The Emperor’s Journal 2 - December 2017

Greetings Galactic Citizens and SW CCG Players,

Welcome to our second newsletter.

I have gathered all the information about the most important things that happened in the past half year, and of course also some insight into what will happen in the near future.

Many thanks to all the volunteers who helped by providing an article or help for this newsletter: Chris Kelly, Dan Tartaglione, Gosse Zeilstra, Kevin Jaap, Matt Carulli, Mitch Nieland and Tamas Papp!

I especially want to thank you guys for providing something on short notice in the busy period between the Set 8 release and the winter holidays. We have tried to keep the articles centered on Set 8, and I hope you like what we’ve come up with.

I hope you enjoy this second newsletter. May the Force be with you!

Chris (Euro Emperor) Menzel Marketing Advocate

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 2 Major News of the past months

Set 7 & Set 8 released

Set 7 was a mid-sized set of 28 cards, which was released in July, and featured the remaining main characters from Rogue 1 (Baze Malbus, Chirrut Imwe and super baddie Director Krennic), and some more from Episode 7 (a DS pirate crew, General Leia, the Profundity, and some LS resistance members) and the Rebels TV show (Sabine and the Ghost), as well a several nice player cards.

Set 8 is a just released larger set of almost 60 cards and the largest we had in a long time. It is the first set that reflects a bit of what we did in the legacy area in regard to establishing new objectives and giving several helper cards to different deck types, so that the meta game should be shaken up quite a bit. Read on to find some strategy articled form my fellow marketing team members elsewhere in this newsletter.

Set 7 can be found here Set 8 can be found here

Demo Decks Expansion 2 is out

We also have a new demo deck expansion for out new and returning players that replaces your familiar cards from the basic set with combo cards and other strategies, which make your decks more effective. You can also learn more about shields, and optional starting possibilities.

Read all about Demo Deck Expansion 2 here

Star Wars CCG Documentary

This may very well become a dream come true for many of us SW CCG fans all over the World. Experienced filmmaker Brandon Baity and long-time top tier player Brian “Twigg” Terwilliger from Team Albany are working on a Star Wars CCG documentary. This movie is about the history and rise and fall of Decipher and the continuing life of the game through the Players Committee.

We have already made some connections to ensure this will be a high quality video, and you can get your first taste at the gofundme pagefrom Brandon, where you can help to collect $ 10.000 to make this a reality.

Go and help fund this once in a lifetime project here

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 3 Mark Walseth is inducted into the Hall of Fame

It has been discussed for a few years already, but this year in August 2017 it was finally the right time to enshrine Mark Walseth into the Hall of Fame at the World Championship in his home town of Minneapolis, MN.

In the year 2000 teacher Mark Walseth had started a Star Wars Program at the Middle School in Rosemount, which was about to become one of the cornerstones for our organization. He had a yearly 8th grade class that played and participated in tournaments Mark organized and hosted. There was an average of about 8-10 members per year, some of whom are still active and successful in the game almost 2 decades later. Mitch Nieland was in his first class, followed by Charly Arlandson in the second, and Jake Nelson. He taught them the game, first by using 40 card Premiere decks, and later objectives and their related support cards, so that you could play at a higher level more quickly. Mark would then teach you the phases, card interactions, and general tactics of the game. He held after school programs at least twice a week for 2 hours just teaching the game, letting people from all ages get together (whether it was the older players, or 8th graders). It also taught you how to communicate with other people that you may not otherwise communicate with. He just did a fantastic job offering that space to all the kids who may not have had a place to play sports, etc. Mark is one of the biggest Tournament Organizers in the World, and aside from the known formats, has also always created innovative new tournament formats or programs (Jedi Padawan Format, Bounty Hunters Format, Rosemount Championship, or an exchange system of volunteering time for rare cards). Mark has been super generous, and has given away many thousands of dollars of cards to the kids over the years. As his own legendary prize and community support became more depleted, other parts of the community became aware of his project, and how he relentlessly helped his students and therefore “created” new players (there must be around 50+ different players that play the game in the Rosemount area on and off in the past years). The other communities started sending cards and prize to Mark with which he could continue to support the Bespin Region till his last class in 2016. His work is not at an end, though, and Mr. Walseth is working with the PC to transfer his program to an online version of it, which would allow us to reach even more young students as potential players, and offer them what Mark has so successfully done in 16 years in his area.

Volunteer Awards

The following dedicated players have also received a Volunteer Award for their peerless work for the game. Jeremy Gardener (for our all over website supervision), Tom Marlin (for creating uncomparable software, see later in this newsletter) and Troy Biesterfeld (for his creation of GEMP). Excuse the small news notice, gentlemen but we to hear more of and about each of them in more detail in future editions of the newsletter.

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 4 Upcoming Events Major Event Updates

The World Championship was held in Bloomington, MN from 8- European Tournaments 2018 10th August 2017, and had 59 The European Tournaments for all of 2018 have already been posted players in total . Phil Aasen is and you can start booking your flights and prep your decks: the new World Champ after defeating Jonathan Chu in the 17th February 2018: European MPC in Hannover, Germany finals. More details are here: http://www.starwarsccg.org/fo 18th February 2018: Germany National in Hannover, Germany rums/viewforum.php?f=1009 th The European Championship 17 March 2018: Denmark National in Horsens, Denmark th was held in Bochum from 8-10 th September in Bochum with 45 14 April 2018: Ryloth Regional in Tilburg, Netherlands players. Bastian Winkelhaus th returned after a 10 year hiatus 5 May 2018: Toola Regional in Copenhagen, Denmark th to claim his 5 EC championship nd after defeating Ziemowit Skwara 2 June 2018: Naboo Regional in Bromborough/Liverpool , UK in the finals. More details here: 16th June 2018: Ralltiir Regional in Munich, Germany http://www.starwarsccg.org/for ums/viewforum.php?f=1012 30th June 2018: Hungary National in Budapest, Hungary Texas Mini Worlds were held th in October 2017 in Houston, and 4 August 2018: Polish National in Krakow, Poland there were 17 players. Steve Baroni won against Tom Haid 21-23th September: Europeans in Bochum, Germany in the finals. http://www.starwarsccg.org/for ums/viewforum.php?f=1010 Currently Posted US Tournaments 2018 Major Online Events The majority of the US events will be posted later, but the two main events, The MPC and Worlds, are up already, as well as one event in The first GEMPC with 36 players was held in the first quarter of California in January. 2017 by Batmouse. th th Here are the bracket results. 5 -7 January 2018: Match Play Championship in New Brunswick, NJ

