It seems to have been widely acknowledged that the Scyk is a sub-optimal ship that finds its way into very few competitive lists. This is a real shame as it's a great mini of which I own 5. I know that Alex Davy has said that the design team is looking at fixing the ship and have come up with a few ideas for discussion.

Directional Thrusters (0 pts)

Scyk only. Modification.

When performing a barrel roll you may use the [1 bank] template.

The Scyk has a major flaw compared to to other 'interceptors' in that it can't equip auto thrusters. A second version of AT for Scyks seems like a really boring fix. This gives the Scyk a unique advantage internal movement compared to other generics which would make it easier for it to arc dodge. It would still suffer against PWTs though.

Hidden compartment (0 points)

Scyk only. Modification.

Your upgrade bar gains the [illicit upgrade] slot.

This opens the door to HLC Scyks having a turn of Glitterstim enhanced offence and defence to offset their fragility. Inertial dampeners and dead man's switch could also be interesting options. Scyks should always have had the illicit slot in my opinion.

Extended Weapons Bay (0 points)

Scyk only. Modification.

When you equip this card, place 1 ordnance token on each equipped [missile] or [torpedo] Upgrade card. When you are instructed to discard an Upgrade card, you may discard 1 ordnance token on that card instead.

Makes a missile or torpedo heavy Scyk worth running by giving it built in enhanced ordnance. Given the 2 point title cost, this seems entirely reasonable. My only concern is that Scyks with 2 proton rockets might be a little OP. Then again, they would go down easy if you could hit them.

If all 3 of these mods were released, then Scyk pilots would have some interesting and varied upgrade options. Another thought is that there could be an 'advanced directional thrusters' mod for Scyks without the heavy title. This would allow the use of the [2 bank] and [2 straight] templates and would cost 2 or 3 points. Might be a bit extreme though ...

I look forward to receiving your thoughts.

I'm not convinced anything could "fix" the M3-A, in the sense of making it competitive in tournament play.

The Scyk was the answer to a question nobody was asking.

The dial is kind of bad. The statline is atrocious. The available upgrade slots are extremely limiting and throwing more points on it is a bad idea anyway. The named pilot abilities are underwhelming.

If you "fix" all that, you just have a new ship...

So why not make a new ship instead?

I think the Scyk could find a home in Epic play as a way of bringing a dozen ion cannons.

and it's always a fun little bastard in casual games.

Other than that...

Some swarm effective pilot or upgrade cards (like a cumulative effect: the more Scyk the cheaper).

Or a title that the Heavy Scyk upgrade is only neccessary on one Scyk etc.

Or the other way round: some synergistic effect (you can distribute damage over other Scyks or you can distribute actions over other Scyks. So the one Scyk who has the best shooting position would get an action from another Scyk (even if bumped previously). They would become competitive again).

Last thought: A Scyk-only modification token increasing your firing arc by some percent (or decreasing but therefore giving you a slight attack bonus, makes maneuvering even more intersting for pros)

So why not make a new ship instead?

Well, one reason is that they've sold quite a few and it would be nice for the people who bought them if they were playable.

Some swarm effective

Last thought: A Scyk-only modification token increasing your firing arc by some percent (or decreasing but therefore giving you a slight attack bonus, makes maneuvering even more intersting for pros)

That would pretty much impossible to implement wouldn't it?

Some swarm effective pilot or upgrade cards (like a cumulative effect: the more Scyk the cheaper).

Or the other way round: some synergistic effect (you can distribute damage over other Scyks or you can distribute actions over other Scyks. So the one Scyk who has the best shooting position would get an action from another Scyk (even if bumped previously). They would become competitive again.

Directional Thrusters (0 pts)

Scyk only. Modification.

When performing a barrel roll you may use the [1 bank] template.

Hidden compartment (0 points)

Scyk only. Modification.

Your upgrade bar gains the [illicit upgrade] slot.

Extended Weapons Bay (0 points)

Scyk only. Modification.

When you equip this card, place 1 ordnance token on each equipped [missile] or [torpedo] Upgrade card. When you are instructed to discard an Upgrade card, you may discard 1 ordnance token on that card instead.

