IMO Serissu's ability waaay better then Howlrunner's because green dice are much less consistent, and you'll need that re-roll more often.

Serrisu's ability doesn't scale as well. Less ships can take advantage of Serissu's ability every round than they can Howl's and you have no control over whether you get to use her ability in a game, your opponent makes that decision. Serrisu's ability is nice when you've got one or two ships that are more expensive than she is. It's not so hot in a swarm of cheap ships. She's a soft Biggs.

IMO Serissu's ability waaay better then Howlrunner's because green dice are much less consistent, and you'll need that re-roll more often.

I don't see the Point. Which dice do you want to reroll? A green die with 37% chance of an evade or a red die with 50% chance of a hit result?

Yes, you're right, you have to reroll more often a green die than a red die. But the chance to have the same bad result after reroll a green die is also very high.

Imho, Serissu is overpriced by (at least) 1 point compared to Howlrunner (compared PS2 M3-A to PS1 T/Fighter).

Serrisu's ability doesn't scale as well. Less ships can take advantage of Serissu's ability every round than they can Howl's and you have no control over whether you get to use her ability in a game, your opponent makes that decision. Serrisu's ability is nice when you've got one or two ships that are more expensive than she is. It's not so hot in a swarm of cheap ships. She's a soft Biggs.

I was using 5 ships. They were often flying in a sort of spear formation. Serissu's ability got good use. Better formation flying skills on my part would have probably seen her use be even greater.

Mauler Mithel in a Scyk would be awesome, especially with no cannon. The TL would be crazy good.

I'm tempted to try Laetrin with no upgrades to see how he works.

Serrisu's ability doesn't scale as well. Less ships can take advantage of Serissu's ability every round than they can Howl's and you have no control over whether you get to use her ability in a game, your opponent makes that decision. Serrisu's ability is nice when you've got one or two ships that are more expensive than she is. It's not so hot in a swarm of cheap ships. She's a soft Biggs.

I was using 5 ships. They were often flying in a sort of spear formation. Serissu's ability got good use. Better formation flying skills on my part would have probably seen her use be even greater.

Were you able to deny your opponent shots on Serissu while keeping her in range one of her buddies? When a naked Serissu is the average priced ship in your list, I don't see why you'd shoot at anything else if you are able to shoot her.

Mauler Mithel in a Scyk would be awesome, especially with no cannon. The TL would be crazy good.

I'm tempted to try Laetrin with no upgrades to see how he works.

The problem with Laetin's ability is that it only kicks in if he's being focus fired on and he's a squishy enough ship that he doesn't really need to be. The ability would have been pretty good on a ship that's more durable like a Firespray or Starviper. A naked Laetin doesn't really pose enough of threat for the defensive ability to be meaningful. For the points N'Dru is probably a better choice.

Were you able to deny your opponent shots on Serissu while keeping her in range one of her buddies? When a naked Serissu is the average priced ship in your list, I don't see why you'd shoot at anything else if you are able to shoot her.

Most unfamiliar people encountering my exotic list couldn't decide who was the lynchpin. Bug zappers? Autoblaster Turret Y? Starviper? Only against familiar foes from my local gaming group does Serissu often become my opponent's first target choice.

You guys sold me. I read this and bought my first Scyk today.

Now what do I do with it? Maybe I'll fly Serissu with a bug zapper swarm. Nobody I know plays with a Scyk so I've only ever seen it in action once ever (there were 0 Scyks at my Regionals tournament) and it was just a naked Scyk with no mods whatsoever then, so it went down super fast. So I don't really know what this thing does...

Were you able to deny your opponent shots on Serissu while keeping her in range one of her buddies? When a naked Serissu is the average priced ship in your list, I don't see why you'd shoot at anything else if you are able to shoot her.

Most unfamiliar people encountering my exotic list couldn't decide who was the lynchpin. Bug zappers? Autoblaster Turret Y? Starviper? Only against familiar foes from my local gaming group does Serissu often become my opponent's first target choice.

What's the full list?

Most unfamiliar people encountering my exotic list couldn't decide who was the lynchpin. Bug zappers? Autoblaster Turret Y? Starviper? Only against familiar foes from my local gaming group does Serissu often become my opponent's first target choice.

What's the full list?

I was planning to wait until I got the time to write a tournament report to reveal it, but what the heck.

