Hi all!

I attended a very different format for an X-Wing tournament this weekend and thought I'd share my thoughts/experiences with you wonderful internet strangers. The general premise is you choose a "mystery box" knowing only the faction you choose but other than that have no prior knowledge to the exact contents of the box. You then have 1 hour to open the box and build a list out of whatever ships and upgrades are contained therein. All boxes contained around £60 RRP of sealed X-Wing product. We were then to play 4 rounds of Swiss 100 point DM with a cut to top 4 and 15 minutes between each round to "sideboard" ships/cards in or out of your list. This was a 24 player event and sold out so we had full attendance. The name for the format came from a TV game show hosted by Noel Edmunds in which contestants selected various mystery boxes to win cash prizes.

So; here's how it went for me. I opened my box and couldn't help but feel a little underwhelmed as out of all the ships I could have got I ended up with things I already have multiple of in my existing collection. I went for a S&V box and it contained a Most Wanted box, Starviper and HWK-290. These are mostly low damage output ships, especially with the turret upgrades available and the recent agromech nerf so I knew it would be a tough day. Recently I've been running Guri and Palob a lot but in Attanni Mindlink lists and with TLT on Palob so missing my favourite upgrades for these guys left me struggling a bit in list building.

I eventually settled on:

Guri w/ Calculation, autothrusters, tittle, accuracy corrector and Inertial Dampeners

Palob w/ ion turret, rec spec and Moldy Crow

Kavil w/ autoblaster turret, unhinged and hull upgrade

99pts

My list building was somewhat hampered by helping 2 brand new player build their lists and explaining how they worked whilst trying to build mine at the same time so I totally overlooked the fact that i had some Ion torps in there which would have proved a lot more useful that acc. corrector on Guri and never checked the box contents again throughout the day. My fault entirely; not begrudging the guys I helped build lists in any way. Still; I'm familiar with the pilot abilities and dials so i figured I'd just have to fly better to stand a chance throughout the day.

Match 1

I was up against the eventual winner of tournament who was running 4x Epsilon squad TIE/FO's w/ Comm Relay and the Inquisitor w/ tittle and Juke. I basically flew Kavil on a suicide mission into the middle of the mini swarm and just smashed out 3 dice autoblaster shots as much as i could until he died. Palob kept stealing evade tokens from the TIE/FO's and was remarkably survivable. My opponent was a really good player and at time it ended with him on 32 points and me on 31. Very close loss for me.

Match 2

Up against a Jake & Tycho w/PTL & prockets and Keyan w/ Kyle Katarn & ion cannon list. Palob stopped the a-wings ever getting their prockets off and Kavil did his best to murder them whilst Guri distracted Keyan. Between getting ion shots off and setting Kavil up I ended up with a 100-0 win.

Match 3

Up against an RAC decimator w/ruthlessness, proton bombs and some stuff I don't recall & Marek in a TIE/D with tractor beam. Again; I knew this would be a really tough match for me as my main damage dealer needed to get within R1 for the autoblaster which is exactly where you don't want to be against a decimator. I took Marek out pretty quickly but took some serious damage in the process. Nearly ionised the deci off the board but he just stayed on and proceeded to pummel the rest of my ships into oblivion. Another great player who made the top 4 cut and another nail biting tough game. Can't remember points but a loss for me.

Match 4

Up against a Wedge, Keyan w/kyle Katatrn and Jake w/prockets & outmaneouver list. As soon as my opponent saw Palob was stopping the prockets he focused him down pretty hard but it left Kavil free to do autoblaster things and I quickly removed Jake and Wedge from the board. Keyan finished off Kavil whilst Guri closed in to pummel Keyan. Again; I don't remember points but a win for me.

At the end of swiss I ended up 2-2 for the day and in 8th out of 24 netting me some acrylic stress tokens and an alt art predator. By his point my hangover was truly beasting me and I was glad not to make the cut, bed sounded like a way better idea than more X-Wing

Overall; I loved the format and it was great to see some ships/upgrades I've only seen in my binder for the last year or two actually on the table. It was great to see some of the creativity and skill involved in making sub optimal lists work and the guys who made the cut really deserved to. I don't think this is a format I'd repeat because it's a high entry cost to end up with ships I simply have to sell on/trade or let gather dust. If you're bored of standard 100pt DM in the current meta; it's great. If you're starting collecting a new faction or are new to the game; it's great. If you already have a massive plastic crack addiction and a ton of toys; it's maybe not for you unless you don't care about the money. I already owned 2 Most Wanted boxes and 2 Starvipers with no intention of ever buying more so the HWK was the only thing that made it into my collection.

