---------------------------------------
#94 Pit Droid, Mechanic
---------------------------------------
Entry: 7 October 1999
The Unofficial Jedi's Guide to the YJCCG Galaxy.
Compiled by jinnandtonic, October 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:
A substantial portion of this review is substantially similar to my review of #92 Pit Droid, Engineer and #93 Pit Droid, Heavy Lifter. Hey, what can I say, they are almost-but-not-quite-identical!
Economy: B-
One only has to compare the stats of Sith Probe Droid / Spy Drone with Pit Droid / Mechanic to realise that the latter is somewhat redundant. Pit Droid / Mechanic deploys for 1, has a base Power of 1 and a Damage of 1. It also has Power +2 in location bonuses at Tatooine / Podrace Arena and a Destiny of 5. Which is exactly one less than the Sith Probe Droid. While this card is non-unique, I feel that the economy of such weak cards is an exponential curve, and hence 1 more or less point of Destiny can make a card much more or much less economical.
Decipher: A
Pretty much perfect, by my estimation. The Power and statistical values seem well thought-out, and the idea behind the card is a good one. Obviously a Pit Droid / Mechanic is going to get location bonuses at Tatooine / Podrace Arena! The only thing that I feel somewhat apprehensive about is the flavor text. But I can live with it, even if that line was the root of aquestionable advertising campaign. But I can live with it [a few deep breaths...ok, thats better].
Overall Usefulness: B-
Pit Droid / Mechanic might actually turn out to be a very useful card, but for now it is a useless card unless you are talking theme decks. Why? You should have guessed by now. When the Dark version of Tatooine / Podrace Arena becomes available, this card will be much more helpful than it currently is. There is simply no point to using this card if you can use, say, Pit Droid / Engineer and get that extra location bonus sweetener at Tatooine / Desert Landing Site. Nevertheless, the problem is less shallow than that, and it is mainly due to the simple fact that this is a weak card in terms of Power. Unless you have your heart set on that none-too-shabby Destiny of 5, settle for something with a bit more upfront strength.
FLAVOR TEXT: "Hit the nose!" -- Anakin Skywalker
--------------------
CARD FACTS:
--------------------
COMMON, GREEN-DOT, NON-STACKABLE
Deploy: 1
Power: 1
Destiny: 5
Damage: 1
Power Bonuses:
Tatooine/Mos Espa: +0
Tatooine/Desert Landing Site: +0
Tatooine/Podrace Arena: +2
------------------------------------------------
SPECIFIC INTERACTING CARDS:
------------------------------------------------
Grueling Contest
[#124, Menace of Darth Maul, Uncommon, Yellow-Dot]
This Battle card gives any Podracer Pilot or any Pit Droid a Power bonus of +2 in battle. Not bad, and the backbone of any Podracing theme deck, as we will see shortly. Seems nice, but quickly appears nasty when you realise that all of those Podracers are in the green-dot category, so a combined Podracing/Pit Droid theme will not work so well...
-------------------
IN BRIEF:
-------------------
Pit Droid / Mechanic is a nice enough card, and it might be a very helpful in a Dark deck focusing on Tatooine / Podrace Arena. (Ho-hum!) But in your typical Dark deck (and 100% of Dark decks in these pre-November 1999 times) Tatooine: Desert Landing Site is the only Dark dessert (desert, ha!) of the day. If you are going to be focusing on the DLS, there is simply no strategic reason to use Pit Droid / Mechanic at all. Ever. There is an argument that perhaps a couple of these would be helpful in a Dark counterattack at Tatooine / Podrace Arena (currently the Light location of er herm...choice), but such an idea is useless if the Dark side plans to deploy Tatooine: Desert Landing Site whenever/wherever possible. And so, we are repeating ourselves a bit here....but anyways...
-------------------------------
GENERAL PLAY TIPS:
-------------------------------
* What about a combined Pit Droid / Podracing theme? But isn't that impossible. Almost. If you really want to do it you will have to include 10 copies or so of Sebulba / Bad Tempered Dug in the blue-dot
category, and 8-10 Pit Droids in the green-dot category. Jus to be fancy, let's use a combination of all three Pit Droid variants, although it isn't the most effective way to go about it if we are focusing on Tatooine / Desert Landing Site (although we have no other choice). Plug any holes in your green category with some Podracer Pilots, mix in some copies of Gruelling Contest, Sebulba's Podracer and Blaster Rifle and you should have something resembling a Pit Droid / Podracing theme deck. I can not, unfortunately, vouch for it's effectiveness. But you never know!
* Another idea that I won't flesh out fully here is a simple Dark Droids theme. You should pretty much be looking to include multiples of Destroyer Droid / Wheel Droid for red, Battle Droids for blue and Pit Droids for green. Stick to Blaster Rifles and Opee Sea Killers, and for maximum style points stack your purple category with Droid Starfighters. No unique characters = not as much worry about transports. This deck might actually be quite effective, and will obviously be fun to play.
* Pit Droid / Mechanic + Blaster Rifle + Gruelling Contest + Destiny = 6 at Tatooine / Podrace Arena is a tidy 11 Power. Teach that arrogant little kid a lesson. Hit the nose indeed.
------------------
ADDITIONS:
------------------
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. Light pit droids may be on the way. Dear God!!
Back to The Unofficial Jedi's Guide to the YJCCG Galaxy
