Experimental Interface and Youngster

By ImperialAce93, in X-Wing Rules Questions

So here is the situation and I'm hoping I can get some clarity on exactly how this should be played out:

I have Youngster (Friendly TIE fighters at Range 1-3 may perform the action on your equipped Upgrade card.) with Marksmanship. And I have a black squadron tie with Experimental Interface (once per round, after you perform an action, you may perform 1 free action from an equipped Upgrade card with the "Action:" header. Then receive 1 stress token.) Assuming that the black squadron tie is within range 1-3 of Youngster after he preforms his maneuver can I perform a focus action and THEN use Experimental Interface to also perform Marksmanship via Youngsters EPT?

Thanks guys!

I think not.

Experimental Interface says you may perform an action from an equipped upgrade card. Marksmanship is not equipped to the Black Squadron Pilot's ship; it is equipped to Youngster's ship. While Youngster's ability lets the Black Squadron Pilot perform the upgrade's action, the upgrade remains equipped to Youngster's ship.

Push the Limit (on Black Squadron) would work though. The Black Squadron Pilot could use Marksmanship (thanks to Youngster's ability) and then use Push the Limit to perform an action from its action bar.

I am going to say no and here's why.

The E.I. states that it must be an "equipped Upgrade card" and Youngster only allows you to perform the action on his equipped card. Youngster only gives the action up and not the "equipped card".

I would actually fight in favor of this combination.

Youngster: Friendly TIE fighters at Range 1-3 may perform the action on your equipped Elite Upgrade card.

Experimental Interface: Once per round, after you perform an action, you may perform 1 free action from an equipped Upgrade card with the "Action:" header. Then receive 1 stress token.

Obviously the tacit rule of all wording like this is that it must be YOUR equipped Upgrade card. But Youngster makes Marksmanship a valid action to take from THEIR equipped upgrade card so long as the requirement is met.

Sounds like a bit of clarification from the FF wizards would be helpful, but I'm think Youngster's ability breaks the rules in favor of this build.

As a side note: if you want to get the most out of that Black Squadron, I'd also toss an action EPT on him so that when he's separated from Youngster, the Interface isn't wasted. Maybe Expert Handling to help him survive to get back into Youngster's range.

*shrugs* An interesting notion all the same!

I'd say "no" because while Youngster may have an "equipped upgrade card" he is simply sharing its ability with other ships and not the card itself. Unless something specifies otherwise everything looks internally so if the ship doesn't have the actual card then it is not the equipped ship.

If you want to say your BS with EI could use the upgrade on Youngster then why not use an upgrade that is on say Howlrunner? That would be an "equipped upgrade" just like one on Youngster and would appear to be just as valid for use.

If I were going to compare this to something else in the game I'd look at what happens to IG-88s when one of them loses its pilot abilities. To be similar to EI "stealing" the upgrade from Youngster that should mean that all IG-88s lose their abilities yet the rules are that only the pilot ability of the affected ship is lost; all ships may lose the use of that ability as it is no longer there but the affected ship can maintain the use of other IG-88's abilities.

I'm going to go with the majority on this also. The better option would be to use Marksmanship then PtL for another action. I can see arguments ensuing with the EI option, but not with PtL.

The answer is yes you can. Marksmanship is clearly an action granted by an equipped upgrade card. EI does not stipulate that you must have the upgrade card equipped. Under normal circumstances you would have in order for you to be able to. But Youngster allows you to use his equipped action granting upgrade card.

If you can take is as your regular action, you can also take it as a free action.

The difference between PtL and EI is the source of the action. It can be your action bar or an upgrade card. Marksmanship is clearly the latter.

The answer is yes you can. Marksmanship is clearly an action granted by an equipped upgrade card. EI does not stipulate that you must have the upgrade card equipped. Under normal circumstances you would have in order for you to be able to. But Youngster allows you to use his equipped action granting upgrade card.

If you can take is as your regular action, you can also take it as a free action.

The difference between PtL and EI is the source of the action. It can be your action bar or an upgrade card. Marksmanship is clearly the latter.

Experimental Interface: Once per round, after you perform an action, you may perform 1 free action from an equipped Upgrade card with the "Action:" header. Then receive 1 stress token.

I'll let the bold and underline speak for themselves.

Edited by Sergovan

EI doesn't really specify who has to have the upgrade card equipped though. It's just until now, there was no way to use anyone's equipped upgrade card but your own.

EI doesn't really specify who has to have the upgrade card equipped though. It's just until now, there was no way to use anyone's equipped upgrade card but your own.

If it's not on your ship then you don't have it Equipped.

To read it otherwise implies that any ability could be used by any other ship if it isn't specifically tied to another ship. There are people who have played that way and it can sort of be true with IG-88 but unless something is telling you can use something from another ship then you you should only be allowed to use what you have.

If the "equipped" on EI doesn't imply "(by you)", then what is it there for? So you don't try to use action upgrades that are still in your binder?

EI doesn't really specify who has to have the upgrade card equipped though. It's just until now, there was no way to use anyone's equipped upgrade card but your own.

OK, so by this logic if my opponent has Daredevil equipped to one of his ships, my EI guy could use it, right? It's an equipped upgrade card.

No because his actions are not available to you. Youngsters are.

If someone is going to run Youngster alongside a BSP with EI, be my guest, use Youngster's card. It's such a marginal case. :P.

