Yup, like in 2/3 of my lists, especially when I run more than one Remote and AD trooper. Which happens often.
That will be pretty funny when your opponent tries to take advantage of FD Lv1 MI fireteams that you just pop open and gut.
I know a local Ariadna player who'll just LOVE having their Marauders be disassembled by a Rasyat after an innocent Repeater bearing drone uses a single order to move twice, right into Repeater range.
Remember, it's not just the new MI and AD rules that will buff our beloved space Oni, but the new classified deck helps a lot too. Being able to accomplish classified using only Medium infantry or Heavy Infantry is awesome. Using Daturazi or Oznats and gakis? there's a classified that awards close combat kills. Oh yeah..and the Raicho is @$%& awesome.
E-drone (with exile) is love, E-drone is life. Its so nice that Morats are going to be playing with their TAG. Its nothing amazing but that also keeps its costs down which is actually good with expensive morats. Honestly, I hope we keep some of these changes. I'm definitely in favor of it because its greatly helps MAF. After all, their biggest weakness is a lack of good specialists.
I've talked to players who put an entire separate plan into their overall tournament strategy in the casec they encounter the dreaded E-Drone.
So, last Monday I played frostbyte with the following list: Morat Aggression Force ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10 1 KORNAK Lieutenant Mk12, Light Flamethrower / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 41) RAKTORAK Vulkan Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 22) RAKTORAK Combi Rifle + Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23) SURYAT HMG + TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, CCW. (2 | 45) SURYAT Heavy Rocket Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (2 | 39) SURYAT MULTI Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 41) MORAT Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22) Q-DRONE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26) MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23) SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) KRAKOT RENEGADE 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 14) 5.5 SWC | 299 Points Open in Infinity Army Choose Kornak as the Data Tracker, but I should have chosen the Vulkan Shotty Raktorak. Played against Hassassin, and endgame score was 6-4 to Hassassin. Could have been 6-0 to me if my flamer raktorak didn't get critted by Leila Shariff on 3rd turn. Advanced deployment 1 makes a solo raktorak a very interesting prospect. Specially the vulkan shotty model. He is decent at cleaning midfield chaff and very few people expect a fire template out of a lonely guy on his own. And in that list, I can break the big HI link into 2 smaller ones if I need more map presence thanks to him. Overall I'd say MAF did get a nice buff this season.
Given that KHDs are now a thing we all must deal with (and in fact is proliferating with OSS and Tunguska), its often worth going "The only way to win is not to play" and building unhackable lists. Which is great until an E-drone and Bit lock down the whole board for your aggressive link team. Exile is one of very few hacking programs which cheats and ignores the traditional targets of hacking, and is by far the most devastating. Especially for Haqq/Ariadna who often have no BTS score to even pretend protecting their cheap links.
The addition of Bit has made the E-drone far more attractive in MAF, I tend to find it more useful in generic where exile can negate the fireteam advantage my opponent has on in Onyx with kermit in a link for more reliable pitchers, but it's a common sight in my MAF lists when I want a hacker that isn't assault or killer. Also self buffing makes it surprisingly deadly in a pinch or on an objective rambo.