Actually, I like these concepts, but I'm not sure that would be enough.

I would like to elaborate on your idea a bit:

I also thought about making the directional thrusters a bit more powerful. Maybe [1 bank] or [2 straight]? There's now precedent for [2 straight] barrel rolls.

I had a thought on this the other day, might not be super interesting but what about a small ship only heavy cannon that adds your agility dice to the roll like with the proton rockets? Effectively only the Scyk could make use of it, the B-wing wouldn't benefit from the added agility dice. If the weapon only started with 1 red die, and went up to 4 with the Scyk's bonuses, it could effectively become a cheaper HLC.

Alternatively perhaps a weapon or title that would allow the Scyk to attack twice. The two dice by default are not super powerful but it could turn into a token stripping ship. Might be better as a lighter cannon or something, similarly limited to small ships.

Scyk would have been fine if they priced it right. Base cost is 1 pt high, title another 1 pt too high. They need to give it some sort of secondary weapon upgrade/discount and they would be ok.

Scyk would have been fine if they priced it right. Base cost is 1 pt high, title another 1 pt too high. They need to give it some sort of secondary weapon upgrade/discount and they would be ok.

I agree in principle, but I was just trying to buy a bit more creative and flavourful than that ...

I had a thought on this the other day, might not be super interesting but what about a small ship only heavy cannon that adds your agility dice to the roll like with the proton rockets? Effectively only the Scyk could make use of it, the B-wing wouldn't benefit from the added agility dice. If the weapon only started with 1 red die, and went up to 4 with the Scyk's bonuses, it could effectively become a cheaper HLC.

Alternatively perhaps a weapon or title that would allow the Scyk to attack twice. The two dice by default are not super powerful but it could turn into a token stripping ship. Might be better as a lighter cannon or something, similarly limited to small ships.

I had a thought on this the other day, might not be super interesting but what about a small ship only heavy cannon that adds your agility dice to the roll like with the proton rockets? Effectively only the Scyk could make use of it, the B-wing wouldn't benefit from the added agility dice. If the weapon only started with 1 red die, and went up to 4 with the Scyk's bonuses, it could effectively become a cheaper HLC.

Alternatively perhaps a weapon or title that would allow the Scyk to attack twice. The two dice by default are not super powerful but it could turn into a token stripping ship. Might be better as a lighter cannon or something, similarly limited to small ships.

Nice idea. Is there anything appropriate in the fluff?

I dunno about any starship weapons that could match that. Maybe an upscaled version of IG-88's handheld plasma pulse gun...or perhaps a disruptor? There is not much to go on, from what I read about the Scyk, it is designed to be cheap and fast and hold pretty much any gun you can attach to it and make it work, but the weapons listed were generic ion cannons, torpedoes, and missiles on the star wars wiki. So we just need to find something else to attach to it.

Advanced Directional Thrusters (0 pts)

Scyk only. Modification.

When performing a barrel roll you may use the 1 Bank template.

AND...

When you execute a Turn manuever you may instead execute a Tallon Roll of the same speed and bearing.

I think dropping the base price by one and making the Heavy Scyk card cost 3 points but also grant an additional point of hull would be enough to let the Scyk see some play.

I had a thought on this the other day, might not be super interesting but what about a small ship only heavy cannon that adds your agility dice to the roll like with the proton rockets? Effectively only the Scyk could make use of it, the B-wing wouldn't benefit from the added agility dice. If the weapon only started with 1 red die, and went up to 4 with the Scyk's bonuses, it could effectively become a cheaper HLC.

Alternatively perhaps a weapon or title that would allow the Scyk to attack twice. The two dice by default are not super powerful but it could turn into a token stripping ship. Might be better as a lighter cannon or something, similarly limited to small ships.

This could be interesting. Would benefit the Defender as well, and maybe give us a reason to take cannons om B-Wings again.

I think dropping the base price by one and making the Heavy Scyk card cost 3 points but also grant an additional point of hull would be enough to let the Scyk see some play.

Yes, it probably would, but not a very exciting solution. It would be great if the fix added more flavour.

