Hi Guys!

After a brief break to deal with real-world issues, like, for example, ensuring my career of choice does not neatly implode, I have gotten back to work on the custom card league. I've compiled documents that include all the winning cards, which you can look at here:

UPGRADES PILOTS SHIPS (with the custom pilots for those ships).

Let me know if I missed any cards or uploaded the wrong image for the winner. I am still going to double-check these before finalizing the vassal extension but this is what I have at the moment.

Speaking of the vassal extension, work is coming along nicely. I have gotten some good tips and help with images from Radarman5 and Odanan, and I am learning the process for putting the extension together, which is not super-complicated. I think it will take no more than a couple of weeks for me to finalize, barring unexpected troubles with the images or other files, etc.

If you are planning to participate in the Custom Card League's vassal tournament, you can start thinking about what lists you'd like to try out. Check out VanderLegion's Aurora Squad Builder app- it has the custom cards! I'm still finalizing how the tournament will be run but here is the basic outline:

Every list must include at least one custom card

Players may change lists in-between matches

Players will have about 1 week to complete each match

Vassal logs will be emailed to the shuttle tydirium podcast's gmail

The winner of the tournament will receive one custom-painted small base ship of their choice

I plan to play in the league but will not qualify for winning the prize.

I'm trying to figure out how to score games that are not played. I'll try not to penalize players who fail to play a game because their opponent is unresponsive.

I plan to have a post-mortem review of how the CCL's first season went after the tournament is over. If you have comments, criticism, suggestions, be ready to speak up after the tournament. Remember that we should learn everything we can from how this season went so that I/we can have an improved second season.

I think you missed Lando because you have two Mara Jade.

And I would prefer you used an Aeron card where you can see the whole antenna.

Ah, yep. Should be Hondo actually. And I'll replace the AA image - it was mislabeled pursuer craft anyway

These are pretty much all awesome. Well done, everyone!

So I'm not sure if this part of the process I missed, but the text on some of these cards need to be cleaned up.

Adrenaline Stims - This for sure needs to be fixed. As worded currently, you have to discard the card at the game’s first activation as there is no “may” option to the discard. Also, there is no statement indicating your pilot skill goes back to its original pilot skill after the round it goes to 0, so it needs to indicate when the effect ends. I’m thinking something like this should work.

“You may discard this card at the beginning of the activation phase. If you do, treat your pilot skill as '12' until the end of the end phase. Then at the start of the next activation phase, treat your pilot skill as '0' until the end of the end phase.”

Custom Job - Is this supposed to be an additional modification? If so, it needs to be reworded to "you may equip an additional modification upgrade. Its squad point cost is reduced by 2 points".

As is written currently, it is only reaffirming something that the K-fighter is already capable of- equipping a modification. But at 2 fewer points, which isn't bad. Just not sure of the original intent.

Aegis Flares - Minor text error. Missing the word "to". Should read "When defending, you may discard this card to add 1 <evade symbol> result"

Tie/SA - This needs to be a bit clearer on what banks are usable in my opinion. If it is only the 1 banks, it needs to read "When dropping a bomb, you may use the 1 <left bank symbol> or 1 <right bank symbol> maneuver template."

If it is ALL banks, it needs to read "When dropping a bomb, you may use any <left bank symbol> or <right bank symbol> maneuver templates.

Biggs and TC-4 - No issues here as they are word for word the same abilities of existing ones.

Hutt Cartel - Not a big issue, and probably not even worth changing the card as it doesn’t change anything really, but if we want to stay consistent with similar card abilities (mainly A-wing test pilot), it should read “Add 1 <illicit icon> upgrade icon to your upgrade bar. You cannot equip 2 of the same <illict icon> upgrade cards.

Jabba the Hutt - Feel like this one is a little foggy. There is no such thing as munition tokens (they are officially called ordnance tokens according to the text on Extra Munitions), so the text needs to be changed a bit for consistency. Also, the phrase “that must be discarded after use” becomes foggy because, by virtue of having Jabba the Hutt, those cards no longer must be discarded after use. Nitpicky, I know, but these are things we need to try to be on top of.

Probably good to go with wording similar to Extra munitions for this one.

“When you equip this card, place 1 ordnance token on each <illict icon> in your squad with the phrase “discard this card”. When you are instructed to discard an Upgrade card, you may discard 1 ordnance token on that card instead.”

