Beating the Imperial Security Bureau

So I'm crusing the Discussion BBS, and I read yet another post stating how ungodly powerful ISB is and how it needs to be errataed. So I sat down and started pondering. After playing with an ISB deck for a while I didn't find it to be very special. I could never seem to get it tuned up enough to win consistently, and I wasn't sure what everyone was so worried about.

So I did some experimention and research. Each day I watched the complaints about ISB and how it seemed to be so powerful. And during that time, I played against a few ISB decks, as well as put together a speedy PB3 (Pacific Blue 3) deck that was similar to what everyone has claimed to be too hot to handle. After watching ISB in action, I came to a few conclusions. If you think ISB is too powerful, then the following is for you.

The Bureau - Built to Last
It is important to first understand the enemy, its strengths and weaknesses in order to figure out how to deal with it. The ultimate goal is to understand how to beat it with minimal to no modification to your own deck. In a perfect situation, the only change would be a mental one.

Just a quick look at ISB Operations can tell you that it is a strong objective. But what makes ISB so strong? Well, in my opinion, there are six things.

1. A Bright Center to the Universe - since ISB generally starts with Coruscant system, it isn't rocket science to realize a card like ABCTTU would be an obvious choice to use for your Starting Effect. This makes Local Uprising decks vulnerable form the beginning, neutralizing the speed that such operative decks need to win.

2. Ability to deploy just about everywhere - Since all security agents are also spies and their deployment restrictions are lifted, this means all those agents can deploy to any site. This means your opponent has nowhere to hide. And don't forget that undercover can go on any of theses same agents.

3. Easy to Flip for you. Mission impossible for your opponent - Flipping the ISB objective is as easy as deploying four agents. Once that happens, you just have to keep one agent on the table. Since several of the agents are pilots, putting them inside Imperial Walkers will let them add to the vehicles power while protecting them from being hit by weapons. Translation, if your play it smart, ISB won't flip back over.

4. Subtract from Opponent's Force Drains at same system locations - Lowering opponents force drains across and entire planet can put a kink in your opponent's strategy. If they can't outdrain you, they either have to battle you, or submit to your eminent victory.

5. Force Drain bonuses at battlegrounds - If there is one thing obvious in this game, it is that large drains generally win games. Drain consistently for a large amount and you will probably beat your opponent. Well, ISB provides a method of increasing your drain potential. Since non-undercover ISB agents add to force drains at the same battleground locations, this makes mediocre drains potent and large drains vicious. Added to the fact that that you reduce force drains at related locations, there is no wonder people are sweating this objective.

6. Consistent Retrieval - Ok. You can reduce your opponents force drains and increase your own. But there's more. ISB allows you to retrieve what makes this deck (and just about every other)... characters. Of course the characters you retriece must be agents, but this only makes keeping an agent on the board even easier.

There's a Down Side?
Ok. Those in combination are very strong, but there are indeed weaknesses. If you add in Scanning Crew, a couple of power hitters and a bunch of locations, playing the deck seems almost as easy as cooking in an Easy Bake Oven. But ISB, particularly Speedy PB3, has some harsh drawbacks. Depending on the deck, they may be more or less pronounced, but they exist in some form. What are they? Well:

1. Low destiny draws - Since ISB decks tend to be highly dedicated to characters, vehicles, and locations, this means a lower average destiny. You might be able to squeeze a few medium to high destiny numbers, but nothing that will severly hurt you unless your opponent keeps track of his destinies, or is just plain lucky.

2. High deploy - ISB decks tend to need to deploy a large amount of characters and locations to spread and ensure that you can't remove all the agents from the table. Since they are removing a large amount from their life force, this is one of the reasons why this deck type must be so fast. This means there is a small margin of error in that deck. Of course this is no real trick for skilled players.

3. Must draw many cards (very high in speedy PB3) - in order to make the deck quick, this means you have to draw for several turns to get what you need in hand. This is even more so with a speedy PB3 deck. Such a deck must find the system, nightfall AND enough locations to spread without worry about a few coordinated attacks from removing all your agents from the table. Large hands can mean large problems.

