I have started competitive X-Wing play after watching friends play casual from the sidelines since the beginning, only buying my first ships about 2 months ago. I then attended a local store championship as a spectator to observe and report what other players were running in competitively. After the championship I found it disappointing that a lot of players weren't very original in their squading. But other than this small observation, I freaking love competitive play. It is now an addiction.
This experience left me with a basic idea to form a Scum list, since practically no one gives them a though other than Bro-Bots. I know they are hard to work around and may require some skill to fly, but that is precisely why I like this game, its not just the ship or the pilot or the upgrades, a lot of games are determined by the players flying which in my opinion determines if you set yourself up to use your upgrades and skills the way you thought they would when you built the squad. My initial thought on any build or faction was to use Heaver's idea of a 4 ship build. I thought that somewhere, his primary principles could be applied to any faction which then brought me to Scum since no one seemed to be thinking of anything else for the poor faction of noble renegades.
So, with this back info, this build came from me wanting to do something that I thought would be totally different from everyone else. I wanted originality. This far, two months into my excursion of competitive play, I am proud to say that I have taken this list to the Top 8 in both tournaments I have attended thus far. What I would like to find out now, from more experienced players, is how I could make this build better or gain tips and tricks to maneuvering it better.
Talonbane Cobra-Kihraxz
Predator
Glitterstim
Shield Upgrade
Syndicate Thug-Y-Wing
TLT
Unhinged Astromech
Syndicate Thug-Y-Wing
TLT
Unhinged Astromech
Black Sun Soldier-Z-95
100 Points Even
What I've found on my own, is that deployment and initiative are very sensitive to this build. Other than that at times I would like more maneuver capabilities for talon and other times a little help on defense. But, I have had decent success. Im still on a learning curve. Some ideas I have thought about may be a little crazy, such as a Hot Shot instead of Glitter on Talon, or running EU and PTL, or keeping Predator with EU, and even thought about EU and LoneWolf. Bottom line, I would like to keep this original basis. Especially Talon.