https://ia-continuityproject.com/2019/04/29/brace-for-impact-season-1-official-update/

TL;DR: Starting today:
* the Hunter card restriction has been removed.
* Assassinate text changed to: "Use while attacking a figure. If this is the first Command card you play during this attack, apply +3 DAMAGE to the attack results. You cannot play other Command cards during this attack."
* HotR Luke cost from 9 to 7
* Sabine changes reverted (cost back to 7)
* Diala cost from 7 to 8
* Diala "Exile Redeemed" Attachment rolled into deployment card
* Diala's defensive reroll dodge converts to block block evade

You know, this is an out of the blue fix that I'm sure will not be looked at favorably. I've never liked Temporary Alliance for Mercenaries. I'd rather see a fix that shifts Temporary Alliance from merc to Rebel, just like the Imperial one. Yes, this changes the game mightily. But, it's more thematical that Rebs hire mercenaries, than for Mercenaries to bring a couple of rebels along. I think, in this time of sweeping changes, that the Merc Temporary Alliance gets changed, becaue the Mercenary faction doesn't really NEED any rebel support. It still has the ability to bring in C3PO via Jawa. Obviously it isn't going to be in this current set of changes, but for the future. I saw this because I don't think this new Diala should be in Mercenary lists. The Empire can hire mercenaries, but unless the Rebel list include Saska, which is not likely, the Rebels can't hire mercenaries. This seems wrong to me.

2 minutes ago, Rikalonius said:

You know, this is an out of the blue fix that I'm sure will not be looked at favorably. I've never liked Temporary Alliance for Mercenaries. I'd rather see a fix that shifts Tempor  ary Alliance from merc to Rebel, just like the Imperial one. Yes, this changes the game mightily. But, it's more thematical that Rebs hire mercenaries, than for Mercenaries to bring a couple of rebels along. I think, in this time of sweeping changes, that the Merc Temporary Alliance gets changed, becaue the Mercenary faction doesn't really NEED any rebel support. It still has the ability to bring in C3PO via Jawa. Obviously it isn't going to be in this current set of changes, but for the future. I saw this because I don't think this new Diala should be in Mercenary lists. The Empire can hire mercenaries, but unless the Rebel list include Saska, which is not likely, the Rebels can't hire mercenaries. This seems wrong to me. 

We're gotten some mixed feedback on this point. I'm personally in agreement that factions should be separated as much as possible to help diversify the meta, but we've also received plenty of feedback asking for flexibility to play around with these fixed figures in different factions and I see the value of these arguments. It's important that we test this out now to see how temping Diala into Merc affects the meta, so we can decide what to do with this fix at the end of the season. Remember this is just a testing phase for the card. Thank you for your immediate feedback on this change!

We're kind of wary about making changes to temporary alliance just because of how major of an impact it would have on the meta. We'd rather not make super invasive changes right now.

2 minutes ago, brettpkelly said:

We're gotten some mixed feedback on this point. I'm personally in agreement that factions should be separated as much as possible to help diversify the meta, but we've also received plenty of feedback asking for flexibility to play around with these fixed figures in different factions and I see the value of these arguments. It's important that we test this out now to see how temping Diala into Merc affects the meta, so we can decide what to do with this fix at the end of the season. Remember this is just a testing phase for the card. Thank you for your immediate feedback on this change!

We're kind of wary about making changes to temporary alliance just because of how major of an impact it would have on the meta. We'd rather not make super invasive changes right now.

I completely understand, and I know my suggestion is a huge change, and I brought it up with a mind towards the future. It is just a thought I've had for a while that this figure change brought to the surface.

If you're using @Bitterman 's awesome list builder, you can import the IACP v1.2 cards and data directly into your Kensai Tools Suite: https://ia-continuityproject.com/2019/04/29/iacp-patch-for-kensai-tools-suite/

A buff to clawdites might alleviate the fact that most scum lists include some variation of the rebel care package. Why bring a regular clawdite as a support figure when I can just temp alliance Gideon and get a better support figure for the same cost?

Alternatively, creating a new support figure (4lom for example) would also solve this issue, although I get we're trying to stay away from that for the time being.

First off. I'm super happy with the newest versions of both Assassinate and On The Lam. It just makes so much more sense in so many ways it can't be described. Secondly, though, the response from my play group has mostly been: Too many changes too fast. We've played a GNK today with only SC banned, and still saw new interesting lists some good some bad. I nearly 3-0 with my own Jabba+Hondo in empire build. Super fun, lotsa shenanigans. Bottomline, we don't think the meta is stale per se with just the ban to SC. So looking at 10+ changes to deployment cards on top seem a bit much.

