As someone who is craving gameplay I’ve found “Training Decks” to be surprisingly appealing. These decks contain only 30 cards per side and include simple, easy to use cards/combos. While at first glance these simple decks may seem boring, I’ve found them to be a blast. The best part may be their portability. Never thought you’d play SWCCG on an airplane? Read on!
We stumbled across these legacy deck designs by “C Mike Hardy” (if anyone can put us in touch with him please let us know at bobafett@swccgstore.com).
- Check out C Mike Hardy’s site here
- Purchase Training Decks:
Why would I want to own these 30-card “Training Decks?”
- Lightning fast gameplay: keep on-hand for when you have less than 30 minutes
- In between games at a tournament
- Card shop closing in 25 minutes
- Have to go to work tomorrow and don’t want to start a 60 minutes match
- Educational tool: given the simplicity of these decks you can teach someone to play against you in less than an hour
- Use for family holidays instead of Monopoly
- Get your kids involved in your hobby
- Testing ground: refine your gameplay by experimenting with new combos
- The speed of gameplay allows for a lot of quick attempts and refinement
- Gift giving: at $10 each these are an awesome way to introduce people to the game
- Challenge someone playing Magic to a SWCCG game…winner keeps the cards
The best part about having these decks in your bag are the opportunities that you never expected. All of a sudden you’re playing SWCCG during your lunch break with co-workers or at the mall food court while your significant other shops. You can literally grab people who have never seen the cards and be up and running for a game in 30 minutes.
My favorite use case is on airplanes. Not only does the time fly, but in periods of turbulence you’re in the mood to put John Williams’ score on your headphones, close your eyes, and envision piloting a starfighter with concussion missiles exploding all around you…
How To Play SWCCG on an Airplane:
- Grab any of the trainer decks
- Use a magazine to bridge two tray tables
- Sites and systems go on the magazine -> there are only 5 sites/systems in each trainer and some overlap
- Sites without any presence can be stacked to overlap and save space
- Each person keeps their reserve deck and force pile on their remaining tray table space
- Lost cards go into the seat back pocket (there is no retrieval so you don’t need access; also, your cards are protected right?)
- Used pile is immediately moved into Reserve deck (given the limited number of cards this allows for battle destinies to be drawn late in the game as well)
- The games are quick so you can finish before the drink cart arrives
How simple are the trainer decks? Very, very simple. See below for the decks as designed by C Mike Hardy.
Cloud City Training Deck: preferred deck for teaching someone new as everyone loves Cloud City
Space Training Deck: preferred deck for air travel if you don’t mind blowing up flying machines while on a flying machine
Tattoine Training Deck: preferred deck for hiking and camping under the Tattoine moons (or in our case, sadly, a single moon…why is earth so boring?)
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