Starter Set Deck Tech: General Grievous

Grievous Intrigue

Begun, the Clone War has, and with it come two brand new leaders to build around in Star Wars: Unlimited! For the upcoming release of Twilight of the Republic, Golden Dice Podcast’s very own JustJack and yours truly will be returning to our 2-Player Starter series, where we outline ways you can expand on the starter decks to crush your enemies!

In this installment, we’ll be looking at General Grievous, General of the Droid Armies (TWI 15), who arrives in a Cunning/Command/Villainy combination in the Twilight of the Republic Two-Player Starter Set. If you want to learn more about the Ahsoka Tano deck, stay tuned for JustJack’s article coming next week!

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“You Think You Can Defeat Me? You’re Nothing!”

In watching General Grievous in the theaters or on your couch, you probably realized two things about his character: (1) He looks really awesome twirling a bunch of lightsabers around, and (2) he’s also kind of a coward.

Thus, the design of his Leader card in Twilight of the Republic is built around Grievous’ penchant for tossing endless Battle Droid minions into the line of fire to protect himself.

While the General’s Leader action is a bit slower than that of Chewbacca, Walking Carpet (SOR 3) because the unit doesn’t gain Sentinel when it’s played, Grievous has a lot more flexibility in which units get the benefit of Sentinel, as long as they have the Droid trait.

Luckily, you are presented with some easy Droid targets for Sentinel in this deck, particularly those units that benefit from being attacked or defeated. Obedient Vanguard (TWI 104), for example, will buff another one of your Battle Droids or other Troopers when it is slain, and General’s Guardian (TWI 83) will create more Battle Droids whenever it’s attacked. Want even more Battle Droids? Giving Sentinel to the Battle Droid Escort (TWI 229) essentially replaces itself on defeat, so you don’t lose valuable cannon fodder… I mean, soldiers! Yeah, soldiers.

The General Grievous starter deck is designed to flood the board with units and frustrate your opponent by using those units to disrupt their own. Aside from being pesky Sentinels, your Battle Droid tokens can be used to exhaust your opponent’s units - for free, might I add - using In Pursuit (TWI 221).

Grievous can also sacrifice more tokens to defeat non-leader units with Merciless Contest (TWI 238), which functions as a poor man’s No Good To Me Dead (SOR 41).

With the amount of cards that generate extra Battle Droid tokens, you should (in theory) never run out of minions to exploit. And SPEAKING of Exploit…

Bringing In The Big Guns

Sure, boasting a massive army of Battle Droid tokens might look cool (especially if they are hyperspace tokens!) but a bunch of 1/1 units aren’t really going to get the job done when it comes to dealing large amounts of damage to your opponent’s units or base.

Luckily, the starter deck comes equipped with six units that feature the new Exploit keyword, which allows you to sacrifice your own units to reduce the cost to play them.

It’ll be important to try to avoid resourcing these, even if you can’t afford them, because they are endgame units that you can deploy in the early-midgame!

One of the best early uses of Exploit you can find in the deck is the Tactical Droid Commander (TWI 184) whose Exploit 2 allows you to potentially play it for 1 resource in stead of 5. While it’s in the field, any other Separatist units you play will allow you to exhaust your opponent’s units of the same cost or less - another great stalling tactic!

Then, once you’ve amassed more units, you can play bruisers like Hailfire Tank (TWI 233) and Separatist Super Tank (TWI 87) much earlier than your opponent is ready for. Having other Droid units on the board for Grievous to give Sentinel will also be crucial in keeping those heavy hitters alive for big swings into the opposing base!

Then, when it’s finally time to deploy General Grievous, it always helps to have Grievous’s Wheel Bike (TWI 236) handy. Getting a 2-resource discount on an upgrade that allows your Leader unit to become a 7/11 with Overwhelm is going to prove mighty useful for when Grievous needs to cut down a few Clone Troopers in his way. With three copies in the starter deck and no ramp cards, you’ll have five rounds to find one before Grievous deploys!

“Army Or Not, You Must Realize You Are Doomed.”

The biggest question I have with General Grievous – or any leader that relies on Exploit – is balance.

Without playing extensively with the new mechanics in Twilight of the Republic, it’s hard to tell how much you’re going to be able to rely on having a ton of token units,  whether you’re buffing them for more attacks or consistently having the cards in your hand to Exploit.

With Grievous, there’s another layer added to that quandary, since he’s designed to regularly sacrifice the units you would be Exploiting by giving them Sentinel.