That said; I've traded the Starviper and Most Wanted for a new & sealed set of rulebooks for Infinity that retail at about £50 so I guess it worked out to be a pretty reasonable haul for me. My £50 entry fee netted me a HWK, Infinity rulebooks, acrylic tress tokens, an alt art predator and a fun day of very non-meta games. Really did enjoy it but I don't think I'll be attending the next one in January simply because I'd rather spend £50 on Wave 9 or HotR ships or maybe one of the other systems I play as opposed to risking a box of trade fodder.

Thanks for reading my ramblings this far!

Saw this on the UK boards and was really dosappointed I couldn't make it - it's and awesome idea. Trying to get me FLGS to do it.

I saw it too in the UK Facebook group and it did look like a lot of fun.

I can't help thinking though if a store local to me ran with the same idea I wouldn't enter, purely because I already buy multiples of each ship and enough to run any reasonable list and so wouldn't want to spend £60 on expansions that I didn't want or need any more of.

Wasn't the entry £50? Would be interesting to hear how many people not in the same position as me would be willing to risk getting stuff they didn't want or need for just a £10 saving (putting aside of course what you consider is a fair price for a days gaming etc)

I saw it too in the UK Facebook group and it did look like a lot of fun.

I can't help thinking though if a store local to me ran with the same idea I wouldn't enter, purely because I already buy multiples of each ship and enough to run any reasonable list and so wouldn't want to spend £60 on expansions that I didn't want or need any more of.

Wasn't the entry £50? Would be interesting to hear how many people not in the same position as me would be willing to risk getting stuff they didn't want or need for just a £10 saving (putting aside of course what you consider is a fair price for a days gaming etc)

Yes, the entry was £50 and each box contained £60 RRP of ships. It sold out of all 24 spaces so it proved popular and we had people come from Bristol and London to LVL UP in Bournemouth so some people travelled for 2 hours just to come to this. We had a big split of experienced player such as myself who wanted a different format as opposed to anything else and a lot of newer players who had just started the game or wanted to branch into a new faction.

It was great fun but after this first trial; I feel the same as you. I don't think I'll be going to the next one as my box was pretty useless from a collection point of view. I really did enjoy the event but my gaming budget is limited and I'd rather buy new toys that risk a box of more y-wings and z-95's next time.

Match 1

I was up against the eventual winner of tournament who was ...

Well, there goes all the suspense!

It turns the model into the CCG draft style. Not a big fan of CCG stuff, but this introduces that surprise element without rewarding a publisher for selling randomized sets. I might see if either of my FLGS would be interested in doing this!

Awesome idea. Is there a list somewhere of what was in the 24 boxes?

Yep, much like limited Magic The Gathering the format is not for everyone.

You can regain some of your 'entry fee' in the secondary market value of your 'product' or if you are lucky by opening 'product' you would have bought yourself anyway. There is a subset of players however (those with large collections and limited budget) that this is not an ideal format for. You just have to work out, on a personal level, if the extra cost of entry is worth the experience of a days gaming against non standard lists.

If you can afford the cost and don't mind duplicated stuff or if you are starting out in the game or even a specific faction where the chances of duplicates are minimal then it's a novel way to play the game.

I didn't play in this one as despite being local I couldn't be sure I'd be able to be free on the day. I didn't want to 'steal' a slot and then not turn up as it was so popular. I may well have a go at the second one however.

Sounds like a good format to pick up a new faction, otherwise I think you're going to end up with a lot of unwanted product.

Your expectation of getting something new in S&V probably set up that initial disappointment. I think I would have taken a chance on drawing a faction I didn't have a lot of ships for and gone with a learning experience. It's been done locally and I just haven't had the schedule to work one in.

I know exactly how you feel about second guessing the AC v Ion Torps, having played a game of Escalation and learning to hate putting Greedo on my TLT Palob!

