Seemingly very nice card at a low cost. In general, see it being more helpful in fetching back drones over pilots.

I had thought this could be Shadowsun's "version" of Orbital City, but it is not. Continuous use of this card prohibits you from working through your deck. Multiple bays in play and in use can paralyze your play if you are not winning command struggles at planets that award cards. I keep 1x or 2x in Shadowsun decks as it can be a helpful although not decisive tool.

Would have been nicer if Repair Bay placed the card back in your hand rather than on the top of your deck.

Of the cards available to Tau that this support can affect (so far):

- 4 Tau drone cards: Command-Link Drone, Gun Drones, Heavy Marker Drones, Recon Drone

- 4 Tau pilots: Crisis Battle Guard, Sa'cea XV88 Broadside, Shadowsun Stealth Cadre, Vasha Trailblazer

I'd give it a 3/5 for Shadowsun, but a 2/5 overall for its effectiveness with Tau in general. Don't really see the Eldar or AM using this card as most of the good drone and pilot cards are loyal to Tau.

Excellent card for it's cost; although I feel this card will be somewhat dead in hand without first dominating command, ensuring you are getting those card draws without slowing down your deck. I'd also have trouble squeezing this into my gunline! That said, there is alot you can play around with already (adding HMD back to hand for a 2-shield!)

Currently rate this a 3.5/5, but I have a STRONG feeling this card will be VERY useful with the new Shas'O Warlord coming out in the Planetfall cycle. Definitely one to keep an eye on!

This card is either 1/5 or 2/5, depending on how highly you rate deploy delays. Make no mistake, thats the only thing saving it from mediocrity.

As soon as you play this card, you're -1C/-1R down. When do you get that back? Answer: never.

This article covers a similar card in MTG (Reclaim) and explains why that is a bad card in that game.

http://magic.wizards...umps-2015-08-12

Slightly different situation in Conquest, of course, as card advantage is slightly less the "be all and end all" because we're at least at 2C per turn, compared to Magics 1C per turn.

Also, this card provides 2 deploy turns on the turn you play it, assuming you've got a target in the discard (so generally not on turn 1), and a deploy turn on each following turn, assuming you can keep stacking stuff in the discard. Even then, you're delaying drawing other cards in your deck.

Don't be blinded by the eye of imagination ("but I could get a three-shield back every turn!") - this is a serious trap.

That article doesn't really show why Reclaim is a bad card - it's for Limited, not constructed. A format where traditionally a) card advantage is even more important than normal, and you're unlikely to reliably have a target to recur.

In a constructed format, the real question is whether the card makes up for the resource disadvantage with card quality - and at the moment, the answer is probably no for Repair Bay. Not that there's a lack of good targets - it covers a lot of good Tau/Shadowsun cards. But Tau already have effective ways to find/recur those cards anyway. But it could very much become a strong card in the future - e.g. if we get any kind of combo worthy drone/pilot cards, or even just once we get other Tau Warlord options.

You're right, and I'm more pointing at the general principles than the specific environment.

I guess the threshold here is if we can see a Tau card that meets the criteria and has a potent "sacrifice this card to" effect. As I inferred, the best use right now is to get 3 shields back each turn, or two with HMD. 

I agree though that we're not in a place at the moment where this card is worthwhile.

Aye. I'm still hoping this will be more useful with the new Shas'O. At the very least, this would give you the option to get his signature army units back...

I'm with Asklepios. Unless there will be some kind of combo with another card it's really underwhelming a not worthy.

This card is either 1/5 or 2/5, depending on how highly you rate deploy delays. Make no mistake, thats the only thing saving it from mediocrity.
 
As soon as you play this card, you're -1C/-1R down. When do you get that back? Answer: never.
 
This article covers a similar card in MTG (Reclaim) and explains why that is a bad card in that game.
 
http://magic.wizards...umps-2015-08-12
 
Slightly different situation in Conquest, of course, as card advantage is slightly less the "be all and end all" because we're at least at 2C per turn, compared to Magics 1C per turn.
 
Also, this card provides 2 deploy turns on the turn you play it, assuming you've got a target in the discard (so generally not on turn 1), and a deploy turn on each following turn, assuming you can keep stacking stuff in the discard. Even then, you're delaying drawing other cards in your deck.
 
Don't be blinded by the eye of imagination ("but I could get a three-shield back every turn!") - this is a serious trap.

Well, this is awesome!

A card that everyone agrees is fantastic, like Orbital City, thats okay design

A card that everyone agrees is terrible, like Dark Possession, thats terrible design.

But a card that divides the pack right down the middle: thats as good as card design can get!

