Used a Xizor swarm in a store championship yesterday with good results. There were three of us running pretty similar lists. I had:

Xizor

VI

Virago

FCS

Autothrusters

Inertial Dampeners

5 pirates

The other guys had slightly different setups on Xizor.

I went 5-0 through qualifying. Played against lists with lots of AGI-3, so getting damage in with the pirates was difficult and I really relied on Xizor. His ability and auto thrusters were key to keeping him alive. He finished most games with 1hp left. Squads I faced:

4 Greens with PTL, Outmaneuver, Autothrusters - killed 2 As and lost 2 Zs. Had a HELL of a time hitting the As.

4AP, Scimitar with prox, Defender with ion - The ion was almost the death of Xizor, but autothrusters saved him. The prox mine hit with 1hit1crit and brought him to 1hp. I killed 3AP IIRC and lost 2 Zs.

7 TIE swarm - Killed Howl and a Black. Lost 2 1 or 2 Zs I think.

Keyan HLC, Biggs, Kyle w Jan - My only 100 point victory. Made a parking lot with the pirates, mowed down Biggs, then cleaned up. Lost 1 Z.

Soontir and Whisper 80 point build - Boxed Whisper in and killed her within 5 minutes, then chased Soontir with my entire squad for an hour. Ended up losing a couple Zs.

I think the Zs would do very well against lower AGI targets, but even against AGI 3 squads, there were enough shots to eventually land some damage. Inertial dampeners and the Segnor's loop were used infrequently, but they were game changing when they were needed. Xizor's ability and autothrusters were absolutely crucial. I rolled 1 evade with Xizor in the first two games. He would have been dead if I wasn't passing off damage to all the pirates.

I'll be trying this squad some more with different variations of gear on Xizor as well as subbing in Guri. Xizor's ability was amazing, though. Great insurance against bad dice. I think the StarViper is probably the coolest looking ship released yet and very fun to fly.

Played my first two S&V games last night, and ran the following list:

Guri (Viraigo title, Accuracy Corrector, Autothrusters)

Heavy Scyk x2 (mangler cannons)

N'Dru (Lone Wolf, Cluster Missiles)

Both games were against other scum lists; the first was against Azameen + Y-wing + Mangler Scyk, and the second was against dual aggressors. Guri was the standout pilot of both matches. By using one of my scyks to block, I was able to frequently get reliable range 1 placement. Taking the evade action allowed her to use interceptor-like castling tactics, which kept her alive while unloading range 1 salvos.

Obviously this is all circumstantial evidence as it comes from only two games (both of which were against scum), but I am impressed so far and plan on including her in future lists, probably with inertial dampeners..

The StarViper doesn't have the evade action. Only reason I think I might prefer Predator over PTL on Guri. I would be much more inclined to take PTL if I could use it to evade+boost/BR and then have a focus.

Sounds great! Looking forward to it when I get it on Monday.

By the way, Xizor is pronounced She-zor. I got an audio book with him in it and that's what they said.

Xizor's going to have a bit of a learning curve, imo, because the posts discussing the Star Viper before its release likened it a bit too much to an interceptor (product of its amazing action bar and similarities to the aggressor, no doubt) and Xizor doesn't play like that at all

You have to be willing to use him as a blunt instrument, like a B-wing (notice the similarities in the dial) that doesn't give a **** between Advanced Sensors, 3 agility, and a pilot ability that off-loads damage to fodder. Once you've downed all the higher PS pilots, then you're free to go dancing around with your fancy sensor rolls and boosts into Segnor's etc, but this particular Star Viper is very much a formation flying ship (insofar as a ship that doesn't give two ***** about constantly ramming into friendlies and enemies is a formation flying ship).

If I could draw a parallel between Xizor and any other pilot, it would be Keyan Farlander (even their pilot skills match ). The two play almost exactly the same for me: flinging themselves into the center of hairballs, performing crazy maneuvers, blowing range 1 holes in enemies etc.

The main difference is that Keyan is slightly more powerful (potential advance sensor target lock + red focus) and quite a bit more maneuverable (well, mainly because I run him with Stay on Target + Intelligence agent and dodge higher PS pilots with it).

On the other hand, Xizor is far more durable (agility especially with advanced sensor focus, possible auto-thrusters, and his ability).

So had a tournament over the weekend I ran.