This was christened "Scummy Bears" by one of the guys in my local gaming group. When I plugged it into the X-Wing Squadron Builder, it said the list had never been generated. Not sure if that was because I was a first time user and not logged in, or if it truly was an original combo in the history of the game. But anyway, here's the Scum swarm that danced in and out of the Top 20's a couple of times in the 7-round, 115-player Plano Regional:

Scummy Bears

PS8 Serissu (20)

- Swarm Tactics (2)

PS2 Syndicate Thug (18)

- Autoblaster Turret (2)

- Unhinged Astromech (1)

- Bomb Loadout / Seismic Charges (2) -- [a total waste, and a self-killer the one time I used it. Should've gone for the initiative bid]

PS1 Black Sun Enforcer (25)

- Autothrusters (2)

PS1 Binayre Pirate (12)

- Feedback Array (2)

PS1 Binayre Pirate (12)

- Feedback Array (2)

Total = 100

Designed as a meta-killer, it has had total success against Decimator/SuperFel, Whisper+TIE Swarm, and one Fat Han build at Regionals (albeit paired with ICT Horton, which seemed ill-suited). But I should say most of those matches were against people who I asked to play those lists for my own practice leading up to Regionals, so while they were good players, they weren't really proficient in those lists.

The list's Kryptonite turns out to be 4xB with Accuracy Correctors, or similar.

I have played it very close on a number of occasions against an IG/Boba list, some wins, some losses, often coming down to the last two ships down to their last hull point or two, and the final dice roll as the game's deciding factor.

Oddly enough, I faced an identical ion control list against two different opponents at Regionals: 2xY+ICT and 2xB+AdvSensors. I went 1-1, using the lessons learned in the first loss to play a better, winning game the second time around.

For background, the list was originally Drea Reanthal in the Y-Wing slot, with BTL-A4, no bomb, and no Autothrusters on the Starviper. But after a few games, I realized the Starviper (being the only 3-attack ship in the list) was my best closer with a great end-game dial (IMHO), and I wanted to try adding AT. (Lesson still being learned: keep Starviper out at Range 3 to make AT count!) I definitely could not sacrifice Serissu's Swarm Tactics or either of the Feedback Arrays to get the extra 2 points, so that left me with dropping Drea.

No problem, because Drea's performance in practice was turning out to be disappointing. My 5-ship swarm was all too often stuck in a Range 1 furball, and the BTL-A4 title was denying more 360 shots than it was providing good Warthog shots. And without BTL-A4, there's not much value in Drea's target lock ability. So down the PS ladder she went.

I truly think there's no further tweaking that needs to be done to this list, except maybe trying the PS4 Scum Y instead of the Thug, for the cost of the useless bomb. Mostly I need to work on my formation flying, the chess match aspect of anticipating my opponent's moves a couple turns ahead, and not doing stupid things like hanging my Y-Wing out exposed to massed 4B firepower.

If anyone wants to give this list a shot, I'd love to know how you do!

You guys sold me. I read this and bought my first Scyk today.

Now what do I do with it? Maybe I'll fly Serissu with a bug zapper swarm. Nobody I know plays with a Scyk so I've only ever seen it in action once ever (there were 0 Scyks at my Regionals tournament) and it was just a naked Scyk with no mods whatsoever then, so it went down super fast. So I don't really know what this thing does...

If you only have one, I would use it as a support ship or a flanker.

Give it a cannon if you feel your list can make good use of it (depends on what else you are flying with it).

For example, HLC + Hull = 26 points on a cartel spacer - not a bad flanker, although you have to be careful about it getting focussed on if the rest of your list is too slow

a flechette or ion cannon is also not a bad buy at 18/19 pts. But again, its only useful if the rest of your list can capitalize on the control it brings. Hitting an enemy for a stress or an ion token is okay on its own, but to be really helpful, you need to find a way to take advantage of it.

Here's something I've considered but haven't tried (its still pretty squishy, but those HLC's hit hard!):

Serissu w/ title & flechette cannon = 24

2 tansarii pt vets w/ title, HLC, predator & hull upgrades = 32 x 2

Binayre pirate = 12

100

Serissu keeps the vets alive so they can blast away with the HLC's while the pirate runs out in front blocking.

I HAVE used Guri a few times in place of Serissu and the pirate (with push the limit and autothrusters) but with mixed results. Partly I think I need more practice though because it seems like it can take down all kinds of things (turrets being troublesome if they get out of arc)

Most unfamiliar people encountering my exotic list couldn't decide who was the lynchpin. Bug zappers? Autoblaster Turret Y? Starviper? Only against familiar foes from my local gaming group does Serissu often become my opponent's first target choice.

