Now that Enhanced Menace Of Darth Maul has been on the shelves awhile and Duel Of Fates is rapidly approaching on the horizon, I thought maybe I should give all of you some pointers about playing this exciting game.
Despite what many of you think, Young Jedi CCG is really great game.  While not as intellectually stimulating as it's Classic older cousin, it does require some amount of strategy.  Some thought does go into successful deck design and battle planning.
     This article will focus on building a really kick-butt deck.  You might think that adding color dots for deck building might make life easier for the average card player.  While it does make it simpler to know what cards you'll need to have in your deck, finding the right card with the right color dot might be difficult.  This is especially so when you don't have a lot of the great rare cards.
     When building a Young Jedi deck, first look at where you want to fight.  You'll notice that your characters are stronger at some locations that at others.  Take advantage of these individual character strengths by making sure you have the right locations in your deck.  Also, make sure that your cadre of characters can fight at such locations.  For instance, you have Qui-Gon Jinn, Jedi Master and your building a deck based around him.  Obviously, he's stronger at the Tatooine: Desert Landing Site.  So, you'll want to have a couple of these locations in your deck.  You also want to have a good cast of supporting characters that are also relatively strong at the Desert Landing Site.
     I've come to realize that although you must have three of each of the planet locations in your deck (Coruscant, Tatooine and Naboo), you only have to win on two of them.  Pick two of these planet and focus you deck on winning at these two?  Forget the others.  The focus of your efforts in building your deck should be in winning these two planets.
     Another key to Young Jedi deck building is high destiny.  The higher your deck's average destiny, the better.  When battling, you'll often be required to draw destiny.  You'll find that having a high average destiny deck can often mean the difference between winning the fight or losing the character.  You'll notice that there are many characters out there with really high destiny, but, low base power.  Oftentimes, it's advantagious to take a 1 or 2 point lose to a characater's power to get that 1 or 2 extra point in destiny.
     Remember, normally, the lower the power of the character, the less damage you'll take if you lose him in a fight.  However, the big guys (Red Dot main character, ect) have high power and high damage.  Stocking him with a weapon and haveing a high average destiny profile, will keep that powerful main character alive a lot longer.
     Now let's examine building a deck with each of the deck building color dots:
     Red Dot...
     The red color dot cards will probably be hardest to get.  This is because many red dot cards are rare.  This should be the first set or characters you develop.  Generally, these guys will be your Heavy hitters.  When you're filling out this set, look for cards that work best at the locations you choose.
     Blue and Green Dot...
     Blue and green dot cards are among the more plentiful characters that are available.  Some are rare and powerful.  Most, however, are medium to low power characters that often act in a supporting role to the more powerful Red dot characters.  A remarkable asset of some of these characters is their unusually high destiny. This is important when you're using weapons in a battle.  Also, you'll want these characters to go well with the locations that you've chosen.
     Orange Dot...
     Orange dot cards are the weapons.  In Young Jedi, weapons are probably the most important cards in your deck.  Many times, I've seen a lowly Jawa take our Darth Maul simply because the Jawa was packing heat!  Weapons dramatically increase a character's base power in a fight.
     Select weapon cards that work best with the characters that you choose.  When in doubt, select weapons that work with all characters.  This gives you the versatility you need in a pinch.
     Yellow Dot...
     The selection and use of the right battle card can mean the difference between victory and the discard pile.  These yellow dot cards will probably take you the longest to select.  This is because they not only work with different character, but also with different locations and different situations.
     Personally, I prefer the more versatile battle cards (like Senator Palpatine or Opee Sea Killer).  This opens up a lot of versatility that I rely on.  However, by studying which battle cards work best with your characters selection you may find the winning combination.
     Don't forget the new effect cards as well.  These can help you in a lot of really neat ways.  Pick the ones that may help you best.  If you have high deploy characters and weapons, you may want effects like This Is Too Close!.  Like having more cards to play with?  Try We Wish To Form An Alliance.  Want to make you deck theme better?  Bombad General can help.
     Purple Dot...
     Finally, you'll want to finish up your deck with the purple dot cards.  Start by getting the locations you've chosen earlier in this article.  You'll also notice that each plant has three different locations for each.  Not all of your characters will be strong at all of them.  It's OK to stock extras of a particular location in your deck.  This will make sure you can hold the advantage should your opponent try to "change the scene" on you.
     Selecting the amount of transport starships you need depends on your strategy.  If your strategy relies on the use of unique characters, you'll need to be able to get them off of a planet to use them on another one.  However, if you have generic characters, you may not need transports at all.
     Starfighters are important. One, they are used to intercept transports and can eliminate a lot of your opponents main attack force.  Second, they have insanely high destiny (always a good thing).  Once you've selected your locations and your transports, fill the rest of this set with the starfighter of your choice.
     White Dot...
     Enhanced Menace of Darth Maul unvailed a new deck building card type called the "Wild Card".  Essentially, you can have one of these white dot cards in each on the other color dot sets.  Meaning, you can have nine red dot cards and one white dot card to satisfy your red dot card slots.  Thus, you can have up to six Wild Cards in your deck.
     These wild cards are cool because:  One, they're main characters and are really powerful and cheaper to deploy then other main characters like them.  Second, they have a really high destiny as well...
     If you want to include Wild Cards into your deck, make sure they fit your location choices and they don't interfere with your overall theme.  Above all, I strongly recomend that you do not remove any weapons in favor of adding a wild card.  Your weapons are very, very important.  You should keep all ten of them in your deck!

     By using these pointers and a little imagination and creativity, you should have a deck you can be really proud of!
     Enjoy!

Coming up next?  Building the Perfect Battle Plan.