Two days ago I won a small (8-person) summer kit tournament at the Comic Hunter in Moncton NB with the following list, which I've been calling "Scum bag o'tricks":

- Black sun enforcer + Autothrusters + Flechette torpedoes

- Syndicate thug + Autoblaster turret + Unhinged astromech

- Syndicate thug + Autoblaster turret + Unhinged astromech

- Binayre pirate + Ion pulse missile

- Binayre pirate + Feedback array

I'd like to first describe how I came up with this strange list before describing the games in the tournament itself.

It all started with the PS1 Starviper (the Black sun enforcer). My interest in this ship was first piqued by a comment from KineticOperator in the "Mathwing is killing diversity" thread :

I find PS 1 Starvipers to be much more valuable than [Major Juggler]'s math suggests...with PS 1, boost and barrel roll they are outstanding blockers.

I had initially dismissed the PS1 Starviper in large part because its stats efficiency was so low. But such a comment by a really good player made me re-consider. At that point, though, I wasn't convinced enough to seriously try the ship myself. A little while later, however, I was perusing some lists and results from the Team Covenant spring open and noticed that Theorist's squad, which made it to top 8, also included a PS1 Starviper.

So I was bit more intrigued, and watched the game log from his top 16 match . The game is an astonishing showcase of what the PS1 Starviper can do. Admitedly, it was flown by a very good player who was doing a great job anticipating his opponent's moves - but it beat Luke and Wes with Advanced Cloaking Device (to help X-wings, the tournament allowed X-wings to take a free 4 point modification, regardless of ship requirements) by itself. Theorist used the Enforcer to its full capabilities: blocking when an exchange wouldn't favour him, and getting in good positions when he couldn't block.

I was now convinced I had to give the ship a try. The question was, what to pair it with? What came to my mind was the autoblaster turret. I've been looking for a place for a scum Y-wing with autoblaster turret and unhinged astromech for quite a while. The difficulty with the autoblaster turret, of course, is its range 1 limitation. But with one key or two key blocks the target ship could be held in place long enough to nail it with uncancellable hits. So, it makes sense to pair autoblaster turrets with a good blocker. This led to what I consider the core of the list:

- Black sun enforcer + Autothrusters

- Syndicate thug + Autoblaster turret + Unhinged astromech

- Syndicate thug + Autoblaster turret + Unhinged astromech

This only costs 69 points, so one can easily fit in another Autoblaster/Unhinged thug. But doing that only leaves 10 points, which is too much to usefully fill with upgrades but not quite enough for another ship. I also thought that two additional ships would help even more with blocking, so instead of another Y I added:

- Binayre pirate (x2)

This still leaves 7 points for upgrades. I spent a long time thinking about how best to use these points. A feedback array on a pirate seemed like a good idea for additional auto-damage, but I thought two might be overkill. So, in addition to one Feedback array, I eventually settled on two small forms of control: an Ion Pulse missile on one of the pirates (for low agility ships) and a Flechette torpedoes (for high agility small ships). These could help slow down ships that evade the blocking.

Before the tournament, I played seven games with the list and won every one. It can absolutely murder Interceptors, A-wings, E-wings, high-value X-wings and Phantoms. It's very difficult for such ships to not get blocked by at least one of the five ships, and if it gets blocked in, the Y-wings and feedback array can go to work, competely ignoring such ships' high agility. It's even easier to block important large-base ships, and even if one isn't in range one, having 5 attacks against low agility ships does just as much good as the auto-damage against the high agility ships.

Before the tournament I was still debating whether to go with this or an IG/Boba list I really liked, but eventually settled on this, as it was just so much fun. Even better, it feels like a scum squad: a bunch of rag-tag ships with different abilities, harassing and annoying more skilled pilots until they can finish them off.

The tournament had 8 players, meaning 3 rounds.

Game 1 vs.

