Escape From Hoth

As I write this, I'm sure someone else is writing up a similar post, but oh well. I'm SO EXCITED for this pack! I don't know exactly what it is, but this pack looks awesome. I think a lot of what I like is that it's pushing the game in new directions that feel very thematic to me, like Executor.

I'm also super excited about Toryn Farr and Bright Hope. They featured prominently in a short story that featured Zuckuss and 4-LOM in "Tales of the Bounty Hunters" and with Zuckuss as my favorite bounty hunter, I was excited to see a part of his story featured in the game. I can't wait till Zuckuss is released! But until then, at least we get to add Dengar! Hooray bounty hunters!

Finally, I love the other Sith cards. The Sith Holocron looks wonderful and I just can't wait to play it just to be able to say I used a Sith Holocron! It's a SW fanboy's dream come true. And Aggression seems super powerful. How would you like to have that face your one remaining Jedi?

This Force Pack will be awesome!!

**** i love this game!!!!

Love Executor

They certainly do seem to be pushing all the right buttons, thematically as well as mechanically…

Rebel Han has my interest.

Admiral Ozzel came out of lightspeed too close to the system.

Rebel Han has sure got to know a few maneuvers to reaplce old Han, that said super excited to see more options to play that character.

I was super happy to see the preview for this pack, it looks incredible. Sith Holocron reminds me of one of my favorite AGOT cards, Seat of Power, which is just an incredible economy boost. Can't wait. I'm also so happy for Rebel Han, though I am sad it'll be like five months before the pack comes out. That's really my big complaint here: I want these cards now!

musket_max said:

Let's call him young Han, since the artwork takes place prior to the films.

I was so excited about all the other cards that I totally missed the part about a new Han Solo when I read the announcement the first time. At first I thought you all were just making something up. I wonder if he'll be included in Toryn Farr's set, or if we will get two Rebel Alliance sets in this Force Pack. So we'd have one Scum & Villainy, one Dark Side Neutral, one Sith, and two Rebel Alliance. Otherwise, maybe Toryn Farr, Bright Hope, and Han Solo all share a set (which would be weird) and we'll get a fifth set that is either Scoundrels & Spies, Jedi, or Light Side Neutral.

Endless Reserves looks interesting.

I want to like Executor. I really do. But it costs 8 resources, meaning barring an incredibly resource-heavy objective draw, you're going to need enhancements to bring it out. Sith Holocron makes it a far more managable 5, but if you pop the Holocron to bring out Executor, you're not comboing it with its Reaction.

But I will make Executor work. If I have to run Kuat Reinforcements in my Sith Deck, I will make it work.

D.Knight Sevus said:

Are you sure? Wasn't there a ruling a while back about an objective leaving play, the next one in had a reaction to an objective leaving play and FFG ruled you could still use that reaction? I guess it comes down to the timing.

Holliday88 said:

Pretty sure. Page 4 of the FAQ clarifies when a Reaction ability may be used. When you sacrifice Sith Holocron to play its Action ability, Executor is not yet in play. You then have to take an Action to play Executor from your hand, which means the triggering opportunity for Executor's Reaction has passed. If, however, you played the card as part of the resolution of Sith Holocron's ability, then you could use Executor's Reaction.

D.Knight Sevus said:

Right, isn't that what you said in the first place? You use Sith Holocron, play Exectuor and then use the Executor reaction to Sith Holocron being sacrificed. Does this really work? Seems like it shouldn't.

Am I the only one who thinks that the Executor is overpowered? Except for the X-Wing, it is the only vehicle unit that costs less than its damage capacity and its reaction ability makes the card incredibly useful no matter how many focus tokens are placed on it. Thoughts?

Sidenote: In my opinion, thematically I would have imagined that the (Sith) Executor would have 3 Tactics Icons and 3 Edge-enabled Blast Icons with an ability like: Gains 1 Unit Damage Icon for each Capital ship in play.

You cannot use the Executor's reaction to the Sith Holocron being sacrificed to play it. This is a different situation than the Journey to Dagobah/Decoy question that came up earlier where Journey had an interrupt ability that could place Decoy into play before Journey left play. In the Holocron/Executor combo, the Holocron has already left play before the Executor enters play.

