so X-wing's got their silly little astro launcher (and this upgrade for Red Ace, I guess; might as well store that evade unless you're facing a swarm or TLTs), and the Fos are looking pretty at Comm Relay
You cannot have more than one evade token per turn
During the End Phase, do not remove an unused evade token from your ship
ladies and gentlemen: the Evade Box! It's like a shield upgrade that doesn't work on rocks ![]()
honestly, I'm no juggler and I have no idea how to value the evade token ![]()
well anyway, let's try to break this thing
FFG's Juke + Omega Leader + the box:
Most obvious place to start is the combo ffg is "subtly" pushing on us with the spoiled contents
With Omega 2.0, enemies cannot modify the evade dice that you turn to focus via Juke. The box holds the evade you need to trigger juke. Instant meta, right?
well...
way I see this going down is as follows:
round 1--> put evade in box
round 2 --> target-lock --> going to have to evade if shot and start all over again ![]()
assuming we shoot first, however, we're going for our unmodded 2 dice (can't spend that lock, or you'll lose your ability) against the enemy's unmodded w.e
pewpew, maybe you roll a hit. Your enemy rolls. 2 Evades? Well, you're done son. 1 Evade? Ah-ha! Get Juked, scrub!
Juke counters naked green dice and c3po (counters results, c3po hits the table before either player modifies)
Omega counters thrusters (can't modify dice)
Neither counter evade tokens
(evade happens after Juke, Omega only prevents dice from being modified and says nothing about results
Personally, I think Juke is the weak link by far. Apart from only countering dice and c3po, the smug little **** is sitting in PTL's seat! With only one action, you don't have an awful lot of opportunity to set up both the evade and the tl apart from the first round of the game.
With PTL doing both in one turn, however, there seems to be hope. The question now is: "can the box stand up on its own?"
The Box, with and without PTL:
This thing is honestly the weirdest upgrade I have personally encountered. I have no idea how to gauge its effectiveness ![]()
If used once (bank evade on first turn), it's a 1-point reduced shield upgrade that doesn't work on certain things (autoblaster, sometimes TLT, always rocks)
If used continuously after that? How many turns do you need to run away or arc-dodge (so you can keep the token instead of spending it) before it becomes worth the cost on the already efficiency challenged Fos?
What I do know is this: **** green dice and anything to ease the rng would be greatly appreciated (even if it does not stack)
the box has some synergy with PTL in that you can refill it and still have an action to go.
Got a joust going? Focus + evade. Don't get shot at? Keep the evade.
Arc-dodged a ship but it has thrusters and you're at range 3? You ain't hitting ****, so might as well pocket a lock and an evade.
Because the FO is already fairly inefficient (A-wing with black paint), I don't think we'll see any take the box outside of Epsilon Leader and the "named" Omega pilots.
Red Ace + the box:
So this could get a little silly, actually, both in effectiveness and in expense.
Red ace packing thrusters and the box will run you 34 points. That'd be 38 points for R2-d2.
Here's the immediate problem with this combo: without shield regen the box becomes worthless after 3 triggers.
mall
Here's the less immediate problem: this little bastard forgot his ept in the dryer so we're going to end up with one offensively challenged X.
Finally: if you take sustained fire and have to pop the evade, the box doesn't do diddly.
So, what's the payoff?
What the box does for Red Ace is make him that much more of an unbelievable pain in the ass against small, elite squads
Because Red Ace's ability only kicks in after taking damage, it's worthless when only eating one shot per round. With the box, though, that one token is going to start to matter a whole lot more ![]()
Ultimately, though, I see this as less competitive and more for shiggles. At the end of the day, Red Ace is a low PS, action inefficient, ept-less, unimpressively maneuverable dodo of an x-wing, and the only reason he won't go extinct is that he just. Won't. *******. Die.