Interesting format. A different option, rather than people paying for mystery boxes that may contain stuff they dont need, is that they can spend $X amount to buy only one factions worth of products to make their squad, but one small ship is randomized. So if you want to buy Scum, you will randomly get a scum small ship, then buy the rest of your list. This way, they buy what they want to keep, but also need to build a reasonably competitive list. So, if someone wanted to run Scouts, they aren't going to be able to have deadeye since its only found in Awings and TAPs. Only scum will have autothrusters, no Palp for imperials, etc.

Awesome idea. Is there a list somewhere of what was in the 24 boxes?

I can try and track one down for you, I'm in the store later tonight. I believe there were 12 different sets, so 4 for each faction, to avoid claims of "that box won because it was the best" by giving 2 people the same box to build from.

Your expectation of getting something new in S&V probably set up that initial disappointment. I think I would have taken a chance on drawing a faction I didn't have a lot of ships for and gone with a learning experience. It's been done locally and I just haven't had the schedule to work one in.

I know exactly how you feel about second guessing the AC v Ion Torps, having played a game of Escalation and learning to hate putting Greedo on my TLT Palob!

In all fairness; I have a ton of ships for all factions so was expecting some duplicates but most would have been fine. The most Wanted box, Starviper and Syck were the only products that would have not made it into my collection and I got 2 of those 3 products so I felt a bit underwhelmed but have since turned them into something I wanted and made it cost effective

Ion torps would have let me walk that **** deci off the board

...So, if someone wanted to run Scouts, they aren't going to be able to have deadeye since its only found in Awings and TAPs. Only scum will have autothrusters, no Palp for imperials, etc.

This was pretty much the idea. No "meta" lists would be present and it would force people to really rely on flying a cobbled together list based on it's strengths and weaknesses. No standard Soontir build, no fat han, no u-boats, no regen Poe etc. It was really interesting to see what people built with what they had and the challenge it brought with such a limited selection of cards.

I like the idea but I wonder how it would translate in usd. Just using the base $60 would basically eliminate all bigger boxes or that is all you are getting. An $80 price tag would gain you better options but people here ***** about paying $10+ for entry fee, 80 would not fly here. All in all I really like the idea but outside a large tourny like origins or gen con it would fail horribly in the states.

If you wanted to do this format without requiring the ships, you could simply provide a list of ships with upgrades and pilots from those expansions and you'd be limited to that. Of course, you'd have to have all of the ships, but most of us do anyway.

If you wanted to do this format without requiring the ships, you could simply provide a list of ships with upgrades and pilots from those expansions and you'd be limited to that. Of course, you'd have to have all of the ships, but most of us do anyway.

I disagree. This isn't just about having a limited selection of ships within a tournament, it's about not knowing what ships are even available to you or your opponents. This is random ships against random ships, with limited upgrades, and without ANY curation.

If you wanted to do this format without requiring the ships, you could simply provide a list of ships with upgrades and pilots from those expansions and you'd be limited to that. Of course, you'd have to have all of the ships, but most of us do anyway.

I disagree. This isn't just about having a limited selection of ships within a tournament, it's about not knowing what ships are even available to you or your opponents. This is random ships against random ships, with limited upgrades, and without ANY curation.

He is saying that you could do the same thing for a $5 fee. Instead of a box with Most Wanted and a Star Viper, you would get an envelope that said Most Wanted and Star Viper. Then you would get out your MW and SV and put together your squad. Same thing but cheaper and maybe more appeal to the larger community. I was about to add the same comment and may suggest this for one of our local upcoming tournaments.

Yeah, I like that idea better. Still get random ships but don't have to pay a ton to play.

Or have to worry about adding 4 more TIE/FOs to my collection of 7, etc.

If you wanted to do this format without requiring the ships, you could simply provide a list of ships with upgrades and pilots from those expansions and you'd be limited to that. Of course, you'd have to have all of the ships, but most of us do anyway.

I disagree. This isn't just about having a limited selection of ships within a tournament, it's about not knowing what ships are even available to you or your opponents. This is random ships against random ships, with limited upgrades, and without ANY curation.

He is saying that you could do the same thing for a $5 fee. Instead of a box with Most Wanted and a Star Viper, you would get an envelope that said Most Wanted and Star Viper. Then you would get out your MW and SV and put together your squad. Same thing but cheaper and maybe more appeal to the larger community. I was about to add the same comment and may suggest this for one of our local upcoming tournaments.

Yeah, I like that idea better. Still get random ships but don't have to pay a ton to play.

