Knowledge and Defense Is Now Available for STAR WARS (TM): The Card Game

“I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.”
–Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars: A New Hope

Knowledge and Defense, the third Force Pack in the Echoes of the Force cycle for Star Wars™: The Card Game is now available at your local retailer and through our webstore!

Bringing a host of new opportunities for both the light side and the dark side, Knowledge and Defense brings you deeper into the struggle for control of the Force. Devotion to the Force can bring you a host of powerful abilities, and you’ll find even more of them in this Force Pack. Fly along in Kyle Katarn’s ship, the Moldy Crow, or make the Gamor run with the smuggler Lo Khan aboard the Hyperspace Marauder. Whether you engage in the slave trade with the Scum and Villainy of the galaxy, or return to Hoth with the Rebel Alliance, you’ll find plenty of options in Knowledge and Defense.

Meanwhile, on the planet of Dromund Kaas, the plots of the Sith grow stronger. This planet has long been a place of darkness, and now it threatens to spill out across the galaxy under the direction of the Sith Prophetess.

Cunning and Betrayal

The Sith begin to spread their insidious ways with The Plan of the Prophetess (Knowledge and Defense, 557) objective. This objective’s presence immediately hampers your opponent’s devotion to the Force struggle by forcing each enemy unit committed to the Force to lose a Force icon. This objective easily helps you maintain control of the Force, especially with the help of an objective like Agent of the Emperor (Lure of the Dark Side, 528).

If The Plan of the Prophetess isn’t enough to claim the Force for yourself, you’ll quickly see the benefit of Seeds of Decay (Knowledge and Defense, 514), one of the new fate cards introduced in the Echoes of the Force cycle. This fate card allows you to immediately place one focus token on a target ready unit committed to the Force. At its minimum, this fate card virtually ensures that you’ll win the Force struggle this round, and in some cases, focusing a ready unit can blunt a light side attack or let your own attack go through unopposed.

You’ll find more benefits of keeping your opponent from winning the Force struggle in the Dark Temple (Knowledge and Defense, 560). This enhancement can produce two resources, but after you win a Force struggle, you immediately remove one focus token from this enhancement, providing you with the resources you need to amass the forces of the dark side. Best of all, you only need to win one Force struggle before you refresh to have the Dark Temple completely clear of focus tokens and ready for use again.

An undoubtedly potent means of keeping your opponent’s devotion to the Force under attack is by using Sariss (Knowledge and Defense, 558). With the Elite keyword and a solid spread of combat icons, Sariss is well-equipped to do battle with the light side, but her Reaction gives her another tool to manipulate the light side according to her overall plan. Sariss’s ability reads, “After this unit is committed to the Force, commit a target enemy unit to the Force, if able.”

By committing enemy units to the Force with Sariss, you can choose exactly which units count their Force icons towards the Force struggle. Sariss also partners excellently with Jerec’s (Heroes and Legends, 511) ability to remove a target unit from the Force. By removing troublesome units from the Force struggle or removing Sariss from the Force struggle so she can recommit and trigger her Reaction again, you’ll wreak havoc with your opponent’s plans to keep the Force.

Sariss’s plans have more than one goal, however, and you’ll find extra ways to take advantage of The Plan of the Prophetess in this objective set. Alongside taking control of the Force struggle, you can deal extra damage with the Servant of the Dark Side (Knowledge and Defense, 559). Sometimes the best plan is to simply avoid combat, and the Servant of the Dark Side does this with its special ability. While the Servant of the Dark Side is attacking, units with fewer Force icons than this unit cannot defend, allowing the Servant of the Dark Side to simply slip by many possible defenders. Even if your opponent could defend, he may often choose to simply let the Servant of the Dark Side slip through, rather than defend with one of his stronger units.

If you need to eliminate a unit, or simply tip the balance of the Force struggle in your favor, look no further than Deadly Sight (Knowledge and Defense, 561). By playing this event after a phase begins, a target unit loses two Force icons, and is destroyed if it has no Force icons. The potency of this event is only increased with The Plan of the Prophetess, allowing you to destroy a target unit prior to combat or gain the advantage in the Force struggle. No matter how you use the cards in this objective set, the Prophetess’s plans will not be thwarted!

Make Your Plans

Follow the Prophetess’s plan, or oppose it with all the might of the light side. Whether you join in the slave trade, take a smuggling run across the galaxy, or place your hopes on the frozen planet of Hoth, you’ll find plenty of new deck opportunities and options in Knowledge and Defense. Pick up your copy from your local retailer today!

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