The rule is for customs, not for multiples of the same figure. You can still have 50 DS with one card, provided you aren't using custom BDs.

I'm not sure what Dean's stance will be on changing the custom rule post WotC to be honest, but you are only considering one of the reasons it was put in place. Only one part was to protect WotC's right to sell minis. The other reasons were to protect the secondary market sellers and the players who had made investments in the pieces. Mice might seem innocent enough, but the concern was that this could easily extend into anyone making a custom of say Darth Bane out of a Sith Lord, printing a card off the internet and never buying a thing. It goes well beyond mice.

So if I had to guess, I'd say Dean won't change it. The precedent for V-set figures is already set as well - we will be using something along the lines of the AT-AT Driver figure that WotC released. You won't be able to use just any old mini for V-sets in tournaments. You will either have to use the suggested mini, or a custom of it. But the rule of not being confusing to your opponent will apply as well. (So for example if we made a Darth Bandon and suggested the Sith Apprentice - if you ran a squad of DB and 5 SAs, you will have to carefully denote which is which for your opponent's sake - which is no different than the current rules for multiple NUs anyways). There obviously will be more flexibility in this than normal, but Dean has said he isn't interested in making major changes to anything WotC did in the past, so I suspect he will keep the rule in place going forward.

In other words, I wouldn't go cutting up your mice any time soon. If you do, all you will have is the same number of mice you had before that are tournament legal, just now they will only have 1 on the base :) Just because some people don't want to pay for more mice, isn't reason enough to make an exception to a rule that is there to keep things fair for all players (in terms of customs).

Bill: Thanks for the answer. Reasoning is pretty sound.

Echo: DCI is WotCs ranking system. So technically, yes, Dean did work for WotC, just indirectly. I realize Dean was the one who put that rule into play, but I would imagine most rulings had to go through the higher ups, and if they had noticed a big downswing in sales thanks to a rule like that being excluded, i think they would have quickly remedied the mistake.

Anyway, since we have successfully derailed this thread:

If you dont have many/ any people borrowing from your collection 2-4 ought to do well enough, unless you want to be able to play the Gha/ Lobot combo and bring in 10, in which case 10 is the magic number, lol.

Your probably right, I most likely am giving them more credit for paying attention than they deserve. I also dont think there was that high of a lvl of custom work opposed to buying the product going on. What I mean is if instead of buying tons of boosters, trying to get a Revan, if all those fanboys had just made a custom of their own, and WotC could see a significant drop in sales, then they probably would want something done about it.

How quick it gets done is something else entirely.

Also, as Ive said bout the mice, Ive got 4, and on the occasion that my wife gets to play in the local tournies as well, we just make sure that both of us arent intending to run them. Most of the times it results in "here is my squad, so dont pick any of those pieces. Pick out an idea, and I'll help you build it."

I dont think you need more than 15. 15 would be max thats if your playing kaz.
I say 10 are less is good other than that. If your playing seps you can mix which I feel is the better way to go.

The key is "if you use any customs". If you are using all official pieces, just 1 card will do. If you have customs though, you need 1 for each.

The question then is 'what counts as a custom'? Say for example I do end up cutting the 2nd mouse piece off each of my 4 mouse droid bases, so I can have 8 for friendly play/ scenario/ etc.

If I show up to a tournament with my 4 mice that are actually ON the Mouse Droid base, do I need 4 cards? Since they are on the right base, and obviously still look like mice, I would think Id only need one.

If I wanted to run all 8, I could understand saying I had to have 8 cards (which I dont), so 4 of them would be illegal.

Thoughts/ Offical Decisions?

I have 7 mds and wish I had 20. Its never enough Mds for me

This isn't really any different than any other supply/demand SWM issue. Boba BH, Revan, Cad Bane, Boba Fett and Aurra Sing back in the old days for overpriced VRs and what about when ARC troopers were $8-$10 a piece and they were only that low because they were so many points and only marginally playable (same with Nightsister Witches).

As long as mice stay "good" they will continue to be highly priced. Might almost be better off buying a cheap case of IE and trying to turn the VRs to break even and net yourself 2 mice.

The one thing that seems to be said the most, and is the best point is, how many are you lending out at a time? If you dont have that problem, then you probably dont need anymore

To prevent another heated discussion like that in the link above, I'm stopping here. I've said my piece and let it stay at that. My parting point is that we consumers, through our actions, (largely) control prices.