Batmouse’s second GEMPC is 7th January 2018 Canto Royale in Oakland, CA still running in the last quarter of 2017. We have 64 players. 4th-7th October 2018: World Championship in Morristown, NJ Follow the bracket here.

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 5

The Emperor’s Prize - Der Prize ist heiss!

In this new column I’m trying to keep you updated on new prize support and some “merchandise” we are giving away at major events, online events and other opportunities.

We’ve been working on some interesting things over the past few months, and these items will show up during the next season, so keep your eyes out for them.

Since we are often asked… these items are not for sale in the SWCCG PC shop. They are strictly made for prize support and are intended to increase tournament participation.

History of Prize Support in the US and Europe

Since the beginning of the Players Committee prize support has been handled differently in the US and in Europe. It might be something that not all players are aware of, and there is no “right” or “wrong” here, but it may be interesting to know, so I would like to share this history with you.

The US has always been the cornerstone of Players Committee and provides at least an estimated 70-75% of the active player base for the Star Wars CCG. Continuing in the tradition of Decipher, the PC organized regional and national events to give out “Byes”, which allowed players to participate at the World Championship. These Byes were bought by the tournament directors (TDs) to finance the prize money given out at Worlds.

Europe traditionally did not buy too many of these Bye packages, since 99% of the time the players would not be able to use it to play at the World Championship anyway due to high travel costs. After the European barbarian tribes became a bit more organized around 2004 (don’t ask me how this happened), and the European Championship started to become a major event (and certainly the major event in Europe), they had to figure out some strategy of financing their own events. They created some prize support like play mats, glossaries, polo shirts, etc. and made packages to buy for the regional and national events in Europe. To calculate and finance these packages for a season they were forced (probably by some evil misunderstood guy in a hood) to plan out their events farther in advance. That’s why Europe usually has their dates out at the beginning of the year (again, this has nothing to do with right or wrong, it’s simply two different systems).

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 6 The US players supported most of the money for Worlds, so it would have been unfair of Europe to gain from their Bye system, and it would further have been from for Europe to support a system they could almost never use. That’s the basic history of the prize support systems.

Over the years the parts of the community grew stronger together, and there is a lot of good will on both sides to create a successful co-existence of the 2 systems. In 2012 the World Championship was given to Europe for the first time since the PCs beginning. This not only saved the European community, but also was the beginning of truly making us one big community. The Bye system was no longer valid for players from other continents (meaning European players could play without a Bye at Worlds in the US and vise versa), there were gracious donations to Euro Worlds or the EC from the US, and Europe bought a half dozen virtual player cards or so each year form the US.

The two financial systems are still different, and it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to combine them. Why am I telling you this long (but hopefully not to boring) story? Because as marketing advocate for the whole community and as “Euro Emperor”, who pre-finances the Euro prize packages, there is some conflict on what to bring to which side of the pond. The second World championship in Europe was just confirmed for 2019, and we just mapped out all our qualifier events leading to Euro Worlds II. These approx. 30 events will have no “Byes”, but prize packages, which my fellow Euro leaders have already agreed to buy, and I ordered items for several thousand Euro to create the packages. We hope you will find these items as cool as me and my team. I will present them in this area in this and future newsletters.

What do we have planned for the US then? There is debate to get rid of the “Bye” system, but it is still not set in stone, so I don’t want to confirm anything yet. This is written the week before Christmas and I have to hand out the first Euro Worlds II prize packages in January/February, so naturally I already have all the prize items ordered and shipped. I have ordered some additional merchandise for the US, but we usually decide at the end of the year what to use for league and donations, so it is not finalized yet where we will use the items in the US. IF we replace the Bye system, then it will be replaced by travel vouchers, which can be used for Worlds in the US.

So, since I’ve already been asked questions from both sides, let me tell you that it’s not possible to find a 100% solution that works for both continents due to the aforementioned history. European players have already asked me why there won’t be travel vouchers in Europe, and US players will very likely ask me why many of the cool merchandise items are not available more in the US. The simple answer is “time”. I have completed the whole prize support process for Europe for 2018 and a large part of 2019, and would like to thank my fellow Euro leaders for their support.

We have some of these things coming up in the US as well, so keep your eyes tuned on the next pages and look out for deck boxes, poker chips, carry bags, t-shirts, card sleeves for shields, and of course some special AI foils!

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 7 Deck Boxes & Event Stickers

We have created some special deck boxes that you can get by pre-registering for any of the 4 major events in the US and Europe for 2018.

There is a DS “Imperial Style” deck box for pre-registration at the MPC in January and at the European Championship in September.

There is a LS “Tatooine Style” deck box for pre-registration at the first European MPC in February and at the World Championship in Morristown.

Aside from the above mentioned styles, we have created 2 special boxes, "Mando" style and "Millenium" style, which will be given out as special prize support at certain events, usually in a draft/raffle for the non-top 2 players. These 2 special boxes will be part of the European prize packages, and we have yet to see where they are given out in the US. We want to make sure that some kind of deck boxes will be given out at certain events to keep them available. They are only for prize support though, and will NOT be for sale.

