Is there a card / reaction on the defender's part that can counteract Kestal's cancelling of blanks and focus tokens? Since his ability triggers before the defenders resolves modifying, is there anything out there that can reverse / change it? Since they're cancelled, they can't be modified, right?

Cancelled is removed from the pool. Can't modify a dice that doesn't exist.

And no, can't think of anything that can stop it.

thx for the input!

Carnor Jax at range 1 would prohibit Kestal from spending the focus token to trigger her ability.

Apart from denying Kestal a focus token, or broadly preventing her from spending it, nothing.

7 hours ago, BadMotivator said:

Apart from denying Kestal a focus token, or broadly preventing her from spending it, nothing.

Pretty much this. There are lots of individual specific ways to do it, but essentially, you can prevent the focus token from appearing in the first place with an effect like Carnor Jax... steal or remove it with an effect like Palob Godalhi, Wes Janson... force her to spend it on defense with something like Hot Shot Co Pilot... or prevent the token from being used with (again) Carnor Jax or similar.

Otherwise, there's not much you can do to stop it. Fenn Rau only prevents tokens from being spent to modify dice, and cancelling results isn't a modification. Likewise, Omega Leader with a target lock doesn't prevent the cancellation either.

And if it was on a platform that actually mattered it would be considered one of the more broken abilities in the game.

If she has Expertise so she can focus mod w/o the focus, or access to Fleet/Hux for extra focuses, she can practically guarantee Ion Turret hits. Bout the only time i ever see her miss is if the target had enough agility to dodge the attack and just rolled enough evades naturally.

The few ways to deal with it has been mentioned. Also want to point out that Hotshot Copilot doesnt stop it either since it still counts as spending a focus token during an attack.

1 hour ago, Vineheart01 said:

Hotshot Copilot doesnt stop it either since it still counts as spending a focus token during an attack.

A higher PS HSCP could force the focus to be spent on defense before Kestal can attack. It can stop it that way, but you are correct, not when Kestal is shooting.

On ‎01‎/‎01‎/‎2018 at 6:39 PM, thoracicpork said:

Since his ability triggers before the defenders resolves modifying, is there anything out there that can reverse / change it? Since they're cancelled, they can't be modified, right?

Note that it won't affect any dice which doesn't exist yet at the 'attacker modifies dice' step.

If you roll a blank on your initial roll, Kestal can whomp it (although not before C-3PO triggers off it, if you have him and guessed 'zero').

Finn, Norra Wexley and Sabine Wren, however, add blank and focus results at the 'defender modifies dice' step, which comes after Kestal's ability triggers - she may have removed any blanks and focus you rolled initially but she doesn't stop you adding more back in.

Hot shot co pilot would also absolutely work regardless of your own ship's PS, as it forces her to spend a focus before the end of the modify attacker's dice step. Although if she doubled up, that would still leave her one to shoot down your dice.

15 minutes ago, Jimbawa said:

Hot shot co pilot would also absolutely work regardless of your own ship's PS, as it forces her to spend a focus before the end of the modify attacker's dice step. Although if she doubled up, that would still leave her one to shoot down your dice.

The focus she is forced to spend can be the one that she uses to trigger her ability...

1 minute ago, thespaceinvader said:

The focus she is forced to spend can be the one that she uses to trigger her ability...

Her ability triggers during the modify defender's dice step, and she would be forced to spend it before that

Good catch!

Quote

When a ship with Hotshot Co-pilot equipped defends, the attacker must spend a focus token after the "Declare Target" step and before the end of the "Modify Attack Dice" step. (X-Wing FAQ, Version 4.4.0, Updated 10/25/2017)

3 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

The focus she is forced to spend can be the one that she uses to trigger her ability...

No, because by the end of the modify attack dice step, the defence dice haven't been rolled yet.

19 minutes ago, Jimbawa said:

Although if she doubled up, that would still leave her one to shoot down your dice.

True, but since she has an Elite upgrade, rather than crew, it's hard for her to get two focus tokens unless you have an officer buddy. A Target lock & focus, expertise & focus, or predator & focus are all more common, and all susceptible to this trick.

Just now, Jimbawa said:

Her ability triggers during the modify defender's dice step, and she would be forced to spend it before that

Where do you see that written down?