What's the full list?

I was planning to wait until I got the time to write a tournament report to reveal it, but what the heck.

This was christened "Scummy Bears" by one of the guys in my local gaming group. When I plugged it into the X-Wing Squadron Builder, it said the list had never been generated. Not sure if that was because I was a first time user and not logged in, or if it truly was an original combo in the history of the game. But anyway, here's the Scum swarm that danced in and out of the Top 20's a couple of times in the 7-round, 115-player Plano Regional:

Scummy Bears

PS8 Serissu (20)

- Swarm Tactics (2)

PS2 Syndicate Thug (18)

- Autoblaster Turret (2)

- Unhinged Astromech (1)

- Bomb Loadout / Seismic Charges (2) -- [a total waste, and a self-killer the one time I used it. Should've gone for the initiative bid]

PS1 Black Sun Enforcer (25)

- Autothrusters (2)

PS1 Binayre Pirate (12)

- Feedback Array (2)

PS1 Binayre Pirate (12)

- Feedback Array (2)

Total = 100

Designed as a meta-killer, it has had total success against Decimator/SuperFel, Whisper+TIE Swarm, and one Fat Han build at Regionals (albeit paired with ICT Horton, which seemed ill-suited). But I should say most of those matches were against people who I asked to play those lists for my own practice leading up to Regionals, so while they were good players, they weren't really proficient in those lists.

The list's Kryptonite turns out to be 4xB with Accuracy Correctors, or similar.

I have played it very close on a number of occasions against an IG/Boba list, some wins, some losses, often coming down to the last two ships down to their last hull point or two, and the final dice roll as the game's deciding factor.

Oddly enough, I faced an identical ion control list against two different opponents at Regionals: 2xY+ICT and 2xB+AdvSensors. I went 1-1, using the lessons learned in the first loss to play a better, winning game the second time around.

For background, the list was originally Drea Reanthal in the Y-Wing slot, with BTL-A4, no bomb, and no Autothrusters on the Starviper. But after a few games, I realized the Starviper (being the only 3-attack ship in the list) was my best closer with a great end-game dial (IMHO), and I wanted to try adding AT. (Lesson still being learned: keep Starviper out at Range 3 to make AT count!) I definitely could not sacrifice Serissu's Swarm Tactics or either of the Feedback Arrays to get the extra 2 points, so that left me with dropping Drea.

No problem, because Drea's performance in practice was turning out to be disappointing. My 5-ship swarm was all too often stuck in a Range 1 furball, and the BTL-A4 title was denying more 360 shots than it was providing good Warthog shots. And without BTL-A4, there's not much value in Drea's target lock ability. So down the PS ladder she went.

I truly think there's no further tweaking that needs to be done to this list, except maybe trying the PS4 Scum Y instead of the Thug, for the cost of the useless bomb. Mostly I need to work on my formation flying, the chess match aspect of anticipating my opponent's moves a couple turns ahead, and not doing stupid things like hanging my Y-Wing out exposed to massed 4B firepower.

If anyone wants to give this list a shot, I'd love to know how you do!

I'll definitely give that, or some variant a go, when I get my scyk

Wut? The Syck is awesome, both in agile crazy bastard mode and dahaha I snipes you mode.

Pardon me, sir, "I snipes you mode?"

What is that?

You guys sold me. I read this and bought my first Scyk today.

Now what do I do with it? Maybe I'll fly Serissu with a bug zapper swarm. Nobody I know plays with a Scyk so I've only ever seen it in action once ever (there were 0 Scyks at my Regionals tournament) and it was just a naked Scyk with no mods whatsoever then, so it went down super fast. So I don't really know what this thing does...

There are a couple of things you can do with one. For starters, Serrissu is an idea. She isn't Howlrunner, who works with the more ships you have around her. She works in that the ships around her get shot the most times and she is good. I've thought of a list that had VI Boba Fett, VI Kavil, and VI Serrissu to do some damage. Serrissu maybe has a hull upgrade...if you can spare the points, but is otherwise naked (except VI). She hangs around Boba and Kavil and lets them get the defensive re-rolls. Your opponent has to decide to fire at the ships that cause damage (Kavil and Boba) or at the ship that boosts (Serrissu). Give her an Evade when you think she will be shot at and you have a defensive ship. They all go on PS 10 and can arc dodge.

