Smugglers and Spies Deck Ideas and Strategy

[Toqtamish 3,643]

Smugglers and Spies I really like and plan to make them my LS faction of choice. That being said right now we are kinda limited with them only having the one objective set in each core set. Now what you get in that OSet is great so don't get me wrong.

When I built my first deck to play the game I took the Jedi Starter deck and added the neutral pod and one copy of the Questionable Contacts objective set. I didn't do too well but this was my very first game and I was teaching my friend to play as well, he was playing as the Sith.

Since then I have acquired my second core set and built a Rebel Alliance/Smugglers deck using Smugglers as my affiliation and two copies of Questionable Contacts plus Hit and Run, Tribal Support and one copy of each Rebel Alliance OSet except for Mobilize the Squadrons as that would be an illegal choice. Played two games with that yesterday and won the second one. The reason I was only using one of each Rebel OSet was I had not played any of them yet so wanted to get some exposure. Afterwards I ended up picking out the OSets I liked the best and doubling up on them. I actually ended up building the same deck as in the FFG LS article. I almost took the Akbar pod instead but decided not to for now. So the deck seems like it will play really well now that I got a feel for more of it. I am not sure I like not having Tribal Support as the Ewok Scouts ability to stop an attacker proved quite useful.

Now I would like to go back and add Smugglers to the Jedi as well to see how that works out.

So the point of this rambling. Let's talk strategy and decks for the Smugglers and Spies, for the time being they are being splashed with the other factions. Anyone had any luck with other deck lists ? With the Jedi instead of Rebels ?

[Ulairi 0]

I want to make Smugglers and Spies my LS faction as well. Have you tried this deck?

 

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3818

 

Play that for a few games and use that as a starting point. I'm going to experiement with some SS/Jedi for our game night this Monday and Ill let you know.

[c3po2 0]

Toqtamish said:

Smugglers and Spies I really like and plan to make them my LS faction of choice. That being said right now we are kinda limited with them only having the one objective set in each core set. Now what you get in that OSet is great so don't get me wrong.

When I built my first deck to play the game I took the Jedi Starter deck and added the neutral pod and one copy of the Questionable Contacts objective set. I didn't do too well but this was my very first game and I was teaching my friend to play as well, he was playing as the Sith.

Since then I have acquired my second core set and built a Rebel Alliance/Smugglers deck using Smugglers as my affiliation and two copies of Questionable Contacts plus Hit and Run, Tribal Support and one copy of each Rebel Alliance OSet except for Mobilize the Squadrons as that would be an illegal choice. Played two games with that yesterday and won the second one. The reason I was only using one of each Rebel OSet was I had not played any of them yet so wanted to get some exposure. Afterwards I ended up picking out the OSets I liked the best and doubling up on them. I actually ended up building the same deck as in the FFG LS article. I almost took the Akbar pod instead but decided not to for now. So the deck seems like it will play really well now that I got a feel for more of it. I am not sure I like not having Tribal Support as the Ewok Scouts ability to stop an attacker proved quite useful.

Now I would like to go back and add Smugglers to the Jedi as well to see how that works out.

So the point of this rambling. Let's talk strategy and decks for the Smugglers and Spies, for the time being they are being splashed with the other factions. Anyone had any luck with other deck lists ? With the Jedi instead of Rebels ?

Spies affil

2x A Hero's Journey

2x Forgotten Heroes

2x In You Must Go

2x Questionable Contacts

     Tribal Support

     Secret of Yavin 4

I might lose Tribal Support in favor of Last Minute Rescue or something, I get annoyed drawing Yub Yubs that I have to ditch because I have no Scouts. I had Han and Luke down the other day and it was very difficult for my opponent to deal with and the game ended quickly after that. Jedi are a lot of fun, especially when C3PO jumps in front of a Superlaser Blast. His country is forever proud.

[Toqtamish 3,643]

Yup that is the one I was talking about Ulairi. Will be playing it on Saturday, I just put it together yesterday after my games. Was surprised when I saw it was the same one from the article. 

 

Jedi have some enhancements that I think could really buff up Han. OMG C-3P0, I never even thought of using the card like that.

