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#71 Darth Maul, Sith Apprentice
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Entry: 23 August 1999
The Unofficial Jedi's Guide to the YJCCG Galaxy.
Compiled by jinnandtonic, August 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: B
Darth Maul, Sith Apprentice has the highest base Power of any dark character, and that *must* count for something. Deploying for 6, Maul has Power 6, a swag of location bonuses and a Damage of 5. The only problem: Maul's mediocre Destiny of 1. If you go 'Maul-mad' (and who hasn't?), you will need to compensate by using cards such as the Blaster Rifle and the Droid Starfighter (both Destiny 6) to pump that Destiny back up again. Overall, reasonably economical.
Decipher: A-
A couple of the location bonuses (Tatooine: Podrace Arena and Tatooine: Mos Espa, Power +1 at each) are a bit borderline, but I can live with them (thinking of the Sith probe droids visiting those sites). The image is very nice, and the flavor text fits this incarnation of Maul perfectly. Some may argue that Maul should be more effective, but these are possibly the same people who feel Maul should have slain people left-right-and-centre in Episode I. The only mark down is pretty personal: I think Qui-Gon Jinn, Jedi Master should be stronger than Maul. Maul should be closer to Obi-Wan in stats than Qui-Gon. But I can live with it.
Overall Usefulness: B+
The Dark side's real strength in YJCCG is based upon buckets full of Battle Droids, Destroyer Droids and associated bonuses, rather than big hitters like Maul. If you are aiming for economy, a card like Aurra Sing / Bounty Hunter wins hands down, and Darth Sidious / Sith Master is also probably preferable to Maul. So in terms of the big-hitters, Darth Maul is probably ranked three: include him if you want, but in terms of competitiveness there are clearly better options on offer. Still, most people I know save a couple of slots for Maul in any dark deck - can you resist???
FLAVOR TEXT: "You have been well trained, my young apprentice." -- Darth Sidious
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CARD FACTS:
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RARE, RED-DOT, STACKABLE
Deploy: 6
Power: 6
Destiny: 1
Damage: 5
Power Bonuses:
Tatooine/Mos Espa: +1
Tatooine/Desert Landing Site: +2
Tatooine/Podrace Arena: +1
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SPECIFIC INTERACTING CARDS:
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Sith Lightsaber
(#107, Menace of Darth Maul, Rare, Orange-Dot)
The not really that specific Sith Lightsaber grants a Power bonus of +1 and a Destiny draw ? to Darths Maul or Sidious. A Destiny of 2 continues the long-standing lightsaber curse, this card will have to tide us over while we await Maul's personalised lightsaber. A couple of these if you must, but just thinking, Darth Maul would look pretty good with a Blaster Rifle, wouldn't he?
At Last We Will Have Revenge
(#121, Menace of Darth Maul, Rare, Yellow-Dot)
This much-maligned Battle card is the only Darth Maul specific Battle card in the Menace of Darth Maul expansion, yet it is one that is still quite cool. It gets as close as you can possibly get to Episode I: the film, without totally compromising simplicity of play. Certainly a couple of these in a Maul-themed deck wouldn't go astray, and that Destiny of 5 is none too shabby. However, a collector's note: one more of these in a booster pack, and I will do something inexplicably violent.
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IN BRIEF:
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Darth Maul, Sith Apprentice is statistically identical to #2 Qui-Gon Jinn, Jedi Master. Both are big-hitting characters who stand a chance of being slain immediately due to their expensive deploy (6), and both are big enough (with a bit of luck) to fend off armed Gungans or Battle Droids respectively. While I personally favor Aurra Sing / Bounty Hunter to Maul in my dark deck, a couple of copies of Darth Maul never go astray. A Maul-themed fun deck is also possible, using multiples of the Sith Apprentice himself, his pathetic twin Darth Maul, Sith Lord, and Sith Probe Drones aplenty.
While Maul is technically the strongest Dark character, I don't believe he is as integral to the Dark side as Qui-Gon Jinn / Jedi Master is to the Light side. The reason has two initials A and S, but that is as far as I am willing to go for now.
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GENERAL PLAY TIPS:
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* The Darth Maul deck? The red-dot category should be dominated by Darth Maul / Sith Apprentice, around 6-8 copies. The remaining 2-4 slots can be filled by a combination of Darth Sidious / Sith Master and Aurra Sing / Bounty Hunter, though I would opt for the former presuming that you are trying to build a fun theme. Orange cards due for inclusion are the Sith Lightsaber and the trusty Blaster Rifle. Tough. I would settle for 2-4 sabers to 6-8 Blaster Rifles, remembering that you presumably only have 10 Sith in your deck. In terms of Battle cards, go for a combination of Opee Sea Killer, At Last We Will Have Revenge and maybe You Have Been Well Trained, although I wouldn't include more than 2 of each of the latter cards. Green is easy, with 10 Sith Probe Droid / Spy Drones both fitting your theme and providing some useful '6's for Destiny. As for blue, we have problems. Maybe Neimoidians, maybe a few copies of Sebulba / Bad Tempered Dug and some Battle Droids. I will leave it to you.
* As it stands, Darth Maul will stand a good chance in battle of knocking over either Obi-Wan or Qui-Gon. He has a higher base power than Obi-Wan Kenobi / Young Jedi and is equal in Power to Qui-Gon Jinn / Jedi Master. You can rig it though: drawing either a Blaster Rifle or a Sith Probe Droid as Destiny will significantly increase your Jedi-slaying chances. Cards like At Last We Will Have Revenge will also tip the odds in your favor, and possibly give your opponent a heart-attack to boot.
* You know the drill. Protect Maul with a cheap weapon or suffer the ugly consequences. 6 Damage is never nice, and losing the coolest Dark character doing the rounds is even less nice.
* Maul's Force Quotient (FQ) is a somewhat lowly 7, the same as Qui-Gon Jinn / Jedi Master, among numerous others.
* Darth Maul fits your typical Dark/Tatooine deck perfectly. 8 base Power on Tatooine before weapon or Battle card bonuses is somewhat intimidating for your opponent's Ishi Tibs and perhaps even his or her Jedi.
* Style tip: You know what you have to do. Off Qui-Gon Jinn just to keep in touch with the movie, then do the double and dispatch a certain Young Jedi as well. Let's introduce some time-travel Star Trek style time distortions to the SW universe! Best to do it with At Last We Will Have Our Revenge, for maximum style points.
* Other style tips:
- Use your Sith Probe Droids for cover (to scout for the enemy) often.
- Wipe them out. All of them. Find them quickly.
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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. Who else thinks that 'Sith Lord' seems a higher title than 'Sith Apprentice'?
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