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Commando Operations

Lure of the Dark Side Is Now Available for STAR WARS (TM): The Card Game

“We have stolen a small Imperial shuttle. Disguised as a cargo ship, and using a secret Imperial code, a strike team will land on the moon and deactivate the shield generator.”
    –General Madine, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

Lure of the Dark Side, the second Force Pack in the Echoes of the Force cycle for Star Wars™: The Card Game is now available at your local retailer and online through our webstore!

Both light side and dark side will find powerful objective sets in this Force Pack. A new version of Mara Jade explodes onto the scene, joined by the massive Capital Ships of the Imperial Navy and by Scum and Villainy Bounty Hunters. Opposing these threats, the light side rallies behind daredevil heroes like Dash Rendar and the tactical prowess of Alliance Special Forces!

Conflict is vital to victory in Star Wars: The Card Game, but half of every battle is fought before the first shot is ever fired through the edge battle. Edge battles represent combatants maneuvering for position, gathering intelligence, or engaging in sabotage, infiltration, or other endeavors before the physical battle begins. As most players have discovered, fate cards played in edge battles have some of the most potent effects in the game. A well-timed Twist of Fate (Core Set, 171) can blow holes in your opponent’s card advantage, and Heat of Battle (Core Set, 65) or Target of Opportunity (Core Set, 133) can make the actual conflict merely incidental.

Any deck can use fate cards to great effect, but interfering with your opponent’s edge battle machinations is a job for the tactical geniuses and commando soldiers behind Alliance Special Forces.

Dissension and Disruption

Controlling your opponent’s options in an edge battle begins with the objective of this set: Commando Operations (Lure of the Dark Side, 619). This objective possesses a potent ability while it’s undamaged, keeping all enemy fate card effects from resolving. The Force icons on enemy fate cards will still count towards edge battles, but the assurance Commando Operations offers is priceless. While this ability is active, you can enter edge battles without fearing a Twist of Fate. Your units can’t be affected by Echoes of the Force (Heroes and Legends, 536) or Heat of Battle. But since you can still use your own fate cards, the dark side will quickly learn what it means to take on the Rebel Alliance.

Commando Operations presents a very tempting target to  your opponent, and he’ll want to deactivate its ability as soon as possible. But just because Commando Operations is no longer active doesn’t mean you’re out of options for responding to your opponent’s fate cards. This set comes with two copies of Rebel Commando (Lure of the Dark Side, 521). This versatile unit can pull its weight on attack or defense, and its Reaction allows you to put it into play as a participating unit on your side of the engagement after an enemy fate card resolves! Your opponent may quickly regret playing a fate card that grants you an additional unit in the fight.

Your commandoes in the Alliance Special Forces can carry out their own surgical strikes behind enemy lines with their own fate card included in this set. The Seeds of Decay (Lure of the Dark Side, 523) fate card allows you to place a focus token on any ready unit committed to the Force. By using this fate card cleverly, you can ensure that a target unit won’t be counting its Force icons towards the Force struggle this round.

Even if an enemy fate card resolves, you can even the playing field with a little Adaptive Strategy (Lure of the Dark Side, 522). This free event allows you to resolve a fate card’s effect again after it resolves for the first time. Since this event is free, your opponent won’t be able to see it coming. Not only can you duplicate the effect of an enemy fate card, you could even trigger one of your own fate cards again, potentially give you double use from a Target of Opportunity or a Seeds of Decay. Doubling a fate card in this way could easily turn the tide of battle in your favor.

It takes a tactical genius to command Alliance Special Forces, but you’ll find the Leader you need in General Crix Madine (Lure of the Dark Side, 520). The mastermind behind the ground attack on the forest moon of Endor, General Madine once trained Imperial Storm Commandos to counter the Rebellion, prior to his defection. Now, his knowledge of Imperial tactics makes him invaluable to Alliance High Command, and you’ll find an invaluable unit in General Crix Madine as well.

The general possesses one of each combat icon, as well as the potential to provide up to three resources to fuel his far-reaching plans. Ordinarily, a unit without Elite would be severely incapacitated if it was used to produce three resources, but General Crix Madine possesses a vital Reaction, which reads, “After a fate card is revealed in an edge stack, remove 1 focus token from this unit.” This Reaction triggers when you or your opponent use fate cards, and does not require that the fate card resolve –  an important point if Commando Operations is active. By removing focus tokens for every fate card used in an edge stack, General Madine stays ready to help the Rebel Alliance, whether he attacks, defends, or produces resources.

Is Your Team Assembled?

Whether you use the enemy’s tactics against them with the Rebel Alliance, go on the attack with Dash Rendar, or crush planets beneath the might of your star destroyers, you’ll find plenty to enjoy in Lure of the Dark Side. The second Force Pack in the Echoes of the Force cycle is now available at your local retailer! Pick up your copy today.

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Source: Commando Operations (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4768)