Take a look at this:

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/10/30/a-pilots-options/

There were always going to become complaints about this. I am of the opinion that one desk souls be used to create a level playing experience, and that the new deck is superior and actually more fair to all lists, despite its being more punishing overall.

If you support the new deck being required for tournament play, post here.

Edit: I've just discovered an actual petition site opposing the new decision:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/require-the-use-of-the-new-damage-deck-in-xwing

Note: your signature will be added even if you skip the donation screen. We don't expect anyone to pay to sign.

EDIT: Nevermind.

Wow.

So my generic pilot lists will use the old and my secondary weapon lists will use the new.

I think the new deck is the same as a new ship, a new mechanic to the game, a new FAQ, a new Errata... so yes, you do need to go and get a new core set to get the damage deck (or go to Worlds and get a free one!!!) but if you were a serious competitive player, you were going to do that anyway. It has new rocks, new ships, new upgrades, and the damage deck. Its not a big deal.

January 1 it will be the only damage deck legal for competitive play. That is plenty of warning.

That's not the news I was expecting to hear. I thought the entire point fo the new damage deck was to make it much more balanced, hence it being the first non-original-core component outright required for torunament play. Being able to choose the old deck on lists that would be much less affected by it seems like a step back, one I can't quite figure out except to alleviate anyone's complaints about requiring the new core.

We should mix them together.

January 1 it will be the only damage deck legal for competitive play. That is plenty of warning.

I think today's announcement appears to change that, Ed.

January 1 it will be the only damage deck legal for competitive play. That is plenty of warning.

This statement is false based on the new article today. You can choose either deck except at worlds. Article is available through the X-Wing product page but not showing on the recent news page yet.

While I can see this adding another element of strategy to the game, I feel like swarms and generics benefit from this more than named pilots.

Wish FFG had just held their ground.

This is tough.

On the one hand, more options are always a good thing. I think this will eventually be similar to the capacity to choose obstacles, a straightforward degree of flexibility in squadbuilding beyond ship/pilot/upgrades.

On the other, this seems unnecessarily complicated.

Honestly I think it comes down to not requiring purchases. And I respect that. You can pick up either core set and fill out a 100 point list and go to an official event. Done. This also doesn't invalidate the players who have just the first core set. I think that's a worthwhile attitude to maintain.

Allowing to use either deck is a good thing. Very happy they did that.

Horrible decision.

The new damage deck was made for a reason and letting people tailor their lists to a specific damagedeck is imo not a good or optimal solution. Critical hits should be horrible in the majority of the instances.

Events I will TO will always enforce use of the new Damage Deck.

New damage deck please.

This is what we thought they were going to do in the first place. I'm surprised they did the U-Turn on this one. I can understand the Scum/rebel dials and FFG playmat rulings being reversed but the only reason I can think of is they are not replacing the old damage deck in the original core set.

This is a bad move, OP. The new deck is so much superior to the broken old deck.

I don't see how allowing players to "game" their damage decks is a good decision for competitive play.

...but the only reason I can think of is they are not replacing the old damage deck in the original core set.

Ya, good point. Hopefully that wasn't their only reason. I'm sure FFG noticed all the moaning in that epic thread a few weeks/months ago, but in general I think people had gotten over it and realized the new deck was an improvement of the game system.

Horrible decision.

The new damage deck was made for a reason and letting people tailor their lists to a specific damagedeck is imo not a good or optimal solution. Critical hits should be horrible in the majority of the instances.

Events I will TO will always enforce use of the new Damage Deck.

Best to tell them beforehand. I got chewed out for bringing the new damage deck, even though the TO changes the rules for time and round ending (not allowed to finish the round when time's called out, for example), and he doesn't post this in the FB page. Heck, he wasn't even familiar with the differences between the new and old...

....this is not the X-Wing news we were looking for. *waves hand*

VICTORY!

While I can see this adding another element of strategy to the game, I feel like swarms and generics benefit from this more than named pilots.

Wish FFG had just held their ground.

People say swarms and generics as if they're dirty words.

If a Dash player gets to pick 3 large debris fields that he ignores pretty much, I think it's okay that I take the old deck to get a bunch of dead draw crits for my academies. Super Dash also will no longer lose his HLC or suite of abilities with the new deck.

It's fair. Puck the one that benefits your list just like you pick the 3 obstacles that benefit your list.

This also prevents a "Come on dude" situation when someone brings a bunch of friends to tournament night and has enough damage decks total but not enough of either one. It also doesn't force players into buying a new core, not everyone wants one.

Horrible decision.

The new damage deck was made for a reason and letting people tailor their lists to a specific damagedeck is imo not a good or optimal solution. Critical hits should be horrible in the majority of the instances.

Events I will TO will always enforce use of the new Damage Deck.

Best to tell them beforehand. I got chewed out for bringing the new damage deck, even though the TO changes the rules for time and round ending (not allowed to finish the round when time's called out, for example), and he doesn't post this in the FB page. Heck, he wasn't even familiar with the differences between the new and old...

Ya, we have a TO in Toronto that has banned the new damage deck. Not sure why, or how that's legal.

It's been released. That's like saying you're not allowed to use Poe or BB8.

The new deck was created to balance the game...
the money men at FFG probably decided that they don't want to print and package individual decks...and it's going to ruin the work of the designers and play testers.
It's very well known that the OP makes decisions without consulting Alex and Frank....and this I suspect is another one...much like the FFG mat debacle.

This is such a cop out decision. Just PRINT DECKS INDIVIDUALLY! and require the new deck!
It's going to save the game from having to reboot!

I am fully against allowing the choice in this case. New Damage Deck only please. I liked that it had been updated to fix the issues with the old. Allowing the choice not only undoes that but amounts to tailoring.

Honestly, if you are going to allow a choice like that, shouldn't it be which damage deck your OPPONENT uses? That'd be much more interesting, since you could use it as a minor tool to help your list against tough matchups..

Changing it like this essentially makes it so you can pick the least impactful damage deck for your squad. So no instead of sometimes playing a list where the damage deck hurts you, you are now never playing a damage deck that hurts you.

What's next? Rebalancing the templates and the saying "well you can use the broke -ass ones or the new,fixed ones"

[whimpering] But .. but ... but ... I bought the new core even though I didn't really want it just for the new damage deck.

Okay, it's not so bad. I actually love the new upgrades and my orange and black Poe is my favorite paint-job yet.

But I still don't agree with this ruling. The major reason I caved and bought it is because I felt cheap playing the old damage deck. I was flying a squad where munitions failure and injured pilot did nothing but my opponent was running the new damage deck. As luck would have it, those are the crits I pulled. I felt so dirty.

Until FFG or someone else comes out and tells me exactly which squads are favored by the new damage deck, I won't believe it because I thought the whole point was to balance it. Any ideas on this?