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#111 Gasgano's Podracer
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Entry: 1 December 1999
The Unofficial Jedi's Guide to the YJCCG Galaxy.
Compiled by jinnandtonic, December 1999.
Thoughts? You like this? You hate this? Email me!
The Unofficial Jedi's Guide to the YJCCG Galaxy is THE card strategy reference for Decipher's Young Jedi CCG. Starting with the first expansion, 'The Menace of Darth Maul', each individual card will be discussed until it can be discussed no further. Nevertheless, if I have missed something, email me at jinnandtonic@yahoo.com.au, and I will update it accordingly.
Instead of reading this entry in the Guide, you may as well read the entry for #110, #112, or #113. They are pretty similar....
jinnandtonic's Grades:
Economy: A-
Gasgano's Podracer is fairly economical, if also fairly identical to a number of other cards that spring to mind. It gives Power +3 and a Destiny ? draw to Gasgano, or a single Destiny ? draw to any other Podracer pilot. It deploys for only 1 and has an okay Destiny of 3, which means that drawing this card as Destiny if you are using it in battle with Gasgano is just as economical as the Blaster Rifle / Blaster Rifle as Destiny combination. So yes: this is probably a bit closer to how the lightsabers should be.
Decipher: C
Gasgano's Podracer is subject to the two problems that all the Podracer cards have: they are all statistically identical and the images on each of them could do with some artistic license. Higher or lower Deploy, higher or lower Destiny, higher or lower bonuses: *something* could be made differently on each of the Podracers, surely? And the images, while being fairly nice and representing each of the Podracers reasonably well, are very same-ish and boring. Ask pretty much anyone and they will probably tell you, getting a Podracer foil in a pack is probably less exciting then pulling a standard main (and they aint too hard to get in YJCCG, either!). Oh, and the flavor text is barely relevant.
Overall Usefulness: D
It is obviously the case, first off, that if Gasgano and his personalised Podracer vanished off the face of the Earth and out of the Menace of Darth Maul expansion, no YJCCG player would shed a tear. Let's face it, instead of using Gasgano and his Podracer, we could equally as well use one of Ben Quadinaros, Mawhonic or Teemto Pagalies from the Menace of Darth Maul expansion with their respective podracers, or Dud Bolt, Ody Mandrell and the rest from the Jedi Council expansion with their craftily similar podracers. This card is only as useful as the factor by which you prefer Gasgano in your deck to the rest of the Podracing mob, which for me, and probably for you, is negligible. Still there is those silly 'all you can pilot' type decks...
FLAVOR TEXT: Racing on behalf of Gardulla the Hutt, Gasgano is the subject of frenzied betting.
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CARD FACTS:
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UNCOMMON, ORANGE-DOT, STACKABLE WEAPON
Deploy: 1
Destiny: 3
Game Text:
Adds ooo? to Gasgano in battle (Power +3 AND Destiny ? draw) OR
Adds ? to any other Podracer pilot in battle. (Destiny ? draw)
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SPECIFIC INTERACTING CARDS:
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Gasgano, Podracer Pilot
(#81, Menace of Darth Maul, Uncommon, Green-Dot)
So how fares the multi-armed one? Gasgano gains Power +3 and a Destiny ? draw from his personalised Podracer, which gives a Destiny ? draw to its pilot if he/she is a non-Gasgano Podracer pilot (eh?). Gasgano and all of the green-dot podracers are not the type of characters that it are worth including in your deck if you are not packing their Podracers as well to help them out, so it is a two-for or a no-for. Unique characters with a Power of only 2 with minimal Battle card support are not going to be very effective, even with the new cards such as Start Your Engines! in Jedi Council.
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IN BRIEF:
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Rather than being a key component of any complex YJCCG strategic plan, Gasgano / Podracer Pilot and Gasgano's Podracer are only going to be put in your Dark deck if you hold a special place in your heart for Gasgano, for some reason. While Sith decks pretty much are forced to use both Darth Maul and Darth Sidious, and Battle Droid decks, well, tend to focus on a certain selection of Battle Droids, Podracing decks need not include Gasgano or his Podracer. Ever. There is no pertinent strategic reason that I can think of that would see someone *needing* to include Gasgano's Podracer or Gasgano - none whatsoever. I mean, why not use Ben, or Teemto, or Mawhonic, or Dud, or Ody, or Mars, or Clegg, or Ratts? Anybody?
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GENERAL PLAY TIPS:
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* So your typical Podracing deck will have for starters, 5+ copies of Sebulba in the blue-dot category, along with 2+ copies of his Podracer. Green is the Podracing haven of the YJCCG galaxy, with nine Podracing possibilities to choose from. Fortunately for us, we don't have to worry: any of them will do because they are all the same. Rapturous joy! In any case, it is probably best to pick one or two of those available, and divide the possible places among each of the two, rather than include the whole fleet of Podracer pilots. So we take five each of Gasgano / Podracer Pilot and Ben Quadinaros / Podracer Pilot, and 2 copies
each of their personalised podracers. Battle cards that will be helpful to such a deck would include Gruelling Contest, Opee Sea Killer and perhaps something like Start Your Engines!
* Ben Quadinaros, Podracer Pilot + Gasgano, Podracer Pilot + Gasgano's Podracer + Start Your Engines! + Destiny = 6 at Tatooine / Podrace Arena = 19 Power. Perhaps a little tricky to get together, but a nice payoff if you can manage it. This is the kind of combination that can win Dark Podracing decks matches.
* Who thinks that Gasgano should be able to have multiple weapons, thanks to his multiple arms? On that matter, shouldn't characters be able to be armed with two Blasters / Blaster Rifles?
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ADDITIONS:
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Up to you. Think of anything else cool about his card, or combos that you have used to great effect? What about a particular game in which this card made you win? Send anything like that to jinnandtonic@yahoo.com.au and I'll add it here. Gasgano was actually the first Podracer pilot (excluding Anakin) that was released as a seperate action figure to purchase. Wow, irrelevant trivia!
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