Those deck boxes are holding one deck, and are made out of very thin, but slick card board. Two of these boxes fit exactly into a Sealed Deck cube (OSD or Jabbas Palace).

Starting with the MPC we will give out "Event Stickers" for each major event (and probably regionals) and you can put those stickers on a place at the side of these deck boxes. Make sure you keep the event stickers, because the boxes will be out there (easiest way to get them is to pre- register for upcoming events like Euro MPC or Worlds).

Here is the preliminary concept art for the DS box in "Imperial Style" and for the Event Stickers at the Side.

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 8 Glossary 5.0

These Glossaries have been given out at this year’s Worlds and EC events. Every pre-registered player received one, and the remaining quantities were divided between the US and Europe, so you may also see some of them as prize support on special occasions.

Most of you faithful major events visitors of course have it already, but I am asked sometimes via mails how they look, so I at least want to show the cover to those not lucky enough to have received one.

The name “Glossary” stems from the old Decipher days, where Glossary 1 was part of the first rule book and Glossary 2.0 came out as a little blue mini book with the Special Edition expansion. This new Glossary 5.0 contains all you need for the current season: The Advanced Rules Book 3.0, current Rules FAQs, Master List of the V-Cards up to Set 6, and the Tournament Guide 2.1. There’s also a little Interview with Cosplayer Anna “Feyische”, who portraits Hera Syndulla on our cards and is featured on the cover.

Alternate Image Foil Cards

There will be a total of 9 different AI Foils this year that we are making available at as many possibilities as possible. Most are for tournament participation, but some are also for Leagues, Local Tournament Weekends and for the upcoming Online Weekend in May (watch out for those Holograms).

All official AIs will carry the title “Official AI 2018 – 1 of 9” and so on at the lower right corner, as well as the shiny “SW CCG Players Committe” logo, so that players can immediately see if they are legal at tournaments. Only these ultra-thin foil slips with those marks are legal. Of course those can theoretically be faked, but we appeal to players not to risk banishment by doing so.

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 9 Palpatine’s Party Palaver

This is a special area where we can spread rumors, hints, buzz, and anything else the gossip factory has to say.

This is 100% unconfirmed (until it becomes confirmed), so don’t complain afterwards, if a plan didn’t bear fruit, or if something didn’t work out.

If you are unhappy and have to complain about anything at all… tell it to my good buddies on the left!!

 

Worlds 2019 Set 9 and beyond

The World Championship 2019 will be in Bochum, The Design Team is already working on the next Germany, where it was last held in 2012. set, which is supposed to be released in February The last week of September is a tentative date. or March 2018. The main focus is on The Last Jedi A certain Emperor has offered to arrange a trip (TLJ) of course. A sneak peak shows me through Germany ending at Oktoberfest, Commander Poe Dameron, Jedi Master Luke, following the week after Worlds. Vice Admiral Holdo, Snoke, The Supremacy, and First Order Walkers. I don’t know about you, but  regardless of how and if I like a movie… I am

always excited about the new cards!  But TLJ is not the only thing they are working on. Poker Chips A Stunning Move, Jedi Training, remaining Rebels, all this and more may come out in the next sets. There is already some article about other prize Please remember, though, that it’s possible that support in this Journal, and the next one may none of the cards I mention here will actually have a follow up about the poker chips. make it in Set 9. If a card is not “right yet” and Even if you are not a poker fan, these chips are not approved by D&D, we will have to push it probably something no real SW CCG fan will want back (like we did Maz Kanata for example a to miss in their collection. They are available in couple of times already). 5 different colors and (since pride is a dark side characteristic), I am pretty proud of the back side 

art). The chips also have the SW CCG and our website on them, so you can give them away as a

(business) card to interested potential players.

I further expect them to be a valid currency for Harpster arm wrestling and other weird $ 1 side events. 

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 10

The Emperor’s Hand

A friend and advisor (usually without funny hat) of good old Sheev is Tamas (Yoda007) Papp, the Emperor’s Hand, who would like to share some strategic tips and tricks with you.

Geocaching in a Galaxy far far away by Tamas Papp

This time I’m moving from rules to deck design and looking at an objective that just came out. Don’t expect a world champ level deck, but something that may inspire you. My first thoughts were mixed about I Want That Map, though. I was really excited for Old Allies, because I liked Rey and her adventures on Jakku in The Force Awakens more. That is not the case with Kylo Ren (formerly known as Ben Solo) and his quest to find his former master, Luke Skywalker. However, with the new movie out I started to like Kylo’s character - one of the best performances in The Last Jedi. But I had some other reasons to pick this card for an overview (besides, the Euro Emperor told me so). It features Bow To The First Order (the improved Dark Side version of I Must Be Allowed To Speak-V), which really helps in making a deck more consistent with its Used Pile pulls. Not to mention you get a powerful ship into your hand. Powerful in this deck, I mean.

The objective is fairly vague in what it is supposed to do. It’s quite similar to Agents of the Black Sun (AOBS), in terms that you need to keep a certain character off the table (battleground sites). And in the meantime you need Kylo to run the show (again, like with Xizor). Also, there are no Dark Jedi for you at this point of time. But you lose the manipulation aspect, and you have at least 2 systems where you need protect your sites - it’s hard to pass on the idea of starting a twix that pulls you other sites. Also, Kylo will be one of your best beat characters, so he can’t just sit around while the rest of the team battles (this is different from Xizor in AOBS), but keeping him alive is key for the flip side goodies. And those goodies are really good. Your opponent’s retrieval becomes very limited (hello, BB-8!), and you get demo version access to a gameplay mechanic that was exclusive to one of the best light side decks - playing interrupts from Lost Pile.

