First,

Thank you FFG for this new FAQ. While I understand while some people can be upset, the majority seem to see the light on this new FAQ and what it will do for the current meta. This new FAQ was needed for the community. The current state of the meta reminded me of my time playing MTG during the original Mirrodin set. SO STALE and STAGNANT. Anyone who remembers that time frame, should understand. These changes were needed.

Manaroo. ParaAttani is not dead. So you have to fly Manaraoo close. Who cares. It still does what it should do. This comes down to skilled piloting and adapting. And if you don't like Manaroo anymore, find a substitute. People are already looking at Palob. Get creative. DESIGN a build. Yea, Dengaroo is probably dead. Not sad at all.

X7 is still good. What is so wrong with that change? Wait, you actually have to pilot it and make sure you don't run into things? You need to take stress into consideration? What a concept. The game is about skilled dog fighting, not auto piloting. My friend who plays Defenders loves the change. It forces him to have to increase his skill. That is why the change was made.

Zuckuss. There is no one who can say that wasn't needed. That was an over abused card for its cost. I think we all agree on this.

Palpatine. Still a good card. Oh, you have to decide quicker when to use it. For good players, this won't be an issue. They pretty much know when they are going to use it and how in the first place in every situation. People will complain about the cost but the card isn't dead. This just required more thought about how and when you are going to use the ability.

I was just at the Endor Open and let me tell you, seeing two days of players with I would say 75-80% of the field playing one build (ParaAttani), was disturbing and disheartening for a game that has so much more room to grow and allow for creative squadron designing. Listening to the players talk about it and how bad they thought it was, even the players flying it, was eye opening.

These changes are going to force the community to change how they fly or design new builds. It will open the format for more diversity. That is a good thing.

Thank you FFG for opening the format back up and allowing the game to grow again.

I agree with most of what you said except for manny. In my opinion (remeber just an opinion) i think it was a tad excessive. More of an 'OMG TOO POWERFUL. KILL IT WITH FIRE!' scenario. It took what manny could do (passing tokens everywhere) to something with the restriction of Jendon (who is rarely used in my experience). Did she need a nerf? To an extent yes. But R1-2 would have been better.

The rest of the fixes are fine cause it still lets the cards work their magic as before, just slightly more restrictive. Which is a good thing cause it does bring in diversity without completely killing what worked.

28 minutes ago, 4fox100 said:

I agree with most of what you said except for manny. In my opinion (remeber just an opinion) i think it was a tad excessive. More of an 'OMG TOO POWERFUL. KILL IT WITH FIRE!' scenario. It took what manny could do (passing tokens everywhere) to something with the restriction of Jendon (who is rarely used in my experience). Did she need a nerf? To an extent yes. But R1-2 would have been better.

The rest of the fixes are fine cause it still lets the cards work their magic as before, just slightly more restrictive. Which is a good thing cause it does bring in diversity without completely killing what worked.

Maybe on Manny. I could see a Range 1-2 for her, but from what I heard, that didn't do really anything to fix what was going on. Range 1 did what they wanted to fix a lot of her problems. The reality is that the JumpMaster was way under priced to begin with. Adding what Manaroo is to that, is the biggest issue.

Overall, the game is in a better place and that is the good thing. :-)

A bit of a shame FFG never goes for the cost increase in its fixes.

I do very much appreciate the changes, but Manaroo was just the tip of an iceberg, being Jumpasters cost easily falling 3-4 points below the expected value. I'd happily swap generic YTs for Contacted Scouts any day, if only for a blocker on the cheap.

Still, the FAQ did address major NPE pain points, and I find it both satisfying and healthy for the future meta.

Good job!

15 minutes ago, Mef82 said:

I do very much appreciate the changes, but Manaroo was just the tip of an iceberg, being Jumpasters cost easily falling 3-4 points below the expected value. I'd happily swap generic YTs for Contacted Scouts any day, if only for a blocker on the cheap.

I've said it a million times, but I'll say it again: they should've just swapped the costs of Outer Rim Smuggler (to 25), Wild Space Fringer (to 27) and Contracted Scout (to 30) and they could've avoided the Deadeye nerf, and the Manaroo nerf (with an appropriate point increase across the JM5K), and made the ORS and WSF playable at the same time.

30 would be too much für the contracted Scout, it would be overpriced at this Point.

Agreed. Thanks FFG!

I would have preferred Palp becoming range restricted (R1-2) but leave him with the same effect.

Make him have to come into the fight to be able to influence it.

1 hour ago, cclaybern said:

I was just at the Endor Open and let me tell you, seeing two days of players with I would say 75-80% of the field playing one build (ParaAttani), was disturbing and disheartening for a game that has so much more room to grow and allow for creative squadron designing. Listening to the players talk about it and how bad they thought it was, even the players flying it, was eye opening.

