My wife and I haven't played the game since the force awakens starter box came out and we just now got back into it.

Based off some excellent recommendations in my returning player thread on the general board, I picked up the Tie Silencer.

I am completely baffled as to how Ren's ability works. I understand that I search for a pilot critical card and put it on the first ship that hit me that turn. But what I don't understand is when that card actually takes effect. Is it immediately turned faced up and the ship it was assigned to resolves the effect of the card? Or does it sit there waiting for a critical hit to land on the ship through normal means?

I'm surprised there's no better clarification on the card or the booklet. Wouldn't you just make a high skill pilot suffer the zero pilot ability pilot crit card for the rest of the game?

The condition waits for another uncancelled crit from a subsequent arrack.

The clarification you’re looking for is on page 9 of the FAQ, available for download on the FFG X-wing page.

Edit: As a friendly tip, I don’t recomment any Kylo Ren build for casual games, especially with someone who can make you sleep on the couch. “I’ll Show You the Dark Side” is one of those abusive abilities that ruin friendships outside of competitive play.

Thank you for the clarification. We're still trying to find the balance between tourney lists and just fun lists. We're far more just for fun.

If a ship has the ISYTDS condition, the next time that ship suffers and Uncancelled Crit result instead of dealing that damage normally(Removing a Shield token or drawing a faceup damage card) instead the ship immediately suffers the Faceup damage card that is on the ISYTDS condition card.

Example:

Poe Dameron in his T70 Xwing has the ISYTDS condition assigned to him, the critical result is Damaged Cockpit. Poe Dameron is at full health with 3 shields and 3 hull.

Kylo Ren shoots Poe at range 2. He rolls 2 hits and 1 Critical result.

Poe rolls badly and gets all blanks. Normally, Poe would lose 3 Shields. However, the uncancelled Crit triggers ISYTDS. Poe is immediately dealt the Damaged Cockpit faceup damage card and suffers the effect. Then, he suffers the two remaining Hit results and loses 2 shields.

So after this attack, Poe has 1 Shield and 2 Hull remaining and has the Damaged Cockpit faceup damage card.

Silencer Kylo isn't nearly as NPE as crew Kylo is. He's a points whale, and the IWSYTDS is somewhat self inflicted by damaging him, rather than applied via action. Running Kylo crew should probably be grounds for divorce.

2 clarifications to BadMotivator's otherwise succinct example (nothing he said was wrong, but it glosses over a couple of details imho):
1) The face up damage card selected and dealt is dealt under shields. An uncancelled critical damage that would normally take out a shield is still a critical damage, but removes a shield token rather than dealing a damage card.
2) The critical damage can come from any attack, not just Kylo attacking, but must come from an attack. Darth Vader crew, for example, does not trigger IWSYTDS, and neither does rolling a critical damage when crossing an obstacle.

As a further point, the ISYTDS condition can also jump to another ship before it gets triggered. If it is still in play on one of your opponents ships and a different ship is the first to hit Kylo that round, the condition (and attached crit) will jump to the new ship.