Improvised weapons states 'Perform a [ranged] attack using 1 green and 1 yellow die. You cannot use abilities during this attack.' What exactly is an 'ability'? Just surge abilities? Anything that can affect the dice in any way? Would a Driven by Hatred Vader get to reroll one of the dice? Would a junk droid get it's innate +1 damage?

Any ability

So it's just that, roll the green + yellow dice and discard all surge results (they cannot be used). Nothing else matters (Vader cannot reroll, Vader does not even get the bonus +1dmg...)

All text on cards and hero sheets are referred to as abilities.

I guess this card counts an Attack, right? I mean I can't attack with my regular attack after playing Improvised Weapons

It says "perform an attack", so it's an attack, yes.

(And it is an action, so it counts towards the one-action-containing-attacks-per-activation limit.)

Yeah, "unfortunately" Ability is everything. I was at some point wondering if Maul could use either his +1 Damage OR the ability to become focused with the attack (or Reach/Cleave). That would have been a fun use.

14 hours ago, a1bert said:

It says "perform an attack", so it's an attack, yes.

(And it is an action, so it counts towards the one-action-containing-attacks-per-activation limit.)

Does this card make sense at all? I can't figure out a single reason why I want to play this card.

2 minutes ago, Golan Trevize said:

Does this card make sense at all? I can't figure out a single reason why I want to play that.

A figure with Assault but without a special action containing an attack.
1.Attack action
2. Improvised Weapons -> To the Limit
3.Attack action. Become stunned from To the Limit.

17 minutes ago, a1bert said:

A figure with Assault but without a special action containing an attack.
1.Attack action
2. Improvised Weapons -> To the Limit
3.Attack action. Become stunned from To the Limit.

Fair enough, I didn't think about that. Usually for zero points I would prefer Cruel Strike for this sort of combo. For 1 point Hit and Run.

I was also thinking that it allows a melee to perform a ranged attack although this is about 2dmg on average, that hits 83% of cases at range 2 and 55% at range 3. So it's pretty rubbish because a melee can cover that distance with a Fleet Footed or similar cards which surprisingly were already in the meta when the card was released.

That for saying I'm disappointed how designers make cards (see recent Balancing/Corrupting/Chaotic Force) which are an automatic "no" in any decent list, way before they even release the card.

I think it's fine that they "test the water" a bit. Like we saw Mitigate. The idea was fine, but it just didn't bring enough bang for the buck - then came Officer's Training which does the same, and a little extra. Maybe in the future we could see a similar new version that allowed Brawlers to use abilities with it?

Some command cards have a "second coming" when new figures appear or people find synergies that were not apparent at first. (I'm not saying Improvised Weapons is such a card though.)

14 hours ago, a1bert said:

Some command cards have a "second coming" when new figures appear or people find synergies that were not apparent at first. (I'm not saying Improvised Weapons is such a card though.)

Sit Tight was a card like that for me. An actual contender for worst-card-ever once due to the passing rule, then the combination of Rule by Fear (better chance to draw it first round), Zillo Technique (it has at least some use if not drawn first round), and Driven by Hatred (empowered Vader wants to activate as close to last as possible first round) bumped it up juuuuuuuuust enough that I decided to include it in a list.

Allowed Vader to activate last during the first round in two out of three games during that casual tournament, despite my starting with initiative both times and having a total of five activations in that list! (Never saw it, third game.) Fun times, created a memory, and I've semi-retired the card again. ; )

If you haven't used improvised weapons with a focused solacious crumb, have you even lived?