My Kind of Scum...
by Hayes Hunter
Don't let the title fool you, this deck isn't a MKOS deck, it's merely the way (or at least one of them) that I play Scum and Villainy. Originally I was going to build a MKOS deck, but I really don't like non-uniques, and the CTOVG objective is so much more versatile. This deck is more competitive than the AITC deck, but is still a ton of fun to play (it has the Sarlacc in it!).
Start (8)
Court Of The Vile Gangster/I Shall Enjoy Watching You Die
Jabba's Palace: Audience Chamber
Jabba's Palace: Dungeon
Tatooine: Great Pit Of Carkoon
Prepared Defenses
Mobilization Points
No Bargain
Power Of The Hutt
Locations (4)
Carida
Executor: Docking Bay
Jabba's Sail Barge: Passenger Deck
Tatooine: Cantina
Characters (19)
4-LOM With Concussion Rifle x2
Bane Malar
Bib Fortuna
Boba Fett With Blaster Rifle x2
Boelo
Chall Bekan
Cloud City Engineer
Dengar With Blaster Carbine
Dr. Evazan x2
Ephant Mon
Jodo Kast
Mara Jade, The Emperor's Hand
Mercenary Pilot
Mighty Jabba x2
Pote Snitkin
Creatures (1)
Sarlacc
Vehicles (1)
Jabba's Sail Barge
Starships (3)
Bossk In Hound's Tooth
IG-88 In IG-2000
Zuckuss In Mist Hunter
Interrupts (13)
Control x3
Hidden Weapons x2
Hutt Smooch
Imperial Barrier x2
Monnok
None Shall Pass
Projective Telepathy
Sniper
Twi'lek Advisor
Effects (10)
Blast Door Controls
Disarmed x2
First Strike
Hutt Influence
Resistance
Scum And Villainy x2
Search And Destroy
Secret Plans
Weapons (1)
Mara Jade's Lightsaber
General Strategy:
Start the objective, your sites, and prepared defenses. Start Mobilization Points and Power Of The Hutt (POTH) always, and No Bargain unless you're playing against Echo Base Operations, then you should start Resistance.
Before you activate pull Carida from your reserve deck with Mobilization Points, activate, then use your objective's text to pull the Executor: Docking Bay (E: DB). Depending on what kind of game you expect you can use POTH one of two ways at this point. Generally, you'll want to deploy Ephant to the DB, this way you'll get the extra two force from Mobilization Points without fear of the opponent deploying (his text that stops spies) or moving to that location (the DB's text). If you feel that Ephant would be more valuable of an asset in the AC preventing Lando With Vibro Axe or Han With Heavy Blaster Pistol (among others) from joining the party you can just deploy the Sail Barge and then immediately deploy the Passenger Deck. Either way you'll want to deploy the barge and deck within the first 3 turns.
The key to this deck (as the title suggests) is Scum and Villainy. Before all the enhanced characters and ships it was nearly impossible to design a strong deck based on this card. Now, though, this deck is one of the most powerful. The ability to make all your characters and ships deploy -1 is huge, but the ability to retrieve 2 force every time you initiate battle is a game winner. For now, I'll just say you want to battle on your turn. Use cards like Barrier, None Shall Pass, and Projective Telepathy to prevent them from initiating on their turn, then use your cards, like Disarmed, Sniper, and Hidden Weapons (HW), to eliminate their characters to give you the advantage in battle. It's pretty straightforward really, but I'll get into more specifics further on.
Card Specific Analysis:
Locations
? You can pull them all out of your deck with your starting stuff except for the cantina, but given you can activate a good amount of force relatively quickly (w/o giving the opponent very much at all) you should be able to draw it fairly easily.
Characters/vehicles
? 19 characters and one vehicle is a lot, but this deck is all about battling and holding the AC so you need 'em.
? The characters I have doubles of are key to the deck. Jabba for sitting in the AC, 4-LOM for adding destiny with him, Boba for adding a destiny with Jabba AND for HW, and Dr. E for those hit and Disarmed characters.
? Bib, Boelo, and Ephant to be pulled w/ POTH if needed...
? Chall is a leader for the mighty Jabba, but he can also pull the Cloud City Engineer vs. Profit and can pull that Mercenary Pilot (MP) that can add a destiny on the barge.
? Mara is self explanatory, but two aren't called for because she stops No Bargain and None Shall Pass.
? Dengar is just another one of those cool bounty hunters with a gun...
? Thanks to the objective Jodo is immune to Goo Nee Tay and is forfeit +2, plus he can use hidden weapon and can even fly!
? The Barge is actually an integral part of the deck. It protects your characters from being attacked by the Sarlacc, it lets you pull out a Twix (a location that gives "two for me, none for you"), and guys like Pote and the MP make it a fighting machine!
Creatures?
? Yup, our good pal the Sarlacc. Check this out: your guys on the barge can't be eaten, but whatever your opponent puts down can! Moreover, anything the Sarlacc eats (Han, Lando, Leia, etc.) is placed out of play! And if you've captured someone with HW you can pitch them to the pit to make the opponent lose a bunch of force while you retrieve some!