As such, when I was looking into ways to update the Grievous deck in the 2-Player Starter, I wanted to try to find that balance in a way where the deck can function with tons of Battle Droids or with some solid early-game units to hold the line until the closers come in.

Normally, we would take a look at several different versions of the deck: one with just TWI cards, one with no Legendary cards, and then finally a list with the full card pool at our disposal. But as you’ll see, we’re only taking a look at one list this time around, and the reasons will be apparent.

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Two notes before we dive into the deck. First, the TWI-only version of this list looked ridiculously similar to the full-pool version because Grievous relies heavily on Droids and/or Separatists to function, most of which are in TWI.

There are only 3 other droids in Star Wars: Unlimited that could have worked in this aspect combination: 

• Viper Probe Droid (SOR 228) 
• Phase-III Dark Trooper (SHD 84)
• 4-LOM, Bounty Hunter for Hire (SHD 188)

You could certainly make a case for Viper Probe Droid, but the other two are non-sequiturs in this list, so we didn’t feel the need to dive too deep into SOR or SHD card pools for units. 

The other thing to mention is that this list only contains 3 Legendaries: two copies of Now There Are Two Of Them (TWI 225) and one copy of Gor, Grievous’s Pet (TWI 118).

These cards are easily swapped out for others, so I didn’t craft an entirely different list without them. If you aren’t interested in theme/memes, Gor could simply be replaced by another large Exploit unit like the Super Tank, and there are plenty of events in the Cunning/Command/Villainy stable to work their way in for NTA2OT. So let’s talk about the cards we DID inject into the list. 

First thing I wanted to do was revamp the Space Arena by adding some more relevant units, so we grabbed another copy of The Invisible Hand, Imposing Flagship (TWI 234). While it isn’t an Exploit-able unit, it’s still a great late game option for Grievous, and I felt like the list needed more than one.

Once we did that, we made room for three copies of Geonosis Patrol Fighter (TWI 215). On paper, this card seems great for Round 2, especially on the heels of a Droid Deployment (TWI 237) to make sure you don’t lose board control early while Exploiting your Battle Droids. 

Then it was time to put in three of my favorite Separatist units in the Ground Arena. I’m a big fan of Droid Commando (TWI 81) for the 4-power Ambush as early as Round 2. With as many low-cost units as we have in the deck, you’re nearly guaranteed to have a Separatist on board.

Rush Clovis, Banking Clan Scion (TWI 183) is straight Value Town; for 4 resources, you’re getting what is essentially a 5/5 that can create bonus Battle Droids in the right situation. This card should be in every Cunning Villainy deck in TWI that cares about either Separatists or Droids. 

One of the latest additions to the card pool is the Baktoid Spider Droid (TWI 117) and this may be my favorite Exploit card in the set.

If you reduce the cost fully, you’re getting a 5-power Ambush on 4 resources, and the 6 health is relevant to help survive the initial attack. You can swing again next round or keep the Spider Droid on board to Exploit later before it’s finished off by your opponent. I don’t know if it’ll be as good in practice as it is in theory, but on the surface I dig it! 

Finally, I wanted to streamline the event package by trying to equalize unit generation with removal. We have six removal events, with Merciless Contest and the ever-present Overwhelming Barrage (SOR 92), and seven unit events to counter.

My hope is that this suite will allow the deck to keep the (political) pressure on our opponent by making sure we never run out of Battle Droids, using them to remove units, and removing more units once they are Exploited.

There’s a case to be made for keeping In Pursuit or Waylay in the deck from the original starter list, but those could also end up in the sideboard if you find yourself needing more control. 

A Fine Addition To Your Collection

General Grievous is a character that many have been waiting for in Star Wars: Unlimited, and his Leader card doesn’t disappoint.

With a solid statline, plenty of support in Set 3, and a useful (and free!) ability, the good General should be able to find a home in any aspect pairing that you prefer. I think Command, as laid out by the 2-Player Starter, is the low-hanging fruit that might end up being the best, but I’m intrigued to build Grievous in other colors - especially Vigilance, so that I can pair him with the Legendary unit General Grievous, Trophy Collector (TWI 34) and chase some lightsaber shenanigans.

However you decide to test out a Grievous deck, there will be tons of ways you can explore the dynamics of Twilight of the Republic. I hope this article helped to start the gears turning, and happy theorycrafting! 

Kevin
Roll On Gaming
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