Member of SWCCG Exchange
That's right, I said they made Darth Vader too powerful. Now before I start getting hate mail saying what a Bad Ass Darth Vader is and what a tool I am, let me qualify.
If everyone will think WAAAAY back to right before Hoth came out, you'll remember when Decipher released the persona rule. This was to deal with the fact that the characters changed throughout the movies. It was obvious that Luke had grown in leaps and bounds between A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. So did a majority of the other characters. There needed to be a way that Decipher could create new versions of characters and not have the old ones become obsolete. Hence the Persona Rule and the new main characters. The first of these was Commander Luke Skywalker. This card from the Hoth set had higher power and different abilities from the Luke Skywalker in the Premeire set, but he only deployed on Hoth.
Since then, there have been updates of several main, with (undeniably) more to come. This brings me to my point about Darth Vader. People have been asking, since Hoth practicly, for a new version of Darth Vader. I say that this cannot be done because when the Premeire Darth Vader was made, he was made too strong. I agree that by the time Vader faced Luke on Cloud City, he was at least as powerful as his card makes him out to be. But I assert that during A New Hope, he was not even the primary villain. Grand Moff Tarkin was the one who ran the show, at times it seemed like Vader was only his inforcer. If you need proof, go and watch the movie again.
I think that Darth Vader from the Premeire set should have been as follows:
Darth Vader
Destiny 1
Deploy 5 Forfeit 7
Power 5 Ability 6
Lore: Servant of The Emperor. More Powerful than he lets on. Best starfighter pilot in the Galaxy. Under command of Grand Moff Tarkin. Often mistrusted by Imperial Officers.
Game Text: Adds 3 to power of any Starship he pilots. Aboard Vader's Custom TIE, adds 4 to power and 3 to maneuver. During a battle at same site, may use one force to 'choke' one rebel present. Draw destiny. If destiny greater than ability, target
immediately lost. Immune to Attrition less than 5
This makes Vader the perfect opponent for Obi-Wan. Then later, say at Cloud City, Decipher could have released The Darth Vader that we know. It would have then be seen as a natural extension of his character development. Any Vader that Decipher creates now won't be able to be as versatile or as well rounded in use as the one we have now. It would become like Commander Luke Skywalker; a card that is useful in only a small number of decks.
Also, from his first appearance in Return of the Jedi, Vader's character development does not lend itself to a more powerful darkside card. I say this because through ROTJ we constantly see evidence of Vader's coming change. The scene where Vader allows the Rebels to land on Endor, even though he does not know of the Emperor's plans are a prime example. Therefore, any new Vader in an ROTJ expansion would have to reflect this uncertainty. I would definitely not want such a card in my deck.
So that is why I believe that Decipher backed themselves into a corner with the first (and only) Darth Vader card.
Get your own Free Home Page