Star Destroyers 101
This article is being provided for the sole purpose of explaining about Star Destroyers or as I will call them in this article SDs. If you do not like plain and simple explanations than this article is not for you. This would be excellent if you were thinking about trading or buying some Star Destroyer cards. I will point out +'s and -'s about the cards. Some explanations are easy to see, some aren't. I want people who don't know much about the SDs to come away with a better understanding of each of there unique capabilities.
I would hope that everyone that uses Star Destroyers picks the best of the best, but incase your not sure if a Chimaera is better than a Conquest then this article is for you.
I have always been a fan of SDs. They are big, bad, and totally blue. If you can't think of what a specific SD does, click on it's title.
If it wasn't for the Chimaera, this would most likely be my favorite Imp-class Star Destroyer. Even though it has no special game text I believe this is the best rounded SD. Power 9 with a deploy of 8. Ability 2. This SD has many other cards that target it specifically including...Dark Side Ralltiir and Commander Praji. This is also THE Star Destroyer to get in an Official Tournament Sealed Deck game.
With the release of the first set of cards in 1995, Premiere, the Imp Star Destroyer was a mainstay in any dark deck. It is an uncommon so it was easy to get a whole fleet of these little...ahem big... guys. While a standard Deploy 8 for Power 8 is ok, people wanted more. It was great for an Imp SD to hold out a system with a pilot and a few TIEs. In an OTSD game you are more likely to get one of these babies instead of the Devastator.
The Conquest, an almost forgotten Star Destroyer. From the A New Hope expansion this was the 3rd big blue and the second unique SD. When it first came out it was very popular. Not too many systems meant you would eventually have a run-in with a certain Nerf Herder's starship. Yes this is the SD that allows you to look at an opponent's hand when a battle was initiated with the Falcon. Nifty game text that is not only a good use, but it stays close to how the movie played out. Just so you know the Conquest was one of two SDs orbiting Tatooine during the search for the droids. Since you can look through the opponents hand this adds an added weakness to the Conquest. You see there is a card called Shocking Revelation (SR). It makes you lose the card used to look through the persons hand and an additional 4 force. So if SR is popular in your area, DO NOT USE the Conquest.
This is the second uncommon Star Destroyer. While not as powerful as the big Imperial Class the VCSD did have its uses. First off, its deploy is 6. While the forfeit is low for an Imperial starship the 5 it has isn't horrbile. It has the highest hyperdrive without modifiers for a total of 4. It is also has a nice destiny of 2. There are only 2 SDs with a destiny of 2 and one with a destiny of 4. But, I will get to that later. The gametext was nice back in the days of systems with gametext of "Add 1 to power for every starship here". With say Tatooine and one VCSD you had power +2 at every location. That used to be good. It still is alright, but I don't see to many people use this method anymore. VCSDs may see more use since the DS starter deck from DS2 has 3 BB Victory-Class Star Destroyers in every box.
This was the beginning of starships with unique uses and abilities. This SD has an unusual Armor of 7, while this isn't really helpful in a game, it is just added tech I figured I would throw in. This Star Destroyer is great for an ISB/Probe Droid deck as it allows Probe Droids to deploy for free to same sites related to system the Stalker occupies. There is nothing really special about this SD except when combined with Captain Piett it allows you to pull one probe droid and allows you to deploy that probe droid for free. Not too bad!
This is a cheap Star Destroyer to deploy. It has the regular stats of a Star Destroyer, but is deploy of 7! It still retains the regular forfeit of 9! This star destroyer is THE starship for your Tractor Beam Destiny Deck. Adding one to Tractor Beam destiny draws is nice when used with I Want That Ship. It pretty much makes you draw +4. Throw in Flawless Marksmanship and lose it then instead of +4 you get +8. That will more than likely catch even the great Falcon!!!
One of two Star Destroyers from the Dagobah expansion. It is an exact duplicate of the Devastator except it is 1 less power. Its game text also states that when Asteroid Destiny is drawn against that ship it is -2. Not very helpful but I figured I would mention it. As far as I know this was the first SD to have immunity when a matching pilot is added. When Captain Needa is on board the SD is immune to attrition < 4. This is the second SD to have ability 2 right off the bat.
The mother of all big blues. And arguably the best Star Destroyer. This is a Super-class Star Destroyer and so far the only of its kind in SWCCG. There is another version of the Executor and maybe if we are lucky we will get another Super like the Knight Hammer or one of the other 3 Supers made at the same time as the Executor. With stats that were pretty much invincible the Executor though expensive ruled the systems with an iron grip. When Fondor was released the Executor got a much needed deploy modifier of -5. Mobilization Points from DSII also allowed you to pull the Executor from Reserve Deck! When it was released, it had the highest immunity to attrition of any dark side card. I think most of you will agree while the Flagship Executor does serve specific purposes this Executor is still the better of the two.