I played against a 5 scyk mangler canon build and it did ok. Not earth shattering but it held it's own pretty well till they started dropping. I think they would be fine if just a bit more defensively tougher. Arc dodging won't help them a lick vs turrents so I think another shield and hull point would put them where they need to be. I like the idea of one upgrade affecting them all, maybe make them like a poor man's IG88 but severly limit the options of what they can share.

The Scyk just needed green hard-2s to be playable.

Advanced Directional Thrusters (0 pts)

Scyk only. Modification.

When performing a barrel roll you may use the 1 Bank template.

AND...

When you execute a Turn manuever you may instead execute a Tallon Roll of the same speed and bearing.

Here's something crazy -- do the barrel roll with the 1 (hard turn) template instead. 90 degree reposition, and unique to Scyk.

I had a thought on this the other day, might not be super interesting but what about a small ship only heavy cannon that adds your agility dice to the roll like with the proton rockets? Effectively only the Scyk could make use of it, the B-wing wouldn't benefit from the added agility dice. If the weapon only started with 1 red die, and went up to 4 with the Scyk's bonuses, it could effectively become a cheaper HLC.

Alternatively perhaps a weapon or title that would allow the Scyk to attack twice. The two dice by default are not super powerful but it could turn into a token stripping ship. Might be better as a lighter cannon or something, similarly limited to small ships.

I like your idea, IG-88 probably does not need it but could still use a range 1-3 cheap cannon, and the defender would love to see play.

I hope the tractor beam makes us what to bring Scyks. it is 1 point and could be neat.

Some swarm effective pilot or upgrade cards (like a cumulative effect: the more Scyk the cheaper).

Or the other way round: some synergistic effect (you can distribute damage over other Scyks or you can distribute actions over other Scyks. So the one Scyk who has the best shooting position would get an action from another Scyk (even if bumped previously). They would become competitive again.

I like these ideas. Any thought on exactly how they might work?

For example a built-in ability like wingman, where you can pass your stress token to another Scyk in Range1-3.

Same principle with crits for example

Or in case of actions: You can spend non-used actions to other Scyks (or before using).

For example I like the idea of passing through an evade token, dependent which one is getting atacked. So they are not so much vulnerable like now. And just one of them has to take the evade token, others may go more offensive (except you want to have several evade token)

All in all some attributes where you getting stronger the more Scyk you have

Emergency Coils [Modification, Scyk only, 1pt]

During the end phase, if you have no shield tokens, you may discard this card to recover one shield.

It's that 4th HP... but you have to live long enough to get it.

Really, their problem is that 'baked in' title card - other than the Millenium Falcon, I haven't seen one that came with the ship that didn't then leave the ship a little neutered when it came to fixing them later. StarViper is going to be especially chronic here - it comes with title and modification already. What're they going to do, y'know? Chardaan Refit away the torpedo tubes? That would strike me as an act of desperation.

(Moldy Crow title is OK, but you still can't fix them later once they've got it, y'know?)

Reprint Heavy Scyk at 0 points, since it's something they almost always take. The cost of the cannon/munitions on such a fragile platform (that starts at 2 points over its nearest Imp equivalent) is enough really.

No it's not exciting, but why throw two cards on the ship to be viable when you could fix the one that gimps it?

Reprint Heavy Scyk at 0 points, since it's something they almost always take. The cost of the cannon/munitions on such a fragile platform (that starts at 2 points over its nearest Imp equivalent) is enough really.

No it's not exciting, but why throw two cards on the ship to be viable when you could fix the one that gimps it?

I agree. I would rather say the base ship should cost 13 instead of 14, the upgrade maybe 1. That would make a real swarm possible and it would not be overpriced versus the Tie/Ln anymore considering dial and shield.

The Final version with cannon or ordnance would cost 2 less. Mangler version for 18, HLC for 21. Sounds good to me.

I don't know if it needs new fancy stuff, it's just a bit too expensive with a cannon for its fragility. Or its not cheap enough to be really swarmy.

I have seen 5 with Manglers in action though. They can be really deadly if dice roll their way. But if not they are too fragile to make a difference. You kinda need a big threat that occupies the enemy to give them free roam. If they get that they can inflict serious damage!