Many of us, don't get to play a bunch of games. Personally I 'nearly' only play tournament and GNK games along typically 1-2 playtest games right before an event. So it's hard to get to test the stuff in between.

Just some random tidbits of feedback.

33 minutes ago, aermet69 said:

Secondly, though, the response from my play group has mostly been: Too many changes too fast. We've played a GNK today with only SC banned, and still saw new interesting lists some good some bad. I nearly 3-0 with my own Jabba+Hondo in empire build. Super fun, lotsa shenanigans. Bottomline, we don't think the meta is stale per se with just the ban to SC. So looking at 10+ changes to deployment cards on top seem a bit much.

Many of us, don't get to play a bunch of games. Personally I 'nearly' only play tournament and GNK games along typically 1-2 playtest games right before an event. So it's hard to get to test the stuff in between.

Just some random tidbits of feedback.

That's fair. When we set out to start the project, we didn't want to be making changes 1 week or 3 weeks after releasing the first Season. It's hard to find enough playtesting time, let alone playing other games.

However, we felt like we messed up by releasing our Season 1 changes without getting some community feedback about them first. Likewise, based on initial feedback about our Hunter card restriction, it was pretty clear we missed the mark with it. Instead of having everyone committed to that change and others that wasn't quite spectacular, we wanted to get some better options out there.

Unless something is just completely breaking the game, we're planning no more changes for the rest of the season.

Awesome job guys! Had a couple of games using the imperial changes and it was a blast. Also @Bitterman , your list builder makes things so much easier, nice one!

Seriously though RCP has been a staple in scum for years. Surely that speaks volumes to how toxic Temp Alliance really is...

2 minutes ago, Majushi said:

Seriously though RCP has been a staple in scum for years. Surely that speaks volumes to how toxic Temp Alliance really is...

No it speaks volumes of either: How strong Gideon is, or how much he needs a 'rebel only' on one or both his abilities. There is nothing indicating that other includes in scum is a problem.

Btw, there are two versions of the Assassinate text, i.e. the card doesn't match the article.

Edit: Is Force Throw intended to be mandatory? It's probably missing "you may". (It has a name clash with the class card, but that's quite minor.)

2 hours ago, a1bert said:

Btw, there are two versions of the Assassinate text, i.e. the card doesn't match the article.

Edit: Is Force Throw intended to be mandatory? It's probably missing "you may". (It has a name clash with the class card, but that's quite minor.)

Thanks we'll take care of those

If you're going to make it so scum players can't bring Gideon, you need to offer an alternative or you're just weakening an entire archetype.

Fortunately, a figure already exist that simply needs a little tweaking.

Enter the regular clawdite. All that needs to be done is a slight tweak to the conspire ability.

"Roll your attack pool plus a yellow die. Distribute [wild] power tokens to yourself or any friendly figure in your line of sight equal to the number of surge results plus 1 to a maximum of 3".

Now I'll actually bring one instead of temp alliancing Gideon into my scum lists.

13 minutes ago, Jaric256 said:

If you're going to make it so scum players can't bring Gideon, you need to offer an alternative or you're just weakening an entire archetype.

Fortunately, a figure already exist that simply needs a little tweaking.

Enter the regular clawdite. All that needs to be done is a slight tweak to the conspire ability.

"Roll your attack pool plus a yel  low die. Distribute [wild] power tokens to yourself or any friendly figure in your line of sight equal to the number of surge results plus 1 to a maximum of 3".

Now I'll actually bring one instead of temp alliancing Gideon into my scum lists.

I agree with you in theory, but I'd be worried about making a spy/hunter unit into a very good low cost support. Mak still sees some play solely for his spy trait.

16 hours ago, cnemmick said:

Unless something is just completely breaking the game, we're planning  no more changes for the rest of the season. 

Thanks for putting this out there. I appreciate all the work you guys are putting into this, but it’ll be vital for the continuation of the game that everyone is not always in a testing phase.

Also, I think it’s worth noting that before Spectre Cell was a thing, RCP into Scum was probably without comparison the most debated subject to change players hoped that ffg would errata. And if I remember correctly, many viewed Gideon as the prime offender 😉

39 minutes ago, brettpkelly said:

I agree with you in theory, but I'd be worried about making a spy/hunter unit into a very good low cost support. Mak still sees some play solely for his spy trait.

