This is my first tournament report in a long time, so bear with me. I started thinking about lists a couple of weeks ago, and I chronicled some of that internal dialogue here . I ended up running dual Scum Firesprays with a Pirate escort:
Kath Scarlet (Scum) (38)
Veteran Instincts (1)
K4 Security Droid (3)
Inertial Dampeners (1)
Engine Upgrade (4)
Mandalorian Mercenary (35)
Predator (3)
Tactician (2)
Binayre Pirate (12)
Total: 99
Because someone on another thread asked, the logic behind it was essentially that I like Firesprays and I don't like fat turrets. Here, Kath has a lot of maneuvering flexibility at PS9 with Engine Upgrade, Inertial Dampeners, and an initiative bid. The Mercenary majors in brawling but minors in control, and the Pirate takes potshots and/or serves as an additional 4 hit points for the Firesprays, which isn't a bad deal for 12 points. I've also arranged the Firespray upgrades so that they're fairly resistant to bumping and control: the K4 lets Kath pick up target locks without spending an action, and neither of the Merc's upgrades are action-dependent.
I've had lots of experience and reasonably good results over the past couple of years with lists that use two Firesprays and an escort fighter. It's not a terribly popular archetype, but it's a fairly defensive list in terms of overall durability. This version has enough muscle to joust if it has to, and enough movement options (particularly with EU) to play positional games. It's not a top-tier list at any aspect of the game, but it gives me something to work with against nearly any opponent--and in a metagame that still hasn't quite settled from the Wave 6 release, I was hoping that would turn out to be a strength.
***
Round 1
In Round 1 I faced an unusual list with Corran + FCS + R5-P9, two Bandit Squadron Pilots, and an Outer Rim Smuggler (!) with two Tacticians (!!), Anti-Pursuit Lasers, and the
Millennium Falcon
title. My opponent split his deployment, with Corran alone; the E-wing's initial movement was parallel to his edge (and pointed back toward the low-PS ships) rather than perpendicular to it.
Kath deployed across the map from his low-PS ships, while my Merc and Headhunter deployed across from Corran. I played aggressively, with Kath closing quickly and then cutting across the low-PS ships' path to prevent the ORS from double-stressing her. The Merc and Headhunter chased Corran at Range 3, taking potshots and forcing him into a bad position in Kath's rear arc.
I made a few nervous mistakes, including a dial mix-up and a fairly costly missed opportunity to pick up a TL from Kath's K4, but I managed to eke out a win anyway. It came down to the Merc chasing the ORS along a board edge and around the corner, with the remaining Bandit trying to get back into the fight from the opposite corner. Tactician eventually shut down his ability to evade, and against Predator and an evade of my own, ORS fell behind in the damage race.
We shook hands and ended the match with a score of 88 to 59. Not a convincing win, but better than starting out with a loss--and my opponent, Andrew, was knowledgeable, polite, and a great player.
Round 2
This round I went up against Gavin, the eventual second-place finisher. He's friendly, polite , and easy to get along with--but I played him twice this Store Championship season and I was 0-2 against him. His list this time around was Chiraneau with VI, Gunner, and Vader plus Buzzsaw Whisper with VI, Advanced Cloaking, Fire Control, and a Gunner.
I closed early with Kath, hoping to run past Whisper and then stop while she engaged the Mercenary. But I wasn't anticipating my opponent's use of Chiraneau as an aggressive 55-point, PS10 suicide bomber, and with some good rolls Kath died in round 3. The Merc didn't take him much longer, since at that point he outgunned me substantially.
Chiraneau went down in the midgame--or, at least, my opponent used Vader at every opportunity until he ran out of hit points--but I conceded when my Headhunter, damaged and alone, was left trying to take down Whisper.
1-1 is a depressingly average start, but on the bright side I had plenty of time to eat lunch and relax before the next round.