Starships
? This deck isn't designed to fight in space head on and you can deploy your ships directly from the deck with your objective, thus more ships aren't need. The ships chosen can all draw battle destiny by themselves.
Interrupts
? Thanks to all of the HDADTJ and heavy SAC BHBM decks out there LS SAC is seeing less and less play. So instead of starting the dark side anti SAC package, as most S+V decks do, I opt to just use 3 controls. Use them wisely to protect HW and such.
? Hidden Weapons: that card you've heard so much about? or something? Great card, really. With Dr. E if you draw a 2 or higher you can eliminate your target from the battle (2-3 you capture, 4-5 you hit and operate, 6+ the target is lost). This card will let you get the high forfeit mains with low power, like Han or Lando or Wedge, to feed to the Sarlacc. Just a quick note: the destiny in the deck really plays to this card's advantage with a total of 21 cards of destiny 2 or 3 (after starting stuff has been removed).
? As mentioned earlier, the Barriers, None Shall Pass, and Projective Telepathy are there to stop the opponent from initiating on your turn, thus setting up your retrieval. The Telepathy can also be used to cancel a battle you initiate. For example, say they opponent has Obi, Luke, Leia, Han, and 20 rebel troopers at a site and all you have is that CC Engineer in your hand. All you have to do is deploy him for a force (thanks to S+V), battle, you retrieve 2 from S+V, then you retrieve an additional force as they lose a force thanks to First Strike, then you play Telepathy, don't pay the 2 force canceling the battle, and you walk him away to safety.
? Monnok is a staple card that should go in every deck. I'd like to fit in another, or at least a Masterful Move, but there isn't really room.
? Hutt Smooch and Sniper are there to get rid of undercover spies, primarily. Sniper has its other uses though.
? And finally a standard Twi'lek to pull out those essential effects.
Effects
? Blast Door Controls kills Rebel Barrier (among other annoying 'escape' cards). Rebel Barrier absolutely kills the strategy you need to implement against space decks, and it ruins the Projective Telepathy trick.
? Disarmed is another staple to COTVG decks. You barrier their main character holding a weapon, then on your turn you disarm and operate, then beat them down (thus retrieving your Disarmed card).
? First Strike is the by far one of the coolest cards in the game. In this deck its primary focus is to help your battle oriented retrieval while hurting the opponent, but it also serves another purpose. Unless they saved force (which is something that is easily forgotten) they won't be able to play any interrupts, especially SAC, when you initiate. This protects cards like Telepathy and HW.
? Hutt Influence is another great effect. This card prevents Hidden Base, or Rebel Fleet, or Projection Of A Skywalker, or any of those from ever working against you and your precious few draining locations.
? Search and Destroy is essentially a Visage Of The Emperor that really hurts heavy space decks like EBO and Hidden Base (especially given your objectives text as well).
? Resistance limits those EBO drains and Dagobah Anger, Fear, Aggressions.
? Secret Plans is yet another one of those staple effects. If you're playing against a deck that has lots of retrieval, like with On/Off The Edge, you'll want to get it out fast. But if you're playing against a non-unique deck that relies on one surge of retrieval late game keep it in your hand till they don't have enough force to pay for it all (like say they have 12 X-Wings out, but only 8 life force).
? And by this point I think we all understand the benefits of S+V.
Weapons
? Mara's Toy. Need I say more?
Some Match-ups
? VS HB/EBO X-Wing Swarm- This is a pretty easy game, actually. Your objective will go to work on them from the very beginning. Set up S+V, but don't worry about reinforcing the AC very much, as any opposition you encounter will probably be suicide EPPs that your Barriers will handle nicely. You'll want to get that Blast Door Controls out then send your ships up, one at a time, to initiate against a weak force to retrieve 3 and make them lose one. That's a four-card swing, and you can do it repeatedly since you can retrieve your lost ships.
? VS HB Mains- You'll encounter two possible versions of mains run from the HB objective: that is, one running lots of high destinies that recirculate easily, or one with SAC. As I mentioned before though, there are fewer and fewer light decks playing any large amount of SAC, so your interrupts should be safe with the three controls. Either way you'll just want to stick to the main strategy- prevent their mains from battling you on their turn and then stick it to them. Try to capture a main character the Sarlacc can easily eat.
? VS Profit- Start Chall (who lets you take the Cloud City Engineer into your hand for the start of the game) and Jabba. Basically, for them to win they will need to free Han, so you're not going to let that happen. Just make it impossible for them to beat you up by reinforcing your two starting characters with Bib, Boelo, etc. The only other way they will be able to free Han is with Someone Who Loves You, so to prevent them from dropping Leia to the AC and freeing Han you should barrier then beat her down.
? VS TIGIH- a very easy game since virtually all decks don't play with more than the Luke they start with. Just deploy your aliens (not Mara) and take him out with attrition.