Now I might be reading too much into this (it wouldn't be the first time), but as I was reading the wave 10 announcement article I couldn't help but notice something. What struck me as strange was the wording on the new condition card "I'll show you the dark side".

"When this card is assigned, if it is not already in play, the player who assigned it searches the Damage deck for 1 Damage card with the Pilot trait and may place it faceup on this card. Then shuffle the damage deck ..."

There's been some discussion as to which player's damage deck the card is drawn from, and the wording on the condition card leaves it a bit ambiguous. Now this could just be a poorly written card, and it should have been:

"When this card is assigned, if it is not already in play, the player who assigned it searches his opponent's Damage deck for 1 Damage card with the Pilot trait and may place it faceup on this card. Then shuffle the damage deck..."

However, there's also a (very minor) chance that this card has been written in preparation for an upcoming change to the tournament rules. The change being a shared damage deck in tournament games rather than 2 separate decks. Possibly as a way to phase out the old damage decks in favour of the new ones (somehow?).

Thoughts?

I think it is likely, unless they make the damage deck bigger, you would need enough cards in the deck to cover all list types for number of hull, 2 vcx 100 vs 2 decimators (not likely but still possible) has 44 hull in total on the board (64 with shields) 11 more than cards in the damage deck and I doubt they will have people combine their decks.

I also don't think they will release a new starter set soon and the whole point of them back tracking on e old vs new damage deck is because players didn't want to be forced to buy the new core set to play, so changing the damage deck to support both players is very unlikely as they wont want to try forcing people to buy something again

I think it is likely...

Did you mean "unlikely", given the rest of the comment?

Not likely at all. Just slightly wonky wording. Shared dds would quickly lead to incorrect dds in a tourney setting.

The wording is correct, since the standard (non-tournament) rules use one shared damage deck. The RRG uses "the damage deck" wording everywhere. Separate damage decks are required only for tournaments.

We talked about that on my podcast review of Wave 10. Well, we talked about which damage deck is the one you look through. Didn't think we would merge into one deck, but you never know.

Only tournament play uses multiple damage decks. The rulebook by itself only supports a single damage deck, which is why the core set only comes with one. That also explains the wording on the card.

I think it is likely, unless they make the damage deck bigger, you would need enough cards in the deck to cover all list types for number of hull, 2 vcx 100 vs 2 decimators (not likely but still possible) has 44 hull in total on the board (64 with shields) 11 more than cards in the damage deck and I doubt they will have people combine their decks.

I also don't think they will release a new starter set soon and the whole point of them back tracking on e old vs new damage deck is because players didn't want to be forced to buy the new core set to play, so changing the damage deck to support both players is very unlikely as they wont want to try forcing people to buy something again

Double deci mirror match has 48 hull!

What are we non-tournament folks supposed to do when we run six decimators in epic? (Could you imagine?)

What are we non-tournament folks supposed to do when we run six decimators in epic? (Could you imagine?)

You are supposed to use counters if the damage deck and discard pile are empty.

I think it is likely, unless they make the damage deck bigger, you would need enough cards in the deck to cover all list types for number of hull, 2 vcx 100 vs 2 decimators (not likely but still possible) has 44 hull in total on the board (64 with shields) 11 more than cards in the damage deck and I doubt they will have people combine their decks.

The odds of all 33 cards being dealt before one of the Decimators is destroyed is extremely low unless both players are actually trying to exhaust a shared damage deck.

What are we non-tournament folks supposed to do when we run six decimators in epic? (Could you imagine?)

You are supposed to use counters if the damage deck and discard pile are empty.

But that means I had to read the rules! And keep the damage and/or tracking tokens where I can get to them later! I'm too lazy for that!

Only tournament play uses multiple damage decks. The rulebook by itself only supports a single damage deck, which is why the core set only comes with one. That also explains the wording on the card.

The set only comes with one because it's a core set for one player. The game isn't self contained; it lives on expansions and expects other players to provide their own components. That's why there's also only one set of templates and range ruler.

Also, it's not just tournament play that's uses a deck each. That's standard practice for every game outside of beginner/learning scenarios. I don't think I've ever played a game using just one since I picked it up back in wave 2.

Oh yes if I read between the lines then it must say something different. It couldn't just be common sense that is... IF you take damage it's from your damage deck

Only tournament play uses multiple damage decks. The rulebook by itself only supports a single damage deck, which is why the core set only comes with one. That also explains the wording on the card.

The set only comes with one because it's a core set for one player. The game isn't self contained; it lives on expansions and expects other players to provide their own components. That's why there's also only one set of templates and range ruler.

Also, it's not just tournament play that's uses a deck each. That's standard practice for every game outside of beginner/learning scenarios. I don't think I've ever played a game using just one since I picked it up back in wave 2.

You are free to use tournament rules in casual games, of course. Almost everyone use separate decks and choose side before placing asteroids. The shared damage deck is still the standard rule, so upgrade cards are worded that way.

Only tournament play uses multiple damage decks. The rulebook by itself only supports a single damage deck, which is why the core set only comes with one. That also explains the wording on the card.

The set only comes with one because it's a core set for one player. The game isn't self contained; it lives on expansions and expects other players to provide their own components. That's why there's also only one set of templates and range ruler.

Also, it's not just tournament play that's uses a deck each. That's standard practice for every game outside of beginner/learning scenarios. I don't think I've ever played a game using just one since I picked it up back in wave 2.

Or you know, two players can share one set of movement templates. It's not like you need them at the same time. Hell, my group only uses one for HotAC, even though I've got 8 sets of templates, not to mention tournament rules state you can choose to share a single set of templates to prevent any advantage caused by manufacturing defects. There is a single bulletpoint in the rules reference that says you can (and how to) use multiple damage decks as an optional rule, but the rest of the rules assume only one, calling it THE damage deck. Just because nobody does it, doesn't mean it's not in the rules.

Choosing sides after asteroid placement is another thing that's never done, even though the rules for (non-tournament) play say to.