[TGO 84]

I like Han with Rebels, lots of direct damage potential.  Between the heavy blasters, rebel assaults, and Ackbar you can cause some trouble for the DS. 

[c3po2 0]

Toqtamish said:

Yup that is the one I was talking about Ulairi. Will be playing it on Saturday, I just put it together yesterday after my games. Was surprised when I saw it was the same one from the article. 

 

Jedi have some enhancements that I think could really buff up Han. OMG C-3P0, I never even thought of using the card like that.

Han only benefits from Trust Your Feelings which might make him somewhat less valuable than Luke, though Han's lack of force use is made up for a little bit by Crossfire (which benefits every unit). He costs less than Obi-Wan (unless you Return of the Jedi him for cheap), does an instant damage, and ensures that their focused resource stays focused next turn so they have trouble adding more units (helps the effectiveness of Swindled, and often you can lock an in-play objective and cut off access to a certain affil.

Yoda costs one less than Han and also has a black tactics icon. Their HP woes are the same, and can be accounted for using the same set of cards. Yoda has the potential to do more damage with unit and blast icons from enhancements, but Han is able to shoot two different non-participating units every time he swings; because, of the few units in the current game that have access to Targeted Strike, Han is one of two that have it naturally (Luke is the other).

The effect on Questionable Contacts is effectively "heal a unit for one, damage one of theirs for one," and is another reason to play Last Minute Rescue, since Emergency Repair can reset the damage you put on it. That said, I'm tempted to replace Tribal with a second copy of Secret of Yavin 4 as extra insurance vs events and the edge battle.

[c3po2 0]

	Han	Luke	Yoda	Obi-Wan
Cost	4	4	3	5
HP	2	3	2	3
Force	3	3	5	4
Unit    (Edge)	2 (0)	2 (0)	0 (1)	1 (0)
Tactic (Edge)	1 (0)	0 (0)	1 (0)	1 (1)
Blast  (Edge)	0 (1)	1 (1)	0 (1)	0 (1)
Elite?	No	No	Yes	Yes
Force User?	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Targeted Strike?	Yes	Yes	No	No

For ease of reference.

[TGO 84]

If Han were Elite he would be so much better. I can't wait for Chewie, Lando and the Falcon. 

[DailyRich 3,346]

I'm toying with using Han with Decoy at Dantooine.  If I can't give him Chewbacca, I can at least give him the Wookiee Navigator.

[TGO 84]

DailyRich said:

I'm toying with using Han with Decoy at Dantooine.  If I can't give him Chewbacca, I can at least give him the Wookiee Navigator.

 

I have been playing X2 Han Solo with x2 of Leia's objective set, x2 of Ackbar's, X2 of Mon Mothma, X2 Wookie Navigators. I love the Heavy Blaster Emplacement with Han Solo, you can usually put a huge dent into their board position with it. There are a lot of ways to draw cards and with Leia you can reset your board. I have enjoyed this deck so far.

[qwertyuiop 591]

TGO said:

DailyRich said:

 

I'm toying with using Han with Decoy at Dantooine.  If I can't give him Chewbacca, I can at least give him the Wookiee Navigator.

 

 

 

I have been playing X2 Han Solo with x2 of Leia's objective set, x2 of Ackbar's, X2 of Mon Mothma, X2 Wookie Navigators. I love the Heavy Blaster Emplacement with Han Solo, you can usually put a huge dent into their board position with it. There are a lot of ways to draw cards and with Leia you can reset your board. I have enjoyed this deck so far.

I will check this out. What about.. two Hans, Leias, and Lukes, a Obi-Wan, Two Rumors, and Hit and Run?

[TGO 84]

I am not sure how well a 3 faction deck will work. You could end up holding cards you can't play. I had thought  about it but the odds don't look for resources matching. 

[LMKComaBlack 0]

I'm also running a Han/Leia/Wookie deck.

 

Faction: S&S

 

(x2) Questionable Contacts

(x2) Decoy at Dantooine

(x2) Fleeing the Empire

(x2) Mission Briefing

(x1) Rumors at the Cantina

(x1) Hit and Run

 

QC gives us Han, plus Swindle can trigger Leia if needed.  Decoy gives us Wookie Navigator, as well as two ways to trigger Leia (A New Hope and Fall Back, though ANH is only good situationally).  Fleeing the Empire is the Princess.  Mission Briefing lets us have resource acceleration (Mon Mathma), card draw (via A-Wing, triggering twice on the Leia turn being sure we win those edge battles), and the always strong Heavy Blaster Emplacement.  Hit and Run gives us Edge cards and an awesome Objective ability (Especialy when we are hitting the same objective twice with the Wookie Nav).

