Juke over predator?

By Icelom, in X-Wing

I'm having a really hard time justifying Juke over predator.

For one more point it just seems so much better. I could only see running it over predator on something that you can get easy target locks and evades with. And I can see a ship that spits those two actions out for free while still getting a focus.

I've been enjoying Juke in two ways: On Vader, and on Howlrunner. Keeping an evade on them helps, and it also messes up target priority. Especially when I run other named TIEs next to Howlrunner. Once the TAP is out, the real question for me is going to be Juke or Push on them.

Depends on the ship, really. I think with folks with only two dice attacks and a means to modify their attacks the same turn they "Juke", then Juke is the way to go. Re-rolls are nice, but if you can make a lower-attack ship strip tokens or push damage through... well, can't beat that.

TIE/FOs, Inq TIEs, and A-Wings can all make wonderful use out of it.

FOs: Comms Relay lets them hang on to an Evade indefinitely and abuse Juke with it.

Inq: Title allows you to get a TL+Evade, meaning it's almost always superior to just Predator

A-Wings: Can both PTL and Juke

I'm having a really hard time justifying Juke over predator.

For one more point it just seems so much better. I could only see running it over predator on something that you can get easy target locks and evades with. And I can see a ship that spits those two actions out for free while still getting a focus.

It depends on the target and the attacker.

The main advantage of Juke is that you can force your opponent to either spend tokens that they don't want to spend, or to bank tokens that they think they might need later. If Soontir only has one focus token on him, he may think twice about spending it on the attack if you're going to be changing his evades on defense.

A mini-swarm of Black Squadron Pilots with Juke will probably do more for you than the same swarm with Predator.

Juke is there to smash through green dice; predator through red blanks

Ergo, 2 dice = juke; 3 dice = pred

Omega squadie = juke + relay

Zeta L = predator

Ofc there are the rules of juke

1.) Only run if you can evade AND mod your reds (ala relay or v1 or acc corrector etc)

If you can't? Crackshot

2.) If you can reroll outside predator, then might as well juke!

Juke is an amazing ept for lucky opponents and their stupid natural evades :D

Edited by ficklegreendice

Think about Zertic Strom. TIE Advanced pilot. PS6. You could put ATC on him, but he's annoying, and therefore a hate magnate. So build him tanky.

Accuracy Corrector so he doesn't need to spend tokens to modify his dice at all. So you don't really need Predator, either. Now... You're probably going to be taking Evade no matter what. I mean, you might barrel roll. But you will probably want to Evade.

So Juke.

What do y'all think about putting Juke on Scourge? I'll already have two Blackshots and I don't want to buy a 3rd Kirazxzxsxzs to give him Crackshot.

A mini-swarm of Black Squadron Pilots with Juke will probably do more for you than the same swarm with Predator.

'course, since you have to buy 4x TIE/FOs to get four copies of 'juke', why not make that 4x Omegas with Juke? Same hitpoints and cost as a BSP with a hull upgrade, although you are getting a shield instead of a hull over the baseline TIE Fighter, and a target lock action, to boot.

(Which is, IMHO, the biggest strike against 'Juke' vs 'Predator'...at the moment, Predator is easy to get. Do I really want to buy that many TIE/FOs, though??)

JJJJA(Bram's)

JukeJukeJukeJukeAcademy

Other than that, 3 FOs is the upper limit. Gives you lots of options such as 2 jukes 1 crack 1 big ace or 3 jukes and carnor (or 34 point equivalent)

Juke should also be accompanied by relay. They were literally made for each other

What do y'all think about putting Juke on Scourge? I'll already have two Blackshots and I don't want to buy a 3rd Kirazxzxsxzs to give him Crackshot.

Borrow a crackshot

Edited by ficklegreendice

Since Vader can do two actions, with Juke can he do an evade one turn, keep it and do another evade the next turn with one of his two actions?

Predator is not so necessary when you have a consistent source of rerolls, boba fett, K4 security droid, Dutch target locks, Vessery....

Since Vader can do two actions, with Juke can he do an evade one turn, keep it and do another evade the next turn with one of his two actions?

Juke doesn't let you keep an Evade token. You may be thinking of Com Relay. And Com Relay let's you have only one evade token at a time.

Since Vader can do two actions, with Juke can he do an evade one turn, keep it and do another evade the next turn with one of his two actions?

Juke doesn't let you keep an Evade token. You may be thinking of Com Relay. And Com Relay let's you have only one evade token at a time.

My bad, I mixed it up, thanks for answering!

Rerolling a die gets you 0.5 to 0.75 hits extra, depending on if you have a focus or not (assuming you roll something that would miss).

Converting an evade to an eyeball gets you 0 to 1 hits extra, depending on if they have a focus or not (assuming you have an evade token and they roll at least one evade, which is slightly more likely than you getting all non-blanks).

