Oh, they’ve encased him in carbonite.
He should be quite well protected. If he survived the freezingprocess, that is. “- C-3P0 As any Ugnaught will tell you, there’s more to Cloud City than just Dark Deal or a bad case of gas. One ofthe more eagerly awaited features of Cloud City was Carbon-Freezing, and, although it isn’t exactly themost stable strategy to base a deck around, it can still serve as a healthy deterrent to anyone foolishenough to attempt a takeover of Cloud City. But before you can serve your guests a chilled side of Solo, you’ll need to stock up on a few items.
Mostvital is the Carbonite Chamber, where it all comes together. Contrary to what you may think, it’s often bestto hold off on deploying the Chamber until all the necessary components for freezing are in hand, since, ifyour opponent occupies this battleground site, you face an automatic penalty to your Carbon-Freezingdestiny draw. Naturally, you’ll also require either All Too Easy or Carbon-Freezing to activate the Chamber’smechanisms. All Too Easy is the better side strategy, requiring neither a captive nor a separate destinydraw, but it can only be pulled off once and lacks the hefty 8 Force loss incurred by Carbon-Freezing(unless, of course, you happen to have Pray I Don’t Alter It Any Further face-up; keep your Darth Vader WithLightsaber handy). Carbon-Freezing also has the additional advantage of being eligible for Twi’lek Advisor.
Nothing like starting the game with a head start!You’ll also need some means of artificially enhancing your destiny draw for Carbon-Freezing. After all, it’snot like there aren’t too many 11-destiny cards out there. The Chamber alone adds two to your draw, butthat’s not always enough. Ugnaughts can serve as both cumulative one-point bonuses to your destiny, andPrepare The Chamber can also strengthen your chances of success. It’s all easily found by flipping a fewswitches on the Carbonite Chamber Console, a handy-dandy device that boosts your Carbon-Freezingdraw by three. And, finally, you’ll require a captive.
While this stipulation may have been bothersome back in the earlydays, recent innovations have made it less of a hassle. You can begin the game with a captive in play ifyou’re using the Carbon Chamber Testing. Objective, or you can steal your opponent’s captive if the Light Side is using Rescue The Princess. Oo-ta,Goo-ta, Solo? is a hassle-free way to take a few captives if your opponent is a Nabrun Leids fan. HiddenWeapons is a nasty surprise in battle, and All Wrapped Up makes capturing a natural result of battle. Butsome of the best options available have – horror of horrors! – green borders.
Zuckuss’ Snare Rifle andDengar’s Blaster Carbine are both weapons that can snag captives, and both can be deployed on yourbounty hunters easily with Jabba’s Through With You. And we must not forget the terrible IG-88 With RiotGun, a take-all-prisoners killing machine who cannot even be battled, making him a perfect Sniper. Now that you have everything you need (finally!), it’s easy to freeze. Just draw, add your modifiers, and voila!There’s your frozen captive, who is far more secure than other captives, since he’s encased in liquid metal. Furthermore, your opponent loses eight Force, quite a hit to take. If you wish, you can go for the big gunswith two wicked Utinni Effects.
The Emperor’s Prize is just the ticket for that player who thinks Luke andcompany is all he needs to stop any threat. Once young Skywalker is ‘frozen,’ relocate him to the DeathStar: Detention Block Corridor with his old man and your opponent loses half his Life Force! While it mayseem like a long shot, it’s easy to find the Detention Block, either with Sonic Bombardment or the morerecent Any Methods Necessary, and who doesn’t play with Vader?If your opponent is more of a team player, you can set a lovely trap for him with We’re The Bait. Freeze anyone of Luke’s best buddies and watch the farmboy scramble to save them, since he’s losing three Force aturn. If he tries to cheat and hire Nabrun Leids, you may as well play Oo-ta, Goo-ta, Solo? and earn yourselfanother Rebel juice pop in the making. All this may seem like it takes too much deck space to be worth the trouble, and in many cases it is. Butmany of these cards have other applications.
Ugnaughts are notorious patrons of a certain Den OfThieves, they admire Abyssin Ornaments and Ugloste gives them more bang for the buck. Prepare TheChamber, aside from increasing your Carbon-Freezing destiny draws, can add an extra battle destiny ifyour little porkers are defending. And, if you’re using This Deal Is Getting Worse All The Time/Pray I Don’tAlter It Any Further, they’ll even increase your total battle destiny by four points when they’re with Imperials!All Too Easy is a less card-intensive means of freezing Luke, Han, Leia or Chewie if you’re interested inThe Emperor’s Prize or We’re The Bait. And the mechanic fits right into capturing-related decks. “We would be honored if you would join us.
“–Darth Vader All this is only scratching the surface. Cloud City can support almost any sort of deck you can imagine. From the popular Dark Deal to the deadly Carbon-Freezing, there are more kinds of decks that can bebased on Bespin than nearly any other system. It might be worth your while to take a long, hard lookthrough your binder and reconsider cards and concepts you may have forgotten two years ago. You justmight find a Surprise or two. And the drama! Zube and Zube give Cloud City two thumbs up.
Time for some equality!
