I see a lot of joy for slicer tools as a way to deal with Imperial Aces lists (particularly the Palpatine Aces variety).

I personally do tend to run Imperial aces a lot, though I don't like/run palp aces, but I can see the need for some adjustments to make the palp aces less dominant.

That said, the biggest problem with the slicer tools IMNSHO is that it doesn't just counter PTL, it potentially nerfs everything that has a mechanic that requires stress (especially on low hull ships).

There are a lot of cool (and under-used) mechanics that also require taking stress (daredevil, lightning reflexes, rage, etc)... and probably the most important one is the k-turn and s-loop on most ships.

If having to make a red maneuver not only means that you lose your actions but can open you to damage, I'd say it's going to make ships that already have white k- or s- moves even more powerful (cough, Brobots, cough jumpmasters and, yes, my beloved Defender... though the Defender is likely expensive enough to not be that affected).

And that's going to come at the expense of basic ships ... not good (again, IMNSHO).

If the slicer was R1, I think it'd be a lot less of a problem... powerful, but not necessarily broken... well if it gets rid of the skipping shields part too.

But the better way, I think, is to errata PTL to unique or maybe increase the points cost to 4 or even 5 (or, perhaps the biggest fix, make Palpatine epic-only).

I do agree that PTL is probably too common and could use some toning down but the slicer (at ONE POINT?!?!?!!!) is too much.

it's fine

if it didn't remove the stress or require a random die roll , maybe it'd need to be toned down

and taking a red maneuver always opened you up to damage. that's the whole cost of not taking actions

My Brobots list is rusting from all the salty tears.

Id love to k ow how your brobots are doing white kturns or sloops

Id love to k ow how your brobots are doing white kturns or sloops

They don't. They do red ones, the same as they always have. Very tactfully.

As I think about it, the slicer could actually make Palpatine Aces even more powerful/popular as the Shuttle piloted by Capt. Yorr is (almost) the only way to get rid of stress before the combat phase (as the slicer is an action).

Again, I'm less concerned with things that tone down Palpatine aces list than the fact that I think the slicer will screw up more than just that type of list.

Id love to k ow how your brobots are doing white kturns or sloops

Adrenaline Rush. It's all the new OP hotness.

(no it isn't.)

Tyco needs about 10 hull upgrades.

Id love to k ow how your brobots are doing white kturns or sloops

They don't. They do red ones, the same as they always have. Very tactfully.

Yah i meant op who lumped in brobots with jumpmasters and defenders talking about ships that could white kturn or sloop

Adapt? It'll cause trouble for Fel and maybe Inquisitor (realistically, Inq wants to stand well back from that range anyway), but beyond that, there aren't many PTL-happy ships that'll get truly bounced by this. PTL Ryad, for example, may become less ubiquitous, but it's not like she didn't have alternate builds. PTL A-wings might take a bit of a drubbing, but there's a bunch of viable alternatives to it there too (Predator/Crackshot, VI/Crackshot, even Outmaneuver...).

Besides, Slicer Tools is a ship upgrade. If it's a tragic worry to a part of your list that you don't want to change, hunt it down early and take it out. It's still requires an action to trigger, and a dice to hope on, so you may end up with a solid shot at a tokenless ship carrying it.

There's no point in screaming for a nerf on a card that isn't even fully released yet, just because it messes with your go-to list. That's the point of the meta - it changes and morphs over time, and you have to adapt to it. If I had a dollar for every list I've had to scrap since wave 2, I'd be picking up the entire of Wave 9 and 10 for free. Take it as an opportunity to mix things up. Change is good.

Forgot to mention it costs an ACTION

That's a loss of dice mods and movement flexibility to account both for the range and the fact that you need to perform an action to use it

The ******* things hurt, lost over half my hull on Norra to some unerring hit results, but that's kinda the point. If they didn't do anything they'd be worthless

Forgot to mention it costs an ACTION

That's a loss of dice mods and movement flexibility to account both for the range and the fact that you need to perform an action to use it

The ******* things hurt, lost over half my hull on Norra to some unerring hit results, but that's kinda the point. If they didn't do anything they'd be called Saboteur

Fixed that for you.

