My first question is more of a house rule question. I feel like anyone trying to fly Echo for the first time and being a new player should be given a pass when it comes to laying the template when uncloaking. However, a player that is a bit more experienced should they get any pass or should they be subject to tournament rules?

I let a friend who was fairly good at the game run with my house rule and he was able to keep laying the 2 bank template to find the very best move to reduce the amount of ships would fire on him and keep him well outside range 1. Doing so I ended up losing every piece on the board and had to give up.

My other question is how do you prevent this build from recloaking

Echo + Advance Cloaking upgrade

If Echo is attacking an enemy ship with Rebel Captive that throws stress on him after declaring the attack on it. Does this negate the free action from the upgrade card would he then be stuck uncloaked? Does stress prevent Echo from decloaking before preforming his movement?

My first question is more of a house rule question.

Standard rules allow you to check where you'll go with things like barrel rolls or boosts, and logically that would apply to decloaking. So if you're playing by standard rules, yes he can put the templates on the board to see where he will end up, and can try all possible combos to see which one he likes best.

If you're playing by Competitive rules, then he has to declare which side, and forward/backward for the facing of the template, and if he can do it, he has to. It sounds like you should be playing by the competitive rules.

Does this negate the free action from the upgrade card would he then be stuck uncloaked?

Yes it does, if he has stress he can't perform any actions, including free actions, so he could not use ACD to recloak after attacking.

Does stress prevent Echo from decloaking before preforming his movement?

No, because decloaking is not an action, so stress doesn't have any effect on it.

1. I usually play casual games by tournament rules just to build habits. If in a casual game my opponent who was new to Phantoms asked to check a decloak every once in awhile I'd let it slide. If he's kicking my ass game after game because he's checking decloaks every round I'd stop letting it slide.

2. You cannot take any free actions while you have a Stress token (unless you are Tycho). Rebel Captive negates ACD when a Phantom is the first opponent in the round to shoot the ship with it.

Nice thank you both for the quick replies.

So he fires first on the ship with Rebel Captive he gets the stress right then and can not recloak. which opens him up to the pain train

Helpful hint for playing Echo if you're unfamiliar with him, use the standard rules, and get some practice in. It can be tricky enough figuring out your decloak with a regular Phantom, but Echo's bank template takes some practice and some getting used to.

Check this out as well. It might give you an idea of how slippery he is.

http://randolphw.github.io/echolocation/