Vibroknife: Cuts Through Shields Like They Aren't Even There!

For the low low price of 2 Galactic Credits this knife can be yours. It can slice through a smuggler, and still cut a tomato so thin you can see through it! Vibroknife is one of the biggest splash cards of SOR and I've seen a lot of discussion lately on whether it may be too strong. 

Take into account the dice sides, ambush, and it's ability it is a bargain by any definition. In fact I would still play it if it lost the unblockable ability. I think that there are two main points that define whether this card is too much, or exactly where FFG wants it to be. Relative power level to characters, and ease of activation.

Relative to other upgrades this card is bonkers, but relative to certain heroes the power of the knife starts to make sense. On one hand it has devalued shields greatly, on the other it may be our first big meta balancing card. Looking at Han Solo, a bargain of a character sitting at an average of ~15 health per game without unblockable damage. Examining his dice, his ability, and his cost I come to the conclusion that either Han himself is undercosted, or shields are overvalued by players. I believe Han is fine, but that Vibroknife is answering possible design problems, and that we have mistaken that shields = health. My argument is that Vibroknife is meant to devalue shields to their intended value and that the problem is the ease of activation of the card itself. 

The card is just too easy to activate, while it is in your pool has almost no restrictions whatsoever. I'd like to see it become a little more restrictive to make it more susceptible to control or just general gameplay. My solution would be "When resolving this die, all melee dice resolved in the same action become unblockable." - OR - "When resolving melee dice, you may remove this die to make melee damage dealt during this action unblockable." This makes the card active, it either has to be showing melee damage or you have to actively remove the die, leaving it vulnerable to removal itself.

Let me know what you think down in the comments, or on my Twitter @Jameselhardt