I've recently joined X-wing and bought several ships and I picked up a pair of Scyks. I really like how they look and the idea of mounting a cannon on a Scyk seems fun until they take fire and go down. Suddenly, you are out 6-9 points if you are running Mangler or HLC. By themselves, they seem like basic TIEs, but I notice a lot of people would rather run Z95s with an illict over a Scyk in either swarm or as filler. So what exactly do you do with this guy?

Well a lot of people are asking the same questions?

I run just 1 as a HLC carrier, and always give it +1 hull. Then keep it at range 3 as a sniper

I like running them with Mangler Cannons. 4-5 of these bad boys and you are GTG.

Tansari Veteran with Predator and Ion cannon: 25 points

My thoughts previously posted here: http://www.reddit.com/r/XWingTMG/comments/360z5q/discussion_tell_me_your_m3a_interceptor_stories/

wish the 5 i bought were Khiraxzes

I leave mine in the box. I've never had a list and thought "that looks like a Scyk-shaped hole, right there."

I've never had a list and thought "that looks like a Scyk-shaped hole, right there."

I have, usually after it's gotten one-shotted.

This is my favorite way to play them ,and currently I've found the most effective. One or Two are all fine, but I think of them as Royal Guards, so I usually go with two.

The Syck's dial really sucks though. Counter intuitive, annoying, limited.

Lack of boost annoying

Dies so fast, annoying

a point trap for upgrades, annoying

dies to turrets, annoying.

yeah. This ship is... not easy to love.

I've tried my best to play it, and play many different ways of them, they just... kinda suck in all configurations except this one.

PTL or Predator both fine.

Tansarii Point Veteran (17)

I've never had a list and thought "that looks like a Scyk-shaped hole, right there."

I have, usually after it's gotten one-shotted.

Should have left it in the box, then.

The hate is strong with us

Would you pay 2 points to give a Z95 an extra green, and an Evade and Barrel roll action? (but lose a durability)

I've run as pair of Carter Spacers with manglers as backup for other heavy hitters and it's worked OK

The key is to recognise them for the glass cannons they are and plan appropriately. I think the HLCs make them too juicy a target, but Manglers (and probably ions - haven't tried yet) are sufficiently dangerous to be worthwhile without hanging a SHOOT ME sign on them.

Make the rest of your list even scarier for your opponent and they'll probably do some good.

I've used serisue with ptl in turret swarm lists. With Hawks and zs and y wings. She can fly slow with them, focus evade or tl. And buff a couple of the other ships. I think the trick is to keep them cheap. They aren't actually good at taking cannons. Way to fragile and pay a 2 point tax

I recently ran:

2x Cartel Spacers with Title, Ion Cannon

2x Cartel Spacers with Title, Flechette Cannon
N'Dru: Clusters, Lone Wolf and Glitterstim (proxy).

Fragile as hell, but fun to fly. Scyks aim to be really annoying at range and try to create opportunities using stress and ion for N'Dru to jump in with a cluster attack using Glitterstim - it reliably brings 6+ hits/crits every time. In range 1 the Scycks can jump to primaries for higher firepower.

Its a glass cannon list, but it can do more damage than people think, given half a chance.

I've played

3x Tansarii Point Veteran (17)

+ Heavy "Scyk" (2)

+ Heavy Laser (7)

+ Shield Upgrade (4)

+ Predator (3)

it was fun and did surprisingly well, though I don't think I'd take it to a tournament any time soon.

TBH, it is the title that ruins them. The extra 2pts is simply too big a tax for such a squishy target. If the title was free, I think they'd be worthwhile; as things stand they are simply not a good use of points.

Would you pay 2 points to give a Z95 an extra green, and an Evade and Barrel roll action? (but lose a durability)

The better comparison is would you pay 2 points to give a TIE Fighter +1 PS, a shield instead of hull, and the Target Lock action?

Probably not, because it's still only three hitpoints, its actions will generally be spent on defence, and +1 PS doesn't get it out of Predator vulnerability.

Then with Heavy Scyk, you're encouraged to dump another 9 points on the same durability. Basically, the basic hull is overpriced by probably a point; the 'Heavy' versions by another.

Trouble is, +1pt is a huge deal on ships in the 12-15pt range because it's proportionately more, and 2pts still matters in the 20-25 range (Hence X-wings, E-wings, and Defenders struggling beyond their aces). So it's too expensive while naked, and then still too expensive even when you start kitting it out with all the fun toys.

Oh, and Laetin has both insufficient PS and no EPT, when she could probably have been the single most interesting flanker-ace for the Scyk; this is why the Veteran proves more popular instead.

