On June 25th, FFG graced us with the points that will be going active on July 12th, which means with the exception of any upcoming tournaments, everyone will likely be building and flying lists with the new points immediately, as both LaunchBay Next and YASB 2 have been updated (great job by the great folks that produce those community tools). This should help us all shake off the Points Change Paralysis that we discussed in our last blog.

As with the January 2019 points change, the various writers of this blog got together to discuss what we each think are the best, the worst, and the most surprising changes to come out of this adjustment.

What change do you like the best?

Emily Rastl: A lot of good things happened, but since the Republic is new and exciting, I’d like to highlight the reduction of Calibrated Laser Targeting and the Dedicated talent. Both are particularly unique and enhance the identity of the faction, but both were quickly dismissed upon release because they were obviously not worth their respective costs in comparison to other options. I’m looking forward to finding out whether Dedicated can make the I3 Torrent relevant (even though the answer is probably not).

Matt Cary: Aside from the nerfs to meta lists like Rebel Beef and Quad Phantoms, I like that the TIE Advanced v1 has dropped in price. Most notably the Grand Inquisitor saw a 4 point drop to 52 points. I imagine we will see a lot of this chassis in the future. Now, if we can get Valen Rudor back in the pilot seat of this ship again and maybe a Fifth Brother on top of that, I would be even more pleased.

Dan Peterson: On first impression, I’m really happy with the treatment of the Rebel Beef archetype. I feel like FFG didn’t nerf one particular aspect of the list too hard, while still making the best version unplayable. I’ve heard complaining from people who hated the list, saying that it wasn’t hit hard enough, and complaining from people who loved the list, claiming it was hit too hard. All of which leads me to think that maybe it was hit just hard enough to make the general archetype still usable, but leave lots of tough choices to be made now.

What change (or lack of change) are you most disappointed by?

E.R.: I’m struggling with this one because I haven’t found any change up or down that I categorically disagree with. I think Scum and some of the non-Beef Rebels could have used some more love, but I also will readily admit that I’d rather see restraint than overcompensation.

M.C.: There was plenty of disappointment that I saw in this update, but I’m going to put my foot down and say that there were several unnecessary point increases in this update: Maul crew, Saw crew, Whisper, Echo, Guri, Inertial Dampeners, Juke, Trick Shot, Debris Gambit, and Captain Cardinal. Juke is now useless on any ship that doesn’t get a free evade token. Trick Shot going up has made Scum Han less efficient and has invalidated Blackout’s point drop; in any other case aside from Qi-ra shenanigans, that talent was just decent and now is overpriced. Inertial Dampeners was fixed by taking the illicit slot from Han, but with the upcharge it has now become a non-option for every ship with an illicit slot as well. Debris Gambit, Maul crew, Saw crew, and Captain Cardinal saw almost zero competitive play, so their price going up makes little sense. Whisper, Echo, and Guri could have all probably stayed at their old price point as Guri hasn’t been winning any big tournaments and the named Phantoms are already getting a rate hike in Juke.

D.P.: I’m kind of disappointed with the way Quad Phantoms were handled. As with the January points change, it seems that FFG is more focused on Juke being the issue than the TIE Phantom chassis itself. And I disagree. Juke being spammed on a 3 attack dice ship that gets free evades is super good. Juke on almost anything else was perfectly fine where it was. Now it’s virtually unplayable on anything that isn’t TIE Phantoms, TIE Defenders, or the Naboo Starfighter. It was probably too expensive at 5 points for anything that didn’t get a free evade, and now it’s a terrible call. The changes killed Juking Quad Phantoms, sure. But it also probably killed Juke itself, while leaving Quad Phantoms with Crack Shot or Predator as a perfectly good option.

What were you most surprised by?

E.R.: I noticed the reductions to the Republic ARC-170 as an unexpected change. Named ARCs haven’t been doing too much, granted, but the Republic feels like it got the help it needed in other places. While the iffiness of Odd Ball’s pilot ability on the chassis does easily excuse his 3 point drop, I wouldn’t have expected a reduction to any other ARCs on top of that, when so many things around it already have more breathing space.

M.C.: Most surprising for me is the drop in price for most force wielding pilots. The TIE v1 pilots make sense and many of the Jedi make sense as the Delta 7B configuration will offset most of those, but Obi-Wan and Plo got way cheaper even in a tricked out ride. Obi-Wan was a solid ace already, and now he is 6 points cheaper naked or 4 points cheaper comparing the 7B variant. Not that this is a good list, but you can run Anakin, Obi, Plo, and Mace all in the same list with points to spare. I have a worry that once someone finds the right combo it could get oppressive.

D.P.: This is probably a personal bias, but I was surprised to see no changes to the M3-A, or the generic StarVipers. Aside from a few edge cases, those two platforms are seeing virtually zero competitive play, but have some very cool and fun mechanics built into them. I would love to see them more competitively priced, and was pretty shocked that they didn’t drop at all.

Unlike the last update, there isn’t as strong of a happy feeling about what was changed, but we are glad that the tallest blades of grass got cut down to size with the rest of the yard. Again, we are super stoked that the game has a balancing mechanic and that it is largely being used for good. The game has changed; the meta will be reforged anew; and it is, once again, a brave new world for the X-Wing community to explore.

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