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#114 Trade Federation Tank Laser Cannon
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Entry: 8 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.
jinnandtonic's Grades:
Economy: F
A very uneconomical weapon indeed, is the Trade Federation Tank Laser Cannon. It grants a fairly average bonus of Power +2 and a Destiny ? draw for starters, to any Trade Federation Tank. Not one you want to draw in your first hand with a fistful of Battle Droids. Add to this a truly horrible Destiny of 1 and a fairly expensive Deploy of 2 and you will be wondering whether buying such a large gun for your tank was such a great idea. A Blaster Rifle just may be a better option for your monolithic monsters....
Decipher: B
This card is good in some ways, but also bad in some ways, at least from my perspective. Let's have a look at the Deploy first. Good. You would expect that it would be fairly expensive to mount a V.B.G. (very big gun) on your tank, at least twice as expensive as a Blaster Rifle (a Deploy of 3 is arguably justifiable here). I think I would have liked to see the bonus a little higher, say Power +3 rather than Power +2, with the Destiny ? draw. The Destiny, on the other hand, I am unsure about. I suppose it could be raised 1 or 2 to make it more usable although such a modification may well lead to lots of Dark YJCCG decks focusing on tanks. Good thing or bad thing? A bit of both I would wager, although I wouldn't mind tanks becoming more prominent in YJCCG. On a final note, both the image and the flavor text used on thus card are quite good. So overall, par for the course.
Overall Usefulness: D-
Well, it is a pretty selective card, isn't it? The Trade Federation Tank Laser Cannon is only ever considerable if you are using a fair number of Trade Federation Tanks in your deck, which is certainly not the case for anywhere near the najority of popular Dark decks. And even then, if you are packing a mobile battalion of galvanised death [grin], the Trade Federation Tank Laser Cannon is an option rather than a must-include. You see, it's really not that good. A Destiny of 1, when combined with copies of Trade Federation Tank, Armored Division, will not set your deck's Average Destiny on fire, for a start. The bonus you get is only Power +2 more than what you will get with a standard Blaster Rifle, which has a rather impressive Destiny of 6 (which of course you all know!). So... not really... no.
FLAVOR TEXT: The main laser cannon on the AAT evokes fear in those who oppose the Trade Federation.
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CARD FACTS:
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UNCOMMON, ORANGE-DOT, NON-STACKABLE WEAPON
Deploy: 2
Destiny: 1
Game Text:
Adds oo? to any Trade Federation Tank in battle (Power +2 AND Destiny ? draw)
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SPECIFIC INTERACTING CARDS:
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Trade Federation Tank, Armored Division
(#88, Menace of Darth Maul, Rare, Red-Dot)
When armed with its Trade Federation Tank Laser Cannon, this card gets a tidy Power +2 and a Destiny ? draw added to its Power. That gives it 7 Power (9 at Naboo: Battle Plains] + Destiny, for only 6 Deploy. Nice. But this combination has a combined Destiny of 3, so you really don't want to draw either the Tank or its Cannon as Destiny. Or, you stand a very nice chance of perishing.
Trade Federation Tank, Assault Division
(#80, Jedi Council, Rare, Blue-Dot)
This card from Jedi Council is essentially a much more economical version of the Menace of Darth Maul's resident tank. When armed with a Trade Federation Tank Laser Cannon, an Assault Division tank has 6 Power (8 at Naboo: Battle Plains) + Destiny. Less than the above, but with one less Damage and a combined Destiny of 3 more. The combination to build a deck theme upon, if you are looking to use tanks in your YJCCG decks.
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IN BRIEF:
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The Trade Federation Tank Laser Cannon is a useful card in a deck focusing on tanks, but only a useful card. Not really a key card at all, unfortunately. With the release of Jedi Council, we now have usable tanks in both the red-dot and blue-dot categories (Armored Division and Assault Division, respectively). Which means that a reasonably cohesive Tank deck theme can be built. Very nice, but unfortunately, the Trade Federation Tank Laser Cannon is not the weapon card of choice in such a deck. A low Destiny and relatively high Deploy, along with a fairly ungenerous bonus means that the Blaster Rifle is probably preferable. Unless you plan on using extraordinary means to help your deck's Average Destiny, (e.g. lots of Open Fire!, Droid Starfighters, Sith Probe Droids, etc.) throw a few in, but throw them in haphazardly at your peril.
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GENERAL PLAY TIPS:
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* Tanks. So how about a Dark Open Fire! deck? Well a good one may look a little something like this. The red-dot category is primed for 8-10 copies of Trade Federation Tank, Armored Division, and the blue-dot category is similarly begging for 8-10 copies of Trade Federation Tank, Assault Division. If you decide to not use the full complement of tanks in either of those categories, I would recommend, at Destroyer Droids to fill those gaps. Green is fairly open, at least until the release of the next expansion, but Battle Droids and Sith Probe Droids are probably your best bet there. The Battle cards that it may be helpful to include are Opee Sea Killer (of course, 2-5), and Open Fire, which is obviously key (5-8). To support the Open Fire! battle card, I would suggest throwing in 5+ copies of the Trade Federation Tank Laser Cannon, along with several Blaster Rifles. Even if the Destiny is a little bad as a result - Open Fire! will help make up for that. Concentrate on Droid Starfighters along with a couple of multiples of Naboo: Battle Plains in the purple-dot category, and have fun blowing stuff up!
* Trade Federation Tank, Armored Division + Trade Federation Tank Laser Cannon + Open Fire! at Naboo: Battle Plains = 12 Power + Destiny. Blow some Gungans sky high, I say!
* A good rule of thumb is to include at least two Destiny 6 cards for each Trade Federation Tank Laser Cannon you are going to use. Don't be afraid to use more though: Trade Federation Tank, Armored Division isn't exactly pack-filled with Destiny-goodness either!
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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. Tanks a lot! Oh, dear, so sad. And I think I have even used that one before.
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