It's a pity, because they could have been a lot of fun. As it is, I tend to fly Cartel w/ HLC+Hull if I want a single flanker, though without Boost I find it's still just that wee touch too slow to do it properly. It's a ship with all sorts of problems; FFG was simply too cautious with it for it to be much use. Somewhat baffling, given it had both the TIE Fighter and TIE Interceptor as reference points for 3AGI, 3HP ships with 2 and 3 attack each, and yet... ah, well.

I usually run them as 19 point ion throw a ways. The key is to not care about losing them and have them ion key targets. That said, that's not really something most people or competitive lists are actually okay with, understandably.

2 Uses I can think of, 1 is a simple swarm with as many as you can get, low PS, unmodified. the scum version of a tie swarm. I enjoy running 1 with flechette, and one with ion. maximum annoyance and control, but still not a huge loss when they die.

I've had limited success running

Laetin, title, mangler, stealth device

Serrisu, wingman, stealth device

Z-95 binayre w/ concussion missile x3

Similar to the other list up there, it's pretty glass cannon, but Laetin and Serissu pilot skills work pretty good together

I took the following list to a Regional this past year. Went 2-4, but if I had flown better/made better decisions I could've been 4-2 or 5-1, as a couple of the games were really close.

Palob Godalhi (34)
HWK-290 (20), Opportunist (4), Blaster Turret (4), K4 Security Droid (3), Moldy Crow (3)

Torkhil Mux (24)
HWK-290 (19), Ion Cannon Turret (5)

Cartel Spacer (23)
M3-A “Scyk” Interceptor (14), “Heavy Scyk” Interceptor (2), Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

Cartel Spacer (19)
M3-A “Scyk” Interceptor (14), “Heavy Scyk” Interceptor (2), Ion Cannon (3)

100 points

The core of the list is the two HWKs and I had tried out a few other pilots as part of the list initially. Let me preface this with a bit of background, in that I rarely, if ever, flew generic pilots competitively opting for three-ship, high-PS Rebel builds.

In early incarnations of this list, I had a 23 point N'dru with LW and an Engine Upgrade (to better assist his flanking), but I mostly felt that he wasn't pulling his weight. I also had Laetin with a Stealth device, and tried swapping a naked Serissu in at one point for some better defense for my HWKs, but I didn't like how the list was performing with those pilots. There wasn't enough meat in the list after I lost Palob, who could either carry the game, or bite it early and leave me scrambling to find damage from elsewhere in the list.

In the end, I dropped my higher PS escorts for some more control in the form of the Ion Cartel, and another (relatively) reliable damage threat from the HLC Scyk. This version of the list has a ridiculous amount of control, both from Palob stealing tokens/forcing opponents to TL or boost/barrel roll, which reduces the reliability of their attacks, Torkhil punishes anyone with high PS and can control other ships with his ICT. The Ion Scyk allows me to potentially Ion a large ship every turn or a second small ship a turn. Meanwhile, Palob and the HLC unload 2 4 dice attacks into whoever got too close to Torkhil, potentially taking out a ship a turn, before it shoots.

The Scyk is a flexible ship, and while some lists might be better with other ships, they can fill a lot of roles. It really depends what you want out of them, how they fit into your composition, and lastly, how you fly them. They do have a pretty solid dial for cannons, though missing the one straight means you may be fishtailing left and right for a few turns lining up your shot.

I ran a Tansari with HLC + Opportunist along with Palob and a Mando Merc.

It was a fun game and the Tansari did most of the damage. Everyone is so eager to kill Palob that the Tansari lasted the whole game getting a lot of 5 dice attacks.

I kind of like the scyk as a cheap HLC platform.

They are super easy to slow roll in the beginning because of the 1 turns, but it can be difficult to maintain range 3 due to the lack of the 1 forward.

You guys have raised a lot of good points, I plan on trying out some of the builds listed here with my two scyks. The Scyk-Hwk list looks especially interesting because I really like the pilot abilities on the Scum Hwks but haven't had much luck with them. I'll hold back on getting more Scyks though. I'd rather spend the money on another Most Wanted or Aggressor.

I feel bad for the mangler scyk , I have made a couple lists where I needed to slide in a 20 point ship, and it looks like the Special K is going to take most of those spots due to its higher health.

I have run a swarm with Serisu with a some upgrades and 5 naked Cartel Spacers. I am 3-0 in casual play, but I would not take it to a turnament right now. I kept them together in a swarm as much as I could to get Serisu's bonus ability.