I was reading through the store championship results and I was shocked by how few YT-2400s there were. Based on a quick scan of the google doc found here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KTLgNMhZCzVwXao_WJw7MfslygfQB4-hqdhOvQfbcpM/edit#heading=h.1afe62b5ganh (thank you MajorJuggler) I counted 18 in total (8 Dash, 7 Leebo, 2 Eaden, and 1 Wild Space Fringer) compared to 41 decimators, 34 Yt-1300s, and 44 phantoms. I guess I had overestimated how prevalent the outrider would be. Now I know my numbers aren't super precise, but I just thought it was interested.

Was there anything you saw at your local tourney, or in what you've read that surprised you?

Decimators, decimators everywhere.

After the initial BBBBZ victory, more and more have shown up in top 4s. I thought a similar thing would happen with the A-Wing Proton Rocket swarm, but so far it doesn't have seemed to.

The renewal of the rebel swarms, finally, in response to all the Decimators and Falcons. 6 A-Wings, BBBBZ, etc. have been strong and have done especially well.

It's been hard to create a new meta with the current lack of ships available. Can't create an A-Wing Procket swarm if you can't buy any A-Wings.

This years Store Championships was more like "run what you brung" and less "whats the new hotness."

In SOCAL we have had everything from Dual Falcon down to TIE SWARM (Gus won that one last night at Pair-A-Dice Games) taking the top spot.

At my store champs of over 30 people I was the only top 8 not flying a turreted large ship, and somewhere in the region of 70%+ of people attending were using one, with at least 6 double-turret ship lists, be it 2x Decis or Falcons/Outriders.

Turrets... turrets everywhere...

On the plus side, it gives me a moral victory for not running one, and it's the last hurrah before all the double IG-88 spam comes out and bores us to tears.

At my store champs of over 30 people I was the only top 8 not flying a turreted large ship, and somewhere in the region of 70%+ of people attending were using one, with at least 6 double-turret ship lists, be it 2x Decis or Falcons/Outriders.

Turrets... turrets everywhere...

On the plus side, it gives me a moral victory for not running one, and it's the last hurrah before all the double IG-88 spam comes out and bores us to tears.

Unless you know something I don't. Have you hear a lot of people say they'll run those? Or have you seen a bunch of them on Vassal? I certainly think it will be a popular archetype, but not nearly enough to be boring.

i've been surprised about nothing, large turrets are still all i see.

At my store champs of over 30 people I was the only top 8 not flying a turreted large ship, and somewhere in the region of 70%+ of people attending were using one, with at least 6 double-turret ship lists, be it 2x Decis or Falcons/Outriders.

Turrets... turrets everywhere...

On the plus side, it gives me a moral victory for not running one, and it's the last hurrah before all the double IG-88 spam comes out and bores us to tears.

Everyone thought PTL Dash would dominate the metagame, even Juggler. It didn't. I'm not worried about the Aggressor. Besides, even if they do turn up everywhere, there are a lot of ways to deal with them and they're all about maneuvers, meaning they can be outlucked and outskilled.

The popularity of Vader crew. Every game I lost was to that card. With Gunner it's just yuck.

Vader Crew is a fantastic upgrade!

I'll hopefully attend a store championship after Scum releases and see what lists prevail. I'm excited to run Scum Boba / Kath or do some bomb shenanigans with Emon.

PTL Dash never took off because he lacks the supreme tankiness of the Falcon or even Decimator. Add to that the donut hole weakness in a high PS environment and I'm not surprised. Falcon still reigns; nothing has been released that curbs the strength of the ship.

Resurgence of the Rebel swarm has been fun, and one of Atlanta's 3 big store championships was won by a Kagi/soontir/Carnor jax list.

We've also seen a competitive list featuring two sigma phantoms. The typical archetypes aren't winning, at least not once they get to top 8.

Always fun to jettison Vader using Moff Jerjerrod. "You have outlived your usefulness..."

Nothing at all

We're riding the wave 5 train all the way to hell until wave 6 derails it

I was very very happy we have some very talented players scattered around the stores who don't resort to turreted filth, and instead resort to crazy things like BBBZ, or double ion Bs and double ion ys, or A-wing swarm . It was quite awesome to see those outliers take top, even if they were followed by a deluge of 2-ship lists.

