Hello out there! We just got a juicy reveal for the Heroes of the Resistance today, full of awesome pilots and tech, but I wanted to focus on something no one has really been talking about much... the poor neglected astromech, M9-G8.

So at first glance, its a major let down. Another expensive astromech that's unique and doesn't solve any shortcomings of the T65 X-Wing. Woopie. But let's look a bit DEEPER.

First things first, let's compare him to a very similar astromech we already have, the widely unused R7.

At first glance, M9-G8 seems even worse now. For a point more, he becomes unique and you can only make them reroll 1 die? What kind of garbage droid is this?! But then we read closer and see that M9 doesn't require you to spend the target lock... and also doesn't have the restrictive "Once per Round" line in there. Then things start to click.

What IS required for M9-G8 to trigger

The ship with M9-G8 must have a target lock on a ship

That ship must be performing an attack

What does M9-G8 ignore?

Range of anything

In arc/Out of arc

Who the attacker is attacking

What phase it is

Whether the attacker is friend or foe

Pilot Skill

Primary or Secondary weapon

Whether this happened already

Seems fairly easy to activate. So let's start with the obvious first use for ol' M9. Tarn Mison:

Tarn with R7 is great. If you haven't tried it out, I suggest you take it for a spin. Basically it all shakes out with Tarn taking a focus, grabbing the target lock when someone starts to attacks him, then spends it immediately to force them to reroll their hits. Makes him really annoying to take down. Downside is that R7 is only once per turn, so if you're attacked a second time, you can acquire another target lock, but you can't do your reroll shenanigans with it. UNTIL NOW.

Tarn with M9-G8 can grab a new target lock every time someone shoots at him AND force ALL OF THEM to reroll 1 die. Imagine that against a tie swarm. all those ties having to reroll 1 of their 2 attack die. Will it keep you alive forever? Not at all. Is it better than R7 just for that repeat-ability? Probably not honestly. I would say its on par though. But then when you take into account that Tarn can still use his target lock when it comes his turn...

Giving Tarn that slight offensive punch would just make him that much more annoying to deal with. Not saying that this is going to be a Tier 1 build or anything, but it is something I want to try out!

Unfortunately the only other spot I really see M9-G8 doing well in is the soon to be released ARC-170, and really only because of the access to a crew slot (read: "Weapons Engineer").

Normally, I would never advise using this card. It's never a good idea to split your offense between different ships (and pay 3 pts to do so). However it IS very good to split up your DEFENSE. So lets say we have Weapons Engineer and M9-G8 rocking out on an ARC. The following things can play out:

You take 2 target locks on 2 different enemy ships. They both now have to reroll 1 attack dice forever until either they die or your ARC dies. Note that this happens no matter who they're attacking.

You take 2 target locks on 2 different friendly ships*. They both now have something equivalent to Predator, but without requiring an open ept slot.

You take 1 target lock on an enemy ship, and 1 target lock on a friendly ship! Because why not? Boost Corran while weakening Soontir. Go crazy.



​*note: the Weapons Engineer card states that you can only have 1 target lock "per enemy ship"... so it is possible that you find yourself in a situation where you have 2 or more friends left but only 1 enemy. Are now restricted to 1 target lock? By the book, yes. But I can imagine that being overwritten in the future as I doubt FFG had this card in mind back in wave 2 when Weapons Engineer came out.

Another big advantage to M9-G8 is that since it does not specify "Once per turn," this card can trigger multiple times (activating with Gunner, Corran, Dengar, Twin Laser Turret, Cluster Missiles, etc.)

So for some quick example lists:

Tarn Mison (T65 X-wing): M9-G8, integrated astromech (26)

Biggs Darklighter (T65 X-wing): R4-D6, integrated astromech (26)

Corran Horn (E-wing): Push the Limit, Advanced Sensors, R2-D2, Hull Upgrade (48)

A take on the popular Wes, Corran, Biggs list. Tarn would target lock onto Corran to give him a free single reroll on both attacks. Since Corran no longer needs Fire Control Systems as much, he can mess around more with the PTL+Adv Sensors combo. If at any time the enemy decides to take some shots at Tarn, he can just swap the Target Lock to the attacker immediately and turn the droid from offense mode to defense mode. So let's say it's Tarn and Corran against Countess Ryad. Tarn takes a lock on Corran, Corran rerolls one of his dice. Ryad attacks Tarn, Tarn switches the lock to her. Ryad now needs to reroll one of her hits. Then Tarn has a target lock to use against Ryad. That single target lock just got used for 3 different things in one turn!

Braylen Stramm (ARC-170): M9-G8, Weapons Engineer, Alliance Overhaul (31)

"Red Ace" (T70 X-wing): R2-D2, Comm Relay, Integrated Astromech (36)

Jake Farrell (A-wing): Push the Limit, VI, Proton Rockets, Title, Autothrusters (33)

Braylen (chosen just because he's the cheapest) can boost Red Ace's normally mediocre offense a bit by target locking him. Then either helping out Jake offensively a bit, or instead target locking whoever Jake is getting close to as a bit of added protection.

So there you have it! That's what I could think up for our humble little droid. It's not crazy good, but I don't think it's as bad as people are saying. Definitely a niche case similar to R7-T1. If you read this far, thanks for sticking around and reading through my first post! I hope to get a few more of these up soon!