Coruscant Celebration
(Introduced in Special Edition)
by
Adam Nelson
Coruscant Celebration is not as common in decks as its Tatooine and Cloud
City cousins. There are quite a few reasons for this, not the least of which
is the fact that at this time, the Light Side only has three sites that may
be used there, and you can't always count on your opponent to be playing
Coruscant locations.
Coruscant Celebration decks can have advantages. For one, its unusual nature
will surprise many opponents. Also, If your opponent is playing ISB, you can
put Lt. Blount on Coruscant to keep them from flipping, and you can use the
Local Uprising/Liberation objective in combination with Insurrection to pull
out the sites quickly, rather than just waiting for them to come up. Another
possibility which would be safer against the flipping SYCFA decks that will
be popping up soon is to use Careful Planning to pull two of the sites, then
just rely on chance for pulling your other effects. This is not the best
start, but it will reduce the risk of CPI destroying the deck's chances.
You will definitely want to occupy the system, which will provide quite a
bit of added security against most decks, with a drain of three and having a
Rebel there will add 2 to the deploy cost of Imperials, except to that
system, where its deploy -2 to starships and pilots will cancel out the
penalty. You can also get Boushh down to a location on Coruscant for a
measly four force.
There are also several problems with decks centered around this effect, the
biggest of which is that No Escape can hurt it. There isn't a good solution
to that problem at this time except using cards such as Goo Nee Tay and
Corporal Kensaric to add to your opponent's deploy value. There is also
another strategy that may be used to counter your opponent's deploying. You
can use Nudj to cancel your opponent's force icons, which will keep them
from deploying there, except with spies, but this will also limit draining
possibilities. Another problem is force generation, which can be countered
by a card I mentioned before-Insurrection, which you can use to pull docking
bays. That, when combined with its most common partner, Staging Areas, can
provide a large boost to your generation. You will almost always want to
include a Rebel Commander for your force drain bonus on Spaceport City.
The fact that you will be unable to flip the objective may also be a minor
hindrance, because there are no Coruscant Operatives. However, there are
several tactics you could use to hurt your opponent instead. You could make
it into a Mains and Toys, troopers, or scouts deck. I would recommend alien
swarm as well, except that the Tatooine expansion hurts non-unique aliens
decks quite a bit.
Here is an explanation of cards needed and strategy for each deck type
Mains and Toys:
There are two different ways to do this, EPP crews and supporting characters
or plain beatdown. I personally recommend the second, because of the EPP
characters' lack of immunity to attrition. Plus, this way you can use the
drain adding potential of lightsaber cards. You will also want to have
several of the character set destiny adding interrupts to boost your damage
even further. Here is a list of the interrupts and what combination of your
characters each requires:
Don't Get Cocky (Luke and Han)
Gift of the Mentor (Luke and Obi or Yoda)
I Know (Han and Leia)
Krayt Dragon Howl (Obi alone)
Life Debt (Han and Chewie)
Old Times (Luke and Biggs)
Protector (Leia and Chewie)
Rug Hug (Luke and Chewie)
Skywalkers (Luke and Leia)
Solo Han (Han alone)
Warrior's Courage (Leia alone)
Wookie Roar (Chewie alone)
Each of these also has a valuable secondary ability that can be used if you
lose these characters. Order to Engage is another good card if you choose to
play beatdown, especially if your opponent knows about your destiny adders.
Any high ability characters would also benefit from the addition of Blaster
Deflection, which can allow you to retarget your opponent's blaster shot to
one of his or her characters.
Troopers:
This deck would rely on Rebel Troopers, since they are the most
versatile type of Light Side trooper. Good supporting characters include
Shawn Valdez (troopers may move at normal use of Force to same site if you
initiate battle there (not considered react for cards that prevent them) and
Rebel Trooper Recruits are good for soaking up attrition and add to the
power of other troopers there. Rebel Ambushes add 1 to the power of each
trooper in a battle and makes them immune to attrition. Entrenchment is the
Rebel version of Bargaining Table, and therefore useful to block drains
while keeping your characters available for deployment. With your large
amount of non-unique cards, Yarna d'al' Gargan is a strong asset if you can
keep your hand small.
If you want to use weapons with your troopers, you should include Commando
Training, Superficial Damage, and Quick Draw. Commando Training adds 2 to
the forfeit of a non-unique Rebel with a non-unique blaster, as well as 1 to
its destiny draws and battle destiny. Quick draw allows you to pull blasters
from your lost pile if you lose some to an early drain or direct damage.
Suppressive Fire is also a nice interrupt, as it is a Used version of Sorry
About the Mess for troopers.
Scouts:
I personally believe that this is the most viable type of Coruscant
Celebration deck right now. You will of course want to start Strike Planning
to pull General Madine so he can pull your scouts. Here is a list of scouts that
are viable for this deck:
Arcona
Captain Yutani
Chewbacca of Kashyyyk
Colonel Cracken
Corporal Beezer
Corporal Delevar
Corporal Janse
Corporal Kensaric
Daughter of Skywalker (can't be pulled by Crix)
Dresselian Commando
Geezum
General Solo (can't be pulled by Crix, but can be pulled by Strike Planning)
Ketwol
Lieutenant Blount
Lieutenant Greeve
Lieutenant Page (can't be pulled by Crix)
Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight (can't be pulled by Crix)
Luke Skywalker, Rebel Scout (can't be pulled by Crix)
Major Panno
Orrimaarko (can't be pulled by Crix)
Ralltiir Freighter Captain
Rebel Scout
Sergeant Brooks Carlson
Sergeant Bruckman
Sergeant Junkin
Shistavanen Wolfman
Snivvian
Yarkora
Which of these you choose is up to you, but keep in mind that many have special benefits in combination with other scouts. There are also several interrupts which
help scouts. Insertion Planning allows your scout to subtract 3 from
opponent's battle destiny or move a character from your opponent's open
vehicle to the used pile. This is devastating against decks using skiffs.
Take the Initiative is another good scout card which works well with spies
as well. It allows you to add one to your battle destiny for each scout or
spy at the location of the battle, or makes unique spies and scouts power
+1. Wookie Guide can also help you get a scout somewhere quickly by adding
to the character's landspeed while at an exterior site. Close Air Support is
another good card that helps scout-oriented decks. Since you will want to
include Blount for his game text, putting him with Tala 2, so you can occupy
the system to get it's benefits and drain, to add a battle destiny and
another to total power, and because of its game text which adds two to the
deploy cost of your opponent's scouts and spies at related sites. Suddenly,
putting Mara onto Coruscant is starting to look very expensive. In fact, if
you control the system with Tala 2 and have Goo Nee Tay out, your opponent
wants to deploy Mara, it will cost them 11 Force. It can't hold the system
by itself however, so you will need plenty of support.
While Coruscant Celebration isn't the best decktype right now, it does have
a great deal of potential, even before the Coruscant expansion is released.
It has the benefit of novelty as well as some clever uses.
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