Guri-Decoy, Viargo, FCS, Auto Thrusters, Hot shot blasters

Boba, VI, K3 Security Droid, Hot shot

Binarye Pirate with Feedback

Round 1 was against Super Dash, two Z's and an Awing

This was a hard fought battle I lost Boba mid game but not before doing some seriouse damage to dash. Guri had broken off to fight the support ships. Guri was able to take out a z after doign a sengors loop leaving Dash, a z and an Awing left. Made a good maneuver which blocked dash backwards into his own ship at range 1. used hot shot blaster to finish him off. I ended up with a modified.

1-0

Second Game was against a Chewie Leebo defensive build. He didn't have outrider on leebo so he could always have a shot, however this ended up keeping guri alive later in the match. Leebo was hard to track down but was able to get on Leebo's tail slowly taking damage down. Guri did a sengors loop putting some damage on leebo getting him down to a few hull when boba was in position to finish him off. I did loose guri at this point to Chewie so it was Boba vs Chewie (normally a hard matchup due to how well the falcon can move) The battle brought the ships near the border where my opponent made a mistake and put chewie in a position where even a 1 hard couldn't get him from flying off the board.

2-0

Third game was against Oicunn, Mauler with Predator, Backstabber, Nightbeast. Oicunn broke off early to go after Guri allowing boba to eat the support ships alive. Guri was the one to finish Oicunn, the Binarye Pirate took 2 feedback arrays to destroy backstabber and nightbeast just slowly got picked away till she was dead.

3-0

My fourth game was against my own squad, Oicunn with Ruthlessness, Vader, Mara, Gunner, Dauntless Whipser, VI, FCS, Rebel Captive, ACD.

At this point my opponent just needed to kill 2 ships to have a very high MOV and hopefully secure a spot even if he goes 2-2. Well he did just that. Boba and Guri did a nice little decoy swap when Guri had PS0 so guri got one shot in on whisper at range 1 (dealing one damage) only to be killed by oicunn. The funny thing was Guri ONLY took damage from vader. With auto thrusters it was impossible for him to land a hit on guri. Oicunn was seriously injured by the time guri died and boba was able to finish him off.

4-0

Elimination round Top 8 I was in second due to MOV (the other 4-0 was also a scum squad!)

First round was against a squad that I am completely blanking right now (sorry!!!)

Semi finals was against the BBBBZ swarm.

Boba set up directly in front of the b's both the pirate and guri were on opposite flanks.

First round of firing boba and Guri manage to take out the Z and boba only took 2 shields. I was feeling good so I continue my advance banking 1 so I could start to flank with boba as well. Boba and guri got a bwing down to 1 hull which made me really want a black sun pirate to finish him off before he shot (future changes coming). I lost boba this round but the z did feedback array to take the final damage out of the b-wing. Guri had a hard fought battle and was able to take out another b-wing. However I got the beggining of combat crit right when two of them had sights on guri, with 1 hull left I had to flip it (already taken one damage from the crit). Guri was destroyed ending the match. It was hard fought and there was plenty of time left so there wasn't an issue about loosing to time.

So overall the squad did really well even against higher tier stuff. I will playtest more and maybe make a few adjustments (the k3 security droid was redundant at times boba was surrounded by 3 or more ships).

I just used Xizor in a tournament Saturday and he put in some major work. I ran http://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Scum%20and%20Villainy&d=v3!s!126:0,-1,-1:-1:-1:;123:0,-1,-1,118:21:-1:;100:57,-1:16:15:U.43,U.-1;115:-1,-1:-1:-1: and in the 5 games I played he didn't die a single time. Predator worked great with Torkil's ability (for the short while he would live, he drew some serious hate fire) and the BTL-A4 Y-Wing also worked out great for dealing damage and absorbing fire.

Managed to go undefeated in swiss and lost in my first finals match due to some stupid moves on my part and excellent moves on my opponent's part. I think Xizor is very much under-appreciated.

Rootbeer Float, was that the tournament at Fantasy Books & Games in Fairview Heights? If not, there was someone there with a similar list and story. I was the guy running 2 Defenders.

Rootbeer Float, was that the tournament at Fantasy Books & Games in Fairview Heights? If not, there was someone there with a similar list and story. I was the guy running 2 Defenders.

Yeah, that was me. Did you wind up winning?

No, my mind was totally spent and I made a lot of bad moves while executing a bad strategy.