A single Scyk as a flanker and sniper is good. You can go with an HLC, but they can be expensive. Maybe just a Mangler. Laetin with HLC and Stealth Device isn't a bad idea. Or, just a Mangler and a cheaper version of the ship.

I could even see 4 generic K-fighters with Serrissu could be a good list....when they come out.

I think there needs to be a few more 20-ish point ships that are more dangerous to really draw the attention away from the Scyk. Until the K-fighters come out, it might be a bit of a challenge. I can see something like a list of 3 Kihraxz fighters w/ 2 generic Scyks be a good list. People won't focus on the Scyks, but let them get in R1 with a TL and Focus and you will see the damage. Or let them block.

I also have found out that nothing really draws as much hate as a Heavy Syck with an HLC. Hard to arc-dodge with it when your opponent wants to kill it.

Yeah, what is with that? There is a major "Oh no you di'int!" vibe from the opponent when you put one of these on the table. Like, if you could ignore faction and field a squad of Corran, Soontir, and an HLC Syck, most opponents would still go after the Syck first, as if thinking, "I'll leave those other two scrubs for the endgame. I don't wanna get beat by that cheap HLC!"

How about this to help durability, which I totally stole from Moldy Crow?

Evasive Thrusters

M3-A Only. Modification

0 points

During the End phase, do not remove unused evade tokens from your ship.

For a ship that is so green dice dependent, it gives a little reward when the dice are kind. And it could force your opponent into difficult targeting decisions as the game goes on if they see a Syck building up a stack of evades.

Serrisu, Heavy Scyk, Heavy Laser Cannon, Swarm Tactics, Stealth Device

3x Cartel Spacer, Heavy Scyk, Heavy Laser Cannon

Why give it any fix? I say it is fine as is, but just needs to be explored. It is like the Starviper or Tie Defender. I've found my Xizor list to be brutal vs most lists.

I think the plain Scyk can play a role similar to an A-wing or Tie Fighter. It's cheap and can into the mix. Damage output isn't great, but the longer it stays alive, the more damage it can do. It can be great for blocking and such. Most people don't have a list full of Tie Fighters or A-wings (yes, there are some) and I don't think the Scyk is that way, either.

Why give it any fix? I say it is fine as is, but just needs to be explored. It is like the Starviper or Tie Defender. I've found my Xizor list to be brutal vs most lists.

Indeed. I think most of the underutilised ships in this game could easily be "fixed" simply by people actually, you know, picking them and using them more.

Why give it any fix? I say it is fine as is, but just needs to be explored. It is like the Starviper or Tie Defender. I've found my Xizor list to be brutal vs most lists.

I think the plain Scyk can play a role similar to an A-wing or Tie Fighter. It's cheap and can into the mix. Damage output isn't great, but the longer it stays alive, the more damage it can do. It can be great for blocking and such. Most people don't have a list full of Tie Fighters or A-wings (yes, there are some) and I don't think the Scyk is that way, either.

I'm not sure there's much to be explored

the Starviper is a unique oddity, the love child of a B-wing and an Aggressor with two very potent named pilots and access to a system slot + thrusters

the Scyk is halfway between a tie fighter and an A-wing, and objectively poorly priced for its stats & its cannon. According to mathwing, you'd need an HLC cartel benefiting from Seri before you started seeing good returns on your investment.

the ship's unique traits are

1. Seri's ability (you could count laetin but, as discussed, it's more situational than useful)

2. PS 5 EPT generic (costs the same as a green squadron, though)

3. Green 1 soft turns (relative to ties/a-wing; at the cost of no 5-straight or 3-turns)

4. cheapest cannon platform in the game

Seri I found difficult to justify between forced formation flying, ficklegreendice and her ability not working on herself. Only ever really liked her on palob.

the Tansari with PTL is cute, but running into a PWT is simply an auto-lose. Lack of auto-thrusters kills it in cold blood.

