Did FFG give up on the Dual Card?

By dewbie420, in X-Wing

I have been surprised to see (squinting hard) no Dual Cards in Wave 9 or 10. MAYBE, on the Upsilon layout pic there is one card that could be- with room for the text "Dual Card"... next to Ion Projector, appears to read Operations Specialist.

I thought we would get at least one more by now. I hope the designers didn't give up on it. Did everyone hate it? (I love Adaptability.)

Perhaps, we'll get half a dozen Dual cards in the Rogue One expansion coming with the HOTR next month. :P

PS-One thing that came to mind was that when I make custom house-rules and upgrades, the Dual card is a wee bit tricky to fit in reasonably. Adaptability (and maybe other Elites) make sense: an 'ace' pilot is making the assessment of combat just before battle and adjusts appropriately.

No specific card type for the next two waves...so what?

No specific card type for the next two waves...so what?

It was a NEW thing and then YES ...then the next 2 waves without it. That's what.

So, to ask my question again, and to be more specific, did YOU hate it or like it? (Dual card mechanic)

I like it. But to be honest it's really Adaptability that I like. A 0 cost PS buff goes nicely with any list. I've yet to even consider using the backside and lowering my PS.

No specific card type for the next two waves...so what?

It was a NEW thing and then YES ...then the next 2 waves without it. That's what.

So, to ask my question again, and to be more specific, did YOU hate it or like it? (Dual card mechanic)

Mostly all new mechanics and card types have a bit of run time. See decloak, SLAM, Segnor loop, system slot, etc.

Dual card types, they doesn't have to be everywhere now

The limitation is probably lyndsey related to integrating the mechanic into the game

I cannot quickly think of another upgrade/action dual card that would get used other than a dual PTL/VI (one card on either side) for PS 7/8 aces. This would break a lot of things.

FFG is most likely being very careful with designing dual side cards.

The fact that they can be flipped after you see the list you're facing can easily have unforeseen effects on the meta.

I have been surprised to see (squinting hard) no Dual Cards in Wave 9 or 10. MAYBE, on the Upsilon layout pic there is one card that could be- with room for the text "Dual Card"... next to Ion Projector, appears to read Operations Specialist.

I thought we would get at least one more by now. I hope the designers didn't give up on it. Did everyone hate it? (I love Adaptability.)

Perhaps, we'll get half a dozen Dual cards in the Rogue One expansion coming with the HOTR next month. :P

PS-One thing that came to mind was that when I make custom house-rules and upgrades, the Dual card is a wee bit tricky to fit in reasonably. Adaptability (and maybe other Elites) make sense: an 'ace' pilot is making the assessment of combat just before battle and adjusts appropriately.

I like the concept, but I think the problem is the vast majority of people are taking it because it's the only free ept, and also is cheaper than VI.

I've only had one game I think where someone used it to lower ps, and only because my ships were all generics and it gave their ships matching ps for more options during the game.

So going forward, regardless of the cost, it should have 2 options that are both equally appealing.

I think a fun mod/ept one would be:

Side A

Increase your attack value by 1 and decrease your agility value by 1.

Side B

Increase your agility value by 1 and decrease your attack value by 1.

Cost: 2 or 3 maybe.

So if you're facing a list with mainly high agility and low attack like a tie swarm you'd want side A. Or if you're facing the opposite like 4 bwings you'd want side B.

I like the concept, but I think the problem is the vast majority of people are taking it because it's the only free ept, and also is cheaper than VI.

I've only had one game I think where someone used it to lower ps, and only because my ships were all generics and it gave their ships matching ps for more options during the game.

So going forward, regardless of the cost, it should have 2 options that are both equally appealing.

I think a fun mod/ept one would be:

Side A

Increase your attack value by 1 and decrease your agility value by 1.

Side B

Increase your agility value by 1 and decrease your attack value by 1.

Cost: 2 or 3 maybe.

So if you're facing a list with mainly high agility and low attack like a tie swarm you'd want side A. Or if you're facing the opposite like 4 bwings you'd want side B.

Expose costs an action and only raises attack by lowering agility. So this EPT would be worlds better, cheaper, and more useful. Never gonna happen.

I love the dual cards, and soooooo much opportunity with mechanics.

The first thing I can think of is an 'S-Foil' modification card. It is perfect for it. Action: flip this card.

You can have crew cards that flip dual cards with no actions. I was thinking Ackbar with unlimited range that you can flip a friendly dual sided card.

I really hope FFG expands this concept. It has so much potential.

A podcaster on Back to Dials had a good one about the xwing sfoils being in attack position on one side for a bonus and turn it over to not be in attack position for a different bonus. I thought that would be neat.

Edit: was beat out by poster above.

Edited by poke450

My only issue is we now have ANOTHER new type of card coming, before another Dual card. And hopefully Condition cards don't skip a few waves either.