No because his actions are not available to you. Youngsters are.

His actions aren't normally available to me because his ships aren't mine to control. But if as is being argued, EI just lets you use ANY equipped upgrade card action, why not your opponent's? Why not one on the next table? If all it has to be is equipped to a ship, there's nothing preventing it being one that is not on your side.

Yes, this is intended to be argument to absurdity.

EI lets the BSP (for the sake of argument) it's equipped to use one of its equipped upgrade card actions when it takes an action. Youngster's EPT is not one of its equipped upgrade cards. It doesn't let the BSP use the Youngster action, because the Youngster action is not one of its equipped upgrade cards.

A lot of stuff breaks if you start letting the text on cards be generalised to include any card on your side of the table when it only refers to the specific ship to which it is equipped.

(As an aside, an upgrade that actually DID let you copy an opponent's abilities might actually be kind of interesting in some contexts, I'd like to see it sometime)

Edited by thespaceinvader

I never said you could use ANY equipped action granting upgrade card. That is something you are adding.

There are 3 sources of actions in the game . Actions from the action bar, actions from equipped upgrade cards, and actions from damage cards. PtL let's you use any action on your action bar. If another card adds another action to your action bar PtL can be used to do that action.

EI let's you do the second action type. Youngster grants you the ability to do the action on his Elite upgrade card. This makes the action eligible to use with EI.

There are 3 sources of actions in the game . Actions from the action bar, actions from equipped upgrade cards, and actions from damage cards.

You could just as easily say there are four sources: action bar, equipped upgrades, damage cards and Youngster's shared EPT.

I never said you could use ANY equipped action granting upgrade card. That is something you are adding.

There are 3 sources of actions in the game . Actions from the action bar, actions from equipped upgrade cards, and actions from damage cards. PtL let's you use any action on your action bar. If another card adds another action to your action bar PtL can be used to do that action.

EI let's you do the second action type. Youngster grants you the ability to do the action on his Elite upgrade card. This makes the action eligible to use with EI.

There are 3 sources of actions in the game . Actions from the action bar, actions from equipped upgrade cards, and actions from damage cards.

You could just as easily say there are four sources: action bar, equipped upgrades, damage cards and Youngster's shared EPT.

Couldn't have put it better myself. Youngster's action is not any of the three types you mention. It's an action from someone else's equipped upgrade card that you are allowed to use by their pilot ability.

So if Youngster equips an Elite upgrade card like Marksmanship, it is not an equipped upgrade card? Which is one of the requirements of EI. The other requirement is that you can legally perform the action which youngsters ability sais you can.

Please point out which part of EI is not satisfied by Youngsters equipped action granting upgrade card.

We just gave a gray area because Youngster probably wasn't even close to being an idea when Experimental Interface was created. The idea of using someone else's upgrade cards wasn't even a thing, so why specify "YOUR" upgrade cards on EI?

It's not equipped to the ship with EI. It hasn't been necessary to state 'one of your' on that card until now, and it saved space to not do so, but it's implied by how EVERY other card in the game that's phrased the same works.

Again, by that logic, what stops Marksmanship equipped on a Falcon being an equipped upgrade card for the purposes of EI? It's an upgrade card, it's equipped. EI doesn't say 'your equipped upgrade card'.

Maybe it needs FAQing, but the interaction seems perfectly clear to me.

Youngster allows you to perform the action on his card. The card is still equipped to Youngster.

E.I. allows you to take an action off of an equipped card. E.I. won't work in this fashion as you are trying to use a non-equipped cards action.

As someone pointed out upthread, it would be easier if you could take the action from Youngster and PTL off of it. That would work.

It's not equipped to the ship with EI. It hasn't been necessary to state 'one of your' on that card until now, and it saved space to not do so, but it's implied by how EVERY other card in the game that's phrased the same works.

Again, by that logic, what stops Marksmanship equipped on a Falcon being an equipped upgrade card for the purposes of EI? It's an upgrade card, it's equipped. EI doesn't say 'your equipped upgrade card'.

Maybe it needs FAQing, but the interaction seems perfectly clear to me.

EI does not need to specify the who the upgrade card is equipped to. Normally there is a natural limitation to what actions a ship can legally perform. Namely the actions in its action bar, actions from upgrade cards it has equipped and actions from any face up damage cards it might have suffered. This natural limitation prevents EI from the friendly Falcon in your example from being a legal action.

Youngster changes this. His card ability allows friendly TIE fighters within Range 1-3 to perform the action on his equipped Elite upgrade card. His card ability even uses the word 'equipped Elite upgrade card', so it is hard to argue that the action is not from an equipped upgrade card. So if I am a friendly TIE Fighter within Range 1-3 of Youngster with Markspanship, and I can perform the Marksmanship action as my regular action, I can also perform it with EI, because it is an action legally available to me, and it comes from an equipped upgrade card.

There are 3 sources of actions in the game . Actions from the action bar, actions from equipped upgrade cards, and actions from damage cards.

You could just as easily say there are four sources: action bar, equipped upgrades, damage cards and Youngster's shared EPT.

I'd call that last one Actions granted by Pilot cards.

Then by the same logic a Boost added by Engine Upgrade would be an action from an upgrade card and thus usable by EI and not PtL.

Youngsters text clearly references the source of the action as his equipped Elite upgrade card.