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 11 Start: Knowledge and Defense-v I Want That Map/And You’ll Give It To Me Jakku: Taunul Village Starkiller Base I Will Finish What You Started 

In the new V-Set, you also get a Starting Interrupt for this deck that allows you to go a different way than the usual Prepared Defenses by letting you pull Kylo’s Shuttle, but starting one less effect (the objective already starts one effect for you, anyway). This was my first dilemma (actually, two of them). First one: being able to start a 1/0 location is nice, but it’s gametext to pull Jakku is somewhat challenging. I can’t really deploy Kylo there because it’s not a battleground and I lose a pull with Bow To The First Order, which defeats its purpose. And I’m not a fan of deploying a lone trooper there either. However, I need the Jakku system. Finalizer deploys for 9 force there and adds one to my force drains (she’s pullable).

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 12 The second dilemma is the Shuttle. The interrupt provides a pull chain mechanism to apply early pressure on my opponent by deploying Kylo and possibly his lightsaber (I Will Finish What You Started), but I lose one effect that could help me in the long run. I still haven’t decided what is best, but for the sake of this article, and to be as thematic as possible, I chose You Know What I’ve Come For.

You Know What I’ve Come For  Jakku: Landing Site Bow To The First Order Wipe Them Out, All Of Them

As my second choice, I picked Wipe Them Out, All Of Them to help with activation. I’m still considering to start Alert My Stardestroyer (V), but besides pulling Hux or the Admiral, I can’t really utilize it throughout the game. Having said earlier that this deck needs both staying and battling power, and wanting to keep it thematic, I decided to go the trooper way with some additions like Asajj Ventress for hit and runs and Lt. Mitaka to have a cheap pilot, and some surprise movements with Kylo. Also, he is destiny 7 when Hux is out. For space I try to focus on Finalizer, which might not be the greatest idea with the new tricks light side now got up their sleeve (Ello Asty), but with the flip side of your objective you might have great chances to stay alive long enough to do enough damage (making the opponent to pay or lose force to draw a battle destiny). Also, Laser Cannon Battery helps, too. As for the resources, I would have really liked to go force choking style, but to save some card slots I chose the obvious route of using the Starkiller Base locations. It’s easy to pull them, and you’ll need battlegrounds anyway. Maybe in the future, I’ll try a different setting, but for now it’ll do.

So, the deck so far is: Kylo Ren x2 General Hux Vice Admiral Resdox 

Captain Phasma x2 Due to some misinformation we have gathered from FN-2199 x2 Wookiepedia during Design we will have to change the name Vice Admiral Resdox in an errata later. Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 13 FN-2003 First Order Stormtrooper x4 Lieutenant Dopheld Mitaka x2 Marek Stele, The Emperor’s Reach Asajj Ventress with Lightsaber

Kylo Ren's Lightsaber Laser Cannon Battery 

Finalizer Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle

Jakku Starkiller Base: Shield Control Starkiller Base: Forest

No Escape Strategic Reserves (V)  Specter of the Supreme Leader x3

*Imperial Command x3 Trooper Assault x3 *A Dark Time For The Rebellion (V) x2 *Masterful Move & *Endor Occupation x2 They've Shut Down The Main Reactor Force Push (V) Ghhhk

The Masterful Move Combo is to pull Ghhhk and Specter, and is also great for cancelling Celebration, since you need to stay at Jakku most of the time. You won’t have the resources to keep 2 systems.

And I have a few slots left… I still felt that space was a bit weak, and the light side is quite diverse, therefore you can’t really tech against it.

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 14 That’s why I reached to an old friend: the tractor beam. You have an almost Executor-like immunity ship, your only issues will be multiple destinies and overpowering. While Imperial Command can keep the destinies in line, but capturing those Falcons and Outriders during battle could be even better.

In Range x3 I Can't Shake Him! x2 Our First Catch Of The Day x2 Tractor Beam 

With all the cards in place, I just need to go out and play and see what needs to be changed. As you could see there are plenty of points where I could have gone differently (e.g.: using the new Sonic Bombardment (V) to pull the Security Tower (V) and Downtown Plaza, and utilizing Overload, just to name another one). Finding an optimal set up needs a few games, but for a version 1.0 I’m quite fond of this deck. Also, with the unique mechanics opened put to the dark side, I suppose we’ll see a lots of iterations of this deck (from troopers with guns to mains to anything out of the box) till next year’s Worlds and Euros where it can shine brightly. If you have any feedbacks, please let me know via PM. Tamas (Yoda007) Papp

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 15

A Larger World, a Larger Hat

New design member Gosse Zeilstra from the Netherlands has already proven to be of mischievous mind when he created a tournament legal version of the DS demo deck, and he also brought us the great “A first step into a larger world: Beginner Decks” article series. He deserved the “hat” and we are happy we could win him for the Imperial propaganda machine.

How Set 8 Became Great by Gosse (gossui) Zeilstra

May 2017: a PM from QuickDraw announced that I was offered a one-year position in the design team, should I wish to accept it. OF COURSE I’LL ACCEPT!! I’ve been collecting and playing this wonderful game since high school when Star Wars CCG was first released in ’95 and never ever had I imagined that one day I would be in the position to actually design (official) Star Wars cards…

Flash forward a few weeks. Via e-mail and a conference call I “met” the other members: Jarad Konkster, Camden Yanaga, Chris Kelly, and Seth Acree. Chris and Cam were newly appointed just as I was and the other two plus Matt and the Development Team had been working on Set 7 for a while. Besides a whole set of new forums that I had access to, I also needed to get up to speed with Set 7 (almost finalized then), and to get familiar with the various stages and teams of the whole card design and release process. Finalising and releasing Set 7 was a good experience to see what actually happens behind the scenes of not just thinking up and creating new cards, but also to see what changes some cards go through before they are released or more common, are cut. As it is with writing: Kill your darlings!