Also, a ruling on whether those ordnance tokens still can be used after Jabba goes down would be nice. If so, I think it would be beneficial to add that to the card text. Something to the effect of “This effect persists after Jabba the Hutt is removed from play.” just to be extra clear and avoid confusion. I can see arguments both ways about whether or not the tokens are usable after the ship he is on is destroyed.

Astromechs - A little bit of unnecessary wording, no symbols where they could be in some places (not a biggie), and some commas might be nice in some instances, but nothing is unclear so think they are fine.

Pilots

Most of these look fine, but Myn Donos needs some work. Should read,

“When attacking, you may spend a focus token to convert one of the attacker’s <evade icon> results to a blank result.”

Xeal could also be cleaned up, but I don’t think it’s necessary. Should read,

“If you have any damage cards assigned to you, you may roll an additional attack die.”

Side note-

Man… I was just looking at Savan, and with the popularity of Dengaroo now, I really wish the ability read “When defending or attacking, roll an additional die for each stress token assigned to the defending ship.” Would. Be. EPIC.

Yeah taking a look at the 'final' cards I agree a bunch could use a little touchup work for clarity. I think the custom job is definitely supposed to allow a second mod.

Kdubb, if you want, I'd love it if you cleaned these up while I'm working on the custom extension (Or anyone else who feels like they have a strong grasp of the card language of X-wing). Otherwise I'll get to them as I can.

I'll jump on it later to ight if I have time and kdubb hasnt (and create new actual cards)

I'll jump on it later to ight if I have time and kdubb hasnt (and create new actual cards)

Ya I'm pretty clumsy with strange eons, so I wouldn't be the best person to create the actual cards. It would be fantastic if you'd be able to do that Vander.

can we quick and talk about how undercosted the Assault Gunboat is though

you can fit FIVE OF THEM WITH MANGLERS in one list

3 attack with one hit to a crit, 1 agility, 5 hull, 3 shields, a better dial than a Y-Wing(it has a white one straight and hard 1 reds), 2 missile slots with one that can turn into a torpedo slot for free(meaning that it can also take long range scanners, which is free, so it can target lock before their alpha strike so they can roll in focused and TLed).

For 2 points cheaper than a B-Wing, you get a better dial, a free hit to a crit, the ability to take LRS, and merely trade 2 shields for 2 hull.

5 Rhos with Manglers. That's 40 HP in one list, spread over 5 ships. The jousting efficiency of this list is ludicrously high. The arcs are all spread over 5 different ships, so it becomes very hard to dodge that many arcs when in optimal formation. It's singular disadvantage is it's dial, as unlike a JM5K, it doesnt have a white sloop or k-turn. The only list that could win is a U-Boats list, and solely because it shoots at one PS higher, and you need 4 gunboats to kill 1 JM5K. Nonetheless, A JM5Ks alpha strike throws 12 hyper-accurate dice. This list throws 15 hyper-accurate dice(plus a guaranteed crit per roll). And the best part about this list? U-Boats as a list isn't allowed. It needs to have at least one custom card in the list. So, jousting wise, it has no counter, needs no actions to guarantee the ability to shoot, and can take acceptable losses because realistically you can only kill one a turn(kill one in a turn, cool, there's still 4 left, and whatever you have in your list that can kill one a turn will die to 4 of them). Bigg's standard loadout of R4-D6 is ineffective because manglers will NEVER have 3 hits or more, always at least 1 crit, so R4-D6 can't trigger. Even lists like Palp Aces are in danger because there are just so many ships that you'd need to dodge.

We kinda need to think about upping the price on those things, if only by 1 point. Because as it stands, there is no reason to take the unique pilots when the generics are so cheap.

Even better. 4 Eagle Squadron Pilots with Adaptability +1, HLC, Torpedo Loadout, and LRS. 25 points each. fit 4 into a list. Beat the PS2 problem, throw more attack dice, merely lose 8 HP. Fires before JM5Ks now, only need 3 to reliably kill one, and all the same problems about flying against them from before.

These ships are dumb.

Screw just upping by one point. Now that i've considered HLCs as a thing, these need to be upped by 3 points.

can we quick and talk about how undercosted the Assault Gunboat is though

you can fit FIVE OF THEM WITH MANGLERS in one list

3 attack with one hit to a crit, 1 agility, 5 hull, 3 shields, a better dial than a Y-Wing(it has a white one straight and hard 1 reds), 2 missile slots with one that can turn into a torpedo slot for free(meaning that it can also take long range scanners, which is free, so it can target lock before their alpha strike so they can roll in focused and TLed).