Thats true, I thought that was a terrible card, then a wonderful one. Let's see what happens, eh?

Perma 2 shields/3 with shadowsun! or a recycled gun drone is pretty good imo

This card has been useful. I really like the flexibility it offers during play. Adds a little more depth when playing ECT: Pick a drone out of your deck, play that drone and if you lose it, just Repair Bay it back into your deck. 

As mentioned by someone else, it is best for Gun Drones, but I have used it on pilots and even a Recon Drone when I needed a 0-cost card with 2 command icons.

And never forget Command Drone. Recursive 3-shielder is awesome. ^^

Any more reports from the field on this card? I think we've covered the theorycrafting, but I'd love to hear how people have found it in actual play.

Any more reports from the field on this card? I think we've covered the theorycrafting, but I'd love to hear how people have found it in actual play.

Ran it for an OP at my FLGS last week (squeezed it in by going -1 Ambush Platform, -1 For the Tau'va) in a Shadowsun with SM allies.

Found it severely lacking. Whilst my Shadowsun build is GREAT at dominating command (and thus, depending on Planet spread, drawing cards) I still found that not being able to dig through my deck by that one extra card just held me back. My Shadowsun runs 10 attachments and a few events (including Indomitable) so I never really felt like I need to recur some shields!

My matchups were:

Urien - win - never saw the Repair Bay - BAV's with Ion rifles are scary!

Zarathur - win - had repair bay from turn 2 but used it only once to recur gun drones - Shi Or'es won me this game almost hands down

Starbane - loss - Archon's Terror'ed three times in one combat. Ouch! Repair Bay used for only 2-3 turns and didn't change much, did give me an extra shield when needed but the deck felt slower

Baharoth - loss - Archon's Terror'ed twice, and had a doom wipe out a huge force. Whoops! Only saw Repair Bay in the very final command phase

Maybe build decks that leverage the card instead of just trying to fit it in existing decks. Crazy, i know!

It flips drones and pilots - that's basically all I ran bar 3 units and some attachments (which are needed to make Shadowsun work anyway...). So I would say this is possibly the *only* way it would work in a competitive Tau deck. It would be worse than jank to incorporate this into Aun'shi.

The only way to squeeze more of out of this card would be to build an entire deck singularily around this card; which would be a colossal mistake:

1) This card is not good enough to warrant such a move

2) Building a deck around this card to have MORE targets would involve you putting in Broadsides and Crisis suits, which would mitigate the entire purpose of a competitive Shadowsun build and force you to remove command cappers and fuel for the ol' attachment engine.

3) It's inherent stall in drawpower would stop you from digging out the targets you *actually* need in your deck (those pivotal events, that "if only I had..." card that everyone goes on about)

4) Just look at the frakking thing.

5) It would still be 3 cards out of 50 (and who in their right mind would run 3 MORE supports in a Tau deck when you desperately need shields?!)

Did you ever consider before posting that the deck I ran could actually have been a perfect fit for it anyway? I may not be the greatest player in the World, but I do know a little about playing Tau. Crazy, I know!

I've been using it since TGD came out (I actually didn't get to play OOE for a whole fortnight after it's release because literally every other player was playing 'Nids. I figured it would be a good excuse to play AGAINST them), and barring a few games with Straken using Allegra, I've been playing Aun'shi and Shadowsun since then. Only in the last 3 weeks have I been using Repair Bay (I did even attempt it in an off-the-wall Aun'shi) to limited success. I was secretly hopeful that the new Warlord would revolve around Crisis suits and pilots, and that this card was some epic foresight for him. I was sadly mistaken!

I posted the above because Asklepios asked for reports from the field; it's no good me telling you how well it performed in friendlies against my beer-drinking buddies playing Old Zogwart - he wanted some hard and fast examples of how it works in the field. The amount of Archons Terrors I had can confirm it was a trial by fire...!

My playstyle for Shadowsun will always remain the same; unpredictable Warlord movements, dominating command, and punishing combat moves (be that with 6-3 BAVs or a ranged gunline) and sadly I have yet to see a conclusive use for it. It's been good, don't get me wrong, but it hasn't been a game changer as so many cards in our current pool are. 

Of course, I'm sure there will be more cards coming out in Planetfall that will make me reevaluate this; but until I get my hands on them and wear out a few card sleeves, I shall bide my time and praise the Ethereals.

Peace!

Ol

Any reports are good, regardless of how many games or who they were against. I've got absolute respect for the judgements of 95% of the posters on this site... including you two, Cimadon and Rhonoviru3!

Cheers for the data! Anyone else?