Decipher
Learns From
Young Jedi
Contributed by Dash
Published 8/28/99
With the success of "Young Jedi", the Customizable Card Game based on "The Phantom Menace", Decipher has taken note of the reasons behind YJ's success and incorporated some of them into their Endor expansion. The three major reasons for Young Jedi's success are battle-oriented gameplay, the introduction of foils, and much more common mains.
Part 1: The Gameplay
One of the major problems with the original Star Wars Customizable Card Game (SW:CCG) was that there was a great decline in the interactiveness in the gameplay. Ideally, a game would be won by one side that had quite simply beaten their opponent in many battles. Decipher thought that they could "force" the other person to battle by introducing the concept of a "Force drain." However, as you all know, the Force drain concept has been brutally abused throughout the life of SW:CCG.
Young Jedi is a game in a league of its own. Decipher learned from its mistakes and came up with the unique YJ gameplay that most of you all are very familiar with. The ONLY option allowed was to battle. If you didn't battle, you lost. End of story.
Of course, Decipher couldn't just kill the idea of Force draining in SW:CCG. It was now a part of the game, a VITAL part of the game. Decipher just had to make do with their own creation. So they concentrated on the battling part of the game and tried to reduce the number of pure "Force drain strategies." If you look at the Endor set, there are VERY few cards that give Force drain bonuses. With cards like Battle Plan, you are given special bonuses for initiating a battle. Such cards as Endor Celebration have all but eliminated the "super Force loss" strategies. More importantly, nearly all the decks that have emerged from Endor have concentrated on battling the opponent instead of avoiding him/her to Force drain them out. Blaster decks, scout decks, speeder bike decks, Ewok decks, AT-ST decks, they all focus on battling.
Part 2: Mains Distribution
How frustrating is it to buy a box of SW:CCG cards and pull but one main character card? VERY frustrating, I can assure you. There were two major problems with the distribution of mains in SW:CCG. The first problem is that the poor mains distribution didn’t exactly welcome new players into the game. The second is that mains were a "must have" in so many strategies.
Young Jedi, as most of you all know, has a very good distribution of mains. (I am the only person that I know of to buy 5 packs and NOT pull a main [g]) As a result, a lot of players quickly picked up the game and didn't have to devote $500 simply to play. Not only that, but the mains definitely weren't required for decks. Commons and uncommons decks consisting of Battle Droids and Royal Guards (and their power-adding cards) can easily overcome the deficit of not playing with any mains.
Decipher took note of these problems, I think, and make a very good attempt to correct them. Never before have so many good characters been contained in a single set. For comparison, let's take a look at the other 180-card and 162-card expansions in the SW:CCG universe: ANH had Chewie, R2, and Wedge Antilles; Hoth had Commander Luke, Veers, and Anakin's Saber; SOS, Yoda, and the Executor could be found in Dagobah; Cloud City contained Cap'n Han, P. Leia, Fett, and LS and DS Lando; and, lastly, Jabba's Palace found Jabba, P. Leia Organa, and Tamtel. In contrast, the new Endor expansion is filled with mains, including: Daughter of Skywalker, General Solo, Chewbacca of Kashyyyk, Threepio, General Crix Madine, and Mon Mothma. Quite simply, none of those matched this expansion, which is *full* of great characters. Second, unlike they have in the past, most of the decks that have emerged with the release of Endor haven't required all the big mains for play. Although Ewok decks and Combat Vehicle decks do benefit from the presence of such rares as Chief Chirpa and named Tempest Scouts (note that I didn't mention "General Solo" or "Darth Vader"), such cards are certainly not REQUIRED for the deck.
Part 3: Foils
One of the problems that arises when you have a better mains distribution is the damage to the collectibility aspect of the game. Let's not forget those collectors out there who help Decipher get by!
Another unique concept in Young Jedi was the introduction of foils. These cards possessed no playing advantage over the regular cards, but were found in a much poorer distribution rate. A Darth Maul Foil only comes along once every 450 packs!!! The introduction of these foils made the awesome "mains to packs" ratio possible. Players can play, and collectors still have something special to look for.
With the better mains distribution of Endor, foils were a necessity for this set. In this way, both the players *and* the collectors were more than satisfied.
For these reasons, I haved dubbed the Endor expansion a success. It has made the entrance of new players into SW:CCG much, much easier. Unlike such expansions as Dagobah and more recently Special Edition, Endor has focused the play of SW:CCG upon battling--as it should be. After all, when was the last time that the Empire started hiding from the Alliance?
Fetching Results...