The only one I'm thinking about getting rid of is the one I though I would need:  Rumors.  With only 6 cards requiring a S&S resource match, I rarely need more than one S&S resource it a turn, so the whole objective isn't of much use..  Cloud City Casino and Crossfire are both neutral.  So, what set would I do well to replace Rumors at the Cantina with?

[gruntl 3]

qwertyuiop said:

 

TGO said:

 

DailyRich said:

 

I'm toying with using Han with Decoy at Dantooine.  If I can't give him Chewbacca, I can at least give him the Wookiee Navigator.

 

 

 

I have been playing X2 Han Solo with x2 of Leia's objective set, x2 of Ackbar's, X2 of Mon Mothma, X2 Wookie Navigators. I love the Heavy Blaster Emplacement with Han Solo, you can usually put a huge dent into their board position with it. There are a lot of ways to draw cards and with Leia you can reset your board. I have enjoyed this deck so far.

 

 

I will check this out. What about.. two Hans, Leias, and Lukes, a Obi-Wan, Two Rumors, and Hit and Run?

 

 

Should work fairly ok, if my calculations are correct you have a 90% chance of getting resource matches for all factions with your starting objectives (and using either the S&S or Rebel affiliation). That's without counting any resource matching command cards in the Rumor set, with that included the figure may be a bit higher.

You could also skip one of the Rumor sets and go with one more Rebel set (and using the S&S affiliation), that actually gives you the same probability of  getting a resource match as above.

This is only for getting one resource match though, if you're playing a deck with many low cost units it may be problematic to get many of them out in one turn.

In general I think people exaggerate the risks of playing a 3 faction deck. 

To LMKComaBlack:

I don't think you need Rumors for a 2 affiliation deck for resource matching (if using the affiliation of the faction with the least number of objectives). But I think the command cards themselves are quite ok for a Leia deck (in particular the rescue card). 

[gruntl 3]

<deleted>

[Toqtamish 3,643]

LMKComaBlack said:

I'm also running a Han/Leia/Wookie deck.

The only one I'm thinking about getting rid of is the one I though I would need:  Rumors.  With only 6 cards requiring a S&S resource match, I rarely need more than one S&S resource it a turn, so the whole objective isn't of much use..  Cloud City Casino and Crossfire are both neutral.  So, what set would I do well to replace Rumors at the Cantina with?

 

I like Tribal Support for the Ewok Scouts "stealth" ability.

[Xenu's Paradox 40]

LMKComaBlack said:

I'm also running a Han/Leia/Wookie deck.

 

Faction: S&S

 

(x2) Questionable Contacts

(x2) Decoy at Dantooine

(x2) Fleeing the Empire

(x2) Mission Briefing

(x1) Rumors at the Cantina

(x1) Hit and Run

 

QC gives us Han, plus Swindle can trigger Leia if needed.  Decoy gives us Wookie Navigator, as well as two ways to trigger Leia (A New Hope and Fall Back, though ANH is only good situationally).  Fleeing the Empire is the Princess.  Mission Briefing lets us have resource acceleration (Mon Mathma), card draw (via A-Wing, triggering twice on the Leia turn being sure we win those edge battles), and the always strong Heavy Blaster Emplacement.  Hit and Run gives us Edge cards and an awesome Objective ability (Especialy when we are hitting the same objective twice with the Wookie Nav).

The only one I'm thinking about getting rid of is the one I though I would need:  Rumors.  With only 6 cards requiring a S&S resource match, I rarely need more than one S&S resource it a turn, so the whole objective isn't of much use..  Cloud City Casino and Crossfire are both neutral.  So, what set would I do well to replace Rumors at the Cantina with?

 

The Rebel Fleet is pretty amazing. TRF nets you Home One and Y-Wing, both great sources of blast damage, plus a copy of Target of Opportunity.