For 2 points cheaper than a B-Wing, you get a better dial, a free hit to a crit, the ability to take LRS, and merely trade 2 shields for 2 hull.

5 Rhos with Manglers. That's 40 HP in one list, spread over 5 ships. The jousting efficiency of this list is ludicrously high. The arcs are all spread over 5 different ships, so it becomes very hard to dodge that many arcs when in optimal formation. It's singular disadvantage is it's dial, as unlike a JM5K, it doesnt have a white sloop or k-turn. The only list that could win is a U-Boats list, and solely because it shoots at one PS higher, and you need 4 gunboats to kill 1 JM5K. Nonetheless, A JM5Ks alpha strike throws 12 hyper-accurate dice. This list throws 15 hyper-accurate dice(plus a guaranteed crit per roll). And the best part about this list? U-Boats as a list isn't allowed. It needs to have at least one custom card in the list. So, jousting wise, it has no counter, needs no actions to guarantee the ability to shoot, and can take acceptable losses because realistically you can only kill one a turn(kill one in a turn, cool, there's still 4 left, and whatever you have in your list that can kill one a turn will die to 4 of them). Bigg's standard loadout of R4-D6 is ineffective because manglers will NEVER have 3 hits or more, always at least 1 crit, so R4-D6 can't trigger. Even lists like Palp Aces are in danger because there are just so many ships that you'd need to dodge.

We kinda need to think about upping the price on those things, if only by 1 point. Because as it stands, there is no reason to take the unique pilots when the generics are so cheap.

If you really wanted to run uboats, there's plenty of cheap upgrade options that could be used (like hutt cartel) for your 1 upgrade card.

Though you have a point about the cost. It's basically a y-wing for 2 points cheaper.

can we quick and talk about how undercosted the Assault Gunboat is though

you can fit FIVE OF THEM WITH MANGLERS in one list

3 attack with one hit to a crit, 1 agility, 5 hull, 3 shields, a better dial than a Y-Wing(it has a white one straight and hard 1 reds), 2 missile slots with one that can turn into a torpedo slot for free(meaning that it can also take long range scanners, which is free, so it can target lock before their alpha strike so they can roll in focused and TLed).

For 2 points cheaper than a B-Wing, you get a better dial, a free hit to a crit, the ability to take LRS, and merely trade 2 shields for 2 hull.

5 Rhos with Manglers. That's 40 HP in one list, spread over 5 ships. The jousting efficiency of this list is ludicrously high. The arcs are all spread over 5 different ships, so it becomes very hard to dodge that many arcs when in optimal formation. It's singular disadvantage is it's dial, as unlike a JM5K, it doesnt have a white sloop or k-turn. The only list that could win is a U-Boats list, and solely because it shoots at one PS higher, and you need 4 gunboats to kill 1 JM5K. Nonetheless, A JM5Ks alpha strike throws 12 hyper-accurate dice. This list throws 15 hyper-accurate dice(plus a guaranteed crit per roll). And the best part about this list? U-Boats as a list isn't allowed. It needs to have at least one custom card in the list. So, jousting wise, it has no counter, needs no actions to guarantee the ability to shoot, and can take acceptable losses because realistically you can only kill one a turn(kill one in a turn, cool, there's still 4 left, and whatever you have in your list that can kill one a turn will die to 4 of them). Bigg's standard loadout of R4-D6 is ineffective because manglers will NEVER have 3 hits or more, always at least 1 crit, so R4-D6 can't trigger. Even lists like Palp Aces are in danger because there are just so many ships that you'd need to dodge.

We kinda need to think about upping the price on those things, if only by 1 point. Because as it stands, there is no reason to take the unique pilots when the generics are so cheap.

If you really wanted to run uboats, there's plenty of cheap upgrade options that could be used (like hutt cartel) for your 1 upgrade card.

Though you have a point about the cost. It's basically a y-wing for 2 points cheaper.

No point in that, check out my post about the Eagle Squadron pilots list. That list chews up U-Boats and spits them out. These ships are more jousting efficient than U-Boats are by an enormous margin.