4. The need to spread these same characters - Since the deck tends to deploy a large amount, there is an inherent need to spread thin in order to out-last your opponent.

5. Low ability, low power agents - Since these characters are low power and low ability, it takes several agents to make a force that can be powerful enough to do any real damage in battle. Since the agents are likely to sprawl, Ghhhk is needed to protect your butt.

6. Spies are vulnerable to nasty stuff - there are all kinds or cards that make spies a liability. If you've played the game long enough, you know this to be true.

7. Many agents are aliens - There are a large number of agents that are aliens, including the popular Outer Rim Scout. Aliens tend to be higher deploy and lower forfeit, not to mention vulnerable to a few nasty card combos for the light side.

So you are sitting across from a guy who just slapped ISB Operations down on the table, . what do you do? Well, there are a few approaches to this situation.While there are two major ways in dealing with ISB, they both must be integrated to some extent to be most effective. Let's examine.

Time Is of the Essence
First you must realize that time is essential. ISB works on the principle that if you can drain quick enough and early enough, you will ensure victory or at least severely weaken your opponent and his options. With the high deployment tendency, it feeds the need to make drains large enough to outlast your opponent. ISB lends itself to this by adding +1 to force drains, but still makes spreading across multiple locations a necessity. There isn't a large margin of error in this aspect. If their deck gets going quicker than yours does (and ISB can get going in a jiffy), you could be in for a quick game that ends with a large negative differential for you. So keep this in mind.

Examining the Ingredients of Your Deck
Depending on their deck, there are a multiple of effective methods that you can prepare for by adding in a few cards. Perhaps one of the most popular combos to deal with ISB is Draw Their Fire and Frozen Assets. This essentially prevents them from playing ghhhk. This directly attacks the power weakness of ISB agents by allowing overflow damage.

A small Sense, alter, control package can be effective against ISB as well. You aren't likely to see much S/A/C counters in these decks for fear of weakening the knees of the fragile ISB structure. Sense is great for taking care of pesky cards like Imperial Supply, Scanning Crew, and Trample that tend to be popular in ISB Ops decks. Alter is a great way to deal with Nigthfall and Presence of the Force. And if need be, Control can minimize big drains. Note that these cards are useful against other decks as well.

Grimtaash is a must in any deck, but especially so against PB3. There is nothing worse than watching your opponent draw tons of cards into hand and you not having this bad boy in your hand. If you are lucky enough to be playing someone who has stacked multiple copies of ORS or Probe Droids, Grimmy can put an end to their game plan for an easy 4 force. But don't rule out using the used portion either. Sending most of their cards back into the deck means they will probably have to draw even longer, giving you even more time.

Good old fashined weapons are effective too. Clumsy blaster? Not when firing at ability 2 agents. The deal gets sweeter when using Disruptors or Blaster Proficiency lost.

A late game method (if you are luck enough to get that far) is using Jedi training to kill their Force Drain bonuses. The Planet It's Farthest From can be just as effective against a PB3 deck using nightfall to get agents down quick enough. And A Gift, if set up, can shut down those outer rim scouts, while an Operatives deck can hurt ISB as well. If you can manage to use multiples of these together, all the better.

Scramble is back on the block. With ISB agants being so popular, Scramble can put a major hurting on this deck. Watch your opponent cry as you pick off their pilots swiftly.

A friend of mine has a nasty little surprise assault deck. Try spreading against it and those low power characters again become a major liability. Even with a low destiny draw, you are more likely to lose less than if they drained you outright.

