Paul Todd Feldman's Revolver deck
What makes this deck fun is its flexibility, and it's propensity to battle the Dark Side! Revolution is it's key, taking away force from the Dark and giving it to the Rebels. The high deploy cost of Dark characters and ships, already a disadvantage, becomes magnified. Let's take a look at the deck shall we?
Characters:
Obi Wan Kenobi (x2)
Luke Skywalker (x2)
Kal'Fal C'nDros
Chewbacca
BoSheck
Lando Calrissian
Captain Han
Princess Leia
Toryn Farr
Wedge Antilles
Starships:
Red Leader in Red 1
Gold Lead in Gold 1
Millanium Falcon (x2)
Tantive IV
Weapons:
Anakin´s Saber
Obi Wan´s Saber
Devices:
Tatooine Utility Belt
Interrupts:
Nabrun Leibs (x2)
Sorry About The Mess (x2)
Grimtaash (x3)
Gift Of The Mentor (x2)
Shocking Information (x3)
Sense (x4)
Control (x4)
Effects:
Wars Not Make One Great
Revolution (x7)
Beggar (x4)
Traffic Control
Lightsaber Profiency
Uncontrollable Fury
Locations:
Tatooine: Obi Wan´s Hut (Starting Location)
Dagobah: Yoda´s Hut
Hoth: Echo War Room
Yavin: Massasi Ruins
Yavin: War Room
The Revolver meets all 5 of Paul's keys to deck construction:
1. Force Generation - Can you generate force fast enough to accomplish the goals of your deck? Do you have enough locations?
2. Force Drain - Can you out force drain your opponent in a force drain race?
3. Power - Can you win battles against your opponent? If not, can you at least stop them from controling the location?
4. Interrupt/Effects - Can you win an Interrupt or an Effect war? ADVISE: There is no reason why you should play interrupts if you are unsure if they will successfully go off.
5. Countering - Can you stop an opponents theme? e.g. Can you stop an Asteroid Sanctuary Deck? Tatooine Shuffle? Never Tell Me The Odds?
Force Generation: First you will notice that this deck has just 5 locations. The average deck has 10 locations. However, this deck steals force from the Dark Side while at the same time denying the Dark Side force. The combination of Revolution, Beggar, and 5 locations that don't provide the Dark force icons but provides the Rebels 2 force icons, is enough to accomplish the goals of this deck. In fact, the primary goal of this deck "is" to control the locations for both sides, and thus control the game. It uses the advantages of the Dark Side locations for itself. The shock on the face of the Dark Side player when their Jundland Wastes is revolved, leaving them with a pair of characters that can no longer draw destiny, is a very common sight with this deck.
Force Drain: You can win a force drain race with this deck, even without locations that provide Dark Side icons to drain from. This deck is designed to go to Space or Ground and battle successfully. It will take control of the Dark locations that are on the table, and use them to drain from. It will take over the locations where the Dark can drain for 2 force, such as the Defensive Perimeter, Junland Wastes, Kashyyyk, etc., and drain the Dark from them. It also uses Lightsabers and Lightsaber Proficiency to drain from the Rebel locations without the need for Dark Side force icons. Once the Rebels have established themselves, you can revolve Obi-Wan's Hut, Yavin 4 Massassi Ruins, and force drain the opponent for 5 force a turn to quickly end the game.
Power: This deck is designed to battle the Dark Side where ever they appear, in space or on the ground. It has all the Main characters, and it has the powerful starships for space battles. Captain Han in the Falcon in space, or Luke and Obi-Wan Kenobi on the ground. Both space and ground can be controlled at the same time with this deck.
Interrupts/Effects: This deck is centered around it's Effects...Revolution, Beggar, Lightsaber Proficiency, Uncontrollable Fury, etc., and it is ready to protect them with Sense and Control. Evader or Alter will not get past the Sense and Control that this deck is armed with. Also, Imperial Decree is not a problem for this deck because of it's ability to control the Dark side locations. Any attempt by the Dark side to control two Rebel Base Locations will be immediately challenged by this deck, jumping immediately into battle and preventing the Dark from control of those locations. This deck also benefits from faster deployment with the force stolen from the Dark side, while the Dark is equally crippled by it.
Countering: Part of countering the opponent's strategy involves being able to confront them directly. As I mentioned before, this deck can take the fight directly to the Dark wherever they go. Another part of countering is stopping the opponent's interrupts and effects. While this deck doesn't have any Alter, it is able to counter most Dark Interrupts with it's Sense and Control. Further, this deck is prepared for some of the more popular theme decks for the Dark, including Scanning Crew decks and 3720 to 1 decks. It uses Shocking Information to put the hurt on the Scanning Crew decks, and it includes some high destiny characters so that it can be prepared for 3720 to 1 decks. Also, it counters the Dark's strategies by simply making it difficult for the Dark to pick up it's cards into their hand so that they can be used against the Rebels. When you force starve the Dark, each deployment of a character or Starship uses up the force they have available. By so doing, the Dark hasn't enough force left over to pick up into hand, and thus can't employ their cards against you. To get around this, the Dark will likely pick up all their cards into their hand rather than deploy a card. They will wait until they have the cards they need before they come at you. To counter this, use Grimtaash to reduce their hand back down to 8 cards, or use Grimtaash Lost to catch their doubles. Either way, this deck is well equiped to counter the Dark strategies, often killing them from the very start by denying them force to work with.
Grimtaash provides this deck with one other important capability. It provides you an opportunity to look at the Dark player's hand and discover what they are playing and give you a quick look at what is likely to come in the next few turns. With that forsight, you can better react to their next moves.
So, here you have a deck that is extremely versitile, and it has a chance to defeat nearly every kind of Dark deck that exists today. Very nice, but not indistructable! Remeber what Paul said, there is "NO" unbeatable deck. The Revolver can be beat. It takes quite a bit of planning for the Dark to make itself less vulnerable to Revolution, but it can be done. Never get overconfident with your deck. In fact, it is always a good idea to study, learn from history, and improve your decks.