By: Scott Johnson
Reflections III was the final premium set in the Star Wars CCG released in October 2001 just prior to the final regular set, Theed Palace, in November 2001. Like previous reflections sets, each pack contained 18 cards with one guaranteed foil card and retailed for $4.95. Pack contents generally consisted of 14 cards from older sets Premiere through Endor, three new premium cards from a the new 100 card Reflections III set and one of 100 possible foil cards. Cards from the premium set were a mix of both classic trilogy and Episode I icon cards such as the AT-AT Blizzard 4, and Qui-Gon Jinn, Jedi Master. Blizzard 4 was a noteworthy staple card due to its ability to retrieve any imperial warrior from the reserve deck and deploy it aboard to the same location for free. This was an easy way to get Darth Vader or Mara Jade on the table quickly and for free, allowing for some very powerful combos. Other premium cards such as Boba Fett, Bounty Hunter; Leia, Rebel Princess; Chewie, Enraged; and Lando Calrissian, Scoundrel were the most powerful versions of each of those characters printed in the game although many had a maintenance cost players had to pay for them each turn to balance out their strength. The effect “They Must Never Again Leave This City” allows the Executor to deploy once per game for free to Bespin, saving up to 12 force!
Although certain cards such as Boba Fett, Bounty Hunter can fetch $50 alone on the current market, the entire Reflections III non-foil premium set is surprisingly not as expensive as you might think. A near-complete set can be found for only about $300 and can provide an extremely powerful starting collection, including a complete set of defensive shields, a must-have for competitive gameplay. Newer players can alternatively print their own proxies instead of using official cards as a way of starting the game with minimal investment. While sealed booster boxes of Reflections III sell for $3,000 to $4,000, most of the value is from the possible foil cards of the set, rather than the 100 card premium set. At only 100 cards and each pack containing three at random, duplicates were prevalent and many, such as the 34 defensive shields and the cards like “Fear is my Ally” and “An Unusual Amount of Fear” which allowed defensive shield to deploy, were cards that a player would only ever need one of in their collection since they were either played during setup or outside of their normal deck. The point of defensive shields was to stifle the power of certain previously printed cards in the game without banning them outright. Throughout the entire run of the game, no cards were ever banned and instead, Decipher used the strategy of printing counter cards which would render certain overpowered cards to no longer be effective in gameplay.
Since Reflections III was largely a reprint set, only containing 100 new cards, the EU content of the set is minimal. The sixth Naboo Royal Advisory Council member as shown in Episode I is given a card and is named for the first time as Horace Vancil. There are also certain references to character’s EU backstory such as Bib Fortuna’s discovery of the profitability of ryll spice on Ryloth as well as a cards with a variety of information on the Naboo sea creatures that attacked the bongo in Episode I. Probably the most noteworthy card of EU content from the set is Thok and Thug a double character card of Gamorrean guards from Jabba’s Palace. Thok has quite a backstory in the Expanded Universe including being the brother of Gorc, one of Jerec’s dark jedi from the Dark Forces saga. Thok is in the video game Masters of Teras Kasi as a playable character where he is revealed to have force abilities. Abel G. Pena also included Thok in Part 2 of his series Barely Tolerable: Alien Henchmen of the Empire featured on starwars.com where Thok is said to have been part of Arden Lyn and Grand Admiral Zaarin’s breakaway faction from the Empire.
