Title: MAKING AN ENDOR DECK

As you read this you may be asking yourself, how can I make an Endor deck? At time of writing, not even the spoiler list has been released for this expansion. That, of course, makes deck construction pretty difficult. However, this article is not designed to give you an exact deck listing (arguably, the decks page is designed for that) but to try and express to you how to make a deck for yourself when an expansion is first released.

It is when an expansion is first released - those first few weeks - that a lot of players find very difficult. There are no well-known deck types about, and Internet sites have very little to go off. If you're like me and are planning to attend a tournament on the weekend only a couple of days after Endor is released then it will be well worth reading on to find out how you can put together a competitive deck.

From what we can gather from Decipher, Endor is going to introduce some rather amazing new cards which will be so powerful that non-Endor decks will not stand a chance. That may seem severe, but if it were not the case then why are they forbidding Endor cards at the Open event?? The same was true for Special Edition - if you were using Operatives, Hidden Base or ISB the opponent using his Jabba's Palace decks would have stood very little chance, even if it were Matt Potter or Philip Jacobs.

So, point number one. You're going to have to make an Endor deck. Don't think your current deck will be good enough.

Next point, deck theme. Personally, because the planet Endor is seemingly going to be the focus of most Endor decks then it will be pretty hard to use "just slightly modified" current decks. This is a bit presumptive, a think that Hidden Base for one will still be very powerful. However, I would strongly advise you to look at the new deck themes suggested in the expansion - particularly here I think that the objectives will be screaming out to be used. Remember, no one has used these cards. The element of surprise can be used in your favour.

Try not to take out a few cards from your current deck, and add in a few Endor cards which you think look good. I did this with Jabba's Palace (in casual play), and it just doesn't work. Take apart your current deck and build a new one from scratch.

Point number two. Build a deck from scratch.

Okay, so what makes a good deck? Well, this is an extremely hard question to answer (personally, I would argue it is impossible to answer - it all comes down to your preferences and local metagame). Of course, the perfect deck would be one that works quickly, has high power and high forfeit, some easy retrieval and relies little on luck. But Operatives were in Special Edition, so don't expect the same kind of mistake again!! (Sorry Decipher, but they were inexcusable!).

You can win the game through two avenues - Battle or Force Drain. The current trend Decipher are going for (which is to be encouraged) is to take away the emphasis from draining and go for more battles. Of course, one argument Decipher put forward recently is that force drains actually encourage battle. Well, that may be true but the two are quite different. You should definitely have a force drain plan up your sleeve in order to win because you can never be sure of what the opponent will do, and if he doesn't battle you then you don't want to be totally screwed.

Look through all your cards, and see what they do. Have a good look at them, don't dismiss any and particularly not the commons. I once heard it said "Who reads the commons anyway!?". Well, everyone should. They are the basis of the best decks since 1998 - Skrillings, Eloms, Inserts, Droid Merchants, X-Wings, Operatives, etc. These are the cards that are going to shape your deck and these are the cards you're more likely to have. So read 'em and use them.

Point three. Read the cards. Analyse the cards. Be thorough, and objective.

A common mistake I believe in deck design is to rely too much on luck (or the Force?). The game is divided into three parts - skill, deck and luck. If you can limit the luck element as much as possible, it means the game comes down to skill and deck which you can control. "How do you eliminate luck?" I hear you ask. Well, you can't totally. There IS such a thing as luck, despite what Obi-Wan believes. However, you can help yourself in this area. Don't build a strategy that relies totally around something that is going to be hard to pull off. Don't rely on cards coming up if you only have one or two in the deck (a classic example of this is players who rely on Dark Jedi Presence in their deck, but only pack one). Often people feel hard done by if their ideas don't work, but quite often it is not bad luck but bad judgement. I am guilty myself - when I used a Kessel Run deck I bemoaned when he drew the only 0 in his deck and I lost because of it. But this was not really bad luck - I took a chance with a risky card, and lost. Risks are good, and good decks always border on the risky side, but they can also backfire.

Next idea might seem obvious when I first say it. Make a 60-card deck. "Eh? Isn't that in the rules?" you say. Well, yes. But I don't mean that literally. What I mean is you shouldn't make a deck which tries to (e.g.) blow up the Death Star, whilst using X-Wing swarm in space and Elom swarm on the ground with both All Wings Report In and Nar Shaddaa Chimes for retrieval plus some mains for beatdown. Now, that's an exaggerated case perhaps, but I hope you see my point. Don't try and bite off more than you can chew. Don't over complicate your decks with too many deck themes. Keep it simple.

Point five, make a 60-card deck.

A lot of decks I see seem to be pretty good decks, and it is sometimes hard to think why they don't do well (that Kessel Run deck is perhaps a good example!). The answer often lies not in your deck, but in the opponents. When you're constructing a deck, try and bare in mind what the opponent might be doing. With Endor, this will be difficult. You may not know what kind of decks you're likely to see - but during your analysis of the cards (see point three) you should be able to see some deck types emerging. You know the kind of thing that normally happens anyway, so be prepared for that big draining/swarming/battling deck. Pack some counters to the most likely decks you are going to face.

This can be taken too far. If you're going to a 20-person tournament then in order to counter every single deck there you'd have to pack 95% counter cards and your deck would dive. Badly. So, quite simply, don't. Think about what are good general counters, and maybe include some more specific ones for the most likely decks you're gonna see (e.g. on the release of Special Edition Courage of a Skywalker was a good counter card for HDADTJ).

Point six, think from the other side. What is your opponent likely to be doing?

Look for the relationships between cards, and see how they work together. I forsee Endor being full of many obvious and hidden combos. Chances are, there'll be much interaction with cards from previous sets too (dust off those Troopers and Scouts for instance). Make a deck that works well together. A"team deck", if you will. Every card is part of the deck team, and although it may have stars at the end of the day you couldn't win without all 60.

Point seven, make a well rounded and interactive deck.

The final point I'm going to make in this article refers to playtesting. If you can, try and playtest your deck with someone else. If you can, then it will be easy to see where you made mistakes and you should be able to account for them. Never stumbly blindly on, it is extremely rare to play with a deck and think at the end "Geez, that deck is perfect." Nope, you can almost always improve on a deck.

If you don't have anyone to playtest on (or want to keep your deck secret from fellow competitiors) then you should look through your deck, and analyse it when it is together. Maybe pick some "practice starting hands". I know this seems a bit weird, but it can really help. You know what you're likely to begin with. If you're picking a hand of eight interrupts each time, it's giving you some serious indication about imbalance in the deck.

If you can, surf the 'Net to see what other kind of decks are being suggested. I'd say do this after you've come up with a deck yourself (remember, your deck is likely to be every bit as good as anyone elses). See what you're likely to come up against, and try and guess how your deck would handle the situation.

Point eight, playtest and modify the deck.

And then, you should be ready to take your Endor deck to a tournament! I think that if you follow these eight steps you'll be surprised at how easy it becomes to design a fully functional deck that includes Endor cards! A new expansion is no reason to worry, it can work in your advantage as noone has seen this kind of deck before!! A summary of the eight points follows:

1) You're going to have to make an Endor deck.
2) Build a deck from scratch.
3) Read the cards. Analyse the cards. Be thorough, and objective.
4) Make your own luck (but don't cheat!!)
5) Make a 60-card deck.
6) Think from the other side. What is your opponent likely to be doing?
7) Make a well rounded and interactive deck.
8) Playtest and modify the deck.

Good luck - and enjoy.............. Endor

Article written by Rod Latham of the Trandosite