A reasonable concern. I have to test this, but based on theory crafting, I think this provides a similar level of value that Gideon brings to a Scum list.

I still think a focus is better than 1-3 wild power tokens, but the clawdite has some increased versitility and trait synergy with scum lists that makes up for it.

3 minutes ago, Doowa said:

Also, I think it’s worth noting that before Spectre Cell was a thing, RCP into Scum was probably without comparison the most debated subject to change players hoped that ffg would errata. And if I remember correctly, many viewed Gideon as the prime offender 😉

So correct me if I'm wrong here, but the main complaint doesn't seem to be that Gideon is too strong a figure, it's just that it's not good that the most common deployment in a scum list is a rebel figure.

I don't think I've seen any suggestions that would lower Gideon's utility for rebel lists, just making his abilities only apply to rebels. That leads me to believe the concerns are stylistic in nature which means if you want Gideon out of scum you need a replacement or we're just nerfing scum lists.

Enter my clawdite suggestion.

One added side benefit to having a more useful cheap spy (like the proposed clawdite) is that it would work as a bit of a soft counter to the alpha-strike hunter archetype that's ruled the meta since Jabba. If a significant number of people start running spies (along with cards like Strat Shift and Inelegance Leak) then it makes the super-card-draw hunter lists a little bit less strong in the overall meta.

With that said, I guess whether or not people would have fun playing with/against spy cards more frequently is another thing entirely.

16 minutes ago, ManateeX said:

One added side benefit to having a more useful cheap spy (like the proposed clawdite) is that it would work as a bit of a soft counter to the alpha-strike hunter archetype that's ruled the meta since Jabba. If a significant number of people start running spies (along with cards like Strat Shift and Inelegance Leak) then it makes the super-card-draw hunter lists a little bit less strong in the overall meta.

With that said, I guess whether or not people would have fun playing with/against spy cards more frequently is another thing entirely.

I'd have to go through the list building process, but if I'm subbing a clawdite for Gideon in my typical Hunter list, I really don't have that much wiggle room in my command deck to add more than one or two spy command cards. (Thinking comm distruption and strategic shift).

Which is fine. I like being able to add a slightly different flavor to an already established list archetype. Anything that adds variation to the meta without breaking it is a positive step IMO.

I'll probably make up one of these the next time I have a game just to see how drastic a change it actually is.

1 hour ago, Jaric256 said:

I don't think I've seen any suggestions that would lower Gideon's utility for rebel lists, just making his abilities only       apply   to rebels. That leads me to believe the concerns are s  tylis  tic in nature which means if you want Gideon out of sc  u  m you need a replacement or we're just nerfing scum  li  st  s   .      

Part of my personal reason is definitely that Gideon doesn’t belong in Scum, but main reason is actually also to nerf Scum Hunters, sorry. I believe “everyone” agrees that Scum Hunters where superior before SC. There must be a reason why it won Worlds back-to-back, right? Isn’t that also why IACP wanted/ wants to nerf Hunter CC?

Less Gideon - more Jabba pls 😉

57 minutes ago, Doowa said:

Part of my personal reason is definitely that Gideon doesn’t belong in Scum, but main reason is actually also to nerf Scum Hunters, sorry. I believe “everyone” agrees that Scum Hunters where superior before SC. There must be a reason why it won Worlds back-to-back, right? Isn’t that also why IACP wanted/ wants to nerf Hunter CC?

Less Gideon - more Jabba pls 😉

Is Gideon the problem or is it the command cards? I've used some combination of Jabba and either 3po/Gideon in my Hunter lists and really didn't notice a difference one way or the other.

On the other hand, bad card draw is devastating to the ultimate outcome. I don't think it's the focus that makes a scum Hunter list dangerous, its the ridiculous burst damage potential achievable by stacking those command cards everyone hates (or loves if you're playing a Hunter list).

If the goal is to rebalance hunters (and I don't think that much rebalancing needs to be done) I think the best way is through command card restrictions.

Which still doesn't mean the overabundance of the elements of the RCP in scum isn't something that shouldn't be addressed. I'm of the opinion that scum centric alternatives that fill a similar role is the answer to that particular riddle.

Edit: Also, I'm all about that Jabba life, so I'm 100% on board with him being part of the support figures scum uses.