So i'm a bit surprised this hasn't happened already, but Han with Engine (and C3P0 and title and....) is a pretty awesome counter to both Dash and Decimators. Is it just because Dash is the new hotness in town?

FYI, it's not exactly hard to get into range1 of Dash with engine and even if you don't chances are you're going to do well with 2 guaranteed evades + Han's rerolls against Dash's defense.

Point wise yes Han is usually a few points more expensive, but you could still run him with r2d2 Corran or anything similar that the Outrider can bring (and if you really want to you could drop his EPT which brings him to <60pts, very comparable to Dash).

It's not like Han has become any worse (people are still playing Phantoms, so he's got that matchup covered aswell), so why isn't he being talked about more as the meta shifts towards anti-Dash builds?

Because people want to play with their new toys.

Han is every bit as effective as Dash IMO, but Dash/YT-2400 is the new hotness, because people have spent $20+ on that pack so they want to play with it.

The YT-2400 seems to be making Phantoms pretty popular again. Wave 5 seems to have taken people away from Fat Han a bit and as soon as that happened Phantoms started popping up everywhere. The only two sizable wave 5 tournaments I heard of (TCO and a large tourny in Sydney) were indeed won by Phantom lists.

I don't think Dash will be replacing fat han/chewie any time soon. We are not that far out from worlds and there were many effective fat lists.

How long until Han becomes popular again?

I wasn't aware Han had stopped being popular.... >_<

Judging by all the people still using Han builds I'd say he's doing just fine.

I have seen more Falcons on the table than YT-2400's. Wait...make that more lists with the Falcon than lists with the YT-2400. Someone local likes flying double geneirc YT-2400 w/ HLC's.

he never left

(hell, he's so fat I don't think we could move him if we wanted)

I've seen Falcons, but I haven't seen Han in a tourney since wave 5 hit.

I think Han is this the list to beat, even with Wave 5 out. Sure, you might see him drop off for a little bit so that people can fly their new toys, but Han didn't get any worse with Wave 5. He is still good and will still be a hot list this Store Championship season!

People are just trying new toys, as soon as they realize that the common Fat Han builds are pretty good against what people are playing nowadays, they will go back to their favorite fatty.

I agree with the idea that we'll see a lot of him during the Store Championships. Right now, if I had to put money on it, I'd say that at least half of the top 8 at the majority of them will feature some variety of two ship lists. Either Han/Chewie with Corran/Jan or Chiraneau/Kenkirk with Whisper/Echo. Unless something changes drastically before wave six hits, it seems like 2 ship builds all the way.

There's also the fact you can get a hold of outriders and decimators meaning more people can now fly turret ships.

People that liked Han because he could boost all over the table willy-nilly dodging arcs and blasting ships with his turret are probably gravitating to Dash. The people playing Han because he was tanky as hell and hard to kill in 70 minutes are still playing Han.

The YT-2400 seems to be making Phantoms pretty popular again. Wave 5 seems to have taken people away from Fat Han a bit and as soon as that happened Phantoms started popping up everywhere. The only two sizable wave 5 tournaments I heard of (TCO and a large tourny in Sydney) were indeed won by Phantom lists.

Phantoms being great wingmen for Decimators probably has as much to do with any increase in Phantom usage as Dash's donut does.

Where have you been?

Han was never not popular.

A tournament I went to 2 weeks ago was won by a Fat Han list similar to the world champion list. Out of the 3 games it played there were 2 YT-2400 lists.

Han will get more popular (in my locale) once shops get a restock. Most of the locals started relatively recently, we can't get hold of Han or Bona, so neither see much table time. There's one guy who has one of each, but he's been flying longer than the rest of us.

As an aside this means we don't see VI either.

Need a Han-buddy with some kind of falcon-specific synergy to make that happen. Hard to imagine.

Where have you been?

Han was never not popular.

Psshh double negatives? That all you got?

There has never been a time that it was untrue that I would be a liar if I said that han was never not unpopular.

Until a build includes him to take top place at a global event such as Gencon. Wait for the first regionals and see what build comes out on top. That will be the popular build.