Fixed what? They're synonymous

Speaking of, norra was getting sliced by z95s and I was getting peeved until I realized...holy **** Z's are doing SOMETHING USEFUL

But then I killed Rau and stopped using ptl and they went back to being Saboteurs

Is this another "sky is falling" post of doom and gloom?

Id love to k ow how your brobots are doing white kturns or sloops

They don't. They do red ones, the same as they always have. Very tactfully.

Yah i meant op who lumped in brobots with jumpmasters and defenders talking about ships that could white kturn or sloop

Yea i noticed that after. lol. I was too busy wiping the rust off the ig-2000 to notice that in the OP.

Is this another "sky is falling" post of doom and gloom?

You betcha!

Under a falling sky.

I think it's an excellently designed card. It's cheap, but correctly costed for the effect and it forces PtL aces to actually think about whether they can risk a stress, rather than them just abusing PtL all day long with no downside. It's also useful against pretty much all lists to some degree.

I like any card that helps erode the dominance that PtL, VI, and/or Predator have on the EPT slot.

I have been running BMST a lot over the last week. Realistically, your going to get two opportunities for usage that makes sense per match. and then you have a 50% shot, while removing the stress. If you have a list like mine with two ships with BMST, then its 75% on two actions. Its not OP, but definitely worth it on specific builds. Exactly what it should be.

Where it really shines is it forces low hull ships that like to stress for action economy really consider the stress they take. Its the fear of an unlucky roll in an opponents head that matters most.

It also helps that i mostly fly and am familiar with a list that really likes BMST.

And to be fair, im mostly flying it because i dont have two of those cool templates to drop yet. When i have those, i very well may forget about BMST.

But it has certainly made a difference in games for me, most notably taking out Coran in two rounds, but the majority of rounds its likely not going to be worth the action to trigger in most cases.

Just don't ptl when your in range 2. Avoid range 2. It's also an action, so bump said ship so that he lose his action, or double stress, stress + ion, or hell just start using yorr. I freaking love yorr.

It's not the end of he world and emperor should not cost 1 epic point.

And if he's doing that action, that means good chance no focus or target lock. No defense actions so easier to kill, and If he does then he's using ptl, so fight fire with fire

I just wish it was a unique.

If feedback array wasn't going to be unique, this definitely wouldn't have even been considered to be. I mean, it's an illicit, so it's not like it's going to sit pretty on every ship anyway. Unique would be a bit silly on it.

Plus what are you gonna do when the combat phase starts and instead of a focus token you have... nothing?

If it's gonna be good BMST will need spam. Unfortunately for Scum there just ain't a lot of spam to choose from.

Plus what are you gonna do when the combat phase starts and instead of a focus token you have... nothing?

If it's gonna be good BMST will need spam. Unfortunately for Scum there just ain't a lot of spam to choose from.

Spam will only help you to a point before it starts to hurt you since it clears stress.

Plus what are you gonna do when the combat phase starts and instead of a focus token you have... nothing?

If it's gonna be good BMST will need spam. Unfortunately for Scum there just ain't a lot of spam to choose from.

Oh look, they're both scum.

amazing PGS hasn't commented yet.

I too, don't think BMST is a good thing for the game. I think something a little less drastic would have been enough. hell. even seismic torpedoes could have been it.

but, at the same time, it will first work very effectively. Fickle already apparently has some confirmation of that.

But it will also be infuriating for both sides due to its fickleness: sometimes it will come up none of the time, and sometimes, in three action, soontir is dead without much ability to do anything about it. (which is the bad part about this card.)

what can be done to play around it?

first, it has a bunch of negatives: requires action, removes the stress, still a die roll.

2 start taking hull upgrade obviously.

3 dont stress/PTL as often. Making it a choice to. NOW, DON'T MISUNDERSTAND THIS: In certain matchups you are basically REQUIRED mathematically to use it to get neough dice mods to survive. In those cases, you will find BMST to be actually game breaking. (This is where I foresee this being a troublesome future).

4 be flying away and far enough away that a 1 straight or a 2 hard wont leave him at R2 of you. MUCH HARDER TO DO THAN SAY.

All I all, I think its a bad, overpowered card. (Intended to heavily and severely, without any sort of artistic merit, hard hard hard hard counter overpowered small ships.) (Note here again, small ships. Not large ships. Never ever a card that's disproportionately good against large ships.)

Bad.