Let me start out by saying this is one of the characters I’m most excited to play with. When I saw the card, I let out some kind of squee that I didn’t even think I could make. I really cannot wait to play this guy! So much combination potential not to mention, value per die compared to other character combinations.
But before I get into dissecting the card and talking about some possible combinations, you may be wondering, who is FN-2199?
Called “Nines” by his friends, he trained along side Finn and served with him in the same squad in the First Order. In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, we meet up with Nines at Maz’s Castle as he confronts Finn, calling him a traitor before an epic showdown. This Z6 spinning-baton-wielding trooper has entered the hearts of many as a popular meme and has earned the nick name TR-8R. He didn’t get a whole lot of screen time, but knowing what we do about him makes sense why he’d have it out personally for Finn.
Artwork
Another character plucked from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, FN-2199’s (SR2) artwork is likely the battle scene at Maz’s Castle, but to me looks like he’s a rockstar on stage, with pyrotechnics going off in the background while he finishes his guitar solo. Either way, I love it. As with all artwork in this set, it’s amazing and well crafted, even if this one made me giggle a little bit.
Die Faces and Ability
The die itself is quite varied, having 4 different symbols and a blank. 1 Ranged, 2 Melee sides, one with a cost, a shield side and a resource side. Overall, a well-rounded character if you’re not wanting to have a high percentage of hitting that one symbol needed.
Where I think FN-2199 (SR2) shines is in his ability. “After you play a weapon on this character, roll that weapon die, if able. You may immediately resolve it.” Hands down one of the best action economy abilities next to Rey (AW38) and the obvious, Jango Fett (AW21).
What does this ability allow you to do? Firstly, you get to resolve a weapon die without having to activate your character. Which going against Jango (AW21) which is very popular in the current meta can prove to be life saving if you can defeat him without having to activate your character.
This also means that each and every weapon you place and keep on FN-2199 you’ll be able to resolve twice. Once from placing it, and once again after you activate your character and roll your dice into your pool.
As for his health and point value, he is a great, and I mean GREAT card for value. 11 health and only 13 points for an elite character. This is bar none, one of the best value per die characters in the game.
Possible Combinations
As with any preview card from the new set, brewing starts almost immediately. For me, I saw the potential to resolve many weapon dice in a single turn without having to activate FN-2199 (SR2) immediately.
If you manage to have a few ambush weapons in your hand, Holdout Blaster (AW63) or the newly spoiled Vibroknife (SR75), you can stack weapons and resolve the dice by replacing it with another weapon without any cost.
With FN-2199 you could equip a Holdout Blaster for 2 cost, roll in that die and resolve it. With a second Holdout Blaster or Vibroknife in hand, you can then play that card directly on top of the other ambush weapon, replacing it and sending it to your discard pile. This will then allow you to resolve the newly equipped weapon at no cost and get in some dice resolutions before your opponent can react.
If you have the resources, you may want to just pay to equip the weapons initially to build up to a play/discard/recycle combination similar to what Rey can do with stacking upgrades on top of each other and gaining actions.
You can gain even more action economy by playing Tactical Mastery (AW74) to spot a red character to gain two actions after your last ambush weapon is played. You can then roll in FN-2199 and resolve his dice a second time. Tactical Mastery can also prove useful as a last card in hand play with Boundless Ambition (AW80).
You would play Tactical Mastery to gain two actions after playing an ambush weapon, then play Boundless Ambition as one of your actions to replenish your hand. From there, the hope would be to have drawn more ambush weapons to continue stacking.
Of course this is at the expense of having to discard your weapons if you don’t have the resources to just pay for them outright, but pairing it with Starship Graveyard (AW174) allows you to retrieve those card from the discard pile.
As you can see, these are but a few possible combinations you can make with FN-2199, but there’s no denying that he will be a powerful opponent.
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Situation (FN not activated): I equip something (with ambush). I roll it. It cannot be resolved. I cast a card that says remove one of my dice to remove one of theirs. I remove that die from my pool. Can that die be rolled again when FN activates?
Thanks.
Bill, absolutely it can. When activating a character, you roll all associated dice that are not currently in the pool, including any weapons that were rolled and resolved by FN’s ability, or rolled by FN’s ability and removed by any other card ability. This, of course, excludes any dice that are being held by Carbon Freezing Chamber or by an opponent’s Prized Possession.