I've said this 100 times now on this forum, I play with an awesome group of guys and girls in my hometown. That being said, our meta seems to always be changing and evolving (everyone is very competitive here), and lately between work and other comeuppances in my life, it's hard to keep up! I have always enjoyed list crafting, but now it seems I'm starting to hit brick walls or I'm not as sharp as I used to be in my creativity / synergy finding. I'm sure I'm not the only one out there lol. For the past couple weeks I've been running Jonus with 2 onyx's that have hlc, until someone left town (temporarily) with my bomber dial by accident. Now I'm running the tie variant that is Mauler with TC and squad leader, Colonel Vessery HLC, and Delta with HLC. I'm going to try to spend the day thinking of a list that's more consistent and less gimmicky . Anyway, thought it would make me feel better to get that off my chest and reach out to anyone with the same problems, ha!

A fun list I run is krassis trelix hlc 2 12 point ties with darthvader with engine upgrade

A fun list I run is krassis trelix hlc 2 12 point ties with darthvader with engine upgrade

My first tournament list was Krassis HLC, Bounty Hunter HLC, and Dark Curse.

For me, the easiest way to keep my list building fresh is to start with a limitation. I will require that any list I build contain a specific ship, upgrade, etc. I then build variations on that theme.

Often times I'll take ships that people generally think are "bad" and try to see what I can do with it. I learn a lot this way and often find very unexpected synergies that I end up incorporating into my tournament lists.

It's very, very difficult to be creative in a vacuum, but setting limitations for yourself makes it far easier and can help knock your brain out of a rut.

My favorite list has always been my Imperial elites:

Turr Phennir: VI Hull Upgrade

Soontier: PTL Hull Upgrade

Whisper: VI ACD

but looking at nationals has made me realize something, and it's that the points I'm using on Turr are really just fluff I'm wasting. My weakness has always been that I'm running 3 glass cannons, and seeing the lambda in finals made me realize that I can throw in an Omicron with FCS and EU to be a bit of a meat shield with some offense capability to take the heat off Soontir and Whisper who have always been my big offensive guys. With the points left over I am able to throw FCS on Whisper and or TC/Hull upgrade on Soontir while still making an initiative bid.