In short, these volunteers are all involved in the various stages of the design process: 3-5 members on Design come up with creative ideas; 3-5 members on Development who scrutinize the ideas, make suggestions, veto, and send the ideas back for fine tuning; Playtesting that tests the cards and see if the work in the intended decks but also checks for interactions that no one has thought of before; Proofing to make sure the final game text is in line with previous cards and creates no rules issues; Graphic Design to make all the cards look superb; and of course our Design Advocate who oversees the whole and steps in where necessary. Also, the Rules team checks in now and then to advice on possible issues and suggest proper SW:CCG language. You see, there is quite a bit of volunteer work involved

One of the strong points of the current Design team is that it consists of players that favor different deck types and have different play styles. That way, we design cards for the decks that appeal to us as a whole and not just a specific player type. Also, we argue and discuss ideas from our own respective points of view. Anyone remembers that Magic article on Spike, Johnny, and Timmy? I’d like to think of the team as a mix of mainly Spikes and Johnny’s with a dash of Timmy here and there, resulting in a varied set that appeals to all with plenty of cards to choose from for our inner Spike, Johnny, or Timmy.

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 16 Now that Set 7 was released, it was time for us to focus on our own, new, full set. Our excitement led to many ideas, some darlings killed immediately, a few concepts accepted almost as they are, but mostly the initial designs were met with critical remarks and questions. This is basically how the design process goes: someone comes up with a “brilliant” idea, proposes it, and then the whole team or just a few provide their input: “I like this part, but the last part…”, “this is way overpowered”, “should this card be playable in deck type X as well?”.

So that is the process once ideas are put to paper, but how do we come to new creations? How do we use the creative part of our brains to translate movie quotes, epic scenes, and characters to actual game text? I’ll give you two examples from my point of view: One card started when I played a JPSD tournament for our League, I noticed how much fun Agents In The Court could be in that limited environment, but that it lack oomph in the current card pool. It needed something a la Power Of The Hutt (PotH). Voila, the concept for Yarna D’al Gargan was born! Going over PotH and seeing what type of cards it could pull (strong “lieutenant” characters, a starship, and a vehicle that pulls a location), I started translating this to Light Side cards. An underlying card was not yet envisaged, and soon I realized that the deck needed its three starting effect slots, so Yarna came to mind. That is also when the text limitations started to show me what it takes to design a card.

First off, Yarna (V) already did too many things and then the Monnok protection was not even on it. I wanted the card to pull at least Tessek, a few other cards, Wild Karrde and Tatooine sites. Killing my darlings, I decided to cut the “immune to alter”-part and that actually made more sense because the fact that the card pulled strong cards but was longer startable in most decks, balanced it. Instead of Tatooine sites, the text changed to locations so that Agents in the Court finally has a way to satisfy Battle Plan/Order. Wild Karrde was a good mirror pull to Jabba’s Space Cruiser, and doesn’t see a lot of play otherwise. The team came up with the clause that the deploy cost of your aliens could not be increased, a great help vs Watto (a deck I hardly play). Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 17 One of the other designs came from reading up on Sabine Wren on Wookieepedia. Not having seen the Rebels series (it is not broadcasted in the Netherlands) I wondered what her role was in the SW universe. Realising she was a Mandalorian too, I had an idea to do create a card that would do some cool things pro-Light Side Mandalorians and contra- Dark Side Mandalorians. The best candidate was of course Mandalorian Mishap. I think the first iteration cancelled the game text of Jodo or any Fett (contra), pull Sabine and/or a grenade (pro). Then Chris said it should cancel Hidden Weapons. Of course! And I also liked the game text of Jodo, so something similar was put on this card. Development thought that a Hidden Weapon canceller right after They’re Tracking Us (V) was released, was too much hate for bounty hunter decks, so that had to go. Also, the grenade pull was deemed too strong, and they suggested Under Attack instead. Good call! So, changed the text and we realized that the Jodo-like text was too long for the text template. What now…? I mean, kill your darlings is okay, but, but… this was so typical Mandalorian. This text should be on the card, or at least something similar. Then someone suggested to do a text similar to Wounded Wookiee and that fit. Plus it was a bit more all round (and stronger because you can choose after all destinies are drawn). Besides that, we tried to put some text on the card similar to Any Methods Necessary (V) which resulted in the blaster pull. And Sabine works nicely with blasters, so this gave the whole card more synergy and made the game text more coherent (it is quite difficult to get roughly three functions on a card that more or less share a theme, gameplay-wise). Development agreed, Playtesting was happy with it, so this card could go to Proofing for final check on game text, and is now released.

This is how it goes with a few cards. Most ideas I (or other members of the team) had, have been cut, redesigned, reviewed, cut, and some are still in the design process. Some go one set back, others go back to all before the reset. If you ever get the opportunity to be part of the Design team, you can look around in the archives and see all the killed darlings in that graveyard of giants… I think Set 8 became great because all of us were forced by the other team members (or text space) to kill some darlings, and as limitations breed creativity, this process lead to a better product, enabling you to play better cards, play better decks, etc.

Thanks for reading and MTFBY,

Gosse (gossuii) Zeilstra

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 18 The Artist Formerly Known As Indiana Jones Jedi Knight

A cursed Jedi writing in the Journal of the Emperor!? It is unheard of! Outrageous! Well, maybe he can join the Dark Side. Marketing and Design member Chris Kelly is giving us an insight into the game, specifically the new “Chosen One” objective from Set 8.

