It's the usual friendly tournament by X-wing in Taipei. It's hosted on 24th April at the usual go-to place in NTU 1st Graduate Dorm. A total of 8 players registered for it, and we played 3 rounds of swiss with no cut according to the FFG tourney rule. A bit more than I expected, but nonetheless appreciated as the TO.
- Tournament result is here:http://lists.starwarsclubhouse.com/get_tourney_details?tourney_id=1557 (Thanks to Cryodex)
- Some pictures: http://imgur.com/a/Ij8tb
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I ran with my new found favorite: Mindlink Scum 4-ship build. It's Manaroo, Palob, Kaa'to and Black Sun Ace, all with Attanni Mindlink. Kaa'to has concussion missile, Palob has Blaster Turret. In the end, I went with Feedback Array on Manaroo as I was anticipating some Imp Aces or Rebel Aces, and I was planning to use her to block. As for the last 1 point, I decided to add Boba (crew) onto Palob because why not? This list didn't feel scummy enough 
I got to practice with the list for a few times before tournament so I'm feeling pretty confident with it. The local meta is also pretty different compares to world. Somehow the usual Imperial players all get busy and only one Imperial list shows up. The others are 5 Rebel list and another scum list.
Round 1
As it happens, the two Scum lists would be fighting against each other. Ken, my opponent is a nice fellow from out of town, and a foreigner. He woke up at 6 and drove 2 hours to meet us just to play. He made the list just days before and it's really his first time playing it. He has Manaroo as well, acting more like a heavy hitter with the Punishing One title, Gonk, and Unhinged Astromech. He has a Hired Gun Y-wing with TLT, R4, and the Lone Wolf N’dru Suhlak with Concussion Missile.
We set up across the two corners. The asteroids are mostly to the right side of the field. He slow rolled Manaroo and Y along his edge from the right, while N’dru rushing forward to meet us along the right of the asteroid field. I moved straight from the middle with my ships on the left. He TL my Kaa'to when we are in range, but sadly he overshot and my ship missed his arc. Next turn N'dru turned in, but I position Kaa'to into range 1 of him so he has to switch TL to Palob. Here’s when we found out that since my opponent has the initiative, he didn’t want to pass the focus from Manaroo to N’dru first as then my Palob would be able to steal it. Palob survived the 5 dice (!) Concussion missile with a nice roll of mine while Ken rolls too many eye result without a focus to use. My ships are all in range 3 of his ship, so we pounced on the leading Y.
The prevalence of the Stressbot led me to somehow believe his Y is a stressbot even though it's impossible to do so in the Scum list. After I unloaded my own Concusison missile into the Hired Gun and stripping his entire shield, I realized my mistake. I continued to focus on Y and kill it in the next turn.
N'dru has turn again to shot us in the back, but he bumped into my HWK. Kaa'to has K-turn and has a TL on N'dru. My Manaroo sent him some focus and he took out N'dru. At this point, my list is relatively healthy. He has only Manaroo left. I focused my fire on her and she didn't last too long.
Win. 1-0, 200 MoV
Round 2
My second opponent is NT, the founder of the X-wing FB group. He hasn't been playing since wave 5. His pretty handy with a swarm build, flying BBBB or Tie Swarm for good effect in the past. For his come back squad, he chose to go with a Rebel 3-ship aces list instead. Trying to squeeze Corran, Keyan, and Horton means it's minimal upgrades on all of them (FCS, Rage, and TLT+Stressbot, respectively). He got a win in Round 1, but only because his opponent was late and I reward him with a win and 150 MoV.
I had played him in my practice games, so I know the key to his defeat would be action-denial. So the second turn of engagement, Manaroo went 4 straight plus barrel roll for a nice block on Horton and Corran. Both of them bumped the bumpmaster while Keyan got block by my Black Sun Ace and landed on a rock. Only Horton got to fire, and I killed both Corran and Keyan with my returned fire in one turn.
At that point it was just clear up for me. He took out Manaroo with Horton before he got up in flame.
Win. 2-0, 370 MoV
Round 3
I was excited when I realised it's my first time staying in the 1st table. I got to play with Peter, who's a veteran of Rebel pancake list. This time he brought "Chopper", Ezra and Roarks. This is probably the most “meta” list we have today, with FCS, Dorsal, Han and Hera on the Ghost, while Ezra has Push the Limit, Kanan, and Dorsal as well. Roarks has TLT.
I want to slow roll my list and keep the first engagement at range 3 with my 3 small ships, while Manaroo flanked and try to stay out of "Chopper"'s arc. However, a nice roll from PS12 "Chopper" took out Black Sun Aces before he can do any thing. Suffering a great loss of my most consistent hitter, I got a little shaken. I tried to calm down and reminded myself that this is just a casual tournament, having fun is the priority.
I regained my posture and block both Roarks and Ghost. Ghost was on a rock which means I get to shoot worry free from range 1. After the shield was gone, soon the Ghost has piled on some crit, albeit nothing too critical. I finally get to trigger Boba of Palob when I attack Roarks. I elected to strip him of his TLT. Ironically, this led to a longer life for Roarks as I don’t need to worry about a 1 attack HWK.
The Ghost finally went down, but not before Ezra get to be deployed. I finished up Roarks, and begun the end game with three of my ships against Push the Limit Ezra. My ships were scattered after the attack on Ghost, so I try regrouping while Ezra circled around Peter’s board edge with the help of Kanan. Manaroo is the only one in position to give pursuit, but 2 red dice isn’t going to push through Ezra’s token and pilot ability. I finally managed to converge my ships and focus fire on Ezra and took him down.
Win. 3-0, 546 MoV
End
After playing the game for more than two years and participating in all the tournaments so far, I finally get a top rank. With a scum build no less. I’m very happy to be able to see lots of players enjoying the game with me, and the tournament ran smoothly without much trouble. I got another game with Kevin, who is new to the game and got to second place with his Poe/Wedge/Tycho Rebel elite list. I won that one with plenty of good block as well.
All in all, I’m pretty happy with how my Mindlink list worked. The constant focus means that I’m almost always been able to modify my attack and defense. Manaroo provide valuable service to the team by giving out focus and TL, thus giving me some room to adjust to the board stage. I also got lucky as I didn’t face any Imperial Ace or Swarm build, which I would imaging being difficult to deal with.