We almost had a proper ranking with our resident crazy at the top with Ion Roark and some weird combination of I believe Swarm Airen, R7 Tarn, and a B-wing but he got smashed by a Han (not the Han you know, though. This cool motherf*****r was rocking Lando )

EN: forums, if you're going to sensor profanity please make a filter that can catch "motherf***er" I don't have to censor it myself

Well, he got 2nd place. The winner? Whisper ******* Chiraneau. The shock and surprise were so great that I died and came back to life in the same instant.

What I found is that versus YT and VT's Ordnance can be very effective.

I came in 6th with the following list:

With my

Rym and Reason List

Rymer, Cluster Missiles, Cluster Missiles, PTL, Prox, Munitions FS

Jonus, Ion Pulse, Cluster, PTL, Prox,

2x Academy Ties

Surprised a lot of people. Best of the games, a range 3 shot of Decimator, with clusters, roll 3 hits, with Jonus, then roll 3 more, knocking it down 6 on the first round of shooting.

Following turn range 2, Cluster missiles 5 more hits, Isanne avoided one, Then Jonus finished it out with his clusters, 4 more hits 2 crits, 2 direct. Then I chased the phantom for the rest of the game, losing both ties and almost jonus, but I prox bombed him and took him out.

However, lost my final game to a z-95 swarm, my list just couldn't do enough damage. May have to add an Assault missile and drop failsafe and a cluster. Just to deal with swarms.

I agree, decimators and chewie were in almost every list

Still a lot of fun, Playing a fun list.

Resurgence of the Rebel swarm has been fun, and one of Atlanta's 3 big store championships was won by a Kagi/soontir/Carnor jax list.

We've also seen a competitive list featuring two sigma phantoms. The typical archetypes aren't winning, at least not once they get to top 8.

I showed up to my FLGS where an sc was going on. 2400 and a fat falcon list, vs another 2400 and fat falcon. Other game going on was super corran and a fat falcon, vs a relatively refreshing weapons engineer lando and corran list.

Still though, I don't understand how you can enjoy playing turrets incessantly. Maybe every once and a while, but why even setup your ships in a turret on turret fight? Just take turns rolling dice at each other for 60 minutes because that's pretty much all you're doing anyways.

So tournaments are dominated by the meta, SCs obviously so, and now casual game night has just turned into, "I need to get in some practice with my tournament list" night. So I haven't faced something fun in a while.

I think in two Store Championships we've only had one guy show up with a YT-2400, but he's been at the top of the pack in both. I don't expect that will change.

As for the rest, we've had amazing variety, three X-wings, Swarm, Decimators, Phantoms, Interceptor lists. It's all been there and it's been pretty fun.

We even had 5 A-wings with Prockets.

I think the surprising part honestly has been the community. It might not be the biggest surprise that the community is pretty cool, but the lengths they go to, awesome.
We had a guy have to leave for personal reasons at the SC today. Everyone was really supportive, and I wish the dude the best. But what to do with the blank spot? Nobody likes buys. Well we had a guy watching the games who was new to X-Wing, we offered him the chance to play the guys list, found him figs and set him up for the rest of the tournament. Everybody had a great time and the new player was hooked and wants to come out to the next event.

Yup the community. It keeps surprising me in a great way.

I think in two Store Championships we've only had one guy show up with a YT-2400, but he's been at the top of the pack in both. I don't expect that will change.

As for the rest, we've had amazing variety, three X-wings, Swarm, Decimators, Phantoms, Interceptor lists. It's all been there and it's been pretty fun.

We even had 5 A-wings with Prockets.

I think the surprising part honestly has been the community. It might not be the biggest surprise that the community is pretty cool, but the lengths they go to, awesome.

We had a guy have to leave for personal reasons at the SC today. Everyone was really supportive, and I wish the dude the best. But what to do with the blank spot? Nobody likes buys. Well we had a guy watching the games who was new to X-Wing, we offered him the chance to play the guys list, found him figs and set him up for the rest of the tournament. Everybody had a great time and the new player was hooked and wants to come out to the next event.

Yup the community. It keeps surprising me in a great way.

What this game should be about right here ^^^

While I have not been surprised by anything I have seen post Wave 5, it is nice to see Rebel Swarms making a good showing again.

