Basic Deck Design by OWJ

 

 

The purpose of this page is to provide a breakdown of the standard Basic decks and when to use them.  In addition, this page will explore new Basic deck theories; with the introduction of the experimental Magenta and Cyan decks.  This page will serve as a handy resource for new and experienced deckmakers alike; who don't have the card breakdowns memorized.  It is my hope that this page will prompt innovation and possible usage of some of my theories in their own deck designs.  

 

**Official Hasbro Decks in full color**

 

Major Melee Decks

38/18	35/21	32/24	30/28	28/31	30/23	28/28
Red	Magenta	Blue	Cyan	Green	Brown	Aqua
5/1	5/1	5/1	5/1	4/2	5/1	4/1
5/1	5/1	5/1	4/2	4/2	4/1	4/2
5/1	5/1	4/1	4/2	4/2	4/1	4/2
5/1	4/1	4/2	4/2	4/2	4/2	4/2
4/1	4/2	4/2	3/3	3/3	4/2	3/3
4/2	4/2	3/3	3/3	3/3	3/2	3/3
4/2	3/3	3/3	2/3	2/4	2/3	2/3
3/2	2/3	2/3	2/4	2/4	2/3	2/4
2/3	2/3	1/4	2/4	1/4	1/4	1/4
1/4	1/4	1/4	1/4	1/5	1/4	1/4

 

Official Hasbro Decks

Red Deck

A Red deck is used for agressive Jedi characters; Anakin, Luke, Vader &  Maul use the Red deck.  The Red deck has alot of offense but is plagued by poor defense.  For this reason, it is generally considered inferior to the balanced Blue deck.

 

Blue Deck

The Blue deck is about having a balanced attack and defense.  It is used by Jedi characters; Obi-Wan, Mace and Dooku.  Having defense is critical to the staying power of your character; so you can win with your talent cards.

 

Green Deck

The Green deck is reserved for defensive masters; Yoda and Emperor Palpatine use this deck.  This is used by only the most powerful of Jedi and Sith characters.  The downside to all this defense is a weak offense.  For this reason, Yoda often struggles to put characters away.  But, his Green deck coupled with his 3 Power Defend cards makes him extremely hard to take down.  In some games, he'll block everything you throw at him.

 

Unofficial Decks

Brown Deck

The premise of the Brown deck is to be a weaker version of Blue.  The Brown deck is meant for non-Jedi type characters who need a good deck but lack the combat skills of a typically Jedi.  Characters like Jabba the Hutt and the Rancor are a good match for this deck.  This deck could probably be utilized a bit more by the ED community; rather than settling on Blue all the time.

 

Aqua Deck

An Aqua deck is meant as a weaker version, defensively, than a Green deck.  Notice just the defend value is lower than the Green.   A good deck to utilize when you need to tone done the defense on a Green deck but maintain the weak offense.

 

Experiemental Decks (Magenta & Cyan)

Characters that change skill levels at different stages of there career, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, could range from Magenta to Blue to Cyan.  This can be easily justified.  The young energetic Padawan Obi could fit into a Magenta deck.  The episode 2 Epic Duels version of Obi has the standard Blue deck.  Then finally, as the wise Old Ben Kenobi, the Cyan deck.  But, bare in mind, the talent cards determine, greatly, the extent a character relies on his Basic deck for Offense or Defense.  You have to consider the whole deck.  I'd start with choosing a Basic deck you like first.  Then work the talent cards around that; understanding, that your basic deck and/or your talent cards may need to change to get the deck in the right balance.  These new decks are meant as a tool to achieve this end.

 

Magenta

The Magenta deck is between the Red and Blue decks.  It's meant for 'balanced to aggressive' characters.  Characters that are either Red or Blue could be tweaked up or down to Magenta and still represent that character well.   If you want to give a Blue deck character a bit more offense, you have the option to go to a Magenta deck and vice versa.

 

Cyan

The Cyan deck is similiar to the Aqua deck.  But is has a bit more offense.  It rests between the Blue and Green decks.  It is meant for 'balanced to defensive' characters.  Characters that are either Green or Blue could be tweaked up or down to a Cyan deck and still represent that character well.  If you want to give a Blue deck a bit more defense, you have the option to go to Cyan and vice versa.  

 

 

Minor Melee Decks

33/17	30/20	27/23	25/27	25-29	25/22	24/27	26/24	25/24	20/18	19/17
Red	Magenta	Blue	Cyan	Green	Brown	Aqua	Strong+	Strong	Weak	Weak
5/1	5/1	5/1	4/2	4/2	4/1	4/2	5/1	4/1	3/1	3/1
5/1	5/1	4/1	4/2	4/2	4/1	4/2	4/2	4/2	3/1	3/1
5/1	4/1	4/2	4/2	4/2	4/2	4/2	4/2	4/2	3/2	3/1
4/1	4/2	4/2	3/3	3/3	4/2	3/3	3/2	3/2	3/2	2/2
4/2	4/2	3/3	3/3	3/3	3/2	3/3	3/3	3/3	2/2	2/2
4/2	3/3	3/3	2/3	2/4	2/3	2/3	3/3	3/3	2/2	2/2
3/2	2/3	2/3	2/4	2/4	2/3	2/4	2/3	2/3	2/2	2/2
2/3	2/3	1/4	2/4	1/4	1/4	1/4	1/4	1/4	1/3	1/3
1/4	1/4	1/4	1/4	1/5	1/4	1/4	1/4	1/4	1/3	1/3

 

As you can see from the above graph, none of the Minor Melee decks are official Hasbro decks.  That's because in the original game, there were no Minor Melee characters.  The premise of each deck is the same as for the Major Melee decks.  So, I won't repeat the explanations.  To get the Minor Melee decks, you simply take away the top card of the Major deck; since a minor Basic deck has only 9 cards.  The exceptions are the Weak, Strong & Strong+ Melee decks. 