The mangler cartel stood out to me as Scum's only decently priced 3-dice ship, which can provide some much needed fire support at range 3. With the special K coming out, though, I'm pretty certain I'm switching over to it. 2 hull beat one extra crap green die any day of the week, the dials are incredibly similar, and all you're really missing is barrel-roll which is suspect at best because using it leaves you in one-shot land.

have not tried "cheap" (19 points) ion cannon platforms

I had some luck last night with a Tansarii Point Vet with HLC, Hull, and Wingman running as, well, a Wingman for a fully kitted out Palob and Autoblaster Kavil. While Kavil skipped off on his own to frighten Phantoms and draw a disproportionate response, the TPV and Palob pretty consistently forced people to split fire. It was my group's first experience with the Scyk, and everything it did seemed to elicit a bit of an 'ugh'.

*picks off a fleeing Interceptor whose SD has popped at R3* "Oh right...that thing."

"Oh I'll just shoot that little cannon thing behind the asteroid." *picks up four evade dice* "Hnnngh nevermind."

*barrel rolls out of a Doom Shuttle's arc to graze it with a barely range 2 HLC* "Oh son of a..."

I think it's just scurry enough to draw some heat off a more solidly built and consistent ship, while being fragile enough to not demand the focus fire required to guarantee its destruction. Palob and an HLC Scyk at a hull each forces the enemy through another turn of very unfortunate, easily re-positioned 4 dice attacks, against which they are unlikely to have focus or a range bonus. Obviously this is from casual and Epic experience with casual fliers, but especially in a 'predictable' meta it throws an odd-shaped burgundy and olive drab wrench into people's targeting priority. It's still certainly overcosted, and could use another shield, a native boost, or at least a free title, but after fiddling with them I am slightly less upset that I grabbed two of them on a whim with my Starviper.

I'm not sure there's much to be explored

the Starviper is a unique oddity, the love child of a B-wing and an Aggressor with two very potent named pilots and access to a system slot + thrusters

the Scyk is halfway between a tie fighter and an A-wing, and objectively poorly priced for its stats & its cannon. According to mathwing, you'd need an HLC cartel benefiting from Seri before you started seeing good returns on your investment.

the ship's unique traits are

1. Seri's ability (you could count laetin but, as discussed, it's more situational than useful)

2. PS 5 EPT generic (costs the same as a green squadron, though)

3. Green 1 soft turns (relative to ties/a-wing; at the cost of no 5-straight or 3-turns)

4. cheapest cannon platform in the game

Seri I found difficult to justify between forced formation flying, ficklegreendice and her ability not working on herself. Only ever really liked her on palob.

the Tansari with PTL is cute, but running into a PWT is simply an auto-lose. Lack of auto-thrusters kills it in cold blood.

The mangler cartel stood out to me as Scum's only decently priced 3-dice ship, which can provide some much needed fire support at range 3. With the special K coming out, though, I'm pretty certain I'm switching over to it. 2 hull beat one extra crap green die any day of the week, the dials are incredibly similar, and all you're really missing is barrel-roll which is suspect at best because using it leaves you in one-shot land.

have not tried "cheap" (19 points) ion cannon platforms

All the Scyk has going for it is that it is a cheap, small base cannon platform. With "cheap" being one of its primary selling points it makes being overpriced an even bigger issue.

The Scyk was the first ship I bought three of right away. I love the way it looks and wanted to try 3x Tansarii + Heavy/HLC + Predator + Shield. It was surprisingly effective, though I didn't face any of today's top meta lists at the time.

Why give it any fix? I say it is fine as is, but just needs to be explored. It is like the Starviper or Tie Defender. I've found my Xizor list to be brutal vs most lists.

I think the plain Scyk can play a role similar to an A-wing or Tie Fighter. It's cheap and can into the mix. Damage output isn't great, but the longer it stays alive, the more damage it can do. It can be great for blocking and such. Most people don't have a list full of Tie Fighters or A-wings (yes, there are some) and I don't think the Scyk is that way, either.

The Scyks biggest problem is that it is priced worse than a pre-Chardaan A-Wing. It was rare to see an A-Wing on the table before Rebel Aces so it should come as no surprise that Scyks are scarce. The conspriacy theorist in me thinks that the ship is so obviously overpriced that the "fix" is already developed and just waiting until the time is right to release Scum Aces.

Prototype A-wings start at 17 pts. Cartel Spacer starts at 14.

You know, you don't HAVE to put a cannon on it. Its very similar to an Academy Pilot. It costs 2 pts more to have a shield instead of 1 Hull, 1 PS, and the ability to TL. I am happy with that. What the Scyk has going for it is that its a cheap and agile generic and different than a Z-95. Rebels get Z's and Imps get Ties. Scum get both.