The nice thing about Juke is that it generally stacks - absent Luke, Poe, etc. the later shots in the round are increasingly likely to actually be improved by the EPT.

But yeah, predator is better. For one more point, it needs to be (otherwise, Juke would be OP).

One of Thrawn on Youtube's recent batreps ran a list with two T70 red squadron veterans using Juke and Coms Relay. Jan Ors crew provided the intial evade from first and second round focus actions.

Think about Zertic Strom. TIE Advanced pilot. PS6. You could put ATC on him, but he's annoying, and therefore a hate magnate. So build him tanky.

Accuracy Corrector so he doesn't need to spend tokens to modify his dice at all. So you don't really need Predator, either. Now... You're probably going to be taking Evade no matter what. I mean, you might barrel roll. But you will probably want to Evade.

So Juke.

That's why you can go SJ and Juke and double dip on "do I want to spend my token?".

A-Wings: Can both PTL and Juke

I ran a list using T-70 Red Vets + Juke & Comm Relay (Jan Ors crew on a K-wing handing out evades) this past weekend, and won the tournament. I'm pretty sure Juke is my new favorite card. Here is the write-up.

The great thing about Juke is that it's not just about your attack potential... it gives you a little control by forcing your opponent to make decisions they don't want to make. Spend the focus to evade? or save it to attack? Spend to attack now and risk being Juked later? It plays mind games with the opponent. No matter what they choose it benefits you. You either get a strong attack, or they have less attack potential against you, boosting your defense. That's the only thing Predator can't do. I'm not saying it's better than Predator, but on the right ship (like a T-70), having a little defensive help goes a long way.

I've been enjoying Juke in two ways: On Vader, and on Howlrunner. Keeping an evade on them helps, and it also messes up target priority. Especially when I run other named TIEs next to Howlrunner. Once the TAP is out, the real question for me is going to be Juke or Push on them.

On Vader and Howlrunner, I've been wondering about Juke vs. Crack Shot. If your target doesn't have focus and you want an evade for defense anyway and you get to shoot first (before you spend your evade on defense), Juke is essentially a reusable Crack Shot. Reusable Crack Shot is pretty amazing, but those are also some significant conditions.

Have you tried Crack Shot on Vader and Howlrunner as well? How consistently does Juke get extra damage through for them in your experience?

TIE Advanced Prototypes, with their title, seem solid for Juke. TL, free Evade, plus Juke to make those 2 dice more effective.

I've been enjoying Juke in two ways: On Vader, and on Howlrunner. Keeping an evade on them helps, and it also messes up target priority. Especially when I run other named TIEs next to Howlrunner. Once the TAP is out, the real question for me is going to be Juke or Push on them.

On Vader and Howlrunner, I've been wondering about Juke vs. Crack Shot. If your target doesn't have focus and you want an evade for defense anyway and you get to shoot first (before you spend your evade on defense), Juke is essentially a reusable Crack Shot. Reusable Crack Shot is pretty amazing, but those are also some significant conditions.

Have you tried Crack Shot on Vader and Howlrunner as well? How consistently does Juke get extra damage through for them in your experience?

With Vader and Howl, I alwasy take the evade action, and you usually shoot first with them anyway. Beyond that, I don't mind them using the focus early, then it's not there for offense or other defense.

I've tried Crack on Howl, and she dies pretty quick. I haven't thought about it on Vader.

I'm not using them in the same list, just two different examples of Juke. In my Howl list, it leaves them open to the rest of the swarm (Black squad with crack), and with Vader, they also have Maarek and Vessery shooting, so if they both get shots without defense focus, even better.

Juke on Carnor Jax

I have a squad that uses Vader with Juke, x1 and Advanced Targeting Computer, Inquisitor with Juke, v1 title and Autothrusters, and Vessery with Juke, x7 and Stealth Device. Two ships that get free evades and will almost always have a target lock to modify dice, and have defensive modifications to boot, and Vader because he's goddamn Vader. Even without an Engine Upgrade, he still does some serious work. Can't wait to see this build on the table when Imperial Veterans and the Inquisitor's TIE come out.

I can't really find an A-Wing build I like Juke on. With Green Sqs either you combine it with PTL (and then realize there's probably another action you wanted to take instead of an Evade) or you don't (and then probably end up spending the Evade to stay alive).

Doesn't seem particularly effective on any unique A-Wing pilots either.

I guess you could go cheap swarm and use 5x Greens with Juke + Crack. I think the "spend your Evade before you can use Juke" issue would still pose a problem, but with five ships it's more likely that a few won't be taking hits and won't have to mull over spending the Evade.

Juke on Carnor Jax

Nice thing about Carnor is that you don't even necessarily need Juke on him. Having Carnor in the area works great for anyone else that has Juke on them.