Double Attack; Ataru Mastery(+4ATK and twin if one
enemy is within 6)
Force 3
FR1; Force Defense; Lightsaber defense; Lightsaber
throw 3(3F, replace turn, attack any enemy and all
adjacent enemies)
CE: allies within 6 gain +3/+3.
Thought i would pop in from time to time on some of
the more interesting Jedi. Today we finally get a
new republic Yoda, the first since RotS. i dont know
what Rob's hang up with 55pt Republic commanders is,
but here is another one. He has Yoda's traditional
beefy stats, augmented by the HP. The standard
double is there, but he has Ataru mastery which
means that if you can catch your opponent in the
right spot with an isolated fig, Yoda will be a +19
with four attacks if he gets a double twin. It will
be hard to pull off, but great when you do.
He has some nice force. Starting with three means he
is ready to go with a cancel at any time and should
have about two banked by the time fighting starts.
He has renewal, so force will last awhile. He has
his standard Force Defense, but he also has the new
lightsaber defense that can stop any attack damage,
save 11. A nice block/deflect all in one. What he
also gets now though is throw 3, which allows him to
make a line of sight attack against an enemy and
every one adjacent to them. Not bad.
His CE, to me, is the big thing though. A +3/+3 to
allies is much needed. There are no restrictions
that Mas cant take care of (or well placed mouse
droids), but why is this so big when we have GOWK?
Well, let's put it this way. I would not plan on
being able to play GOWK much longer in DCI play.
This takes the sting out of losing GOWK's CE.
100pts: could be a force here. He doesnt dish much,
but makes other allies hard to hit, and he can stop
most force users or attack from across the board
with throw 3.
Force 3, Force Renewal 1, Force Defense, Lightsaber
Defense, Lightsaber Throw 3
Commander effect: Followers within 6 squares gain +3
/ +3.
Grand Master Yoda is a piece that I'm personally
looking forward to a lot in Jedi Academy. He is a
powerful fighter as well as a good commander that
may end up helping the republic a lot. As far as
stats go, Yoda is among the creme of the crop. 150
hitpoints is excellent, 22 defense makes it tricky
to hit, and with +15 attack, it shouldn't be missing
all too often.
This Yoda is capable of doing some major damage to
your opponent's squad with quite a few offensive
abilities and force powers. First of all, Ataru
Style Mastery gives you a +4 attack and Twin Attack
when there is only one enemy in 6 squares. This is a
nice boost since it will more often than not force
your opponent to cluster their units, fearing a Yoda
quadruple hit with 19 attack. But wait a minute.
Yoda's Ataru Style Mastery works with one of his
more interesting force powers, Lightsaber Throw 3!
Lightsaber Throw 3 lets Yoda attack 1 enemy within
line of sight (ignoring cover) and attack that enemy
and every unit adjacent. So all you need to do is
move Yoda so there is only 1 enemy within 6, then
make your opponent pay for clustering his units.
Because your opponent will not want to leave his
units alone in the battlefield and that if he does
he will most likely pay the price due to Yoda's
Lightsaber Throw, this makes Grandmaster Yoda a
tricky opponent, indeed.
Yoda's other force abilities help his longevity.
While he is certainly no General Obi-Wan Kenobi,
having both Lightsaber Defense and Force Defense
will help him take both direct damage force hits and
all attacks with a cost of some force points. With
Force Renewal 1, this thing can really become a pain
to kill.
After all that, however, Yoda's main purpose is his
excellent commander effect, giving all ALLIES within
6 squares +3 attack and +3 defense... that's pretty
good. Combined with Mas Ammeda or Mouse Droids to
increase the radius of this effect, this can easily
give you a great edge in battle. Espessially with
all the talk that General Obi-Wan Kenobi may be
banned on July 1, this piece becomes an excellent
replacement.
100 points: 2.5/5, He's not powerful enough to hold
his own against this format's larger beatsticks but
you may be able to run a squad with him and a few
minions to take advantage of his commander effect.
200 points: 5/5, Very solid piece for the Republic.
Here you can throw him in with Mas and/or Mouse
Droids and give him some nice support (the Republic
has a ton of options) and Yoda can preform very
well.
Sculpt: 2/5, Bah! Jedi Acadamy's obsession with not
including lightsabers on their figures continues...
at least this is Yoda, so that is somewhat
acceptable.
Josh
Grand Master Yoda
(14/40, Rare—Jedi Academy; HP150, ATT 15, DEF 22,
DAM 20, DEP 55)
Again, since this figure
hasn’t been released, I’ll give a quick overview of
the card first.
Special Abilities:
Unique, Melee Attack, Double Attack, Ataru Style
Mastery (+4 attack and gain Twin Attack if exactly 1
enemy is within 6 squares)
Force Powers:
Force 3, Force Renewal 1, Force Defense, Lightsaber
Defense, Lightsaber Throw 3 (Force 3, replaces turn:
Choose 1 enemy within line of sight, ignoring cover.
Make an attack the chosen enemy and against each
character adjacent to that enemy.)
Commander Effect:
Followers within 6 squares get +3 Attack and +3
Defense
We finally get another
Yoda with a Commander Effect and for a mere 55
points, you’re getting a pretty solid figure. While
it is unfortunately limited to followers, his
Commander Effect is still pretty strong considering
it’s not limited to non-Unique followers or a
specific faction of followers like other versions of
the +3 Attack, +3 Defense Commander Effect usually
are. With the number of solid Jedi followers the
Republic has (coupled with Mas Amedda’s Booming
Voice to remove that pesky “within 6” clause), this
commander effect is a great boon for the Republic.
His special abilities are
pretty mediocre, though the Ataru Style Mastery is
an interesting way to go, giving Yoda both a boost
on his attack score and the Twin Attack special
ability if there’s only one enemy within six
squares. However, the number of times that this will
actually come into play is pretty uncertain so you
won’t want to rely on this ability for Yoda. If you
really look at Yoda’s card, he’s really not that
great a fighter with only Double Attack.
His Force powers are where
Yoda becomes pretty powerful. Force Defense, while
expensive, can be a pretty nasty trick to bust out
considering the Force points used on your opponent’s
Force power are still spent. Using this against
Vader’s Apprentice, Unleashed will really hamstring
him unless your opponent also has a Force battery
since his Force powers, while strong, are also
very expensive. Lightsaber Defense (seen also on
Grand Master Luke) is a very nice power since it
will protect Yoda as long as the damage comes from
an attack and not a special ability. Finally
Lightsaber Throw 3 gives Yoda some ranged attack
options and the ability to clear out clusters or at
least force your opponent to break them up more.
100 POINTS: I just don’t
know if Yoda has the damage-dishing capabilities to
really hang out in this beat-stick dominated level.
However, at 100 points, you’re much more likely to
be able to take advantage of Ataru Style Mastery
which increases his damage dishing ability a bit
more. Paired with a couple of Jedi Weapon Masters
and you could have a pretty powerful squad. SCORE:
3.5
200 POINTS: Here, this
version of Yoda gets to really shine as a commander.
With plenty of room for support, as long as you
include Mas Amedda and a solid amount of followers,
Yoda can be a real boon to your squad. At this point
level, you won’t really want Yoda to be a fighter
because his commander effect is too important to
lose and with more figures to be fielded, the chance
of being able to use Ataru is pretty slim and then
Grand Master Yoda really doesn’t have the
damage-dishing capabilities to hang as a fighter.
SCORE: 4
