....Hmmm. Actually, I that may be right. The example usually pointed at is Yorr, but with Yorr you never receive the stress token at all.

So it works because Porkins gets it, even if it is discarded as soon at it is assigned? It don't have to linger?

Hmmmm... In any event Porkins is taking a 3/8 chance at a second damage for a 3/8 chance at getting an Evade.

Or, at least, he's taking a 3/8 chance of a damage (from his ability) in exchange for a fun matrix of possibilities. I'm assuming you're going to be using Elusiveness on a crit, because frankly I wouldn't care for the odds you get for using it on a hit. If you're flying the Elusive Porkins, you're effectively trading .375 HP for:

1/4 focus force (could be useful if your opponent is a high-agility ship and you've yet to fire back)

1/4 miss

3/8 downgrade the crit to a hit

1/8 no change.

If I felt luckier, I might pair him with R5-D8 and a Hull Upgrade, but then we're at 34 points for a gimmick ship that depends on the dice being happy. Whether or not that's a good deal is left as an exercise for the student.

....Hmmm. Actually, I that may be right. The example usually pointed at is Yorr, but with Yorr you never receive the stress token at all.

So it works because Porkins gets it, even if it is discarded as soon at it is assigned? It don't have to linger?

Yes. The time it doesn't trigger is when a ship like Yorr intercepts the token.

So long as it isn't the shot that destroys your ship, you can even flip a Direct Hit! facedown, effectively restoring a point of hull!

Say what?

So long as it isn't the shot that destroys your ship, you can even flip a Direct Hit! facedown, effectively restoring a point of hull!

Say what?

Someone brought this up earlier in the thread. Apparently a lot of people play Direct Hit! incorrectly and deal themselves a second damage card face down and flip down Direct Hit!. The proper way to play Direct Hit! is to leave it face up and count is as two hull damage. Anything that would cause you to flip that card face down would cause it to only count as a single point of hull damage.

So long as it isn't the shot that destroys your ship, you can even flip a Direct Hit! facedown, effectively restoring a point of hull!

Say what?

Someone brought this up earlier in the thread. Apparently a lot of people play Direct Hit! incorrectly and deal themselves a second damage card face down and flip down Direct Hit!. The proper way to play Direct Hit! is to leave it face up and count is as two hull damage. Anything that would cause you to flip that card face down would cause it to only count as a single point of hull damage.

I'm constantly surprised when I find out people play it like that and would love to know why, I have never even considered drawing another card on a direct hit.

Yeah a lot of this article is frankly very badly thought out. I kind of wish FFG would stop with the strategy articles alltogether with how hit and miss they are sometimes.

I have used Elusiveness on Ibisalm in the past, but that was many many moons ago, and frankly Opportunist is probably a better pickup if your going to go for her over the superior Keyan and Tem choices you have.

Bodyguard... you can theorycraft as much as you like but I honestly can't find any way that's ever worth it, except perhaps on a Tansarii Vet Scyk running wingman for a twinked out Boba Fett, and even that's situational as hell.

If it wasn't Scum only I'd rate it higher, this card would be great on a Green Squadron pilot for instance.

Decoy is basically trying to be a range-2 Swarm Tactics with a downside, but realistically Veteran Instincts is 9 times out of 10 just as good for a point less. If Decoy removed the keyword "friendly" from it's text THEN we would have a great card.

Guri with APT does work though. Although if you want to REALLY go to town, you could toss in Deadeye, Title and Adv. Sensors as well.

Adv. Sensors on something with Boost is generally useful anyway.

I'm constantly surprised when I find out people play it like that and would love to know why, I have never even considered drawing another card on a direct hit.

Yeah, I've been playing it wrong a long time. I think I saw it playing that way on a video well before I bought the game, and so thought that was just the way it was played. Never bothered to check that it wasn't.

But more than that, is the possibility of restoring a hull point by flipping the card down. I like that and makes it R5 so much more useful.

I never really understood why decoy got made in the first place when Swarm Tactics actually exists (and is generally considered superior).

...But I could have seen it being used a lot if instead of being during the combat phase, it was during the activation phase. Much better, more interesting and not too similar to another card.

I never really understood why decoy got made in the first place when Swarm Tactics actually exists (and is generally considered superior).

...But I could have seen it being used a lot if instead of being during the combat phase, it was during the activation phase. Much better, more interesting and not too similar to another card.

I think Decoy may start to see a little more use if the PS race settles down and more effects like Rebel Captive start popping up.

It would have been much cooler if it switched PS in the activation phase though.

Decoy has three main 'advantages' over swarm:

1) range 1-2 instead of range 1 only. However, most lists that exploit these sorts of cards tend to stay tight anyways, but the range increase might matter sometimes.

2) if your high PS wants to shoot later in the turn order, but swarming the rest of the list isn't viable, decoy can be of use.

3) your high PS doesn't need to equip decoy, in case you wanted a different ept.

