So in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, as you read this article, some new errata for Fast Hands (SR150) and Ammo Belt(SR141) have come out. Fast Hands is now Yellow Character only, and Ammo Belt can only be used on weapons. These updates to the cards comes at a time where ePoe/eMaz is at it’s prime, and while it’s not the fix that some were looking for, it is going to slow down that deck a little bit and make it a little easier to handle.
Clarifications
We also have a few updates and clarifications that will matter a little more. There are now a few more updates, one of which this author was not happy about, but understands why they did it. It’s the change to all the dice that are attached to cards that states when the card is moved, it is now moved from the dice pool back to the card. This basically puts a little damper on the use of One With the Force (AW42) as it was able to be double-activated the turn that one of your characters would pass on into the good ole night and become a beacon of hope for rest of the game. Now when Rey (AW38) dies with it attached, even if it’s been rolled into the dice pool, bamf, die goes back onto OWTF card when it becomes a support, so no more using it twice. (Ed. OWTF can still be used twice if its die is resolved before the attached character is defeated. OWTF becomes a ready Support, so it can be activated and resolved a second time.) I’m a little disappointed in this ruling but understand it from a standpoint of making all the cards in line with one another, so I will get over it.
They have also clarified some of the outstanding questions that some folks have had. One of the biggest questions has always been if a character gets ready by some ability, what happens to their dice already in the pool, and when you activate that character if you have dice in the pool do you get to reroll them? On page 14 of the new 1.4 Rules Reference Guide, it’s in Red that “Any of its dice already in the pool are not rerolled.”.
Shields also got a little reworking as now with cards such as Force Illusion (SR135) and other cards that block damage block damage at the same time as the shields would take it. So now you can choose if you want to have your shields take the damage or discard for the use of Force Illusion for the full effect and then keep the shields (Let’s say you have Riposte (AW121) in your hand and your opponent is dealing 5 damage, you might want to keep those shields to deal 3 to one of their characters to make them pay for trying to smite you down with that 5 damage!).
The clarification on simultaneous abilities has also been updated to be more clear and friendly. Basically, if you have two after abilities, the player who controls the battlefield will get to choose the order in which they resolve. Remember though this ONLY applies if both you and your opponent have after effects, if it’s just one player, they get to choose the order regardless of who controls the battlefield.
My Ally is the Force (SR105) got a HUGE upgrade in this FAQ as now you can turn a die that is showing focus to any of it’s other sides and then resolve that using the ambush action on My Ally is the Force. Makes any Blue die with Focus and damage a HUGE nightmare to play against.
They have also addressed the ongoing Z6 Riot Control Baton (SR8) and FN-2199 (SR2) debate on whether you can reroll AND resolve the die. TL;DR is no, you can either reroll or resolve after you roll it in, not both.
Effects on the Game
Now that we have gotten the intro of this article out of the way, let’s talk about what this means for the game in general. First, let’s discuss Fast Hands and Ammo Belt. The reason for each of these cards getting an errata is because they were deemed too powerful as written. There’s a reason why errata exists: it’s when the developers have been working hard to get us the new stuff that something slips through the cracks that makes the game a bit unplayable or not as friendly.
Fast Hands was able to be put on non-yellow characters, which would include such wonders as Poe, Darth Vader, ANY blue character that could also have Force Speed. Now you can still get the same effect if you really want to as you can just bring Cargo Hold (SR152) and transfer over the Fast Hands from the yellow character to the character of your choosing, I don’t believe many will go that route, but Poe/Maz doesn’t really care about the battlefield you bring just as long as you are claiming to get the most out of the turn, and in the case of Planetary Uprising, dishing out more damage than anyone can handle.
Ammo Belt was a card that when it came out I think everyone did a double take and thought it was just a misprint that it didn’t just say weapon upgrades. It was quite insane: for 1 resource a turn you could equip the ammo belt and make it so that any of your abilities that might get discarded, e.g., Second Chance (AW137), would stick around for a second, or third, fourth, fifth.. yeah you get the drift. You see, I had to play against a deck that was using this combo, and while I was still able to win, it wasn’t very fun to compete against as it felt like it took away from the spirit of the game.
The direction that these errata cards are going does make much more sense, not only from a standpoint of the game as a just a game, but thematically in the Star Wars universe as a whole.
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