I wouldn't say that it was 75% of Friday's flight, but it was still at least 15-20%. And of those, at least three advanced to Sunday. I believe the OldManFenn subvariant also made it, and Paratanni was probably half the builds that made the cut to the top 8.

And it's not like other players weren't prepared for it. People were building squads specifically in an attempt to counter Parattani. It just wasn't working.

I'm excited to see what comes out of this. We'll need to see if the current red dice power creep ends up being the new hotness.

So, Manaroo will never be flown without Attani now?? Why not make it range 2 or 3?? Add some diversity instead of killing the card.

42 minutes ago, Deffly said:

I would have preferred Palp becoming range restricted (R1-2) but leave him with the same effect.

Make him have to come into the fight to be able to influence it.

Nah, FFG made the right choice. That doesnt do anything to fix Palp Ace's problem, which was that Palp was just EASY. Palp was brainless and didn't require any strategic effort on the part of the player. I've played plenty of games against Palp Aces where Palp did come into the fight and i still lost, because the player knew exactly when Palp needed to be used because the situation would present itself before my opponent had to react to anything. Palp's ability was the broken part, not the rangeless part.

54 minutes ago, Deffly said:

I would have preferred Palp becoming range restricted (R1-2) but leave him with the same effect.

Snoke doesn't have a card. . .

6 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

Snoke doesn't have a card. . .

But... snoke is palpatine confirmed!

1 hour ago, FlyingAnchors said:

But... snoke is palpatine confirmed!

1 hour ago, Darth Meanie said:

Snoke doesn't have a card. . .

I bet FFG has some great stuff coming our way and this latest FAQ has cleared up the design space. Maybe a crazy new TLJ Luke crew card & of course the inevitable Yoda ... and Snoke card.

2 hours ago, PhantomFO said:

I wouldn't say that it was 75% of Friday's flight, but it was still at least 15-20%. And of those, at least three advanced to Sunday. I believe the OldManFenn subvariant also made it, and Paratanni was probably half the builds that made the cut to the top 8.

And it's not like other players weren't prepared for it. People were building squads specifically in an attempt to counter Parattani. It just wasn't working.

I'm excited to see what comes out of this. We'll need to see if the current red dice power creep ends up being the new hotness.

I believe I counted 5 Paratannis both days at Endor, so roughly about 14%. But it's the percentage that made the cut that was the more disturbing, and non-hyperbolic number.

I observed the same thing at Vancouver Regional too. 3 out of 63 brought the list. All 3 made the top 4. Not to take anything away from the players rocking it, they're all very good. But it's forgiving of mistakes, tolerant of bad dice, and absolutely lethal in the hands of a good player.

I second, thank you FFG. I realize if the options were between modifying a few cards, OR only allowing recent waves in tournament play (as many card games do,) I much prefer minor modifications as problems are found and exploited in the real world. I agree with the changes and thank you for them.

If anything, I'm surprised they didn't take this opportunity to address one of the last remaining issues, and add "Once per turn," to Biggs card. With a fix to Biggs, we might finally see some upgrades/titles that help the X-wing without worrying about overpowering Biggs.

2 hours ago, Kasuvari said:

I second, thank you FFG. I realize if the options were between modifying a few cards, OR only allowing recent waves in tournament play (as many card games do,) I much prefer minor modifications as problems are found and exploited in the real world. I agree with the changes and thank you for them.

If anything, I'm surprised they didn't take this opportunity to address one of the last remaining issues, and add "Once per turn," to Biggs card. With a fix to Biggs, we might finally see some upgrades/titles that help the X-wing without worrying about overpowering Biggs.

It's coming! I can sense it!

To the OP; completely agree!

I am a recent convert to Defenders and can only applaud the change to the X7 title.

I also applaud FFG. They saw the game was starting to be not so much about flying and more about combinations. It was becoming a card game, not a miniatures game.

They fixed it.

Last night we were using the new rules and Ryad landed on a rock after a 3 move, No evade. I was narrowly able to kill her with two shots of 3 dice, If she had the evade she would have survived. I've already seen the effect, it's a nice thing. It makes people actually have to fly their list again.

Great job indeed!

Agree with all of the things. Plus, it makes listbuilding more fun now. I have more options against x7 than just Ion or Homing Missiles or (shudder) Autoblaster.

Re: Palp at Range 1-2, for me it's not thematic. Palp hangs back and watches the battle. Plus, getting in the thick of it with a Lambda is just going to end in disappointment. New Palp encourages offensive play and takes away the misery of any two-dice ship versus a 3 agility ship with Palp in the background. I also much prefer saying "change one to a crit" and then cackling when four crits are thrown. "Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen!"

The meta is dead! Long live the meta!

...and the beat goes on.

The meta is dead! Love live the meta!

I am still out.

Thank you for the fish ffg. ^-^