Admittedly, these advantages are kinda weak, but they are what you have to work with.

I'm constantly surprised when I find out people play it like that and would love to know why, I have never even considered drawing another card on a direct hit.

Yeah, I've been playing it wrong a long time. I think I saw it playing that way on a video well before I bought the game, and so thought that was just the way it was played. Never bothered to check that it wasn't.

But more than that, is the possibility of restoring a hull point by flipping the card down. I like that and makes it R5 so much more useful.

It may depend on which game a person plays first.

The 'Star Trek' game that licensed FFG's engine has a damage deck that is virtually identical to X-Wing's damage deck, with a few slight modifications and a number of name changes. However, their "direct hit" card states that when you receive the card, you suffer one additional damage and then flip the card face down.

The X-Wing version of 'Direct Hit' is functionally the same...most of the time...after all, both are the most common crit in the deck, which deals two damage. So someone already familiar with the one system and seeing a card functionally the same could be forgiven for not noticing the nuanced difference.

Yeah a lot of this article is frankly very badly thought out. I kind of wish FFG would stop with the strategy articles alltogether with how hit and miss they are sometimes.

Actually, I rather like articles like this one. There is a bit of a trend on this board to consider only the 'best' or 'nearly best' combinations of cards, which means that everything should be compared with other cards. This article, however, is not focused on comparisons. That has some advantages.

Primarily, I think it makes you a better player. Creating something with little used cards surely deepens your insight in the game. If any combination is disregarded because "Push the Limit is a better upgrade" you're denying yourself some new ways of thinking. That can't be a good thing.

Not everyone has access to every card. I, for example, don't even have a PtL card. From FFG's perspective, this limits my choices in squadbuilding. Giving some suggestions about cards that are not used a lot might help players with limited collections who don't want to proxy.

And some player actually like to play certain cards and are looking for ways to use them most effectively.

Decoy has three main 'advantages' over swarm:

1) range 1-2 instead of range 1 only. However, most lists that exploit these sorts of cards tend to stay tight anyways, but the range increase might matter sometimes.

2) if your high PS wants to shoot later in the turn order, but swarming the rest of the list isn't viable, decoy can be of use.

3) your high PS doesn't need to equip decoy, in case you wanted a different ept.

Admittedly, these advantages are kinda weak, but they are what you have to work with.

yes, I thought they had decoy in the list because they wanted the ships to be shooting before howlie because howlie has a bad habit of sometimes shooting (Can't modify herself) and then getting popped before friendlies can shoot)

then I remembered her ability is range 1 only, just like swarm tactics

The only thing I could see (Esp with phantoms) is decoy ship with V.I Howlie. Howlie gets the benefit of arc-dodging or w.e, and the Decoy gets PS 10 for shooting

But **** how I wish she could take ACD

Yeah a lot of this article is frankly very badly thought out. I kind of wish FFG would stop with the strategy articles alltogether with how hit and miss they are sometimes.

Actually, I rather like articles like this one. There is a bit of a trend on this board to consider only the 'best' or 'nearly best' combinations of cards, which means that everything should be compared with other cards. This article, however, is not focused on comparisons. That has some advantages.

Primarily, I think it makes you a better player. Creating something with little used cards surely deepens your insight in the game. If any combination is disregarded because "Push the Limit is a better upgrade" you're denying yourself some new ways of thinking. That can't be a good thing.

Not everyone has access to every card. I, for example, don't even have a PtL card. From FFG's perspective, this limits my choices in squadbuilding. Giving some suggestions about cards that are not used a lot might help players with limited collections who don't want to proxy.

And some player actually like to play certain cards and are looking for ways to use them most effectively.

Well said. Not everything is about winning and tournaments we have buckets full of posts for that and some fun ideas should be considered and not thrown away because X card is better than Y card.

I find the suggestion in the article about Howl and Decoy at least interesting.

I'm constantly surprised when I find out people play it like that and would love to know why, I have never even considered drawing another card on a direct hit.

Yeah, I've been playing it wrong a long time. I think I saw it playing that way on a video well before I bought the game, and so thought that was just the way it was played. Never bothered to check that it wasn't.

But more than that, is the possibility of restoring a hull point by flipping the card down. I like that and makes it R5 so much more useful.

It may depend on which game a person plays first.

The 'Star Trek' game that licensed FFG's engine has a damage deck that is virtually identical to X-Wing's damage deck, with a few slight modifications and a number of name changes. However, their "direct hit" card states that when you receive the card, you suffer one additional damage and then flip the card face down.

The X-Wing version of 'Direct Hit' is functionally the same...most of the time...after all, both are the most common crit in the deck, which deals two damage. So someone already familiar with the one system and seeing a card functionally the same could be forgiven for not noticing the nuanced difference.

The Attack Wing version of Direct Hit! could be really nasty with R2-D2, Rexlar Brath, or Lt. Colzet.