1 minute ago, thespaceinvader said:

Where do you see that written down?

As above:

When a ship with Hotshot Co-pilot equipped defends, the attacker must spend a focus token after the "Declare Target" step and before the end of the "Modify Attack Dice" step. (X-Wing FAQ, Version 4.4.0, Updated 10/25/2017)

Kestal's ability needs FAQ confirmation of when it triggers - it could work like 4LOM, and trigger during the modify attack step, and resolve at modify defence.

(Also, that HotShot Copilot entry specifying an arbitrary endpoint for when it can happen is really bad FAQing; when attack covers a much wider range of timings than just those, and was probably written before Kestal's ability was considered)

Just now, thespaceinvader said:

Where do you see that written down?

The FAQ for HSCP states if you have it equipped and are defending, the ship must spend a focus token between declaring you as a target and the end of the modify attack dice step. How many defense dice are rolled by the end of the modify attacker's dice step? Or are you just spending it preemptively?

Kestal's ability isn't modifying dice, so by RAW there's no timing defined for it. It coudl be ruled to work preemptively, potentially.

I'd agree that the most logical point would be the same timing as attacker modifies defence dice, but that's not supported by RAW.

And it really should be possible for her to use it to satisfy HotCoP, it's happening whilst she's attacking.

If you want to use it before defense dice are rolled, there's nothing to cancel. Your ability then being fully resolved, it would have no impact on the defense dice rolled after that effect occurred. That is how I would imagine it working if used during the modify attack dice step. I can't see anyone ever ruling that you can spend her token to cancel dice that don't exist yet.

The timing has been clarified in the FAQ

Quote

Lieutenant Kestal's ability can be resolved during the "Modify Defense Dice" step (after the defender rolls defense dice and before the defender modifies them). (X-Wing FAQ, Version 4.4.0, updated 10/25/2017)

You know, prior to the last FAQ, I would have said that HotCop would have always shut down Lt. Kestal as I assumed it would always happen during 5.i. in the combat timing chart, but then they "clarified" Kestal's timing with the following bit of mess:

Quote

Lieutenant Kestal's ability can be resolved during the "Modify Defense Dice" step (after the defender rolls defense dice and before the defender modifies them). [kris40k: This is step 5.i.]

"...can be..."

Not "is", or "must be"

Which leaves the window open that there may be another timing position that Kestal's ability could possibly be resolved in. Also, cancelling dice doesn't count as a modification (see below), so it technically doesn't have to fall in that step (5.i.), its just the logical point for it to occur. So, while I think its stupid that they left that window open, I think @thespaceinvader may have a point here. I'm starting to think that you could preemptively spend a Focus token to cancel any focus or blank dice results from the defender during the attack prior to them being rolled. Normally, that would be foolish, but it could be an out against HotCop.

Quote

5. “Modify Defense Dice” step
• These abilities include adding,changing, and rerolling dice results. Dice can be modified multiple times, but each die can be rerolled only once.

An just as an aside, as I am a big fan of Kestal and fly her a lot, I'm not saying this because I want her to be more effective. What I want is FFG to go back and edit their clarification, changing "can be" to "is" so that there would be a rock solid, defined timing for the pilot. This would cause HotCop to shut down Kestal, but would clear up most questions about how Kestal works.

48 minutes ago, kris40k said:

"...can be..."

Not "is", or "must be"

Which leaves the window open that there may be another timing position that Kestal's ability could possibly be resolved in. Also, cancelling dice doesn't count as a modification (see below), so it technically doesn't have to fall in that step (5.i.), its just the logical point for it to occur. So, while I think its stupid that they left that window open, I think @thespaceinvader may have a point here.

"can be" can also mean, you may or may not use her ability as it is optional, it does not say you can use her ability in some other timing window.

10 minutes ago, joeshmoe554 said:

"can be" can also mean, you may or may not use her ability as it is optional, it does not say you can use her ability in some other timing window.

Ah, but that question is resolved by the wording of the pilot ability itself, which is "...you may spend..." The clarification that is in the FAQ that I am talking about, is only discussing timing , not whether or not the ability may or may not be used. Timing can be definite without causing the ability to be required. "Lieutenant Kestal's ability is resolved during the "Modify Defense Dice" step " does not require the ability to be used, just that it must be resolved in that step if it is used.