Who Is The Chosen One??? by Chris Kelly

Who is the Chosen One? A big part of the Star Wars saga is “the Prophecy of the Force.” However, despite being the driving force (pun intended) behind (at least) the first six films, there’s some debate about exactly how – or thru whom – the Prophecy is to come to be. A basic google search will bring up dozens and dozens of articles debating who the Chosen One is – Anakin, Luke, or even Rey or Kylo or Snoke or Jar Jar. Countless youtube videos have been created about whether or not the Prophecy is fulfilled by Anakin, Luke or maybe even both. It’s an interesting topic for sure, and it’s time for the Star Wars CCG to weigh in on the discussion.

“You refer to the Prophecy of the one who will bring balance to the Force. You believe it’s this… boy?” In Episode I, we see Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn discover Anakin Skywalker – a Tatooine junkyard slave who was, as the story goes, conceived by the Force itself. Qui- Gon noticed incredible Jedi-traits in the untrained boy and presented him to the Jedi Council. Anakin Skywalker’s journey in the Force – and first steps towards fulfilling that Prophecy, began there, when the Jedi Council initially forbade his training, feeling that he was too dangerous. It was only thru Qui-Gon’s insistence at his death that “He is the Chosen One… He will bring balance,” that caused Obi- Wan to promise his fallen mentor that he would train Anakin in the ways of the Force.

Along the way there were certainly some bumps. In fact, even Obi-Wan himself began to question whether or not Anakin was the Chosen One, asking Yoda, “Is he not the Chosen One? Is he not to destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force?” To which Yoda responded that the Prophecy could have been misread. And, to say the least, it probably was. After Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side and his slaughter of the Jedi – including the padawans – Obi-Wan declared to Anakin Vader that he WAS the Chosen One and that he WAS to have brought balance.

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 19 But instead, he left the Force in darkness. So, with all of the galaxy’s Jedi and padawans (except Yoda and Obi-Wan) slayed, they had no choice but to put their faith in a boy – the offspring of Anakin Skywalker. Obi-Wan watched over that boy and protected him, convincing himself that perhaps the Prophecy was in fact misread and that Luke is indeed the Chosen One. After guiding Luke thru his discovery in the Force, Obi-Wan finally tells Luke what his destiny is – to kill Darth Vader. When Luke tells him he cannot kill his own father, Obi-Wan defeatedly acknowledged that they have then lost. However, Obi-Wan underestimated both Luke and Anakin because it was through Luke’s compassion – and his refusal to kill his father – that ultimately brought the Prophecy to its conclusion as Anakin Skywalker, redeemed by the actions of his son, killed Sidious and ultimately brought balance to the Force. It is such a great, iconic story and enthralling debate about which one of the Skywalkers was the Chosen One of the Saga. How all along, even after he betrayed and murdered so many of them, the Light Side of the Force still had this amazing tool in Anakin Skywalker to destroy the Sith but they needed his son to redeem him. And it was Anakin all along who would in fact destroy the Sith. In going through our cardpool, it seemed a tragedy that there was not too much to represent this struggle of the lone, vanquished Jedi needing to re-reach Anakin. Sure, there is There Is Good In Him, an objective that shows Luke’s journey to redeem his father – by using Mace Windu and Qui-Gon Jinn to win battles. But where is the part where the Jedi Order has been decimated with the few remaining Jedi on the run? Where is the story of Anakin? Well, it’s in the Set 8 Objective – He Is The Chosen One (HITCO!)

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 20 A thematic portrayal of Anakin’s story, taking place just after Order 66 wiped the galaxy clear of all but a few Jedi and after Vader wiped out all of the prequel era-padawans, HITCO lets you start the two key locations of Anakin Skywalker’s story – from where he started his journey in the Force (the Jedi Council Chamber) to the place where he ended it (as a Force ghost on Endor with his Force ghost-pals). You also get to start the Prophecy Of The Force, the representation of Anakin as a Force ghost. Prophecy is an important mechanic of the deck, as (just like in the mooooovies), the player who controls the Prophecy has the potential to increase their damage output. But, it can be very easily seduced back to the other side of the Force by exercising control over a location with Jedi- level ability. It’s the struggle over the Prophecy that can really drive the deck.

You also get I Feel The Conflict, which is the Light Side’s way of reaching out to Anakin. However, since most of the Jedi have been wiped out, you cannot call up them or their padawans to help you win those battles (although Kanan Jarrus is still hiding in exile!). This has also gone thru some changes, from an original concept to let you use everyone except Anakin to a flip condition that ultimately mirrored Hunt Down (with any version of Luke being able to flip it, which is very helpful with the new Luke who adds a destiny to power when armed with a gun or piloting his ship!). However, what was always constant was that the Light Side could not use their character version of Anakin. Why? Well, because he IS the deck! He turned to the Dark Side and you can use his aggression (by battling for free on the 0 side) while trying to bring balance to the Force. And once the Light Side rids the table of Dark Side force users (another change based on player feedback – allowing decks like Scum and I Want That Map to keep it on that 0 side with their restricted character base), balance is temporarily restored, so the Jedi have a better view of the Force and can see it more clearly (ie, peek at their deck and use the Force to help them in their quests by getting new resources/cards). And, they can use the Force to heal and regenerate (get back any card they want – but beware, there is a risk that if the Dark Side – in it’s selfish nature – is willing to compromise its hold on Vader by stacking a card on I Feel The Conflict, that card is gone forever).