 

Strong & Strong+

There is definitely some overlapping theory between the 'Blue and Strong+' decks and the 'Strong & Minor-Brown' decks.  I know I'm biased, but I prefer the Minor-Blue and Minor-Brown as each has less total defense.  Strong+(Melee) also has a 3/2 card; which is more typical of a Red deck or shooting character.  Whereas, Minor-Blue has a 4/1 card; which is a Blue deck card.  But, they are perfectly viable decks, nonetheless. 

 

Weak Decks

The Weak deck is for, well, weak characters; such as Watto, C3PO, R2D2, exc.  Typical non-compatants that you may have included in a custom deck.  These characters have to have 'something' for cards and so this deck was created with these types of characters in mind.  The 19/17 version, created by Roman Farraday, uses the same convention of having only 3 different card types; similiar to the Weak Minor Shooter deck.  For this reason, I think it's an improvement in design over the original.

 

Important Note

If you are new to deckmaking, I recommend that you do not use the Minor-Green, Minor-Aqua or Minor-Cyan decks.  I've included these decks here as a reference for advanced deckmakers.

 

Major Shooter Decks

27/19	27/20	27/21	28/21
Yellow	Yellow+	Yellow++	Orange
4/1	4/1	4/1	5/1
4/1	4/1	4/1	4/1
4/1	4/1	4/1	4/1
3/1	3/1	3/1	3/1
3/1	3/1	3/1	3/1
3/2	3/2	3/2	3/2
2/2	2/2	2/3	2/3
2/2	2/3	2/3	2/3
1/4	1/4	1/4	1/4
1/4	1/4	1/4	1/4

 

Official Hasbro Decks

Yellow & Yellow+

Yellow is the standard deck for Major shooting characters; Jango and Boba utilize this deck.  Han utilizes a Yellow+ deck which has 1 more point of defense.  These decks have long been considered too weak on defense.  The game designers seemed to have missed the mark a bit on the defense point total.  Therefore, I'd only recommend a straight Yellow deck for a major character such as Jar Jar Binks; A typical non-combatant type character.

 

Unofficial Decks 

Yellow++

A much better deck in my opinion is using the Yellow++ deck for typical Bounty Hunter or shooting character such as Boba Fett, Jango Fett or Han Solo.  The standard Yellow deck that Jango and Boba employ has proven to be a failure in deck design; in my opinion.  So, I strongly recommend a Yellow++ deck for your shooter decks.  It's only 2 more points of defense, but it will help make your shooter deck more competitive and balanced all the way around.

 

Orange

The Orange deck is meant for Force-Sensitive characters such as a Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker.  Or, if you'd just like to give your character an added boost.  It features one 5/1 attack and 21 points of defense.   The most powerful of the shooting decks.   It's a great deck.  I've also used the Orange deck frequently in my Jedi Arena expansion; which features single characters decks.  

 

 

Minor Shooter Decks

25/20	24/20	23/20	16/13
Strong++	Strong+	Strong	Weak
5/1	5/1	4/1	3/1
4/1	4/1	4/1	3/1
3/1	3/1	3/1	2/1
3/1	3/1	3/1	2/1
3/2	3/2	3/2	2/1
2/3	2/3	2/3	1/2
2/3	2/3	2/3	1/2
2/4	1/4	1/4	1/2
1/4	1/4	1/4	1/2

 

All of the above decks are official Hasbro Minor Shooter decks.

 

Strong++

This deck is for the strongest supporting characters.  The Emperor's Royal Guards utilize this deck.  Though it's reserved for the most elite characters, it probably could be utilized a bit more often by the ED Community in their custom decks.  It's almost a forgotten element.  I didn't even realize the Royal Guard used this deck until shortly before I prepared this webpage.  It features an additional point on the 2/4 card over the Strong+ deck.

 

Strong+

Most deck designers select this deck for the Shooting Minors; mainly to have the one 5/1 card.  The Super Battle Droids & Chewbacca utilize this deck. 

 

Strong

This deck is selected for the slightly weaker shooters.  Leia, Padme, Greedo & Zam use this deck.  It lacks the 5/1 card of the other two decks. 

 

Weak

The deck is the weakest of the weak.  The Clones, Storm Troopers & Battledroids use this deck.  They are usually fodder for other characters and are often no more than 'shields' for their majors.  However, I've won a duel using two consecutive 1 attacks with my Clones.  A character with a weak shooter deck would never have talent cards.  So, when selecting a weak shooter deck, your Major character should have all 12 talent cards.

 

 

SUMMARY

Many experienced designers have created their own custom basic decks to fit a particular character.  So, use this page as a resource and not an absolute authority.  Errors and omissions may be emailed to obi_wan_john@yahoo.com.  If you would like your custom Basic deck added to this page, please email me the breakdown and describe how it is used.  Happy Deckmaking!