- Emon + Andrasta + Prox mines (x2) + Tactician

- Kavil + Predator + Autoblaster turret + Unhinged astromech

- Hired Gun + BTL-A4 + Ion turret + Unhinged astromcech

I setup three ships in the middle and two to the right. My opponent sets up the Hired gun to my mid-left, Emon in the middle, and Kavil to the right. I move straight forward initially. A key moment comes in the 2nd round, where my Ion Pulse pirate (on the far right) just gets a target lock on Kavil, then nails him with the missile, guaranteeing his next move. The following round of combat all my ships swing towards Kavil, and burn him dowm in exchange for one of my Y's. Next round I have an interesting choice with the Starviper. He can either turn to chase Emon, or run away. I make the wrong choice, S-looping to follow Emon, and get nailed by a mine (for three damage!) and an additional stress from tactician. However, Emon's move puts him out for a combat for a few rounds, so while the Starviper slowly chases Emon, my remaining Y and 2 Z's focus down his Hired gun. They then re-join the fight against Emon, who has taken down the Starviper. The 2 zs and autoblaster Y have enough firepower to take down Emon.

Win (100-50)

Game 2 vs.

- Dash + PTL + Mangler outrider + Kyle

- Corran + PTL + FCS + R2-D2 + Shield

I setup as above, he sets up both ships next to each other on my left. I swing my entire list left to fight him, managing on the first round of real combat to block both Dash and Corran. Unfortunately, the positioning means I can't hit Corran, so I focus on Dash, getting him down to 3 hull in exchange for a Y. He kills a Z while I finish Dash. In the mean-time I have the Starviper just in front of Corran with a Y chasing. I get extremely lucky at this point, with a double-tap from Corran at range 2 not managing to land any damage on the Starviper. With Dash dead, the Starviper continually blocks Corran, with the Z and Y chasing and getting occasional damage in. In one particularly memorable moment, I turned parallel to Corran, then saw his best move was a 4K, and barrel-rolled into the 4K spot to block it. This goes on for four or five turns; eventually I get enough damage through to kill Corran without losing any of my three remaining ships.

Win (100-36)

Game 3 (finals) vs.

- Corran + PTL + FCS + R2-D2 + Engine

- Wedge + Marksmanship + R2 Astromech + Exp. interface

- Bandit + Cluster missiles

As before, I setup three ships in the middle and two right. My opponent sets up the Bandit and Wedge central and Corran to the left. After the first turn of movement, it looks like his plan is to flank with Corran, but I'm ok with that as my main first target is Wedge - he's built very offensively here, and can go do down very quickly to concentrated fire. So my right side makes a sweeping move towards the centre while my centre ships move slowly forward. This leads to a memorable battlefield on the third turn: I have semi-encircled Wedge and the Bandit, while managing to block the flanking Corran with a central Y. Wedge dies very quickly, and the Z soon follows. With only Corran left, my opponent does a great job evading my blocks for quite a long time. Eventually I get through enough damage, though, to finish him off without losing a ship.

Win (100-0)

To finish off, I'll give some tips on using this squad and what I think of its overall viability. Tips:

- Be very careful with the Starviper. It can be a key player in the end-game; if it can get in front an enemy ship it has the maneuverability to block it for long stretches of the game, meaning all one needs is one autoblaster Y following to finish off the target. In the early game, you should almost always be taking the focus action with the Starviper to help with its defense.

- Along these lines, the Starviper's flechette torpoedoes are meant for the end-game: don't sacrifice defense early to get a target lock. Wait to get to a position where you know you won't be shot at (usually by moving enough to either block an opponent or be past him) before grabbing the target lock.

- Conversely, don't be afraid to get an early target lock with the IPM Pirate - the threat of ionization can lead an opponent to try to attack that Pirate before it can shoot, taking shots away from the more valuable members of the squad.

- The feedback array Pirate is another good ship to block with, as feedback array can even be used against a ship you are touching. You can also use feedback array while on an asteroid, so consider moving that Z to an asteroid if it will help block a potentially good move for an opponent (eg., often Dash will make a move on an asteroid).

- Don't fly in too tight a formation. Three range-1 bubbles can be very hard to avoid if they don't overlap too much. Slight staggering of ships also makes it easier to block.

Finally, how viable is this squad against what's typically out there? It's probably too early to say - I haven't tried it against everything that's popular right now. However, it's done extremely well so far (10-0 in all games). In theory, it's very good against two of the three "pillars of the meta" : the auto-damage and blocking is great against arc-dodgers, and the mini-swarm factor of 5 ships (along with the Ion pulse missile) is great against expensive low-agility turrets. It's biggest weakness is probably a swarm of jousters (eg., 7/8 tie swarm or 4B1Z). But with strength against the two of the three pillars, I believe this strange squad has strong potential.