Round 3
My opponent this round was also a very nice guy, and honestly at this point I'm just going to stop mentioning how great everyone I played against was--you get the idea. He was running a heavily offensive list: a Wild Space Fringer with a Heavy Laser Cannon and the
Outrider
title, plus a pair of Blue Squadron Pilots also outfitted with HLC.
Our deployments were both split, with Kath attempting to flank his Blues from the left side of the board and the Merc and Pirate rushing his Outrider along the right side of the map. As his ships banked toward one another mine came in, and unfortunately our ships ended up in a knot: his Fringer struggled to find legal shots while the Mercenary and Kath both attacked at close range. With the Fringer out of the match, the B-wings were outnumbered and didn't last much longer.
All of my ships finished the rounds damaged, but I came out of the match with a 100-0 score. The boost to my MOV meant I was near the top of the 2-1 bracket going into the next round, and I was starting to feel like I had a shot at the cut.
Round 4
This was another unorthodox list. My opponent, Jeremy, had taken a fairly standard Dash build with Push the Limit, Kyle Katarn, HLC, Engine Upgrade, and Outrider, but he paired it with Nera Dantels + Deadeye + Recon Specialist + Proton Torpedoes + Advanced Proton Torpedoes.
I danced around a lot more in this match than in the others, partly because my Round 2 match had reminded me to be cautious and partly because Super Dash's favorite game is engage/disengage. But what I remember best is the midgame, with Dash and my Pirate both off the board (PTL Dash is remarkably allergic to Tactician), both Firesprays damaged, and Nera constantly threatening to take something else off the board with her no-setup, 360-degree APT. I had to carefully make sure I managed to either collide with Nera or stay at Range 2-3 with both ships, or watch my MOV go to hell as the game suddenly equalized. It was a hell of a duel, it was honestly the most fun I had all day, and it was actually far closer than the final score of 100-12.
But now I was sitting on a 3-1 record with a strong MOV, knowing that the next match would make or break my progress toward the cut.
Round 5
This game was against a list I'd been keeping half an eye on throughout the tournament, run by a player who goes by TastetheRainbow here on the forum:
Corran Horn (35)
Push the Limit (3)
Advanced Sensors (3)
R2-D2 (4)
Engine Upgrade (4)
Gold Squadron Pilot (18)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Bomb Loadout (0)
Proximity Mines (3)
BTL-A4 Y-Wing (0)
Gold Squadron Pilot (18)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
R3-A2 (2)
BTL-A4 Y-Wing (0)
Total: 100
It was an interesting matchup. His Warthogs like big ships with low Agility, and I was running big ships with moderate Agility. His control hits action-dependent ships pretty hard, but I didn't need actions to make my own shots count. Corran is durable and maneuverable, but I could threaten him with higher-PS Scum Kath.
Basically, it was dangerous for me but definitely winnable. I took a risk in the initial merge, and ended up K-turning Kath just short of where she needed to be to get a good shot. Even that would have been a recoverable mistake, except that my green dice and red dice both forgot how to generate successes. My red dice, in particular, gave me a total of 4 hits and crits on the first 16 rolls; a Y-wing that already had 1 damage card managed to survive Range 1 shots from both the Pirate and the Merc and a Range 3 shot from Kath's rear arc.
And that was pretty much the story of the match, from my point of view. The early luck swing meant the Mercenary evaporated under Corran's double-tap without accomplishing much. Kath took one Y-wing out but couldn't tank three ships' worth of incoming fire, and my Pirate actually managed a heroic near-comeback by taking out the remaining Warthog... before running out of space and being neatly bracketed by Corran.
That knocked me out of contention for the cut, ending my run with a 3-2 record and an MOV in the low 600s. I managed 11th place overall, which was a bit disappointing compared to my hopes at the end of Round 4--but it's still the best finish I've had at a major championship in years, with five great games against five people I'd play against any time, and at least I brought home bag of bright blue shield tokens.
