I have a couple of questions about this reaction:
- Does Chewbacca need to be in the engagement himself to trigger this? E.g.: If he gets hit by targeted strike while not being in the engagement himself?
- If you use Chewbacca in combination with Wookiee life debt objective does the reaction work as well: your opponent deals damage to another character and you use chewbacca's protect character to deal it on him, can Chewbacca use his reaction?

The protect keyword is not dependent on the protecting character being in the engagement with the protected character, so yes, you can keep Chewie at home and he can protect an attacking unit.

When you use the protect keyword to move damage to Chewbacca, you can use his reaction. This makes him amazing, imho.

(edited for spelling and random capitalization.)

As long as he isnt taking 3 damage or more he can use his ability if he is in the engagement or not (assuming he has protect from his objective of course). Also, the damage doesnt have to come from a unit, so if they play heat of battle you can take the 1 and then deal 2 to something.

It should be noted that the dmg DOES have to go back to a unit participating in the engagement.... Chewy cant protect a storm trooper unit dmg, and bounce it back to the tarken standing in the background.

When you use the protect keyword to move damage to Chewbacca, you can use his reaction. This makes him amazing, imho

this is not always correct however. chewy can't use his reaction on things like force chokes, vader's reaction, executors reaction, etc etc when they are used outside of an engagement.

so damage him in between engagements, and in other phases whenever possible. Just beware of things like let the wookie win, and lightsaber deflection from your opponent to trigger out though

It feels like a Jedi deck with this pod splashed will have some seriously good damage manipulation going. Not looking forward to be facing them decks. Maybe I should build it... although I do hate wookies.

Chewie is pretty sick, especially when your opponent thinks he has killed him and you protect some of the damage with another wookie. Then you get to kill a character with 4 hp. Pretty awesome.

It feels like a Jedi deck with this pod splashed will have some seriously good damage manipulation going. Not looking forward to be facing them decks. Maybe I should build it... although I do hate wookies.

You're such a Trandoshan.

I guess I am xD If this pod gets as popular as one might predict, I'll make sure to play Bossk in all my DS decks. Dog patrol. Too bad that their objective has a natural counter to the other trandoshan units ability.

Dude man. I think I speak for many Wookies when I say: "Raawwrrgg?!"

how is this card even remotely balanced....

It doesn't need to be by itself. It's more important that the pod it's in is remotely balanced against other pods ...

how is this card even remotely balanced....

Same as Vader or Palpatine. Powerful yes, unbalanced no.

This, along with Questionable Contacts and a Protector... insane.

I tend to agree with stormland about its power level. but I feel that way about many of the S&S cards. I think FFG has went well beyond what they should have with S&S. Just looking at a card like chewbacca makes me wonder. 3 cost, 4 combat icon unit, with 3 health and an absolutely devastating ability that gets even more ridiculous with the cards in his set.

chewy is a 4 cost at minimum, possibly 5 cost unit in my opinion, especially when looked at with his set.

I was gonna say "at least he gets owned by Palpatine - not being able to kill him and then getting focused for ever".... but then I remembered Let The Wookie Win, and then Chewie kills Palpatine instead before strikes are even made xD

1 Focus Token + Force Lightning = I feel like fried Wookiee tonight!

"Trust me" it doesn't...

Oh and the pod is nuts as well!

If Chewbacca is truly that scary for you in the games you play then use Bossk and his Trandoshan cousins to do some ole fashion Wookie Huntin'

He's balanced because for him to be really dangerous you have to have his objective in play. that's a 2 card combo to achieve what the Guardians of Peace can do with one card, plus the damage redirect.

He is definitely ahead of the curve, but not so far as to be broken.

This is just new card Aww right now. The same thing was said about Vader + Force choke and the Emperor. Once the dust settles and we have all of the Hoth cycle I am sure Chewie will still be strong but there wont be a fuss about him.

The Falcon on the other hand might be a different story.

The other night, my opponent played Vader on turn 1 and committed him to the Force. Ruh Roh! I played Chewbacca on my first turn and did NOT have Wookie Life Debt on the board. I found out that Chewie is a natural defense against Vader. I decided to attack on turn 1 with Chewie because if my opponent decided to defend with Vader, Chewie's reaction would kill Vader in one turn. He decided instead to let him thru on his own. 2 Blast from him, 2 more from Raise the Stakes, and 1 more from the Anoat Sector for attacking alone and I had destroyed a DS objective. Interestingly enough, I had Questionable Contacts out there as well and used it 4 times to heal Chewbacca, reassigning the damage to the DS' various units. Vader was dead on turn 2 or 3, I think.

Well don't forget that if Chewe loses that he goes around ripping arms off, probably better if he is OP and always wins

3 cost with 4 icons three health and the ability to destroy anything opposing him. Add in the pod, the other wookies and 'let the wookie win'.
Its pretty nuts...
As for the Wookie hunters, thats a terrible way to balance him (if that was their aim), and i'm sure you're saying that tongue in cheek.

Chewie is stupid good, he is at least undercosted by 1 probably 2 for what he does.

The amount of denial that spies throw out there, if not bad for the game is certianly meta deforming 'at this stage', with only one other pack out.

True someone has to be top, but making that the faciton that bounces or snipes out all your wheeners and then just walks unopposed through your heavies or just rips them to pieces is a very negative play experience.

This game didn't really have that until now. Even the emperor with three tactics isn't as bad to play against as this since you can just swarm him with your opening attacks and if he blocks then he dies.

If you want to believe chewie is balanced (pod included) - go for it, however, you're just kidding yourself.