Initially, the Emperor was going to force opponents to discard particular kinds of cards. It would be less swingy than random discarding and require less wearing an opponent's hand down than chosen discarding. The problem was, I couldn't think of anything terribly interesting to support this idea. I then briefly considered giving all of Palpatine's discard talents a kicker effect allowing him to use an action and remove one of them from the discard pile for a single chosen discard. I also ended up rejecting this idea as too straightforward for the manipulative dark lord.
While designing Mace, I came up with a way to implement Special card negation and decided not to use it on Mace, but to really run with it for the Emperor- thus the concept for Palpatine became that of a "blue" deck in Magic: the Gathering. After a very lengthy discussion with Brian on the way to Metatopia, this version was born!
Emperor Palpatine – HP 14 – Green Deck – Melee
Royal Guards – HP 5 – Strong++ Deck – Ranged
Shroud of the Dark Side
Special
Choose any player. That player chooses and discards 2 cards. After playing this card, put it in that player's hand instead of discarding it. While this card is in his/her hand, it remains revealed and is treated as 2 cards. This card cannot be chosen or randomly selected for removal from that player's hand. He/she may forfeit an action to discard it.
Lack of Vision
Special
Choose any player. Look at that player's hand and choose 2 cards. Until the end of your next turn, those cards remain revealed and cannot be played, nor chosen or randomly selected for removal from his/her hand.
Force Lightning
Special
Choose any character. That character receives 3 damage. The player controlling this character must discard a card at random.
As I Have Foreseen
Special
Draw 2 cards. Any time an opponent plays a Special card, you may discard this card and another card. If you do, discard that Special card without effect unless that opponent has the character matching that Special card receive 3 damage.
Undoing
Special
Draw 2 cards. Any time an attack card is facedown, you may discard this card and another card. If you do, discard that attack card without effect unless the player controlling the attacker chooses and discards 3 cards.
Order 66
Special
Choose any opponent and any character. For every 2 minor character Basic Combat cards in that opponent's discard pile, that character receives 1 damage and that opponent takes 1 of those cards and puts it in his/her hand. Until the end of your next turn, those cards remain revealed and cannot be played, nor chosen or randomly selected for removal from his/her hand. At the end of your next turn, they are discarded.
3x Shroud of the Dark Side
2x Lack of Vision
2x Force Lightning
2x As I Have Foreseen
2x Undoing
1x Order 66
I believe that this deck captures the Emperor's scheming nature and his ability to sow confusion among the ranks of his opponents. His cards are very wordy, but they all rely on a small number of repeated mechanics so the deck shouldn't be all that difficult to understand. The Emperor is good at preventing plays and countering them when the opponent tries to make them. Stacking copies of Shroud of the Dark Side can really cause problems for an opponent who is trying to wait out Palpatine while Lack of Vision can stymie an opponent as soon as he/she gets in position to engage the Emperor.
Lack of Vision can be used in three main ways. First, you can prevent an opponent from using his/her best attacks for a round, temporarily defending Palpatine and his teammate. Second, you can lock down an opponent's defense so that your guards and your teammate can land important hits. Third, you can seal an opponent's worst cards in his/her hand, then hit him/her with a Force Lightning that's more likely to strip away talents permanently.
As I Have Foreseen and Undoing (Palpy's counterspells) will usually force a difficult decision for the player being affected by them. Since Palpatine already has a good amount of damage and discarding, it will be costly for the opponent to pay his/her way out of these effects. No matter what option your opponent chooses, these cards net Sidious some potent effects considering that they don't even cost an action.
Finally, Order 66, though much wordier than I would like, functions as an execution card for any Imperial opposition. It's important to remember that minor character Basic Combat cards that enter an opponent's hand in this way may force the opponent to discard usable cards to make room, so late in the game this card becomes very lethal in conjunction with a few Shroud of the Dark Sides or Lack of Visions.
While the Emperor's damage output is lower than the average deck, his ability to manipulate plays should make up for it, especially if paired with someone like Cad Bane or Jabba who can take advantage of his disruption game or Asajj or IG-88 who can take advantage of his ability to temporarily lock down defense cards.
Let me know what you think of the dark lord in the comments below and I hope you're as excited about the second half of the Complete Circle expansion as I am!