Breaking Down the Force: Fall of the Jedi
By Philip Rowland– February 8, 2013
I didn’t really think it would be particularly useful or fair to go through only the Light Side objectives, so for my second post in the series, I’ll look at the Sith objective …
Fall of the Jedi
The first time I looked at this objective I had to ask myself why I would ever want to use its reaction. It wasn’t until I had played a few games that I realized how important it is to cycle cards in this game. With Fall of the Jedi you can lower your hand size by an additional card before you draw or even by two cards if you get two copies of this objective out. This means that you can draw even more cards, which lets you potentially draw into your powerhouses (like the featured character of this set) faster. It also has the benefit of putting cards on the bottom of your deck instead of discarding them, so even though you’re cycling more cards, you’re not entirely losing them. With a decent health value and the unsurprising 1 resource, this seems like a decent utility objective, however it’s not one to include solely for the objective’s sake.
Darth Vader
Immediately, Darth Vader shows why you might want to use the objective to cycle your cards faster. If you don’t have any Sith events to play, his reaction to damage enemy units is useless, so you’ll want to draw as many cards as possible to capitalize on his reaction. Of course, this ability can only be used once per turn, but his icons and health are extremely good, justifying his (perhaps intimidating) cost of 5. He’s also Elite, meaning that unless your opponent is playing lots of tactics, Vader can even commit to the Force and still afford to take a strike now and then. Even so, I feel like he’s a little less threatening than he should be. His icons are identical to Luke’s, so in combat he’s effectively not much better than his new-to-the-force-Jedi son.
Dark Side Apprentice
The Dark Side Apprentice brings a solid unit to the table with decent icons and health, being able to damage enemy units even after losing the edge is good and having two health means he can survive strikes from weaker enemy units or the odd unit-damage ability. In a pinch, he can provide a single force icon for edge battles or to the force struggle. Overall, he’s not my favorite unit in the game, but he’s strong enough to pose an early-game threat and can risk going into a conflicts that other weaker units wouldn’t survive.
Vader’s Lightsaber
As the card’s title suggests, this is one that you’ll always want to play on Vader himself. While the unit damage it grants is never a bad thing, being able to give Vader targeted strike turns him into a whirlwind of pain for the Light Side player. Between his attacks and reaction, he can hunt down any unit he wants so long as he has Lightsaber in hand. On top of that, the Lightsaber can bring two icons to an edge battle, which is great if Vader isn’t around to enhance. While you can enhance other targets, I imagine it’ll end up in the edge stack more often than not without its owner on the field.
Force Choke
Force Choke is the perfect synergy card for Darth Vader, playing with his built-in ability and granting two damage (potentially split across two units) at no cost. What makes this really interesting to me is that, because it has a cost of 0, it can easily be played any time you need it. You can use this during an engagement to kill an attacker or defender that might otherwise ruin your plans or you can use it just before the force struggle to nudge things in your favor. The only drawback is that it can only be played once per turn (for good reason) and only against character or creature units, so those X-Wings that are bothering you are safe from being choked.
Heat of Battle
Fate cards are always nice to have around as they make the decision on when to play them very simple. Heat of Battle fits very nicely with the rest of this set’s theme, which I interpret to be “kill stuff fast.” It, of course, gives two icons to the edge battle and allows you to damage a participating enemy unit and every point of damage is important in this game. The only down side to fate cards is that they don’t give you options outside of edge battles which may mean that you don’t get a chance to play it if you or your opponent ever choose not to engage in conflict. Of course, as the Dark Side player, if there are no conflicts happening, the odds are that you’re already winning the game anyway.
The Score
Again, this is my totally arbitrary and biased score for the set. If you disagree with me, that’s too bad, but you can still let me know in the comments. 
| Fall of the Jedi | 4 / 5 |
| Darth Vader |
4 / 5 |
| Dark Side Apprentice |
3 / 5 |
| Vader’s Lightsaber |
4 / 5 |
| Force Choke |
5 / 5 |
| Heat of Battle |
3 / 5 |
| Total | 23 / 30 |
It’s worth noting that Vader has 4 health. That’s a big big difference in this game. It’s interesting to see you rate heat of battle as average. That card is usually bomb.
As for the apprentice, a big consideration for low cost units is your ability to play cards to draw more. While he’s no Vader or Palpatine, they almost ought to be judged on a separate scale.
It has to be considered that my play-experience is very limited, so my scoring might be totally askew.
That said, Vader is almost identical to Luke except for his reaction, so when I was looking at him I was seeing +1 cost for +1 health and the ability. I’ve only seen Vader hit the table once, and it was cool, but he didn’t feel as menacing as I thought he should.
As to heat of battle and the apprentice, you can probably chalk their scores up to my lack of experience. As I said, the score is totally arbitrary and based solely on my opinions at the time of writing.
Darth Vader is an absolute beast in a deck built around using his reaction. There as so many good Sith event cards, and his reaction turns even the marginal ones into good plays.
Force Choke is only Once per turn! (I don’t run sith in my DS deck) I have lost a game or two because or multiple Force Chokes being dropped.
As for Heat of Battle, it is way more effective for the DS. I’d rather have a ToO almost any day of the week (for my LS deck anyway).
Overall great post. I learned some valuable info so for that I want to say thanks. I didn’t think about the objective as a way to cycle cards. I thought it was only to keep yourself from discarding during the draw phase.
It’s only once per turn, but (as I understand it) you can still play one on your turn and one on your opponent’s turn. With Vader that’s some pretty quick damage going through.
Heat of Battle is definitely more important for Dark Side (again, my opinion) where Target of Opportunity is key for Light Side. Of course, that assumes that Dark Side isn’t going super-aggressive against Light Side objectives, as the Navy may want to do.
Yep, you can play Force Choke (and trigger Vader’s reaction) once on your turn and once on your opponent’s turn.
This is the first objective I put into my first/only DS deck I’ve built. It was all about Vader, but with few DS objectives providing the resources necessary to pay his cost, and not getting any Sith Libraries into play, he didn’t see the table. The Sith Apprentice, however, did, and for a low cost unit, I found it very effective. Not “I must keel him imeediately” effective, but just under the radar enough that over the course of a longer game, I wonder if the apprentice is going to deal more damage than Vader will.
Having learned a bit more, I don’t see how I could ever play a DS deck without two of these. You get 2 Force Choke, which as noted, if you can hold off playing them until Vader is in play, will kill just about any unit you’d want dead.
Vader is strong, no doubt. Even with his 4 health I like to hold him back, commit him to the force and let him defend. When he’s sitting there uncommitted on your opponent’s turn he is menacing.
I think this is the perfect example of a great pod with a crappy objective card. Perfect if you don’t draw 2 of them on setup.
I think you’re underestimating the power of the objective card. It lets you dig through your deck much faster, getting you the cards you want sooner without increasing the risk of decking yourself. What better objective could there be to go with an absolute bomb like Vader than one that helps you find him faster?
I agree. I was still learning the rules when I put my deck together, and didn’t realize the reaction was voluntary. Having two out is almost better, as you can cycle 2 cards that weren’t of use to you at the moment and get 2 more cards deeper into your deck. Having more options during your turn is always better, isn’t it?
It’s also especially good when paired with Counsel of the Sith, which allows you to draw a card after your opponent’s turn begins.
I tend to prefer Recon Mission to a 2nd Fall or Counsel. Statistically Recon Mission is the same as having a 2nd Fall in terms of finding cards, but having 7 cards in your hand is just plain useful when thinking of edge battles. My dream starting objectives with Sith is Recon Mission, Fall of the Jedi, and Shadows of Dathomir (can afford turn-1 Vader that way).