Or have to worry about adding 4 more TIE/FOs to my collection of 7, etc.

Well, I would assume one motivation for the host is to move a little product. . .

If you wanted to do this format without requiring the ships, you could simply provide a list of ships with upgrades and pilots from those expansions and you'd be limited to that. Of course, you'd have to have all of the ships, but most of us do anyway.

I disagree. This isn't just about having a limited selection of ships within a tournament, it's about not knowing what ships are even available to you or your opponents. This is random ships against random ships, with limited upgrades, and without ANY curation.

He is saying that you could do the same thing for a $5 fee. Instead of a box with Most Wanted and a Star Viper, you would get an envelope that said Most Wanted and Star Viper. Then you would get out your MW and SV and put together your squad. Same thing but cheaper and maybe more appeal to the larger community. I was about to add the same comment and may suggest this for one of our local upcoming tournaments.

Yeah, I like that idea better. Still get random ships but don't have to pay a ton to play.

Or have to worry about adding 4 more TIE/FOs to my collection of 7, etc.

Well, I would assume one motivation for the host is to move a little product. . .

I would play one of these tournaments, I have a large collection, but I am not at the point that I have 100pt of each ship, many of the latest waves I just have one of, but for a lot of people money and their collection being full would stop them from playing in one of these. Our LGS wouldn't have enough stock to sill 4 boxes or they would all be T70 and/or Punishers, as they don't usually have an over abundance of stock, we keep them fairly lean.

Very interesting concept, though I'm not sure we'd have enough takers locally.

This could be an interesting format for new wave releases. You choose your faction, get a box with 2 ships. 1 from current wave, 1 random. Do it at a slight discount. You have to use those 2 ships in your build.

We did a similar format at a local game store this last Saturday. Entry fee was $15, and each player was randomly assigned a $15 to $20 MSRP ship. You enter with your standard 100pt squad, then with the pack that you're randomly assigned, you get an additional 31pts to add anything from the pack to your squad. Unused points out of the 131 count towards your initiative bid.

Also, Tie Fighters and Z-95s were left out of the pool, since they're a bit hard to get up near 31pts worth of value from, and the Tie f/o was excluded because a 26pt Omega Leader with all the trimmings seemed like almost too good a pull.

I went with Vader, Inquisitor and Vessery and pulled a G-1A, which allowed me to add a PS8 Zuckuss to the team (using adaptability from the same pack). He fit in nicely, and the format was a lot of fun.

The one note of caution is that we had 30 players, and our TO had to do all the calculations for each round with pen and paper, since standard X-Wing software does not support tournament games at 131pts. If people are interested in this format, I'd advise starting with 69pt lists, then randomly adding another 31pts from your random pack to make a squad of 100pts in total. 'Cause software is your friend.

I also play the Pokemon TCG casually and this format, which we call the "Draft format", is always a ton of fun. You get 6 boosters and need to build a deck with them Instead of the standard 60 cards to a deck, it is reduced to 40 cards, so that you're not forced to use every single card from your boosters, which would severely weaken your deck. You could do something similar here, where the point cap is 60-70 or so, so that generics and stuff are still viable.

I would play the **** out of this format.

This actually sounds like a hell of a lot of fun. Essentially it's Sealed Deck X-WIng, and that sounds really, really rad. The cost is definitely pretty high, so I like the idea of having an option to build your sealed pools with owned resources rather than only having the high buy-in be mandatory.

As others have said, you could just have the 'sealed pools' be lists of components, then allow players to build from their collections (I would definitely encourage folks to bring spares to loan or trade out for the day), but that doesn't prevent anyone from saying "oh, I own most of this, but I don't have this HWK-290 that's in my pool, I guess I'll pick one up!". This could also have a nice side effect of having a post-tournament trading session.

I am definitely going to try to put an event like this together!

I also play the Pokemon TCG casually and this format, which we call the "Draft format", is always a ton of fun. You get 6 boosters and need to build a deck with them Instead of the standard 60 cards to a deck, it is reduced to 40 cards, so that you're not forced to use every single card from your boosters, which would severely weaken your deck. You could do something similar here, where the point cap is 60-70 or so, so that generics and stuff are still viable.

Unless Pokemon took Magic terminology and called one thing something it very much isn't, what you are describing is sealed deck (each player opens product and builds), not drafting (players draft cards from sealed product and pass in a circle).