Decipher brings us yet another ability 2 Star Destroyer. Some people play TIE decks; with 3 to 4 Dreadnoughts. While this is good, a Vengeance adds 2 to forfeit of any TIE/ln (TIE Fighter) present with the Vengeance. Not to bad. Most people overlook this since the SD is a high deploy of 9. It is the only SD that can move 6 TIEs from ststem to system. I may as well mention, even though it is useless gametext, this ship is power +2 at Nal Hutta. This is also the second Star Destroyer with a destiny of 2.
The 3rd and so far last non-unique Star Destroyer. These were made to fill in Death Squadron as the name implies. I imagine why players use this card is because of the built in immunity. Their power is 1 less then the stock Imp-class. They are best when deployed -2 at same location as the Executor. These Star Destroyers also boast a destiny of 2. The reason why they are popular is because of their built in immunity to attrition < 4.
Ah, now onto the ships of Death Star II. The Accuser, the Imperial version of the Spiral. While lower in power and armor than all other Imp-class SDs the Accuser does have the highest hyperspeed (4). While the reacting ability is good, most other SD are better than this one.
I don't care if it is an early class Star Destroyer. It is the best Imp-Class there is! The Coolest! The Bluest! And the Best! This bad boy has immunity to attrition < 4 by it self. If a leader on board < 5. Put Thrawn as a pilot on the Chimaera and it will be immune < 6. Thrawn's little buddy Captain Gilad Palleon also adds 2 to hyperspeed! Now there is a SD for you! Oh yeah by the way, it has ability 2 and the first double digit forfeit for a Imp-class.
The only unique Victory Class Star Destroyer. While he seems a little wimpy compared to an Imp-class he does make up with ability 2, hyperspeed 4, and the ability to fire Laser Cannon Battery twice in one turn. Not too bad. I think the ability 2 is good for the little fellow. Some excellent TECH for this starship is using Mobilization Points to pull Rendilli and using the system's game text to retrieve the Dominator since it is a Victory Class!
The biggest disappointment for the biggest blue. Who would of thought with the newest version of THE flagship that it would lose it's immunity to attrition. True, if you deploy Flagship Operations the F Executor is immune to all attrition, but who wants to play Flagship Operations??? It has deploy 3 less then the Dagobah version. Atleast it is deploy of 7 at Fondor. Still it was a disappointment when I first saw this card. I would have thought the thing would have had atleast ability 4 (like the Home 1). I personally like the Chimaera better than this specific version of the Executor.
Not much to say about this one. It's game text says it all. If you are worried about starfighters, then this SD is for you. Other than that, it has regular stats and has no special uses. Wouldn't it be great if you hit Gold Squadron 1? Wouldn't it?
This is the SD that we all had a sneak peek at during the Second Anthology, personally I think the Chimaera would have been a better sneak peek, but Decipher didn't ask me. Power 9, deploy of 7 with a low hyperspeed of 2. I guess this one is for the player who stays at one system, because this starship isn't going to be chasing any smugglers down! Cheap in a Set Your Course For Alderaan deck!
A severely overlooked SD. This is the dark sides version of the Tantive IV. It can deploy to any system except for the Rendezvous Point and Dagobah. With standard stats and 1 extra armor, this SD is great for playing against a Hidden Base deck. There are still people who play Alderaan as their base. It would be great to deploy this there and flip their objective right off the bat.
Here is a break down of what ability the Star Destroyers are:
ABILITY = 1
- Imperial-Class Star Destroyer
- Conquest
- Victory-Class Star Destroyer
- Tyrant
- Stalker
- Death-Squadron Star Destroyer
- Accuser
- Judicator
- Thunderflare
- Visage
ABILITY = 2
- Devastator
- Avenger
- Vengeance
- Chimaera
- Dominator
ABILITY = 3
- Executor
- Flagship Executor
While you might think it was odd that I mentioned the Destiny 2 of Star Destroyers above, I will explain now why I did so. If you need high destiny and do not really care which Star Destroyers you use then the Victory-Class Star Destroyer, Vengeance, Death Squad Star Destroyer, and Flagship Exector would be good for you. IF you start off with Oppresive Enforcement your capitals gain a Destiny +1 making each of the aforementioned Imp-classes destiny 3 and Flagship Executor destiny 5! Oppresive Enforcement is luckily a good card even with out capitals so you might already have it in your deck.
I think I will wrap this article up. I hope this article was helpful and informative. Thank you and everyone have fun with those Star Destroyers, the rulers of space!