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#96 Tusken Raider, Marksman
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Entry: 12 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.
A substantial portion of this review is very similar to the previous review. Hey, what can I say!
jinnandtonic's Grades:
Economy: B
Tusken Raider / Marksman is, well, okay. Deploying for 2 with a base Power of 2, he/she/it has a nice low Damage of 1 and Power +2 at Tatooine/Podrace Arena. The only difference between this card and #95 Tusken Raider / Nomad is in the location bonuses, a difference that will hopefully be exploitable shortly. Oh, and this card also bears a disturbing similarity to #104 Battle Droid / Officer - they are statistically identical. Sheesh. Still, in terms of economy: good.
Decipher: C+
Precisely Pi quibbles. The first minor one (this time) is the strange similarity this card seems to have with at least one other Dark non-unique character (I will not name names....again.) But this potential catastrophe is somewhat averted by the fact that the two cards are completely different thematically and are different dot-colors. So it is not *that* bad.
However it is rather *vexing* that this card does not have location bonuses at other locations besides the Podrace Arena. I mean, the guy/girl/thing is still a Tusken, right? And it can *shoot* at locations besides the Podrace Arena, right? I would settle for something like a +1 +1 +2 spread in location bonuses, with a few other subtle changes so as to not make the card infinitely preferable to Tusken Raider / Nomad. So sue me. Erm, actually don't.
Overall Usefulness: B
Would have been B+, but reduced due to statistical similarities to another card. Tusken Raider / Marksman is a fairly ordinary card with some very fancy Battle card and Weapon support. If you want to avoid the Battle Droid theme for some inexplicable reason, you may want to try out Tusken Raider / Marksman and cards such as Sniper and Tatooine Thunder Rifle in a sandy theme of death. Such a deck will be infinitely more effective when the Dark version of Tatooine: Podrace Arena is released, but until then, we will just have to wait. The dot-color of both Tusken Raider variants is green also, which does not make things any easier. Quite the opposite, in fact.
FLAVOR TEXT: " A few Tusken Raiders have camped out on the Dune Canyon Turn." -- Fode and Beed
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CARD FACTS:
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COMMON, GREEN-DOT, NON-STACKABLE
Deploy: 2
Power: 2
Destiny: 3
Damage: 1
Power Bonuses:
Tatooine/Mos Espa: 0
Tatooine/Desert Landing Site: +0
Tatooine/Podrace Arena: +2
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SPECIFIC INTERACTING CARDS:
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Tatooine Thunder Rifle
[#117, Menace of Darth Maul, Common, Yellow-Dot]
The Tusken Raider weapon of choice, it provides any Tusken Raider with Power +2 and a Destiny ? draw in battle, or alternatively any other character with a Destiny ? draw in battle. Not bad, and with a Destiny of 5, you are not losing much Destiny-wise by using this card instead of the Blaster Rifle. 10 of these in a deck with 10 Tusken Raiders may be going overboard a bit, though.
Sniper
[#130, Menace of Darth Maul, Common, Yellow-Dot}
Ah, yes, the infamous Battle card that hands Tatooine-advantage to the Dark side. Sniper provides a whopping Power +4 bonus to any Tusken Raider or any character at Tatooine: Desert Landing Site. Obviously one of the perfect Dark Battle cards for a deck based at the Desert Landing Site, and even better if you have a full complement of Sandpeople handy. A Destiny of 4 is outrageously economical considering how effective the card is.
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IN BRIEF:
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Tusken Raider / Marksman is an okayish card that becomes useful when used in combination with cards such as Sniper and the Tatooine Thunder Rifle. It will not however, become truly powerful as an offensive weapon until the Dark version of Tatooine: Podrace Arena is released. If you are thinking Tusken Raiders, and either are not in possession of Tatooine: Podrace Arena (Dark) or do not want to use it (hypothetical adventure here...don't worry), then you a probably best off using Tusken Raider / Nomad instead of this card. But remember: as both Tusken Raider / Nomad and Tusken Raider / Marksman are green-dot, you can only (until perhaps the release of Jedi Council, which is... pending...) have 10 Tuskies in your deck. Which means that Tusken Raiders can not really dominate your deck. A shame, but maybe it is best that way. The Light side deserves *a chance* on Tatooine!
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GENERAL PLAY TIPS:
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* A desert theme of death? Let's do the easy bits first. 5 copies each of Tusken Raider / Nomad and Tusken Raider / Marksman for the green category, and....hey, what the hell, 10 copies of Tatooine Thunder Rifle for our weapon stores (orange). With an eye on the natives, we'll settle for 5 copies of Gragra / Chuba Peddler and 5 copies of either Aurra Sing / Bounty Hunter or Darth Maul / Sith Apprentice (or a mixture of the two) for red. Blue is tailor-made for the Hutts, so 3 copies each of Jabba and Gardulla are standard issue. Mix in 2 copies each of Watto / Slave Owner and Sebulba / Bad Tempered Dug for the hell of it. Battle cards are next, with 2-6 copies of Sniper mandatory. The remainder should probably be a combination of Sandstorm and Opee Sea Killer, and maybe one or two of Boonta Eve Podrace as well. Should be fun, though it covers just about all the Dark characters in the ballpark besides the droids. Two copies of Tatooine: Desert Landing Site is mandatory!
* Tusken Raider / Marksman + Tatooine Thunder Rifle + Sniper + Destiny = 6 at Tatooine: Podrace Arena is a tidy 16 Power. Even better than the combination mentioned in the previous entry! Shoot that Anakin-kid a couple of times for me, will you? Ahem. Gun laws are surprisingly liberal in Tatooine.
* Interestingly enough, if you get a combination like this going, you may want to seriously consider putting it first in your battle plan. Why? Because your opponent will probably be looking to play The Negotiations Were Short with their first character. And short of any armed Jedi, on Tatooine, Power +3 from The Negotiations Were Short will probably not be enough for them to stop you.
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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. Will we see Banthas? Were there banthas in SW:TPM? The answer momentarily escapes me.
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