What I should have been focusing on (but forgot) is whether or not there is a tactical method of dealing with this: i.e., is it possible to take one of those vassal logs and reverse the outcome of the game given the same historical forces? I think I forgot about that part on like page 2, but anyways, I'd love to hear more input especially against the guys who actually played against clon: were there mistakes you can point to, or was your fate inevitable with your build?
In my case fate was inevitable lol.
This is not to excuse myself, because I did a LOT of errors in that game, including slowing to speed 0 with my Demolisher to avoid collision, but I think one aspect of Clon's list that has been underestimated is the psy-warfare capabilities it is capable of: basically there are ships everywhere, and you know they're gonna be able to move after you, and then before you again to capitalize on your every error, so you make mistakes.
I saw this happen in the Clon vs JJ game to, when JJ was forced to speed down to 0 too to not hit a mine he placed, so I guess I'm not the only one that feels like this.
Anyway, back to the topic, I think it's quite clear by now that while there are some counters to Clon's list, non counter list are gonna have a hard time against it, and that's because his list is not only hitting you with unbelievable amount of damage, not only out activates a "normal" 3 ships list by 2 units, not only generally has first player, but is also extremely manouverable, ensuring he strikes exactly where and when he wants. IMO this is the very definition of a meta shift, because when building a list you now have to account for it or suffer the consequences.