From what I recall, the rules should be as follows.

1. Declare intent to decloak

2. Choose barrel roll or boost

3. Choose side of ship for barrel roll (and direction of template for echo)

4. If action not possible, go back to step 1

5. If no options are possible, can't decloak

Most of the phantom players i've gone against have been measuring every possible direction before choosing where to go from decloaking. Frankly I think that is BS. You can't measure every possible option with anything else in the game (target locks, navigator, boba fett, Tetran Cowal...only exception i see is choosing who to fire at). What are your thoughts? Going to regionals this weekend and expect to see a lot of these players. With 60 minute games we need to crack down on these people taking forever to measure out everything.

**Edited due to comment lower in thread**

This usually comes down to wether you play using casual or competitive rules. At home or at your FLGS you should agree beforehand how you play.

At Regional, I am pretty sure you play competitive rules, where you have to do the action to the side chosen if it is viable,.

That's how i feel. I'm just expecting so many **** phantom players that I know it's going to come up. I don't want to be an jerk the whole day, but I want a fair and timely game.

I would say that due to the way other actions work, step 4 would go back to step 1. Rational: If I declare a left BR, and I can't do it, I'm allowed to pick a different action, not required to check the right BR.

I completely agree eagle1361.

I'd print out the part of the competitive rules that talks about actions just so you have it handy. That way when someone questions you about it, you have the rule handy.

I'd also check with the TO to make sure they're playing by the competitive rules, and maybe even ask them to go over those rules with everyone prior to the event starting. I know Regional are supposed to use the competitive rules but it's possible the TO may not know that.

Largely echoing what was said above.

First, it matters whether it's the Competitive rules or not. Clarify with your opponent before the game starts, or the TO if it's a local event.

Your numbering seems a little odd, but your Step 4 should go back to Step 0 - if you pick a direction and can't decloak that direction, you then have the choice of picking another "action". So you could, for example, try and decloak forward, realize it's blocked so it fails, use Advanced Sensors to barrel roll, and then decloak ahead.

I'd print out the part of the competitive rules that talks about actions just so you have it handy. That way when someone questions you about it, you have the rule handy.

I keep my iPad handy, which has a PDF copy of all of the rule sets, handbooks, etc. handy for reference.

Decloaking should be just as restricted as boosting and barrel rolling in competition. And don't assume that all TOs are correct all the time. We've all seen evidence here that some are not as knowledgeable as they could be, so you need to confirm that the TO is going to be aware of what some Phantom players are doing. Make sure he enforces the rules when it comes to declaring the decloak and any time wasting tactics with trying things that obviously aren't going to work. If these guys play Phantoms a lot, they shouldn't need to be measuring every direction each time they decloak.