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 21 That mechanic is doubly-interesting because while when playing against Vader-less decks, it may not have too much of a drawback, those decks that do run him will have to worry about a rogue Anakin Skywalker Interrupt running their day! Just the same, as the Light Side, you have to be careful not to just always pick your best lost pile card because having the opponent place your Luke Jedi out of play can be a real bad day! About that random rogue Anakin Skywalker interrupt. It’s certainly conditional, but imagine the glory if you pull it off! In fact, the text on Prophecy Of The Force – while it will most likely be used to get Anakin’s Lightsaber back into hand, what if it’s used to get back that interrupt? Scary situation for the Dark Side player to see you do that while Vader is sitting at the Back Door in their Hunt Down deck… Even better-imagine you do pull off the interrupt and cross Vader back to the Light Side. You then get to use Vader, who is now re-named Anakin Skywalker. Well, if you lose that character from table, Prophecy lets you take him back into hand and use again! And since he isn’t an Episode I Jedi or Episode I Padawan, you can re-deploy your copy of Anakin Skywalker!

All in all, we hope you enjoy the saga of Anakin Skywalker in SWCCG terms. Initially designed to be a substitute for Throne Room (essentially trading your “free” first turn for more reliable activation and exchanging Anakin and EPP Qui-Gon for the objective text and potential for higher damage with the effects), it has morphed into a different style deck all of its own. Recent games on GEMP have been played with HITCO as an Endor platform, a blaster platform and even a space platform. And with a cool new mechanic of players fighting over control of the Prophecy of the Force, design has plenty of room to help give the deck a further separate identity from the standard mains deck, while improving its overall game play and giving it a great and thematic niche within the Star Wars CCG universe!

And also, don’t forget- you can now start the deck with all foil locations!!

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 22 Han’s Tool Kit

In this section, we would like to feature some of the many important tools that are available for the SW CCG. Weather it is a specific software, or a forum page that can be helpful, we will try to feature something different every time.

Often enough players are asking for something, or have an idea that would make the game more easy, although we already have it available. So, it’s our job to properly inform all players.

Scomp Link Access – The Database for SW CCG Cards

One of our volunteers of the year, Tom Marlin, created the Scomp Link Access database, which is the most comprehensive data collection we have for the game so far.

We wanted a database that has all the features and images of the cards, like the old Polarhaven site, as well as all the extra info and data provided by the SW-IP engine database. The database further has to be accessible over any web browser, so that you may use it online and from your mobile devices, too. Tom has delivered all of this, and we would like the community to use it now. Since the data from SW-IP has actually been imported to the new Scomp Link Access, it is only as good as it was in that former database. There are still several “old legacy” references in the info files. Please let us know, whenever you become aware of those, and we will remove them accordingly. This is a continuous and “living” system, and we will add and maintain the data on a rolling basis. One of the huge advantages compare to SW-IP is that Scomp Link Access can be used online. It’s a browser based program, so you can use it anywhere on your computer, mobile phone, tablet, etc. It has also been adjusted to look fairly good on smaller displays. Please be aware that some browsers are “acting up” when using the program. I’ve done some severe testing of the program, and had some issues with Internet Explorer from time to time. Other browsers like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox worked perfectly, though. As a long time user of the old databases I have a few shortcuts and ways to find data easily and fast. I’ve been searching cards for writing articles, building decks, for D&D or marketing purposes, and many other projects, and would like to share some of the wonderful search possibilities of Scomp Link Access with you. If you know some or all of this, just skip ahead and use the database. If it helps the one or other volunteer from different groups to find data more easily, then I’m happy that I wrote this up.

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 23

You can see the search for “Admirals” in the Scomp Link Access Database. Next to showing all cards with Admiral in title, you can also click on the titles to see the card image (here Ackbar) and usefull information on the right side.

Check out the Scomp Link Access Database here. For Some Basic Search Tutorials click here.

Tournament Software

Another long-awaited project has been completed in recent months: The Star Wars CCG Tournament Assistant. This software can be utilized to run a standard Star Wars CCG tournament, using either strength of schedule or differential. It pairs the players based on the rules laid out in the Tournament Guide, provides standings after the event ends.

The Tournament Software itself can be found here. Tutorial Video FAQs

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 24 According To His Design

This is the latest in a series of articles that’s supposed to explain in layman’s terms how our virtual card creation process is working.

Last time we wrote about Design as the first step in the overall process, and this time we would like to explain the probably most complicated part: Development. I am happy to have my fellow advocate Matt Carulli jump in and explain the details.

Hopefully, after all articles are done, they can be edited and reworked into a complete article on our homepage.

by Matt Carulli

Virtual Card Creation Process Part 2 - Development

DESIGN PLAYTESTING GRAPHICS PROOFING

When Marketing Advocate Chris Menzel asked me to write the newsletter article on the development process, I couldn’t say no. First and foremost because I love hearing myself talk (or, more accurately, reading what I write and pretending I can hear myself saying it). But secondly because the process we have is so vastly different than it was a year ago, and I am downright giddy about it.

The development team currently has 4 members (see the upcoming Organizational Chart for more info). They are the first team that will see what cards the design team has in store for an upcoming set. While the design team gets the first crack at interpreting elements of the Star Wars universe into SWCCG format, the development team’s job is to perfect those ideas. Developers must have a strong grasp on the game’s mechanics, the current meta, and the potential waves that could be caused by new cards that are released.

The first questions developers usually ask when they see a new card are “What deck would I play this card in?”, “What is the designer’s intent for this card?,” or “What is the purpose of releasing a card like this?”. While the designers have to be creative, developers have to be analytical. Developers must be able to predict what kind of impact a card will have before the playing community at large gets their hands on it. To be able to answer the above questions, and to be a good developer, one inherently must have a deep understanding of the game’s history and current state. For this reason (and others, such as having a tough boss), it’s a very demanding position.

