The Star Wars CCG has gone through many changes, but no set of cards have altered the way that people play more than EPPs, ECC, and EJP. These sets brought the concept of characters with built in weapons and ships with very good pilots. Although these sets are very small, they have brought about some of the greatest change in the game.

The first set, Expanded Premier, brought some of the best alternatives for main characters into the game. Obi-Wan, Darth Vadar. and Luke come with their lightsabers, while Han, Leia, and Boba Fett have their own blasters. These last three also have built in destiny adders when with certain characters in battle. These cards are significant because they replace two cards in a deck, allowing other cards that would normally have to be cut from the deck to stay in. These cards also give the benefit that when you draw one up, you not only get the character, but you also don't have to wait to find his or her weapon either. This makes for quick and efficient deployment of the character and gives the opponent a reason to be careful of what they deploy to fight the armed character.

The characters with lightsabers are especially potent, since they can cut down high ability characters with out some trouble. The light side has a particular advantage, since deploying Han, Leia, and Luke together not only gives you three weapons, but also three battle destiny. These cards lack only one thing, which is an immunity to attrition. This is only a minor nuisance, since many characters are cut down in the battle or must be forfeited to cut the cost of battle damage anyhow. There are a few ways to help against this though. One option for the light side is to deploy Yoda to Yoda's Hut, thus giving the EPP characters immunity to attrition less than 3. Another strategy is to deploy extra characters with high forfeit to the site, such as Wedge Antilles or Officer Evax. The only problem is that they become targets for built in blasters, which reduce their high forfeit to 0. However the advantage of built in weapons often out weighs immunity to attrition in the mind of players, so EPPs are in every deck, if a person can afford them. And at a price of only $13-$15 dollars, most people can afford to purchase a few.

Next came ECC, which gave a huge boost to the dark side, who had lost out a little in the expanded premier packs. ECC brings IG-88 and 4-LOM to the dark side, while the light side gains Lando and Chewie. IG-88 is one of the best characters the dark side has received in a while, though only being able to capture characters is a bit of a loss. Even though, he is a great character, since he can't be battled, can battle, and adds a battle destiny when alone or when with another bounty hunter. 4-LOM is not quite as good as Iggy, but he can cancel the game text of anyone in the battle, so when targeting Han, he can cancel a shot and a destiny if with Luke.

The Light side gains Lando, who is basically just another gun to add to the light side arsenal. Chewie on the other hand is not as great, since he does not add one to the weapon destiny of his blaster and can only add power to freighters.

The Dark side gains something else in this set though, in the form of Dengar in Punishing One and Boba Fett in Slave I. Dengar is great against swarm X-wing decks, not only canceling their immunity to attrition if Organized Attack is played, but also adding one to the dark sides power for each ship on the light side at that system. Boba Fett in Slave I is a very good ship, since it draws destiny and has immunity to attrition. However, this ship leads to a real dilemma, should you put Boba Fett in space or on the ground? Most people seem to chose the ground, although I have seen Boba Fett in Slave I used to help fend off Hidden Base.

The Light sides new ships are much weaker. The Z-95 is only used in cloud decks, which are getting more and more rare, and Lando in Falcon is a plain waste of a card. Everyone always uses Lando on the ground and the restriction that Han can't fly until he has won Sabacc puts real limits onto the card.

The two objectives are also not so great, although the dark side objective does have some definite possibilities. The Light sides objective is pretty terrible and probably won't be used until someone comes up with a strategy for it. The effect Crush the Rebellion and the Starting/Used Interrupt Any Methods Necessary are fairly good cards that have some uses. Crush the Rebellion gives the dark side a better chance to use the objective in the set by limiting light destiny draws and allowing the dark side to cancel Clash of Sabers by losing a force. Being able to search for Evadar and I Have You Now is also nice, and making Evadar immune to Sense will protect against force choke/Revolution decks. The Starting interrupt gives the dark side a great starting hand, and most people who use it pull Boba Fett with Blaster Rifle and Boba Fett in Slave I. This interrupt also gives a lot of help to IG-88 by allowing the dark side to start with a prison in hand, giving Iggy a place to stick his captives. ECC gave the dark side a bigger boost than the light side, but it helped to equal out the lack of dark side characters in the EPPs. And by the way, since ECC is now out of print, I would suggest trying to get a hold of what you want now before prices raise.

EJP is the newest introduction into the Star Wars Universe, so all of its strategies have (hopefully) not been found yet. The dark side gains the most in this set again, and in my opinion, the light side does not really get that much. The new characters for the dark are Mara Jade(Thank God, another light saber wielding character for the dark side), Jodo Kast, Dengar with Blaster Carbine, and Bossk with Mortar Gun.

Mara Jade is by far the best character to come out of the set, although putting her lightsaber in a different pack is a very blatant way for Decipher to make more money. Jodo Kast is decent allowing the light side to cancel a destiny if more than one is drawn by the light side. The free shot with any blaster or rifle is quite nice and being able to add 2 to the weapon destiny really tops him off. The only problem is fitting a blaster into your deck for him to use and then getting it on to him. The whole process is rarely worth the effort. Dengar is a nice character, especially since he can shot twice in battle (Or twice with sniper, which is a nice way to get rid of those fodder characters on the light side). His low ability makes him a great target for blasters though, so don't expect to keep him around to long. Bossk is probably the worst dark side character, even though he makes capturing very easy. Capturing is just hard to pull off, and since Bossk only has an ability of two, he will be shot at constantly to free whoever he has captured.

The two new ships for the dark side are decent, although IG-88 in IG-2000 is a bit weak. Zuckuss in Mist Hunter is quite nice, since he draws destiny and reduces the destiny of the light side to 0 unless they have ability of 7 or more at the system. IG-88 in IG-2000 has some of the benefits that his card has, including not being able to be battled and being able to battle. He also adds a destiny if fighting alone.

The Dark side objective Court of the Vile Gangster/I Shall Enjoy Watching You Die is decent and some people are starting to test it out. Some people are even starting to play it just for the benefits of the front side. The Light side really lost out, receiving only three characters and a weak objective. Master Luke is not all that great, since he is power minus two against Vadar. HIs choke is OK, but is just not good enough to make him a staple card. See-Threepio is, well, going to be just as unused as the other Personas, although the Endor Threepio does see some playing time. Boushh is probably the best character, although most players are reluctant to use her instead of Leia with Blaster. Her ability to stop your opponent from modifying your drains is nice, but the fact is that this is still Leia, not just some nobody character. The Light side objective is pitiful. I have only seen it used once, and it was beat every game. The player did manage to flip the card, but it could just not work fast enough to beat Hunt Down and Destroy the Jedi or ISB Operations.

The best thing that these cards have done for the game is to allow younger players to get a hold of good cards with out a huge investment. Sure, they are not going to be world champions with just a few of these cards, but at least they can win a few games. Hopefully this will keep them from giving up after they have received a severe beat down a more experienced player. Well that is that is what I think, and if you have a different opinion, email me at DroopyMcCool49@Hotmail.com

Josh Clark
Bravo 8