Star Wars Galaxies™ Trading Card Game: Champions of the Force: Archetypes – Dark Side

It's Good to Be Bad
by Evan "Heimlich" Lorentz, Game Designer at SOE-Denver

Classic Star Wars® may center mainly on brave heroes and their derring-do, but it also includes some evil, larger-than-life villains. And sometimes it's good to be bad. In the Star Wars Galaxies™ Trading Card Game (TCG), Rebel and Jedi make up only half the story; you can also play decks of Imperial or Sith archetypes.

The Imperial archetype is made up of officers enlisted in the Galactic Empire, the various minions at their disposal (like those ubiquitous stormtroopers), and the often not-very-nice strategies they'll employ to get the job done. As with all the other archetypes, there are several approaches you can take to building an Imperial deck offering their own strategies to pursue. The cards I'm previewing today focus on one strategy in particular, combat.

While all four archetypes have tactic cards to be played in combat and surprise the opponent, you might say tactics are the card type Imperials "do best." Several of their cards provide some added extra oomph to tactics, like this item:

If you're running a strategy to constantly attack your opponent's avatar with your own, or even if you're just trying to quest (where your opponent might have defending units), your avatar is going to see some action in a game. The Signet Ring gives your avatar an extra 1 damage every time you play a tactic. And conveniently, the more tactics you play in combat, the more likely you'll be able to use that damage bonus you're building up – because to win the fight, you won't need to exert your avatar for its attack or defense.

So now you've seen one of the benefits an Imperial player can enjoy for playing tactics. How about seeing what one of those tactics looks like?

This 1-power-for-2-attack tactic becomes free when you're up against an opposing avatar. Combine it with the Signet Ring in an avatar-vs.-avatar struggle, and it's a free tactic good for +2 attack and, likely, +1 damage. That's not bad at all.

Imperials aren't the only ones who can get aggressive, though. The dark side of the Force™ is all about aggression, and the Sith are at the pinnacle of the dark side. The Sith archetype is made up of actual Sith Lords, Dark Jedi (who perhaps aspire to become Sith Lords themselves), and various worshipers and lackeys who support these dark ones in their efforts.

Once again, there are several approaches you can take when building a Sith deck. Many of their cards revolve around piling on the damage as much as possible. Here's a very straightforward example:

Play a Dark Jedi, deal 1 damage to a unit or avatar – it's that simple. No doubt many players will use this to pick on the opposing avatar, but there are times that the option to hit a unit will come in handy. For example, you might take the last point of health on a lonely "blocker" unit that was the only thing standing between your units and the opposing avatar.

The Sith archetype can even get dangerously self-destructive in its hatred and desire to cause direct damage. One example of this is the Sith Lightsaber:

If you can "get ahead" of your opponent on health (with your avatar having more remaining than his), then the Sith Lightsaber is a great tool in an avatar-vs.-avatar combat strategy. Every time combat begins, it'll "hurt him more than it hurts you." But there is a little risk; if you fall behind on health, the item could kill your own avatar before you finish off your opponent.

That gives you a little taste of what it'll be like to be one of the "bad guys" in Star Wars Galaxies TCG. Of course, there are nearly a hundred other cards in those two archetypes to choose from, so there will be plenty more options for you to consider soon enough.

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