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#74 Watto, Slave Owner
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Entry: 27 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: A-
Watto is something like Aurra Sing's little ugly brother: he is one of the few characters in the game that have less Deploy than Power. He has a base Power of 3 for his Deploy 2, along with location bonuses at all Tatooine locations. A Damage of 2 is okay, and the Destiny of 3 isn't too bad considering his Power : Deploy ratio. Nicely economical overall.
Decipher: A-
The only real problem I have this card is the image, which I think could possibly be a touch better. Otherwise, the Power and location bonuses are good (I can imagine that business-savvy Watto would know his way around Tatooine) and there are no real problems with the Damage or Destiny. I suppose I wouldn't mind seeing him have a higher Destiny (e.g. the chance cube connection), but this is not something that is *necessary* in any respect. Oh, and the flavor text is *great*. Good job, overall.
Overall Usefulness: B
Watto remains sort of useful, but his relatively low Power basically screams out for Battle card support (in a thick, Italian/Wattoish kind of accent). Sure, he is economical, but so is C-3P0 / Anakin's Creation and herein lies the problem. Watto really is only one step up from a Battle Droid, and chances are that you will be looking to include a fair swag of Battle Droids in the blue-dot category anyway (who have much greater Battle card and thematic support). Include him by all means, but you may wonder why you included him when you have him in your hand during a game.
FLAVOR TEXT: "What, you think you're some kinda Jedi, waving your hand around like that?" -- Watto
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CARD FACTS:
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RARE, BLUE-DOT, STACKABLE
Deploy: 2
Power: 3
Destiny: 3
Damage: 2
Power Bonuses:
Tatooine/Mos Espa: +1
Tatooine/Desert Landing Site: +1
Tatooine/Podrace Arena +1
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SPECIFIC INTERACTING CARDS:
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Watto's Wager
[#133, Menace of Darth Maul, Uncommon, Yellow-Dot]
This is one of the strongest Battle cards in the game, giving a Destiny ? draw bonus in battle to Watto. You may have to rig the remainder of your deck with Blaster Rifles and Sith Probe Droids just to get your deck's Average Destiny back up, with both Watto and Watto's Wager having a Destiny of only 3. Still, it will probably be worth it, and I am waiting patiently for a Watto / Gambler or something of that ilk, in a different dot-color to Watto / Slave Owner, so that Watto's Wager deck can be fully fleshed out.
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IN BRIEF:
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Watto / Slave Owner is a pretty useful card, one of the more economical cards in the Menace of Darth Maul expansion. But because of the wealth of other cool, useful cards in the blue-dot category, you may find yourself with a tough decision to make. Let's face it, the Dark side has Battle Droids, Destroyer Droids, Sebulba and the Hutts in blue, which makes including multiples of Watto in your deck a difficult proposition. This seems especially the case because there are no Battle cards in the Menace of Darth Maul expansion that allow Watto to fight together with another character, reducing the combinations that can be had with him. Obviously there should be some nice Watto-themed Battle cards to come, but we will have to wait and see.
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GENERAL PLAY TIPS:
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* Okay, it is more of a mini-theme than a fully-fledged deck theme, but the Watto/Watto's Wager combination is a good one. One idea is to expand this theme into a gambling style theme, so that is what I'll look at now. The red-dot category is kind of tough, but a combination of both Aurra Sing / Bounty Hunter (say, 2-6 copies) and Gragra / Chuba Peddler (4-8 copies) should do nicely. Blue is all wrapped up with our good pal Watto / Slave Owner, which is something of a bummer because then we have to exclude the Hutts. But stick to Watto / Slave Owner (10 if you have them, fill in the rest with Sebulba or Jabba). Orange has to be all tied up with Blaster Rifles, and green is a bit tough. I think I'd settle with 10 copies of Ann and Tann Gella, Sebulba's Assistants, which will life that Destiny and also add to the theme. Watto needs some 'Bond Girls' anyway. For yellow, finally, we will firstly want 2-6 copies of Watto's Wager, depending on how many Wattos you have. If you are using multiples of Sebulba / Bad Tempered Dug, you may want to include a card like Podrace Preparation in multiples, otherwise it is probably best to settle for the seafood and load those Opee Sea Killers into the remaining slots. This deck should be a lot of fun to play.
* Watto / Slave Owner x3 deployed at a Tatooine site in one turn yields 12 Power, which I think is the best you can possibly do in a turn without weapons or Anakin Skywalker / Podracer Pilot. Not bad at all.
* Watto / Slave Owner's FQ is a fairly reasonable 6. The same as Gragra / Chuba Peddler, Destroyer Droid / Wheel Droid and multiple Podracer pilots. Not exactly illustrious company, but Watto has always been something of a seedy mobster.
* Watto + Watto's Wager + Blaster Rifle on Tatooine = 4 Power + Destiny ? + Destiny ?. A couple of sixes drawn for Destiny there and you should be laughing all the way back to your cut-price junk shop.
* Style tip: Teach Qui-Gon Jinn a lesson about chance cubes. Use Watto's Wager to knock over Qui-Gon for being such a cheat.
* Other style tips:
- There's one way to be sure that Anakin doesn't win any podraces: get rid of him yourself.
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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. I like the speech samples in Star Wars Episode I: Racer. And I like the song Watto sings/hums after a race.
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