This article is dedicated to the search to beat Ops. I hope to have a few articles on how certain decks fair against Ops decks. If you would like to write an article detailing how a deck type handles an Ops deck, send me some email: beakman@grove.ufl.edu
It was my belief that a good Hidden Base/space deck could take on a quality Operatives. So I decided that instead of waiting to test it in a tourney, I would pit these two decks against each other several times, making modifications to see how results differed if at all. While it is true that these games cannot be 100% accurate because I knew what was in both hands and thus was somewhat biased), I tried to account for this by following the worst/best case scenario. For example, I have the executor in my hand. Since I know where the hidden base is, I could just cancel it. So in one game I would cancel it with first deployment, the second game I would make sure it was the last location I probed. And finally I would not probe at all. I tried to account for some of these events as I tested the decks. I would also like to say that I did not include inserts or insert counters so that I could focus on the basic deck strategies and dealing with such things as the -1 to opponents drains, etc. I used such counters as: The Planet it's farthest from (TPIFF), Presence of a Skywalker (POAS), Out of Commission and Rebel Fleet to deal with force drains and retrieval. Here are my findings.
First Game:
In this game I attempted to cancel Hidden Base as soon as possible. I started with Yarna, but the two POAS and Rebel Fleet still came out fairly early. I deployed the Executer about midway through the game and canceled the Hidden Base. I, of course, battled the ship, but the trusty Ghhhk really took the sting out of winning by +20!.
I was surprised at how well the deck continued even after Hidden Base was canceled. Of course the Ops deck rolled on with a drains equally about 5 per turn. I didn't seem to find the Out of Commissions as well in this game! The final result: Operatives by +18.
Second Game:
In this game, I decided that I would attempt to cancel Hidden Base, but not until all other systems had been probed. Again I started with Yarna. Rebel Fleet took a while to come out and the Dark Side got off to a good start, flipping turn one. The Light Side managed to pull off TPIFF on turn one, so the drains didn't hurt too much. Rebel Fleet took a while to find as did the second POAS.
Even with Hidden Base lasting until late in the game, there wasn't much hope. I managed to battle the Executor for minimal damage that was retrieved the next turn by Operative deployment. The Dark Side also had a problem. I was not playing with reactor terminal and so I needed retrieval to add back to my force. Out of commission limited this by removing 18 cards from play (including Vader!). Because of this, the differential was quite a bit lower, but the Operatives still pulled it out with +15.
Final Game:
In this game, I decided that I would not probe. This would allow the light side to continue to cancel 2 force drains with Hidden Base, one with Rebel Fleet, cancel modifiers with TPIFF and of course make 2 drains -1 with Presence of a Skywalker. I also added in more generic X-Wings to try and increase what I could retrieve with All Wings Report In.
I started with POAS. Rebel fleet took a bit of time to come out, but TPIFF got going by the third turn. The dark side also had a slow start in this game, not flipping until the third turn (all the operatives MUST have been together!). This set up an ideal situation for the light side. If they couldn't rout here, it could be hopeless.
The end result? This was the closest game of the three. I played Out of Commission and remove 20+ cards from the game. The fact that I was only force draining for DS 3 per turn in space really hurt, but I did manage to slip a few drains of 5 in near the end. The dark side, on the other hand, was still draining for 3-4 ever turn while still retrieving a bit of force (when I couldn't play Out of Commission). The Operatives still bested Hidden base by +9.
My Findings From This Research:
I think the question becomes what makes operatives so powerful? Their cheap deploy that makes the deck work so quickly? The power of the operatives on their own turf? The excessive retrieval? What about the -1 to opponent's force drains?
The -1 to force drains really shuts down the opponent from being able to spread and drain while the retrieval feeds the deck. I think that this could be skewing the operatives decks the most. Since it is extremely difficult to re-flip the objective, you can count on the -1 for the rest of the game, thus nearly forgetting about what your opponent is doing (unless they too are playing Ops!).
Now compare this to Ralltiir Ops/ Dantooine Ops. These objectives get the -1, start slower, are much harder to setup and are much easier to re-flip. This seems much more balanced. It would give the opponent a fighting chance to beat the seemingly indestructible without making an anti-Ops deck. While we all know Ops can be beat, at what cost?
The Imperial Control Objective decks are really pushing the Light Side to minimize the opponents Force drains while maximizing its own. Could it be possible that the Operatives might be more balanced without the force drain -1 mechanic. Judge for yourself.
Beakman