My Five

Push The Limit: This should have been a unique or priced 1 or 2 points higher. I don't mind seeing it on a lone ace, like Soontir; some aces need it to survive.

Engine Upgrade: This should have been +2 or more points for Large ships.

After these two, the rest don't seem so bad.

Twin Laser Turret: I hate to dog-pile on such a newer card, since I haven't gotten to see much of it in play, but it seems too good. It seems like it should have been a K-wing only card, but the HWK could use it to help it out. I also hate to rant about this card because I love Y-wings; this card has helped out the Y-wing so much. Maybe it should have been a single 3-die attack that keeps all results (i.e. not limited damage to 1), with a boost to the attack roll built in (maybe Accuracy Corrector built in?). I feel like the card is a response to PTL+turtled Aces; fix PTL and this card is not needed as much.

Veteran Instincts: Modifying Pilot Skill is fine by me, but this card competes with so many other Elite upgrades that it limits the field. If I were to fix it, I would let any ship in the game increase it's Pilot Skill as part of the game outside of Upgrades. The cost would need to be progressive (i.e. +1 PS for 1, +2 PS for 3, +3 PS for 6).

C-3P0: The mechanic is flavorful, but its impact on the game has been far too influencing. It's fix would be a cost increase, perhaps to 5.

Veteran Instincts - Even though I use this card quite a bit myself, I'm not a huge fan of it. It limits the build variations by messing with PS in exchange for an EPT. Sadly moving last is more important than any other talent. Get rid of it!

Engine Upgrade - My only real issue with it is on Han (not the YT-1300, but Han in general). But sadly that single use of the card makes me dislike the card in general.

Predator - There's no downside to using this card. Period. It limits action choice and destroys the entire "block the higher PS to deny action" game plan.

Palpatine - I'm fine with PTL, I'm fine with AT, I'm fine with SD. All of these have a downside to them. But Palpy negates those downsides completely. And the fact that you can use it for offense if you don't need it for defense is just mean.

Crackshot - It invalidates every other 1 cost single use card. The only 1 point card in the neighborhood is VI, which is on the top of my ban list.

TLT is fine - and I like to play A wings without ATs, so it's easy for it to get 1 rounded. There's a major exploitation in the R1 hole, and if you take it on K wings to remove that hole, you can't spam 4 of them. Plus, it's only the 4 TLT Unhinged Thug spam that makes people hate on the TLT. If it's run as a single or two in a list, it's no big deal. If there was a way to cap the quantity in a list, I wouldn't mind seeing a cap of 2. But since that doesn't exist, then I'm fine with seeing 4 of them, knowing they're a one trick pony.

PTL is fine - there's a major downside to the card - you're restricted to green maneuvers only. Plus without it, A wings and interceptors would lose their biggest advantage - the quantity of greens on their dials.

R2D2/R5P9 are fine. They are pointless to concentrated fire and alpha strikes. Sure, they work great in a 2 ship meta, but in a 5 ship meta they're useless. If anything, I would want to see a 1 point cost increase.

C3PO is fine. Like the cards above, he's great in a 2 ship meta, but when multiple ships shoot at him, he's next to useless. Coupled with the lack of EU to arc dodge at PS9 to minimize the number of incoming shots, then he'll no longer be dominate. If anything, I would want to see a 1 point cost increase.

It seems Engine Upgrade, specifically in reference to large ships, is on a majority of these lists. While this survey is hardly scientific, it does show a trend thus far. It probably doesn't need a huge nerf, but I wouldn't mind the cost being increased when equipped on large ships. But, again, I can live with it as is.

... I feel like banning almost any upgrade reduces diversity, rather than increasing it. The only thing that's seen ad nauseum right now is TLTs, but without them, Rebels and Scum have a hard time competing against non-autothruster Imperial Aces, who can arc dodge like mofos.

Honestly, I think that the meta is really diverse right now, and I can't think of a card I'd actually like to have removed that wouldn't shift the balance of power too far in one direction or another. While seeing inf. Stresshogs can get tiring, I think Rebels would really be hurting without them, and then where would we be? Just everybody running Soontir? Pass.

IMHO, increased diversity isn't something you get by removing options.

Veteran Instincts: This alone creates a PS race. ALTHOUGH, I would potentially change the card to only work on pilots with 7 or 6 and lower PS skill. Thematically, I assume the named pilots with such a high built in PS skill are already veterans with great pilot abilities so they shouldn't be "veterans" again because they already are.

This is the only one I really think could actually go away or REALLY change and it would be great for the game. Other general ones just because you said 5 and most of these could just be adjusted, not completely gotten rid of in my mind:

-Crackshot

-TLT

-Palpatine

-Push the Limit

Twin Laser Turret. Gone. Bring back another turret to replace it, do not make it count as two separate attacks (I don't care if it rolls twice, but make it be ruled a single attack)

Advanced Targeting Computer. Free crit? come on.

R3-A2

RAC (bring him back tone down his power)

Push the Limit - i prefer having actual card combos to figure out > 1 action, don't like how easy it is ESPECIALLY since "stress" for some ships is combo building itself (like soontir FUl i mean Fel)

Yeah I left soontir fel. and poe. don't like that they exist (because I'm not ultra competitive and i hate to play the obvious OP ships) ... but they get to stay.

I find it odd that so many people have listed push the limit. I wouldn't think of killing off interceptors and non-prototype A-wings as increasing diversity, and Predator seems more popular in general now anyway.

I find it odd that so many people have listed push the limit. I wouldn't think of killing off interceptors and non-prototype A-wings as increasing diversity, and Predator seems more popular in general now anyway.

Same. There are so many stress mechanics in the meta these days, I pretty much don't see anybody using PtL competitively, except our man Soontir. Even he has to be careful about it.

I find it odd that so many people have listed push the limit. I wouldn't think of killing off interceptors and non-prototype A-wings as increasing diversity, and Predator seems more popular in general now anyway.

Same. There are so many stress mechanics in the meta these days, I pretty much don't see anybody using PtL competitively, except our man Soontir. Even he has to be careful about it.

Same here. It is a part of the hierarchy of EPTs (along with Predator, VI and Crackshot), and getting rid of it would possibly open up the use of other EPTs in its place, but I am under the impression that it would just straight out make those ships which are so heavily dependent on it, close to unusable.

It's unfortunate A-wings and Tie Interceptors are so dependent on it, and I don't really enjoy that they are, but I'd rather have them with it then not have them at all.

Every upgrade promotes one sort of ships vs others. The lack of tlt encourages the fat turret, etc. But you are correct predator is a useful yet powerful card for lancers. Crackshot however has stolen some of its lusture. My choice for ptl doesn't change however.