The more scenarios i think about with the Assault Gunboat the more busted the ship becomes. Realistically, the ship needs to cost 2 more points base. No ship with this kind of potential should cost less than that of an A-Wing. PS1 cost of an A-Wing is 17 points. PS1 cost of the Assault Gunboat is 15 points. It's absolutely busted. You're getting a better Y-Wing for 2 points cheaper than a Y-Wing. The Y-Wing CAN mount a turret, but the only good turret worth mounting is 6 points. And considering that these things don't really NEED an astromech to be effective like the Y-Wing does, i'm completely at a loss for why these are cheaper than Y-Wings, especially by such a large amount.

can we quick and talk about how undercosted the Assault Gunboat is though

you can fit FIVE OF THEM WITH MANGLERS in one list

3 attack with one hit to a crit, 1 agility, 5 hull, 3 shields, a better dial than a Y-Wing(it has a white one straight and hard 1 reds), 2 missile slots with one that can turn into a torpedo slot for free(meaning that it can also take long range scanners, which is free, so it can target lock before their alpha strike so they can roll in focused and TLed).

For 2 points cheaper than a B-Wing, you get a better dial, a free hit to a crit, the ability to take LRS, and merely trade 2 shields for 2 hull.

5 Rhos with Manglers. That's 40 HP in one list, spread over 5 ships. The jousting efficiency of this list is ludicrously high. The arcs are all spread over 5 different ships, so it becomes very hard to dodge that many arcs when in optimal formation. It's singular disadvantage is it's dial, as unlike a JM5K, it doesnt have a white sloop or k-turn. The only list that could win is a U-Boats list, and solely because it shoots at one PS higher, and you need 4 gunboats to kill 1 JM5K. Nonetheless, A JM5Ks alpha strike throws 12 hyper-accurate dice. This list throws 15 hyper-accurate dice(plus a guaranteed crit per roll). And the best part about this list? U-Boats as a list isn't allowed. It needs to have at least one custom card in the list. So, jousting wise, it has no counter, needs no actions to guarantee the ability to shoot, and can take acceptable losses because realistically you can only kill one a turn(kill one in a turn, cool, there's still 4 left, and whatever you have in your list that can kill one a turn will die to 4 of them). Bigg's standard loadout of R4-D6 is ineffective because manglers will NEVER have 3 hits or more, always at least 1 crit, so R4-D6 can't trigger. Even lists like Palp Aces are in danger because there are just so many ships that you'd need to dodge.

We kinda need to think about upping the price on those things, if only by 1 point. Because as it stands, there is no reason to take the unique pilots when the generics are so cheap.

If you really wanted to run uboats, there's plenty of cheap upgrade options that could be used (like hutt cartel) for your 1 upgrade card.

Though you have a point about the cost. It's basically a y-wing for 2 points cheaper.

No point in that, check out my post about the Eagle Squadron pilots list. That list chews up U-Boats and spits them out. These ships are most jousting efficient than U-Boats are by an enormous margin.

The more scenarios i think about with the Assault Gunboat the more busted the ship becomes. Realistically, the ship needs to cost 2 more points base. No ship with this kind of potential should cost less than that of an A-Wing. PS1 cost of an A-Wing is 17 points. PS1 cost of the Assault Gunboat is 15 points. It's absolutely busted. You're getting a better Y-Wing for 2 points cheaper than a Y-Wing. The Y-Wing CAN mount a turret, but the only good turret worth mounting is 6 points. And considering that these things don't really NEED an astromech to be effective like the Y-Wing does, i'm completely at a loss for why these are cheaper than Y-Wings, especially by such a large amount.

While I haven't looked this closely at what exactly the Assualt Gunboat offers, I'll say it again... This needs a committee to evaluate each and every card. I think even a simple 3 man team of Razgriz, Vander, and Babaganoosh could even get things in order.

When is Aeron's timing window? And why say the token cannot be spent and must be discarded, rather than just saying it must be discarded?

When is Aeron's timing window? And why say the token cannot be spent and must be discarded, rather than just saying it must be discarded?

Immediately when you are declared the target of an attack.

Redundant wording, yeah, i agree.

When is Aeron's timing window? And why say the token cannot be spent and must be discarded, rather than just saying it must be discarded?

Immediately when you are declared the target of an attack.

Redundant wording, yeah, i agree.