In addition to the extensive background knowledge, developers are also asked to be extremely active in the card creation process. Because of the frequency of new design ideas coming in (both from the design

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 25 team and player card creators), there is always something on their plate. Some groups of cards (such as the new objectives released in Set 8, particularly He Is The Chosen One and I Want That Map) go through multiple versions before the right version is found, and it is deemed ready for release. This often requires taking feedback from the playtesting team and incorporating changes based on actual test cases. Gathering and analyzing the data, and discussing it as a team, is a process that takes months for a single set.

There are cards that arrive at development that may be pretty close to being ready for release. These are usually either “Fun Fred” type cards or cards that replicate existing mechanics but for a different platform. However, even cards like these may have to be properly costed. This is more than just “how much Force does it cost to play this card.” It can also include opportunity cost. Luke Skywalker, The Rebellion’s Hope is a very strong card, but he comes at the cost of not being able to also play other Lukes, who are among the strongest characters in the game. This opportunity cost makes the card costed a little “higher” than if it were, say, Finn, who doesn’t have as strong of a persona already available to deckbuilders. “Costing” can also be simple elements such as whether or not an interrupt is Used or Lost, or if it requires you to perform another action in order to gain its benefit. These are examples of cost that development analyzes to ensure that the cost/benefit of a card finds the right balance in the game.

As major events come and go, and new decklists are revealed, the development team always takes part in a post-major debriefing thread to discuss anything interesting about the current state of the game. What decks were popular? Was anything overpowered, winning all of its games? Were any new interactions discovered that were problematic? How will this event cause things to shift at the next major event? The answers to these questions provide insight as to what to create in the next set, in order to counteract any issues that have arisen. Many cards originate from this process as “meta needs” as opposed to originating solely from design. The design and development teams work together on this process to produce cards for the next set that are deemed necessary to better balance the game.

Finally, as development tweaks text to a point where it is acceptable for release, they have to come to a consensus eventually. Disagreements are common, but we are usually able to make compromises to change a card to a place where it is agreeable by a large majority of development, if not unanimous. When there were 5 members of development, we never released cards that only had the support of 2/5 developers, rarely (if ever) released cards that only had the support of 3/5 developers, and only sometimes released things with support of 4/5 developers. The members of development all bring something different to the table, and as design advocate I try to find a solution that makes everyone happy (but as you probably know, that is frequently impossible).

You’re probably wondering, after reading the above description of a fairly uneventful but busy process, why I’m so giddy about it. The answer is what I’ve been teasing and vaguely hinting at for almost a year: agile. The Players Committee recently acquired a sponsored non-profit account to use Pivotal Tracker free of charge. Pivotal Tracker is an online project management tool for software (or, in our case, a card game) that pushes us to enact the agile principles we have been striving for the past year. It helps us prioritize, see what cards still need work, and, perhaps most importantly, clears out the cards that we have completed so they don’t distract from the work that still has to be done. Previously, all of this work was done on the forums by manually moving threads to different subforums. This was a cumbersome

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 26 chore, and needless to say a web forum is not a good substitute for a project management tool. Pivotal Tracker lets us easily group cards by theme, and lets us see what is the most pressing task to work on, or see what the current status is of each card. It is truly something worth getting excited over (at least for a nerd like me).

To go along with the integration of Pivotal Tracker, we have also tweaked the playtesting process (to be discussed in detail in a future newsletter!) so that development no longer has to closely monitor dozens (sometimes hundreds) of threads detailing game results. The responsibility for this has been shifted to the playtesting coordinators, which means development can take more time up front to ensure a polished, finished product is sent to playtesting. It might take 25% more time to send cards to playtesting, but it will take 75% less effort after that point, and development can use that extra time to continue to chip away at the large backlog they have in front of them from design. The development team probably hopes I’m right, because I ask a great deal of them, and I’m always trying to look for ways to make their jobs easier. I think this is a step in the right direction, and I sure hope they agree.

Matt Carulli Design Advocate

All the double-world champions were involved with development at some point, and were also largely involved in making sure the transition from old legacy cards to the reset cards ran as smoothly as possible a few years back. Winning the world championship twice is certainly enough proof that these gentlemen have the keen analytic minds we are looking for in development, but we also have development members that were chosen for other reasons, like having a different viewpoint and understanding of the game, and/or having a long time experience in the complete design process.

If you liked the above article by Design Advocate Matt Carulli than make sure to check out his Design Blog in the News section of our homepage. Here are some examples of his recent articles:

Design Blog: Planned Size and Schedule of Sets Design Blog: CBT and Set 7

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 27 Imperial Academy Job Center

The Players Committee is constantly looking for help in different areas of the game. Our active volunteers are often holding several positions and spend hours every day to make sure this game keeps running as smoothly as possible.

But we need help, and especially with the many little things, like typing deck lists, little graphic stuff, etc. We are no “closed little boys club”, and are always looking for new volunteers, and have also filled a few of the more important positions with relatively new volunteers, who have helped a lot. So, please consider being a more active part of the community by doing some volunteer work.

Wanted…! Contact us by sending a private mail to shadow 14

Decklist Typer Proofing Team Member

We are always looking for people who can Is your grammar solid and/or do you have type of the decklists from major events. a keen eye on things. Among a proofers We have the lists in scanned format, but work are finding mistakes or need to bring them in Word format to inconsistencies on the cards (for example publish them nicely on the main page. missing icons, shifted fields or text, etc.), and making sure that the game text on cards is consistent with how it was phrased on previous cards.

Tournament Event Calendar Playtester Manager We are always looking for more play All the tournaments posted in the testers. This requires playing multiple tournament section should be entered games each week and especially providing into a globally visible Google Event written feedback of the cards tested. You Calendar, which will be shown on the would get some information about virtual main home page. We didn’t have any cards, but need some actual testing to get capacities left in the tournament team, done. We need actual playing data, not and are looking for volunteers. opinions without play testing.

Emperor’s Journal Volume 2 Page 28