The popularity of Vader crew. Every game I lost was to that card. With Gunner it's just yuck.

I suspect you'll see a LOT more of him once autothrusters are generally available.

Hitting an Interceptor with practically two guaranteed evades (one from an action and one from its autothruster effect) using a three-dice turret is really hard. But crewVader doesn't care. And crewVader+Gunner just laughs at the Interceptor. Oh, and no shields to stop those crits? Huh...sucks to be them!

It's been hard to create a new meta with the current lack of ships available. Can't create an A-Wing Procket swarm if you can't buy any A-Wings.

This years Store Championships was more like "run what you brung" and less "whats the new hotness."

In SOCAL we have had everything from Dual Falcon down to TIE SWARM (Gus won that one last night at Pair-A-Dice Games) taking the top spot.

More access to supply won't mean that certain players would all of a sudden get any better. The people that are good with said A-wing swarms already have A-wing swarms. They had at least 4 A-wings and when Rebel Aces came out they had 2 Rebel Aces so that they could get 6 A-wings well before Wave 5 hit and Dash and Decimators were a thing. As with those players they have the most experience with A-wings and were able to use it to find ways of countering the Decimators and Dashes out there.

For people who now want to try the A-wing swarm that would be the first time they ever played with the A-wing swarms. So they would not have the necessary experience to know how to effectively use the A-wing swarms. In the age of net decking and finding optimal builds on the internet having those builds still do not make players automatic champions. They need to know how to use that build to become successful.

Point is if A-wings were to come out in stock right now (and in some stores they are) the people that purchase those ships won't become champions the moment they open the pack, they may not even win their first game.

i just took my swarm to two store championships over the weekend. the first with 20 players, the second with 16 i believe.

in every single one of the 13 games i played i faced a big ship, and in 11 of those i faced either a Decimator or a Falcon. I also faced 4 phantoms, and several Firesprays. small ships were a mix of B-wings, A-wings and Y-wings, with some normal ties as fillers. several fleets used two large ships. I did not face any YT-2400s.

i was playing a swarm, and i won both tournaments with one loss in each group stage. in both losses the enemy had at least one phantom, and in both losses the enemy had Darth Vader crew, once on a shuttle and once on a patrol leader.

so yes, the meta is extremely large ship heavy. however, if you take a swarm and can deal with phantoms at least some of the time, you can still do very well.

I have to admit that I was REALLY surprised by my local event.

First off, last year we had 20+ people. This year only 12 showed. There was talk of snow for that day, but it never happened. I'm in the South and we NEVER get snow. Maybe that scared some people off? Also, some guys from Asheville decided to go to a Tenn. event that day instead. Not sure why there was only 12.

Next, of those 12, there were only 2 lists with big, turreted ships. One list was an Outrider w/ Biggs and a B-wing. The other was 2 Decimators. Also, there was only one list with a Phantom! It was 3 generic Phantoms, as well. There were 2 lists that had 3 Lambda Shuttles. One list was 5 Alpha Interceptors. There were a number of B-wing lists.

Last, I am surprised (but pleased) that I went undefeated in 4 rounds with a 4 Tie Bomber list. I got wiped in first round of Final Four due to facing the Phantoms, but hey, I got there!

I had planned to face 75-90% big turreted ships (BTS), but only faced one. I was quite surprised.

PTL Dash never took off because he lacks the supreme tankiness of the Falcon or even Decimator. Add to that the donut hole weakness in a high PS environment and I'm not surprised. Falcon still reigns; nothing has been released that curbs the strength of the ship.

The donut hole isn't as easily exploitable as I predicted (nor as large!). The Phantom is the only ship I've flown that I can consistently get within range 1. I thought Vader with EU would easily pull it off as well, but it hasn't been the case against a decent player. Large ship Boost + Barrel Roll moves an incredible distance. In addition, being able to ignore asteroids plays a huge role in keeping distance and a good Dash player knows how to exploit this. Dash should be taking less shots than a Falcon would (barring full turret lists, of course), which should compensate for Dash's lower defensive capacity.

Rebel captive can be a pain, but with the Kyle crew member, you're still getting two actions (essentially).

Overall, I think PTL Dash's largest vulnerabilities are getting blocked when trying to shed stress and, more specifically, the Phantom + Decimator combo, which is clearly very popular right now.