I knew that I would either be dropping Green Squadron completely or at least going down to one copy of it. So I also needed more shields or tactics, shields seed easir so the changes that I as testing now are:
-2 Green Squadron Deployment
+1 Mobilize the Squadron
+1 Capital Cover
This gives me more resources on objectives while letting my draws for shields get a little more consistent. I want to get another good round of games with these changes in to see what else I can do to improve the deck. So while it is far from top tier it is a fun deck that could probably be improved from here.
Saturday, December 24, 2016
Growing a Gamer: Alternatives to Candyland
...or why Hisss doesn't drive me crazy.
So our daughter is almost 6 years old she has been enjoying boardgames for a couple years now and it looks to have taken seed as an activity for the next few years. I often get asked by fellow gamer parents what we did to encourage the hobby so I decided I would throw together some thought on the subject and a few games for the younglings.
The first step is be excited about any game they want to play, this means you are going to play Candyland(seriously, be excited about it) at some point if they show interest in board games because a relative will buy it or you will be roped into playing it at a ply date. Be happy and excited that your child is interested, you can try and steer choices later, if you aren't happy chances are the kid will pick up on it and after a few fails the interest will probably die off. Nothing kills the drive for gaming than seeing someone playing a game in a lackluster way, especially if it is a game you wanted to play(so again, be excited).
Second do not hesitate to make changes to early games, you can often make house rules that will make the games easier to understand for games that push the child a little above the age range. The one thing to make sure is that the child knows you are playing by a modified set to rules. This brings us to the first game I will discuss: Hisss
Now Hiss is a game where you draw a card and play it onto the matching color to build a snake. The snake must have at least 3 pieces consisting of 1 head, 1 tail and at least one body section. The large the snake the more points it is worth. Now like most kids early game help them learn to take turns, teach something basic and teaches them sportsmanship. Now I decided to make the game a cooperative game at first, the goal was changed from scoring the more points than the opponent to completing all the snakes. This means we could talk through the turns and help each other make the decision and it made learning to lose easier since we lost together. We would try to make bigger snakes to beat our high score the next time we played the game so the goal was also a shifting number. This went on until I felt she knew the game and then I asked if she would like to try playing the game a different way and we used the standard rules. We still play by the modified rules every now and then but it is often the standard rules that are used these days.
So now when she suggests Candyland I will suggest Hisss, but if she insists I am happy to play a game of whatever she wants. Next time on Growing a Gamer: Alternatives to Tic Tac Toe
So our daughter is almost 6 years old she has been enjoying boardgames for a couple years now and it looks to have taken seed as an activity for the next few years. I often get asked by fellow gamer parents what we did to encourage the hobby so I decided I would throw together some thought on the subject and a few games for the younglings.
The first step is be excited about any game they want to play, this means you are going to play Candyland(seriously, be excited about it) at some point if they show interest in board games because a relative will buy it or you will be roped into playing it at a ply date. Be happy and excited that your child is interested, you can try and steer choices later, if you aren't happy chances are the kid will pick up on it and after a few fails the interest will probably die off. Nothing kills the drive for gaming than seeing someone playing a game in a lackluster way, especially if it is a game you wanted to play(so again, be excited).
Second do not hesitate to make changes to early games, you can often make house rules that will make the games easier to understand for games that push the child a little above the age range. The one thing to make sure is that the child knows you are playing by a modified set to rules. This brings us to the first game I will discuss: Hisss
Now Hiss is a game where you draw a card and play it onto the matching color to build a snake. The snake must have at least 3 pieces consisting of 1 head, 1 tail and at least one body section. The large the snake the more points it is worth. Now like most kids early game help them learn to take turns, teach something basic and teaches them sportsmanship. Now I decided to make the game a cooperative game at first, the goal was changed from scoring the more points than the opponent to completing all the snakes. This means we could talk through the turns and help each other make the decision and it made learning to lose easier since we lost together. We would try to make bigger snakes to beat our high score the next time we played the game so the goal was also a shifting number. This went on until I felt she knew the game and then I asked if she would like to try playing the game a different way and we used the standard rules. We still play by the modified rules every now and then but it is often the standard rules that are used these days.
So now when she suggests Candyland I will suggest Hisss, but if she insists I am happy to play a game of whatever she wants. Next time on Growing a Gamer: Alternatives to Tic Tac Toe
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