I like the concept but it's a really tough one to balance. Even things like an attack boost one one side and a defence boost on the other have very different values.

My only issue is we now have ANOTHER new type of card coming, before another Dual card. And hopefully Condition cards don't skip a few waves either.

This is my problem: They introduced Dual Cards, and in the articles themselves, mentioned it was exciting to have a whole new design space opened up. I was pretty pleased by the idea, and looked forward to it continuing.

Now, we've got a whole swath of brand new card types coming... and still precisely one Dual Card. Did they find the design space fizzled at, uh, 'one card'? A bit rough if it did.

Maybe Paul Heaver's card is dual sided!!

I've used adaptability both ways to even out PS,or make sure I can pull off some blocks. I can see them waiting a couple of waves to make sure that a new dual sided card isn't too off balanced. Just because the design space is available, doesn't mean it needs to be used every chance you get.

I certainly hope not.

Dual cards are an easy answer for those who have wanted some kind of "sideboard" effect to use in X-Wing. You put the card in your squadron and then decide how it is deployed which may alter a few things but it's still the same squadron.

I know some suggestion for possible Dual cards have been out there and really push the mechanic but there are a number of things FFG could easily make as dual cards that shouldn't be problematic. I've always thought that the Dual upgrades would be a great way to introduce ordnance that could be used for different purposes depending on the squadron faced.

i think they messed up with it anyway.

Dual cards should have been flippable, either at the start of the turn/end of the turn or an action to flip it. Adaptability would have a much larger impact if you could swing your guy from PS8-10 to prevent the woes of moving first behind someone (i.e. risk hitting them or losing shot) or infront of them to let them easily position on you because you arent in the way.

Since they didnt do that, any future dualcards would have to be something like Adaptability which can be done at the start of the game upon deployment. And aside from a bigger adaptability (+/-2) what else could they do? Definitely not attack, you'd have no reason to ever reduce your attack for the game lol

i think they messed up with it anyway.

Dual cards should have been flippable, either at the start of the turn/end of the turn or an action to flip it. Adaptability would have a much larger impact if you could swing your guy from PS8-10 to prevent the woes of moving first behind someone (i.e. risk hitting them or losing shot) or infront of them to let them easily position on you because you arent in the way.

Since they didnt do that, any future dualcards would have to be something like Adaptability which can be done at the start of the game upon deployment. And aside from a bigger adaptability (+/-2) what else could they do? Definitely not attack, you'd have no reason to ever reduce your attack for the game lol

By letting you pick at game start, you allow just enough flexibility to make the two sides relevant and no more.

This is important, because you can always just shove " Action: Flip this card", or even "At the beginning of the [pick one] phase, you may flip this card" on the bottom if you want a specific card to be more flexible, but it's much harder to take options away . "You may not flip this card", or "Instead of using an action, you must..." are much messier than simply never making the assumption to start with; it's better to keep the rule minimalist and then add exceptions to it as appropriate.

And Adaptability is fine. I'm kinda relieved they didn't let you change mid-game, to be honest; once a game gets going you start to find a rhythm to whose ships move when; being able to mess with that on a round by round basis would increase the mental 'tax' considerably. Other, non-PS-modifying cards, though, are welcome to come up and change things as appropriate.

I certainly hope they do release more Dual Cards, but ones that flip in-game.

The 'Rule' card didn't preclude any possibility of this type of upgrade flipping at some stage after deployment, merely Adaptability doesn't provide scope to.

The abilities do not need to be of a style so focused on reaction to a opponents' build, but could be more targeted towards reflecting a particular feature of a ship (the 'S-Foils' idea being a good example).

I would much rather see them explore this than Conditions (of which there'll be multiple released before they've see how the type plays out in massed used).

Well some new mechanics have a few waves before anything else is done with it. The Cloaking Device came out in Wave 4 but it was never seen again until Wave 8 with the Mist Hunter.

And Adaptability is fine. I'm kinda relieved they didn't let you change mid-game, to be honest; once a game gets going you start to find a rhythm to whose ships move when; being able to mess with that on a round by round basis would increase the mental 'tax' considerably.

But there are already many Upgrade/Pilot abilities (even damage) that allow (or force) you to mess with PS in-game, and people cope.

Edited by ABXY

I love the dual cards, and soooooo much opportunity with mechanics.

The first thing I can think of is an 'S-Foil' modification card. It is perfect for it. Action: flip this card.

You can have crew cards that flip dual cards with no actions. I was thinking Ackbar with unlimited range that you can flip a friendly dual sided card.

I really hope FFG expands this concept. It has so much potential.

Let's see a couple more examples before we start flip flopping cards and what ever whims one decides to put on the card. The good this turn then flip to be bad next turn before flipping again is something that should NEVER happen.