The premiere droid 5D6 is a common ingredient in many ISB decks, and can cripple a deck unprepared to deal with something that can't be battled. Although the methods of preparing for 5D6 can sometimes be card intensive, it can also pay off in the long run. Sorry About the Mess and a blaster can make quick work of a droid, and Ambush can remove it from the board long enough for you to get in a solid round of drains. Unfortunately, with ISB's retrieval capability, both of these methods put the droid in a place where it can easily redeployed. Try putting Wioslea in your deck and buy the annoying droid for your own uses. Afraid that 5D6 will move away before your next control phase? Try putting Wioslea on a swoop and follow it. Or, you can use a restraining bolt to hold it in place until Wioslea can arrive and make a deal. A jawa ion gun will deploy on any warrior if you track your destiny well enough, you can draw the 5 you need to steal it.

Although it's not a permanent solution, R-3PO can make your opponent pay for stacking spies at a site. It's another way to ease the pain of 5D6 until you can think of something better.

Out of Commission is a great way to keep your opponent from retrieving ISB agents. Of course this method is highly random and may not be very effective unless you are playing with multiples.

So as you can see, there are plenty of cards and combos that can help you take on ISB. If ISB is big in your area, you should look into some of these solutions. But these probably aren't enough. The most essential key to beating ISB is how you play against it. The bottom line? Battling.

The Melee
There is an art to battling. Whether you are wielding an elegant lightsaber or a crude blaster, you can get your characters in a tough jam without some sort of battle plan.

How you approach battle all depends on the type of ISB deck you are facing. Are they spreading thin hoping to drain you for 10-15 in the next couple of turns? Or are they holding down a few select locations with some strength to hold you at bay. Let's take them one at a time. Note: I am approaching this deck with a Mains & Toys deck in mind.

Divide and Conquer
This approach is focused more towards the speedy PB3 drop and drain style deck. Often players tend to try for a single prong attack with some method of keeping them from playing Ghhhk. This, of course, could mean heavy deck modification. But there is an easier way... if you are in for the long haul.

The EPPs brought substantial strength coupled with weaponry all in one econimical card. These cards, losing their immunity to attrition, became most effecitive when used in conjunction with mantellian savrip or hit and fade techniques (drop, battle, and forfeit only to deploy another copy somewhere else next turn).

Since PB3 drops a ton of lone characters all over the board, they tend to not be able to draw battle destiny. Instead of dropping all your big hitters to one location, spread them over several locations and battle individual agents. This will do consistend damage that they will be reluctant to use ghhhk on. I wold recommend EPPs and Draw their fire for the best results. Since the EPP Toys make their targets' forfeits zero when hit, this method can do some serious overflow. Once you have removed several of their agents start fortifying by moving your characters together or spread to block his drains on the next turn. Such methods should be ready with a houjix and an extra force or two in case they play First Strike.

The Big Bad Beatdown
Combat doesn't have to be so calculated. Sometimes you just have to jump in head first and beat the crap out of anything close enough to be target practice. Such crude methods can be quite potent not to mention quick. Look for their weakest location and pounce, but not before playing Draw Their Fire and Frozen Assets. Be ready with a couple senses in case they play Imperial Supply.

Again, using EPPs is even stronger. Together you get three destiny and multiple attempts to hit multiple targets. If you are lucking, you will find a lone character to teach a lesson. If not, you might need to seek other methods.

Power and Control Freaks
ISB control is strong in its own right. Such a deck often packs an arsenal of Scanning Crews, a host of Walkers, and plenty of nasties to hold you off. If this is the case, you may need a more coordinated attack and some other cards like Shocking Info to help you out.

When playing against ISB, you must choose your targets wisely and think each action out. I recently played a power ISB deck and squeaked out a win. I had nearly conceeded victory after a costly mistake, but pulled it out in the end. If you can get your opponent to run, you are in good shape. Prepare for them to spread in the late game - this is when they are most vulnerable and when you can pull out a victory. Remember, when they spread in the late game, they are very weak and probably have minimal backup. This means you too can spread to block their drains and battle when possible (nabrun can be your best friend in this situation).

So keep searching. I am sure their are many other ways to take on ISB. It all depends on the deck and who is playing it. But mind what you have learned... Save you it can!

I would like to thank QueenJawa for contributing to this article.