Bespin and Beyond - Tips and Tricks - Part 7

Well I know some of you out there are heading off to a Bespin and Beyond tournament soon so here is #7 in the series called 'B&B: Tips and Tricks'. These posts will highlight a potential strategy you might find yourself playing against and how to combat it. This time lets look at a potential strategy we will probably see the Dark side play.

Blasted Droid and Dr. Evazan’s Sawed-off Blaster

The Trick:
This is probably one of the most disgusting combo’s I’ve seen. Once in regular constructed play I lost 12 cards (characters with weapons + devices) to this combo. The opponent which I play frequently was playing a ISB ops deck and had put a Stormtrooper Officer Undercover with DR. E’s blaster on my subjugate planet. Next turn I got hit hard.

Blasted Droid allows you to fire Dr. E’s blaster during your control phase for free at each character at three sites repeatedly until you hit them or you run out of destinies after which all hit characters are immediately lost.

Now I suspect many people will see this powerful strategy and try to capitalize on it during the Bespin and Beyond Tournaments. As a light side player you need to be on the look out and bring some protection against this strategy.

No Surprise

The Tip:
Number one if you didn’t know about this combo before now you do, so there is no way you opponent can surprise you with it, and because Blasted Droid can only be played during your opponents control phase he is forced to give you warning signs.

RED ALERT: TROOPER SPOTTED WITH DR. E’S BLASTER

Having spotted the trooper there are several steps you can take to diffuse this bomb.

To counter this strategy if you playing interior locations try:

• 1. Ask yourself is the opponent in a position to do any damage? If his trooper is on the docking bay by himself you can be relatively safe that he won’t play blasted Droid just yet (as a side note watch for the combo of this and the Bewil Gambit).

• 2. If you are in danger then determine if you have sufficient deployable resources to kill the trooper. This will depend on a myriad of factors not the least of which are his fortifications and force activated. Also determine if the locations in question are important to your objectives. I have seen plenty of players squabble over relatively worthless locations.

• 3. Try to kill the trooper, either by hitting him with a weapon or through attrition (simple stuff).

• 4. It’s a Trap is one of the greatest interrupts that Light has in this scenario. Play 2 or 3 of them. Not only do they cancel Blasted Droid but also they can save you from severe battle damage by canceling battles. Pros: It’s a great card. Cons: Playing it lost is expensive.

For Exterior locations try:

• 1.Sandspeeders. Pros: you can put operatives in them and still draw destiny, maneuvering flaps, and can’t be targeted by weapons. Cons: can’t deploy to interior locations or Cloud Sectors.

• 2. Cloud Cars. Pros: you can put operatives in them and still draw destiny, maneuvering flaps, and can’t be targeted by weapons. Cons: can’t deploy to interior locations and slightly worse stats than a speeder.

• 3. Wort. Pros: Can eat all the troopers in this scenario. Cons: Can’t deploy to Cloud City.

• 4. It’s a Trap. Pros: It’s a great card. Cons: Playing it lost is expensive.

Well I hope this helps you as you head of to your B&B tournaments this weekend. Don’t forget to look for the last in this series #8 On defeating the light side EPP’s.