I'm not sure on this one.

Heavy Laser Cannon - Immediatly after rolling your attack dice you must change all of your crits to reg hits.

Mercenary Copilot - When attacking at Range 3 you may change one of your hits to a crit.

Is it possible to use the Mercenary Copilot's ability with the Heavy Laser Cannon?

JMichael said:

The consensus has been that this does work. The Heavy Laser Cannon happens immediately after rolling and then the Merc Copilot can be used during the normal modify dice step.

Personally I don't think it should work.

With the presedent that if an item is affected by both a negative and postive modifier, then the negative trumps the positive.

PLR said:

This is a common misconception and I really don't know where it comes from. It is not stated anywhere in the rulebook or the FAQ document.

On page 20 we have text that says "If one card ability forbids an effect, while another ability allows it, the effect is forbidden." The HLC does not forbid [crit] results, it immediately changes them. MC then allows you to change one back if you're at range 3. dbmeboy has the timing correct.

After reading up, I do think the Mercenary could chance a hit to a crit.

They happen at different steps in the Combat phase (attack roll, and modify dice steps).

The FAQ addressed multiple effects that effect a ships movement and states that the negative modifier trumps, but this does seem specific to movement and lasting effects.

I think it comes from a combination of 3 things:

1. Many games have a "worse beats better" rule
2. People read the FAQ for competing difficulty changes, and extrapolate that to "worse beats better" for all effects
3. People read the "can't beats can" and extrapolate that to "worse beats better"

None apply to X-wing, and wouldn't apply to this case even if they did.

The HLC is a triggered effect which changes the results of the dice. Nothing prohibits further changes, and the fact that the new value is worse than the old is not relevant. The new Advanced Proton Torpedoes use a similar effect which is obviously INTENDED to have another change follow up on that one.

Honestly, even if "worse beats better" did exist, and did apply, I think there would be a solid case that {Hit} results are not strictly worse than {Critical Hit} results. I can think of a few situations - a nearby friendly with Draw Their Fire, a ship with Determination with 1 hull left - where a {Hit} would actually be superior to a {Critical Hit}. If I've got Marksmanship running and want crits, then an {Eyeball} is actually better than a {Hit}. I don't think you can say there is any inherent ordering of dice results.

I agree that the Mercenary Co-Pilot would be able to modify the HLC attack roll to inflict crits. It would be able to do this even if the HLC text didn't include the word immediately as a player can apply multiple effects during the same phase in any order they desire.