It's actually great in the document, just the quoted one above is an older version I guess.

can we quick and talk about how undercosted the Assault Gunboat is though

you can fit FIVE OF THEM WITH MANGLERS in one list

3 attack with one hit to a crit, 1 agility, 5 hull, 3 shields, a better dial than a Y-Wing(it has a white one straight and hard 1 reds), 2 missile slots with one that can turn into a torpedo slot for free(meaning that it can also take long range scanners, which is free, so it can target lock before their alpha strike so they can roll in focused and TLed).

For 2 points cheaper than a B-Wing, you get a better dial, a free hit to a crit, the ability to take LRS, and merely trade 2 shields for 2 hull.

5 Rhos with Manglers. That's 40 HP in one list, spread over 5 ships. The jousting efficiency of this list is ludicrously high. The arcs are all spread over 5 different ships, so it becomes very hard to dodge that many arcs when in optimal formation. It's singular disadvantage is it's dial, as unlike a JM5K, it doesnt have a white sloop or k-turn. The only list that could win is a U-Boats list, and solely because it shoots at one PS higher, and you need 4 gunboats to kill 1 JM5K. Nonetheless, A JM5Ks alpha strike throws 12 hyper-accurate dice. This list throws 15 hyper-accurate dice(plus a guaranteed crit per roll). And the best part about this list? U-Boats as a list isn't allowed. It needs to have at least one custom card in the list. So, jousting wise, it has no counter, needs no actions to guarantee the ability to shoot, and can take acceptable losses because realistically you can only kill one a turn(kill one in a turn, cool, there's still 4 left, and whatever you have in your list that can kill one a turn will die to 4 of them). Bigg's standard loadout of R4-D6 is ineffective because manglers will NEVER have 3 hits or more, always at least 1 crit, so R4-D6 can't trigger. Even lists like Palp Aces are in danger because there are just so many ships that you'd need to dodge.

We kinda need to think about upping the price on those things, if only by 1 point. Because as it stands, there is no reason to take the unique pilots when the generics are so cheap.

If you really wanted to run uboats, there's plenty of cheap upgrade options that could be used (like hutt cartel) for your 1 upgrade card.

Though you have a point about the cost. It's basically a y-wing for 2 points cheaper.

No point in that, check out my post about the Eagle Squadron pilots list. That list chews up U-Boats and spits them out. These ships are most jousting efficient than U-Boats are by an enormous margin.

The more scenarios i think about with the Assault Gunboat the more busted the ship becomes. Realistically, the ship needs to cost 2 more points base. No ship with this kind of potential should cost less than that of an A-Wing. PS1 cost of an A-Wing is 17 points. PS1 cost of the Assault Gunboat is 15 points. It's absolutely busted. You're getting a better Y-Wing for 2 points cheaper than a Y-Wing. The Y-Wing CAN mount a turret, but the only good turret worth mounting is 6 points. And considering that these things don't really NEED an astromech to be effective like the Y-Wing does, i'm completely at a loss for why these are cheaper than Y-Wings, especially by such a large amount.

While I haven't looked this closely at what exactly the Assualt Gunboat offers, I'll say it again... This needs a committee to evaluate each and every card. I think even a simple 3 man team of Razgriz, Vander, and Babaganoosh could even get things in order.

I'm inclined to agree. The fact that i only discovered this because i was building lists for the imminent tournament with these cards is a little wack. Not a call-out to anyone, but rather that these things fell through the cracks. I think it'd be smart now to build such a committee immediately and go through each and every card, and make sure that they're all balanced, and if they're not, to balance them ourselves.

I'm thinking of forming a small committee to look at the current set of cards and step in if we find anything outrageous - what is everyone's thoughts on that?

Is there anyone strongly opposed?

I'm thinking of forming a small committee to look at the current set of cards and step in if we find anything outrageous - what is everyone's thoughts on that?

Is there anyone strongly opposed?

100% in favor.

Underslung blaster cannon is all kinds of broken. A free second attack at range one?

Its only 2 dice, only range 1, only works on a few ships, and only allows 2 attacks if youre also in arc. I dont think its that gamebreaking

Its only 2 dice, only range 1, only works on a few ships, and only allows 2 attacks if youre also in arc. I dont think its that gamebreaking

It doesn't distinguish that the attack must be on the same ship, so you can fire on one out of arc and one inside arc.

I don't think it's too bad. It acts as a mini Dengar pilot ability, except instead of needing to have the ship in arc and fired upon, you just need them to be in range 1, and you only roll 2 dice. Quickdraw making 6 attacks in one round though... That could be a little much haha.

