Had a game against someone who tried to tell me that FINN takes a strain and then clears it immediately because he is defending?

I argued about the wording, but we rolled for it and he won the die roll.

Here is the wording on FINN Transport:

While you defend or perform an attack, you may add 1 blank result, or you may gain 1 strain token to add 1 focus result instead.

He basically said, Sure I get the strain, but then it is removed because I'm defending.

This cannot be right. Has FFG clarified this anywhere?

Thanks

Eagletsi

RAW, it's completely correct.

STRAIN

A ship is Strained while it has at least one strain token. While a strained ship defends, it rolls 1 fewer defense die. The strain token is a red token.

• After a strained ship defends, it removes 1 strain token.

• After a strained ship executes a blue maneuver, it removes 1 strain token.

So, yeah, if you gain a strain whilst defending, you lose it after defending.

This is presumably not the intention, and I'd guess that the definition of when strain is removed whilst defending will change to 'after rolling defence dice' as a result. Maybe by wave 6...

Adding a result implies its during the modify step therefore after dice have been rolled, so no it would not clear immediately

Just now, Nyxen said:

Adding a result implies its during the modify step therefore after dice have been rolled, so no it would not clear immediately

Strain is removed after you defend, not after you roll dice.

Wow! FFG needs to clarify better. This new Dev team is really making some mistakes this wave when it comes to clarity and timing on certain cards. They should be happy some of this product has been leaked so we can find this issues and present them, before the full release. They should just add the following to strain rules:

The next time you defend.

Please bear in mind that it's entirely possible that this is Written As Intended. Finn doesn't require you to not be strained to use his ability, so if you already have a strain token, you can gain a second token to add an eyeball result, then after you defend, you would only remove one of your two strain tokens and still be down a die on your next defense.

Possible! By I 100% doubt it.

Wow, this is an ugly RAW situation, but I think it scans.

The question is whether it’s RAI as well. Consider that the RAW creates functionally zero downsides for adding the focus instead of the blank. Like even to @Maui.‘s point, that’s still not a downside if Finn goes from one strain, to two, and back down to one again. There’s literally never going to be a reason not to take the strain and then immediately pitch it.

So... hopefully this gets FAQed one way or the other. Do we know when the next FAQ might be coming?

EDIT: okay, it’s also worth noting that this doesn’t matter or apply in the attack case. On attack, you have a meaningful and impactful choice. On defense, you’re never more than one green token away from good times.

4 minutes ago, CoffeeMinion said:

Wow, this is an ugly RAW situation, but I think it scans.

The question is whether it’s RAI as well. Consider that the RAW creates functionally zero downsides for adding the focus instead of the blank. Like even to @Maui.‘s point, that’s still not a downside if Finn goes from one strain, to two, and back down to one again. There’s literally never going to be a reason not to take the strain and then immediately pitch it.

So... hopefully this gets FAQed one way or the other. Do we know when the next FAQ might be coming?

Well with the New Devs I hope soon, because this is very bad. There is literally no down side to it. Just put on the card this way if you meant it.

While you defend or perform an attack, you may add 1 blank result or 1 focus result. Since they didn't I think they just screwed up again.

14 minutes ago, CoffeeMinion said:

The question is whether it’s RAI as well. Consider that the RAW creates functionally zero downsides for adding the focus instead of the blank. Like even to @Maui.‘s point, that’s still not a downside if Finn goes from one strain, to two, and back down to one again.

There's a downside on offense, naturally, since you'd then lose a die while defending. On defense, there's no downside to taking the eyeball while you are not strained. If you are strained, the downside to taking an eye instead of a blank is that you'd still have a strain token on your next defense, and therefore still be down a green die. If you take the blank instead (say, for a Heroic reroll) then you clear the strain and get two dice on your next defense and your free extra eyeball defense is fully engaged.

So, if you don't have a strain token, it's free eyeball results on defense all day... which frankly isn't that good of an ability, as you still need mods for those eyeball results to be meaningful. Finn is still a four health ship, he only has one crew slot, he's init 3 with an all-red action bar and one of the worst dials in the game, and using his ability on offense exposes him and probably leaves him without mods to use his ability on defense.

Just because it's not the most intuitive ability in the world doesn't mean you should assume that the devs screwed it up. Frankly, if they did screw it up, it really doesn't matter. If they come out and FAQ it, great! If not: we understand how the ability works as written and I sincerely doubt that even gaining free extra eyeballs on defense will make Finn good.

11 minutes ago, eagletsi111 said:

Well with the New Devs I hope soon, because this is very bad. There is literally no down side to it. Just put on the card this way if you meant it.

While you defend or perform an attack, you may add 1 blank result or 1 focus result. Since they didn't I think they just screwed up again.

There's still a downside for it when you're attacking.

1 minute ago, Maui. said:

If you are strained, the downside to taking an eye instead of a blank is that you'd still have a strain token on your next defense, and therefore still be down a green die.

Ohhhh, gotcha. Actually that’s a good point, and it addresses my concern.

Unless he took a focus action. They he is adding a focus result to an attack, which is almost the same think maul does for 13 pts.

33 minutes ago, eagletsi111 said:

Unless he took a focus action. They he is adding a focus result to an attack, which is almost the same think maul does for 13 pts.

But then he's strained, a.k.a. working as intended. The gimmick only gimmicks at Finn's defence.

2 minutes ago, Ryfterek said:

But then he's strained, a.k.a. working as intended. The gimmick only gimmicks at Finn's defence.

But I meant to say on Defense. It's basically Sabine in the Shadowcaster ability. I'm just saying I don't think they intended it that way, it's obvious. But I think they will say they intended it that way, because hey no one every admits mistakes anymore.

14 minutes ago, eagletsi111 said:

But I meant to say on Defense. It's basically Sabine in the Shadowcaster ability. I'm just saying I don't think they intended it that way, it's obvious. But I think they will say they intended it that way, because hey no one every admits mistakes anymore.

Honestly though, the more I look at it, it’s not like the Pod has a lot of potential to become a powerhouse chassis anyway. The Transport can at least pull some jank together with its abilities, slots, and durability; whereas the Pod doesn’t have as many obvious strengths.

I could easily be wrong, but I don’t think this is going to end up being a huge deal anyway.

Maybe but as long as he focuses he gets it. He can carry crew and avoid damage at least 1 every turn. I wonder if the same thing was said about Fenn Rau in the Rebel shuttle in 1.0. He won't be a problem and yet he dominates the meta. I just hate poor written cards, sometimes I can understand, but they moved to big cards to be more descriptive, so how could they not get this as an issue, when they wrote it?

Hmm, it's probably intentional (pod ain't exactly a combat powerhouse, ya know?)

Either way, it does strike me as somewhat of...a big deal