Well I had a rather interesting tournament yesterday and since wave 5 is still a new thing then I thought I’d share the results with you guys 
The squad: the Infamous 9
Soontir: push the limit, hull upgrade, targeting computer, interceptor title
Turr: veteran instinct, stealth upgrade
Vader: ruthlessness, cluster missiles
Our weekly Meta was usually composed of fighters and never Falcons, so I expected to find roughly the same. My squad was particularly strong against the Outrider, having no problem getting in that donut, and I figured that the damage output would be enough to cripple a decimator. Unfortunately, my initial assumption that people would bring wave 5 or the usual weekly squad was incorrect.
Match 1
I cringed as I faced my opponent. Not only do I consider him one of the strongest players in our area, but he was flying the build that Paul Heaver used during the world finals:
Han: C3PO, R2-D2, engine upgrade, predator, Falcon title
3 x Talas
I thought I was doomed for sure, but things did not turn out that way. I gave my opponent the initiative and let him place his entire fleet; the 3 Talas in the upper left corner followed by the Falcon facing towards the right. I set up Vader and Soontir in the bottom left area with Turr in the bottom right corner. Having all fighters in the same corner would cripple my mobility and I needed to attack from different angles.
The first turn had the talas move forward followed by Han turning and claiming the middle. Soontir and Vader moved and barrel rolled towards the left edge while Turr sprinted forward, coming within range 1 of Han. Han fired, but Turr had no problems evading and took off one of his shield in return.
The 2nd round is where the fun began. The Talas closed in on Vader and Soontir While Han was stuck moving around asteroids and taking shots at range 3 (which missed). Turr scrambled past Han and moved into a position to support the attack on the Talas.
Vader’s cluster missile and Soontir’s attack did its tricks and in the next 2 combat phases, my fleet obliterated all 3 Talas, with ruthlessness coming into effect 3 times. They then turned towards Han. As the battle continued, Vader and Turr lost all but one health before destroying the Falcon. A critical that lowered the Falcon’s agility played heavily in my favor, disabling C3PO.
I won 100 points vs 0, but I could not truly fool myself: while I had maneuvered well, luck had played a hand in this.
Most valuable pilot that round: Soontir, but the most valuable ability turned out to be ruthlessness
Match 2
Another opponent which I dreaded facing, his squad was along this line:
Wes: veteran instinct, R2D2
Jan: recon specialist, veteran instinct, blaster turret
Keyan: opportunist
Before the game even began, I found myself being annoyed that 2 of my opponent's ships had a pilot skill rating of 10. I had played against him often, however, and could not help but wonder if his choice of upgrades had been influenced by our games.
The round started well, but my opponent deployed from left to right: Keyan, Wes and Jan. I deployed my own squad to intercept Jan, but that was a mistake. She had been deployed there as a decoy and turned away on the first turn to find shelter in the next few rounds.
Once our forces met, Vader’s cluster missiles targeted Keyan with Wes in range of ruthlessness, but scored only a single hit. Turr fell first, followed by Vader, but not before Wes was destroyed. Soontir then managed to take out Keyan, scoring several hits at point blank range, but suffering a hit and a crit in the process, one of which could result in damage if he did a red maneuver.
He then had to spend several round fleeing from Jan as he tried to get some distance, evading blaster turret shots the whole way. Once he did, he turned around and met her face to face at range 1. She missed, his target lock and focus ensured that he did not.
Most valuable pilot this round: Soontir.
Match 3
This is where my predictions failed big time as I faced my first 2 falcon build:
Chewy: veteran instinct, recon specialist, Jan (crew)
Lando: push the limit, falcon title, C3PO, Nien, falcon title
That list simply had too many hit points and tokens for me to get through. Add an unfortunate bump from Soontir and cluster missiles that did not hit, and I was a done. I don’t think I even managed to get through the shields.
Match 4
Chiraneau: determination, rebel captive, Ysanne, intelligence agent
Kath: lone wolf, gunner.
Again, I had gravely miscalculated, the list simply having few arcs to dodge or easy ships to take out. Something interesting did happen, however. Both enemy ships were deployed in the upper right corner facing left, so I set up my fleet with Vader and Soontir in the middle and Turr in the bottom right. Soontir and Vader would engage directly while Turr would get on their six and use his ability to barrel roll out of range. Well both ships turned and went after Turr, purposely denying Kath the benefit of lone wolf during the first 2 rounds.
At first, that maneuver nearly backfired terribly as a concentrated attack took out Kath’s shield and half her health (ruthlessness damaged Chiraneau in the process). The following round, however, Kath did a 4 straight maneuver while Chiraneau stayed behind, activating lone wolf. Concentrated fire on Kath failed to deliver the killing blow while her gunner mixed with lone wolf did a lot of damage. Soontir fell to a bad dice roll and overly aggressive use of tokens (which I should have kept for defense).
Turr fell a few rounds later, crippled by a critical hit. Vader survived much longer than expected, landing a few more hits on Chiraneau and flying around the map for nearly half an hour. The 1 hour match timer reached zero just as Kath finally delivered a killing blow. Vader could not have won anyway; Chiraneau’s Ysanne was too much trouble to get through (and determination allowed him discard a crit). If Soontir had been the one to survive, things could have gone differently.
There were a few instances where ruthlessness could have backfired as well, which forced me to not shoot with Vader.
Overall
Ruthlessness had a far higher impact than imagined, but not combined with cluster missiles (which ended up being a waste of points most of the time). It is a remarkably useful ability against builds that have 3 or more ships, but comes awfully short when facing 2 large ships builds. I suspect that once auto thrusters come out then this card will become more useful during tournaments.
I also learned that I need to be a bit more careful when deploying Soontir against large ships. More specifically, I should find an opening maneuver that keeps him away from a frontal assault, so I have some homework to do on that level.
On a “local meta” side, I spoke with some of the guys and we agreed that from this point on, we would keep experimenting and flying fun squads during our weekly meetings, but when we found squads that had serious potential and that we wanted to test, we would be open to ask for a “challenge” from other players (such as facing a Fat Han to create a proper test).
That’s it! I hope you guys enjoyed the read!