It basically works out like tie/d or btl a4. Btl gives you a weak primary followed by a turret shot. Tie/d gives you a low damage cannon shot followed by a normal primary. This gives you a low damage secondary attack, limited to rangen1, before a normal primary

Except both BTL and Tie/d are both substantially more expensive, limited to the primary arc, and put on ships that otherwise aren't super amazing. This is going on the T70 and the Tie/FO, which are already amazing, and the Tie/sf, which isn't looking bad.

Some interactions:

Tie/sf Special Ops gets the additional attack off each of its attacks. Four attacks there

Backdraft gets a crit added to each roll in addition to the two dice if he gets them in the back range one.

Quickdraw gets a possible four attacks if he's damaged. Eight if he uses the title.

Poe gets to use his focus on both attacks.

Omega Leader can force you to rely on unmodified dice, which will be a nightmare for some ships. Oh, and Juke works on both attacks, so you're rolling unmodified dice minus one agility, essentially. Twice. More than makes up for replacing Comm Relay(and the same point cost, too).

While we're at it, Juke alone makes this impossible to balance, since you get it on both attacks, and barring some very specific builds, no ship can compete with that without very specific builds. Even if you fix the very glaring lack of once per turn, this combined with Juke is disgusting, especially on Omega Leader.

Except both BTL and Tie/d are both substantially more expensive, limited to the primary arc, and put on ships that otherwise aren't super amazing. This is going on the T70 and the Tie/FO, which are already amazing, and the Tie/sf, which isn't looking bad.

BTL costs you nothing but the cost of the turret, which granted is normally used with ion or tlt, which cost more, but either give you better damage than a 2 dice attack, or at least a better chance to hit with ion and an ion token. TIE/D costs whatever cannon you use, and only works with cost 3 or less. I'll give you that they go on ships that need help, but how often do you see T70s right now? And on the FO, the most common one you see is Omega Leader, who isn't going to give up his comms relay for an extra 2 dice attack at range 1. It competes with the same upgrade (comms relay) on the FOs, and also competes with Sensor Cluster on the SF (and any ship with a tech slot).

Some interactions:

Tie/sf Special Ops gets the additional attack off each of its attacks. Four attacks there

Backdraft gets a crit added to each roll in addition to the two dice if he gets them in the back range one.

Quickdraw gets a possible four attacks if he's damaged. Eight if he uses the title.

Poe gets to use his focus on both attacks.

Omega Leader can force you to rely on unmodified dice, which will be a nightmare for some ships. Oh, and Juke works on both attacks, so you're rolling unmodified dice minus one agility, essentially. Twice. More than makes up for replacing Comm Relay(and the same point cost, too).

While we're at it, Juke alone makes this impossible to balance, since you get it on both attacks, and barring some very specific builds, no ship can compete with that without very specific builds. Even if you fix the very glaring lack of once per turn, this combined with Juke is disgusting, especially on Omega Leader.

It doesn't interact with Special Ops. The title only triggers from primary weapon attacks. So you could get 3 attacks if you use the title to attack front and back from your primary shot, but it's still only 2 dice on each of the 3 attacks.

Backdraft with it would indeed get the extra crit.

Quickdraw, as above, doesn't get any extra interaction from special ops, so he'd still get underslung plus the 2 normal attacks for 3 or 6, but not 8.

Poe would get the focus for both attacks, but it's still only a 2 dice attack for the underslung, even with that.

Omega Leader COULD use it with juke, but without comms relay he has to evade every round to be able to use juke, so he's only throwing 2 unmodified attack dice. Pretty sure he'll do better just keeping the evade around with comms relay and focusing for his normal action.

Same applies to any ship that is going to be using juke to combo with this. How often do you see ships using juke without comms relay or a reliable way to get an evade without an action (like x7 defenders).

All of the above is still combined with the fact that its only 2 dice at range 1. Against high agility ships it'll do little to nothing a lot of the time, against arc-dodgers, if you get them in range 1 and in-arc, they deserve the extra shot. If they're out of arc in range 1, 2 dice will never get past autothrusters. It'll mostly help against lower PS, low agility, high health ships. About the only one of those I can think of that's common in the meta right now is the Ghost. Which has 16 health to chew through and is hitting you back with 5 attack dice if you're at range 1.