The following article was written by Jeremy "Psychobabble" Jose for the SWCCG Player's Committee.  Thanks Jeremy! 

WYS (v) Primer

Once upon at time in a card pool much, much different to the one we have today there was an objective called Watch Your Step (v). This objective was quite possibly the most broken two sided card made ever and began to be referred to as "Tier 0" - better than the best decks. The heart of it was one of the most broken mechanics ever, whereby if the LS had two corellians in a battle at a site together then one could be forefited as an instant houjix. It took a while for the playing community to wake up to its power, and it did take a lot of skill to maximise its power, but once it was figured out a few players played an entire competitive season without losing a light side game. And this was in the same metagame that busted jabbabeats scum existed in, so that was really saying something.

To try to combat the problem, the PC released a massive flurry of hastily pulled together bullets, including the original emperor's power (v) (which had COMLETELY different text to the current one and is the reason why han's toolkit (v) to this day doesn't suspend emperor's power) and the meta-wrecking sim aloo (v) (which, again, had completely different text to the one we see today). But these bullets STILL didn't do much to help you beat the deck unless you devoted an entire deck to beating wys (v) so along came the v12 design team who gave themselves a mission to destroy the deck. And destroy it they did.

After the rewrite of the card, only two significant aspects of the old objective remain. First, you still get to start a freighter and a corellian at corellia (although you used to be able to add leebo too which was broken). Second, palejo rashad gets his bonuses at corellia. Other than that it's all new. And, at the time it was release, it was absolutely, unplayably, unbelievably terrible. Design had achieved their goal and the deck remained in the bin for the next 4 v-sets.

Read more... for a great explanation of how to play this fun deck!

I'm very happy to present Part 1 in a 3 part series focusing on Squad Construction from guest columnist Michael 'klecser' Fryda.

Michael Fryda is a 9th and 10th grade high school science teacher from central Omaha, NE.

Michael has been posting to the Star Wars Miniatures message boards since January 2005.  He has been very active in his local Star Wars communities working to encourage and support new players through modeling good sportsmanship. He has also worked to  support the tournament scene.  He encourages people to seriously improve at the game but also try to maintain a light and fun tournament environment to encourage people to want to come back.

His contributions to the online community are many. He has posted advice in the general, rules, and squad critique forums for over four years. He participated in the Lost Twenty set fan project. He has posted almost 30 articles on the message boards, including articles on Gambit, Growing the Game in Your Area, the long running unofficial and official Star Wars Miniatures Strategy Showcases (with Ironlightsaber), Screening Strategies (Knowledge Arcana), and a resource article about Nom Bombs.

Other than Star Wars Miniatures, he also enjoys board games like Arkham Horror, A Game of Thrones, Settlers of Cataan, Troll Cave, and Zombies.

Michael can be found playing Star Wars Miniatures at Coliseum Hobbies and Games in LaVista, NE with the Omaha area competitive players. He has also played for several years at Hobbytown South in Lincoln, NE.  He and his wife of nearly four years, Laura, share their home with two cats, a lizard, and two snakes.

I'd like to thank Michael for taking on this task and contributing this article and I look forward to the next 2 installments.

- Chuck

So, without further adieu...

Squad Building in Star Wars Miniatures: Beginning to Advanced, Part 1

The following article was written by Brad Eier from SWCCG's Team Ohio.  Thanks Brad!

 
Many of you may have heard people talking about "the 3/2 deck" and probably asked yourself, what the heck are they talking about?

3/2 is a light side jedi based high destiny mains deck, pioneered by 2008 world runner up Kyle Kreuger (shown to the right) during the 2007 season. He took it to the top of the game, beating the eventual World Champion twice with it to come in as runner up himself.  The deck remained under the radar for some time, till it became a strong contender mid-to-late summer 2008, when Hunt Down was the dominant dark deck. The deck has now ascended to tier 1 of the light side options and is arguably one of the best decks in the format.

Read on for an excellent explanation of how to play this top deck.

Greetings, all!

I'm working on a series of articles about Tournament Organization and have asked a handful of community members to give us their perspectives on the subject. I'm very happy to present the first of these articles from guest columnist Audri Sampson.

Audri Sampson is a 28 year old Accounting clerk from Danville, Illinois. She's also been a gamer for the past 12 years. She has the distinct title of being the last Sailor Moon CCG World Champion and can be found playing Star Wars Miniatures (as well as Navia Drapt and Magic the Gathering) at Mike's Collectibles and BC Collectibles in Danville.

Audri has been a Tournament Organizer for many, many games over the years and shares with you her perspective of what it's like to be a girl gamer and what you, as a Tournament Organizer or a Player, can do to encourage the fairer sex to feel more welcomed in your games.