If you look at Effect Resolution on page 5 of the FAQ, it seems like Executor couldn't be in play until the Holocron was already sacrificed, and since reactions happen immediately after the triggering condition, I'd say you can't trigger Executor's ability off a Holocron used to bring it into play.

Two things:

1) I think it would work. I think it would be similiar to the Dagobah/Decoy objective combo. The Dagobah site is gone yet the Decoy at Dantooine works in reducing the dial.

2) I truely hope that this Rebel Han has more health to withstand Force Choke Vader.

dbmeboy said:

Yes, perfect. I hoped it wasn't the same, but I couldn't remember why. Thanks!

Blade_Runner said:

I think giving it 3 tactics icons instead of unit damage icons would have made it too powerful. As it stands, the unit damage is only useful in an engagement where Executor could also take damage. With tactics icons, it becomes useful to commit it when all the enemy units are already focused, so Executor is never in danger of being damaged itself.

Holliday88 said:

I wasn't clear enough, sorry.

If Sith Holocron said "Action: Sacrifice this card to play a Sith card from your hand with its cost reduced by 3." then you could play Executor's Reaction. In this case, Executor would be in play after the ability of Sith Holocron finished resolving, which is the legal activation window for "After a card is sacrificed" Reactions.

However, the wording of Sith Holocron works differently. You sacrifice Sith Holocron to activate Action, and when it resolves, the next Sith card you play has its cost reduced by up to 3. That's it, the ability has resolved. If you have any Reactions to Sith Holocron being sacrificed, you must use them now. Once you use an Action to pay the cost of 5 to put Executor into play, the window for activating Executor's Reaction has ended.

In the case of the Decoy/Dagobah combo, that works because A Journey to Dagobah has an Interrupt when it is destroyed, which actively interrupts the event that caused it to be destroyed, be it an actual Event like Superlaser Blast or a Framework Event because it has damage equal to or greater than its Damage Capacity. So the Interrupt is resolved fully, then the event that triggered the Interrupt finishes resolving. Since the last event to resolve was whatever caused A Journey to Dagobah to be destroyed, you have the opportunity to use the Reaction of Decoy at Dantooine.

While it is true that you cannot use the Executor's Reaction if you use a Sith Holocron to make the Executor itself cheaper, there's nothing to stop you from using the Executor's Reaction later in the game when you've sacrificed another Sith Holocron to, say, make Emperor Palpatine cheaper to play. The two cards still combo together remarkably well. And Executor combos well with The Killing Cold, Aggression and the Icetromper. It also works very well with the Probe Droids from Desolation of Hoth that give the DS player a benefit when they leave play. Sacrificing a Probe Droid to heal The Killing cold while the Executor is out will net you one damage removed from a DS Hoth objective, one damage on a LS objective and one damage to a LS unit or objective. Sith Sac deck ahoy!

Darik said:

The best part is I've already built a Sith sac deck… but this will give it some extra punch :-)

Darik said:

That wasn't my point. My point is that the best method to play the Executor right now is to consume one of the cards that synergizes with its Reaction, since it's just too expensive to be able to expect to hard-cast. You need at least two non-objective resource producers to get to 8 resources, barring use of Heart of the Empire or a double vanilla objective opening. I'm not certain that even with as awesome as Executor seems that it'll be worth playing.

Budgernaut said:

Huh, I hadn't thought of that, I was just so excited for Rebel Han. It does seem unlikely Han, Toryn and Bright Hope are all in the same pod; it's feels like too many unique units for a pod, and I'm not sure how you fit Han into that pod when Toryn and Bright Hope fit together perfectly thematically. But on the other hand, two Rebel pods (or really two pods for any faction) in a single Force Pack would also surprise me. That really stiffs the other affiliations.

In fact, given that we already know from the preview, it could very well be that those two Rebel pods might be all the Light Side gets. We know the Neutral DS pod isn't Limit One, and so far we haven't seen any non-Neutral Limit Ones. If the Sith, Scum, and Rebel pods aren't Limit Ones, than that would cover the whole 60 cards of the pack.